Self Reflection and Project Evaluation

Here is a link to my MMP: https://ashbinder06.wixsite.com/website

           In my MMP proposal, my stated objections were:

•               Helping students feel comfortable with online learning is one goal.  
•               Another will be to get them more comfortable with assignments that are not traditional papers, but instead learn how to use multimedia programs.  
•               There will also be a resource section for teachers to help them feel comfortable using multimedia themselves.

I believe that I was able to achieve success on all of my intended objectives.  For my first objective,  I  tried to make students feel comfortable with online learning by incorporating multiple forums for each specific media type as well as general questions and general troubleshooting.   This allows for students to communicate with one another and work through their problems together instead of working independently to find a solution.  This pushes the concept of collaborative working which is another important skill for students to master in order to be successful in higher education.  For the second objective, the reviews are there with the sole purpose of making students feel comfortable using new media tools. The reviews are a quick walk through of these tools so students, and teachers if they are unfamiliar with the programs as well, can get an understanding of how they work and which one to use.  In the forum section, I included a specific forum for teachers titled "Teacher Talk". This is a place where teachers can share and/or collaborate on project ideas that involve multimedia tools.

           Technology is everywhere so it only makes sense to include it in the classroom.  Technology allows students creativity to really blossom in ways that essays and multiple choice exams do not.  Throughout this course, we have learned that incorporating technology into the classroom is beneficial for students.  Literacy no longer just means the ability to read and write.  Employers want to see applicants who are computer literate as well and those skills should be taught in the classroom to better prepare students for life after high school.

          By creating this project, I believe I have created a valuable resource for both students and teachers.  It is a medium where both groups can interact with their peers and work on new ideas.  It is also a place where students and teachers can learn about different tools available to them for the purpose of presentations or lectures.  I really wanted to keep the site clean and easy to navigate.  I tried to view my site as spectator to see if it was cohesive and easy to understand.  I did not use distracting backgrounds and made the font one that is legible.

          I intend to share my website with various teachers and students that I know.  I want to ask them if this is a resource that they find useful.  I hope to explain to teachers that having students complete projects using these tools rather than compose an essay may help encourage creativity and help students learn about tools they made need to use later in life.  I will explain to students that multimedia tools are often used for presentations or projects in higher education and if that is something that they are interested in attending, this site is a great resource.  It offers brief reviews of many multimedia tools that they will likely come across in a college classroom.  

Blog Post #8

Hi everyone!

First of all, thank you Shawn for finding Pearltrees! I experienced the same issue as everyone else and saw his post and checked out the site and decided to use it as well.  It was extremely easy to navigate and would definitely recommend using it.  Here is my technology toolkit:

Here is a breakdown of everything I chose to include:

• Drawling with Carl:  This is a great art app that allows students to create projects using a variety of tools including pencils, markers, and stamps.  Students can upload a photo and write and draw on top of it.  It can be useful as a way to create a visual to accompany a book report.
• Super Duper Story Maker: This is a super fun app that allows students to create stories and draw accompanying visuals.   Students can also choose to record audio to narrate pictures in their story.  The app allows stories to be printed so that they can be shared offline as well.  The app also claims that students can work together and create different projects like comic books and greeting cards.
• TeacherKit: This is a great app for any teacher to have in their toolkit. This app monitors pretty much every part of the day to day routine for a teacher including seating plans and grades.  It keeps your data safe by taking automatic backups on Dropbox.  It is basically a personal assistant in the classroom.
• Storia School: This is a great app for reading teachers.  This app is a fun and interactive way for students to read on their devices.  Story sets up personalized book shelves for each student to create their own library of books they are interested in.  The app provides pronunciation tools and vocabulary assessments along the way to ensure students are understanding what they are reading.  Students can also highlight text to come back to later.
• Socrative: This allows for teachers to asses students understanding of classroom material.  Teachers can ask students multiple forms of questions including short answer and multiple choice and have the grades sent to them.  Teachers can get a better understanding is students grasped the material.
• Evernote: Students can organize their notes efficiently on Evernote.  They can even take pictures with their smart phones and upload their notes to one place, a "notebook", that they can always refer back to.  Students are also able to create notes on PDF files.  
• Instructables: This an awesome guide on almost any project that you can think of.  You can find hands-on projects that students can do to get a better understanding.  They have everything from a potato alarm clock to magnet trampolines.
• iMovie: iMovie is one of the most user-friendly video media programs.  There are a lot of different options to create any type of moving media project. Students can work together or individually.
• Slack:  This is a great app for collaborative learning.  It is a great way for everyone to meet up without having to be in the same place.  
• Google Drive: This encompasses everything that Google offers including Docs, Sheets, and many more.  Students can do almost anything with Google apps and it is a greta way for you to monitor the progress of students and who contributed what to a project.

MMP Update #2

Hi everyone! Unfortunately, I will not be uploading a screencast to accompany my post because I have laryngitis at the moment.  I will include screen shots of the progress of my site along with notes explaining what I still want to work on and what I have changed since my last update.

Here is a look at the home page of my site.  I haven't changed much from the first update.

When you continue scrolling you start hitting the video critiques of the media programs.  I am still working on adding more videos, but I have already gone over every program that I plan on including.  Below are my notes on each program that I compiled before I record the reviews.  This is pretty much the last step I have to accomplish.  

I added a crucial part to my site, the forum.  There are a total of six different forums for people to chat in.  There are some specific forums like troubleshooting for audio, still, or video media and more general forums like general questions which is a place where students can ask any question not directly related to a specific program.  This would be a great place for students to inquire about time management for online classes.

I did not change the About or Contact me page since the first update.  I like the overall structure of my sight as I finally see it starting to come together.  I think I have figured out exactly how I want it to look and feel.  Any feedback is definitely appreciated!

Week 10 Discussion Post

Option #3 Personal Perspective

My identity has been completely transformed by new media.  As an undergraduate student, I took a class titled "Education and Computers".  The task of the entire course was to start a website and manage it.  Without knowing it, the class completely changed my life. Without that class, I would not have been able to find my passion and hopefully my career.  I started a brand about five years ago that is based solely off of new media, mainly social media and blogging.  Since I started it, my skills have only grown to now include video editing and production.  Clearly, I am a big fan of new media and its capabilities especially in the classroom.

Integrating multimedia programs into the classroom seems like a logical step in today's digital world. Almost every student with access to a computer knows how to use it.  Nothing will ever replace exams and essays in school, however, multimedia allows teachers to add to the learning process.  Nothing is being taken away, but instead teachers can add to the learning process.  Being "literate" in 2017 means more than just being able to read and write printed text.  Why can't a student-produced film convey the same meaning as a written essay?  "It may be the case that the power of digital stories for creators and viewers has to do with a happy melding of old and new genres and media," (Hull and Nelson, 252).  Multimedia allows students to express their thoughts in new ways.  In their findings, Hull and Nelson talk about how simply adding music "adds an important emotional element to digital stories," (253).  Something as simple as background music can elevate a student's project and that should be what all teachers strive for.  Being open to the changes going on in technology can make the difference for students and how they learn.

Blogs and websites can be a great project for students to have to create and maintain.  As seen in Halverson's research study, "Film as Identity Exploration- A Multimodal Analysis of Youth-Produced Films", organization are encouraging young people to document their own life story using multimedia.  "In the case of documentary filmmaking, stories often gain credibility

through their use of original, unplanned footage," (Halverson, 2372).  Journalism and news reporting has taken a huge hit in terms of credibility since the past presidential election.  Teaching adolescents to create original content from their perspective is a great way to fight against the credibility issue.  

Work Cited

Halverson, Erica. "Film as Identity Exploration: A Multimodal Analysis of Youth-Produced Films."      Teachers College Record 112.9 (2010): 2352-378. Web.

Hull, Glynda A., and Mark E. Nelson. "Locating the Semiotic Power of Multimodality." Written Communication 22.2 (2005): 224-61. Web.

Blog Post #7

When I first arrived on the "Five-Minute Film Festival: Copyright and Fair Use for Educators, I was unsure where to click first.  There was so many resources listed which was great to see.  Reading over some of the video descriptions, it was great to see that there were entertaining videos to help students understand copyright.  The videos appear to start with a broad understanding of copyright and have others that are more detailed and informative which shows that it is appropriate for a variety of ages. I think the site itself could be more visually appealing.  The site is quite simple and could maybe include thumbnails from the videos or some type of visual to accompany the text.

I chose to critique the text resource "Understanding Copyright, Fair Use, and Creative Commons, as they apply to Education".  I was always interested how copyright affects teachers so the title of this article immediately caught my attention.  One immediate problem with this resource is that one of the links provided to better explain "Copyright Fair Use in Education" is broken.  The author acknowledges this and provides alternative links, however, it would seem easier to read if the author just removed the link in its entirety.

The article also provides a link to "Creative Commons" which is a great resource to find different types of copyrighted media that can be licensed and allows users to upload their own content.   Users can license original content, donate original content, or donate to the organization.  The EmergingEdTech site does include a brief description of the different types of licenses that one can acquire.  The article also mentions that Creative Commons also allows for people to share music licensed under Creative Commons.

I chose to critique the video resource "Understanding 'Fair Use' in a Digital World". Automatically, this is a great video for middle school students as it shows a middle school teacher explaining to her class what fair use is.  It is a great resource for teachers to follow as a model for how to teach fair use and copyright.  She shares examples that can be used for students to distinguish what applies to fair use. In addition, she explains how to advance their understanding once they have a basic knowledge of fair use and copyright.

It is great to know that these resources do exist because it is a very common misconception that copyright does not apply to educators.  Teachers can benefit from a better understanding of copyright in the classroom because it is such a complicated yet important issue.  The lines seem to blur so much with the internet as everything can be found on it.  To already understand copyright and fair use, it puts students that much further ahead.   Learning about copyright can help students in the future working on different projects.

MMP Update #1

Hi everyone! Here is my MMP Update 1 screencast! I definitely have a lot of work left, but I feel good seeing the project starting to come together.

Blog Entry #6

Here is my video explaining the concepts multimodality!  Hope you like it!  

Blog #5 Entry

Exercise 1- Border Variations:

Exercise 2- Conveyance Exercise:

₴ⱧⱤɆĐ                      🄱🅁🄸🄲🄺

𝓁𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉𝓁𝓎                    ριℓℓσω

ᴬᵀᴼᴹ                               𝐗𝐗𝐋

MMP Proposal

Multimedia Montage Project Proposal

Background:

      Having done a lot of my graduate school work online, I know how valuable it can be for students to learn in a nontraditional setting.  It forces students to work on their schedule and learn how to complete assignments without having a teacher as a watchdog.  This is important for students to learn before they enter college when they become much more independent and responsible for getting their assignments done.  For some, entering college is already a very overwhelming experience.  Going from a traditional classroom to either a class that only meets twice a week or not at all can cause students to not do well in their courses.  Helping students adjust to completing work online can help make this transition a little bit less stressful.

Purpose/Goals:

Helping students feel comfortable with online learning is one goal.  Another will be to get them more comfortable with assignments that are not traditional papers, but instead learn how to use multimedia programs.  There will also be a resource section for teachers to help them feel comfortable using multimedia themselves.

Rationale/Summary:

Online learning is becoming more and more prevalent as more universities offer students the option for various reasons.  Online learning gives students flexibility to complete their work at their own pace.  For some, the adjustment is simple, however, for others it can be a bit of a challenge especially coming straight out of high school where every class is structured.  This project will also help educators who want to learn more about multimedia tools that they can use in the classroom.  By becoming comfortable with different media tools, they can share that information with students as well.  Teachers can become comfortable enough with the tools that they can pass along their learned information to students.  Students can then create their own projects using the tools and gain experience of working online and submitting assignments online.

Audience:

The audience of this project is high school teachers and upperclassmen in high school.  The goal of this project is to help students feel more comfortable entering college.  Seniors and juniors should have some experience working with computers so they should be comfortable with getting onto the website.  I hope to collect data from both students and teachers informing me if this website was useful for them.  I would also want to ask students if this made them feel more comfortable with online learning.

Overview of Instructional Plan:

My learning objective is to help students with the transition from high school to college.  I also hope that teachers can use the website as a resource to help their students with this process as well.  I plan on using Adobe Spark to create a website that features instructional videos, photos, and reviews from other students and educators on different programs and methods of learning.  By creating a community, it will also allow students to connect with one another and discuss what they are nervous about.  For teachers, it will allow them to look over programs that have been used by other teachers and see what they like and would use again and what they recommend avoiding.

Technological Tools:

I plan on using Blogger to host the website.  Blogger is a great place for creating various pages and supports multimedia very well. It is important to create a feeling of community where people can also talk to one another and Blogger allows for comments sections where can people interact and ask questions.  I will also use Adobe Spark to create graphics for the site that will help people visualize the concepts.  Students will be able to learn about these programs and then go and try them out for themselves.   Teachers can then set up a drop box or some other way for students to submit their online assignments like they would in an online class  I would also set up a Wikispaces so teachers can get a clear look at how much students understand and contributed.  . I would also include screencasts for some of the programs to help first time users navigate through the different program options.

Learned Theories/ Principles:

I will try to keep my project simple and easy to follow.  I will keep everything organized so that there is no cause for confusion on my end.  Allowing students and teachers to communicate will also help by allowing them to ask each other questions and gain knowledge from their personal experience.  This can be extremely helpful for students and/or teachers who are a bit apprehensive about online learning.  These exchanges are using collaborative skills which is also very important to understanding online learning.  With teachers and students from different backgrounds and subjects, this will promote cross-curriculum skills.

Timeline:

Now-2/28: conduct research through online surveys on how high school teachers are currently incorporating online learning in their classrooms and how students are responding to it

3/1-3/10: create the website and start adding graphics and videos while completing the first project update

3/11-4/6: record additional screencasts and implement a social feature so teachers and students can communicate with one another

4/7: receive peer feedback to better my project

4/8-4/23: after receiving peer feedback, work on finishing up everything and completing the project

MDMC Screencasts

Hi everyone! Here are my screencast for the Mixed Digital Media Critique.  Enjoy!

Audio Screencast: Podomatic

Still Media Screencast: Photoshop Express

Moving Media Screencast: Animoto

Blog Entry #4

Word Portraits Exercise:

Shape Workshop- 

I was a little confused by the wording of this exercise, however, I think I did it right.  I tried using different Vector software programs, however, I ended up using Vectorizer.io instead.  It was a pretty simple and effective way to make vectors!

            

Mini Art School #1

Here is my first exercise!

Loosened Alignment Exercise

It is a screenshot so it should be 8x10! Try to visualize it like that!

For my second exercise I chose to review a past work and review it using this week's lessons.  Last semester I created an ePortfolio as a way to showcase my talents to potential employers on the internet.  Here is what it looks like before:

After reading through this week's readings, I believe I can improve the site by changing some of the fonts.  I would start by bolding my name as that is where I want readers' eyes to go first.  I also chose to change the tan background color.  It does not grab your attention.  I chose a bit of a brighter color. Here is the updated version:

Discussion Post #2

I really enjoyed the interview with Mrs. Margaret Kiernan.  As a teacher of multimedia literacy, there ate a lot of points she made that can translate to the classroom.  I strongly agree with her point about the importance of teachers understanding and being able to confidently use any type of media and being able to communicate their message.  Being in charge of a classroom means having to communicate your message for the day for everyone to comprehend.  Some of the elements of design, like having focal points as Kiernan suggests, are important to keep students focused and paying attention to whatever it is you want them to be paying attention.

The design of a message can sometimes be equally as important as the message itself.  As Kiernan discusses many "non graphic designers" make the mistake of trying to put too much in one space instead of embracing the white space.  I could definitely understand why novices would make this mistake.  It is sometimes hard to decide what is the most important elements so we just say put it all on!  However, this can get confusing as people may not know where to direct their focus and pay attention more to the complicated design.

As a teacher it also sounds like a smart idea to stay away from decorative fonts.  Students need to be able to read the content in order to understand it.  Having them spend more time trying to see what each letter is and getting distracted means they are spending less time focusing on the material.  Same reason why the fonts should be appropriately sized so that all students can see.  Grouping images and accompanying text would also make it easier for students to understand.  Having to go find the accompanying information about a picture wastes unnecessary time.

Blog Entry #3

Photo Credit: Twitter

For this blog entry, I chose to explore the website, TheRinger.com.  The Ringer is a media website created by former "Any Given Wednesday with Bills Simmons" host Bill Simmons and covers everything about sports, pop culture, and technology.   

Navigation

The site is very easy to navigate.  The site abides by Webdesigner Depot's first rule by not having a horizontal scroll bar.  Visitors to the site can only scroll vertically which is perfect for the site's layout as it continues to show more content as users scroll down. 

Color

The header of the site has a monochromatic theme of green. The background for the header is grass while the top menu and authors' profile pictures are in a bright highlighter green.  Graphics accompanying the articles are very saturated and eye-catching.  The graphics really pop out against the white background.

Readability

The site is very easy to read.  The chosen fonts are non-decorative and clear to make out.  There are ads in the articles, however, they are not distracting and do not take away from readability.

Audience

The Ringer makes its intended audience very clear.  The site is meant to appeal to a younger generation who are interested in pop culture, sports, and technology.  The site's creator Bill Simmons brings his own audience as a former sports analyst.  The graphics used are clearly intended for a younger audience, but the great content also draws a more mature audience.

Typography

The sites use proper fonts and font sizes.  The article titles are bold and easy to distinguish.  The context is written at a proper size for the intended audience.  Both the title and the body are in the same font family.  The letter are all evenly spaced and do not distract from the words.

Layout

The site does its best to fill up any dead space without looking cluttered.  The site follows a pattern for its content that is easy to navigate and visually appealing.  The articles that are trending right now receive more space on the page compared to other articles.  The site uses little to no borders on most of its graphics.

Emphasis

The site does a really good job of emphasizing articles that are currently in the news.  Currently, The Ringer is pushing its Super Bowl content as it is this weekend and many people are talking about it.   The site does not have one focal point, but many focal points. All of the graphics are very eye-catching and any one of them can be considered a focal point. The more recent articles are emphasized by their placement at the top of the site.

Balance

The site displays an off balanced layout.  Some rows have just one article, while other rows can have as many as three articles.  Some of the graphics used with these articles dominate other graphics in the same row. 

Image

The images on The Ringer are one of the best parts of the site.  They are bold, colorful, and immediately grab your attention.  All of the images are different from one another making them stand out even more.  The images definitely help bring interest to articles and support the site's appeal to a younger crowd.  Within the articles, the pictures used support the article and make it better.

Blog Entry #2

For my MMP, I really wanted to focus more on what technology is currently being utilized in the classroom and more importantly what is coming in the future.   Technology has been growing rapidly for the past couple of decades, but it seems like technology in the classroom is always trying to catch up.  Technology has the ability to alienate individuals, however it also allows for a lot of collaborative work to occur.  Students are able to express themselves in different ways rather than just be restricted to essays and/or written exams. 

By joining Google + communities devoted to education and technology, I am already completing the analysis portion of the ADDIE model.  The three communities that I enjoyed are TED,  E-Learning and Digital Cultures, and Technology and Innovation in Education.  TED "is a nonpartisan nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks," (TED.com).   TED Talks are one of the greatest things on the internet. While it is not specifically meant for educational purposes, there is so much one can learn that can be applied to the classroom.   There are videos covering almost every topic from clean water solutions to the use of virtual reality in sports.  TED Talks are helpful for the second two parts of the ADDIE model, design and development.  Viewers can see how scientists and researchers are trying to develop solutions to issues facing different groups around the world. 

Technology and Innovation in Education is perfect for my topic choice.  The community is designed a space to talk about, "the intersection of research and practice relating to innovation in teaching and learning," (Technology and Innovation in Education).  This community not only talks about how to use new technology in the classroom, but also general technology news.  It offers a lot of insight as to what is being constructed for use in the classroom in the near future.

The final community I decided to join was E-Learning and Digital Culture because I have taken many classes as a student online.  Teaching an online class is something that is very interesting to me and something I would like to do in the future.  This community discusses what it is like to teach in the digital age and the problems that come with it.  By hearing other people's testimonies, I can see what works and what are some things that I should avoid.  The community seems to be very supportive and a great place to share new ideas.

Work Cited

Technology and Innovation in Education. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://plus.google.com/communities/117631661795101086867

TED: Ideas worth spreading. (n.d.). Retrieved January 28, 2017, from https://www.ted.com/

Discussion Prompt #1

   It is clear that multimedia has overtaken print in popularity, especially with younger people.  With teachers already fighting to keep students' attention, it is important to implement multimedia in the classroom.  While working as a teaching assistant at Rutgers, I can see that almost 90 percent of students choose to use a laptop over writing notes by hand.  When the professor is lecturing, there are students who are listening, but more so paying attention to something else on their screen.  However, when the professor shows videos, students appear to be engaged with the content.

Multimedia allows teachers to go a step further with students.  Instead of just reciting back information, students can get a deeper understanding of concepts.  Daley writes, "One 'creates' and 'constructs' media rather than writing it, and one 'navigates' and 'explores' media rather than reading it," (Daley, 36).  Literacy has definitely taken on a new meaning since the explosion of technology.  It is a required skill that almost all job applicants are proficient in some aspect of computers.  Due to this, it is important for students to learn and understand multimedia and how it can be used.

       I have a lot of experience using multimedia in an education sense.  I have taken many of my graduate classes through eCollege and while it is very different than a traditional classroom environment, that is not a bad thing.  It gets students to communicate with one another and collaborate on ideas to create projects.  Instead of just listening to a teacher lecture, online courses forces students to read material and actively participate in class discussions. Daley adds the point that previous work presented by students was kept private, only for the student and teacher to see.  With multimedia, however, students are able to share their work with whoever they want.  I took a class last semester called ePortfolio which was basically to make an online portfolio of our best work.  This was a way to stand out on the internet in an attempt to attract potential employers.

       I definitely think students should be encouraged to work with multimedia.  Besides the value of learning, students are In a 2010 study conducted by Tariq M. Khan, children with learning disabilities benefitted from using multimedia in the classroom.  By incorporating multimedia in the classroom this could be an opportunity for students who may not learn as fast as their peers a chance to shine.  It can help students who are not strong writers, be able to express their ideas to their peers and others.  

Daley, E. (2003). Expanding the Concept of Literacy. Educause, 33-40.

Khan , T. M. (2010). The effects of multimedia learning on children with different special education needs. Retrieved January 26, 2017, from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042810007305 

Blog Entry #1

Eminem & Motor City

The purpose of Chrysler's "Imported from Detroit" commercial was to say never judge a book by it's cover.  There are very negative connotations about the city of Detroit, including that it is a very poor city that was abandoned by the auto industry, however a lot of beautiful and great things have come from the city of Detroit.  One of the most notable people from Detroit is rapper Eminem who is very vocal about being from the city of Detroit.  Having him in the commercial served as an additional reminder of the great things that the city of Detroit has produced.

The target audience of this commercial are people who are likely familiar with Eminem's music so people who are above the age of 18 and below 60.  This is also the audience who is likely seeing this commercial because it ran during the Super Bowl.  It is also the age of people who are likely going to need to buy a new car at some point in the future. This is conveyed by the use of Eminem's hit song "Lose Yourself"which was popular over a decade ago.

At first, the city of Detroit is shown how many who have never been to the city of Detroit would perceive it.  As the commercial progresses, however, the people of Detroit are portrayed as strong, talented, and capable of anything.  The narrator goes on to compare "The Motor City", Detroit's nickname, with New York City and the "Windy City", Chicago's nickname to show it can compete with the biggest cities in the country. With Chrysler being made in Detroit it is aligning its brand with that message that it is can compete with other luxury car brands.  The video tries to incorporate all of the different people who currently inhabit the city of Detroit.

Overall, this commercial is very appealing to the eye.  In the beginning, while discussing the negative connotations associated with the city, the camera appears shaky and of low quality.  As the commercial progresses and starts talking positively about the city, the video quality improved and brightened.  This was done on purpose to help fit the storyline that Detroit is better than what you might have heard about it.  This was the correct medium for this commercial because the audience watching the Super Bowl is the target audience for Chrysler.  People who know Eminem and remember the song "Lose Yourself" will remember this commercial when thinking about what car to buy.

Photo Credit: Muller, J. (2011, August 11). Eminem's Super Bowl Ad For Chrysler Had CEO Worried. Retrieved January, 2017, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/joannmuller/2011/02/07/eminems-super-bowl-ad-for-chrysler-had-ceo-worried/#53db834910ba

Hello everyone!

Hi everyone! My names is Ashleigh Binder and I am currently in my final semester of the Master's in Communication and Information Science program.  Currently, I am a teaching intern for Dr. Faw's Comm 300 class.  I was a teaching assistant last semester for the same class with Dr. Faw.  I decided to take this course to better understand how to use multimedia in the classroom.  I have long thought about becoming a teacher one day so this course could be very useful when that day comes! I am also the owner and head editor of an all female sports blog, SportsAsToldByAGirl.  The site was started in 2012 as a personal blog and has blossomed into a place for other women to voice their opinions on the latest news in the sports world. I am looking forward to a great semester with everyone!