Project Reflections

Know Your Meme Video Project Reflection

            My group did our video project on the internet meme known as “Rick Rolling”.  Rick Rolling consists of providing a friend with a disguised link that sends the recipient unknowingly to Rick Astley’s video for “Never Gonna Give You Up”.  We decided to set our Know Your Meme in a classroom, where a teacher Rick Rolls her students, and then provides them with an explanation about rick rolling and some information about its history.

            The significance of this project was not so much in the content itself, but more so in the skills learned through utilizing video as a form of rhetoric.  Through this project, we became familiar with video editing, and all the aspects involved.  Not only did we have to provide a text, but we also had to bring together the elements of video and audio to achieve a final project that makes sense and is interesting to watch.  We learned what makes these types of videos quality and interesting by exploring the concepts of unity, juxtaposition, and the like, which ended up being the main points of the rubric.

As an English teacher, I plan to utilize the concepts of Juxtaposition, Unity, and layering, and continue to be mindful of them in all creative assignments, whether they be essays and papers, or future classroom assignments such as audio recording or video editing.

This West Chester Life Podcast Project Reflection
Link To Free Podcast Download

            My group did our podcast project on West Chester University’s Students for Sensible Drug Policy. We spoke to the vice president of the group, as well as an active member, and discussed what SSDP stands for, as well as some of the events that they have sponsored on campus.  This is a new group on campus, so we were able to talk to some of the founding members and tell a story about how the organization came to be, where it stands, and where it is going.

            The significance of this project, for me, lay in the process of learning how to interview.  I had never given an interview before, at least never given one that was meant to be listened to, and this was good practice.  The concept of “telling a story” was really stressed, and that’s what we were forced to do.  This project felt like a more comfortable version of the video project, since we worked on a lot of the same concepts, but only had to deal within the audio medium.

            I think that podcasting is going to be huge in the future, and it is effectively taking over radio.  I enjoyed working with audio much more than working with video, so I hope to make audio an option for my students in the future.  Also, doing the podcast gave me a better understanding of the direction of a conversation, so not only did it help with my interview skills, it also helped with any writing I do that includes dialogue.

Multi-Modal Assignment

            I used Garageband and iMovie to make my multi-modal assignment.  I used the text from a short story that I wrote earlier this semester, and combined it with the film that I took on the day that the short story was inspired by.  I recorded live guitar and my narration, and added nature sounds to the soundtrack.  The final product was something I am quite proud of.

            This is the only project that we worked on, on our own, without the help of a group, and I thought that it was a lot better.  I got to work on the project on my own time, without worrying if other members were doing their share of the work.  I got to make a product that was entirely my own, and since the rubric was general, I was able to work on things that I really cared about.  I already had this story written, but the multi-modal assignment gave me a different way to view it.

            I think, now that all the projects are over, that there should always be an option to work on your own.  Group projects work for some people, but not all.  I know that for me, I would have been more motivated to work on my own creative ideas rather than on those of others.  Also, it eliminates the almost definite probability that one group member will take the lead and do more work than the others.  The multi-modal assignment allowed us to use all of the things we learned, and utilize them in expressing our own abilities.