EDLD+5363+Week+5+Assignment+PSA+Reflection

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During the course of EDLD 5363, I had the pleasure of working with some of the most talented people I have ever worked with. This was very interesting to me because we had never met each other before, and yet we were able to get organized and work together through the use of Web 2.0 tools.

Upon the assigning of the PSA, my group and I immediately joined forces to come up with a topic during the pre-production stage. Through email communication, we all agreed that the use of cell phones in school zones was a problem that affected us all. We quickly distributed the different job roles based on the individual strengths that we all had. Dub Wellborn, a fellow team member, set up a group Wiki in order for us to work collaboratively. Once this was set up, the production of the PSA began.

During the production process, everyone contributed equally to the PSA. This is what made the experience so great. Everyone completed the task they were assigned, and helped those that were in need. This kept the production process from becoming overwhelming. Leigh Moore, the camera operator, quickly got a group of student actors to volunteer and sent home permission slips for them to appear in the video. Once all parts of the production process were complete, post-production began.

When it came time for post-production, my team showed how well it could work together. We quickly communicated back and forth on any changes that needed to be made, all while being very respectful of each other. Thanks to the use of Google docs, we were all able to work collaboratively on the PSA document until it was finalized. This saved us time from having to wait on others.

To make our PSA more reputable, Dorothy Patel, the script writer, located some statistics to include in the PSA. She appropriately cited each source in the PSA document to give credit to the authors. Since all of the shots and sounds were contributed by the team members, a creative commons license logo was placed at the beginning of the PSA. This will let others know how the PSA can be used.

After analyzing the final version of our PSA, I am very happy with the final outcome. I believe that even though we never met in person, my team and I managed to create a PSA that delivers a very important message to all those who watch it. I cannot think of anything that my group and I can do to improve our public service announcement; however, I do believe that in order to learn more about PSA production, each person should have done their own PSA. This would have allowed me to learn more about the video production process.

Overall, the creation of this PSA was a wonderful experience that taught me how wonderful group work can be when it is organized. Since my team members and I knew our own strengths and weaknesses, we were able to distribute the work evenly amongst each other, thus making it a process that targeted each of our needs. As an educator, this is something that I want my students to learn how to figure out. Because of this project, I can now give my students a real life example on how to work together, all while teaching them an important lesson; never use your cell phone while driving in a school zone!