Week 2 Reflective Summary

Learning with Digital Stories, week 2! Am I the only person feeling this week(and last week) went by so fast that it feels like only four days instead of seven?

After the challenging first week, I was more prepared in the week 2 activities, even though they are still dazzling and lots to take in. Making a to-do list on my calendar helped me on track of the class activities. On Friday morning, I received the first verbal message from Remi. I was scared to open the file and listen to his comments as I am worried that my work is not up to his expectation. But his kind words are very encouraging and just kept me going. (Remi, Sara is the name I go by at work to make it easy for people to call since sometimes people are calling me "Ian" when my real name is Lan. You can call me both, I will not be offended at all).

This week, I was able to read more "recommended reading" besides than "required reading". I really enjoy reading An Open Letter to My Students by Kris Shaffer. I found his teaching philosophy is very much like mine and thus I felt very related to his writing. I appreciate Shaffer covering many aspects of the teaching and learning and he explain them in depth yet with simplicity. His letter has inspired me to write a similar letter to my student for this coming fall semester.

I enjoy making the critique for the digital story in our interested scholarship. I am getting familiar with the assessment traits. When I am searching for the digital stories, I found myself automatically evaluating them in my mind with various traits. For this week' critique, I chose one not so perfect video to start with - There are many elements could use some improvement for the select digital story. I felt like I am learning more digital storytelling skills by watching the "inferior" video as it reminds me what work I would be making for my initial try. I will try not to make the same mistakes that I reviewed from the video.

I believe my performance for this week is "meet expectations" as I have finished my assignments on time. I have participated the discussion on Hypothes.is. Twitter is coming along, so is Daily Creates.