Here is my REFLECTION PAPER of my journey through the choppy waters of the digital project!!!
Lindsey Blair
ENGL 3241
Dr. Daren Crovitz
Digital proj. reflection
Gatsby’s American Dream….or Nightmare?
This enhanced PowerPoint presentation will serve as a “before you read introduction” to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel The Great Gatsby. The presentation is an overview of some of the major cultural/historical themes, symbols and ideas of the novel. I distinctly created the presentation to not give away the major detail. Even more so, this presentation captures the feel of a movie trailer The PowerPoint presentation will serve as an intriguing yet fun introduction to some of the ideas surrounding the novel. I As a future teacher, I would use this presentation as a pre-reading activity. After viewing the presentation with the class I would ask the students to take a few minutes of quiet reflection to predict, journal and share some of their thoughts on the novel before reading. This journal activity can be use to make predictions and pose questions. Not only will this open the door for discussion, but it should also work as a good basis for beginning reading the novel because students will have a general idea of the culture and mindset behind characters of the novel. Most of all, I feel that this enhanced power point presentation will serve as a more interesting and fun way for me as the teacher demonstrate to the students how they too can make their PowerPoint presentations exciting. Furthermore, this before you read activity is a fun way to get students excited about the novel they are about to embark on; instead of me lecturing and having them take notes on the information.
As far as the creation process was concerned with completing the project, it was definitely not as easy as I predicted it to be. Originally, I had set out to make a slide show through movie maker. However, I quickly realized that I still had not mastered some basics. I then switched my project into an enhanced PowerPoint. Before beginning the actual “creation process” I had planned out a very detailed rough draft complete with each slides dialogue, photo, and music, sound effect, and colors. I immediately realized how little I knew about making a PowerPoint. As a beginner all I was able to do with PowerPoint was choose a background, type in the text, and add a photo. I had never experimented with sound, effects, timing and transitions. My first struggle and triumph was when I figured out how to make the text of each slide move. Once I had figured that out I experimented for hours with what looked good. As silly as it may sound, my second challenge was figuring out how to change the font color. I did not realize that I had to highlight the words to make the font different colors. This task alone took around two and a half hours; which is quite embarrassing to say the least. However, I was so very proud of myself when I had finally figured this detail out. Once I figured out how to time the slides to transition on their own, I began to feel very confident. Before I had learned this I was manually hitting the space bar to move each slid. Adding sounds and music was probably the most time consuming and frustrating aspect of the project.
To be honest, Iam unsure as to how many hours I put into trying to add sounds to make the presentation fun.. Originally, I had planned to record my own voice reading the slides. However, In my field experience I recently watched my cooperating teacher give a PowerPoint presentation to her class of tenth graders. As a whole the class was bored and unfocused. I then realized that it might be fun to add all music and sounds to gently play in the background while the students viewed the images and read a little on their own. Music is a fun way to get them involved and to transport them back to the 1920’s. To keep students interested I also added some other modern sounds to get their attention. It took a great deal of time to find the music and sound effects I wanted and in good quality. I spent about three hours or more listening and searching for sound bits. The most challenging part was figuring out how to add on music to each slide. Once I finally figured this detail out organizing the music, timing it, and adding it to the slides took at least six to eight hours.
I can honestly say that I’ am proud of my PowerPoint presentation. I’ am proud of my accomplishment; which might seem miniscule to someone who is computer savvy. Iam glad I choose to make an enhanced PowerPoint instead of a movie maker project because I feel that I had barely any basic knowledge of a PowerPoint. I feel that making this particular type of presentation was a stepping stone for me technologically. Although I slipped, skinned my knee, and needed a few moments to catch my breath, I finally made my journey over the great PowerPoint stepping stone. I snow feel that I have some skills mastered to where I can explore a new stepping stone like movie maker or photo story. In fact, this is one of my goals for the summer. I now plan on transforming the idea behind my PowerPoint and transferring it to moviemaker. I am excited to explore something new and to reinvent my Gatsby6 project. Overall, my experience was beneficial, frustrating, but extremely worthwhile. I’ am proud of what I have created and confident that with more practice I can do far more.
