Final Evaluation

              The documentary was an unexpected assignment when entering the class as I thought it was primarily an English course.  Though I thought it was a good assignment and turned out fairly well, my group did encounter a few challenges.  The hardest thing for the film was editing the footage we got to look good and fit into the film time and topic.  I am proud that we were able to put the project together considering the fact that no one in the group was very experienced in editing and we had to learn on the spot.  The only thing I would change would be to go back and have the interviewees come to us in the media depot so we could record in a recording room where the audio and visual would be better.  I was responsible for contacting potential interviewees and scheduling appointments with them to film as well as coming up with some of the questions to ask interviewees in order to get the answers we needed for the film.  I was also responsible with aiding Rana write the script and finding out what added dialogue should go where.  However, for the most part we all simply worked together to edit, film, and make the documentary as good as we were able to.  I feel that as a group we worked well together, no fights occurred and we all had a similar vision for the documentary.  I helped us keep on track and heading towards our goal as we sometimes got distracted.  I wish that I had been able to learn and understand the editing tools better in order to help my group in the final product itself more, but in the end the way we shared the work was a success.  Overall I wish I had contributed a little more in the digital aspect of the film and voiced my ideas a little more but I think we all contributed our all to make this project a success.  I am very proud of the differences between the first and the final cuts as we really put the piece together and accomplished our goals.

              The class was definitely different than I expected but I feel it did help me with critical thinking skills, I have begun to get more out of news articles and books than I did before as I now think critically about the audience and the way the writer has written the story to affect certain audiences in particular ways.  The article about Jennifer Lawrence changed my view of celebrity scandals immensely as I had always blamed the stars but as I read that article it made me think about how the photos got leaked in the first place; crimes are being committed against these stars and I had not noticed that before.  Public speaking has never been my strong suit as was displayed in the first speech we had in the class.  No matter how much I practice or understand the topic, when I get up in front of a group I freeze and cannot think or remember what I have spent so long practicing.  I have learned this semester from multiple classes that I am able to speak much better publicly when in a group setting and I have people next to me that need me to succeed.  I am a student who would much rather write a paper than speak publicly as I can edit myself and change things to get my point across where I cannot do so speaking.  I enjoyed learning about how to communicate differently but I wish that our grade did not weight so lightly on the written and so heavily on the verbal components of the class.  I enjoyed your teaching style as it was relaxed and I loved coming to class and hearing everyone’s opinions on topics as you allowed us to speak freely in a way many professors do not.  You made us learn while having fun discussing things in a way that never really felt like schoolwork. Overall I really enjoyed the class and the discussions we all had there, my only change would be in the grading scale.  I wish more emphasis was put on the blog posts and attendance so those of us who have trouble speaking up in class but were good students could have a better grade.  If not this option then allowing us to make another speech using the feedback from the first to try and redeem ourselves in front of the class as well as possibly having another grade added or replacing the previous one.  It would be a great incentive to get student to apply constructive criticism while getting better at speaking for future classes.

Where does education abroad take you? - First Cut

Monique
Anna
Emma
Rana

Working in the media depot

Working hard in the media depot 11/18

Speed of Sound - Music Video

The music video I chose was Speed of Sound by Coldplay.  The video is pretty simple using an even combination of long, medium, and close shots (especially of Chris's hands as he plays the piano).  The video is pretty evenly broken up into 6 second shots, the longest being about 6 seconds in the middle of the song displaying a long shot.

Annotated Bibliography

Kociolek, Elizabeth. Personal Interview. Nd.

Elizabeth Kociolek is an advisor for the Education Abroad program who has earned a BA in German language, as well as spent a semester in Germany to be an intern at an art museum. She joined a faculty program to Italy and did a summer internship at Ireland. As a traveler herself, she can talk about the many things she learned from those experiences and provide benefits for studying abroad.

Ogden, Anthony. Personal Interview. Nd.

Dr. Anthony Ogden, being the director of Education Abroad, is a credible source for the documentary. He may have had many experiences with traveling and is a member of the Association of International Educators, the Forum of Education Abroad, and the Association of International Education Administrators. It would be interesting to know what kind of experiences students can pick up from study abroad. 

Riker, Seth. Personal Interview. Nd.

Seth Riker is the Education Abroad Promotion and Outreach Coordinator at the University of Kentucky. He may be useful for the documentary as his job is different from the other staff in the Education Abroad. Some questions that might be asked in this interview are ‘Why students should consider studying abroad?’ and ‘What benefits does studying abroad have?’

Tang, Yiyi. Personal Interview. Nd.

Yiyi Tang is the Financial Manager of Education Abroad and has earned her bachelor’s degree in finance. With her experience in finance, she could be useful to talk to about scholarship opportunities for study abroad. Tang could answer questions about who is eligible for applying for study abroad scholarships as well as how and when students can apply for scholarships.

Teague, Thomas. Personal Interview. Nd.

Thomas Teague coordinates orientation programming to support students with their international experiences. He is an advisor who has earned his bachelor’s degree in French Language and Literature. Teague can help talk about the progress of students who study abroad and what steps they need to do in preparation of traveling.

Born into Coal

While “Born into Coal” utilizes both human interest and standard narrative styles, the main style that stood out to me was that of a human interest piece.  The documentary showed the story of a common coal mining family in West Virginia whose daughter was in a pageant for the title of West Virginia Coal Queen while also highlighting the life of another family in West Virginia affected by a coal mine collapse across the state.  Though following the daughter, Ariana, to her pageant was a standard narrative, the heart of the piece was a human interest piece on the effects of coal mining on the miner and his family.  The father works hard in the mines every day in order to provide for his family while his wife worries and prays for him and his daughter takes classes in hopes that if something bad occurs she can make an effort to help him.  Though the life they live is difficult and the money in meager, the family continues to life a somewhat normal life.

              The shots that really stood out to me were the differences in the hands between the father and the daughter – the father’s hands were permanently dirty with his nails stained black while his daughter and wife had pristine, fake manicures as they did not have to work the hard job in the mine.  I believe that the shots taken are very effective in showing the audience that hard, physical labor takes a toll on the body that is often visible, and that hard work turns into the everyday things the worker can provide for his family, such as the plethora of jeans held in the perfectly manicured hands of his daughter.  Though the life of a coal miner is treacherous and often deadly, the reward is seeing his family happy and thriving because he could provide for his family and I think these shots aid in making that point.