Reflection 4: Visual Learning

            After having class about visual learning, I can see the benefits of using these tools in my profession.  I felt it was easy to use these tools and was not difficult to load them onto YouTube.  The only thing I would have to say about the class is that it was a lot of information and different tools in a small amount of time.  It was a big overwhelming because once I started to understand how to use each tool it seemed as if we were already moving to the next step of the process. 

 I really enjoyed the screencast-o-matic because of the benefits it can provide to students.  It can very beneficial to post a video on how to use the admissions web page of the university to help prospective students see exactly where to go.  Then also to be able to tell them verbally about certain aspects of the page that will make it easier for them so it’s not such a hassle.  Providing tips and other helpful information about the process and how to give them the best chance to succeed in being accepted is another great aspect of it.              

            The ability to load them on YouTube makes it that much more beneficial to the students because of the ease of access to the tutorials.  Almost everyone uses YouTube in some form and being able to create your own page with all different tutorials about the website.  Prospective students interested in the university would first go to the actual website to get the information so there would have to be a link at the top of the page to take them to the tutorials on YouTube.

Another great way to use YouTube would be for a virtual tour of campus.  There are students that just don’t feel they have the time to travel to the university so to have it online still gives the ability to see what the campus is all about.  Being a vanguard at my campus for two years really shows me how beneficial a virtual tour would be.  Since on a normal in-person tour, we don’t go through every building and see every area of it, a virtual tour would be able to do that.  For each building on campus, you could show all the different parts of the building and what they have to offer.  This way if a student is interested in a certain building because they know their major’s classes are in that building, they can go online and see this virtual tour to know exactly what the building has to offer.   One final thing to provide prospective students would to talk to students on campus and have them talk about what they like about attending the university.  This is a great way for prospective students to get a feel how the general body feels. 

            As for the Pixlr and photo shop, there isn’t a need to use that in my profession.  The only situation that I can see it being helpful would be to take pictures of the universities’ buildings and then to photo shop them in different lights to showcase the best parts of that building.  This way it makes it more attractive to the students and they will be more likely to want to attend or visit the campus.  It is nice to know how to use it if it ever arises though.  It was easy to use as well but there are so many different tools to make the picture different that it will take awhile to be able to understand exactly what they all do and the benefits of them. 

            The last thing used was about.me.  It’s a nice website to have because it makes it easy to network with other peers since all of my online sites are in one space.  This gives those people the ability to get a good feel of what type of person I am and then they can contact me if they are interested.  Overall, I felt the new sites we used were beneficial and can be applicable in my profession.  To address my concerns from above, I feel it’s a lot of different sites and information to process and try to understand fully.  All of these tools are new to me and I feel I will have a hard time being able to remember how to use them once class is over with the fact that there is so much in such a little amount of time.