This is my very first (and only) GIF. I cannot begin to explain all of the learning that went into my being able to create this little baby – it’s the story of my backyard by the way – but the hoops I had to jump through to create this animated image are actually irrelevant.
What IS important, is that when I first began watching Jim Groom’s session on creating GIFs, my immediate thought was, “This is over my head, not for me, it will be a long time, if ever, before I can do something like that!”.
But all week long, people in our etmooc community were posting their GIFs. How hard could it be? I felt out of the loop.
With the help of my husband, (much against his wishes, he has been learning right along with me!), I managed to create a GIF using the free GIMP software suggested in the Tumblr tutorial we were sent in our etmooc Digital Storytelling introduction.
I was so proud of myself for being able to create this silly little GIF; but then couldn’t figure out how to upload it to my blog or share it on Google+. Each time I tried, it would lose its animation. So I posted a question in the Google+ community. With the help of +Alison Seaman and +Andrew Forgrave I was finally able to upload it.
What did I learn? I learned that I can do things I never thought possible; that an online PLN is an incredibly powerful resource; that learning is not easy, but persistence and determination will be rewarded; and that success feels really, really good!
As I re-read this post, I realize that as a student, learning was always easy for me. Math, Language, Science, loved them all… I never had trouble in school. Going through this etmooc, I feel, for the very first time, like a struggling student. It has given me so much empathy for those children whom I serve that just don’t “get it” the first time around. I think that is the most powerful piece of learning in this etmooc for me.