Reflection of the Multimedia Project

I greatly enjoyed watching all of the groups videos this week. I think everyone did a fantastic job. Although I had already read all of the stories that were presented in videos, I still learned new information, and saw new perspectives on the material that I already had at least some degree of familiarity with.

Now personally I greatly dislike creating media projects such as this. I am not a talented filmmaker, artist, or even very creative with anything visual. The only kind of visual art/work that I have ever had any real interest in doing was photography. All throughout my school career, I would have far rather written an essay than made a collage, drawn a picture, or made a poster. Even in elementary school I was never interested in the kind of projects that teachers were so fond of having us do. Let's just put away the crayons and colored pencils and give me some math problems. I still look at glue sticks with distaste.

In my schooling, I have also traditionally had a distaste for group work. It's not because I am antisocial, or don't work well with others for any reason. But I feel like I usually just get work done faster when I can just sit down by myself and do it. That also avoids the juggling act that many group projects are of trying to arrange times and locations to meet, as well as getting every group member on the same page in  regards to the vision of the project/assignment.

Now it would be a great conclusion to this to say that this project was different, and I had my eyes opened to the great benefits of visual projects and group work. That isn't the case though. But this project was certainly different than other projects I have done in the past, however. I feel like I did in fact gain a benefit from this, particularly because of the collaboration. If I was just assigned to write an essay on my topic, I probably would have found it easier, but I also would have missed some of the unique insights of my teammates.

This class seems like an ideal setting for group collaboration. Everyone has different experiences with Tolkien, and even with everyone reading the exact same work, no two people will read it the same way. Tolkien's profound talent for writing and nuance makes it impossible to gather all of the information in one reading, but when you have an entire class reading it, that helps make up the difference. Because of my group members, I feel like I have read the work we were assigned more times than I actually have, which not only helps me gain knowledge and understanding, but also just saves me time. Its like reading it three times for the price of one.

So although I dislike visual projects, and I also tend to view being assigned group work grudgingly, I see the value in this project.