Week 13: Critical Reflection

Module Learning:

Before starting this module, my goal was to improve my presentation skills by finding ways to combat my nervousness. In these short 13 weeks of effective communication, there were many opportunities given to me to speak in front of the class, such as reading the notes on the screen and sharing my ideas with my classmates although these may seem small, I think it was a significant first step into overcoming my fears. Besides that, Professor Blackstone has always allowed us to mingle with others by putting us into different groups, which allowed me to get to know my other classmates. Knowing my classmates allowed me to speak more comfortably, which helped to reduce my nervousness when presenting. Although we don’t always get the opportunity to know our audience before giving a presentation, I feel that perhaps meeting new people would be a great way to improve my fears.

Secondly, I would agree that these lessons did help me in understanding more of the English language through writing things such as the reader response and the technical report it allowed me to practise more in forming and linking sentences which was something that I was relatively weak. Being exposed to paraphrasing and summarising will definitely benefit me in the future, especially in report writing, since it is always a requirement for us to include the background information and a summary/conclusion. Having said that, acquiring these skills is not sufficient, and we should always strive for the best and keep improving ourselves. Needless to say, I should expose myself to more articles and writings, which would help not only expand my vocabulary but it would increase my critical thinking skills.

Project learning:

This project was very challenging for my group as we had some issues with the ideas initially. It was frustrating at first as our group was one of the fastest to decide on a topic. However, halfway through working on the concept, we felt that there were many flaws to the idea and decided to change it, despite it being just two weeks before the final presentation. It was challenging as we had to juggle researching the new topic and working on the many other quizzes and reports from the other modules. Although none of us had worked with each other in the past, I would say that our team dynamic was as great. Working with my teammates was great as everyone was able to view things with an open mind which made the discussion a breeze, in our team, we would look out for each other and cheer for one another. During the presentation week, our team even came to school early to rehearse and gave each other feedback on how to improve.

All in all, many of the teams I've worked together in the past would have easily stuck with a lousy concept and tried to get by, but today I'm grateful to my team for their willingness to change the idea at such short notice and for doing it so successfully. Working with this team was an eye-opener for me as this experience helped me understand that for teamwork to be successful, the team should communicate well and be committed to overcoming obstacles and supporting one another through tough times.