Experience with the Live Sessions - Article Example

Self-reflection individual ePortfolio Submission Submitted by (Name) The Name of the Class (Course) Professor (Tutor) The Name of the School (University) The City and State where it is located The Date Task 1 My experience with the live sessions was so good and encouraging since this gave me a chance to interact with the student on the campus. A change of the environment was especially necessary because I had taken so much time studying within the same environment within the campus. Because of the large number of students, I managed to interact with some many students especially with those from different cultural background. I learnt many things especially in terms of knowledge and skills. This is because of the group discussions we had. Within the groups, we divided our roles and this led to efficiency. This also created a sense of responsibility for each other. My group engaged in thorough research while preparing for our oral presentation. For this reason, some of the group members engaged in preparation of the slides while others rounded up with intense research about the presentation. This involved proper timing and synchronizing of information for easy flow during the presentation process. My team was also very keen to ensure that our visual aids (slides) were free of errors and visible to all the audience. The slides were also enriched with key points and diagrams aimed at capturing the attention of the audience. We scored considerably well on delivery and on key points. However, we failed to maintain a good eye contact with the audience. We also noted a few of grammatical mistakes as well as grammatical mistakes on the slides. The slides were also not so visible and we only stated important points instead of explaining them in details. However, we noted that the slides were a success and contained a good outline regarding the ideas. Our group managed to note that our slides were also too descriptive at certain times, which took away most of our presentation time. We experienced some challenges in terms of intercultural communication sine all of us did not speak the same language however all of us encouraged each other to finish the preparations early and on time. We engaged in rehearsals of our oral presentations in order to be sure about our time. Constant rehearsals ensured we had proper eye contact with the audience as well as having a detailed and synchronized flow of ideas. Task 2 While reviewing an article there are some important facts that must be checked. This include the author, date of publication, whether the journal is peer reviewed or not as well as the information contained in the journal. With this kind of information, it became so easy to review the article. This also involved looking at the conclusion, results, discussion, and the author’s recommendation. I also checked on the major findings of the research, the main objective of the article, and the authors conducted their investigations. This process was encouraging as I learnt the procedure of conducting a research. Speech review involved looking for the important information, which is the theme. It also involved looking at the flow of information as well as grammatical errors that might be contained in the speech. The speech must have an impact on the audience. The speech must be logic with good opening and closing statements. I managed to learn how to write a good speech from this review. The major difference between an article review and a speech review is that an article review is more detailed and must be relevant and recent while a speech review mainly involves well synchronized flow of information. Task 3 Making a poster is not a simple task and it involved a thorough research on how to make one. However, I successfully made one after following certain considerations. In order to come up with a good poster, I defined the purpose of the poster and this was depending on the status and the nature of work for presentation. I asked myself several questions like what I want my audience to do when they see my poster. I thought that maybe they can engage in a discussion after seeing the poster. After this, I thought about the title of my poster. The title is the key and stimulation for the audience towards information. The title is equivalent to the newspaper headline and so I chose a perfect one for my poster. From this point, I identified my audience whom I intend to pass the message. I ensure that my poster involved a good source of motivation I terms of color, font size, and free from errors. I also ensured that my poster only involved important information and not very detailed. According to Keith Richards a musician, a good painter will never cover all the space while painting and will always leave some space(Lindberg, 2007). I used this technique to ensure some balance and rhyme for the poster. This is aimed at directing the audience of the poster from one stage of information to another in a more succinct way. Keith Richards believes that a poster should not be so detailed but must be concise to the point. In addition to this he believes that a good poster should not have nothing less than a font size of 24 otherwise you will fail in attracting the audience and you may not pass the intended information to the audience. In order to end up with a good poster involves the artist’s personality. The presence of personality creates affection and identification with the audience. With these simple techniques, I ended up with a good poster. Task 4 Working in a group is good and very important as it gives out a wider pool of skills and knowledge that can be shared from one person to another within the group. However, working in a group is always very difficult due to differences in interests and personality. Many times conflictsarise in groups and therefore proper management of group work is very essential in order to experience success. For this reason, I decided to choose social people. Social people are able to bring out their charisma and help in finishing the task as compared to reserved people. In addition to this, I also chose people who are hardworking and committed. This ensured a sense of responsibility and this really helped during research and in preparation of the slides. Intelligence, focus, polite, and discipline are among some of the characteristics I was looking for while selecting group members. This is because these people are able to be intrinsically motivated and complete the task on time. Completing a task in a group requires commitment and therefore commitment was an important factor I considered in my selection. I was interested with people of similar success and experience levels to help us in completing our group discussion. It will become easy for us to work in a group if we all belong to the same experience level especially when it comes to preparing for oral presentations. Competition in a group is good if it is positive. For this reason, I decided to select members who can create positive competition since this will lead to intense hard work and motivation of all the group members. With all these considerations, we synchronized a good team, which assembled and prepared for the oral presentation. Task 5 Intercultural communication skill I possessed helped me in coordinating some of the functions in the group. We shared and learnt a lot especially when it came to cultural variations. During break time, we engaged in discussions about our cultures and learnt certain words like how to say hi in different languages. With my knowledge in three languages, I blended very well with all the group members especially those who understood my language. We took some retreats away from work and had fun. We played some games and this helped in team bonding creating a more positive relationship. As we engaged in discussions, I managed to develop good communication skills. As we conducted the rehearsals, we also developed good communication skills. We corrected each other in the process and this was so positive. My good leadership qualities enabled me to work in tandem with the rest of group members. I did allocate tasks equally to all group members and I avoided overloading any group member. I was also very punctual for the discussions and I provided guidelines on how to conduct our research. I was patient with all the group members and I managed to understand their weaknesses since we are not equal. I respected every ones view and made conclusions after deliberate discussion and opinion of all the group members. This democratic way of leadership created motivation since every person in the group became involved in way or the other. This also created a sense of belonging and verey member felt respected. Task 6 My group engaged in thorough research while preparing for our oral presentation. For this reason, some of the group members engaged in preparation of the slides while others rounded up with intense research about the presentation. This involved proper timing and synchronizing of information for easy flow during the presentation process. My team was also very keen to ensure that our visual aids (slides) were free of errors and visible to all the audience. The slides were also enriched with key points and diagrams aimed at capturing the attention of the audience. We scored considerably well on delivery and on key points. However, we failed to maintain a good eye contact with the audience. The tutor also noted a few of grammatical mistakes as well as grammatical mistakes on the slides. The slides were also not so visible and we only stated important points instead of explaining them in details. However, the tutor noted that the slides were a success and contained a good outline regarding the ideas. The tutor noted that our slides were also too descriptive at certain times, which took away most of our presentation time. These issues will be addressed by ensuring that we rehearse properly before doing our oral presentation. We also intend to revise our work before taking it for presentation. This involves correcting all our grammatical mistakes. We will also take more time and engage in practicing on how to present to large audience as well as marinating eye contact with the audience. However, this did not affect our grammar so much since we were accurate in grammar more audible and eloquent in our speeches. Conclusion In conclusion, the whole presentation was a success. I managed to work and associated with my fellow group members. I learnt a lot from them and I am looking forward to be a successful oral presenter in my future job. Bibliography Lindberg, S. M. (2007). Mother-child interactions during mathematics homework: Socialization of gender differentiation? Poster presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research on Adolescence. Chicago: Wiley and Sons. Read More