Presentations blog

 Jan Ferreiro

I personally really enjoyed the group aspect of the first presentations as it is something I have to get used to and be comfortable with depending on other people. I think group experiences, in general, depend greatly on the people you are surrounded with, if you are surrounded by people who are proactive and engaged then in turn you will be and will have a positive association with group activities and like them. On the flip side, a group with people who aren’t as active and engaged as you are can often leave with a disproportionate amount of work compared to other group members and will leave you distrusting other people in group settings. In this assignment, I enjoyed my group and found them to be just as motivated to the work as I was which made my only group experience in college a positive one. My team leader and other students set up everything in a clear way so I could get my slides out of the way and practice my presentation for the day we had to present. I am used to being the person who rallies people and gets everyone focused on what they had to do and while I kept telling myself I needed to fit into that role, or nothing would be done I did not need to do that because the team leader and some others did it before me which was a nice breathe of fresh air when it comes to group work. Moving on to the presentations I enjoyed my groups' presentations and It made me less nervous than I was the first one to have to speak because I did not have to follow up with anybody. I am usually ok with public speaking as long as I have a good idea of what I’m speaking about, when I try to improvise I scramble with trying to find words and usually have a million thoughts going through my brain like how I am sounding to other people or who is staring at me in which kind of way but the online aspect really helped with that and made it a bit easier. It also helped that I was pretty knowledgeable on the topic I was presenting and the topic my group, in general, was presenting because I had read through all the chapters as I was instructed to. This was almost like a backup in a way because I could always fall back on my knowledge of the book and the subject if my words failed me, and I know I would be making at least some sense. I don’t have a long history with public speaking or speaking to a gathering of people but as the career, I am trying to get into requires you to be proficient in public speaking and articulating yourself in a professional manner, so I know I have to take this class seriously and obtain as much knowledge as possible. I thought I did a good job speaking and I take pride in the fact that I consider myself as someone who is well-spoken and does not have to worry too much about public speaking. My team did a good job speaking too and clearly knew the content and material we based our slides on, and we had good synergy when knowing how to start and when to end to make the transition between speakers pretty seamless. I believe that is where our team excelled and differed from the rest of the presentations. The first presenters I thought had the most visually appealing process and their slides were very well presented through the designs and graphics they chose, that is personally my favorite but the last presenters did the best job of explaining the content in the slides and making it so everyone understood what they were saying and explaining throughout the presentation, as a result of this I was much more engaged in a much more meaning full way than with any other group I had to watch even if the first groups slides look more visually appealing. I would definitely like to work more in groups even if at times the downfalls of group work shine through when trying to get everyone on the same page and some of the same questions are asked multiple times. Despite this leaning on other classmates is not a bad thing and I know how useful being able to work with and be and be an integral part of a group can be later on in life and in our actual careers when we will have to work with others on a daily basis and the lone wolf not depending on anyone mentality will not fly in the work environment. As a stated before this opinion is one hundred percent dependent on the team you are around and maybe if I was assigned to a different group perhaps less a less organized one that did not have a clear leader and tech person to set everything up and point everyone in the same direction, I would actually hate team groups and would have a frustrating and miserable semester. I think it is something beneficial for us and should continue to be used for the remainder of the semester. My biggest takeaway from this project was how positive it was to work with a group and different communication methods inside families and between other groups of people such as with different ethnicities or from different walks of life and with far different opinions than you. A slide the last group presented really entered that thought inside my head and caused me to think about ways that I have communicated with different people in my personal life and how I should have been more considerate with words and things I have said or ways I could have led the conversation in different ways. Overall, I thought it was a very useful project and I am looking forward to the next one!