martes, 20 de marzo de 2012

New (old) updates: Journalist and Analyst

Hi this is Juan and I am going to start actualizing BD’s blog. Dates are so old but please think I have had to write these two entries now because they were assigned to other ex-members.

From Monday 20 to Sunday 26 February

Hi, Juan here from Broken Dreams and this week I have been the journalist of my group. First of all, I have to say this week have been so quiet compared to TPCK week. Monday 20 was about an explanation about Curriculum implementation and, in this point, I have to admit that I thought Linda would entrust some task which would be due by Friday 24. However, the big “surprise” would come true on Friday when Linda named the Pechakucha word. Therefore, we could say that the real weekly work about the subject started on Friday because of the assigned job. However, it seems that people from my group do not worry about carrying out tasks and (I am always who has to be remembering works we have to make and wondering about correcting English from all members, trying to make the best as possible…) I decided not to say nothing about the work because I was hoping someone would say something like: Hey, when are we going to meet in order to start the task? But it was incredible, weekend ended and neither of them said nothing or sent a message about The Beatles Pechakucha.
I was a bit tired of being “behind people” saying what we are going to make every week and, consequently, I started to make Pechakucha in my own way. Next week I was not the star but I had very clear that if nobody helped me to make the task I would not have any problem presenting the exposition.
To conclude, as I have said, this week I have been the journalist of my group and I have no qualms about saying that week from Monday 20 to Sunday 26 was absolutely holidays for the most part of group’s members. I like to be truthful and sorry but I had to express some of my thoughts, despite I have not been analyst this week I was a bit exhausted of this behaviour and I think this is not the correct way if we want to give of our best. I hope members of Broken Dreams will be aware of the situation because this is not a game, we are not in primary school and I really dislike when you try to make the best as possible in order to improve the group’s level and you do not receive the same feedback from the rest of members. As far I am concerned, it is true that I am not perfect, in fact, I admit I have a lot of mistakes every day, I do not want to say with this words that I am the best of group or something like that, I only want to say that, sometimes, I feel I am the only one who wonders about activities and several times, I have finished making tasks in my own way for the rest of the group because I feel I cannot completely trust in my work partners’ labour.
I want to think this is only a spell of bad luck and as soon as possible we will be a cooperative where we will be together in the same boat and we will take into account that university is not only a continued party where we go in order to spend our time. 


From Monday 25 February to Sunday 4 March

Hi, Juan again from Broken Dreams and this week I have been the analyst of my group. Next I am going to reply questions’ analyst but before I want to make an introduction about how the week was. First of all, I will name this week as Pechakucha’s week. Pechakucha’s week has been a bit weird. I carried out making the presentation’s draft and finally the rest of members decided to start worrying about the task. However, there was a point which amazed me a lot and it was that two members of the group began making Pechakucha’s labour without saying anything to the rest of people because they wanted to surprise us. What was the result? They spent their time making the same part of the topic which I had said it would be made by me. Consequently, this lack of communication would cause more delay to our project. Pechakucha’s week went by and definitively it seemed that all people knew about the task and the shared work. As a result of this late organization work was finished on Thursday morning and it only lacked to make a good design which would be created by me and it would take me all-night in order to get an attractive presentation. At the end, I finished the design so late but it was obvious, the day before I was still waiting for the assigned task from each group’s member and, consequently, I had only one afternoon to make design, to correct the whole work, to revise English… but this is not important to me, what it really amazes me it is the fact I cannot understand why stars did not defend our presentation in a correct way. Task (except design) was already made with 24 hours in advance, I absolutely accept that it would be great to have more time but I think ten slides can be studied and learned in one day and even more if you cannot spend more than twenty seconds in each slide; why cannot you prepare a 3’20’’long’s presentation in one day? You only had to say two coherent phrases per slide.
As I have said in other moments, I am not perfect; I have a lot of mistakes every day, I am aware of my English is not enough good and I recognize I am person who is so far from perfection in all senses but when I involve in an activity I like to make it the best as possible and I try to give it all one has got in order to get suitable results. Even I said: “Please, study slides, the presentation is so cool but without good oral exposition it will be very poor”. I do not if nerves were responsible for the performance, if it was lack of study about the topic but from bottom view a little failure was what partners and I contemplated.
I hope that it is only a temporary oversight and we will get our daily labour back because this is not correct work way if we want to obtain good results collectively. Despite my of view from the group and week I think is enough clear I will be so brief answering questions because we should remember this is not a colombian novel but a blog’s post ;)

What was the best part of the activity?

I think the best part of the activity was the opportunity of extrapolating The Beatles and The Beatlemania to two main perspectives: TPCK and Curriculum Implementation. In this way, we do not only learn theoretical concepts but we study how they are put into practice thanks to the topics application, in the case that we are dealing with, The Beatles and The Beatlemania. In addition, we have learnt that teaching children may be more than reading or listening Beatles’ songs; some software tools as Wix, Blogger and Voki allow us to transmit knowledge to children in a different and also interactive way.

What was the worse?

We could say the worse part of the activity is the beginning because it is the point where you do not know how to raise the matter and, in the current case, how to join The Beatles to TPCK and Curriculum Implementation’s perspectives. I have to admit it is not easy to make directly the presentation, before you have to summarize your ideas and being aware of your limit, in the case in question, temporary and numerical limit; 6’ 40’’ and 20 slides per presentation. Therefore, if I had to choose the worse part of the activity I think difficulties of Pechakucha’s work are the main drawback because every moment we do not have to forget we are playing with conditions which will determine a specific kind of presentation so different compared to presentations without any maximum time and space.

What was the best moment of the week (in the work of the group)? And what was the worse?

Obviously, the best moment of the week was on Thursday when we finished Pechakucha task. However, I could refer to the elaboration process as another of the best week’s moments because it includes challenging steps as creating slides, what information we include, designing presentation… these are some of stages which I personally like and I describe as these ones which take part of the best week’s moments.
On the other hand, the worse moment of the week was, with any doubt, first days after Linda entrusted us Pechakucha task because, as I have explained, people were not worried about work, I was sick of remember our homework to them so I decided to start the activity in my own since, as I supposed and finally I noticed, nobody told nothing about the assignment during the weekend.

What have you learnt?

I do not know what my work partners have learnt but I am pretty sure I have learnt a lot new concepts, experiences and new TPCK and C.I. perspective from this activity. First of all, I say I have learnt a lot of concepts because before Pechakucha task I had a look at TPCK and Curriculum Implementation notes and yes, I understood them but I had no example about the most part of concepts so this activity have helped to illustrate these notions thanks to the topic’s application (The Beatles in the present case). Next, I have said I have learnt a lot of experiences; again, yes, experiences as being aware of the work, being responsible, being behind people in order to make presentation and exposition and then, lot of experiences related to the work, in example, at the beginning I did not know what Wix was and, therefore, I had no idea about how using that difficult tool but after getting in touch with the software program I have discovered a new device which it seems to be so easy to use and, as a result of its interactivity, children will be able to learn due to new ways.

What do you need to conserve -as a group- for the next weeks?

In my opinion Broken Dreams have to change its way of thinking. We should not behave as procrastinators, we must be aware these tasks will be assessed and, therefore, we must not leave our fate to the chance.

What do you need to improve –as a group- for the next weeks?

First of all, we need organization. We will not get any purpose without established patterns. Next, we will need responsibility and initiative, each member of the group should try to contribute ideas and being aware the group’s system; cooperativity, collaboration and interdependence among us. Finally, grouped member’s connection appears as an important point since a lack of communication among partners may propitiate cooperative and collaborated work without any sense.


                                                                                                               Cheers,

Juan ;-)

No hay comentarios:

Publicar un comentario