Reflection on Group Project

My group collaborated through wiki. We had our meeting minutes on the wiki which was very convenient for us to refer to when we want to check what had already been decided. The survey questions for the proposal was finalize on wiki too. Finally we did our proposal document and presentation slides on it.

Generally, wiki provided us the platform whereby everyone can get on together to view the changes and updates each person made. Although wiki does not provide a real time editing, it does warn us when different versions of the same copy of document are made. Real time editing can post more problems than benefits, if someone were to make changes to the entire document for example changing the font or paragraphing, it can cause the whole document to hang to the extent of disconnecting those who have slower internet speed.

Since wiki does not provide real time editing, it would mean that we would not know who is editing the page that we are currently viewing which leads to one of the problems we faced. We overcame this problem by tying down how we should use wiki. For example when we are doing the different components of our proposal, we agreed that we would first create a page with the title of the part that we are doing then continue to work on the content of the page. By doing this, other members would be able to see who is working on that part and therefore not start with the same part as each other.

For the presentation slides, we uploaded the PowerPoint on the wiki and indicated the time of edit so as to make the version of it more obvious. This prevented information lost when different person make changes to the slides from a different version. In addition, we assigned one person to synchronize the font and animation used throughout the different slides so that our slides would appear neater.

Wiki provided us the platform to communicate with each other effectively and efficiently. It saved us a lot of emails and smses as each reply would have to be sent to three other people. However, if wiki is used, one comment can be made on wiki easily for everyone to see.

In conclusion, wiki had definitely helped us greatly in collaborating while doing our proposal. It was really a great time working with all my group members as there was good teamwork and the proposal would never come to reality if not for them.

Reflection on Oral Presentation

Preparation

For the preparation of the oral presentation, our group started off with doing the introduction of the presentation together during the class. We believed that having a good introduction is very important as it would pave the path well and set us in track for the rest of the presentation. After having the idea of how our presentation would be, we went back to do the rest of the slides and meet up the next day to consolidate all the slides. In preparation for the dry run we compared individual part to see if our presentation flows logically and smoothly.

During the dry run, I relied on the script that I have written before hand. This resulted in me not being able to maintain eye contact with the audiences as I have to juggle between the screen, script and audiences. I feel that having a dry run was really a good chance for us to see where we were not so good at from the feedbacks we got from my fellow classmates and teacher. Being able to read the script well or even memorise from the first word to the last would not be useful in a presentation as after all a presentation is not about reading the entire script out but it is a interaction not only between the content and the speaker but also how the speaker relate this content to the audiences.

Delivery

In the oral presentation, although I still stumble at some parts, I didn’t rely as much on the script as compared to the dry run. This resulted in more eye contact with the audiences and hopefully making the delivery of presentation clearer as well.

Slideware

The wireless presenter was really useful as it allows better control of the slides especially slides with a lot of animations. The coordination would not be able to be achieved if someone else were to click the slides as only the presenter would know when to click the next animation during the presentation. Without the coordination, the animations would animate at the wrong time and bring more confusion than clarity to the audiences.

Comment on other groups

Overall, I think everyone did much better in the oral presentation than they did in the dry run. Especially Sin Wei had managed his slides better and presented with more confident.

In conclusion, after the feedbacks from the teacher and classmates, we would be able to know what our shortcoming is and what we can do to minimise it. From there, we can all become better presenter in the future.