Reflection after Peer Assesment

13. 02. 12

We have just received feedback from the other group and a list of improvements. I have had a feeling that we needed to improve in something, our aims and rationale were overlapping quite a bit and there was a lot repetition in our Process Document. It was very helpful to get Nicole and Bryan Chen's group to actually list out what we could improve in because now we can focus on these points and hopefully improve and make our Process Document better. One thing about looking at the other groups Process Document as well was that we could see a different format and looking at their format, I can already see how we can change our own document to make it 1) Shorter 2) Not as waffle-ly and 3) More structured.

Self Reflection: Group Projects.

For the past couple of weeks, we have been doing a mock group project, focusing on the subject "Peak Oil" and what would happen. For this group project, we worked on the focus area of the "Future Aspects" of Peak Oil. It was an interesting topic and we had all decided, after discussing with one another, on that particular area.

During this time, we were discussing almost every lesson, trying to work out what we wanted to do with all the information gathered, with the direction that we wanted to go after learning about the area we had chosen, before taking a step in developing an idea, we would discuss it and come to a compromise about what we should do. We managed to get all our work done within the time frame given and that gave us the chance to discuss what we wanted to do in the lesson times. Previously, we wouldn't discuss as often, mostly we would come up with an agreement in 5minutes and then go off in our own directions. Now, we are making sure that everyone knows what they're doing, we're talking about the ideas given, giving more ideas, developing those ideas, coming to an agreement and then talk about what we could do for our group project, come up with more ideas and develop them as well. We would be constantly talking, and when we are outside of class, we would discuss on Facebook, or on Skype, where if we have any inquires, we would ask each other and get their opinions on the matter.

But, we had some faults that we would forget; sometimes we would forget every lesson. One, was that we would discussing our ideas and plans and we would forget to include Jake in our discussions. Sometimes we managed to have a full group discussion where everyone in our group was present and was contributing to the discussion which was good. But on the days that we were missing a couple of people from our group, it became harder and the remaining group members would continue the discussions but we would leave Jake out because he wasn't putting any effort to stay in the conversations. Personally, I feel that is our fault for not giving him an opportunity to come into the conversation and for forgetting that he needs to be in this conversation. But at the same time, we(meaning the rest of the group) cannot be responsible for making sure that Jake is constantly contributing to the discussions. He has to make an effort as well. And it doesn't help that whenever we try to include him in our discussions, he says stuff like "You guys talk and then tell me what you want me to do." It doesn't help because we're asking for his opinion. It makes our job harder when he says stuff like that and then we all get irritated at him and leave him out of the discussion.

Besides that, we would get sidetracked very often. We would be focusing on our group project, and we would be discussing and developing ideas. All of a sudden, we hear something from a different group and we start talking about it as well, even though it has no connection to our own group project, and then we just start talking about random stuff that seems to be triggered by a memory of a different conversation. And then after we finish laughing we would realize that we had become extremely distracted and then we would go back to focusing on the actual group project. Honestly, I have to say that we wasted a lot of time, talking about stuff like that, going off topic. It wasn't so bad because we managed to get the necessary things done, but when you think about it, you realize that you could have done all that work in a shorter period of time.

Those are the two main concerns that I have noticed during the past couple of weeks. The other things that we could probably improve on is how we manage the work needed to be completed. We could probably change the way we set out the homework. Instead of getting everyone to do the same piece of homework, we could assign that particular piece of homework to certain people and get the rest to do something else that is productive as well. That way, we could have moved faster in completing our group project.

Overall, I would say that we have done a good job. We managed to work well as a group, minus the problems that we saw. It was a fun topic but now, I am happy that we're going to be starting our actual group project. We have learnt a lot about ourselves as individuals and as a group and we can take all those experiences and apply them to our actual group project which could help us. Having the mock group project was good because we could see what our strengths were as a group and also we could see what our weaknesses were as well. Now we can start our actual group project with full awareness of what we can do and what we need to do.

GP reflection 17.10.11

We've just finished creating our Wikispace. We have updated and organized our Agendas so that they can be located more easily.
We are trying to marrow down our focus point, trying to find a main focus area and to expand on it.
We have also come up with more ideas and we are trying to expand on them and see where they might take us next :)

Wiki website: Peakoilaroundtheworld

Another reflection!! 07.10.11

For our group, we are going to focus on the future aspects of the Peak Oil Debate. What might happen when oil runs out? What would our global economy look like? How the different governments might handle this issue when it comes. It's an interesting aspect because anything can happen. There are a lot of questions, "what if's" scenarios that can happen, and because it is an important subject to think about. We need to become more aware and we need to become more conscious about how much oil we're using, and how much we should be using. All in all, it is an interesting subject and it would be interesting to see what ideas we come out with for the future.

Fish-Bone Diagram

It looks really tiny

Reflecting and Sharing: Independent Projects. (Again)

When writing my independent project, I had a faint idea of what I wanted to write about. I wanted to do something that dealt with the mental effects of a prisoner while being on the Death Penalty. That was already a used idea so I tried to look at the differences it had with the different age groups. For example: Whether a prisoner at the age of 20 would become mentally unstable faster, would develop depression, and all the other mental illnesses, faster than a prisoner who was older. 

It was hard at first. I wanted to do a diary entry for my personal view. I wanted to get inside the head of the prisoner and get a feel of what they were going through. I found a video which showed me what prisoners were like when they were isolated. It gave me a glimpse of what a prisoner had to go through and it was quite shocking. 

From the previous project, dealing with the Death Penalty as well, I had a faint idea of what conditions were like while being in prisoner. But to get a video that looked at what happened and to see a person act, while in those certain situations, it gives a very vivid image of how to portray my character. 

To find situations and case studies that stated the age differences was very hard. I looked in many books and online sources and I could only find a handful. But this was a topic that I wanted to do so I decided to stick with it, no matter how hard it was. 

If I had the chance to do this project again, I would still be looking at the same focus, but I would have liked to have found some more videos and tv shows (since there are shows that show these kinds of things) which I think would have helped me more to develop my ideas.

Peak Oil Reflection 03.10.11

L.I

To explore and have awareness of an issue from a variety of view points

Over the weekend, we have been looking at Peak Oil through different view points: Personal, Nationally, Globally, and as a What If scenario for the future.

We had been given a bunch of links to help understand this issue and to look at what are some of the topics that are related to this issue. There were a couple of videos, 10-15 mins videos, which showed what the future could look like if oil suddenly disappeared.

We looked at those videos at school last week and continued watching at home.

We discussed one of the videos, talking about what it might be like if Oil was gone and we went through some scenarios of what the global economy might be like.

Overall, our group work is going well. We have to discuss more and bring more of our thoughts and opinions together but overall, it is going well for the first week of working as a group (After the summer break)