Through my learning in ES2007 module, I had gained a clear perception of intercultural behaviours and professional communication matters. My communication and presentation skills have been improved through active participation in class and group projects.
First of all, I think the use of blogging is a very good way to help us know each other and be supportive to each other’s learning. Perhaps we should have commented on other classmates’ posts and given responses much more often. Instead of writing long and well-written comments, we could bring out different views or new opinions and formed discussions after a post. In this way, we can get a deep perception of the topics which we were learning in the week.
Secondly, the use of Wiki platform in group project helped us to enhance our teamwork and manage the project timelines appropriately. Our group had face-to-face meetings to discuss the main issues in our project. We had effective communication during meetings thanks to every member’s contribution. After every meeting, each member’s assignment was clearly specified and we took our own responsibilities to finish the assignments. With the help of Wiki, we were able to upload our independent work immediately and other member could review each other’s work. We were committed to help each other and make sure every member had his/her own input in this project. Moreover, Wiki also facilitated the sharing of knowledge and information. Our group members shared the news, documents and websites, and it helped us to achieve the same level of understanding of the topic. A recommendation on wiki platform is to add auto-save function while editing. I was afraid of making changes on the post, since the changes would be lost if the Internet connection was accidentally cut off.
In my opinion, Wiki platform was not very helpful in our preparation for Oral Presentation. Since the most important thing in Oral Presentation is each member’s performance, we need to meet face-to-face to discuss each member’s role, coverage of content, ways of delivery. More importantly, we needed to practice giving the presentation as a whole to make sure that the audience would listen to a cohesive and impactful proposal presentation. In addition, I think it is very helpful to take video of a dry-run presentation. We could see our own behaviours and know exactly the areas we could improve. It encouraged us to take advice from others and make improvements in the actual run. In the end, it gave us a very powerful experience of making breakthroughs in our weak areas.
To sum up, the learning journey in effective commutation is enjoyable and enlightening. I wish all the best to my dear classmates!
Hi Huang Huan,
回复删除I agree with you that there are still drawbacks in wiki. In fact, sometimes we have difficulty in signing in to wiki. Nevertheless, it saved us a lot of time. It helped us to consolidate parts of our written proposal as well as the preparation of the oral presentation slides. We modified our slides a lot of the time and it was quite convenient for us to just upload the latest version where everyone can download anytime.
However, as you said, we still need to meet up for the rehearsal of our presentation. Indeed, it was inevitable if we want a better performance in the presentation. In the end, our rehearsal still worth it! :)