Week 12
RED

Wednesday:

I want to start by saying thank you to Steve for conducting an SA, which I missed on Thursday, again for me on Monday. I borrowed notes but needed it explaining and he took time out to do that for me.

Wednesday morning consisted of a lecture, as usual, on presentation skills. It was straight forward but included things that you don’t really think about before doing a presentation. For example, your own mannerisms, you cannot put your hands in you pockets or fiddle with your hair and expect to be taken seriously by your audience. These were things that later I found out I unknowing did!

The next task was researching the colour that you and your partner had been allocated, which was red, followed by a presentation on the findings. The task read:

Research the colour for it’s psychological and cultural significance
Prepare and deliver a 2-3 min presentation on your findings
Create an A4 fact sheet that can be distributed amongst the class

I was in a group with Craig, with whom I had not worked with before but enjoyed. I wasn’t nervous about the presentation itself, more the content and getting it right.
The basis for our presentation was how differently red was perceived in different cultural and social environments, and how most were almost direct opposites.

We also created a power point presentation which consisted of 4 slides.
I was first to be called to present but found I didn’t have the power point saved on the correct memory stick so had to be called back. This put me off a little and by the time I came back for my second attempt, I was still thinking about it. This made me more nervous and it showed during my presentation. I forgot sections and my breathing got very erratic. Steve also pointed out that I was fiddling with my notes which I was completely unaware of.
If I were to do the presentation again I would double check I had all equipment before hand and concentrate on relaxing throughout my presentation.

At 1pm we, as a group, were sent out to practise. At 2pm the presentations stared. At 5.30pm presentations had been completed. During the time between 2pm and 5.30pm the group sat in the canteen waiting for the next person to be called. We were asked by Steve to crack on with some work while waiting, this was impossible. With people in and out of the canteen all the time and remaining people rehearsing, it was extremely difficult to concentrate. Because I was the first in, I managed to get bits done but nothing substantial and round 3 hours was just spent talking. In my opinion it was a waste of valuable time and if we were to it again I think the presentations should be done elsewhere so that the room can be used for working.
I appreciate the white board needed to be used for the PowerPoint presentations but maybe the computers could have been booked in the resource centre to compensate. On the other hand, the remaining people probably wouldn’t be able to concentrate, knowing they were yet to go in.
I don’t know what the solution is but I’m sure there is a better one.


Thursday:

Thursday was back to normal and was for spending time working on assignments. I enjoy this time as all the resources are at arms length, Steve and class members are available for questions and peer group feedback sessions are conducted. This time is invaluable to me as I have many questions and lots to be getting on with.

Unfortunately my time had to be cut short as I was ill again, so, after the feedback sessions, I went home to work. Admittedly, it was harder to concentrate as there were more distractions, but I got most of the compression SA I was working on done.