Reflection on CG1413

In the beginning, I was not confident of passing this module and I even considered dropping this module, because communication in English or teamwork seems quite hard for me at the moment. And actually, I did not perform nicely. But after the demanding assignments which were done in a team, I acquired invaluable experience in how to work in a team gradually. I think it is a meaningful attempt for both my study and life in the university to take this module.

For the first half of this module, I learnt a lot about principles of teamwork and communication. Even though I had known some of them, it still cost much time for me to grasp the application on these principles. (I also learnt many technic terms…) The rest of this module mainly focuses on the assignments (The further application on the principles): reflection, oral defense and presentation, which were demanding for me.

Most of these assignments were done in a team and it taught me not only how to work in a team effectively but also the importance of the application on the principles. For the CG1102 project, because of the lack of specialized knowledge, I did not contribute much to the solutions to our project. But I spent lots of time to complete my duties of the project (I sought a lot of help from my teammates) and I can say that I had put much effort.(but I failed to finish some tasks well). I also learnt a lot from my teammates. One important feature of teamwork is to exchange information and then all the team members are able to improve faster and more efficiently. Thus I had improved much faster than last semester. (We did individually for last semester)

It was the first time that I had been chosen as a team leader (for CG1413 project) and I experienced many first times: the first time to conduct a meeting, to write an agenda, to assign duties to members… As a leader, I took more responsibility and I need to make sure that the process for the project was reasonable and the timetable was suitable for both the progress and the members. I did not think I did a good job as a leader, but I got to know what a leader should be like and what I should to do improve myself in future.

I think I improved a lot in applying the principles of teamwork and communicating effectively, but I am still in a poor level. Just as Ms Happy always told me, I need to practise much more if I want to do well for my studies in the next few years. Now, according to my case, the most effective method for me to ensure better communication and teamwork is to improve my English speaking skills. Even though the application on the principles of the teamwork and communication is quite important, and there is a lot for me to improve, I need to improve my English first so that I can present my ideas clearly and make myself better understood. (Without reaching the level, other improvement is impossible)

Reflection on Oral Presentation 2

Team performance:

The team performed well for stating the problem and suggesting the solutions. During the oral presentation, the transitions between speakers were smooth which was mostly due to both the logical sequence of the content and each member’s cooperation. All the members are able to present their section without looking at the cue cards as the result of good preparations and good understandings of the content.


Individual performance:

Compared with oral presentation 1, I think I have some improvements: Though I am still not a practiced speaker, I was more familiar with the content. Instead of kept looking at my cue cards during OP 1, I was more confident to present my section without using reference(but I still brought it with me). My volume was still low but the speed was slower to make myself understood. My pronunciation was still not good, but it was improving.

Some positives during the presentation: The content of my part was related to our problem and carefully analyzed (in my opinion), so I think I led the conclusion with proper explanation. The cohesiveness needs to be improved, but I think my presentation meets the level of logical sequencing of opinions to some extent. In addition, I make use of some reasonable conjunctions (like next, firstly…), which contributes better consistency, but the usage seems stiff. My slides are a little wordy, but it provides enough information for the audience to understand the content.

The negatives are obvious: During Q&A session, Jonathan and Krithika did well to answer each question, but I kept silent all the way and I should have tried to answer questions even my answers were wrong. For the aspect of eye contact, I kept looking at the slides with little eye contact. But I tried to maintain eye contact with the audience while not glancing at the screen. I kept the bad habit of make the annoying sound (like eh, ah…) during my presentation.

There is still a lot for me to improve. One thing is to add more pictures in my slides to make it more interesting, so it will not seem so boring. Next time, I need to do more preparations to be confident and try to get rid of cue cards as well. In addition, I will practice more to be a better speaker and spend more time to enlarge my vocabulary for variety of modes of expression.
In conclusion, I am improving, but more improvements and practice should be done.

Reflections on Blog Post 3 comments

This conflict is based on a real experience from one of my friends and the real one is even more complicated. (I already simplified this conflict.) In reality, the girl (B), who was accidently involved this conflict, did not make conversation with her friend(C) before she continued to keep touch with the boy (A), the ex-boyfriend of her friend. I have no idea about the reason why B did such, but now, these two girls are no longer so close. Just as Gillian mentioned that BGR problems are the worst, it seems that almost anyone who is involved in a relationship is more sensitive and emotional. Until now, I cannot find a solution which will make everyone happy.

Post #4: Meeting 1-reflection

On 12th Feb, our team had our first meeting. When we were to start our meeting at COM1, we could not find a quiet place to hold a meeting (it seemed that most groups chose the same time and same venue) so that we had to hold our meeting in our lab, which was a little noisy.

After watching the video of our meeting, I think one problem is that our voice is a bit low as the result of the poor quality of video recording and the unsuitable environment for a meeting (there were some people talking and moving around). The three of us had to sit quite close to each other, which was due to the limited width scope of the computer. Because of the limited room, we made little eye contact.

Despite the objective factors, our meeting is successful in following the agenda and finishing all the discussion parts as the result of good preparation. During the meeting, the leader did most of the talking, while Ying Cong and I did not talk a lot. I think it is better if we, the members could talk more and provide more opinions in the meeting. From this meeting, I realize the importance and usefulness of an agenda for a meeting. An agenda provides useful information for both the leader and members: not just what the meeting is about, but also the way to conduct the meeting.

To sum up, a successful meeting is made up of competent participants, a clear objective, a detailed agenda and good preparation. (In my opinion)

Feedback to Post1 Comments

Hi,

I appreciate all of your detailed comments. I am glad that you agree with some of my points and you are tolerate towards some faults in my post. During this week's tutorial 2(week 3), I realized that I made a mistake in my post 1. Ms Happy mentioned that our post should focus on why communication and teamwork are important for ourselves and I think I did not write much on that, I mostly discussed why they are important instead. Next time, I will pay more attention to the topic and understand its meaning fully.

(I have posted it following my post 1, but I think it may be better to post it separately, so I post it again.)

Reflections on Blog Post 2 comments

Thanks a lot for all your comments. After reading your comments, I found that most of you said my example is a little long. (I know that, but I do not how to reduce it properly while stating its content clearly.) It seems that my explanation of the principles of intercultural and interpersonal skills is not enough. (Since my example is too long, I do not have enough words (there is a limit!) to describe the principles.) Anyway, I am glad that you like my story to some extent.

Post #3: Quarrel

In the middle of one semester, a teacher in a high school assigns an important project to his students, which will be handed in by the end of the semester. The students are separated into groups for the project based on their wish and then A, B and C form one team. A and B are excellent in their studies and C is a little worse than them. C and B are close friends and C and A are involved in a relationship. (B and C are girls, while A is a boy)

In the beginning, they do a good job. But in the last part, A and C have a serious quarrel over their relationship and they cannot bear to see each other. C keeps chatting with B about how bad A is and how sad she is for a long time and B wastes a lot of time hearing her. The deadline for the project is approaching and B has to discuss with A for some details of the project. (B asks help from A instead of C because A is better in the field.) C finds out this fact and all at once she loses her temper because C thinks B betrays her trust. (In C’s opinion, as a close friend, B should ask help from her, not a boy who hurts her heart.)

B does not want to miss the deadline for the project (which means that she has to keep discussing with A), but she does not want to hurt C either. What do you think B is supposed to do?

Post #2: Observation of team behaviour: intercultural and interpersonal communication

When I was in my primary school, we, the students used to bring food from home to the school for lunch. In my class, we like to share our food to show friendship. Once I tried to share my food with one of my friends, but she refused my request. I felt a little upset, because I thought she might dislike me. After some time, she even changed her seat (she was my deskmate) and said she could not stand the smell of my lunch. I was angry because she looked down upon me and my mother’s cooking. Since then, I seldom talked with her and we did not keep touch with each other after graduation. Not long afterward, I found out that she is a Manchu, a race in China whose people never eat pork (I ate pork often in my primary school) or share the food with others. Not until then did I realize that it was I who was impolite to her. I did not know her custom and was kind of rude to her.

I learnt a lot from this lesson. Sometimes our ignorance will hurt someone and it cannot be an excuse. I believe most of us have heard of this proverb “Do in Rome as the Romans do.” We follow the custom in each place not just for our own convenience or intercommunion, but also to show respect to their local custom. When contacting with just one person, we still need to consider his habits and try not to be rude to someone. Therefore, next time, before you judge someone, you should learn more about him or his race and consider your own behavior.

Post #1: Communication and teamwork

There is no doubt about the importance of communication to people's lives. In the book "Robinson Crusoe", Crusoe helps a prisoner to escape, later naming his new companion "Friday". I think the most important reason why Crusoe helps him is not the desire of obtaining one or two servants, but the wish, prompted by loneliness, of being accompained by others, who even cannot speak English.

It is people's normal demand to communicate with each other. Therefore, it is not hard to understand that it is really cruel and severity to put a prisoner in solitary without communication with anyone.

Back to topic, why communication and teamwork is important to an engineering student like me. As the above mentioned, as a person, any of us must and have to communicate. Moreover, as a person who is involved different kinds of relationship with family, friends, teammates(which is mainly discussed in this module) or workmates, an engineer has to learn how to deal with teamwork. To apply teamwork properly, we need communication. Now, we can figure out that teamwork is based on good communication and neither of them can be ignored.

Communication is part of our lives, but it does not mean that we can communicate well. In fact, most of us have some disadvantage(s) over communication. And this is one of the reasons for us to take this module in NUS, not just for graduation, but also for our better future. Though teamwork is also quite important, we should focus on how to improve our communication skills for us to communicate effectively in a team and I believe we will make great progress at the end of this module.