Today’s the day of the final exam and disaster strikes, Last night when I checked on my girlfriends computer, I found out the PowerPoint presentation I worked so hard on was corrupt so i had to do a complete re-write and had to finish it off this morning(“ARRRRRGH!!”) so you can understand my frustration of coming in at 09:00 and having to complete it AND practice what i’m going to say before 10:00. The stress was starting to kick in especially as by the time it turned 10:00 I wasn’t even ready… but I had to watch the rest of the group though so I took leave of my chair and joined them for their presentations.

Jake was up first with his presentation about “Live Aid/ Band Aid”. He started by talking about what Live aid and Band aid was all about and why it was setup. He showed an eight minute news clip from Ethiopia where there were no crops because the rains had failed and everyone was starving, the roads were littered with the dead, which was causing disease. The footage also showed how the british were helping out by giving out grain but the problem was that there wasn’t enough to go around. This footage reached 1/2 of the population including celebrity’s. This got celebrity’s attention and band aid was setup to aid the people in Ethiopia. The song “Do they Know It’s Christmas” was played on the radio on the hour every hour and within the first week had sold £1 million in records; by the end of the month £3 million.

After Jake’s presentation was Dave.

Dave’s Presentation was about “War… What is it good for?” which I think is a very interesting title as not only is it the title of a song, it is also a strong and controversial topic.
He began by playing a video that he’d made in windows movie maker with the WAR song in the background and it had lots of images of war and blood shed and explosions. After this he showed us a breif history of war in which 336,000,000 search results came up on google. The earliest known recording of war was in 2700bc. He then went on to show his “family tree of war”, He mentioned all of his family members that were involved in wars and the wars that he was involved in such as Falklands War of 82 and Gulf War of 87 &88. He went on to mention about how many people died in ww1 & ww2 and the total of death’s for both wars both soldiers and civilians was 86 million.
Then he mentioned the War Quote’s:
“We make War for Peace” -Aristotil, “War is the Mother of Everything” – W. Churchill
Abraham Linken was anti-war and the out of the Pro’s in war and the Con’s in war; the con’s definitely out weigh the pro’s.
Dave then showed some photo’s of a memorial in Vietnam called the Munster’s veteran memorial, it was graphic, aggressive and had a statue of a kid that was meant to symbolise that when the wars over this is who is left.
Most of the soldiers that did come back from war had PTSD(Post Traumatic Stress disorder) or limbs blown off.

Finally at 12:00 My presentation was complete and i was ready to start it. I was really nervous but I gave it my all. My Presentation was on “How far have we fallen into technology/ The Internet”,  I started off by telling the my audience about how computers were supposed to create the paperless office 15 years ago.
Now, In 2009 every home has at least one television. Possibly one computer that maybe has the internet. most people now have a decent understanding of the internet and most people have an e-mail account. And now that nearly everything has gone digital(except for hospital records) you are pressured into getting an e-mail address so that you can view extra content for things such as XBOX Live or PS3 online server or even for Social Networking Sites.

Why Having an E-Mail address is a good thing?

Having an e-mail address is a good thing because in a way, it gives you a lot of access to a lot of things on the internet for free and also most company’s that employ people now ask for your e-mail address.

Because it is a fast, quick and easy way of communication, and unlike talking over the phone, if you mess up you can just delete and re-type.

Why Having an E-Mail address is a Bad thing?

Because when you get a e-mail address you are suddenly bombarded with SPAM mail like Breast/ Penis enlargement, Quick fix loans, Random Advertising and so on. also people trying to Hack your e-mail account for no reason, and if this doesn’t happen in the first week of you getting the account, your either lucky or you’ve put spam filters up.

Is the Internet a good or bad thing?

GOOD Things…
Vast amounts of information can be gathered from the internet that can then be used in projects such as this one.

You can keep in contact with your friends and family if you have no phone, plus if you have a microphone and speakers you can use something called VoIP(Voice Over Internet Protocol). which in a sense basically turn’s your computer into a telephone.

Bad Things…
Because of the vast amount of things on the internet, sometimes unwanted things slip through, such as porn, Hacking sites all sites that are not fit for children to see, this is why when you buy a PC for certain company’s they ask you if you would like a parental lock put on the computer to restrict the access children can get on the internet.

the ease in which you can download ANYTHING astound’s me. You can quite Literally see the preview for a movie you want to see one night and on that same night download the ACTUAL movie before it’s in cinema’s.

Are Violent Video games affecting children’s minds and personality?
I tried to show my video of violent video games in action but it didn’t work for some reason, so i carried on with the presentation.

Good things…
Escapism, Builds confidence and helps people come out of their shells.

Bad things…
Believing the game is real, Re-enacting the game on the streets, Arrest.

Social Networking Sites Good or Bad Idea?
Most people have a Facebook, MySpace, Bebo or Digg account’s
A lot of users get carried away and end up allowing it to consume their lives.
With mobile technology evolving, you can now access the internet via your phone
Thus you can use social networking sites where-ever you are
We are becoming more anti-social as a consequence
A 15 year old girl was being bullied on Facebook and decided to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge.
ARE SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES A GOOD IDEA?
YOU DECIDE!!

At the very end of the presentation i asked if there was any questions and dave asked what the video was so i popped the usb stick in the laptop and played the video whilst explaining to the audience that these game arent underground games they are in shops on the high street.

Looking back I think I could have handled myself better considering the circumstances

<JR>

The Presentation Planning

Planning for the presentation took the form of  multiple scribbles and a reduced brainstorm – it never made it to a mindmap!  I’d asked myself questions to begin with ; “What is war?”, When was the first one?”, “What lessons were learned?”  I’d planned to look at war from a historical perspective, detailing my experiences in the Falklands and in post-war Kuwait (1991) but the final 20 minute presentation excluded a lot of post-war Kuwait info purely because of the time factor. 

My research for the subject was not as straight forward as I’d thought it would be.  I could get masses of information abut the two world wars, Korea, Vietnam, the Falklands, the Gulf Wars but the big impact piece on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) was, surprisingly, difficult to research.  There are plenty of sites that talk about the condition and give examples of ex-servicemen’s experiences but trying to find statistics on-line was almost impossible.  I would have like to have been able to provide some solid figures, but I have a feeling that they’re not released too readily by the government!

Putting it all together for the Gala Performance was tricky as well.  The order of content changed several times until the final version displayed.  Even then there were a couple of poor transitions, but hey-ho, it’s over now.  I can only go by the observations of the viewers.

The Presentation Build

I had reckoned early on that 12 minutes wasn’t going to be near enough so I opted for the full twenty minutes.  By the time I’d finished the planning phase I was certain 20 minutes had been a wise choice by the amount of content I’d amassed!!

Planning and preparation are two different beasts entirely, so by the end of Monday afternoon I was wondering what I’d let myself in for.  I’d spent so much time getting the 60 second video sorted that the research wasn’t finished and I needed to spend Tuesday pulling the presentation together and rehearsing. I also needed to find some photographs at home, which unfortunately never appeared.  Where do they go?

By Tuesday mid-day I’d got the majority of what I needed into PowerPoint but it still needed tweaking and the information for PTSD stats still hadn’t surfaced on the internet.  Thankfully by Wednesday morning all was in place.  Or was it?  I had a screen showing lots of Falklands War images appearing and realised that I needed to give a diarised account of my experiences linking to some of the pictures.  I had a small panic and had to refer to the SAMA 82 website (www.sama82.org) for a timeline which was hurriedly scribbled down on a piece of paper!

The Presentations

I’ll cover my presentation first, even though Jake went first, then I can do his and Joe’s at the end.

It’s my belief that no matter how much you practice, presentation of a subject only improves when it’s been delivered to live audiences and this was no exception!

I experienced difficulties getting the video to start and the transition from the video to the presentation to work but thought I had it sussed.  The only problem was that we went from a desktop PC to a laptop for the presentation!  I tried it once when I installed the presentation on the laptop and it went okay, but when it’s live … NO! The video didn’t start and the screen moved to the first of the presentation!! So I had to go back and start the video again , this time it worked okay and I got on with the presentation having lost a minute or so. 

As I got into the delivery  I did feel the subject matter starting to get under my skin and felt the old feelings of  dry throat, increased pulse rate and shaky voice begin to surface.  Whilst these are all signs of nerves they are also effects of  PTSD which usually stay ‘below the waterline’ in my case.  This is the first time for a long time I’ve spoken about the subject so it’s no surprise that they would surface.

This affected my delivery a bit and I’m sure the video will show me scratching my ear, a shakey voice and, maybe, even a bit of tap dancing!!

The final portion of the delivery, covering PTSD, was the hardest bit for me to do and I think I put in too many ‘final’  slides i.e. the Sassoon poem could probably have been excluded. Unfortunately the link to the ‘Last Post’ on the final slide didn’t play which, although I think the slide of the poppy said enough on its own.

Overall, I was happy with the presentation although I forgot to include images of Harry Patch and Henry Allingham, two first world war veterans who have recently, sadly died. Overall I  felt that the delivery needed more control, but that was more to do with my memories than anything else.

Jake

Jake’s Presentation was on Live Aid – a period I remember well having been at sea in 1985 and having run around the ship’s upper deck  all day to raise money!

Jake started with a video of Michael Beurk’s news coverage of the disaster in Ethiopia.  This was 7 minutes long and I felt it could have been ‘edited’ a bit because I felt that it detracted from the purpose of a presentation.  Jake also read direct from full paragraphed notes which meant that his visual link with the audience was, unfortunately,  reduced.  It also felt, to me, less personal not allowing for any emotion or feeling to creep in.

Jake is a confident presenter and speaker who delivered well.  His final time was 26mins 48 secs.

Joe

Joe needed some extra time to finalise his presentation which in the end extended it somewhat!!  His presentation was entitled “How far have we fallen into technology and the internet?”. For this he opted for 12 minutes.

After an initial hiccup with the laptop and projector Joe kicked off by telling us about the history of  the internet and what we use it for today. Personally I could have done with something to grab my interest at the outset, like a statistic based on internet use or how much time on average does an average individual spend on the internet in a 24 hour period?

Once he got into the flow his eye contact improved and his speech settled down, although on occasion he did wander giving his own opinions on a subject rather than information he had planned to give.

Appearance and imagery were good but the text size could have been larger and don’t use so many different types of text entry!

Unfortunately the video element didn’t play, the cause of which was discovered afterwards – he hadn’t plugged in his memory stick! Lesson learned the hard way!

I felt that Joe needed to expand on some subjects such as the areas of a child’s brain affected by playing violent games and he needs to spell check – CLAM instead of CALM and COMFERTABLE instead of COMFORTABLE. I would also have like to see some factual information to support the statement about people taking their gaming world into the real world and committing acts of violence.

I think his title left him open to falling over, and could have been something as simple as “The Internet, is it good for us?”

Despite this, Joe has a tremendous knowledge of the subject area and he worked really hard to deliver his presentation in a format that he is neither used to nor, I think, likes doing!!

What have I learned?

So the saying goes ‘You’re never too old to learn’ and this course has proved that. When I first started training or doing training/lectures there was no internet, so my method of research was very structured – identify subjects, identify sources of information, determine what I needed, produce paper-based versions using specialist tape machines or early computers, then heat transfer this information onto acetates.  This later became printable acetates and eventually PowerPoint.  A fairly structured process.

The internet, however, puts that all into turmoil.  You can still identify your subject but in terms of identifying sources of information you are tempted towards the internet because, in theory, there’s more information there than in the library! Once on it you’re bombarded with millions of results for one search. Time ticks by as you as read each site, then every other site and then when it only contains certain words.  My overriding experience is that the internet doesn’t do what it says on the tin!  As a result of this in future I need to set myself specific targets for research and make sure that I vary sources in particular – USE THE LIBRARY!! I think we have all become too reliant on the internet and looking at some of the information available it’s atrocious and frequently factually incorrect.

This course has been good for me because it’s brought me down to earth by saying ‘your experience is great but your practical experience needs refreshing’.  If I had been delivering training on a frequent basis I would suggest that the importance of  this course wasn’t so high.  Having said that, I’ve been out of the training environment for a couple of years and have only recently come back to it so this course has been valuable to remind me of things but also to say ‘yes, you can still deliver well – just prepare and practice!!’

Once again, looking at the ten aspects of reflective practice there’s probably only one aspect I didn’t use for this final piece of work, and that’s Action Learning Sets, primarily because this has been an individual piece of work.  However, it has been used after the presentations informally talking about them and passing on observations etc.

I’ve done a search on Google and asked – define reflection.  The top result was:

Rowntree (1988) says reflection is studying one’s own study methods as seriously as one studies the subject and thinking about a learning task after you have done it. Unless you do this, he says, the task will almost certainly be wasted.   (Derek Rowntree (1988) Exploring Open and Distance LearningRoutledge.)

In any learning situation, he says, you should prepare for it beforehand, participate actively during it, and reflect on it afterwards. 

An interesting result and almost perfect for ending this course!!

We have swung back to monday again and still working on the “How deep how we fallen into technology/ The Internet?” but it WILL be ready for Wednesday i have no doubt. The day is going great so far; alot of progress has been done on my project such as the research on “Social Networking Sites” and “The effect Violent Video Games have on young minds”. I also did quite a lot of reasearch on “The Internet” itself and the impact it has had on the general public since 1995. I also plan on using information i have gathered from the internet about “Second Life” and their users and import that into my presentation. I still need to work on the powerpoint but I think the actual presentation itself will be great(i hope).

Today is a day just dedicated to research and developement, No funny excersizes, oh, I nearly forgot, Jake and Dave were in today.

Can’t believe it’s only two days away for the Final presentation. But I’ll be fine, At least I hope i’ll be fine.

To Sum up today I have been doing research all day and started the PowerPoint.

<JR>

Today I presented my chosen subject of Live Aid. Or was supposed to! However I changed the title to Band Aid. For a couple of reasons. Firstly I realised I was limited to time. Secondly I realised that what I had so far gathered as part of my Live Aid presentation  only covered the Band Aid part of the story was going to use the time allocated to the presentation. Basically I was left with little chose except to go with Band Aid, limit the scope and set the stage for what became Live Aid. I found the putting together of this presentation altogether different. I feel relatively comfortable working with text and graphics only. However the addition of Audio-Video is very new to me. I did not cut any audio-video I found. I was trying overall to allow the events and people speak for themselves in explaining the phenomena of Band Aid. So I had to cover the BBC broadcast which sparked the whole thing. I felt it deserved to be viewed in its entirety for the audience to understand and appreciate the cause of this whole movement of people bringing them together pooling their knowledge and expertise to help other people. It is an inspiring story and one worth remembering.

I tried to limit my own commentary which I read from printed notes like I had done in the previous presentation. Also I tried to keep “my” commentary limited to the commentary – as I have already said to those events themselves and the people involved. Obviously some of the people were more involved than others, and so they got quoted more. I completely mis-timed at the end which resulted in a audio-video file being shown after it should have been resulting in things getting badly messed about at the end. I did not want to stop or skip the file because it was so central to things to cause Bob Geldof to make a decision to do something. The imagery and commentary of these heart wrenching events that sparked a sense of anger and frustration in Bob Geldof and then his sketch after viewing the broadcast which to me encapsulated the whole of what came after in terms of the efforts to bring food to starving people from those who have food. Also the line sung by Bono, “Well tonight thank God it them and not you”. This speaks volumes. As long as its not happening to me then I.m not bothered. The selfishness people have fallen into and the consequences of that selfishness, that not wanting to know was challenged by this man driven to act and do something to remedy the situation. Basically saying we are all responsible and what are we going to do about it. Here’s my suggestion, “who is with me”. Perhaps I should have put more of me into the presentation?

Dave’s Presentation

After my own presentation Dave Maun presented his piece, titled “War – what is it good for?”. My initial impression was this is really nicely put together. Text, images and audio video. Dave presented the subject well. However it started to become a little disjointed for me. Perhaps it was more to do with my attention wavering? Or was it my dis-satisfaction at a lack of explanation of some very interesting and yet worrying figures. The numbers of deaths in war is a worry in and of itself, but why the massive increase? Weapons developement perhaps? Less principled people in positions of power? What! What is the explanation? I was beginning to get frustrated and angry perhaps? Its not just Dave’s presentation that does this to me. I was always frustrated at college at a lack of explanation for college policy on some things. Or a lack of a satisfactory explanation perhaps. And sometimes a complete lack of logic from people I kind of expected to be very logical in their thinking. At that time I lacked knowledge to be able to understand my observations. I appreciated Dave’s personal input on war. Perhaps sometimes people fell reluctant to share personal experiences? I know I certainly do. And I do not expect that to change. However I think its good to challenge one another in a spirit of wishing the best for others in a world of enemies internal and external, real and not real.

Joe’s Presentation

Joe’s chosen subject was “How deeply have we fallen into technology/internet?” Often we end up losing sight of the title of the piece. I do anyway. Perhaps Joe did not. Also sadly I could not view the whole presentation due to having to leave for an appointment before its end. There my input is inevitably handicapped. I like the way Joe speaks generally speaking! Also today he seemed much more at ease than he has done in the past. He kind of opens a book on the internet and its uses and how that has altered over time. Also a little on how that predictions were not entirely accurate. For example he mentions how it was thought by some that computers would eliminate paperwork in the office. This is of course not the case. It would be interesting to know by how much. I would of like something on for example the Word Processor and how that has made typing far more versatile, and far more user-friendly. Almost idiot proof. Almost!  You can produce and edit text now much more, and you rely less on tipex. Or having to start all over again as the case may have been. You can save many copies and make multiple copies, backups, versions etc. It in certain respects has been like what the printing press was in the past – but amplified. Or so it seems to me. The sections that I saw did not include audio/video. This did not seem to be a problem. Although I my have said different if I had seen the whole thing. Either because he included it maybe in the bit I missed. Or he did not and this may have been a problem in terms of keeping people attentive. Sometimes it needs to kind of change. Active participation – thought provoking to fairly passive viewing. Altogether I sensed some interesting and curious potential – the same as Dave’s. Dave and Joe come across very different. There dress seemed to faithfully conform to that.

Dave’s Feedback

Well I found Dave’s feedback pretty charitable since I felt I had made a bit of a muck up at the end. Also I personally wasn’t as happy as I had been with the other previous presentations I had done. Not entirely sure why yet. There were several constructive points of criticism. Firstly Dave mentioned the initial BBC broadcast was a little too lengthy. Secondly to beware of reading lengthy footnotes and losing eye contact with the audience. Next to have automated the lines of the song appearing on the screen rather than clicking the button. Lastly that there was basically too much video. I think all the criticism is valid and hope to remedy these in future presentations.

Joe’s Feedback

Its interesting that Joe stated that the video footage held his attention which contrasted with Dave’s comments some what. So why the difference? Possibly I thought that Joe had never seen the original BBC broadcast. This was one possible reason that came to mind. A criticism from Joe was the use of animated text fade ins on the lines of the song – Let them know its Christmas time. Here Joe felt they were too slow.

I was a little surprised that both Joe and Dave seem to have thought I had done some good research. And that I seemed to be “involved” , “good eye contact when not reading”. I actually was not at all happy with the way the presentation went. Actually feeling a bit niffed about it. I think the main thing that has left me with this overall sense of disappointment was to do with the bad timing at the end. Better preparation and more time going over the presentation probably would have smoothed out these problems. Also I was not entirely happy with the length of some of the video myself. Perhaps I could have shortened it a little. The thing though is that I wanted the audience to see what had been seen at the time exactly as it was. Also I was trying to keep myself out of the piece as much as possible in an attempt to let the event speak for itself. I can relate to a lot in the content of the presentation in terms of the subject matter and the observations of it. I must admit I have alot of respect for the work these people had done.

It is interesting on a final note that I tried to avoid some of the apparent personality issues after the event over the years. Partly because I wanted to avoid “personalities” and instead focus on the message. But also I sensed a little of spite and jealousy towards some of the individuals. It reminded me of the same sort of things said of Princess Diana. And it is worth remembering that she was campaigning against landmines and was bringing much needed publicity. And yet the Media has cast doubt over her own personal conduct and at the same time planted suspicion in the minds of people about the events surrounding her death. Or more specifically directing our suspicions in a particular direction i.e. towards other members of the royal family. So much today is implied rather than in plain speak. Of course that makes it easy to call people mad who look a little deeper; that is until people are made aware of the trick.

I shall finish my little rant on a quote that Dave’s piece reminded me of from Cecil Rhodes the “founder” of Rhodesia now known as Zimbabwe who stated, “Before wars were waged for dynastic reasons, whereas today they are waged simply because they are good business.”

Jake.

I was actually absent from this session. Not from illness. More from the need to spend a day in relaxation. Did not really work however since I felt guilty for not attending the class. Sometimes I can have a habit of deceiving myself. Although having said that I had just spent a month reflecting and also trying to “break” some habits. Sounds strange perhaps but I had abstained from eating bread for now over two months. Why? If I have bread in the house I can easily content myself with making a cheese and Branson pickle sandwich. This is very easy for me. The problem with this is that my diet has been effecting my overall well being. Not any where near so balanced as it should have been. I was hardly ever cooking a meal for example. And I was suffering as a result. Action was needed. So I cut out bread completely. Not an easy task by the way. The first couple of weeks were particularly difficult. On a few occasions I stood in Tescos having this internal struggle to stay away from the bread section. As I said before, sounds maybe a little crazy. Not so when you realise how we are “creatures of habit”. Most of what we do is habitual. I was infact trying to establish a new habit called “cooking a meal”. Which is what I am doing at this present moment. Frying my onions is normally where I start. It’s a bit of a habit. And a good one I think.

All of that said I did spend some of my time in the early hours adding something to the Blog which was already overdue. I had been given until the morning of Session Five so I felt the very least I could do was to keep to what I had agreed with Bev on Monday. Also phoned Beaumont Street Studios to explain my absence. However like I have already said I’m not sure whether this is what I should have been doing. Probably if I am honest, it was not. Making excuses for myself has also become a bad habit. I am however trying to gather the internal strength to begin the process of tackling some of my own personal weaknesses. The issues surrounding my diet are one “ingredient” in that process. The other had been trying to go for a run at least every alternate day. This for the most part I had managed to succeed in. I aimed at doing a whole month with never a gap of more than one day. I succeeded in this aim by running almost everyday.

The guilt of not attending the class also resulted in me spending time thinking about the three ideas we had been asked to “pitch” at the group as possible candidates for an individual presentation. So I chose to spend some of my day at least thinking about what those three things might be. I came up finally with, Zionism, Apartheid and Live Aid. My pitch for these topics actually was to happen on Monday of the following week. That is to say that yesterday (I am now typing in the early hours of Tuesday morning) I pitched the ideas to the group. Stating my reasons for the chosen topics and my own personal preferences. Zionism was at the top of the list since I believe it is the most important. Since few people understand it (many are not even aware of it) and therefore as a consequence do not see the enormous influence it has had over the last century. And I believe has presently reached its zenith. Since almost all of US President Barach Obama’s administration is made up of Zionists. Rahm Emmanuel is one important example. Apartheid was chosen I explained due to the fact that my family had been part of the anti-apartheid movement. We attended many rallies and marches and my mum refused to buy products from South Africa. Barclays by the way stopped dealing with South Africa when British students threatened to not bank with them. Barclays stopped their dealings with South Africa as a direct consequence. A good example that ordinary people can have a real and beneficial influence in this world. I explained that I wanted to know more about the apartheid system, and looking at how and why it came into existence. The third topic was Live Aid a momentous event indeed in my formative years. Again a good example of where people can have a real positive influence in this world. If guilt is what drives people to try and rectify wrong then good! And if anger at injustice drives people to rectify a wrong then good! In fact when people fail to have feelings of guilt or fail to have feelings of anger when it is right, proper and understandable to have these feelings; that failure is indeed grave! People today are made to feel guilty for having these feelings. Time to take on those who cynically undermine good things in people in an effort to exploit them in times of weakness. Important to remember the lesson of the good Samaritan. Important to remember events like Live Aid. Important to remember the sacrifices made by people for those admirable endeavours to bear fruit. We owe it to those people and their families to remember those who have made these sacrifices. Freedom HAS A PRICE! The freedoms we enjoy were bought for on the fields of Europe in blood, sweat and tears. We should not forget this. These things we must not allow to go down the memory hole.

Anyway, to cut a long story short. Live Aid was selected. And so it was!

Wednesday was interesting, I was expecting it to be all crazy but it wasn’t. I turned up for the course only to find out that our numbers had diminished even further. But I think Jake was off ill, oh well. Bev called us over to discuss our idea’s with the “group”, I decided i would go first so i wouldn’t feel as nervous. I started telling them the idea’s i had, the first being about “The effect Social Networking sites are having on young minds”. This delves into the area of which most young people/ teens get so emotionally involved in Facebook they sometimes commit suicide, but besides that i will also show the decent aspect of social networking sites. The Second idea that I had, was “Is Bigbrother/ CCTV taking over”, the effect mass surveillance has on the general public, and my third idea was “How for have we fallen into technology/ The Net”.

This was based around the idea that we now have such a close bond with technology and the internet that it may be having some physical and psychological effects on us.

Dave  and Bev both thought that the third option was a very interesting one and so i have chosen to persue it, but i have also tied in the first idea. This is no doubt going to be quite an undertaking but I shall persue it anyway and will give it my all. As we did not have any presentations for that day we were all (Me and Dave) determined to get a head start on this project so that we could be well prepared for our Presentation. Unfortunatley I had no idea just HOW big this project was, nevertheless I carried on regardless. With any luck I should have the project complete for monday but knowing my luck, i probably won’t. Today has been very Productive though, I have found that due to Facebook, a 15 year old girl commited suicide. Not a great note to put in a blog, but it needed to be known. Social Network Sites…Not always a good thing!

So to recap:

We have been given a large task that is NOT impossible, but will take alot of effort.

What I probably havent put in but probably should have is that Dave is doing on “War, What is It good for?” which I think

The days main highlight was the technical problems with the projector!!! I was hoping in the back of my mind that it would remain so! Bad time management or just plain laziness? Probably both. So what was happening before the highlight of the day? For me it was pretty much all the research and presentation for the two chosen subjects from the previous session. And I had left only this morning to do it! So in the morning I ploughed into the research part of the task at hand. Hence my hope that I would gain more time with the technical hitch!

Both Dave and Joe were doing their bit on “The Last Samurai”, so I chose to do “Ford” first. Or “Ford the Company” which was my chosen section of the subject to research and then to present. Due to the time limitations I had to rely pretty much on the first available links from a google search. So the information taken was taken in part on the basis of trust. And so text was selected on the basis of whether it was relevant. So did it fall within the boundaries set by the chosen area of research? This was the primary basis for selection. Now normally when I do this kind of work I try to get the basic outline or the basic form of the subject covered and to then focus on the content within the context of the form. Now I try to  allow the relevant information to decide the form. So it becomes an issue of trying to discern the form or the “picture” based on the facts I am reading. As I have already mentioned I have taken the information pretty much on trust. And so the form may well not be a true representation on the chosen subject. Certainly not as true as it could possibly be with some more thorough research.  And bare in mind, “there are many ways to cut a cake”. My presentation, was my cut of the cake placed on a plate. So what form appeared from the little bit of research? Well firstly I could see that there were several “companies” prior to the formation of the actual Ford Company. Two of these other companies had the name Ford attached to them. And it appeared that the primary motivating drive for the “Ford” endeavor. Namely the dream for every American to own a car. This dream appeared to me to be the thing that was driving the endeavor. All the other things were the means to get there.

Those “other” things which I identified were:

1.)   Innovation.

2.)   Publicity. (Marketing)

3.)   Labour.

4.)   Assembly line. (Mass production).

There were I’m sure other factors at play. These however were the ones I managed to identify. These factors were I believe some of the important ingredients thrown into the pot to achieve the Ford Company’s objectives. The success of the endeavor for me suggests that the necessary ingredients had been correctly identified. The team had certainly done their homework!!!

This for me was the “form”. I then “fleshed” this out with information relating to bringing into reality the vision already forming in people’s hearts and minds. So for example the invention of vanadium steel by the British and how Ford recognized how it would help the company achieve its dreams. All of this interestingly reminds me of the saying ; “the American Dream”.

I then quickly moved onto the other chosen subject, “The Last Samurai” trying at the same time to remain calm and collected! The clock was ticking! Here I relied largely on some notes I had made during the previous session. This was notes from a “brain storm” on what things could be seen to be part of what made up the “essence” of the message underlying the film. And from my brain storm I identified what appeared to be the “trunk of the tree” from which all the other things “branch” out. This was the form that I could see in my mind. This was the essential image that I “ran” with. The “trunk” was  what I called: External battle, internal battle. External peace, internal peace. The other things like “hope”, “Love”, “perfection” formed the branches. I chose then to look at the content. So examples of “internal battle” “external battle” “internal peace” “external peace”. These examples came together in a quote I had seen from a testimony of a Brandon Neely to the Guantánamo Testimonials Project.

And so I was kind of ready. Kind of. In sales they have a saying, “know your product”. This I try to do. How can you hope to communicate something when you have know real knowledge of the subject you are trying to communicate. Knowing how to best communicate that information is something else.

I did try to introduce some of the effects in the Powerpoint application. So for example I used animated text. However text was primarily “bullet points”. The bullet points were to appear on screen. Aim: short and to the point. The body of the text I had on Word, from which I printed onto A4 sized paper to read from. Aim: “Fleshing out” or expanding on the bullet points. Also I tried to use some larger images without any text. The other important aim of holding paper to read from was to keep my eyes off the projected images on the wall and more on the audience. More face to face. Less, “hang on a second while I go and ask someone”, i.e. turning away. I would have preferred to have memorized some if not all of the text. Rather than reading from a sheet of paper. These aims were part of “the learning cycle”. In terms of the “learning styles”, well so far I have given it little thought. I need to try and to introduce some of this thinking into my next presentation. I need to think more carefully about how I can better “market” the subject. “Learning styles” need to be thought of and taken into consideration. And people have different learning styles, different tastes even different levels of understanding. I suppose this is what can be termed “knowing your audience”. It is said in sales that “people buy people”. So we need to try and be present in mind, body and soul. “What comes from the heart goes to the heart” – “What come from the mouth goes to the ear”.

Keeping a written record or in this case “blogging” is very new to me. Certainly when it comes to starting a “thread”. I have however visited many blogs and have added comments. So I have a little experience. More importantly keeping a record or diary, I have done very little. I think it helps when you need to back track things. I have found that writing things generally can certainly be helpful. It differs from talking in that it seems to allow more reflection to take place. You can think more carefully about how to arrange your subject matter and what to include and what to exclude. It allows you more time, usually just by its very nature than when speaking. When we speak we need to do it thoughtfully. Writing normally allows us the time to think and reflect.

Feedback from the presentations was generally positive and useful. Timing was mentioned as being a problem. Firstly in going over the time allocated and secondly how we timed the passing the “baton” from one person to the other. I think the issue here was that the exchange was not always smooth. An example of this was that me and Dave both included the pre_Ford companies. Dave mentioned this to me and said he had decided to merge the two. I made the big mistake of assuming that Dave would include it in his part of the presentation rather than my part. So when it was time for me to take the “baton” I was not expecting it. This caused me to be a little shaky in the first few minutes. Stuttering my words and sweating a bit!! It was also mentioned that if timing had been organized better we could have rehearsed. This would have resolved most likely some of these issues. It was mentioned by one of the other members of staff, James that Joe’s mistake could have been completely un-noticed if he had not brought unnecessary attention to it. Also James mentioned that while the mentioning of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was relevant to the “Samurai” presentation it needed more reference to the film itself. The main criticism fro James of Dave’s contribution was his mentioning “bad editing” at the end of the film without elaborating more on it. James mentioned how this may be perceived by some as a bit of a contradiction with the “our favourite film” part of the title of our chosen subject. Bev’s mentioning of my use of a Jewish “proverb”, a joke told by Jews to other Jews stating it did not work. It was later clarified that it was not a joke about Jews but a joke told within the Jewish community from where I have received it. It was agreed that perhaps if I am bad at telling jokes it is perhaps better leaving jokes out of future presentations. Food for thought indeed.

This morning, first thing, we finished of the blogs from Monday.  Once that was completed it was time to sit down and look at our choices for our final presentations.  As Jake wasn’t here Joe went first.  His options were:

The impact social networking has on the younger generation; Is big brother taking over?; Are people delving too deeply into the digital world?

We discussed the three options and Joe gave valid reasons for all of them, but between Joe, Bev and myself we whittled it down to a choice of the last two and Joe settled on the final one.

My options were:

War – What is it good for? Harley Davidson – Why? The Falklands – this would be a choice between the history and the natural environment.

Following discussions we finalised on the first one, War – what is it good for?  As an ex-serviceman, and having served in a couple of war zones, I have first hand experience and I’ve formed opinions to support pro and anti war stances.

The day has been spent looking at images and brainstorming ideas and content subjects.  Not easy because war has always been with us, so what war do I use as my starting point?  I asked the following question on google : “How many Wars since 1900?”   ( http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_all_the_wars_that_have_taken_place_in_Afghanistan_since_1900 )

It came up with a list of over 70 wars/conflicts and I’d guess there are a couple of more recent conflicts missing such as the 2nd Gulf War and the current conflict in Afghanistan.

I wanted to get a very active first screen so I started a search for war images and war dead and was inundated with masses of images! I also looked at videos and, again,  found hundreds. I want to have some sort of video footage on the first screen so attempted to download but with no effect.  This has now been sorted by using real player.  I’ve got a test-piece put together so will build it in with the stills.  I’m buying a new PC on Friday so hopefully I’ll be able to do all of this at home – fingers crossed!!

In terms of learning and Kolb, my choice of subject reflects my concrete experiences, and my reflective observation, during my time  in the Royal Navy.  In 1982, during the Falklands War, I served with 29 Commando Regiment - Royal Artillery and subsequently in the Gulf during the Iran-Iraq War during the mid 1980s on board HMS Beaver.  Having been in a potentially deadly position – a Silkworm missile fired from Iran would have hit us in  12 seconds, not enough time to react! – I learned that life is too short and can end without warning as well as asking the question “War – what is it good for?”

In terms of reflective practice, I have applied this to my learning since undertaking the Further and Adult Education Certificate back in the very early 1990s and subsequently over the years through my Cert Ed and into subsequent jobs.  I always look back and review any training session and, most recently, each session at BSS.  Looking at the Ten Aspects of Reflections it has given me a good refresher and I can say that each of the ten aspects has been in play since we started the PDL! I’ve also noted how easy it is to get out of the habit of being reflective!  Over the past two years I have been in Project Management where reflection, in terms of my learning, has been put on the back burner!  I’ve led the training element of a multi-million pound software project but have not really reflected on my performance in terms of learning.  Yes, I’ve reflected on my daily achievements and reviewed what needed doing in the future but very rarely in terms of my learning – SINNER!  as a professional in the world of learning and development I should know better!

This weekend we went to Southport to the final UK air show of the year and it was an interesting experience in terms of my project.  There were thousands of people there, and I would guess that it would be a fairly low percentage who have been involved in a war or suffered the effects of a war. The number of service sideshows and so on were far in excess of others – there was even a stall selling solar panels and wormeries! (Not sure where there that fits into the airshow ethos!)

Interestingly my feelings were fairly neutral – which surprised me.  Since my experiences in the Falklands I have become more and more “anti-war” but I still understand and support the need for armed responses!  So where does this leave me?  I wish I knew.  I have a raft of friends who still work within service environments and we all get together every two years for a reunion in Plymouth.  Maybe this project will provide me with some answers but somehow I doubt it.  Lets wait and see.

I got a new PC this weekend and can’t get on the internet – it’s probably something really simple which I’ll tray and sort out before the video course.  Thankfully I still have access via my laptop.  So it’s get on with the project and see what happens!!

We had preparation to do for two presentations as well as other work.

After a bit of work on presentations we did an exercise where one person thought of  an answer and passed the idea on to a second person who decided wher it needed to go.  They, in turn, passeed the idea and location onto a third person who wrote the idea on a sheet of paper on the wall (photos to be added).  The idea was that we looked at the pro’s and con’s of individual working as opposed to working within a group.  Some of the points that came up are listed below. N.B. items in brackets show where the item could fall under another section.

Individual Cons:   lack of motiviation, lack of review, loneliness, lack of ideas, no review process/QC (* pro), demotivation, boredom, lack of confidence, lack of tools, concentratio, (*pro), lack lof communication, laziness, deciding order of own work (* pro).

Individual Pros:  Do what you want (* cons), work when and where you like, you can play your music loud, peace and quiet, set own deadlines (* con), quality control (* con), no arguments (* con), working at own pace (* con), lack of tools (* con).

Groupwork Cons:  Lots of ideas (* pro), deciding order of work, too many cooks, arguments, speaking the wrong language (could be literal or knowledge based), bad apple in the group, laziness, different learning styles, demotivation, running out of coffee!!, power struggles, lack of compromise, lack of communication, plagiarism, personal issues, not working to the same timescales, learning styles (* pos).

Groupwork Pros:  Lots of ideas, motivation, variety of skills (* con), all speak the same language, quality control, variety of ideas (* con), hear others ideas, different learning styles (* con), different experiences, lots of tools (* con), negotiation – as opposed to arguing, refine and review (* con).

For me, the interesting thing that came out of this session was the fact that at no point did we talk about leadership or did we mention that leadership in a group is essential. Maybe as a result of this, I held back from pushing the guys to finish, rehearse etc.  Having said that I did push them when time was running out!  Was this my failure or a failure of the individuals or the group as a whole?  Had it been a business decision I would have said it was my fault for failing to bring my experience to bear.  However, there is the argument that Jake, to a certain degree, but more so Joe, could do with the experience and learning and taking charge. Certainly as a result of these two activities we ran over by a long margin on our afternoon presentations!!

Feedback on previous blogs

Bev provided some feedback on my previous blogs highlighting that I need to categorise and put in headings and sub-headings – hence the emboldenned headings!!  I also needed to include the learning cycle in my last blog – particularly as that what the whole previous session was about!!

I also need to upload the presentations but I’ve had issues with that but will keep trying.

Presentations

In the afternoon we undertook our presentations somewhat later than planned because of the failure of technology.  Having said that, with preparation we could have done the presentations using flip charts!!  Not as impressive or as visually appealing but it would have worked – had we practiced!!

Our second presentation – Henry Ford – was fedback first.  Unfortuneately it ran over by 50%!!  generally feedback was good but  a couple of the screens were text heavy.  However, we didn’t communicate well before the presentation resulting in the overrun.  There was a strong discussion between Jake and Bev about the use of a Jewish joke within his section of the presentation.  This didn’t work well at the time and during the discussion Jake didn’t say it was a Jewish joke written by, and about, Jews.  The impression was that it was racist rather than a group taking the mick about themselves.  There was also tha failure of the cat image to make an impact which in hindsight should have been left out.

Our first  presentation – Our Favourite Film – The Last Samurai thankfully got better press!

We didn’t really say at the outset why it was our favourite which, in hindsight is probably the most important aspect of the presentation!! My feedback was that i could have expanded on indiividual cast roles rather than just running over who the main characters were. We could also have done with clarifying the use of the weapons in the movie to what was used hisrorically.  The audience thought that Jake’s use of  the comparison slides, 9/11, the Gulf Wars etc, was good and I certainly agree with that sentiment.  I was really struck  by a quotation that Jake read from a US soldier following his time in Afghanistan who suffered from PTSD, as I have following the Falklands.  I have got the website details and will look at this in depth in my own time. (Ref – http://testimony-of-brandon-neely.htm

Overall the feedback was good apart from the timing (!!) which we really should have nailed. The transitiions between our presentations could have been slicker rather than giving the impression of 3 seperate presentations!! This boils down to communication which I should have got a grip of  early on in the planning phase.

Now it’s time to go on to individual, 12 minute, presentations and my three options are:

War – what is it good for?  – Having been there I have my own ideas!

Harley Davidson – Why?   – I love them but why do they have such a massive wow factor?

The Falklands – Again this a personal experience but will I concentrate on the fantastic beauty and wildlife population (and maybe the Benny’s) or will I look at the historical aspects?

Session three was basically from what I remember where we began to discuss the task given to us as well as being required to look at the parts of the learning process that people generally follow when learning something. I think a term that was used was the “learning cycle”. Which can be summed up with the saying, “learning from our mistakes”. The process of reflecting on the past and trying to better understand the “realities” we are dealing with so that we can improve our own participation with those realities or through those “realites”. The painter that better understands his paint brush is a better painter. Knowing the limitations, the nature of his tool; knowing what he can and cannot do with this tool. These are all “TOOLS OF THE TRADE”. They are a means to an end. Not the end itself. They can be used to bring good into the world or bad. Wrong and right. Not only can our understanding of the “tools” be “blurred” or “misunderstood” but so can the issues that concern most human beings – namely “what is the right thing to do”, and “why is it right?” or “”why is it wrong”. What is “correct thinking” and why is it correct? Are we dealing with objective reality? In order to better participate in reality from which non of us can escape we must surely better understand the nature of the reality we are a part of.

So what was the TASK that we were asked to do? The task was to do a group presentation. We had already been asked to pitch individually three subjects as possible candidates for that presentation. Joe’s subjects were “how pc’s work” and “the history of game consoles”. Dave’s subjects were “the history of Ford”, “Led Zeppelin the band” and “the Falklands”. My subjects were “our favourite film” and “apartheid”. After we all introduced our own subjects we then began the process of agreeing two from a total of seven. This involved both myself and Joe naming a subject that we did not want to do. For my part I did not want to do “how pc’s work” because for me, “the history of Ford” was the preferred subject because I know less of this subject. I had kind of put these two subjects in the same basket. The assembly of cars – the assembly of pc’s. Joe for his part stated he did not want to do, “the Falklands” (if my memory serves me correctly). Any how I then took the plunge after apologising to Joe that my preferred two subjects were “history of Ford” and my own idea, “our favourite film” saying I was prepared to fall on my sword with respect to “Aperteid”. I had given up the hope at this point in getting both my ideas selected! Any how we all agreed to these two subjects. Now that we had chosen the subjects to present we now had to discuss what of those subjects we should look at and then delegated each one of us the task of researching a particular aspect of it.

With respects “Ford” Joe was to focus on “Ford cars”. Dave on “the biography of Ford”. Me on “the company of Ford”. It was also agreed that we would each present one after the other on our own chosen topic.

“Our favourite film” first had to involve another selection process. We all put forward films that were our own personal favourites. Then we deleted all films that at least one of us did not particular like or which we had not seen. This left us with only two films to choose from – “The Last Samurai” and “Bad Boys II”. A toss of the coin settled the matter! Heads for Last Samurai and heads it was! Now following the exact same method already for Ford we each chose a particular part of the chosen subject to research and to then present one after the other. Joe was to look at “weapons”, Dave “the storyline and history”, and myself “the message”.

It seemed to me on reflection that the process of selection brought to the surface the importance of – “something we can all agree on”. And failure to agree meant having to re-look until we can agree. I suppose this is what is meant by “diplomacy”. Or is that just the tool?

Bev for her part had got us to think about the “learning styles” and “learning cycle”. Learning cycle summed up in the saying “learning from our mistakes”. And learning styles to do with our “interface” onto the world – the five senses. Touch, sight and hearing. We also did an online questionnaire to try to get a handle on the importance of these “senses” in our own personal learning processes. As for taste and smell? Well people on this course certainly seem to have a taste and smell for tea and coffee! All an important part of our own personal learning experience. “TOOLS” of the trade. A means to an end. A tool for good or a tool for bad that is the question. May learning bring insight and a better understanding of our shared reality from which there is no real escape. Cowards stand on the river banks and do not get in the river. Time I think to stop being a coward. Time I think to get into the water and swim. My God it’s cold!!!