Adrienne-Reflecting on the Process

                My experience with What’s the Story has been vastly different from my typical classroom experience.  In the classroom, students are passive and have no need for personal drive. With this project, initiative is the key; without personal interest, nothing in one’s project is accomplished.

This course is better than traditional learning in some ways. It allows students to pursue their own interests and create their own persuasive pieces in the form of videos. Students can work independently and then come together to combine their work into cohesive, well-rounded pieces, allowing both individual work and group collaboration. Work schedules are entirely up to the individual, which helps to teach self-discipline and focus.

In contrast with these positive aspects, some students may struggle with the skills so much that their project is not up to their personal standards. While this is not a problem for me, I once forgot about a blog post until Sunday evening, when it required me to converse with a few people and combine those conversations and analyze them. Because of this, I spent the next week preparing for both the late post and the one for the following weekend. This self-directed component, while appealing, has shown to lead to forgetfulness on my part. Those who have trouble with shyness and professionalism may have difficulty conducting interviews or even arranging them. The practice this project provides on that front may help reduce those issues, though. I know that I am often shy, and I was concerned about that aspect of the project from the very beginning.  However, the two interviews I’ve conducted so far have proven that worry mostly unfounded; I feel relatively confident that the interviews went well.

Through this project, I’ve learned that I’m able to take initiative and arrange interviews. However, since this project is only half-done I know I still have plenty to learn about myself.  I’ll try going into further interviews with a bit more confidence. Thankfully I’ve become more adept at remembering my blog deadlines, so I don’t think that that’s a problem I need to be overly concerned about. But I remember during the meet-up in Starksboro I had trouble being patient with the unexpected collaboration. Whether my impatience was due to fatigue or my introverted nature, I know I need to be more patient in next month’s meet-up.

Continuing through this project, I plan to conduct more interviews. In the following meet-ups, I’ll need to be more relaxed and patient with my group members. Other than that issue, I think the remainder of my project will be successful. I’m looking forward to the next meet-up and seeing what my other group members have accomplished!