My and Group Performance and Contribution - Essay Example

 Personal Reflection Life is a continuous learning process and the best way to make it in life is emptying the cup so that it gets filled once again. The school started with the normal pace, and it came to my realization that the holidays were over. As usual, this is a new semester with its challenges and it is important to make the best out of it. New units are waiting for us and to successfully complete them will require both individual and class effort. It is out of my personal initiative to make sure I pass while, on the other hand, assist my peers to share the same level of success. This forms a reflection of both personal and class performance on the unit. Furthermore, the influence of social media on career choices in PR and media will be given an in-depth analysis. An overview of the unit represented three related think pieces. There was a one press release exam in which we all read the article and examined on the content. The unit featured a class debate in which the topic was “50 should Be the Cut off Age for Women to Have Children”. The unit was interesting and represented a personal interaction with the real issues affecting us. The press release exam concerned on a recent event that took place while the debate gave the real issue affecting women in the society. The lecturer was had vast knowledge and ready to listen to us. He would joke and make us laugh breaking the boredom. At times, he would allow us to stretch. His philosophy was that learning should not be difficult but rather made easier for students to understand. He always reminded us to remain practical at all times since the world out there needed people with our abilities. Some of the advices given by the lecturer influenced our learning both at the personal and class level. Since the unit had some level of difficulty, we decide to come together and form a class discussion for one minute session. It was difficult when coming up with the idea. Most of the students did not support the idea, but I insisted that it was appropriate we form a one minute session for the class for deliberating. I had to convince a rebellious friend to understand that it was for our common good. The lecturer was not strict in terms of the approach to the unit. He required 100% class attendance, and submission of while observing the deadline. He reminded us that in life it is important to make personal choices that we would never regret. With like-minded friends, we made it our decision to form the one minute session. Forming a one minute session helped in deliberating on the topic of study. At first, there was good harmony and everybody worked hard to make sure that we obtained the right information. We had a schedule for all the activities such as doing research in the library. Members who had personal problems with the unit were assisted. In a collaborative effort, we made it our mandate to ensure that the assignments were completed in time and submitted even before the due date. To our happiness, we all attained better marks in the first assignment. Laziness followed, and it seemed that all the class members had switched to a relax mode. The glue holding the class together became weak with links deteriorating. There was a competitive culture that came up for every individual member. The teacher pleased with the performance in the first assessment. Although each member of our class was above the pass mark, there was an uneven distribution of marks. Some of the Members performed better than others although with slight marks distribution. This was the first challenge we encountered for the unit. The press release exam came, and the students performed perhaps due to some individual effort. I was above the pass mark and among the best in the class. The excellence in this exam was due to the constant motivation the teacher gave us. Discipline is essential to the performance of the students whether at the individual or class level. The lecturer placed emphasis on this fact and encouraged the students to have the personal initiative towards their learning. The class performed in this exam. Apart from the individual effort, there are other factors contributing to the performance. The topic was interesting and made the students find this unusual captivation. Discipline and other interrelated factors contributed to the success of the class in the exam. The debate came but with decreased success rate. The class was organized into opponents and proponents with the lecturer judging. He insisted that he debate was part of the end-semester assessment and thus needed seriousness. There was inconsistency of thoughts and ideas for both the proponents and opponents. The lecturer was not happy and gave us some lessons on holding successful debates. From all these events I came to understand that there are strategies that determine the success of an interview, debate or a discussion. For the class discussion or debate to be effective, face-face interactions are important. The unsuccessful case of the debate was due to lack of proper research. Most of the students found themselves without the ideas and points to support their argument. Class processing is required in interviews and debates. Most of the students in the opponent would sometimes jump to the proponent unknowingly. Togetherness lacked as well as prior preparation. Most of my colleagues and I were caught unaware with half-baked information. Positive interdependence is required for success and emphasizes on individual importance of each class member. In the debate, there were certain situations where students interfered with others while making their contribution. Interpersonal and mental process remains at work when there is positive interdependence. I came to understand that while students are addressing their peers, they become leaders at the moment. In this temporary capacity, students should learn how to communicate with others and learn conflict management tactics. There was some shouting at the others while making their contribution with zero tolerance. The lecturer would get mixed up because the debate turned out to be a market place. At times, one could see some students shouting at others with rivalry building up. With these events characterizing unsuccessful debates, the teacher instructed that the exercise be repeated. In his usual personality, the teacher understood that we had no grounds in s’ discussion and debates. He took the initiative to teach a class on ways of having successful conversation and debates. Under this tutorship, the debate was successful unlike the previous one. When the debate begun, each class member looked calm and composed. The level of organization surpassed the one in the previous debate. From the second debate, it was clear that the success was on its way. A successful debate has good logic. Students at this point were able to leave the unnecessary points and pick on the appropriate ones. The logic in this case applied when there was disagreement with the other side. After making disagreements, student will be in a position to support their point. It was possible to see other peers taking the main point of the either of the side and showing them that the arguments did not make any sense. In making the debate a success, students would argue well since they had gathered enough information to support their points. The information was organized systematically with each member picking up the right points and supporting them with the correct information. The idea was sticking to the plan, and it worked. In the previous session, one would criticize the individual speakers rather than criticizing what they said. From the repetition of the second debate I learnt the basic components of a good debate. In this case, it was informative and less competitive. The topic was the required cut-off age for the women to have children. The arguments at this moment were well reasoned, argued, and relevant to the topic. I also learned that the debate aims at persuasion. The two sides were meant to persuade the lecturer basing on their points. Orderliness is important in debating since there are rules to follow in the whole process. There was order with each contributor having his/her time without interruption. There was dynamic perspective with each side representing opposing views. With this in mind, together we were in a position to understand strategies that make debates both successful and unsuccessful. Despite the up and downs that characterize a normal semester, the unit had its own share of success and failures too. I successful made it through with improved performance in the unit. Class performance was above average with the lecturer commending the students for the exemplary performance. Personally, the unit taught me that I needed to change various aspects of my life. One is procrastinating since in the previous assignments we were ready and up-to-task in beating deadlines. Although there are members that are non-contributive in the debate as well as class discussions, collaborative efforts improved my overall performance. The unit taught me a lot in real life with the lecturer contributing in making the learning enjoyable. The teaching style was interactive with each of the students having a share in the learning and teaching. We would question the teacher on various issues. Without shying away, the teacher was ready to respond to our questions. Keeping this in mind, we were in a position to improve our interpersonal skills. Initially, I would become fearful when approaching the teacher but after being taught in this unit, I was capable of interacting with my peers on various issues. From the debate, there was a lot to learn too. I learnt the concepts of doing a debate both at the first and the second session. Social media remains the new trend in the current world. There are many social media platforms with the famous ones being Facebook and Twitter. I currently have three accounts with Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. The three accounts have made my social life easy, and I believe that the same applies to other users too. With these accounts, it is possible maintain links with different people of the different status and share information with increased speed. Social media such will help students to understand the best way of communicating with other users as well as potential employees. I believe that using social media has an influence on the career of the individual in the fields such as PR and the media. Social media is about public image. There are million users of Facebook and Twitter and other social platforms. I understand that most social media have reserved sections for profile. Under this section, one puts a profile picture and other personal details. Having used the social media platform it is important for one to place good images. I believe that when taking up a job in PR or the media, the interviewers are keen to understand whether their candidate has a social media account. Working in a media company, for instance would require someone who has a good image. Potential employers will scroll through the social media profile to look at the comments and other information in the account. Having and maintaining a good communication platform in the social media accounts assist in the landing a job in PR. In fact having these accounts is one step toward public relations. Worldwide, PR professionals are using these new distribution channels. Furthermore, most of the professionals have learnt that a single social platform is not enough in their career. Most people maintain two to three social media accounts on average. Both PR and the media are organizations that connect directly with the public. The people employed in this organization are the public image for the company. Having and maintaining a good image is the secret to finding employment in the organization. I believe both the media and public relations professionals carry the potent propositions for their companies. Many companies when looking for a potential employee go beyond the personal credentials. These companies would like to know the person on a different perspective. I believe the social media platform creates an editorial environment that helps people in connecting with their peers. Recently I came across adverts that had been posted in the media requiring people to apply for a certain media job in a media company. I understood the need of having and maintaining a clean profile with positive comments and postings. People upload photos to their accounts. A lot of care is required in uploading photos that display the true values conforming to ethics in either of the two jobs. Upon this realization, I have made it my personal mandate to ensure that the pictures I upload are professional. The comments written in my wall and the twitter page have a higher purpose. Social media has a huge audience and among the vast numbers of users, there could be a potential employer. It is my goal to ensure I choose my friends right while maintaining a professional outlook. Social media serves as the link to having better job and connecting with friends. Read More