Assignment Exercise 2: Individual Reflection Task

ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 2 (AE2): INDIVIDUAL REFLECTION TEMPLATE

Refer to the AE2 guidelines on FLO to complete the individual reflection tasks. Add your name and ID in the header of this document, which is the AE2 template. There is no overall word count for this assessment exercise as it will be dependent on the number of students in your group but take note of indicative word count for each section. Use this template only. Submit the completed template via the AE2 assessment drop box on FLO within one week following your assigned Group Class Presentation (internal students) or Group Discussion Forum Presentation (DE students); date assigned by your tutor.

Individual Reflection (a)
Division of labour: Word count: 75-100 words per team member,
plus group roles and justification as applicable (75-100 words).

The work for this presentation was divided based on the strengths of each member, and the resources that each member had access to. Moreover, the work was divided in a manner in which each member would spend the same approximate amount of time completing their respective tasks. This was done through estimating the difficulty of each task prior to dividing the work. Emma and Christine were in charge of finding an appropriate visual medium, and writing a speech to set the scene for their video clips. This was assigned for these members as they had already had some movies and video clips in mind that were appropriate to the topic, and that they had come across earlier. As I had already started undertaking background research on our topic, I took charge of the introduction. Moreover, I created the PowerPoint presentation and collated each member’s work and edited the final content. This was because none of us were confident technologically, and I felt I could do a decent job. All members of our group created a class activity each as we thought this would provide diversity due to our different personalities. Furthermore, Emma undertook background research in regards to policies, whilst Christine did the final research and speech as they had looked into this before and it was a way of evenly dividing the work load.

Individual Reflection (b)
Personal reflection: Word count: 200-250 words in response to each of the following three headings.

Description:
Prior to the presentation our group meet up at least once weekly to initially assign our tasks, and afterwards, track each of our progress. Additionally, we presented our research and findings with the other group members to ensure that we all agreed that our information was relevant. It was also a means of receiving feedback from the other group members so we could all individually improve our content. These meetings were also used to identify any issues that we had so that we could seek help prior to presenting. Some challenges that we encountered included finding appropriate visual mediums relevant to our topic, and being able to access and download them. Another difficulty was finding and/or producing a class activity that we all thought would effectively portray the feelings and outcomes associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in relation to the Indigenous population. In the week of the presentation, we meet up twice to review our final presentation and to run through it to make sure that we met the guideline provided, and that we would complete our presentation in the allocated time frame. On the day of the presentation, our group meet up once more one and a half hours prior to our tutorial time to gather the material that needed to be given to our tutor. This meeting was also used to run through our presentation one last time, and to edit and add on and last minute content.

Interpretation:
Overall, I believe that our group presentation went well.
The preparation process was very successful, however, on the day, we had no technical difficulties. As the I created the PowerPoint, the formatting was specific to Apple products, so when my laptop could not be connected to the projector, we had to open the video clips for viewing in a different application. This made the presentation process less efficient, thus, it would have been wise for our group to have prepared a PowerPoint suitable for all devices prior, as well as to check whether our devices were suitable for use in our tutorial room. Our class activities and visual mediums appeared to have been very effective in evoking empathy within the audience as intended. This was definitely a positive experience, however, our carelessness to provide warnings prior to viewing Rabbit Proof Fence cause some of the audience members to feel upset and view scenes they did not feel comfortable seeing. Reflecting on this, next time we need to ensure that warnings are provided for all, or the majority, of our content to prevent such outcomes. All our group members were also quite unfamiliar to the format for this presentation so were all flustered and nervous, which consequently affecting the smoothness of our presentation to an extent. This was detectable especially in our class activities, as we were unsure of the time frame we needed to provide the audience to undertake the tasks. Moreover, we could have improved in getting
more of the audience involved.

Outcome:
Through this experience, I learnt the importance of connecting with your audience in delivering an engaging and successful presentation. This was most evident when presenting our visual mediums and the class activities. I realised that in order to get the audience involved in the activities and present their thoughts, I had to initiate conversation to first set a comfortable environment. As a result of this, I believe that I improved my public speaking skills and attained more confidence in public speaking. Moreover, I believed the mini trauma activity that I included in our presentation was an effective method of provoking empathy in the audience. However, as this was my first time managing a class activity, I found the timing challenging. As I read my prompts, I realised that I was not allowing the audience enough time to undertake the activities, nor did I leave enough time for them to share their thoughts on the discussion questions. Hence, in future, I will undertake run-throughs of the presentation with a small audience prior to the real presentation. This will not only further improve my confidence in regards to public speaking and the content, but will also help me to set a suitable time frame for each segment of the presentation. Furthermore, practise run-throughs of the presentation will also allow me to receive feedback from the mock audience, so that I can plan methods in which I can implement to encourage audience participation.

Individual Reflection (c)
Concluding statement: Word count: 75-100 words.

From the research undertaken for our presentation and the material presented to us, my knowledge in regards to the Indigenous health population has been confirmed.
I have always had the understanding that the well-being of the Indigenous population was suffering due to the discrimination and lack of opportunities that they receive. However, it was shocking to find that they were up to three times more susceptible to psychological distress than the non-Indigenous population (Jorm et al., 2012). The documentary with Lorraine Peeters shown in our presentation particularly confirmed that mental health issues were a result from their experiences during The Stolen Generation. Whilst not mentioned in our presentation, my research and the content presented to us also consolidated that the challenges that the Indigenous population had in attaining jobs and the discrimination that they experienced were major contributors to their susceptibility to health issues (Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet,
2016).