Communication Portfolio

The concept I chose was the Project Life Cycle from Project Management. I chose this topic as I believed it had a great balance between written information and visuals. The project life cycle includes definitions, but also is broken down visually through the use of a graph, so it was effective for the purpose of this assignment. Some questions that this activity raised for me was if there would be any negative effect on not being able to make eye contact with the speaker as often time that is a key aspect of really connecting with your audience.  I am still left wondering whether or not my verbal commentary went together well with what I was writing down and trying to convey to the viewer.

While completing this activity, I learned that being concise is something very important as there is not much space on “the back of a napkin” per say, and you don’t have that much time in this particular scenario. As the professor described, it is as if you are teaching a concept to an old friend you met at the airport and don’t have very much time until they have to board. It was also important to use different colours to appeal to the visual learners, as well as to keep viewer concentration as using the same colour throughout the entire lesson will quickly bore the viewer and very likely lose their attention visually. Keeping your audience’s attention is crucial in making good impressions and delivering a good conceptual lesson where the viewer actually retains some information. This can be applied in other courses that call for presenting your ideas such as in my CIVL 2000: Design Project class when pitching a proposal to our group’s acting client.

I believe this is one of my best work in ENG 2003 as it is something I've never done before and was something that I wasn't considering completing. Up until the day before the due date, I convinced myself that I would do the bonus assignment in place of this assignment because I was not confident in my ability to accomplish this video. Nevertheless, I was able to overcome this feeling as I realized that it would be an opportunity to grow even further as a communicator, and that is exactly what this course was all about. It took me out of my comfort zone again just like assignment #4 and #6, but after many tireless attempts at recording and explaining my concept at the same time, I finally got it done. Therefore, having to overcome some doubt and do something new as successfully as I did, really made me proud and that is why this is Showcase #2 of my best work. You can hear it in my voice, it truly shows how I have become a more effective communicator. 

Video recordings and online tutorials are great communication tools and I have used them throughout my recent education from high school until now. A very popular Youtube tutorial channel that comes to mind is KhanAcademy, who is extremely popular for his tutorials on Advanced Functions, Calculus, and other mathematics-related subjects. It was a good experience having to conduct my own, after years of using them myself.