Critical Reflection

For this module learning, I recognize that I struggle with communication, especially when interacting with new people, as I am still learning how to manage my social anxiety. In this module, Professor Blackstone intentionally mixed everyone around, which pushed me out of my comfort zone and required me to engage in conversations with classmates I hadn’t spoken to before. While this was a significant challenge, the support of my project groupmates, especially Chanelle, always took the lead and often initiated conversations which helped ease my worries. These small interactions gradually evolved into more meaningful conversations, where we were able to establish a balance between focused work and casual chats. This new bond within the group made the learning experience less stressful and much more motivating. As a result, I began to feel more comfortable around my classmates and started developing the confidence to communicate with others, even those I didn’t know well.

Through this project learning experience, I was able to take away several valuable lessons from the module. Initially, I mentioned that I do lack in public speaking as I occasionally feel nervous when speaking in front of a large audience, which can potentially affect my delivery. On top of that as I continued attending the classes, I found many other things I was lacking in such as report writing in proper PEEL. After figuring out what I was lacking, it greatly motivated me to want to work harder to improve and enhance my skills. With this module I hoped that I’ll be able to gain more confidence in public speaking as well as to be able to write in a professional way. 

Coming to the end of this module, it did in fact provided me with the knowledge on how to have a better delivery when presenting. When presenting, with a good voice projection and maintaining eye contact with the audience, I should be telling a story rather than seeming as though I was reading off the slides or explaining in a way that I was reading off a script. Thus, with these feedbacks I was able to improve on my presentation despite still having a long way more to go to perfect my presentation.

Additionally, I appreciated that Professor Blackstone encouraged the use of AI platforms such as ChatGPT and Copilot to support our writing process. However, we were also reminded that these tools should not be used to write everything for us; rather, they should assist us in generating ideas, which we then refine to add our own personal, human touch. Using these platforms effectively requires crafting the right prompts to retrieve relevant and accurate information. The exercises and guidance provided in this module have significantly improved my ability to use AI tools meaningfully, which will be highly beneficial for future report writing and academic work.

In conclusion, despite not liking the fact that I had to attend a English module, this module changed my view on it as it greatly benefited me in different aspects such as enhancing my communication skills, presentation skills and report writing skills. Additionally, Professor Blackstone was able to make this module engaging and less dreadful. With this acknowledge, I would be able to utilize them in my future projects and reports.