Aerospace Technology Project (III)

So today we continued working on the Aerospace Technology Project but this time, instead of researching, I spent the whole class modifying the report that we have to do for this project. 

I started this report a few days ago and what I mostly did today was ask the teacher for all the many doubts and questions that came to my mind while doing it. So, when the teacher came to me, I started asking... and asking... and asking... and when it seemed that I had finished, something else came to my mind and therefore I had to ask another thing more. I am not exagerating. My partner even called me a "constant question machine", you can see it in his blog: http://timetochangeurself.blogspot.com.es/2013/06/my-partner-is-still-doing-questions.html.

Regarding this, I felt a bit guilty since I wanted to have the teacher only for myself, because whenever she left in order to answer other classmate's questions, another trillion questions bumped into my head, and I got a bit stressed, since time passed by and she was still answering other's questions and not mine. This lack of patience that I had might be caused because I really enjoy doing this project, which I think is quite interesting and useful. Therefore I want to do it as best as possible (I am very perfectionist) and whenever a doubt came to me, I just wanted to solve it quickly in order to continue doing the rest. In addition, after that class I had an exam and thus my head was thinking really quickly about many different issues, which increased my need of having a quick answer.

That's all for today. Thanks for reading!

Powerpoint, Prezi, a Poster... or what?

Hi again! Well, today we had to make a little oral presentation, but we couldn't use PowerPoint to support it. I realize this is a really good idea because in my opinion, PowerPoint is a great software, but it is too much used, and sometimes it is better to make something different.

Therefore, what could we use instead of the typical PowerPoint? There are many answers to this question, and it mostly depends on what you are going to talk about. 

For example you could use some kind of poster (you can do it virtually by using the .pdf format) which shows as a whole all the main aspects you are going to talk about, using some images, graphs, etc... that make it more attractive. Or you could also do a mind map. Actually, today we were a bit "surprised" because one of the groups presented using the FreeMind software. In my opinion, it is a good idea to use it, but I personally don't like the image it gives to the presentation, because you actually don't see a presentation, but instead it is like an editor... I think the best alternative to using PowerPoint is Prezi. I really like this tool because it makes very dynamic presentations and you have much freedom according to design. If you are creative and you know how to use Prezi (I say this because at first it seems a bit difficult to use it... at least it was for me), you can make amazing presentations that really draw the audience's attention.

So those are the types of tools for presentations I think we can use, but that doesn't mean that they are the only ones! In fact, if you choose another one which hasn't been used yet, it may even attract more your audience, just because of doing something different to the rest!

That's all for today... Thanks for reading!

Two posts in the same day. Why??

In this post I don't actually have much to say; just that I don't really understand why our teacher sometimes wants us to do an "extra blog post" about the activity we have done in class...

If we do several activities in class, or something interesting happens, I don't have any problems with writing two or more posts because I do have something to write about. But if we have only discussed about one same topic during the whole class (as it happened today), what should I talk about in the second post? (the first one is the "extra" one)

Well, it is supposed that the entries on the blog must be about reflections we had in class, so in the last post I talked about the thoughts I had about what we did in class (the extra entry about the activity) and in this post I'm reflecting about not knowing what to write about when this happens.

In fact, this entry isn't really valuable or interesting, it's just what I think about being pushed to do something by force... (which is even more annoying when you don't have enough time to do it properly)

Oral Presentations (II)

As I said in my last post, preparation and practice are essential when doing an oral presentation. So in our last class (on Thursday) we did an oral presentation, which actually is some kind of preparation for the "important" presentation we will have to do on Monday (which is tomorrow).

Tomorrow, we will have to present what ideas we are thinking of for our project about the aircraft for the year 2040. So the "pre-presentation" we had on Thursday was really valuable, because it was a good moment to practice and realize what things we are doing wrong in order to improve our presentation skills and do a great presentation tomorrow.

Not much more too say for today actually. Thanks for reading my blog!

Inform yourself before criticizing!

In today's class, my blog was shown to all my classmates and some of them gave their opinions about what they thought about this blog. Many of them were constructive suggestions (that the background is a bit dark, some posts are too long...), but there was one opinion which actually made me a bit mad (although I kept my anger to myself): they said that my blog is too descriptive and that it should be more reflective. 

The opinion by itself shouldn't have affected me so much, because it's just an opinion and I don't care, but what really drives me crazy is the fact of criticizing my blog without even having read my posts... Because if they have done so, they probably would have realized (or at least I hope so) that I don't describe what we have done in class in any of my blog entries and, in fact, I spend a lot of time thinking what to write on my blog in order to make it reflective but also interesting and valuable to other people (I don't know if I do so, but at least I try), because to say what I think without going any further I could just buy a diary and write my thoughts there.

In particular, what was mainly criticized was my last post, where I explained some of the fields of an e-mail. It's true that that's what we were told to do in class (although in class we had to explain many more other fields), but I tried to write it in a way which showed the importance of this issue. I only wanted to share this information because I consider it is really important, but not because it is what we have done in class, in fact, I didn't even mention that we have done that in class. 

To sum up, I just want to leave clear that, before criticizing something, we should get well informed about it, because if not we will probably get it wrong.

Creativity moves the world!

On Thursday we saw a really interesting video about a conference which talked about education nowadays and how it kills creativity. It criticized the way schools are teaching our kids because instead of promoting their skills and what they like, letting them be creative (which in the end is what really matters), children keep being taught what the industry needs, so mathematics and all sorts of science are considered at the top while arts are at the bottom of everything.

By the way, it shouldn’t be like this. It’s true that science and maths are important, but they are not the only thing in the world. We keep thinking that arts and humanities don’t have a future, that if you study these sort of things you won’t have a job, and it’s totally false. What happens nowadays, I mean, the reason why there are so many people who don’t have a job is just because everybody tends to study those things which are said to have a good future, and if you like them, great! But if you don’t, the truth is that you won’t have a job, just because you won’t have that inside-force which makes you make progress and succeed.

What I am totally convinced of, is that if you really like something, and although it isn’t thought to have a good future, you will surely succeed. And this happens because, if you like something, you will put it “on the top of your list” and you will always try to do your best on it in order to improve; and probably you will even get to be the best on it. And this is what actually matters: that you are good at something and that you are happy doing it. 

Besides this, I’d also like to focus on how Ken Robinson (the man on the conference) communicates his idea of education and creativity, because I’d say it’s a great example of communication skills, because he knows how say what he wants to tell, but he also knows how to drag your attention during the whole conference, which is very important too.

I certainly recommend all of you to watch the conference because it will make you realize the importance of creativity on our way to a better world.

Here is the link to the video of the conference: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
It has subtitles in many languages and you can download it if you wish.