Reflections

This semester has been an interesting one for me. My work has been inconsistent across my classes, and whilst I can be proud of my efforts in some of my classes, I must admit that I have been disappointed in some of work in this early stage of my university life.

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/dylan-lake/2015/05/25/i-forgot-how-to-student/

This post shows presents of my early concerns in the semester, and after this point I think there was an improvement in how I approached my work. I could not anticipate any of the factors which may have prevented me from working to my full potential, but I have at least been able to make the best of the situations presented to me. I can only blame myself for my bad habits early in the semester, which often lead to me cramming work in at the last minute. I now believe I have found a balance between my obligations, but there were still problems that I faced late in the semester with some of my assignments, particularly when it came to group assessments.

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/dylan-lake/2015/05/25/stop-collaborate-and-listen/

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/dylan-lake/2015/06/05/evaluation-for-project-brief-4/

Working in any media environment requires some element of collaboration. Big projects are impossible to take on alone, so having skills that assist in group work is a necessity. I had three group assignments running simultaneously, and in each of them I was one of the only members taking the initiative and attempting to work in a collaborative manner. This lead to last-minute work being a defining factor in my grading for these tasks, even though I had made every possible decision to avoid this. This was frustrating to say the least, and the evaluation for project brief 4 is evident of this, as the quality of the project could have been much higher if only everyone put the same level of effort in.

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/dylan-lake/2015/05/25/story-time/

This lecture left me dead silent for its entire duration. I was so captivated by what was being shown to me, and even though I felt like I had a good understanding of narratives in film, this lecture provided me with some new concepts that I had not yet thought about. This new way of thinking about narratives will no doubt effect how I approach any writing that I do in the future.

http://www.mediafactory.org.au/dylan-lake/2015/05/25/meez-on-seen/

The essay talked about in this post does reveal how much enjoyment I can really get from my studies here. The task was very simple in concept, but asked for some insightful and original analysis. I am happy to say I achieved one of the highest scores overall for this task, and the comments I received from my tutor was some of the best feedback I’ve ever heard from one of my essays. I attribute this purely to my level of engagement and enjoyment I had when working on this task, and it only makes me more excited about continuing my time at RMIT.

This semester has had its up and downs for me, and even though I would have liked to have started stronger in the first six months of this journey, I can only strive to improve from here.