This group project went much better than I anticipated. I am never a fan of collaborative projects. The whole “find a partner in your group” usually gives me a lot of anxiety, and it was threefold in an online class where no one actually meets face to face. By nature, I’m introverted, and have a difficult time reaching out to people, and starting conversations with people I do not know. I feel like I had a minor case of introversion when Covid hit, and after working from home for two years I’ve become much more introverted, and a little weird. I reminded myself that part of the process in education is to challenge myself to get out of my comfort zone and do things that may make me a bit uncomfortable. I gave a deadline for when I’d venture out to ask other people if no one had asked me yet. Someone did ask me, and I was very relieved as I was worried it would not come to fruition for me. My anxiety subsided a bit after that.
Neither one of us had decided on a definite topic yet, so we went back and forth a little and realized that media stereotypes had not been taken so we chose that. I browsed the internet and we discussed which format to use. There were so many online, but a lot of them seemed costly and I didn’t have much experience with. I signed on to the website that Professor Hobbes had recommended and played around in it a little to see what it was like, and it was very user friendly and easy. I picked a format and put in a title page and emailed that over to my partner. She surmised that we would need to narrow down the scope of stereotypes somewhat for our project, and we tossed a few ideas back and forth via email before coming to the conclusion that media stereotypes for children was where we would land. It seemed the most applicable to the course and there was a plethora of information and resources about the topic. We also had recently covered it in Com250, so it was something that was still fresh in our minds as well.
The process was easier than I anticipated, with the website allowing us both to work on our slides at the same time and add text, pictures, and voice overs. We broke down our research into different slides and sent them back and forth, giving feedback when necessary. We then would add the slide and ask for and suggest research, toggling back and forth. We added pictures and revised text when necessary. We discussed the ending and executed it accordingly. We each added our own voices to each slide.
I learned a lot about the different media messages children receive, and how gender stereotypes play into that as well. Gender stereotypes has been something I’ve always been acutely aware of while raising a son in this society.
All in all, this assignment was seamless and enjoyable and a lot less complicated than I initially thought it would be. I had a lot of fun and learned some things in the process as well.
