Presentation Meetings

Every week before our presentation, our group met up for meetings to discuss what we had our done for our presentation.
The first week, we met up and decided that we should all go off for a week and research as much as we could about webcasts, multicasts and unicasts. I managed to find a little information but most information was difficult. When i reported back the following week, I'd also found out that everyone had been the same. We'd also got very confused about the topic, because, us ourselves, didn't know what was meant by the terms, webcasting, unicasting and multicasting. We all produced different definitions of these. We decided whose definition was best, and started to write this in our presentation.

For the following week, we split off into separate directions. Hel to research webcasting, Becky to research Unicasting, and Jon to research Muticasting. My task was to create diagrams for each, and explain each of them. I was also given the task to cover the introduction and conclusion.
We met up the next week, each with different pieces of information on our targeted subject areas. This meeting we got more confused than ever on what was what. We didn't know any differences between the two, and we thought that webcasting was the same thing as multicasting, and unicasting. After a lot of confusion, and researching, we finally found out that webcasting was the main way of streaming, and multicasting and unicasting was the ways used to do this. This made a whole lot more sense to us, and finally got us back on track to working on our presentation. I managed to find the correct diagrams and drew them out in Powerpoint, making sure I knew how to explain them. Because webcasting was the way of streaming mutlicasting and unicasting, webcasting did not need a diagram. My part was sorted.

When it came to viewing group 1's presentation, we got really scared because the group had done a half-hour presentation, very detailed, backed up their points, and even had a streaming video of examples of their work. Because we couldn't find much information on our subject at the time, our presentation was very short, and maybe lasted about 10 minutes. This scared us, so we contacted Corrine about it. We found out that we didn't read the marking scheme properly, and we had to include streaming media in our presentation.

Over the next week, each member of our group found streaming media examples for each of their areas. Youtube for webcasting, ITV live streaming for multicasting, and BBC Radio for unicasting. We implemented these into our presentation. Becky, Jon and Hel had also found more information on each of their topics, and began adding these in as well.

When we reported back the following week, each member had their desired amount of information for their area. Hel sent me the presentation, and I got to work on the introduction, covering what we would be talking about, and creating a summary of each of different areas, and finally writing a conclusion to discuss where webcasting would be going about in the future.

I realised why I'd been given the shortest to talk about, because when I pitched our idea to the class about our streaming artefact, i was shaky and very nervous. The group told me that since I was nervous, they did not want to make it uneasy for me. I was really grateful for the group telling me this, and was glad that they didn't make me say too much. I realised that the group members were all doing much more work than me, and i felt bad on this, and tried to help them out as much as possible, as i felt that i didn't want to feel like i was being left out.

Time closed in on us, and our presentation grew closer. Now our presentation was complete, all we had to do was try and learn it, and make sure we knew what we were saying, before we could have a practice rehearsal before the real thing. Final tweaks were made, and we were ready. I was actually more confident in the presentation itself rather than the rehearsal. Since I didn't have much to say, I was the person in charge of moving through the slides, and then I would stand up to say my bit. This turned out alright.

I think communication in the group was good, because we were good friends before this group, and it meant we all got along well together. We saw each other every week, and tried to be as organised as possible. We used emails to send each other information, to make sure everybody saw what each member was doing. This worked effectively, and our presentation turned out to be a success! (apart from BBC Radio One nearly not working and messing up the whole presentation! But everyone has their mistakes!)