Our group’s plan for capturing media revolves around getting a lot of photos and videos. I am a photographer so I think I will be able to help a lot in terms of still photography and capturing and editing video. I think, overall, we will be able to use my camera equipment for most of the media but may need to check out a couple pieces of audio equipment. A checklist for me when it comes to media requires making sure focus and audio are intact, and checking framing (especially in interviews). 

I am excited to start working on the media for this project because I think it will allow us to test our creativity. By week eight, we hope to have done some preliminary interviews and have collected portraits and stories from those who are directly affected by DACA. We also hope to have ideas for the media regarding our research. 

This week our group solidified a schedule to follow over the next few weeks. We also brainstormed different people that we could talk to other than those directly affected by DACA. We thought about getting in contact with an immigration lawyer and possibly someone in local politics. By next week we hope to have research done on the topic that will help guide a lot of our infographics and interactive parts of our website.

Creating a schedule is important for our group project because it will keep us on track throughout the semester. Without this schedule, it would become very easy to procrastinate and put off doing any of the heavy lifting until the end of the semester. This would just add unwanted stress onto our group. Our team settled on doing the project over Dreamers here in Lincoln. We think it would be a good opportunity to tell a really emotional story. We have good connections to these people so we also thought it would be our best bet to not run into any red tape along the way. 

Some challenges I think we might encounter while working on this project is just getting access and finding time to get content for our website. I have faith that our group will be able to work through these difficulties and create a website that tells an emotional and engaging story. 

This week our group gave a presentation about our three ideas to various faculty members. This included making a powerpoint and verbalizing our ideas. I focused on presenting our idea about vegan cooking on a budget. This included finding information and presenting it to the class.

I think what makes creating a schedule so important the success of our project, is obviously to keep the group on track and allow us to visualize the progress of our project. I think that without at least a tentative schedule, it can be easy to put things off that maybe actually need a lot more time to complete. In addition to this, making a schedule with “due dates” that may be earlier than actually needed can allow for us to have time to spend more time on that subject if necessary, or even re-do that thing if it does not turn out the way that we were hoping for the first time. 

My group ended up picking the project about the Dreamers/DACA. I think that this one gives us the most creative freedom, and we can take this one in so many different aspects as well as there being many different individual experiences that we can cover. I think this one also will allow us to show a lot of emotion, and broaden people’s knowledge on a really important topic. The only real challenge that I can foresee with this project would be the possibility that people may decide that they do not want to share as much with us as we were anticipating, therefore we would not have enough material for the project. 

This week we were all tasked with filling out the PowerPoint for one of the three project ideas that we had. Two of us were assigned to the same idea, and I think the biggest problem with this was communication. None of us really talked about what we were going for with any of the projects, which made it hard to give my contributions, because I was not sure the direction that the other group member was looking to go in. 

Research: Week 6

Writing/Storyboarding: Week 7-9

When we will do the actual activity: Week 7-9

Media acquired: Week 8

Media edited/compiled: Week 9-13

Final project platform built: Week 14

Project completed: Week 15

Presentation: Week 16

Having a schedule is one of the key factors in the success of a project because it helps keep the team on track and it holds people accountable for their responsibilities. Sometimes it’s easy to forget what you’re supposed to be getting done and having a schedule helps you stay on top of everything. For our project, my group decided to go with the Dreamers. I am really excited about this because there are a lot of people in my life who are protected under DACA and I think their stories have a lot of value to them and can help educate a lot of people about what living undocumented is like. Some challenges that we may face for this project is finding enough people who are willing to come forward and tell their story. We are putting these people in a very vulnerable position and my hope is that people will want to support them but I know that there are going to be people who don’t understand and that our project and the people in it may face some sort of backlash, from people who disagree politically. This week for our presentations we all split up the work on each topic and I worked on putting the presentation together. We encountered some communication challenges this past week but moving forward I feel confident that my team will work effectively together.

A schedule is important for a group project because even though we will all have different tasks, we will know what the rest of the group is expecting us to get done. A schedule may also be important just in case one of us falls behind, we can help them catch back up with the rest of the group. My team settled on the Dreamers project due to the sheer amount of access and connections we will have throughout the course of our project. I am very excited to tell the stories of these individuals and help others see life through their eyes. Some challenges that we might encounter could be some timing issues. The people we are working with have very busy schedules as do we and that may present some issues when it comes to us gathering content. This week I organized the team schedule, and did some research before our idea pitch. One of the biggest challenges this week was trying to organize the team schedule and trying to get everything done in a timely manner while also allowing for some buffer space to help with the groups busy schedule. In the future, I would try to meet with the group rather than trying to figure out the schedule over the phone.

In JOMC 134 I think it will be imperative for our group to communicate clearly about expectations and deadlines in order to be successful. Teams who work successfully together are always on top of what needs to be done and by whom it needs to be done. Successful teams are also good at assigning tasks depending on each group members’ individual strengths. In our group, I think it will be important to divide up by visual tasks and written tasks. Half of our group seems to excel in things such as photography and videography while the other half excels in writing and research. I think this will be a good variety of skills for us to accomplish our goals throughout the semester. 

When a group is unsuccessful it is typically because they do not have a clear goal in mind. Often, groups get sidetracked on project and forget to think of a specific thing that they really want to accomplish. This semester I think our group will have a clear goal in mind and be able to execute our goal through our various strengths. 

In our group this week, we solidified our contract and set three ideas for our project. Our ideas were to work with the program Big Brother Big Sisters, vegetarian cooking on a college budget, and to focus on dreamers on our campus. We are excited to present our ideas next class and get feedback from faculty.

This week my group discussed the three main project ideas that we want to expand on in the coming weeks. We came to these decisions pretty easily, and it is really refreshing to have a group that thinks similarly to one another and is all interested in pretty similar things. The three ideas we came up with are either working with MASA, Big Brothers Big Sister or a project on the health benefits and cost-effective ideas for eating vegan/vegetarian meals. I really like all of these ideas and I think that all of them touch on important subjects and can be really informative in their own ways.

In terms of how our group can be successful this semester, I think that communication and delegation of work is a really important thing. One person definitely cannot do this project on their own, and the fact that we all have varied skills and have already gotten an idea of the different tasks that each one of us would be best at doing is definitely a good sign. I think that as long as our group takes responsibility for the specific things they are tasked with and shows dedication towards the project, we will be successful. Personally, I think that one thing I need to work on this semester in order to help my group succeed would be to come out of my comfort zone and speak up in the group. I am an introvert, which can sometimes make it hard for me to voice my opinions on things, whether that be an idea I may have or constructive criticism.

For my team to be successful this semester, I personally need to make sure I’m on top of all the research and video editing we need for the project. I also need to make sure I come out of my shell a bit more and share my opinions and ideas.

I think any successful team exhibits open communication, set expectations, and a collective investment in the in goal. In this case, that end goal is both a good grade and hopefully a completed project to be proud of. A few factors that could contribute to an unsuccessful team is lack of task-management, someone’s voice being silent, and non-participating members. I don’t think we will have that problem with this group though.

This week I contributed to the team in the same manner I’d say everyone else did. I shared some ideas for our three pitches, one of which was agreed upon. I suggested we find a way to partner with Big Brother Big Sister of Lincoln, because I know they are having trouble as an organization overall.

I think the main problem we had on our last meeting was the general lack of ideas floating around, but it could be due to the good suggestions brought up early. We discussed as a group that next meeting we should all come with ideas before hand so we can save time for more important aspects of the project.

This week our group discussed the three main ideas we would focus on for our presentation, which were topics that we were all able to agree on. It’s great to know that everyone in our group is willing to contribute and divide the work evenly. My group members seem to be really great at communication so far which is something I appreciate. They’re open to new ideas and we all respect each other’s opinions. These are all characteristics of a team working successfully together. In order to continue to be successful in the class we must continue to have effective communication and and be willing to help each other and put in the same amount of work. This week we each divided the presentation research. My group members agreed to divide two of the topics that they had more knowledge in, while I agreed to take on the one about undocumented students, since I am am already pretty informed about this issue. This is one of the first classes where I actually feel pretty good about working in a group project because my group members have already showed they are willing to put in the work to make a successful project. I look forward to working with them the rest of the semester and I think we’re going to create something really great.