By Makenzie Marineau
Today is the day. All of the hard work over the past month has come down to tonight. During our project there has been a lot of ups and downs, but when isn’t there. Group projects like this can only prepare students for what the real work world will be like, that means when things go wrong, because we all know they will, you can handle that pressure and come through successfully. I am exhausted and eyes are blurring but I can still say I pulled through and finished the job I set out to do with my group. A summary of what has led me to here:
Starting from the beginning....
When we first began to settle into groups I was still sitting alone. I didn’t know anyone in my class and unfortunately hadn’t been asked to take part in any of the group projects. But this gave me the opportunity to feel it out and see what everyone else was doing. I ended up being suckered into the great idea of “bridging the gap” between technology and senior citizens. I love technology and communication so this was a interesting subject to me.
From there ...
We had a hard time at first at pin pointing how exactly we wanted to tell this story. There are so many directions you can take from this subject that it was a bit overwhelming. Our group comes up with some excellent ideas but we did lack in the follow through at times. But with a few baby steps we finally starting walking toward something. John and myself headed to the Corvallis Senior Center and Stoneybrook Assisted Living Home to try and make a few contacts. The senior center had an amazing contact for us named Dwight Payne who would come in and actually teach other seniors how to use computers. Dwight ended up being one of our main resources for information and was an excellent interviewee. He eventually introduced us to Sheri who was also very beneficial to our project.
On the other hand Stoneybrook Assisted Living Home ended up being more of a challenge. I met with the administrator and sat down to a great interview with her early on, but when I tried to contact her again for interviews with any of the homes residents I was dodged, five times! I emailed her three times and called about three more and never heard from her again. I know I should of gone down to the home again but at some point you just take the hint that no one wanted to speak with us. I didn’t want to invade anyones privacy at the home so I decided it was better to put it behind.
Over the course of our project it was extremely difficult to get anyone together at the same time. We all are busy people who work and go to school making things difficult at times. I wasn’t always able to make it to the interviews, which I had hoped to be able to do, and a few times I asked to contacted and wasn’t. Communication is key when working in groups and when it fails it is hard to pick back up from where you left. I felt that during this project it challenged my managerial skills.
There is so much on this subject that I felt we didn’t get the chance, or time, to look deeper into. That is why I keep reminding myself that this project is just a stepping stone into something bigger. This idea we have of bridging the gap of technology and seniors is being practiced all over the world, and I hope I continue to explore this topic. I loved being able to sit down with my mother and grandmother and talk about what technology meant to them and how it has changed so drastically over the years. Everyone has such great stories to tell.
I have put a lot of hard work into this project. Did I get to do all that I wanted to do? No but I did with what little time I had on top of working two jobs and going to school. During the project I took the leadership role as much I could because we needed it to get going. I did not stand over anyone and tell them what to do but I made sure to call, text, email whenever I felt necessary to meet up or check in. It was frustrating at times because I didn’t feel as if I knew what everyone was doing, but again that goes back to the challenges of working in groups.
If we could of done it differently I would have scheduled times for everyone to walk into a senior center and attempt to get interviews instead of just a few of us. I think I would have tried to organize the project a bit better than it was. Sometimes I just felt we all weren’t on the same page. I would have loved to get more interviews with seniors but again not all of them are open to being recorded.
I wish I could of learned a few new skills and taken advantage more of the opportunity try new things. But overall we pulled it together and ended up with a very good beginning to something that could lead to something more in the future.
I will admit I was very proud of making this website.
Today is the day. All of the hard work over the past month has come down to tonight. During our project there has been a lot of ups and downs, but when isn’t there. Group projects like this can only prepare students for what the real work world will be like, that means when things go wrong, because we all know they will, you can handle that pressure and come through successfully. I am exhausted and eyes are blurring but I can still say I pulled through and finished the job I set out to do with my group. A summary of what has led me to here:
Starting from the beginning....
When we first began to settle into groups I was still sitting alone. I didn’t know anyone in my class and unfortunately hadn’t been asked to take part in any of the group projects. But this gave me the opportunity to feel it out and see what everyone else was doing. I ended up being suckered into the great idea of “bridging the gap” between technology and senior citizens. I love technology and communication so this was a interesting subject to me.
From there ...
We had a hard time at first at pin pointing how exactly we wanted to tell this story. There are so many directions you can take from this subject that it was a bit overwhelming. Our group comes up with some excellent ideas but we did lack in the follow through at times. But with a few baby steps we finally starting walking toward something. John and myself headed to the Corvallis Senior Center and Stoneybrook Assisted Living Home to try and make a few contacts. The senior center had an amazing contact for us named Dwight Payne who would come in and actually teach other seniors how to use computers. Dwight ended up being one of our main resources for information and was an excellent interviewee. He eventually introduced us to Sheri who was also very beneficial to our project.
On the other hand Stoneybrook Assisted Living Home ended up being more of a challenge. I met with the administrator and sat down to a great interview with her early on, but when I tried to contact her again for interviews with any of the homes residents I was dodged, five times! I emailed her three times and called about three more and never heard from her again. I know I should of gone down to the home again but at some point you just take the hint that no one wanted to speak with us. I didn’t want to invade anyones privacy at the home so I decided it was better to put it behind.
Over the course of our project it was extremely difficult to get anyone together at the same time. We all are busy people who work and go to school making things difficult at times. I wasn’t always able to make it to the interviews, which I had hoped to be able to do, and a few times I asked to contacted and wasn’t. Communication is key when working in groups and when it fails it is hard to pick back up from where you left. I felt that during this project it challenged my managerial skills.
There is so much on this subject that I felt we didn’t get the chance, or time, to look deeper into. That is why I keep reminding myself that this project is just a stepping stone into something bigger. This idea we have of bridging the gap of technology and seniors is being practiced all over the world, and I hope I continue to explore this topic. I loved being able to sit down with my mother and grandmother and talk about what technology meant to them and how it has changed so drastically over the years. Everyone has such great stories to tell.
I have put a lot of hard work into this project. Did I get to do all that I wanted to do? No but I did with what little time I had on top of working two jobs and going to school. During the project I took the leadership role as much I could because we needed it to get going. I did not stand over anyone and tell them what to do but I made sure to call, text, email whenever I felt necessary to meet up or check in. It was frustrating at times because I didn’t feel as if I knew what everyone was doing, but again that goes back to the challenges of working in groups.
If we could of done it differently I would have scheduled times for everyone to walk into a senior center and attempt to get interviews instead of just a few of us. I think I would have tried to organize the project a bit better than it was. Sometimes I just felt we all weren’t on the same page. I would have loved to get more interviews with seniors but again not all of them are open to being recorded.
I wish I could of learned a few new skills and taken advantage more of the opportunity try new things. But overall we pulled it together and ended up with a very good beginning to something that could lead to something more in the future.
I will admit I was very proud of making this website.
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