Sammy Kumar

From the beginning of the Better Lives project it was communicated that personal development was encouraged through the delivery of the lectures. The exchange between the tutors and my collaboration group worked perfectly even though the second half was delivered remotely. The project outcome was very well curated, and we produced a PowerPoint presentation delivered on Blackboard. I was asked to present the slides I had worked on. The rest of the content was new to me as we all worked separately on our topics within the project. As one classmate was sick and not able to attend the presentation, we divided up her content. The feedback was positive. We initially had decided on a more niche concept but had to give it up due to time pressure and the lack of research. Another fact was that we were all working remotely and not able to set up a conference call due to different time zones. Large parts of the communication between the group happened on an Instagram group. Work was delegated by more engaged students.   

I do understand the intent of the Better Lives Unit. However, I was unable to explore inquiry (demonstration of abilities to make connections with the themes through exploring creative practice), process (experimenting with and exploring how the themes can inform practice on a selected project) and communication (reflecting on developing creative attributes, by exploring and discussing work) through my blog post. This unit has made it clear to me that I find it difficult to collaborate with others and it is not something that I will actively pursue in the future. I have not acquired any new skills through working on this project. My experience has been frustrating, and the situation of the pandemic made me disassociate even furthermore. An individual project and more 1 to 1 time with the teaching time would have increased my engagement. In the last week, we had drop in-sessions and I learned more about the unit and the project afterward by talking to my tutor.   

My group worked with Google Docs to create content for our presentation. I have worked with this Software before and did not require training for it. However, other students struggled and technical session on how to work together with technology delivered by Better Lives would be helpful. 

Furthermore, the Moodle set-up is very complex and does not make remote learning accessible to me as a student with a disability. My prior knowledge about diversity and inclusivity made me pick the lessons around these topics. However, these lectures never went into depth as this might be new to other students. I attended all lectures and group briefings and still have a strong belief that I did not contribute a lot to the project outcome. I am in favor of this unit being optional in the future as some students do not feel encouraged to explore their creative process. 

I was very clear about my selection for the Better Lives project. I have a strong interest in Public Relations and wanted to collaborate with the PR teaching team. As a Fashion Journalism Student, you are told that PR holds significant importance in being the link between journalists and brands. Most of the lectures held centered around social responsibility and the way it can be in cooperated in campaigns. We started by reflecting on how PR works and focused next on target audiences. It is very important to understand the customer in order to be able to create a customer profile and think about a cause they would be interested in.

I chose to work on Grace Wales Bonner. I was drawn to the brand due to her innovative approach to masculinity and her background as a creative of color marrying her identity with her work.

Creatively collaborating with students from other courses challenged my work ethic. I am someone who has bad timekeeping skills and submits work last minute. Working in a group required me to adapt to coordination and contribute my work so it could be edited together. Diversity has played an important role in the lectures. We were taught how privilege is ingrained in every aspect of life. In our group setting people from different abilities and privileges came together. Acknowledging and accommodating to their needs was an important factor of the collaborative work that wasn’t acknowledged.

Working with other people is an effort for me as I enjoy independent tasks. I don’t think I will be actively seeking to work with others in the future. Most of the times I felt not being able to voice my opinion and being silenced by more vocal team members. The tutors encouraged collaboration but were not able to control the group dynamic outside of class. It was decided to set up an Instagram group. Early into the project, it became apparent who was invested in the project and who wasn’t. Motivated students distributed the tasks. This led to me disengaging from the entire project.

Furthermore, the pandemic discouraged me to contribute my ideas. I was initially on-board to explore a cause that thematized the Windrush Generation, something Wales Bonner would be able to get behind. However, we as a group decided to go with the easiest cause and work collaboratively on a Google Doc.

Better Lives has not introduced a new way of working to me. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the lectures and the teaching by the PR team. The only skill I have acquired is working with Google Docs remotely. Something I am keen on learning in the future is to be able to bring in my ideas within a group and not feel gaslight.