ANALYST - REFLECTION

Good evening! I'm Alicia, and I'd like to present a reflection in regard to our work during this week on behalf of Pickle RICT. Shall we start?

This week has certainly been a curious, yet sad one. We've gone through situations that we could have never expected to happen, maybe because it resembles some sort of film plot. It's always been common for people to ask themselves "why" and "how" do things happen, and sometimes similar questions to this rise, without a dark tone to them, such as what would we do if we were to live for two months straight without leaving our houses, what would we do if we were to a deserted island, or even If we'd like to be part of a situation which resembles "The Walking Dead."

Many changes have taken place during these few past days, and we need to be ready for the ones that are yet to come... But despite that, we're all working together and doing our personal best to prove that we're fighting for our future and for the people we want to become. It's a complex situation, for sure, but I believe we can all use it for improving ourselves and gaining healthier habits. Because of the COVID-19, some people have realized the importance of their actions, having solidarity and staying at home for both their own health and everyone else's. But sadly, not everyone follows this rule, claiming that they're not doing the quarantine because of plenty of reasons that seem legit for them. I firmly think that by making the #WeStayAtHome video our Resources and ICT teacher, Linda, has put together, we have learned a bit more about being aware of our actions and at least, I do hope we've prevented someone of going out; thinking about the possible consequences instead, and staying at home.

It was been because of this massive coronavirus around the world that the task we've had to do for this week changed. Instead of working on the "Un Día en el Cole de mi Maestro" activities, we were told to design an online activity that could be used to teach the same contents, but in a similar situation to the one we're currently living under. We were lucky to work with storytelling, as we were put together with another group whose task was the same as ours, so we were able to put our thoughts and ideas in common, doing a brainstorming. Nonetheless, it wasn't as helpful and successful as we thought it would be, probably because we were lots of people and it was hard to let everyone's ideas be heard, so we failed at making the most out of it. That was probably the worst part of it, but at the same time, we had lots of fun when listening to what the other group's activity consisted of. We loved their props!

As for the workgroup, being honest, this week has been chaotic. Barely nobody has shown interest in the tasks and we've been in a rush until the very last moment before the deadline, presumably because of the changes of schedules, but this is something we must definitely work on, as there's not enough communication between the group members and there's obviously an unbalanced amount of dedication and interest shown for the sake of the group, which is sad to see, although it also awakes the feeling of wanting to do better the next time, even though it sometimes feels as if we're just getting worse as a group, not because of some loose gears, but because of the whole system itself. We are supposed to work together and care for one another, instead of limiting ourselves to writing down our names in the "roles for the week" message and waiting for someone else to tell us what to do, or even read. I utterly believe in us as a group. We have lots of strong points: engaged people, students who are great at expressing themselves, creative members, cheerful ones... But lately, our weaknesses seem to cover the positive ones, and we need to change this.

The worst part of the activity was seeing how people disconnected from it, they changed from being completely engaged back in the classroom, to not saying a thing afterward up to the point of having a strong division of tasks, when we all should work as a group.

Moving onto the activities themselves, we have learned to manage ourselves through VRChat and TikTok, the two platforms we designed our activities for. Those who were unfamiliar with it learned about them, and those of us who had previous knowledge about them, still learned a couple of new things, such as how difficult it is to create your own model from scratch for VRChat.

Finally, in regard to the existence of a social connection, there is for sure. For instance, the whole reason behind this activity is COVID-19 itself, but fostering the use of apps such as TikTok for educational purposes allow the students to learn to use a fantastic tool they'll most likely be familiar with, but would have never played with it that way because it does not appear on the "trendy" side of it, so it opens the students' horizons.