This post shows step by step how I found and used resources for a recent group presentation assignment. The task involved compiling a range of resources to present to the rest of our seminar group as an introduction to a new philosopher.
- Made Facebook group to chat about work, share ideas and organise a meeting on campus
Shared video by one of group members –
2. Looked on Study Direct (VLE) for any relevant reading posted by my tutor
Links to chapters as pdfs available as a starting point. I chose group 2’s link which took me to : http://dm.ncl.ac.uk/courseblog/files/2011/03/michel-foucault-panopticism.pdf
3. Once I had an idea of what specifically my tutor wanted us to research (Panopticism and ideas of discipline from philosopher Michel Foucault) I conducted my own research by using Library Search to search author Michel Foucault.
4. Unfortunately this gave over 59,000 results! So I refined my search again for author Michel Foucault only. This gave far fewer results (9).
5. Clicked on the first link as it was most relevant to my presentation topic which took me to SAGE journals and an abstract was available which I read to make sure the source would be useful to me. It seemed to be so I clicked on full text (PDF) to download.
I then made notes of Pages (Like Word but for Macs) to put together with everyone else’s work at the meeting.
6. Other group members found useful articles by searching Google directly or by using Google Scholar:
7. Met group in library the morning of presentation to put together research we had found + general information about the philosopher. Some of the group members wanted to use Google Drive to share work but others found it easier to be in the same room when we put the info together to avoid confusion and overlapping of work (I was part of the latter group).
8.Used Prezi as it looks more professional than powerpoint and you can access it online:
Each section had a specific theme (e.g general views by the philosopher, background and theories) but as it was a very short presentation we all contributed to them and presented together in a fairly informal manner.
Whilst this presentation was ungraded, it differed to group work I had done in first and second year in the fact that everyone took it a lot more seriously and did the extra reading! Perhaps it was because we couldn’t choose the groups we were in or simply because everyone knows this year is the most important. Either way it bodes well for the next presentation in a few weeks which will count for 10% of one of my modules.
I also ended up buying a book from the library bookshop because I was so interested by Foucault’s work and thought the book below looked interesting:
I tend to buy books out of interest and because I might also focus on his work for a long essay due in in January. I also only really buy books from the library bookshop if they are short and visually appealing and I am more likely to buy them if they are on offer.