Peer Assessment

If I had to pick two other students from our class that have shown a great improvement of their work throughout the class, it would have to be Kyle and Ciarra. Specifically from Kyle the way he presents so nonchalant was pretty surprising. He talked to the audience in a way that was persuasive, without even meaning too. Was just funny to see how far he has come to improvising his presentations. From Ciarra, she showed a great example of maintaining good eye contact and posture while presenting. All in all, these examples helped me further my own presentations in the class.

Self-Assessment

If I were to compare myself to who I was at the beginning of semester, I would say I have definitely changed a lot as a person. Not to be clique, but as a presenter and audience member I’ve learned so much from our classroom peers. Every time we presented, each of us told a story that related to us, it told something about yourself that everyone had yet to learn, because of that I think that is the reason why we’ve grown closer as a class. Public speaking sure is something outside my comfort zone and eventually I got accustomed to doing it every other few weeks. I believe I achieved my goal from what I could and that was to not flop too hard on a presentation, so thankfully none of my presentations went far south.

 

Individual Conference Presentation 4

Due to many controversial topics, I switched my topic from helmet regulations in the US to the overall bike infrastructure in the US. I went on explaining how I could compare it to other successful bike culture like Copenhagen or London. I as well found many comparable statistics of Copenhagen to the United States bike infrastructure. The point of my presentation is to bring more awareness of how these other countries have such successful bike cultures and how we could learn from them to build a strong bike community. Being that this is an advocacy and activism presentation, I’ll be advocating how we need to improve on bicycle safety on the road, as the US has one of the highest bike to car collisions in the world. As of now the quick solutions we have come up with are to wear a helmet and painting white lines creating an imaginary barrier to protect you from flowing traffic. In the long run, improving the bike infrastructure is the best the way to prevent further accidents.

SC – Project 1

Speaking Center Post for Project 1:

Way back in September at the Speaking Center, the instructor essential gave me tips written down on the steps for a good presentation. Simply we went over being persuasive with the tone of voice, engaging with the audience with eye contact, and sounding genuine. Many times people fall flat due to just not sounding genuine enough, they are presenting on a topic that they aren’t typically passionate for, but just have to present anyways. For that reason, I specifically chose a topic that I really like and thought could talk endlessly about. Overall the speaking center was really useful in providing tips for public speaking and patched up a portion of my previously written script.

Module 3: Reading Response 3

From personal experience they have been times where I had to sacrifice for the team. Way back, I remembered a time when my junior basketball team made it to the semi finals. We had a great shot at even winning the entire tournament. However before the game my parents told me that even if we won, I was going to be out of town for the finals. For that reason, I played my hardest. It was definitely one of the hardest and closest games I had at the time. (at the time I was the lead shooter “point guard”) I did my best and we barely won by 2 free-throws that I made at the end. I don’t exactly know the score, but we won by 2. I played like it was my last, and that pushed me to make decisive decisions in game. So in the end, our team made it to the finals and got destroyed by like 20 points it was pretty sad, but I did what I could to get my team to the finals. This is quite funny looking back at it. So that is just my personal humor story about sacrificing for the team.

Module 3: Reading Response 2

In Rendell on an Ocean of Air, what I seem to getting out of it the most is how for success there will be sacrifice. For there to be a champion, there need to be losers. In the few pages given, Rendell describes what it is like to be on a competitive cyclist team. There is a lot that goes into the races as the first 3 riders are drafting their anchor to the finish line. Essentially the first few riders are sacrificing their strengthen so that their anchor has a chance at sprinting at the finish line.

 

Write Out for Project 4

How does the US bike infrastructure compare to other bike cultures?

Notes: The US transportation isn’t centered around bike culture. Bike paths are quite narrow despite current road developments to provide bike pathways. Very weak bike infrastructure opposed to other country systems.

Writing: There is a problem in the US. The bike infrastructure is inefficient and poorly maintained. For the average american it isn’t designed for optimal everyday use, even despite additional improvements to appeal towards the public. There is also a constant demand for greater road safety for cyclists, such road barriers, or larger bike pathways. First of all, the US isn’t entire invested in its bike culture, or public transportation; surely every city has its public transit to get you to point A to B but it isn’t quite as efficient as persay a car. The entire US transportation infrastructure centralizes around cars, reason being why we have so few cyclist on the road. In Denmark’s capital Copenhagen,they have bikes outnumbering cars. People in Denmark cycle on average 688 kilometers each year, the number of cyclist killed per billion kilometer of bicycle traveled stands at 12 relatively.In the US the average cyclist travels 47 kilometers in a year, the number of cyclist killed per billion kilometer of bicycle traveled stands around 44. Even with more cyclist in Denmark riding daily, it resulted in fewer fatal crashes. The reason why biking is so ideal in Denmark is because the bike paths are relatively wide. It provides space to prevent collisions, side by side riding conversations, and easy flow of traffic. The pathways in Denmark range up to 8 feet or 2.5 meters. In the US that bike path is cut in half at only 4 feet or 1.2 meters. This minimal biking space basically haves you riding alongside the busy traffic. Denmark isn’t the only place to have a strong bike infrastructure. Places such as London also known to have protected bike lane networks and cycle highways. It was recently recorded through monitoring data that cyclist are 5 times more efficient than car lanes.

Class 11

In class we had a discussion about how only some of our freedoms of speech are protected by the government. Words such a yelling bomb or fire, or forbidden, unlike chaotic protest. It is quite funny how the law works, as it protects specifically the government and anything that can upset it, anything else not related to it is not of their concern. We also discussed about certain words you may use when giving a presentation. Do swear words less your presentation or strengthen it? Well depending on the usage it can emphasize a point you are trying to get across. However their are certain situations where we must be careful of our word choice, such as a job interview. Swearing doesn’t look to good as a first impression and would likely hurt your chances of getting the job due to your poor professionalism.

Class 12

Today we worked on our inner YouTube voices. He went online and looked up types of people who had an open voice in front of a camera, such as content creators as Casey Neistat, NigaHiga, and Tyler Oakley. With a so called YouTube voice is where you are able to present your content in a persuasive way to keep you engaged. A reason to click off a video is because the viewer was inattentive to what you were doing. On the successful spectrum of YouTube those who have a unique personality or way of talking are often in the spot more often. With their uniqueness they stand out of a crowd. The way you talk just may be interesting enough for some people, such as a UK accent. Back to what we did in class, briefly we worked on our YouTube voice. We were put in pairs to practice our YouTube voices. My group, Ciarra and I went outside of the library and imitate a YouTube vlog. We found out that in most vlogs they have a very cheerful intro welcoming the audience and add plugins to their social medias. They often just describe what they doing at the moment, and towards the end they thank the audience with staying with them until the end of the video. Doing this shined some insight of how natural these people make it look on camera, as Ciarra and I were constantly laughing at the perspective of vlogging in public. So props to those YouTube who vlog for a living as it is much more difficult than it seems.

Individual Conference Project 1

I believe that I brief proposed my concept of “Thinking yourself faster” by the Global Cycling Network. I wanted to present something that I could closely relate, as it would be much easier to present something I was much more knowledgeable in. The video that I watched educated me how it is more so mind over body. Despite being physically stronger than your opponent, if they are mentally stronger they are on equal bases with you. There is a theory that if you push your mind base your physical limitations you are able to Think yourself faster. Especially in competitive cycling, when your muscles  are fatigued, and you are pulling up on the final sprint to the finish line. If you don’t think about fatigue and more about pedaling harder, it can actual increase your chances of surpassing your limits. The mind is a powerful tool, and can overcome many obstacles. So what I’d present on from the Global Cycling Network video is how the you can thinking yourself faster, and present some thorough explanations. (increasing cadence on inclines, sprinting, etc)