MD318 – Blog 10

This will be my final blog post. Yesterday, the final year interactive project exhibition was held. Although we all would’ve rather been gathered together in the library yesterday evening to witness each project come to life, we met over Zoom. I believe just under 60 people joined the chat, including the head of department and a lot of familiar faces between fellow students and past lecturers. One by one, a representative from each group introduced their project and gave the rest of us a preview of the work they had accomplished. I was extremely impressed by the quality of each project. Despite the interruption caused by Covid 19, each team managed to finish their project, all of them extremely impressive.

When it came to the presentation of our project, I was slightly nervous as the projects shown before ours – VR experiences & video games – were highly praised. Our project could be viewed as too simple, just a campus map?? However I was filled with relief as our video started to play and the positive feedback started to roll in. We had issues regarding the sound element of the video, however the music was not essential to our project. We left the link to our video in the chat so everyone could have a look at it after, if they pleased. The head of the department, along with Jeneen, Sarah Arnold and other Media lecturers all agreed the iMap could easily be implemented in the University. The other projects were all highly impressive too of course, but I believe our project stood out as it has the potential to be extremely beneficial to both staff and students at Maynooth. We have all experienced difficulty while trying to navigate the current Maynooth Campus map, Kylie Jarret even noted that the university was looking to improve and modernise it. Who knows, hopefully we may get to see iMap come to life in the near future.

To reflect on this overall experience, it has been a huge learning curve. I knew back in September that we as a team would encounter bumps in the road, however I don’t believe anybody predicted quite an obstacle like Covid 19. I began this journey worried about my level of skills when it came to coding – believing I would most likely be deigning a website. I was happy that I was able to explore and experiment with the concept of an interactive project. I could not have asked for a better team to work alongside either. Throughout my 3 years at Maynooth, I have worked on many group projects. Each experience has always included a level of conflict within the group – steamrollers, participants not pulling their weight, etc – which always added an unnecessary element of stress. But not this dream team. I can honestly say that over these past few months, I never once felt overwhelmed or annoyed in my group. If we had different ideas or opinions, we would not disregard or belittle the other, we worked together and explored every idea. This positive experience of group work has given me a great attitude towards working in a team environment after I graduate.

I also cannot thank our supervisor Javad enough for the attention he gave us throughout this project. The experience of having to work remotely at home, splitting up the group, was daunting at first. However, Javad was consistently reassuring us this project could adapt to suit the situation and he was always available over Teams if we ran into issues. I have gained a greater understanding of applications like Maya and Aftereffects which I had never used prior to final year. I had minimum experience with Photoshop in first year at Maynooth which has greatly developed over the past few months. I have also made some personal achievements whilst working on iMap. I used to have anxiety when I came to presenting or even simple things like answering a phonecall. Now, I am confident in my abilities to speak clearly and firmly to a room full of people. As well as this, the implications of Covid 19 meant I had to answer video calls over Teams and hold group meetings, all of which I have become extremely comfortable doing. I know these skills will stand to me in any career path as they allow me to put my best foot forward. You see, this project was not solely about the end result or adding something highly impressive to my portfolio. It was a giant learning curve. Yes, I am over the moon with the end result of our project which shows great potential to be transformed into a physical interactive map. But I am most happy with the knowledge and experiences I have gained throughout the entire process, which I can now bring forward into a career.