Week 6 - An Update on the Team Project

I reached out to the rest of the Red Team about choosing a topic for the group project. We leaned more towards discussing fast fashion and farming, but we hadn't settled on a concrete topic.  At the time, it was difficult to have a discussion since not all of us were online. This is understandable as we all have different projects and errands to run. A few days later, Rachel suggested that we meet up in Second Life at the TU Dublin Campus which we thankfully did with no issues. I still found it odd to do assignment work through a virtual environment, but overall it was casual and almost relaxing to do work without having to travel to meet up. After some debate, we settled on writing about fast fashion for certain for this assignment. We chose this topic because we felt that it's very relevant to the theme of the project because that industry contributes a significant amount of carbon emissions and waste. Fast fashion is also a very broad topic which means that we could definitely do a 5 to 10 minute presentation. I'm looking forward to researching this topic as I've never investigated it before.


We agreed to do a slideshow because it would be easy for us to work together and see each other's work. We also discussed potential ideas for slides. Rachel and I took down the ideas as we were talking. Chenming suggested the unique idea of waste in the medical field in regards to gloves, bibs, etc. He also suggested good ideas for other topics such as wastefulness of one-use items such as coffee cups, however upon further discussion we all felt that we couldn't do a full presentation on that topic. Rachel suggested discussing the production and transport of fast fashion among other ideas. I suggested how companies could reduce the harmful effects of the industry such as encouraging people to recycle clothes similar to TK Max, using alternative energy sources and producing only as many clothes as needed so there is no excess. Shortly afterward, Rachel created a useful layout for the presentation based on the ideas we discussed. There were 12 slides in total and we all agreed to pick what slides to do based on what we found to be the most interesting.  There is a possibility that we might change the order of the slides or add or remove topics depending on the amount of information available online and it's relevance to the assignment.


I decided to work on some elements myself behind the scenes. I practiced some basic editing using the trial version of Sony Vegas Pro to refresh my memory on how to use it. I figured that it might be a useful skill for the future because I might be able to create a video for the project using relevant footage. Showing the real-life destructive effects of fast fashion could be much more impactful over talking and reading about it. I'm open to the idea of making a video either by myself or with help, however, I am concerned if I'll have enough time to finish it. Depending on how progress on the slideshow goes, I might suggest making the video if I feel it's relevant and if I know for certain I can finish it on time. I wouldn't want to let my team down if I won't be able to make it for whatever reason.


Judging from the current progress on the project I would say that my team role based on the Belbin Team Inventory is being a plant. By nature, I'm an introvert and while I am working with the rest of the team, I also like to work by myself because I want to ensure that this project is as good as it can be. I also try my best to suggest as many ideas as I can to the rest of the team. I'm optimistic about our progress on the team project overall and I'm excited to see the results in the coming weeks.