Metacognition: TED Presentation Project

The project that is being analyzed or reflected upon is the TED Presentation Project. For this project, we had to choose a video from the TED website of speakers or a speaker whose topic and goals challenge a status quo in our society. The video I chose was "Inside the Google Machine." This video shows how Sergey Brin and Larry Page created Google, how they run their corporation, and how they are able to keep on growing in new directions. When I was starting my project I first figured out what needed to be included in it. I did this by reading over the TED essay prompt so it was clear and so I knew what I had to look for and get out of the video. From there I decided to note the themes and ideas being presented that particularly stuck out to me. I wanted to pay a little more attention to what I personally thought was important because that could also be what is needed to fulfill some of the requirements of the overall essay. I watched the video one time through and wrote down what I thought was important. It turned out that I was missing a lot of the required parts of the essay so I watched the video another time through to make sure I fulfilled every requirement of the essay. I think that it would have worked out a lot better if I did it the other way around, fulfilling the requirements and then noting what I believed to be important. This would have benefited me because I could have fulfilled the requirements and complemented them with what I believed to be important, rather than trying to complement by own ideas by connecting them to the requirements, if that makes sense. What I like about taking out what I think is important first is that these ideas remain untainted and unbiased. If I look for the what the requirements think to be important, I am only following the status quo and focusing more on what the majority thinks to be important. For my next essay I hope to have more balance between my own ideas and those that are required. By doing so I can complement the necessary parts with my personal opinions. After receiving a D, my own way of thinking wasn't very effective so I am now open to new ways of doing things.