Our Learning Journey

The four of us were not exactly good, close friends at the start, but after the creation of this project, we are now better able to understand each other's personalities, likes and dislikes. We started off the project in January and slogged a hard four months for it to bloom into fruition and the end result, in the form of our website, was truly worth it.

Firstly, to ensure that our teamwork would be flawless and as cooperative as possible, Charles first drafted the job distribution that would enable us to split the workload effectively and efficiently throughout the research process.

Daniel was tasked with web design while Shaowei, Yining and Charles would research and write the articles. In addition, Charles and Shaowei would also give out surveys while Yining, being a Literature student, became main editor of the articles. We all attended the interviews while Charles did the interview and survey analysis. Shaowei also aided Daniel in other technical aspects.

With the help of our teacher-mentors, friends and family members, we were able to dispel most of the obstacles in our way, however, there were a few particularly disturbing ones that we had to work around.

Due to the fact that our schools were located in different parts of the country, communication problems were bound to happen, however, in order to reduce the chance of such a thing happening, we communicated regularly through email and MSN messenger, an instant-messaging system. We also met up multiple times throughout the course of the project to edit and finalise the articles, besides lending a hand in help to each other.

Communication problems were the least of our worries, as we would soon find out. The initial web design included corporate trademarks and logos to illustrate advertisements, however, it soon proved difficult to find and ask for permission for the copyrighted images. Many of the interviewees we attempted to contact also did not reply to our requests.

The lack of time due to our busy schedules was the most difficult hurdle to cross. Being only secondary school students, we could not forget our studies and tests. However, we persevered and, with the help of adequate time-management, we were able to put aside ample time for the completion of the project.