Duyen's 2 Minutes Reflection

Google Document: 2 Minutes To Make A Difference



2 Minutes To Make A Difference Video: Education For Girls In Afghanistan First Draft



2 Minutes To Make A Difference Video: Education For Girls In Afghanistan Final Version


I have made many changes to my 2 Minutes To Make A Difference Video. I practically changed the entire video. In my first draft of my video I had the words over top of the pictures, while I put the words on the final copy on separate slides. I also changed the font colour from pink, which represents the colour of females to white on the final copy because the pink shade I chose previously was a little to light and difficult to see. Another thing that I added to my video are some narrations to capture my audience's attention towards the main highlights that I want them to pay close attention to. I also made the statements more concise and less "wordy" because the statements in my opinion were to long. I also fixed a spelling mistake of the name "UNICIEF", to "UNICEF", with the help of Chelsea Canlas's sharp eye for spelling mistakes. Thank you Chelsea! Another thing I changed were that I add some different different pictures and took some out because I had a brand new set of eyes and fresh mind when I edited the video for the final version and I thought it didn't match the set of words and mood. The most important thing that I changed in my video is probably the provoking thought/question because I thought that my previous provoking thought/question in my previous video was not as strong as I wanted it to be. I am really satisfied with the new provoking thought/question. I also changed the format of the credits because the rolling of the credits in the rough draft made me feel extremely dizzy watching it. So probably my audience would have felt that way too. Instead I add one picture for all the credits so my audience's head won't be spinning out of control. Overall I am extremely ecstatic about my 2 Minutes To Make A Difference video. Lastly, I would like to thank you for all the wonderful comments and views that I received! The comments were all so helpful, and I read each and everyone of them.

First of all thank you:

Cy-Thea Sand
Women's and Gender Studies
University of Winnipeg

Marilou McPhedran
Principal, Global College
University of Winnipeg

Roewan Crowe Assistant Professor
Dept of Women's & Gender Studies
Co-Director, Inst for Women's & Gender Studies
University of Winnipeg

All these incredible women that volunteered to be interviewed, especially Cy-Thea Sand who always had the quickest and thorough responses. I found my experts through the University of Winnipeg Women's & Gender Studies Department website. Cy-Thea Sand was the one that answered all my questions in time for the video so I only took her ideas, but I e-mailed all my experts. She was also friends with Jackie Kirk, who did outside Kandahar, Afghanistan visiting a school of girls. Jackie's Story can be found here. Some things that I learned from my expert, Cy-Thea Sand are:

• "70 millions of girls couldn't go to school"
• "One issue is safety – the Taliban have targeted girls’ schools as a way to terrify families and keep control"
• The cause of denial of education for girls: "Poverty, war and conflict, patriarchal beliefs about the role of women. For aboriginal people in Canada, not going to or dropping out of school is a direct result of the abusive residential school system which existed in Canada until recently"

The three important points that my expert added to my video are:

1. Advised me to make the words more concise
2. Change the colour of font to be more visible
3. An empowering quote

In my opinion the greatest success of my video is probably the provoking thought/question that took me quite a while to compose, but it was worth the time and efforts. The reason why I think that the provoking thought/question is the most successful this provoking thought/question is the last thing you read so it will leave a lasting effect of wanting to make a difference. I hope that my audience will also consider it one of the highlights of my video and that it had a strong lasting positive effect on them too. A skill that I will take with me to use in the future that I gained through this whole experience is being a flexible person in order to work with three others with all very different work ethics and opinions. I will take the skill of flexibility every where I go in the future. No matter where I might be in the future.

What really frustrated me and made me feel furious is that I lost my original first draft then I had to remake it from the beginning and that all of my group members never had the "time", or "forgot" to do something. Some strategies that I used to help overcome these tricky obstacles are that I kept telling myself that they'll come around, they just have very busy lives compared to mine and I also learned to save my work in a USB stick and on my computer in order not to lose any precious work that I finished.

In my opinion, the 2 Minutes To Make A Difference project is important to the grade 8 students is because by working on this project in groups they will learn to interact with other people similar or different from themselves, which sharpens their sociability and flexibility skills. Another reason why the 2 Minutes To Make A Difference is to learn what types of conflicts there are in our modern day world or society without us, the typical Canadian teenagers might not notice on an everyday basis. This project is a really an eye opener for me and probably many other grade 8 students. What we might consider a "bad" day might be one of the best day of someone less fortunate.

I will make a difference in the future by informing others in my life about the current situations in the world and try to help tame the situation to the best of my ability. My dream is to open a foundation called "Be-U-tiful", that helps improve girls self-esteem and give out scholarships to girls who can't afford to go to a post-secondary school or any grade level in school.