INTRODUCTION
Building on my learning from semester one, I have continued to grow and develop in my confidence and competence as a multidisciplinary professional. Semester one’s learning for me was mostly around skills and techniques, whereas this semester I have begun to process and think things through from more of a rounded perspective rather than just a design viewpoint. I felt the role of the knowledge strands and the teaching staff shifted this semester, in semester one there was a lot of directly applicable knowledge gained that helped develop the projects in a more direct way, as apposed to this semester which has deepened my understanding and learning of the skills and knowledge of a MDI which will enhance my future abilities and professionalism. All of our projects this semester were with live clients and some have even had a direct and immediate impact.
This semester I felt I have evolved into more of a practiced multidisciplinary professional, as a cohort we have had to manage ourselves more and take responsibility for delegation and division of teams. This has been a great experience, but has meant it’s been more challenging. Within our final project I stepped forward as the project manager, which was a great experience, but I also found personally developmental. I have tackled new roles and responsibilities and broadened my thinking to more of a business and technology mentality. Each strand has played a part in the development of myself but also within the quality of work produced. The teaching staff had a great input to the project work throughout different points and explained to us how some tools and techniques learnt in class could be applied in certain ways. Within Planning and Professionalism I feel more confident than ever in my knowledge and understanding of the design business world. Having more classes focused on Marketing with David Brown was another set of skills learned to add to my portfolio in this semester. Methods and Communications strand has pushed me to be more adventurous with my methods used within the projects, trying out new techniques to gather data and information; and analyzing this information to develop ideas further during projects. The Science and Technology strand this semester has been focused around programming and web design, which was helpful directly to the assessment in development of this website. John has been an incremental part of project development as well, helping build on the skills learnt in semester one and aiding us prefect them for deadlines and hand-ins. Michael Green was new to MDI this semester; his sessions have been a huge benefit, covering a wide variety of areas and building learning for my future. Topics we have looked into include: global culture, and the roles it plays in the workplace; leadership; and information about how to sell yourself to potential employers. This knowledge has been utilised during different stages in the projects and has been very beneficial. Overall this semester has once again surprised me and kept me on my toes! MDI never ceases to amaze, considering the few months that I have been on the course; it is phenomenal to reflect on how much I have learnt.