Now that our unit plans are coming to a close I can say that using technology to work with other group members was a positive thing. I think it made it a lot easier. We did our unit in Google docs. I liked how we were able to see what was happening and the professor could see how much each person contributed. The technology aspect did make it a lot easier than having to meet in person when people may not be available at the same times or be inconvenienced. I also like how all group members were able to see comments the professor and other people made instead of just one person being able to see comments made, as would be the case if the unit designs were done in paper format. Every group member could be working at the same time; I think this is a good thing.
Something I might do differently when working in another group is make a list of responsibilities from the beginning. We started doing this towards the end of this assignment but I would like to incorporate it earlier. Sometimes people are unaware of what's going on, we don't know who's supposed to do what, but if we have a clear list of responsibilities we have a better chance of everyone being on the same page. Communicating a little better is probably a good idea too.
I agree that the group work wasnt so bad, but I had a good group to work with. We used wiki but google docs i guess is close. The last group unit we did was more of meet and email what we had. The problem with that is we all had different programs so text was changed quite often between programs which made for time consuming editing. We had our responsibilty page set up early and it wokred well. It always good to get that up quickly. It is also a good idea that one person take a lead. There always has to be a person that will provide direction and focus in the project and make any final decison that the group cannot decide on.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the fact we were able to work with this online made it a lot easier than having to meet up everytime in person when we wanted to work on this project. I just think that because we weren't used to doing it this way, it was kind of hard at first. Like you said, I think it would have been good for my group to establish responsibilities at the beginning of the project because it would have made what we needed to do a lot more clear. I think that this is the type of thing that takes getting used to, but can be very effective.
ReplyDeleteThe things that worked for me are the same things you are reflecting on. Working through technology was a much easier process altogether than if we were to do everything in paper format or meet up. At first it was difficult because I was unfamiliar with the types of technology that were introduced to us in this class, but after spending time using it I was able to do things much more efficiently. I also liked that because we were working with other people, we were able to work off/with each other's ideas (experience in a real-life setting)and that every one had something to offer. Something I would have also done differently is to have the responsibilities lined up from the beginning. I'm not sure there is anythign else I would have changed to make it run any smoother.
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