Collaboration+Analysis

This assignment will give you an opportunity to experience some of the advantages and constraints of collaboration. Describe your experiences and explain how you might use these to inform your own classroom collaborations later.
 * Planning and Collaboration**

I am feeling the urge for some face-to-face collaboration. I need some "real-time" discussions to get my creative juices and enthusiasm flowing!
 * Jeanne

I am frustrated when I look at the posts and there are several who have not responded to the work from week 5. I now know how my students feel, and I will be more sensitive to their needs when they tell me that someone is not doing their share of the work. I just returned from a workshop on group work, so hopefully, some of the suggestions will work next year.

I also wish I knew how to use the wiki effectively. I finally figured out that I wasn't signing in, and that was why I could not post! I couldn't figure out why everything was protected! I am definitely wiki-challenged!

Jayne

Advantages – I like bouncing ideas off of each other. Yes, it would be nice to do some of it face-to-face or in a chat room-type conversation, but I think that there has been good sharing of ideas. Overall, I’m having a good learning experience comparing and contrasting other people’s thoughts and experiences. Constraints – not everyone shares the same priorities; there have been a few people who were late in getting their comments submitted. Luckily, our project manager carries on with or without those people’s comments. Thank-you for your commitment, Jayne! I have started putting the student’s who habitually do not participate in group work in the same group so that they can rise or sink to the occasion without frustrating their classmates. As for a collaboration project such as Daffodils, in a real classroom situation, if the students are aware of how often you are supposed to measure and report your numbers, they will remind the instructor that a post is due and that they need to measure their plants. Beverley

Advantages - It is nice to receive multiple perspectives and be able to use the strengths of everyone involved.

Disadvantages - It is hard to stay on the same page with everyone. Not everyone has the same work ethic or availability so setting up deadlines can be tough to handle. It is also hard when specific jobs are not assigned or the work is not actually divvied up because it can leave group members with a sense of not being able to contribute fairly or not knowing what they should be doing. It also does not allow for people to work within their own constraints. If they had a specific task assigned to them they could get it done at any point before the deadline without having to disappoint group members.

Next time I do a multiple group project I think I will try dividing the project up into job sections. Maybe this will help avoid a bosses and peon situation and allow everyone to feel connected to the project.

Shannon

I agree that is hard to do as a group. I just have found that it is hard to go back and forth between the course discussion and this page. I am someone that works best with only one source of information or place to work from. Multiple places confuse me and cause my productivity to be hindered.

Tony

Constraints Advantages (I also agree with Tony, I too do better with only one place to go to, it's a mind set I have to get into to go to more than one place, and there's not enough time for my mind to get there. - sorry) Jennifer
 * hard to get everybody at the same time for chatting
 * timing
 * online - internet/ service problems
 * waiting on everyone, before moving forward
 * differences/ disagreements on what is best
 * different perspectives
 * different ideas/ personalities
 * debating
 * "talk" it out
 * online – different environments, homes
 * Online – less shy about opening up
 * Learn to work with others (learn to share)