Well done! Your first team assignment is completed!
Reflect on the team process – have your original thoughts changed at all?
We worked well. We sat down and collaboratively decided on a team agreement which was typed up by Carrie and then put on the Wiki by me. My thoughts haven’t change yet
Do you perceive any challenges or difficulties that weren’t identified in the team profile
It is difficult to allocate work as a lot of tasks involve working together and collaborating, rather than handing out different work to different people and going off and doing it individually. It is a big group so it is a bit hard to sit down together and all work on the one thing. Perhaps work can be allocated to 2 people to work on together and collaborate outside of class – to break down the numbers.
How do you feel now about future team assignments?
I’m scared.
What does your team role indicate about your contributions to the team
I am a coordinator. However, there are three coordinators in my team. We have decided that Carrie will coordinate he weekly meetings, Jenee will edit final work and my contribution will involve the collaboration of work from the other team members in order to produce the final task on the Wiki.
Why would you use this process (the online team profile questionnaire) with a team being brought together for a project?
This process is useful in deciding on the allocation of roles and tasks in the most efficient way especially in a team that has not worked together before as members don’t know each others team work habits, strengths and weaknesses. It allows for the group to function in the most efficient way.
How do you think your team will overcome its areas of weakness?
I don’t think there are many weaknesses in my team; we have quite a varied range of team roles. The only thing I could se being a problem is people not putting in the required amount of work and effort, however, we have addressed this in our team agreement and have a strategy for dealing with it.
Having read the Subject Outline, what are your expectations for this subject?
My initial expectations of this subject are that it will be rather similar to ‘E-Learning Theories’ in the sense that there will be a bit of design involved, but with more of a focus on the organizational context. Because the subject assessment is mostly based on group work, I expect that this subject will involve negotiation of ideas and compromise.
What do you think about working in a collaborative team for this subject?
Can I speak honestly? I am not a fan of group work. Especially in a subject where there is a lot of throwing around of ideas and design involved. Considering this is a team which pre-selected I am worried about how it will all work out. However, this is what it is going to be like in the workplace, and my team is good and consists mainly of people who get their work done and want to get good marks so I am sure we will be fine!
How do you anticipate the team process will work?
I expect that our team meetings will consist of brief discussions followed by an allocation of tasks which are to be completed during the week and reported back the following week. Carrie will probably coordinate the weekly meetings and I expect that I will be putting together the final product as I feel comfortable in this role.
I have been naughty and not blogging at all. I know. I’m sorry. I’m working on it. Soon you will see all of my weekly focus questions posted in bulk.
Hi everyone! Isn’t it exciting that we are finally in the last semester of our degree! I can’t wait to never post assignments on my weblog again 
But for the moment, here ar my result after taking the Team Roles Test:
It appears that I am a Coordinator.
My score = 94
Similar to:
- Belbin’s Co-ordinator
- Margerison-McCann’s Thruster-Organizer
- MTR-I’s Conductor
What do your results mean?
According to your score you seem to naturally gravitate towards the role of Coordinator in a group. This means that you like to organize tasks, assign them, and keep tabs on the teamwork being accomplished.
Description of the role
Coordinators are the people who keep precise notes, know exactly where the project is at any given point in time and call status meetings when needed. Being analytical organizers, Coordinators clarify goals, remove ambiguity from complex and difficult tasks, and hand out “to-do” lists or deadlines to team members. Highly structured, mature and confident, Coordinators juggle priorities, keep track of the chronological order of task execution, tasks division and various assignments, and ensure the availability of resources – human, material or informational – when organizing a project. In short, good delegation skills and a keen sense of justice allow these indispensable team members to coordinate all efforts and implement decisions.
Strengths of the Role
The Coordinator is an integral role in any team; without this person work may never be accomplished with any semblance of order. The Coordinator is often the starter of a project. They collect the information, help develop plans, put them in order and hand out task assignments, often without being asked! Coordinators tend to be efficient, down-to-earth individuals who rarely get sidetracked. They are goal-oriented and focused. The Coordinator is a powerful position because this person holds vital information and is aware of every aspect of the project.
Weaknesses of the Role
Coordinators can be perceived as bossy and overbearing. Occasionally they overstep their boundaries, especially when assigning work to other team members. Some Coordinators might get caught up in a project or task and forget about the personal or human aspect of teamwork and focus only on the goal and the process of reaching it.
SYNCHRONOUS COMMUNICATION: Transfer of information without delay
Examples:
- Tradtional stand up teaching
- Video conferencing
- Webinars or web-conferencing
- Tele-conferencing or audio-conferencing
- VOIP: Voice Over Internet Protocols
- Chat, MSN
Advantages:
- Motivation: focuses the energy of group and encourages students to keep up with their peers and continue with study
- Telepresence: helps create a feeling of community and classroom cohesion
- Feedback: rapid feedback foster consensus-building in group activities
- Pacing: helps keep students up-to-date with the course
- Efficiency
Disadvantages:
- Lack of time delay, does not allow for research and thought
- Hard to coordinate if members are in diferent time zones
- Some synchronous technologies are costly and not readily available
ASYNCHRONOUS COMMUNICATION: All archived and stored materials
Examples:
- CD ROM
- Email
- Fax
- Web pages (those used for cummunication, such as Wikis and Weblogs)
- SMS
- Discussion boards
Advantages:
- Flexibility: access to the teaching material can take place at any time.
- Time to reflect: rather than having to react instantly, it allows the learner to reflect over ideas, check references and take time to prepare a reply. If the teaching session is recorded and archived then students can go back and review the lesson.
- Situated learning: the technology allows access from home or work, learner may have opportunities to integrate ideas being discussed on the course.
- Cost effective: text based systems require little bandwidth and low end computers to operate, making access more equitable.
Disadvantages:
- Lack of instant response can be frustrating
- Can be inefficient
Source: Encyclopedia of Educational Technology
After some minor dramas, our Learning Technology wiki is finally complete. It looks quite impressive, if I do say so myself… It will be interesting to open it up to the public and see if people contribute to it.
Now I am free to get started on Module 3, along with the other million assignments that are due in the next three weeks!
I’d just like comment on a inefficiency of wikispaces – the most frustrating piece of software in the world.
I have tried to post one of the activies onto the website, and I have realised wikispaces has a mind of its own. The text is bold where it is clearly not supposed to be bold, tables don’t work, stuff deletes itself…..I can’t work under these conditions…
The word documents for activities 2.5 and 2.7 can be found here:
(Tag, I’ve just put your work into word, and formatted it to match the other activities )
Activity 2.5
Activity 2.7
How exciting, we now have our very own Wiki! It’s called Learning Technology, and it here. It is nothing special as yet, but with a little bit of work, it will be the queen of all Wiki’s
