Week 13 Group Work

Wikipedia defines group work as “a form of cooperative learning.  It aims to cater for individual differences, develop students’ knowledge, generic skills (e.g. communication skills, collaborative skills, critical thinking skills) and attitudes”.

The great thing about group work is that group experience and ideas are used as a means of individual and group growth and development.  Group work brings individuals with a variety of personality and skills work together to contribute each one’s strengths and efforts for a project.  

On the other hand, it is hard to accurately evaluate individual contribution of a team project. There was a discussion earlier in this class that some folks shared some friends’ negative team work experiences. It is not unusual that some team member (un)intentionally don’t their work, consequently the others without no choices have to carry the load.  In school setting, the project is usually assessed based on the whole project rather than individual efforts. It is not fair for those hard working members get the same grade as the lazy students in the same projects. 

Effective communication is a lifelong learning process to me. Working with people with different personalities demands different communication skills. Overall speaking, learn to listen, critical think, express yourself precisely and compromise is crucial for efficient and effective communication for group work. 

Week 12 Working on Project B

One of seven rules for good instructional design revealed in the textbook – rapid instructional design is that use whatever works for you to make instructional design easier, faster, and cheaper. That is exactly my ultimate principle for my Project B instructional design within a tight working schedule. I am still trying to find the right place to upload the e-learning classes and to put everything together in a logical flow and meet my target learners’ needs.  

Week 11 Self regulation / management and communication

The term self-regulated can be used to describe learning that is guided by meta-cognition (thinking about one's thinking), strategic action (planning, monitoring, and evaluating personal progress against a standard), and motivation to learn (Butler & Winne, 1995; Winne & Perry, 2000; Perry, Phillips, & Hutchinson, 2006; Zimmerman, 1990; Boekaerts & Corno, 2005). In particular, self-regulated learners are cognizant of their academic strengths and weaknesses, and they have a repertoire of strategies they appropriately apply to tackle the day-to-day challenges of academic tasks (Wikipedia). 

To me, being self-regulated first requires the understanding of subjects, self strengths and weaknesses. Accordingly, develop appropriate strategies to achieve goals. Being able to manage and regulate yourself is the preliminary of managing and regulating others. Communication is the bridge of collaborative management and regulation. There is a Chinese saying, the water that bears the boat is the same that swallows it up which depicts the role of communication in group projects. Only efficient and effective communication will give the teamwork rise to success.