The Assignment
I was nervous about starting this assignment because we would not only be marked on how well our presentation went but also on how the group members viewed our contributions to the project over all. The group assessment was so daunting for me, in the end, was the part that I valued the most and have implemented into my classroom as a way to teach the students that what they contribute is valued and if someone is not engaged in the project their mark will reflect it (3.5).
It is always hard for me to choose groups, both in person and online, because when choosing people never disclose that they have personal issues or that their lives are a little jam-packed with extra curricular activities which will make it hard for them to participate in the group assignment. Another reservation I had was about the presentation style, like F-2-F environments the information has to be engaging and informative it is just harder to see if the viewer is in-fact engaging with the information when they are not looking directly at the presenter. The engagement has to provoke self motivation in the learner to keep them going all the way to the end of a presentation.
http://www.customcabinetgirl.com/2017/04/pick-me.html
This assignment also required us to pick a group consisting of two to three people, and present a mini proposal of technologies that could be used to support a classroom with details of how and why they would be useful. We would then be expected to moderate a discussion forum that would consist of posting three guiding questions that would be answered by our classmates after they had watched the presentation. The group would be responsible for monitoring and answering any misunderstandings that our peers may encounter during the presentation.
Making the Groups
In most courses it is expected, from the instructor, that by the second or third week into the course we are to choose our group members for the group assignment. This is always hard for me because I like to have my papers and assignments outlined within the first week of learning about an assignment. With this in mind I also know that I am not the greatest at citations and so I always feel the need to disclose this information for people who may want to work with me. When I posted in the “searching for a group” section of our Moodle site I typed, “Looking for a partner or partners who are willing to start early, finish with a week to spare for revision purposes and are proficient in citing as I am still learning this skill and will need support.” Immediately I had one person contact me (A), I was thrilled because she also wanted to start early and was willing to get started that weekend. By Friday I had noticed another person (B) in our class was still looking to join a group so I reached out to her and asked her to join us, she did.
How Our Group Felt Mid Project
Part 1: Frustration With Communication, or Lack There Of.
That weekend B and I created an email thread, with all three of us on the email list, however, B and I were the only ones who seemed to be reading these emails. B started the outline and we worked together that weekend, as our time allowed, to solidify the main parts of the assignment. By Monday we had still not heard from A and we began to think she had dropped the course (1.1). I emailed the instructor and was assured that she had not dropped the course and that she would contact A to find out what was happening. This worked out and A finally contacted us by the Wednesday. I was relieved and we started to divide up the sections. I took the intro and one of the three main sections, B took the conclusion and a main section and we let A have the job of adding in charts and details that supported the main sections as she had said her life was really busy and she had limited access to a computer for the next week (4.5).
https://survivinglongdistance.wordpress.com/tag/passing-the-time/
A week passes and our assignment was due in two days. B and I have our sections done and we are waiting for A to add in her charts and supporting documents. On the night before it is due we have still seen nothing added by A and there have been no emails stating she is working on it or if she is struggling. B and I decided we better get the information in and email our professor once again. We ask for an extension, as we now have to complete a section that was not planned and still need time to edit. That evening B and I stay up until 1:00 am working on the final draft of the paper. By the time we finish we decide we need to take a break and come back to it in the morning with fresh eyes to ensure it flows and the citations are correct (4.1).
The Final Video
Part 3: Moderating the Forum
This was the first time I had to moderate a Forum for a group project. I found that with a group it is difficult to ensure everyone has an equal opportunity to answer questions. I was on maternity leave and that allowed me to answer questions at any time of day. The other two were still working so they could only go on when they had breaks, before or after work. If I was having trouble or was unsure my answer was correct I would send an email to my group and ask if my response was okay. Sometimes B would reply saying she would add more and answer the post and other times B would reply with sounds good. I never received a response from A and it seemed that she was done with the presentation even though we were not done our tasks for the assignment. This was frustrating but as she was going through some personal trials I decided that I would not worry about it because the professor and my group members were still assessing my mark at the end of the assignment. I continued to answer questions and send emails for clarification and direction to both members.
The first screenshot to the right shows my participation in moderating our group forum(4.4), and the second screen shot shows my justification as to why we chose to use some of the technologies within our presentation (4.3).
At 9:00 am we receive a very angry email from A about how she had spent the last week compiling information and now there was nowhere for her to add it as we had gone ahead and completed the paper without her. She relayed information about her struggling to get access to a computer and that we had made it so she would not receive a good mark even though we knew she was going to be doing her part. She mentioned seeing the email we had sent the previous day about asking for and being approved to extend our due date by two days and so she thought she had some more time.
In order to organize and convey everyone's ideas we all met that night on Skype and in the Google document (4.8), where the paper was written, and edited the paper together. Adding in A’s information where it worked and removing some of B and my work to accommodate hers (1.5, 4.7). This pleased her and since we had one more part to do as a group we needed to all get along. She assured us that her life was better now and she would have access to a computer more frequently so the second part would not be a problem.
Part 2: The Presentation
We all met on Skype to discuss the many different avenues we could use to communicate our information with the class. We wanted a interface/application that would allow our group to collaborate and share easily. A and B were not sure what way we could do this other than using Google slides, which I vetoed because it was too easy and would not do our presentation justice, especially since it was about exciting technologies to use in the classroom. I had students in the past use prezi to present their information and they always had really engaging presentations. I suggested prezi because it allowed for collaboration and we could each access it on our own time (3.1, 3.3). A and B agreed, B wanted to record the presentation so we could elaborate on the steps, like a video podcast. I had never done this before so I was unsure how it would work, however, I did agree that it would be a benefit to the presentation if we could elaborate on points and make the presentation shorter with less information for the viewer to read (4.2). B did a screencast of the presentation as I read a script over Skype. I was worried that the quality was going to be poor and it was. At this point our project needed to be completed. I asked A if I could record myself in a voice recording application on my phone and then send that to her so she could add it to the video. A said it would possibly work and if it did not then we could just use the first recording. Thankfully the voice recording transferred easily into iMovie, where she was adding it to our video, and the voice speed was well matched to the video. A had to do a couple of cuts when I paused but otherwise there was minimal extra work to add in the audio file. A posted the video and I posted the questions for the class to answer after the video was completed.(1.9, 4.6)
Forum
Justifying and Defending Our Ideas
Group Work and What I Learned
In every course I have ever taken in my years of schooling, kindergarten all the way to my final masters course, there have been group projects or papers. This is not always a bad thing, group work teaches many positive things such as; communication skills, workload sharing, life and school balancing, equality in breaking up the workload, and compassion for those who may be going through some hard times (3.1). Negative things that come from group work could be listed in almost identical order; lack of communication skills, workload sharing is uneven, life and school are not balanced in priorities for all members, one person takes on more sections than others, compassion and frustration are a fine line when one member is constantly using life as an excuse for not having a section completed (4.5).
Anger Management
My Feelings
Exhausted. My husband was injured and I was having to be a single parent to my 9 month old while he was recovering.
Angry. One of the group members used personal reasons as to why they were unable to participate in the timelines that we specified (6.5).
Group Marking
I really appreciated that our professor had a group-marking rubric, this allowed all members of the group to assess the work done by each other and have a say in how they were assessed. There were many categories and the overarching theme was cooperation and participation, with a column for each persons name, as well as, my own. We were asked to evaluate each person and no justification was needed in terms or sentence writing, our team would never see the mark sheet we submitted and only they would know their grade so they would be unaware if they received a higher or lower grade than the rest. We were asked to do this after our group paper and then again after the presentation. This showed me that when I assign group presentations or projects to my students I need to allow them to reflect on their work ethic as well as their groups. I should not be assigning the same grade to all members of the group because there is usually one or two people in the group that take on more work than the rest and therefore they deserve a different grade than the rest.(4.7,2.1)
