My Learning Journey
Individual Blog Reflection of Phebe (SID: 52980554)
I recall
the first step of my learning journey in this course – creation of our group
name: CHOPSTICKS. Our goal is to learn with the other 16 pairs of the class, and
finally we want to make a big feast. Did I try to un-bundle? Did I try to
re-bundle? Did I contribute my best to collaborate? I reflect my learning
journey by looking at team practices and team processes of Chopsticks and with
collaboration with our morning team (Kite and Wind).
Team Practices
How do
we communicate?
Communication
method within Chopsticks and with the morning team (Kite and Wind) is
different. We firstly touched base with Kite and Wind by email, as this is the
only contact information we got. When we successfully connected Kite and Wind,
we shared our mobile phone numbers and opened a whatsapp group, as we generally
agreed whatsapp is a channel which all of us feel comfortable to use.
Within
Chopsticks, we have close relationship, we dialed to team member once we
observed any problem. In our meeting, we used drawings to present our ideas,
which I myself think is an effective way for all of us to understand the issue.
In the process, and from the email conversation, I recognized all of us have
different writing styles. Misunderstandings sometimes happened because of wrong
interpretation of email messages. However, drawings give a more simple and
direct message. Every member can then follow the same direction and write out
their own part.
Communication
with morning team was quite smooth, though we were allowed to meet virtually
only. I felt a bit uncomfortable for just discussing matters virtually. Even at
the later stage we used Skype and QQ for discussion, sometimes I got frustrated
because of unstable internet connection and noises. Given that these
constraints were not in our control, we could only accept it, or look for
alternatives as far as we could.
Conflict
We of
course, encountered conflicts during different stages of our teamwork. After knowing
the situations of other teams, I am quite surprised that Chopsticks do not have
very conflicting moments with the morning team. We were quite smooth in the
collaboration with the morning team, except having a “always absent” morning
team member. However, “absent” character is somewhat better than “destroying”
character, what we felt a bit unhappy was just everyone share a bit more.
Conflicts,
on the contrary, exist within Chopsticks. Conflict happened whenever we needed
to put our writings together. As our writing styles vary, someone needed to be
sacrificed of her own style. It was not easy to compromise. It is not the
matter of showing off our contribution, but we value our own effort, and at
least we can receive feedbacks from professor and we can improve. We handled
this conflict by assigning different team member to do the final wrap up every
time, and she has the authority to do the final adjustment. This was the
fairest way we could think of to deal with this conflict.
Another
conflict appeared at a point a member was very eager to make a short video for
our presentation, however, the idea was not supported by another member. I was
in a difficult situation. I felt the idea was good, I saw the passion of my
teammates, but I have no right to force others to participate in the part she
is not willing to. Finally I gave up supporting the video taking, but at the
same time I suggested using photos to create other kind of animations, which
should be an easier task that every team member can afford to do that. My
rationale behind is that, we are a team, and I don’t want to exclude anyone in
every part.
How Did We Arrive at Decision?
Through
the collaboration with Kite and Wind, we did not spend much time to make
decision. Even we found our direction was wrong in some stage, we quickly
changed our plan and came up with another one on the same day. We did not leave
problem to tomorrow. But, is it good? When I
look back at what we did, I would say we made decision too quick. I believe the
one of the goals of our virtual collaboration was to train up our creativity. When
we were too eager to meet deadline, we gave up the chances to explore more
possibilities and foster creative ideas.
Technology
Use of
technology is a must in virtual collaboration. I am not a person who strong in
technical and electronic device, so virtual collaboration made me stressed at the
beginning. After experiencing blogger, skype, QQ etc., I had a thought that if
ever I have chance to work with others, I will treasure the time when we could
meet face to face. I have a strong feeling that a good preparation before
meeting is very important.
Though
technology did gave me some troubles, it had its other advantages. In one of
the virtual meetings, all other members got online to skype successfully, except
me. I was so nerved that I would destruct the whole meeting. My teammates helped
me out quickly by whatsapp and video camera, so that I could visualize the
problem and to decide the correct action to take.
Team Processes
What are
our Concerns?
To be
frank, we all found quite lost to deal with the topic “virtual collaboration”. On
one hand we wanted to generate a creative idea, but on the other hand, we were
afraid the idea would become a mess. In order to help us not to go out of the
track, we kept reminding ourselves from time to time the central idea of this
project, which is the “position” of our collaboration. This helped us to
refresh our mind ensure all of our parts are closely related.
When we
were to work with the morning team, there was a problem. We were not able to
get one of the morning team member involved. Without taking too much time to
think how we could “bring him back”, we gave him up. We knew it was not a
preferred action in terms of teamwork, but we chose to give up something we
could hardly control, or we thought it was not worthy to spent too much time on
something at the expense of other teammates’ efforts.
What I learnt in this course
Recognize
the strengths of each team member – everyone has his/her own strengths and
weaknesses. Other than throwing ideas during the discussion process, it is
evenly important to hear the voices and observe the reactions of our team
members. When it comes to division of labour, one can be assigned to do what
he/she is good at.
Respect
others' ideas and contribution – teamwork cannot be successful without trust,
and trust builds on respect. No matter I am in a leadership role, or in a
followership role, respect is important. I also believe lack of trust is one of
the major sources of conflicts. When we have respect in our team, we can keep
on our team spirit and work towards the same goal.
Passion
for lifelong learning – Before I take this course, I was rarely asked to review
my experiences, ie. Self-reflection. Self-reflection is the last step of this
course, which I regard it as the most valuable skill I learnt. When hundreds of
things happened in the past, due to time limitation, pressure, other factors, I
was blind to the environment around me. When I looked back to my past, I still
have complicated feelings. I am over-reacted in some moments, I lost memories
for some parts, I was surprised by ideas suggested by myself which I have no
reason why I could come up with that thought. By self-reflection, I understand
more about myself.
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