Assessment 2B
By Jessica Mieli
“Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much” (Keller, H) how true this is in regards to group assessments. It’s not easy to give a rating out of 10 for my group assessment; I could easily say 10 out of 10! It’s perfect, but I would be lying. So I have decided to rate this assessment a 7. Allocation, time management and support were all key factors in achieving this level. Johnny worked on the Prezi, which he did fantastically, there is praise from all of us Minna wrote “how cool is that” while Alicia, Tamara and myself have all stated “how amazing” Johnny’s work on the Prezi was. Minna and Alicia’s dedication meant as a team member I felt supported, they offered praise and worked hard. They both were ready to fix things up such as referencing and my over the top word count. Each team member was allocated a theme and subtopics; however we did seem to have a misunderstanding on how to allocate these subtopics; as one person wrote about each theme instead of just one theme. Our theme was conflict resolution. Johnny, Minna, Alicia and I wrote about conflict in sport, workplace, home and amongst children our subtopics were conflict types, causes, management strategies and consequences. Instead of allocating a new theme to Tamara, Tamara wrote maintaining a conflict free environment for all themes. Our group wiki does show this misunderstanding and a comment from our eLa stating the error but we could leave it that way. This was a big relief to us. One thing that I found challenging was holding virtual meetings, we couldn’t all meet at the same time due to our lifestyles, so a question at times had a delayed response. For example questions posted in the morning may not receive response until afternoon.
My role and personal contribution to the team started with the group activity that Rosie posted. We had 10 pictures and we needed to figure out the clichés. I started off by listing the clichés I thought were present. I was met with encouragement from my team and thought it was a great way for us to come together. Minna suggested conflict resolution as our theme, which was agreed upon unanimously. I contributed by informing everyone that I worked in childcare and had just completed a conflict resolution seminar at work. From here I was given the theme conflict amongst children. Johnny then set up a google doc for us to add our research to. We discussed adding a song, and I stated I would look for one: I’m googling songs now, and I'll take out the dot points in my management strategies section. Is there anything else I can do? Jess” “found a song. It's called "rather be" by clean bandit. According to the website it’s about the benefits of conflict and conflict resolution.http://blog.mediate2go.com/2015/01/top-10-songs-about-conflict-2014.html i personally like the music without the lyrics too. Jess” (group 2 wiki, 2015) the song was then added and referenced properly by Minna and Alicia. As I found it difficult to meet on the group wiki, I felt I had a lack of presence. I didn’t disappear and then reappear at the end, but I feel that I could have contributed a bit more; I could of reedited my part instead of leaving it to Minna and Alicia, and I could of helped Johnny with the Prezi a bit more, find out how to add pictures and the music etcetera.
In week five one of our readings was “characteristics of effective teams” (Stanford University, n.d.) I found this piece of information to be a useful tool in regards to our group. I read this and mentally checked to see if the group met the criteria. Our decisions were made with general agreement, everyone participated and most importantly there was no tension. By week seven I had searched a few Prezis and one that stood out was from https://prezi.com/vgj5kiy-3zsd/the-magical-theory-of-relativity/ the reason this stood out was because I don’t like science, yet I found this informative and interesting. To me, this is an innovative way to learn, I kept that in mind when my group was planning our Prezi. Music seemed to be the answer to make our Prezi more interesting and stand out. Reflecting back over the weeks I kept Metzger’s Criteria (2007) in mind. Google “songs about conflict resolution”. I clicked on “top 10 songs about conflict 2014|Mediate2go blog) and “Rather Be” by Clean Bandit was the best choice. However I did not find this source to be credible, it was based on the blogger’s opinion (Bult, A). So after more searching I came across an interview with the one of the band members and they describe the song as a love song and how love can conquer all. (Chatto, 2014). I was aware of issues that would be faced such as time lags, information chaos, lack of social presence and walking away from virtual rooms (Kear, K, 2010) and guiltily I admit I saw myself in these issues, however I did contribute where I could and without my teammates support and efforts we would not of reached the level of success that we had.
Admittedly, I do not feel that I was as active as I had hoped to be. My main issues were time management. To effectively be a better team member I need to allocate myself at least 1 hour a day to work on group assessments, deadlines work really well, just as long as I don’t leave it to the last minute. I need a higher level of commitment and focus on the task. What I find works is allocating tasks to each member, that way the workload is shared, communication is vital, seeing as we are online students we are not all located in the same vicinity so communicating through social media such as wikis and email we need to be clear in our wording so not to offend anyone and create tension. We live in a project world, and being a part of that project world means we need to be a great teammate (Peters, T) With all of this in mind my strategies to be an effective team mate are communication, always be active in my group by allocating tasks and sharing the workload, time management; finding time for my group and not only offering help but do the actual work, be active; stay focussed and stay in touch, not disappearing from the group and resurfacing when the assignment is due. Support, encourage and praise the efforts of my teammates.

Reference: * Inc.com, Kerpen, D, 15 Quotes to inspire great teamwork, Retrieved 11th September 2015 from http://www.inc.com/dave-kerpen/15-quotes-to-inspire-great-team-work.html * Songfacts.com, Retrieved 11th September 2015 from * * http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=3204 * Bult, A (2014) Mediate 2go Blog,Retrieved 11th September 2015 from, http://blog.mediate2go.com/2015/01/top-10-songs-about-conflict-2014.html7 * The Daily egg, Retrieved 11th September2015 from http://blog.crazyegg.com/2012/10/29/example-presentations-using-prezi/ and Retrieved from https://prezi.com/vgj5kiy-3zsd/the-magical-theory-of-relativity * Group wiki retrieved 12th September from https://ilearn.swin.edu.au/webapps/Bb-wiki-bb_bb60/wikiView?course_id=_165391_1&wiki_id=_70961_1&page_guid=005e2c97e8fd418999851f6f15e43ac4&inline_receipt_messagej61e2KiA00M=hPmrCLQ1DxPdINAu7CKn5YC0N47ZveViEGDN33xjhjg%3D&inline_receipt_message=Success%3A+Wiki+page+modified * Effective Meetings.com, Retrieved 12th September 2015 from, http://www.effectivemeetings.com/teams/teamwork/effective.asp * Kear, K (2010) Collaboration via online discussion forums, Retrieved 12th September 2015 from http://onlineres.swin.edu.au.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/99331924115.pdf