10/18 - Group Work

Nico - The best practices in group work:

The best practices in group work are designed around effective communication, only through effective communication can one collaboratively build a finished product. The best way to ensure that effective communication is happening is to listen actively, and to not interrupt classmates. The idea also of being an active participant is paramount to the success of a good collaboration; no actual progress can be made if one does not actually work on the assigned task. Leading a group is sometimes necessary to facilitate the organization of members, however a good leader knows how to maximize the actions above to benefit the group and the final product. In short, strive to get the most out of each of your members while also respecting them and yourself in the process

Charlie - Group work promise

Throughout my college experience, I’ve had the pleasure of working in a wide variety of groups, finding each to be a unique learning journey, even when there was a complete breakdown of group cohesion. Interestingly, the most effective teams practiced core IAS tenets without realizing. First and foremost, the key is approaching collaboration with openness and empathy. We should acknowledge that not everyone has the same life experience, and some students may be struggling even to make it to class. Part of empathy and openness comes respecting everyone's time; we all have personal lives, so it's essential to maintain a commitment to our tasks and bring our best selves to each session.

The most important tenet of group work is communication. We need to check our canvas email daily during the week and notify the group if something comes up. We also don't necessarily need to know what's going on. It’s okay to have personal life conflicts with school, as long as it’s not habitual and we have proper heads up, take the time you need to succeed. Overall, I’m excited to work with this group and see what we journalistic insights we can dissect

Elijah - Post #2, Group Work:

Group work is off to a bit of a rough start, as I was unable to share the ability to access word press at the moment. I take responsibility for our groups failure in that. Going forward, it might be good to switch to a Tumblr, as this is a social media website and it handles formatting and account sharing much better. I am also looking forward to working with my group mates through some sort of messaging app, likely Discord. It was a bit of an oversight to not have a robust communications channel, and we will remedy that as soon as possible. As far as what an ideal group would look like going forward, I would love it if we could all help each other out with the posts in the future, at least by proof reading each other's posts. I am looking forward to working with them these next few months.

Kevin - Group Work

One thing I would like to see in our group is to have efficient communication outside of the classroom. This could be communicating with each other through a group chat or by our school email. Along with this, I would like our group members to communicate as soon as possible when they are not able to finish their work so that the other group members can have time to assist. A time when group work went really well was during our class meeting on October 11. As a group, we were able to contribute equally as well as efficiently complete the assignment.

Navigating as a group -

For our first strategy we all find focusing on our communication is paramount to the team's success, specifically by focusing on accessibility and ease of said communication. Previously our communication abilities were lacking, and a decision of which site to use was straining the group, so we found a common middleground. A second strategy is to communicate as soon as possible if any issues come up, personal or group related. A time group work has gone well for us was last week, when each member took personal responsibility for their piece and actively contributed to the blog as a whole.

Our second strategy, clear and open communication, is important because each individual has their own strengths and weaknesses. Being vocal allows the members to focus on their areas of comfortability.

Our last strategy/ idiom is evidence that our team is able to work through difficulties.