Reflection #3

The readings, discussions, and activities in this course have prompted me to think more deeply about the ways online communities function and the characteristics of high (and low) performing teams. One aspect that has informed my thinking particularly is the importance of online communities offering various types of resources and ways of interacting among participants. That is, flexibility both in content, structure, and delivery seems an important prerequisite to be able to involve and engage as many individuals as possible. It appears that the most successful online learning networks are those that offer various resources that are focused in different ways depending on the needs of the users. For example, we see many online sites now devoted to teacher development. The most popular and creative of these seem to be those that both offer teachers resources such as materials and lesson plans but also provide social networks for teachers to be able to discuss and collaborate. That multifaceted functioning involving both the dissemination of resources and the collaborative opportunities within Web 2.0 are common characteristics seen in other types of sites as well. Some individuals may be drawn to a learning community because they want to feel part of a learning network where they can share ideas and get to know other people. That is a crucial benefit to online collaboration and one that is made possible as the technologies allow for more interactive ways of functioning in online spaces. However it is also the case that individuals need specific forms of professional development that may involve access to resources, websites, books, articles, and other materials. So, many participate in online learning communities because they seek these resources with or without interacting substantially with others. In general, I think that flexibility and multifaceted approaches to learning are important characteristics that define the most successful learning communities.

Another point that I have thought about considerably in the last few weeks has to do with understanding the various strengths and talents of each individual and what they bring to the community. That is to say it is important to get to know your team members because individuals play different roles whether intentionally or not when working in a group setting. Some particular strengths and abilities may not be recognizable to the full team until they have a chance to construct a project together and need to discover what each individual can best offer. I discovered this early in the course with my own team when we need to design a logo and found that Donna had a background in graphic design, and I had had some experience developing “Wordles” to represent ideas. We were able to combine our abilities to create a logo that we felt best represented what our team stood for and how we wanted to interact with each other. I think this was an instructive experience for thinking about teaming in general. We all have different skills and abilities; working in ways that strategically takes advantage of each team member’s talents, both individually and collectively, can lead to final products and a deepened learning experience for all participants. This is an important point when thinking about online teaching and learning because of the heavy reliance on teamwork and group projects that we frequently see in online courses and online learning experiences.