Final paper done - yea!

Our paper is done, though I'm confused about where to post it, but hopefully I'll get some help on that soon! I hope I'm not being tooooo stupid :) In any case, the cooperation among the three of us went, I would say, extremely well, and we are happy with the product. Now we'll see how the next steps go...

Group project

Our paper is taking shape, though it is not yet written in a single voice, and at this point, I'm not sure we can make it sound that way, but i have volunteered to try to pull it all together on Saturday. Initially, we 'dumped' our three parts into a Google doc, and I did put it all in a logical order, but right now you can definitely feel where one person stops, and the other takes off. Johanna did rewrite her part, so that's good and a step in the right direction.

Pulling it out of Google docs, an issue I noticed was that the formatting was then very funky and required some extra effort on my part, so I'd like to keep it in Word format now; however, Johanna expressed understandable concern that having different Word docs floating around could be problematic, but i think as long as we keep it all in the same place, it'll work out fine. But of course I am an optimist :)

Last week I was so busy I didn't feel as on top of things as I have in the past, but this week I'm getting an earlier start on reading and posting, so I'm feeling much better about that...enjoying the process.

Brief thoughts on this week

This has been a long and tiring week with so much to do at work and trying to keep up with my coursework too. But it's all a learning process! For our final project I am researching Second Life as a community-building and educational tool, and I've been amazed at how much information I have found and am sifting through, a task in itself. Our group met tonight again. We are not quite as on track as we had hoped to be, but we are close and very optimistic we'll be on top of things very quickly. My two colleagues on the team are very supportive, great people to work with!

Group Work moving ahead

All during the week I was getting more and more concerned about our group final. We didn't seem to be communicating enough for one thing - it turns out that we were all sick, and fortunately are now much better.

And now that we were able to 'meet' yesterday morning, I also feel much better about our project. The whole thing seemed so amorphous, but in a little over an hour's time (and before I had to board a plane) we were able to narrow down our focus and organize ourselves to the point where I now feel really good about this paper and our cooperation, and I'm looking forward to really getting going on it!

We have also agreed no one is allowed to get sick again until the project is finished! :)

followers

It is sort of cool to have a 'follower,' even if it is only the instructor :) Not like in Second Life where I suddenly became someone's follower and had a hard time getting away from her. I play around a bit in Second Life to try to understand how it could potentially be used as a learning community tool, but am still such a woeful neophyte. At my last visit, I left my (very young and attractive!) avatar languishing on a couch in front of a blazing fire, hoping that will keep her happy until I next return...

Midterm and Final Paper Thoughts

With the midterm I somehow started the idea process thinking I was to write much more than was the case. Narrowing down the topic and related points then became an issue. Someone said it takes much more time and effort to develop a (good) 10-minute presentation than a 2-hour one, and that idea probably applies to paper length too. I did, however, enjoy the topic which gave me more insights into some of the aspects that go into forming an online learning community. I didn't include any bio info (I always shy away from that unless it is demanded); hopefully, that will still be accepted when I get the paper back before it is 'published.' The idea of publishing is fun; up to now I have only ever had two articles published (in a now defunct magazine).

I am getting nervous about our group efforts, as we don't currently seem to be talking. I posted on our group site yesterday and sent an email today. Hopefully we can get our act together soon; actually, I am confident we will. In any case, I need the group interaction to know what direction I personally will be taking, as I don't feel I have a good handle on the specifics of our topic (which came from Johanna). I do have the notes we've generated so far and have downloaded info relevant to the topic. I think if I look through all of that and make my own notes as to where I think we should be going, I'll be ready for our next meeting to set our roles and goals.

Midterm topic

This is what I posted on the discussion board:

As we, as trainers and educators, take ever-increasing advantage of collabortive online/remote/distance learning to reach out to students all over the country, or especially around the globe, we need to become cognizant of cultural differences that may affect how our students perceive our courses, how they interact in their collaboration, and how we can avoid that certain cultural groups may be advantaged or disadvantaged in the coursework we design and offer.
Cultural bias in everything we do is inescapable (Tylee, 2001); therefore, when I design online content, when I try to motivate participation in the coursework, and when I determine the value of participants' contributions, I am doing so from my own cultural mindset, which may lead me to attach more importance to the contributions of some (namely, those more like me) over others. In order to offer more equitable evaluations of students' work, I need to take certain cultural vairables into consideration, as well as how I can best structure my training to be meaningful to all course participants. These are some of the cultural variables my paper will attempt to address.
-culturally-determined social roles, including those of student and teacher, and issues related to -power distance
-relationship v. task orientation
-high / low context societies
-educational systems and methods the participants are familiar with
-individualistc v. group learning orientations
-predilictions for group harmony (including saving face and group traditions) as opposed to -----seeking the truth at the expense of group conflict
-attitudes toward technology and towards f2f v. distance learning
-directness v. indirectness
-levels of uncertainty avoidance
Some of the effects of the above cultural variables may be seen in:
-how material is presented, perceived, and accepted
-who has access to what
-motivators for work and accomplishment
-how individuals are addressed and what & how much personal information is exchanged
-modes of interaction
-writing styles, amount of information and detail expected
-levels of cooperation and expectations of group and individual work
-amount of choice available to participants
-use of technology, e.g., to reduce ambiguity
-differing approaches to problem-solving
Finally, what can we do to avoid some groups being culturally advantaged or disadvantaged compared to other groups in online collaboration, or, in other words, how can we be more inclusive in our online training?

Tylee, Jennifer (2001). Cultural issues and the online environment, dowloaded 1/25/09.
Rose, C.P. et al. Exploring the influence of culture on collaborative learning, downloaded 1/25/09.
Germaine-Rutherford, A. An inclusive approach to online learning environments: models and resources. From the Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, April 2008, v 9, no 2, downloaded 1/25/09.

This, as I said in my last posting, is too much to address well in a 10 or so page paper, but I will pick out certain points to address as the coming week progresses.

Thoughts on Week 4: Moving forward

Ending Week 4, I have a much better feeling of clarity as far as what my midterm topic is and where we are headed as a group for the final paper. Yea!
As to my midterm topic, Datta Kaur said what I indicated I'd be addressing is too broad; I agree completely, and I realize what I have posted re my midterm topic on the discussion board probably still addresses too many aspects, but I will continue to narrow it down, while still keeping the same focus.
As for our group (the Inter-Networkers), we were all over the place in our communication, writing emails, using the class wiki (sidebar) and the group area with the result that we were often repeating ourselves across the different sites. Although I'd say that our group also skipped the "storming" stage as mentioned in the Johnson article (p. 385), I think we were getting a bit frustrated with lack of direction until I suggested we use a different (synchronous) tool to meet, AT&T Connect, which I have access to via my work. We were able to meet for a little over an hour, agreed on our guidelines and how to go forward, and generally found this 'side' medium to be a quick and positive way to get ourselves organized (and increase our own social capital).
I feel ready to move on...

New midterm topic

Following up on my previous thoughts and my discussion board entry, I would like to change my individual / midterm topic to the influence of culture on online collaboration. I haven't thought through the details yet, but I think I would like to focus on the following areas:

• cultural aspects that might and do affect how computer-based learning is perceived, e.g., individualistic v. collectivistic tendencies, high/low context, fast/slow message preferences, attitudes towards technology and distance learning,
• being consciously inclusive, reaching out to learners from all cultures
• and to what extent online learning communities form their own cultures.

I'm not sure I will be able to cover all of the above, but these are all areas that interest me.

Thoughts on the group process

We lost one member of our group, Neecie, who bravely volunteered to join a completely new group. Then there were three. So far the group process has been completely smooth with us all agreeing without having to debate anything. Part of the reason for this is that the topic suggested by Johanna had the most global appeal, where all three of us immediately saw merit for each one of us.
To comment on the socio-cultural constructs of an online team as presented in the Khalsa article, "Multicultural Dimensions:"

• our team support and recognition of others has been limited but good with each of us expressing faith in the others as well as gratitude for opinions expressed
• time and flexibility seemed to be the challenges for this first week with me away on a business trip and the other two, particularly Johanna, also very busy with multiple tasks; however, I see us all stepping up to the plate in equal shares in the coming weeks
• we don't have a lot of rules and guidelines yet, but Nancy has created an area in which we can work and exchange ideas
• in regard to power and status and assertiveness, I do not anticipate any problems as I can see we are all sensitive to the related issues
• I would say that Nancy has taken the biggest leadership role so far; we will see how the dynamicas of this aspect progress has we go on.

I am feeling very comfortable with our group, think we can work well together as a mini-online learning community, and look forward to working on our common project.

Other thoughts for my "individual" contribution

Although I'm planning on sticking with the first topic I came up with as the one I'm offering the group, as I don't want to confuse the issue by throwing out multiple topics, I have had some other thoughts.

Briefly, one would be how such intercultural aspects as individualism v. collectivism (Hofstede, Trompenaars) and high v. low context societies (Hall) influence how groups build and handle social capital and trust.

Another idea is how learning departments can leverage online learning communities to support on-going learning/ training when travel and other budgets have been cut in these difficult economic times.

And lastly, one more is how we could use Second Life or similar resources for establishing and maintaining online learning communities.

Process thoughts

So far in these classes I have enjoyed (once I got into them) all of the assignments, whether individual or group, but in many cases the group experience is a richer one, as we learn from each other.

We have lost Neecie to another group. As pleasant as she is, I don't mind because I think it may be easier to work with a group of three rather than four. Reading Johanna's and Nancy's posts, I am impressed with their thinking abilities and eagerness to plunge into the task. I am a little concerned as I'll be on a very busy business trip this week starting tomorrow, and I do want to hold my own in this impressive group, but I'll save my evenings for working out of my hotel room. Even now I'm stressing out a bit as I want to do a good job on my workwork and my homework! :)

General thoughts

After brainstorming with myself and coming up with quite a list of online communities I am currently involved with, I also had to reflect that I have only had access to the Internet for 13 1/2 years (and at first I didn't have a clue what I could do with it!) - but how it's changed my life and expectations of communication with others! Now, both a world of information and rapid communication with others are at my fingertips.

One could say that one way to divide up the world is into the Internet have's and have not's.

Strengthening online communities

I am a member of numerous sorts of online communities, e.g., Delta Intercultural Academy, my MS-OTL classes, my workplace, a group of 4 friends on two continents, Facebook, the ASTD CPLP community, and so on. Some of these online communities seem to serve their purposes/ functions better than others.

One that seems to me that it could be much more efficient and effective is my "work community." My organization has about 5000 employees worldwide, with a bit fewer than 3000 of those at our headquarters here in Reno NV. The company has an Intranet with links to the various departments, makes use of a (rather complicated it seems) Sharepoint to store and retrieve documents, touts an LMS, and sends out numerous emails with announcements of various kinds. And yet, all of the above, although containing a wealth of information, seems rather piecemeal and disjointed and does not convey a strong sense of community, even just among the employees on our local campus. For example, although I have access to lots of information, I hardly know who the top people of the company are or what visions they have for the organization.

I wonder if it might be possible to research and find a better way to pull all of these electronic loose ends together in such way that the employees could understand how all of this fits together and benefits the individuals, thereby perhaps creating a greater sense of community, of pulling together toward the same goals.

If others on my team have experienced similar situations in the organizations they work for, then a possible topic for our project might be something like, "Creating the optimal online work community."