Cockpit Resource Management Systems for Grad Students

After a "near-miss-incident" that occurred two weeks ago I began to reflect deeply upon the actions that lead up to it.
Was I too pursuant in my demands for meeting to accomplish our goal?
Was I too demanding when it came to the quality of work?
Did I take into consideration the working styles of the others in my group?

It has become clear that I was partially responsible for the backlash I suffered at the words of my colleague.
That being said, I also did not deeply consider the person who said the disdainful comment. It has recently become clear that this individual has never worked in a group and was not aware of the demands of group work. This person felt it perfectly fine to "dive and conquer", to go off in separate directions, to do one's one thing and then piece together the separate parts in the hopes that they should all "just fit". The time when this occurred did not result in what I would consider a quality presentation nor associated document.
In group work I have learned that collectively reciprocated communication is critical to a group's success. Each member must understand what the over-arching goal of the project is, what each member's role is and exactly what is expected of each person to put the final project together. My entire career I have been deeply embedded in a group-think mentality; where each day we collaborate with each other to meet common goals under common time lines. We at the school level do the same. In watching my administration work together, they each know firstly what the common goal is, to what level it should be achieved, what their role is and lastly what each other's roles are so that nothing is left out and also nothing is redundantly duplicated.
While there is no course in Group Resource Management, I have learned as much about this critical aspect of learning and leading as I have about technology, education and each associated leadership quality.
Still, the incident was a vocalisation of one's feelings about my nature, and while it has cause me much grief and angst, it has also gave me a reason to reflect and learn (of course I learned the difference between what is considered what would be the appropriate venue and audience for voicing such a beef and what would not - a lesson my colleague has yet to learn...)

Swear count 16 (+3)
Pound Count-unchanged

One is not enough

After reading so much on social presence in online asynchronous environments, I was astounded to read an article that stated that it was not able to establish social presence in online asynchronous environments. Meyer (2005) cited Locke (1998) research that focused on a perceived loss of emotion in the online world stating "email provides no way to show how we feel, increases ambiguity, and doesn't allow us to intimately engage in friendship" (p163 - 169). This reminded me to not always take a statement at face value, look deeper for contrasting opinions, for further support and always to check the date on reports.

Some ideas may stand the test of time, but in 1998 when email was still relatively new, I could see how this fear-inducing statement could come to be commonly accepted.

References
Locke, J.L. (1998). Why don't we talk to each other anymore? New York: Simon and Schuster.
Meyer, K. (2005) Exploring the Potential for Unintended Consequences in Online Learning. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning. September 2005. Retrieved electronically from http://www.itdl.org/Journal/sep_05/article01.htm

Is it real or is it Memorex?

After reading Vicente's chapter on team work and the section about the anaesthesiologist who was physically and emotionally spent after working on the practice dummy it made me realise how much we invest in practice and experience. This prototype is my practice dummy. I find myself worrying about the realities of our LMS, whether or not students will actually use it or if our product will actually be successful. I find myself getting excited when things go well or when new ideas arise that will really advance our prototype and getting anxious when things don't.
Then I have to remind myself when I am physically and mentally spent after a demanding session or another early morning wake up that this is just a prototype.
That being said, I also know that the process of developing this prototype must be as "real" as possible with all of the investments, both emotional and spiritual, for it to have long standing, reflective benefit.

How true it is

While reading Preece, Rogers and Sharp's (2002) Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction chapter 1, What is Interactional Design I found Nelson's (1980) "Ten-minute Rule". Simply stated that if someone can't learn how to do something in ten minutes they will not use the product.
This rang true with me as I attempted to change my website application from Dreamweaver to wordpress. On the surface it appeared that I could learn it, but once I delved deeper into what I wanted I began to realise that I will need to not use someone else's template but develop my own. It must be flexible enough for me to change yet consistent enough for me to use again and a again.
Sorry Wordpress, you failed the "Ten minute Test". Maybe I will try pbwiki or another shot at Dreamweaver to create my own site.
This now creates a challenge for myself and my design team. Our product must be so easy to use that a novice user can pick it up and begin to navigate it with in 10 minutes.

Swear count - 16 (Surprisingly not changed!!!)
Pound count - 3 (Again surprisingly not changed!!!)

LOL BTW & TTFN

I find it amazing when people are able to type as quickly as they think. I unfortunately am not one of those people. I found the chat room a bit slow for my liking. My fingers could not keep up with my thoughts. I guess that is why short forms, abbreviations have entered the digital lexicon and spelling and grammar have left. I feel like I would have failed in a whole language learning environment because I prefer to have complete sentences with (somewhat) correct grammar matched with correct spelling as I present my ideas in text.
Later when my EDER 679.06 group switched to elluminate I found this much more to my liking. With that in mind, in the future should I find myself teaching in a distributed learning environment, I will be sure to offer both opportunities for my students. This would fit in well with the connections made from completing and analyzing the personality indices (later on I found out I would be a German Sheppard - all this time I thought myself to be a Yellow Lab) and my goals for further implementing differentiated learning strategies.

TTYL ur BFF
S

Learning about me...

As I am enrolled in two courses (EDER 679.06 and 679.02) this semester I find that either I am swamped with readings and assignments or efficiently tying multiple perspectives from both courses. It was while completing an online personality index and then entering the discussion board that I realised how truly diverse a group of learners can be. While there is no set type of learner, there can be no corresponding set user of a computer based learning environment. However short this moment may have been it has deep impact in my realisation of what challenges lie ahead in developing a learning system that can appeal and be usable to such a spectrum.

Swear Count - 16 (+1 from previous)
Pound Count 3(Same as previous)

Testng and adjusting

September 21, 2008
So the lingering thoughts about layout and navigability woke me up this morning. I test ran the site and found some things tat may be redundant. I enlisted a real user, my wife, who although may not be familiar with the content is an avid surfer and knows what she likes in a web page.
Her thoughts echoed mine in some areas and she also pointed out some other areas for fixing.
Like a flu shot, the initial sting is much shorter than the reaction afterwards. Trying to use a template was more of a curse than a blessing. It seems I have just enough knowledge to get started but a few early errors were costly in terms of time and frustration. Perhaps making my own page and tailoring it to my needs would have been a bit more time consuming in the front end but later on possibly easier to control things like layout or font.
Other things like editable regions and their applications caused some severe frustration and the question "Why?" was uttered more than enough times.
Eventually I found a way around the limitations and made what I believe to be an improvement.

Learning moments even came with this blog. Save, then publish. Just saving, saves this entry into cyberspace, never to be found again.
Swear count - 12
Pound Count - 3

Let the Learning Begin

This Blog is in reaction to the learning I have encountered while starting to create the website for my EDER 679 Portfolio.
September 19, 2008
I knew I needed some help setting up my web page so I contacted a friend to give me a quick refresher on website design and development. He showed me a couple of tricks when I remembered that I could search for a predetermined layout. I found one that i thought would serve my purposes and went ahead in creating a simple plan, a prototype on paper with flowcharts to developing my site. I was able to create a home page and pages for each of my main topics as well as my sub topics. I left thinking I had a pretty good start. Still some ideas and concerns lingered in my mind about layout and navigability.
Swear Count - 5
Pound Count - 0