What with all the talk of the elections this week I think I have been driven to reflecting on the challenges of keeping teams of people 'on message.' In modern politics, with the heavy use of policy advisors and related helpers, politicians have become adept at doing this. A lot of work is put into developing this message and subsequently schooling everyone in its details. However in doing this report, I have found that what at first seemed like a simple process, is in fact quite an organisational feat. And I can't really say that I display as much skill in doing this, as do the politicians from whom I have been hearing quite a lot this past week.
In beginning my section of the report I did not think how my own particular style would look in relation to the other team member's work. However after I produced my initial draft, I could see immediately that it would take a lot more work to get it right. Doing this is quite a skill, but it is one which is aided by the collaborative process. By discussing details, and reworking paragraphs the individual report does in the end begin to come together. Through this process of fine tuning my report began to take on a style that would be appropriate to the overall report.
As for the collaborative tools we are using, I found that they faciliated this process quite nicely. Whether this is using them to send and receive drafts, or to comment on other work, the process can be done efficiently using these tools. Furthermore, an unexpected advantage in this honing process is that it allows for periods of reflection. Using collaborative tools, it means that team members are not together in the same location. This has the result that reworks do not have to be produced instantly. This I think adds to the quality of what is ultimately produced and cuts down on the amount of communication that is ultimately required.
In any case, as for the politicians, I have found in producing this report, that speaking with a unified voice is not quite as simple as it initially had seemed.
Brian.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
This Weeks Update on Team Activity
As time draws ever closer towards the deadline for the completion of the collaborative report we find ourselves ever busier and still with some work left to do. Amongst all of this activity we had two team meetings this week where the discussion concerned details of the final report's structure and how everyone was getting along with each of their respective sections.
Our first meeting was on Monday in the Sulis chat-room. During this we discussed our own draft reports and how they were coming along. We also discussed details of the structure of the report and how the final sections would look and come together. To help with this we came up with a rough timetable. It was a useful way for getting us focused and for co-ordinating our activities to achieve a unified voice for the final report.
During Wednesday's chat we discussed details within the report such as font size for the headings. We also worked out who would make the final presentation for next Wednesday. After the team's meeting there was the feeling that the report was coming together and that we were prepared for all of the activities that will be taking place next week.
For my part I was able to submit my conclusions and recommendations to Katrina close enough to the official hand in date as worked out by the team. However my section of the report came along a lot slower than I had at first anticipated. I had mentioned during Wednesday's meeting that my final report would be finished that afternoon. However I didn't have it ready until Saturday - one day late.
The main reason for this was due to my time-management - or lack of. I found that the process of posting to Sulis on the discussion forum concerning the debates on aspects of third level education took up more of my time than I had expected. I hadn't considered that this would slow down the production of my own report. Here I learned a valuable lesson, as I gave too much time to the thread when I could have done just as much by rotating between the two. I found I could have also been quicker in making my decisions on what to post. Thinking about something for an extra couple of hours very rarely made any difference to what I eventually posted.
However learning such lessons are the unseen benefits of doing an MA such as this, and hopefully the lesson learned will stand to me when I am out in the workplace - hopefully in the not too distant future!
However now I am finalising the final section of the report with the report's editor, Maresa. I am just a few final changes away from full completetion of this section and overall I am happy with the way that it is coming together.
Hopefully the amount of work the team has put in this week will stand to us as we get closer to that final deadline - which, as I finish, is now that little bit closer!
Brian.
Our first meeting was on Monday in the Sulis chat-room. During this we discussed our own draft reports and how they were coming along. We also discussed details of the structure of the report and how the final sections would look and come together. To help with this we came up with a rough timetable. It was a useful way for getting us focused and for co-ordinating our activities to achieve a unified voice for the final report.
During Wednesday's chat we discussed details within the report such as font size for the headings. We also worked out who would make the final presentation for next Wednesday. After the team's meeting there was the feeling that the report was coming together and that we were prepared for all of the activities that will be taking place next week.
For my part I was able to submit my conclusions and recommendations to Katrina close enough to the official hand in date as worked out by the team. However my section of the report came along a lot slower than I had at first anticipated. I had mentioned during Wednesday's meeting that my final report would be finished that afternoon. However I didn't have it ready until Saturday - one day late.
The main reason for this was due to my time-management - or lack of. I found that the process of posting to Sulis on the discussion forum concerning the debates on aspects of third level education took up more of my time than I had expected. I hadn't considered that this would slow down the production of my own report. Here I learned a valuable lesson, as I gave too much time to the thread when I could have done just as much by rotating between the two. I found I could have also been quicker in making my decisions on what to post. Thinking about something for an extra couple of hours very rarely made any difference to what I eventually posted.
However learning such lessons are the unseen benefits of doing an MA such as this, and hopefully the lesson learned will stand to me when I am out in the workplace - hopefully in the not too distant future!
However now I am finalising the final section of the report with the report's editor, Maresa. I am just a few final changes away from full completetion of this section and overall I am happy with the way that it is coming together.
Hopefully the amount of work the team has put in this week will stand to us as we get closer to that final deadline - which, as I finish, is now that little bit closer!
Brian.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Some Links and Reflections
In this blog I want to provide some interesting links to resources I found useful so far in relation to my research of podcasts.
1.
In this article from 2004, Ben Hammersley looks into the emergence of audio broadcasting on the internet. The piece is of interest as it documents the emergence of podcasts as a popular form of online broadcasting, and shows us some of the reasons why they are now so popular.
2.
The article ‘Collaboration Toolbox’ by Bob Violino, which can be found in the UL library database, looks into some of the business uses of podcasts. When read in light of the previously mentioned newspaper article, it shows how the usage of podcasting has evolved to the point where they are now used in business to deliver sales pitches and deliver CEO addresses to employees for example.
3.
On a slightly different topic, I also wanted to provide a link to the Audacity audio recorder mentioned in some earlier blogs. This can be downloaded at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/ This is easy to use and its audio files can be converted to mp3 using the Lame plugin. There are also numerous tutorials on you tube to help with any problems anyone may have have in setting this up - if so inclined.
Some Reflection.
In terms of usage, it seems that podcasting provides a good way for people to capture various forms of human communications be they broadcasts, speeches or discussions, and to deliver them on the internet for the consumption of interested listeners. Hopefully these articles shed some light on this and give clues as to how they can be effectively used in collaboration.
I will be sure to post any more interesting articles I find over the coming days.
Brian.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
This Week on the Virual Team Project
Well, it has been another busy week on the virtual team project. As mentioned in my previous blog, the week began with a meeting on Skype. This went successfully once everything was arranged and it proved a successful way of conducting a team meeting. Here we again made a commitment to producing our draft reports for the coming Wednesday, and we discussed what we had been reading and let each other know how our reports were coming along.
It was also a useful opportunity to get to know each other a little better. John shared with us his experiences of Dublin which were positive. I was able to mention where I had been in America and how much I had enjoyed it. The meeting overall was fun and interactive. As mentioned in my previous blog, I successfully recorded it as a podcast and so did John. We posted both our versions on Sulis. So for my own analysis of podcasts it proved how versatile they allowed the team to be in the type of ways they chose to conduct their team meetings. We know now that we can meet in a variety of ways, and now that the audio will always be recorded and posted to Sulis, thereby documenting our meeting in accordance with the requirements of the project.
The team had another meeting on Wednesday where we discussed the main report. We allocated roles that we would all play. Two editor roles were created, and all of the report’s sections were divided up amongst the team members. For my own part, I was allocated the role of dealing with the references and appendices. As a result, I am trying to get together all the email exchanges the team has made so that these can go in the appendices. It will naturally become busier as the report nears completion and I have to make sure that all of the references are correct.
I submitted my draft report just after midnight on Thursday night – or Friday morning really. It was a good idea we decided to get our first drafts done early. Having read the others who posted I can see already how I can improve my own. It is comforting to know that there is still plenty of time for improvement. Hopefully this bodes well for the report as a whole.
At this stage I am looking forward to another full and busy week for the virtual team project. We have the regular meetings scheduled, and our overall goal is beginning to come into focus. For my own part I hope to make more podcasts and try and find more ways to use them in collaboration. In my next blog I hope to share the variety of ways that podcasts can be used, and reflect on how they can be of most use in virtual team collaboration.
But until then I hope to stay busy and keep exploring podcasting.
It was also a useful opportunity to get to know each other a little better. John shared with us his experiences of Dublin which were positive. I was able to mention where I had been in America and how much I had enjoyed it. The meeting overall was fun and interactive. As mentioned in my previous blog, I successfully recorded it as a podcast and so did John. We posted both our versions on Sulis. So for my own analysis of podcasts it proved how versatile they allowed the team to be in the type of ways they chose to conduct their team meetings. We know now that we can meet in a variety of ways, and now that the audio will always be recorded and posted to Sulis, thereby documenting our meeting in accordance with the requirements of the project.
The team had another meeting on Wednesday where we discussed the main report. We allocated roles that we would all play. Two editor roles were created, and all of the report’s sections were divided up amongst the team members. For my own part, I was allocated the role of dealing with the references and appendices. As a result, I am trying to get together all the email exchanges the team has made so that these can go in the appendices. It will naturally become busier as the report nears completion and I have to make sure that all of the references are correct.
I submitted my draft report just after midnight on Thursday night – or Friday morning really. It was a good idea we decided to get our first drafts done early. Having read the others who posted I can see already how I can improve my own. It is comforting to know that there is still plenty of time for improvement. Hopefully this bodes well for the report as a whole.
At this stage I am looking forward to another full and busy week for the virtual team project. We have the regular meetings scheduled, and our overall goal is beginning to come into focus. For my own part I hope to make more podcasts and try and find more ways to use them in collaboration. In my next blog I hope to share the variety of ways that podcasts can be used, and reflect on how they can be of most use in virtual team collaboration.
But until then I hope to stay busy and keep exploring podcasting.
Brian.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Progress So Far
Now that we are about two weeks or so into the virtual team assignment, this first blog will concern mainly our team’s progress so far.
My first piece of work after the team was formed was deciding which collaborative technology to choose. After some deliberation I decided to do podcasts. I thought that this would be an interesting challenge for me. I, of course, had heard of podcasts, but didn’t know all that much about them and had never used them before.
In my initial research about them it was clear they were a popular form of internet entertainment. They seemed to be most popular for delivering radio shows and things of that nature. I also knew that they were used to deliver audio lectures here on our course in UL. So it seemed interesting to see how they would work out for team collaboration, as opposed to just delivering audio to listeners.
Our first team meeting took place on Feb 7 and was held in the Sulis chat-room. Here we all confirmed the technologies we would each be researching. This was also our first opportunity to meet with our two American colleagues John Savage and Stacey Marmonstein, and get to know them a little better.
My first podcast was posted on Feb 10. This podcast recorded a team meeting amongst the Irish team-mates: myself, Maresa Molloy and Katrina Slammon. Here we reflected on our experience so far on participating in a virtual team. For me the most interesting part of this exercise was learning about the software needed to make a podcast. After looking at You Tube tutorials I downloaded Audacity. This is a freely available opensource sound recorder. To allow you to convert the audio files to mp3 I downloaded a piece of software called Lame and plugged it in to Audacity. It worked well in recording this meeting and the sound quality was ok.
The only drawback to Audacity is it can crash as happened when trying to record our team’s meeting on Skype which took place on February 14. I’m not sure if this was to do with the length of the recording, or the fact that Skype was open at the same time. But again using You Tube tutorials it was easy to learn how to recover files using the Audacity Recovery Utility. The project so far has definitely improved my knowledge of sound recording and fixing problematic software in general.
So far the collaboration has been fun. It will be interesting to see how all of the tools work out and which are the most advantageous for use in collaboration.
Brian.
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