This week, our team worked on solidifying our individual topics in order to confirm that our topics could blend well for our final project. In addition, we established a timeline to guide the group moving forward. This was quite helpful as I think we started to all feel a little stress in terms of seeing the big picture of the overall project. The timeline provided us with some clarity on individual and group tasks for the upcoming weeks. I see this as a crucial part of the team process as I am starting to see a common issue with regard to teamwork - that being that a lot of discussion occurs without a feeling of certainty regarding action. The timeline and task breakdown provides great clarity and assurance that the project will in fact move forward.

As for individual progress, I believe I have my title nailed down. I am going with "Sustaining online communities beyond course completion" . I am excited about the research, but am at that point where I feel overwhelmed because I haven't done too much tangible work yet. I have done some preliminary research, but have not actually determined what articles I will use as of yet. I have a lot of time to work on this project this week and will certainly be looking to stay focused!!! However, I do feel great about the fact that our group feels confident that our individual research will fit together nicely. This provides a good feeling about the individual contributions as a solid base for our group compilation.

So, I sit here late on Sunday night looking forward to a productive week of research and writing. I believe I will feel great when I provide an entry next week indicating that I have in fact turned in the mid term :)

EDUI6707: The group Process!

Greetings. I am posting today to reflect on the process of coming up with a topic for our group project in 6707. I love the group process :) It is crucial to the development of online learning communities. It also provides us with such a feeling of connectedness and breaks the isolation that could come with online coursees. Of course, the class discussions also aid in this process, but the group process really engages us with others in the pursuit of a common goal.

Once again, I am inspired by the process. The truth of the matter is that all group members seemed to have very similar ideas for our final project and the process became simply about talking together long enough to come up with a title that encompassed everyone's personal and professional interests. It is funny how you can dance around something for quite some time even though we were really all speaking about almost the same thing the entire time (just with a different spin on the wording). The process was perfectly pleasant and not the least bit painful as I imagine it could be if there were great differences of opinion. Like I mentioned, I think we all had essentially the same idea (or close) from the beginning.

Ultimately, we came up with a title that met the needs of all four partners. The title we came up with is "Building and Sustaining Online Educational and Professional Communities". I love it! I believe a few of the assignments related to brainstorming prior to this assignment were helpful. The brainstorming is what led me to realize how important the idea of 'sustained online communities' is to me and how well it relates to my goals with regard to professional development in my school district. Karen (one of my teammates) is more interested in the medical professional community. The title suits her needs as well. I like this because we are talking about very different industries, yet our goal is very much the same.

The entire process was great. We all started with our original ideas. Reflecting on each other's ideas and meeting online in real time really helped us come up with a topic that could work for all of us. In closing, I found the process to be a wonderful learning opportunity.

Steve