Case Study 3 Reflection
Our first group work assignment. I was very nervous because, aside from all the madness happening with COVID-19, I was unsure how group work online was going to work, would I have enough time to respond and would everyone be open to communication?
Luckily, I seem to have a cooperative group with varying levels of input due to life outside uni and internet connections. Most seem very enthusiastic and willing to compromise, praise and work with others.
It was a slow start with everyone posting up their initial thoughts in various forms (long, short, referenced, sporadic) but it was useful, later, to pick out the similar themes.
Ellene organised summarising the topics, Melanie organised the groups following my suggestion and Holly organised the Wiki page. Linda orgnaised paired sections on the Wiki to make it easier to work with and editted the final response. All volunteered for these roles and seemed to step into the role naturally or just took on the task and let others know after the fact. Luckily, everyone seems quite ok with this approach. Holly asked if anyone else wanted to post the completed group response before saying she would be happy to do it. Melissa has probably been the least vocal contributor in the group and, like me, the only one not to have taken on a leadership role automatically.
In our pairs, I was placed with Melanie and, after some waiting, I posted the draft with referencing that I had in response and invited her feedback and contribution. I was comfortable taking on this leadership role as I am confident in my abilities to write acadmically and because I had the time. Melanie seemed grateful not to have to do all the work in this regard and added a few of her own thoughts as well. In our next task, should we work together, I would be happy to take my lead from my partner if they are more comfortable in a lead role. I would vaguely label this kind of leadership as instructional, as I took on the bulk of the writing and asked for input.
Next time: I would like to put my hand up to be more of an organiser, however, I enjoyed being able to contribute to the small group and that my referencing and writing was recognised as adequate. I would also like to see some group roles assigned so everyone has a chance to contribute something.
Overall, the leadership was hesitant, with no one person coming out as a dictator, but with various members of the group beginning to show markers of a natural distributed leadership style, with work being shared out relatively evenly to those with an interest or strength in the area (Harris, 2014). Perhaps because everyone is operating at a Masters level, there is a certain recognition of prior learning and shared respect that comes with that. From what I can tell, all group members are working to show respect for eachother and the different life experiences and professional experiences being brought to the table. Bravery is demonstrated in those can admit to their own weaknesses, as well as strengths and, in doing so, members of the group have opened a line of genuine communication that will contirbute to a positive work flow in the next task.
It has been suggested we organise mini timetable meet-ups for the next case study because, although we checked in randomly and often, some people felt they were missing out on things while they weren’t online. I think this would be useful and I am curious to see who and how dates/times are suggested and selected.
References
Harris, A. (2014, September 29). Distributed leadership. Teacher Magazine, ACER.
https://www.teachermagazine.com.au/article/distributed-leadership
