Groups that work

Laura Szmuch and Jamie Duncan have just released their latest issue of RTNews - A magazine on Neuro Linguistic Programming in Education. In this month's article, they discuss: what makes a group function well together? Reading them, I thought of Learning with Computers, and felt eager to share the following extracts with you:

Using an NLP perspective, we can observe what works in productive and positive teams. In these, the members share a common purpose, which provides the motivation and sense for being together. They are often homogeneous groups, at least on the surface. We tend to work better with people that are like us, that we have things in common with and who we feel understand us. Groups where the members consider they have a voice and equal rights combine better than those in which the power is concentrated in the hands of a few. Perhaps the few have the power today, but there is the expectation that it will be shared around on a regular and systematic basis ... At a more sophisticated level, most students of group theory also point out the need for a group to contain people playing diverse roles – like the initiator, the details wizard, the motivator, the mother or father figure, etc.

And here comes the most interesting part (to me!). They tell us group cohesion does not depend exclusively on the teacher/moderator, but all members can contribute to it! How? Have a look at some tips for us all to bear in mind!

• Be really aware of all the members of the group. Make sure everyone feels part of the bigger unit and that their contribution is recognised not only by group leaders but fellow members as well.
  
• Ensure that the group has time to be together alone to work on the task in hand. If there is no stability of membership, it makes it very difficult to forge a working team.
  
• Check if the members are happy with the progress. If discontent is related to something to do with the functioning of the group, the quicker this is acknowledged, the better.
  
• Where appropriate and possible, foster a sense of equality. A good attitude to develop is that we are all equal shareholders in the outcome of the group’s work, we are all contributing to the task and each has a role to play. It helps to establish how each member will be better off or satisfied by the group achieving it’s goal. If the accountability falls on the shoulders of one or two people or if only they are to reap the rewards, these people have to recognise the help they have had. As flat a hierarchy as possible tends to function better.
  
• Maintain a flow of communication and clearly establish how and when members can talk to each other as a group.
  
• Be open about difficulties and obstacles facing the entire team and its project. If there are constraints of time or resources, these should be admitted openly. History has shown many examples of people working together in adversity when they know what they are up against (perhaps you've heard of the Dunkirk spirit?) .
  
• Groups often stick together because of the shared humour, the jokes, the nicknames and the experiences they have in common. Encouraging this as a group member can be very rewarding.
  
• Play to the strengths of the individuals. If one person is the mothering type and the others respond to this, let it happen. If someone is the bossy one and the group appreciates this, great.

And they finish telling us:

Groups are like individuals. Every one is different and they are always constantly changing. Nonetheless, much of what we have successfully achieved on this planet is the result of group work and it makes sense to nurture a positive and cooperative group spirit. Most of all, the sense of achievement gained from having worked together on a project can be one of the most enriching human experiences possible.

Good time to say: Thanks for the enrichment you've brought to my life, group members!

Gladys

NOTE: RTNews is emailed monthly for free. You can subscribe by sending a mail to: rtnews@resourcefulteaching.com.ar with your name and city stating 'subscribe' in the subject box)

March-April

As you can see, my initial plan of writing a monthly entry has already gone to the dogs. Unlike most of you, who are already in the final stage of the school year, here (I mean in the bottom part of the planet) we are just beginning, adjusting to new timetables, trying to put papers in order, making room for more paper, going over last year’s class plans and projects to see what we keep and what we do without. And on top of all this, just like you all, we’re keeping up with e-mails, making new friends and new knowledge.

I've personally found these first two months of LwC a time of deep discovery. On the one hand I’ve started to make sense of Yahoo! Groups and all the potential they have for virtual communities of learning. I’ve been in other groups before but had never explored them in depth. LwC makes a full use of all the group facilities and encourages members to get into the action themselves: create a photo album and upload your photo, create and entry for your birthday in the calendar and set up an alarm for everybody else to send their birthday greetings on time, keep links in the Links section, upload files…
On the other hand, the wiki has proved to be an excellent collaboration tool. It’s easy to create new pages, edit them and add them to the sidebar. All of us have been able to leave our signature in one or more pages. It’s nice to see the wiki grow week after week, a big intercultural puzzle made up of big and small pieces, all equally important for the global picture.

Finally, having weekly tasks keeps the group moving all the time. All the members are involved doing what they can, or interests them most, and receiving positive feedback for what they do and no dressing downs for what they don’t. Can we expect more of a learning environment?
Working with images, voice and text mail along these two months has allowed us to experience multimedia in communication technology. I bet quite a few of us have discovered new and rich ways to get across to loved ones as well as students and colleagues.
As an add-on to all our “academic” work, we have been introduced to the world of widgets by hard-working mother-of-six Teri. We are all looking forward to a new round of widgets. We hope Teri is back on the list soon after “getting her kids through their final exams.” In the meanwhile, I've found a new one by Frappr, which is in Beta version and which we could try here: the chat box, which you'll see in the sidebar. Let's see if some of us meet in blogosphere for a chat!
Isabel and Dennis have taken over our social bookmarking. Each of them has chosen a different tool -Blinklist and Del.icio.us –and carefully gone over hundreds of messages to get all the useful links contributed to the list conveniently organized and tagged.
As Dennis himself put it in one of his messages: “'I love about this list is that there are people on it who DO things”.

(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")

Claudia

Another Star in Cyberspace

Gladys Baya, an EFL, teacher trainer and computer fancier from Buenos Aires, Argentina, decided to create Learning with Computers Yahoo! Group by the end of February 2006, to cater for those language teachers in need of basic training in the use of Internet-based tools. Having been a member of Webheads in Action since 2005, she realised many participants in annual EVO Sessions felt overwhelmed by the unintelligible techie jargon of initiated participants and chose to remain in the background. There she saw fertile soil to plant the seed of cooperative technology training and discussion.

As soon as I got to know of Gladys's initiative, I jumped into the action. I've known her for a few years but have started regular communication with her since our "virtual" meetings in this year's Becoming a Webhead sessions, where she was a co-moderator for one of the weeks and I, a first timer.

Not many English teachers in our area think it is worthwhile to spend free time exploring new technologies. But we do. And a small bunch of others out there do too. Facing the impossibility of f2f teamwork, we have found CMC (computer mediated communication) a useful bridge to get to other like-minded people all over the world and break free from isolation. Thanks to this, our individual efforts can find echo in big communities who are ready to help, encourage, comfort, guide.

Gladys has confided me the task of setting up this blog to record our development as a community of teachers/learners. Each and every one of us has something to learn from the group as well as many useful contributions to offer. Even when we ask a question we are providing others with the chance to reflect on some issue. Isn't that important?

Let's use this blog to keep a record of our memorable moments as members of this community, of our "Eureka!" moments and frustrations. I bet there will be many.

I expect you to make this blog yours, that is, ours.

Claudia