So it began all those weeks ago...strangers with one thing in common..a long road of herbal science ahead. For the CIT module we got randomly assigned to groups of class mates to work with toward the common goal of blogging, researching and presenting and all together figuring out some "new fangled" technological advances in the form of blogspot, prezi, mahara and wallwisher.
To reflect on the CIT module as a whole I have to say that I learned a lot about different media resources available that I think will be beneficial to me in the future and I also learned a lot about team work.
The point, I suppose, of being assigned the group was to initially to get us to mingle and get to know each other and learn team work, and taking responsibility within the team. I definitely think that these aspects were achieved as I now feel like the people in my group are friends, people I can count on and people who I look up to for there vast range of skills and assets.
I could not be happier with the group I was assigned as they each brought very important qualities to each part of the module, the course itself and to my progression in the entire semester.
Peter, a wealth of knowledge when it comes to the sciences and always an interesting mind to pick when confusion arose in any subject, is a good guy to have nearby especially when scientific calculators are in danger of being smashed to pieces in anger. His blog entries were a great compilation of what we were learning and how to apply it to daily life and were a great read which I always looked forward to.
Tom, a quick witted genius, was a pleasure to work with and to blog with, as he absolutely cracks me up with wondering just what he'll come up with next. Toms approach to the presentation took a turn that I wouldn't have thought of when he took the topic of memory to it's futuristic outcome and it was both interesting and informative. His newsletter contributions were again informative and light-hearted at the same time, bringing in aspects of his great knowledge of science and his sense of humour.
Jess, all I can say is thank god for her computer skills when it came to the presentation..as prezi seemed to disappear every time I touched it she calmly and collectedly fixed and compiled everything and made, what, I think, was a pretty good presentation and her genius idea of the interactive audience participation with prizes went down really well with the rest of the class. Any time I needed some help with Botany I only had to look at her collection of blogs which showed fantastic study resources.
As for myself, as I got voted in as Team Leader I was initially scared as I didn't think my delegation skills were very good (I know Peter will laugh at this bit as it turned out that I was a master delegate, maybe one might say that the power went to my head! haha) and what I fell I learned about myself is that I think I am pretty much a control freak so I was delighted to have last editing preferences over the newsletters and prezi. As I said to the team in our last CIT module..."what'll I do now that you don't 'have' to do what I say anymore??!" hahaha. I'll miss the power! Wikipedia describes leadership as the "process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task." Yep..I think I nailed that one ;)
Teamwork is defined in Webster's New World Dictionary as "a joint action by a group of people, in which each person subordinates his or her individual interests and opinions to the unity and efficiency of the group." This does not mean that the individual is no longer important; however, it does mean that effective and efficient teamwork goes beyond individual accomplishments. The most effective teamwork is produced when all the individuals involved harmonise their contributions and work towards a common goal. I think that my group are the epitome of this concept. As a whole I think that we reached every goal we set for ourselves in the module and worked really well as a team each instilling a different
je ne sais quoi and produced some great work (in my opinion anyhow) and I think the whole module was really good fun, it definitely beats studying Inorganic Chemistry (which is what I'm off to do now.)
So to finish I want to really thank the rest of the team for being productive, interesting, and utterly brilliant and I hope that we get put together for projects in the future because I couldn't think of better folk to work with.
Team Leader Sarah, over and out!
