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Week 3: Group Work

I used to really hate and dread anything to do with group work.  I've had some pretty horrible experiences in the past, even as recent as during my B.Ed.  For my biology curriculum course, we needed to plan out an entire unit (on plants) and ALL of the work was basically left for me to complete.  It was the most frustrating group work experience that I've had to date - aren't teachers supposed to collaborate and work together?  If teachers themselves can't do this, how do we expect it of our students?


BUT... over the past year and a half, as I've been working on completing my M.Ed. at UOIT, my opinion of group work has done a complete 180.  My mindset has changed for a few reasons; I have gained a better understanding of social constructivist learning theories and I have experienced what and how collaborative learning should be implemented in education.  This past week, I have focused on working on assignment 2 with my group.  We have been developing an infographic about Rogers' diffusion of innovations theory and trying to decide on how we want to facilitate our class discussion of this theory.  As a group, we are working well together, especially given how busy we all are in our professional lives.  I believe that G Suite tools are really beneficial for collaboration as we can jot down our notes and share our resources in real time, without having to go back and forth in an email.  We also chose to do our infographic using Canva as it also allows users to collaborate on a design.

Group work is not without challenges... as a group, we've been butting heads a bit on deciding on the scenario we want to use for our presentation.  We're divided on the direction that we want to take but I have faith that we will work it out and come to a consensus.  I have to admit that I know I can be a bit stubborn and push my ideas forward; I'm learning that I need to let go of control a bit, even though it is challenging for myself.  I do learn so much from others; even though group work can be challenging, it is usually worth overcoming those challenges in the end.




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