Team and Individual Progress

Well, this week we have made some decent progress on our group project. We ended the last week with a clarified topic, and began the week creating an outline of the organization of the paper. We decided that although there was significant overlap in our interests in researching and writing about the different components in the paper, that we'd begin by having one person develop the main framework of each section, and then work together to nuance the content of each section and create a seamless flow from start to finish. While this may not maximize the collaborative nature of the writing, it does make best use of our time.

We have decided to use a wiki to help organize our work and serve as our main source of communication. So, we've posted the outline and our group guidelines, and have also begun posting resources for the paper. By next week I expect to see the beginnings of postings for each section, although with the midterm I doubt it will be very dense.

I was initially a bit frustrated by the flow of posting on the group discussion board and wiki - one member in particular was not checking in as regularly as others. We have now created group norms that do not expect daily updates/input, but still allow us to keep on top of our work. So far the team charter seems to be working for us.

In my own workflow, I am overwhelmed with new and continuing responsibilities at work and really annoying internet problems at home, and it has been hard for me to get the work done for the class. I am doing all I can to be on top of the group work, but that has put me behind in the preparations for the midterm. I'm stressing out a bit about the outline, and have just decided to turn something in that sseems to be a good start, and then I'll modify it over the course of the week as I can focus more deeply on the project.

I am enjoying what I'm reading for the class in general, the team project, and my midterm, but I'm not having enough time to really digest the information. I'm hoping for this coming week to be a bit more manageable....
betsy