Collaboration Rules!
July 27th, 2010 • LIBR559M
After doing module 3 “Collaboration”, I’ve been thinking about one of the questions posed: Are we all equally skilled at working together in collaboration? I think not! We all come from very different backgrounds; we have different degrees, different work experiences, and different life experiences. At my last job, collaboration was essential to getting anything done, although we worked most of the time independently. I for sure learnt how to collaborate, I don’t think it’s a skill or even a concept that is valued in our society, especially under capitalism with its idea of competition and ‘only the strong will survive’. And when thinking about collaboration with social media, we are definitely not all equally skilled in collaboration. People have different skill levels and even different comfort levels while using social media. But this presents yet another opportunity to collaborate. Any group projects I’ve done in the SLAIS program, including our latest Wiki assignment, were not only collaborative in terms of the subject matter, but also in sharing information about how to use the social media tool we had decided on or been assigned to use.
With this Wiki project, my teammates taught me how to use the chat rooms in our e-learning site and how to add links on the Wiki itself. Just last semester in another group project, my teammates introduced me to, and taught me how to use, GoogleWave. Although I came into this program knowing very very little about the social media out there (let alone how and when to use them), I have learnt so much thanks to the collaborative learning that’s come out of collaborative group work. And I’m still learning – I can’t believe the number of social tools for collaborative work that we looked at in module 3!
I agree that a sense of community is most important for successful and real collaboration. This sense of community can help take away the competiveness we’re used to – we compete with others we could be collaborating with for grades, raises at work, even in sports where we’re playing to beat someone else. But in the information profession, collaboration is most important, as I’ve learnt. It allows us to keep up to date with new social media and with what is going on in the world around us. We all bring some new and different knowledge to the table with us, which is wonderful because no one has enough time to learn and research about all the new social media coming out, but we’re able to keep on top of it in part thanks to the sharing with each other about cool new social media we’re using or we’ve heard of.
I do think that for collaboration to work it is essential that the members of the group have some sort of affinity with each other. It could be that members know each other well enough that they can take and receive constructive criticism, or that the members of the group are so excited about and believe in the project so much that they are honest and open in their communication with each other. As Edwin Land said, “Politeness is the poison of collaboration”. So then maybe we can say that honest and respectful communication is the food of collaboration!
8 Responses (Add Your Comment)
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Lovely entry, Cristina! And I’m happy I’ve had a chance to work with you on several group assignments now …
I’ve come into every collaborative SLAIS assignment feeling pretty anxious — I’m always afraid I’m going to wind up doing too little, or be too timid to tell someone when I don’t like an idea. It’s always simpler and less stressful to just complete it yourself at 3am and only worry about letting yourself down. BUT, that said, I kind of had to start conceptualizing teamwork differently: I always wondered why instructors included it because it makes things “less convenient,” but, then again, like the best things in life, I suppose convenience isn’t the point. I have found that working with other people keeps me more on my toes and I do wind up learning more and being more focused than I sometimes am when I’m just rushing to finish a solitary task. Trying to focus on the good sounds a bit corny, but it has helped me approach teamwork with a stronger attitude.
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Maggie Hodge Kwan July 28, 2010at 8:38 pmNice post! As usual, I appreciate your points and found the post quite interesting.
In my WISE course this week, we are talking about information ethics and the fact that ethics vary considerably culture to culture. I would say that the same is true of collaboration, and I believe that Jonathan touched on this in his blog post for the week. Thus, I absolutely agree that we don’t enter into the program, or into social media use, with equal skills regarding collaboration.
Before I started the program at SLAIS, I had half a dozen research assistant jobs for various professors. I worked independently and updated my employers on a regular basis. This is to say that I hadn’t really had the chance to collaborate, between independent research work and my History degree (lots of solo papers but only two collaborative projects!).
While I have appreciated the chance to collaborate so frequently in the program, I have to admit that it’s been a learning curve! I know those skills will be very important in my career, though, so it’s been an enjoyable learning process.
Maggie
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Shawn Roncin August 1, 2010at 12:39 pmThat’s a very true quote! It would be fun to be a part of a collaborative team where politeness was banned, and nastiness and pushy attitudes are encouraged…just to see whether the results would exceed those of the ‘polite’ team.
I didn’t know Lund’s quotation. I’m sure being polite is helpful when used honestly. And constructive criticism delivered politely would certain help people get along (a precursor to collaboration).
I do agree that using social media introduces all kinds of challenges in collaboration, especially trying to be communicate effectively.