Task 3 Milestone 6 Reflection

 I believe working in teams during a problem based learning assignment allows students to hear the different ideas of their peers and allows them to broaden their horizons, giving them a variety of ideas to create the best possible solution to the objective at hand. In student teams I'll often see students take control of the group's direction, not allowing any room for more ideas to flow through. Other times I'll see students not participate or make excuses as to why they can't take part, causing the group to piggy back that individual. And sometimes I'll see that a couple students within the group put more effort than the entire group itself often jumping in at the last minute. By having an assignment that is engaging, motivating, and clearly stated could hype students up and naturally allow them to work as a group. Though that's ideal and may be in some cases rare, putting a constant emphasis that the there is no "I" in team injunction with group participation points that count for big chunk of the grade, as well as individual group reflections, will help the manage team conflicts. I also think that by having face to face meets within the group to discuss the task and roles along with group meets with the teacher for updates, will help the students be more engaged and allow more participation to come about. This week questions were really minimal, there was a question whether we should meet face to face to discuss this week's milestone but with the ending of the semester drawing near the Greenfoots decided to communicate via email/forums.

Task 3 Milestone 5 Reflection

1.    What ideas have you contributed to your team this week?

I contributed that we all have another face to face meeting in order to discuss the content of this week's milestone and assign roles equally. Not much was needed as most of the ideas used were gathered in previous work, they were simply gathered and expanded.

2.    What role did you play on your team this week?

This week I helped the facilitator to decide a time and day the group could get together and I also was responsible for the Action Plan section of the milestone.

3.    How did you encourage and support your team members this week?

I encouraged and supported my group by offering to help them in anyway possible and by helping them find the ideas we used in previous work so that they may use it in this week's milestone.

4.    Did the group have any questions or problems this week?

I actually had a question about the Action Plan - whether it was to consist solely of the final task or if it was to include the tasks/activities that lead up to the final task.

Task 3 Milestone 4 Reflection

1.   What ideas have you contributed to your team this week? I suggested we all meet up and i gave an idea as to how we split the roles .

2.    What role did you play on your team this week? this week i was video presentator and meeting coordinator

3.    How did you encourage and support your team members this week? I supported my team by helping the task leader (vanessa) get everyone together and help her figure out the roles we should all take.

4.    Did the group have any questions or problems this week? We met face to face again and were able to clarify the assignments goals, this assignment seemed easier than the rest minus the difficulty with screen (my computer was freezing and running slow for some reason).

Task 3 Milestone 3 Reflection

The ideas I contributed to my group for this week's activity was suggesting that the focus on the fictional problem be on tackling overpopulation as a meteor hitting earth was too morbid (as Natalie pointed out). Along with other members in the group I also suggested a couple of questions that would help develop our student tasks in our scenario.

This week i was task leader, in which i set up a face to face meeting with other members and communicated with other members who were unable to attend via email and phone. I also assisted Aaron in building the welcome memo for this week's milestone and helped blend the orientation memo that Natalie and Shyann put together.

I encouraged and supported my group members by first having an open line of communication giving them my contact information in which i let them know i was available at all times if they needed help or had a question. This allowed me to work with them immediately when any questions arose. I supported my group's ideas by providing positive feed back, letting my them know i thought there ideas were good. For instance, Shyann asked if her portion of the orientation was good and i let her know that it was perfect and she did an amazing job. 

Initially the group had many questions, but when we got together for collaboration we were able to dispute any issues we were having. I feel we each brought knowledge to the table that allowed us to fill in the gaps of the assignment we didnt quite understand.

 Overall, this assignment was difficult but as always the Greenfoots were able to come out on top. Pat yourselves on the back we did an awesome job! Greenfoots, ftw!