Cooperative learning(ACE) blog prompt #5

Projects day,CIP,Group assignments.. these are some of the activities/assignments that require working in group, and collaborating intensively with them to produce a good result. My experience was last year, during the projects competition. We were to work in groups of 4, but my group had five. We had to meet up with the teacher in charge a request for permission to have five members. After much effort, she finally agreed. That was the beginning of our project.

With the five members, the first thing after deciding on our project was to distribute the work load. This was improtant so as everyone has contributed to the project and would know what it is about. After doing so, we were to do our research on our own. This did not require much collaboration. The parts that did were the project meetings, the discussing session and so on. During these meetings, we brainstormed ideas, shared our views and also brought what we did together, to create the ppt and the website. We collaborated well through these meeting. An example would be like if a member shares his view, even if we disagreed with it, we would still consider it. We would think of the effects and uses of the idea. See if it can make the project better... Another time we collaborated well together was near the semi-finals. We had to finsh the website, ppt and the research, surveys and interviews. As the workload was a lot, those with lighter ones would help out the other members. I remember during one of the meetings, I helped to make the ppt, and another time where the other member helped me design the website. So, overall, in my opinion, it was because we could collaborate well together, thus making our project a good one.

My thoughts and views on this experience:
Before this experience, to tell you the truth, I would prefer to do my assignments by myself. By doing so, the advantages is that I would not face problems such as communication, and that I can concentrate better when being alone. However, disadvantages including not learning to work together, which is very important when you have a job. When you have a job, you would then relise that your job would require you to work with other people. This may be why my school has a lot of group assignment and projects. They want us to learn from young how to work with other people. From this experience, the most important thing I have learnt, other than the project, is about teamwork, and to cooperate with one another. Being able to work together well is a key factor that is required for sucess. Actually, not only at school/work that you would have to collaborate with each other. In life, you would have to cooperate with each other. An example is doubles tennis, you need teamwork to win. If you have the best teamwork, you can definately beat any team you face. Another example is in war. You need your allies to help you defeat the enemy, if you are alone they can kill you easily, but with allies, you can defeat them. Overall, this experience is a very educational one, and has allowed me to learn to work better with other people.