Joe Morris commented on: Group 2 and 4
Ross Reynolds commented on: Group 2 and 3
The Highlander Effect Group 1
November Monthly Summary
Submitted by: Joe Morris
The Highlander Effect Group 1 successfully
completed two major projects; one on unique Adult and Community Education
Organizations and one E-Archive. We
studied the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy and the National Institute
of Management and Administration (NIMA).
Each of us took on additional roles and responsibilities as we lost a
group member. Group 1 looks forward to
completing the final assignments for the class during the coming week.
Roles and Brief Summary of Research
Joe completed research on the
Barbara Bush Foundation and provided the introduction and summary portions
while Ross completed the discussions
paragraphs and the summary table for the Adult & Community Education
Organization project. Operating from her
location in Kabul, Afghanistan, Janice Miller completed research on NIMA. The
Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy and The National Institute
of Management and Administration (NIMA) are the two outstanding adult education organizations we elected to
profile. The idea of the Barbara
Bush Foundation is to reach children before they enter kindergarten by
investing in low-literate parents. NIMA was founded in 2008,
in Kabul, Afghanistan. After centuries
of war including Soviet invasion and expansion, civil war and the Taliban,
education was almost non-existent. In
addition, the country has a need for a skilled workforce. NIMA was created to help fill this workforce
need.
Ross took the lead and created the
Wix website for the E-Archive project. Joe completed the 1-page paper and summarized
and proofed each summary paragraph, and Janice created summary paragraphs from
the research she completed during the semester.
Group Process
As a group, we felt like were able
to successfully complete our projects, as we met mutually agreed upon deadlines
and kept the lines of communication open.
Janice is in Afghanistan, and the time zone difference is 9 ½ hours. We had to rely on email to communicate with
her. Ross and Joe communicated via text
messages, emails, and telephone calls. Jan is living out her vocation to bring
education to a vastly underserved group of people. The institution she is working to build will
be the first public higher education program since the Soviet era ended decades
ago. We’re grateful as a group to have
this unique hands-on research to share with the class and the world.
I'm sorry to hear you lost a group member! That definitely forces you to re-examine roles and complete additional activities.
ReplyDeleteIt's also great that you have such a variety of people in your group. Having a member doing such great work in Afghanistan is a great addition to the group and gives new insight. Thanks for sharing.
-Becky
Losing a group member must have been rough for you all. I'm sure it was a challenge to shuffle all of the responsibilities. Thank you for sharing your struggles, triumphs, and insight. Good luck in all of your future assignments!
ReplyDeleteIt's so funny how minor you make your bumps sound! I felt all kinds of challenges in group work! I had personal frustrations and group frustrations and processing through those really gave me insight into myself and adult education! I wish you had been a little more revealing and not so pc. ;)
ReplyDeleteLOL, Sara, you are bold, and you always tell the things which others are afraid to tell, and I like it. :)
DeleteBo
Life... and education! What a combination. Both bring lessons and new experiences as well as opportunities to acquire understanding. Your group has done a wonderful job of managing both! Thank you for sharing your insights.
ReplyDeleteDarcey
The diversity and depth of your group is evident in your work (not to mention your incredible flexibility), You could all be acrobats on the side!
ReplyDeleteI was fascinated by the contrast of the organizations you chose, intrigued by the personnel journey's woven throughout your group dynamics, and like Sarah, amazed at how you seemed to take it in stride.
I read Joe's comments (in his personal post) about the bombing in Kabul and also thought immediately of Janice. I had friends that were in the bombing of the church in Pakistan many years ago and who have worked much of the last 15 years in Afghanistan (often moving back and forth between countries). It is indeed a challenging, sometimes dangerous, but very important work to invest in education and establishing infrastructure in the country. I can't imagine adding school into the mix.
Thanks for sharing your group story with us all!
I read Joe's comments (in his personal post) about the bombing in Kabul and also thought immediately of Janice.
Delete------ Friendship developed within classmates is pure and sweet. I am sure each group has more or less difficult situations during the semester, but after working hard together for a whole semester and finally have something achieved, you may have a different feeling about your group and your group members. For better or for worse, they are part of your learning journey, and you learn from your journey. Hopefully after the training in this course, you will have a better understanding of the group work and you will have more skills and knowledge about how to work with other people.
Bo
I am glad your group was able to work so smoothly with the loss of a group member and a member being so far away. If my group members all had each other cell phone numbers it would have taken care of a lot of the misunderstanding and we would not have had to rely on emails so much.
ReplyDelete