Finishing up

Quite a few folk have completed the work at this stage but there are still a number of people who haven't completed various bits and pieces. Some folk have done everything but not submitted a final version of their evaluation report for me. If you are not sure what you need to do, or are not sure whether you have completed the work or not, please get in touch. I have sent some reminders to Duncan, so he may be in touch with you individually.

Completing evaluation reports

Today most people were working on their evaluation reports for me. I gave some feedback on reports handed in last week.

I also reminded everyone that they need to check with me whether or not they have handed in all the necessary paperwork for the unit.

Once I have told you that you have passed the unit, then you are free to use our Thursday morning slot to work on the four reports that you need to do for Jacek.

I can give advice on the style and structure of your reports for Jacek but obviously I won’t be able to give advice on the content.

If you need to submit work to me you can do so by email: jerryoneill@stevenson.ac.uk

Thinking about reports

On Wednesday I met up with Jacek and we discussed what was required for your reports. Jacek will give you more detail on the content of the reports that he requires today (Friday).

What was agreed was a structure and format for your reports. I have made up a template and have saved that in the Working in A Project Team folder on the P drive under the filename "report template".

I also gave out a handout on reports which touch on issues to do with the purpose of reports; types of reports; sections; and style. This, too, can be found on the P drive ("Report writing handout").

Most of those who were in yesterday handed in their evaluation reports for me. I also received a couple by email. If you haven't sent those on to me, can you email to me as soon as you can. Thanks.

As I said, once you complete all the bits and pieces for your portfolio for my unit (some have already), then you can use the time on Thursday mornings to work on your reports for Jacek and use me as a resource on the style, rather than content, of the reports.

Evaluating the research project

After a long break, we started back today with the next stage of the unit: self-evaluation.

I gave out details (which you'll find on pages 22-25 of the student guide on the P drive) of an evaluation report which you are now required to write. The purpose of this report is to describe the short research project and process and, crucially, to evaluate your team and individual performance. I won't go into the details of this again - as I say you'll find details of that in the student guide.

I have asked for a copy of a first draft of that for next week.

Just to clarify, this report is not one of the ones that you need to do for your Building a Network PC unit.

Team presentations

Thanks to everyone who made it in today to share their research as a team with the rest of the class for the four tasks. Hopefully at this stage you will all have a good idea of what you know and, more importantly, need to know to get working on the various tasks.

The presentations were the climax of the team-work element on the course. You'll remember the purpose of each team was to work collectively to research and share information on the various tasks.

After Easter, we need to look towards how all of this research comes together in a report format.

I've collated a list of the websites that have been suggested for the various tasks and added them to the task descriptions on the right-hand side column of this blog. If anyone would like to suggest more sites, just give the details as a comment to this post and I'll add them on to the rest.

Preparing for group presentations

Today was, mostly, spent on teams working on the group presentation task for next week. Remember that the purpose of the group presentation (and this class in general) is to help each other with the research for the four Building a Network PC tasks.

I asked everyone to think about how the presentations would be structured and delivered. The obvious way to create a sense of a unified presentation is to use something like PowerPoint. The use of a common platform will help link the elements of your presentation.

I also handed back some feedback on the minutes. Remember that the structure of the minutes should reflect the structure of the agenda. You should always have a copy of the agenda when you are writing the minutes.

Minute writing and feedback

I started off today by giving some guidelines on minute-writing, directed you towards the template on the P drive and then let you get on with that.

I also gave feedback individually to everyone who took part in the meeting next week. Some folk finished the minutes and others, I presume, are on their way.

Next week you will work in your teams to organise your group presentation to the rest of the class.

Research meetings

Thanks to everyone for your input at today's meetings.

There was a lot of useful research been shared - the fact that we ran over time on this is evidence of the amount of relevant information that people have come across.

One of the ideas that came up was for teams to share information on their research by opening up their Facebook sites to each other: that's up to you as teams. However, I will be collating all the sites that people are recommending and will put the links up on this blog.

One of the main points to come out of today's meeting is the importance of preparation. If you didn't feel that your slot didn't go as well as you hoped, then think about how prepared you were.

Next week we will be looking at writing up the minutes of the meeting and after that we will be looking at putting a group presentation together.

Thanks again for your hard work.

Preparaing for research meeting

Most of today was spent preparing for the formal (and assessed) meetings next week.

The first thing that most people did was devise an agenda for the meeting next week.

After that, everyone worked on their individual research. Remember that you need to come along prepared with written notes on two websites which are of use for your research for the tasks. Again, use "Document 2 Research and Reading 1" (page 11) from the Student Guide for this unit which you'll find on the P drive (see file location address on right hand column).

As everyone has set up a Facebook for their group and acting on a suggestion from, I have set up a Facebook space for me as a tutor (not my personal Facebook page - you don't want a window into my world believe me ...). If you want to invite me - I'm there somewhere.

If anyone has any questions about what needs to be done, please get in touch.

Practice group presentations and research

Today we started off with with two team (practice) presentations on two websites (microsoft.co.uk and cnet.com). Thanks to everyone for getting up and doing that. You had very little time to prepare for that. I've put the links to these sites in "useful links" on the column to the right.

What you did today as a team presentation gives you a sense of what you need to do individually in your team meetings in a couple of weeks. Remember that each of you need to present a summary and evaluation of two websites which are useful sources of information for one of the tasks.

Next week we will consolidate the research - in your teams you will need to make sure that everyone has researched two sites and has completed the handout that I gave out today (and last week). The title of the handout is "Research and Reading - Document 2 and is available on the P drive. See file location in right-hand-column of this blog.

I've also put up the tasks on this site - just to keep us all right.

Finally, it appears that everyone has set up a Facebook site and one group are using the Skydrive as a way of communicating and sharing information.

Completing the planning ... starting to research

Today we completed the planning of the work that you need to do. I gave out a handout which gave some detail on the various stages and dates that these stages will be completed.

Each team completed a single planning sheet for the team - each member of each team will have an individual planning sheet which should synchronise with the team one (the individual and team planning sheet may look very similar - that's fine)

I asked you to then start research as a team on one website that you think may be useful for the purposes of your research. You started on that and, after some problems with the computers, completed that just before we left. We'll take it up from there next week when it will be over to you ... each team will talk us through a summary and evaluation of their chosen website.

Starting the research project

Today we split up into the teams that you'll be in for the purpose of the unit.

Thare are three groups:


I gave out an agenda for everyone's first meeting:

1.Apologies for absence
2.Team name
3.Clarification of the purpose of the project
4.Team Members’ Contact Details
5.Acceptable group behaviour / group working
6.Who will do what? Team roles.
7.Strategy for successful completion of project
8.Any other competent business
9.Date of next meeting

It will probably not be neccessary to have a formal meeting with an agenda each week, however it is good experience to have more formal meetings with agendas every now and again. Part of the assessment for this unit requires you to organise, take part in and record the proceedings of a meeting.

The main thing that I wanted people to work out today was the objective of your team's project and to allocate tasks within the groups.

Now that we have a date for the submission of reports for Colin (second week in May) - we can work backwards from that to work out our timescale. We'll look at that next week.

Introduction to unit

First and foremost, apologies for the mix up with the rooms. I have a funny feeling that this isn't quite sorted yet. I am told that we should be in a room called Creative Arts 5 from next week (4th Feb) onwards.

In this first session we discussed the differences between groups and roles and, as a class, you all came up with the crucial aspect that makes the distinction between the two: a team is a group with a common objective.

At the moment you are still a group as your common objective has not yet come fully into focus - once it does, you will, hopefully, be a team.

We touched on the various roles the people play in teams and I asked you to identify, as much as you could, what role you most identified with in Belbin's list of team roles. It will be interesting to reflect on these as we progress. Click here to find out more about Belbin's roles.

We finished by breaking into groups (not teams yet!) and I gave you an idea of what we will be doing next.

I allowed you to form your own groups and was surprised that some had formed groups already. We'll take it up from there next time ...