Interpersonal
Interact effectively with others as peers, subordinates and leaders to accomplish goals.
Artifact: EDTEC 670 Board Game
Context
The topic of Global Warming is controversial to say the least. But whether one believes global warming is real or not, I think we can all agree that we can and should do more to help protect the environment. There are little things we as individuals can do every day that can help make our world a better place for us and the next generation. It is from this perspective that my team created this board game during EdTech 670 - Exploratory Learning Through Educational Simulation & Games.
Demonstrating the Standard
Our team consisted of three individuals in three states, separated by over 2000 miles. Because this project was quite large and complicated, continual communication was critical to its completion. We came together around the idea of creating an environmentally friendly game and began meeting to determine the context, our target audience and our objectives. In order to reduce the transactional distance and communicate each other’s progress, we scheduled two meeting times per week using Adobe Connect. We asynchronously communicated using email, making sure to click “reply all” so we could track conversations threads. We also used a wiki collaboratively to create, edit, and revise documents.
I have worked positively and effectively in numerous groups on many projects since I began pursuing my EDTEC Masters, but all group members agreed that this was our best experience to date. Through our interpersonal skills and the effective use of technology, we were able to reduce dramatically the transactional distance and overcome business travel, sickness, the birth of a child, and other potential obstacles to create an outstanding product.
Challenges / Opportunities
“Just the facts ma’am.” - Detective Joe Friday
Our first decision as a group was to avoid making this game political. To accomplish this, we chose to focus on just the facts. We researched resources from several sides of the argument (those that think global warming is man-made, those that think it is not man-made, and those that think it doesn’t even exist). From our research we concluded that the phrase “global warming” was to be avoided and instead chose to focus on carbon dioxide emission and fossil fuel consumption. We compiled an extensive list of ways individuals can reduce carbon emissions and fossil fuel use. After compiling this list, our next challenge was to make this topic motivating and engaging. To accomplish this we incorporated several game design principles and motivational theories to create a fun, engaging, flexible, yet simple game that educates and helps preserve our planet.
Personal Growth
I feel that my interpersonal skills are by far my greatest strength. But where I have grown through the EDTEC program is how to utilize those skills over large geographical distances. In face-to-face communication, it is easy to insert humor and sarcasm, take turns talking, read body language, and know when you need make clarifying statements. All of these become difficult, if not impossible, when most of your communication is through text chat, email, and time delayed audio devices such as Adobe Breeze, Wimba, or Skype. While taking my first two distance courses, EDTEC 540 and 541, I tried inserting humor and sarcasm in the text chat only to offend fellow classmates and the instructors. Most technologies have begun adding emoticons and other features to help in this area, but I had to learn the hard way.
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