Reflection on Progress and Collaboration

¶ … Collaboration and Progress In their book on curriculum assessment, Bird, Alton, and More (2000, p. 41) point out that research has in the past clearly demonstrated that "cooperative group work is beneficial as it fosters learning." I must point out that collaborating with others has been amazing. Previously, I have been more of a passive member to group effort. I now actively engage others on various fronts in an attempt to achieve common ground or leverage ideas.

Mutually beneficial collaborations are only achieved when you appreciate the difference between group and individual effort. In that regard, therefore, criticism of other people's viewpoints should be done diligently and with significant understanding of their weaknesses and strengths. It is with this understanding that I gave my opinion of other student's texts. Collaborating with others also "thickened my skin." In addition to being able to handle criticism better, I am now more appreciative of what others have to say of my work.

The relevance of other people's viewpoints cannot be overstated. This is more so the case given that they enable one to make the relevant changes to his or her position so as to come up with a better position and understanding of the relevant issues. I now appreciate the relevance of group, as opposed to individual, effort. I fully appreciate the fact that going forward, I will be more exposed to group effort -- be it in future school projects or work setting.

This is more so the case given that in today's world, group effort is gaining significant credit -- with Harris and Hartman (2001, p. 144) pointing out that "group work is being used as an alternative to highly specialized individual effort." Thanks to this exercise, I have also been able to further sharpen my research and editing skills. My ability to source for information from a variety of quarters and then connect this information to my thoughts and ideas has also gained a significant boost.

In the final analysis, the entire exercise has been a good learning experience. I have sharpened my understanding of the relevance and downsides of the adoption of social media in the organizational setting. While there are risks, there are also clear benefits of social media technologies. The said benefits were categorized into three: benefits to stakeholders, benefits to customers, and benefits to employees.

Without going into the details again, when well integrated into the organizational system, social media technologies not only provide greater opportunities for collaboration amongst employees, but also bring down internal communication costs. It is, however, important to note that as I have already pointed out above, these benefits can only be realized through.