As I began to read, skim and jump around the readings of this week, I tried my hardest to grasp exactly why we had been given this material relating to the notion of collaboration. Through all of my confusion and uncertainty caused by these readings I tried to pull some things from it that made logical and relevant sense within my life and studies today.

Firstly, group work is tricky. In Keith Sawyer’s The creative power of collaboration, he spoke how it can go to the “dark side” (p.57) where “the group (can make) us all dumber,” and of course other situations when a group thrives off the energy of each other. So far in my studies, my group experiences have been positive and I think the crucial element to the success of a group collaboration is communication. I believe it is imperative that every single individual is talking, taking part, and contributing their opinion which ensures that as a group you are using everyones minds, strengths and abilities in order to complete the task the best you can.

Secondly, I stumbled upon a collaboration sequence within the readings that caught my eye; forming… storming… norming… performing…

The group is formed, you are all new. You storm through the task, blurting out ideas and bouncing off each other, clashing/ working together. You make the task normal for yourselves, make it easy and understandable so you all know what you are talking about and become experts on the topic. Finally you perform as a synchronised group ready to take on the world.

I look forward to collaborating in my future studies. I look forward to calling on my talented fellow classmates so we can work together to produce interesting, creative and unique work.