B184027 Reflective Essay Through the planning stages, the most important lesson I have learned is to fully utilize emerging technology with regards to group work and to not stick with old habits. The technology we integrated was a Cloud-based service, Google Docs. Additionally, the greatest challenge I faced was the issues related to different cultures, languages, locations, and connectivity of different group members. Prior to the project, I had no experience with fully remote online collaboration and so I was not prepared for the hurdles in successfully sharing, critiquing, and pooling resources nor was I aware of the logistical barriers to come. Google Docs allows several people to edit the same document in real-time (Tan & Kim, 2011). This was important as it made group work more efficient by removing the need to email documents back and forth. It also allowed us to clearly illustrate our ideas whilst in a group call. The idea for this came after our practice group pitch in which it became apparent not everyone had the same understanding of our value proposition. Implementing Google Docs meant that the information on the document was agreed upon and this instilled clarity. Furthermore, it offered extra features such as Tasks that integrated a group to-do list helping us be more organized and structure our time. Tan & Kim (2011) suggest this may have been an issue due to varying levels of technological literacy, but no one in the group struggled with migrating to this service. In terms of the challenge mentioned previously, this manifested itself through language issues and differences in culture which impeded communication of ideas and finding a common ground. Understandably, members of the group struggled to express themselves and this slowed down the process most notably at the brainstorming stage. This was compounded by viewpoints often differing due to unique life experiences. Consequently, we fell behind considerably and this led me to feel frustrated. The group (myself included) managed to overcome these issues through more informal calls in which we focused on understanding and getting to know each other as friends, helping us to become more unified in our approach. Upon reflection, if I were to undergo this process again, I think we should have implemented the use of Google Docs from the start. This would have enabled our notes and ideas to be more streamlined and there would have been a clear structure from the start which we could then refer to at later points. Not only would this have saved hours of time, but especially during the early stages it could have promoted us to hold a clear, universal view. Instead, we ended up with lots of our documents scattered around, with slight variations that were lost in translation. The incorporation of Google Docs was new to me but is definitely here to stay. Looking forward, a skill of mine that still needs further development is adaptability. This experience has highlighted the lack of exposure I have had previously to people from different cultures and backgrounds. Rather than getting stuck and disheartened I need to learn to embrace these hurdles and make the most of the situation, for example, remembering to be patient with other group members in forthcoming meetings if they struggle to articulate themselves. This goes for not only this project, but any future project I embark on. References Tan, X. and Kim, Y. (2011). Cloud Computing for Education: A Case of Using Google Docs in MBA Group Projects. 2011 International Conference on Business Computing and Global Informatization. [online] Available at: https://ieeexplore-ieeeorg.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/document/6003981 [Accessed 31 Mar. 2021].
