Online Global Collaboration

Collaborating with people from all over the world will be a lifelong experience that will give me skills that I can use throughout my life. However with this comes responsibility. Below are five points that I need to be aware of when collaborating online.

Netiquette

Netiquette is being polite and nice to people when online. Just because you are behind your screen, doesn't mean that you can say nasty things and put others down. To explain this more, look at the webpage or watch the video:

Bad Netiquette Stinks!
What is Netiquette? video

Global Collaboration

Global Collaboration is usually used in education to connect with other schools. It allows people from all over the world to collaborate and in my case work on an assignment through online resources. To collaborate globally, I am using a website called Edmodo, and may also be using an app called WeChat. 

Effective Communication

Effective communication means communicating  in a way that is clear and can not be interpreted in the wrong way. You can improve your effective communication in an online situation, by improving how you send and receive messages. By doing things like typing in all CAPS LOCK, and using acronyms like LOL and OMG, you may be misunderstood.  Effective communication will be very important when I am communicating online with my group.

Time zones and culture

When I am communicating online, I need to be aware of time zones. Although China is only around 2 hours behind Australia, I am also going to be communicating with people from America who are really behind. This means that I may have to leave messages for people because they are asleep, and I will have to check my various messaging sites regularly.

Another thing I have to be aware about is the different cultures. Because I am communicating with people from all over the world, I need to be aware about the different cultures. and what is appropriate for me may not be for them. Because of this, I need to be aware about the content that I post.

What are some potential issues when working in your online group and how could you go about dealing with them?

Some issues that could arise when working in an online group could be:

• Group members not participating - I could deal with this, by notifying my teacher and their teacher. However I can't force them to do anything, and being physically separated means I can just have a positive attitude and try my best.
• Time zones - As I mentioned before, the countries that I am collaborating with, both have a different time zone, so I will need to maybe communicate with them after and before school, as well as during school.

Reflection-Green Initiatives

Today we Skyped in with guest speaker Nitin  talk to us about his organisation to help the environment in China. Nitin grew up in India, but after moving to China, he realised that there needed to be a change. To do this, Nitin joined an organisation called green initiatives. At first, this organisation was just about raising awareness, but now it also help make a difference. Their mission is:

To minimize or reverse the environmental degradation in China brought about by economic growth, and ensure that economic development and a better standard of living do not come at the cost of the environment.

Using Skype to contact Nitin, has hopefully gave me a better understanding about what it will be like to work in an online group. Because Nitin is in China, it was harder to get a good internet connection. Because of this, we weren't able to use video call, however I still learnt a lot from Nitin about China and its environment.

http://greeninitiatives.cn/# 

Key words to do with Ancient China

-Tradition
-Culture
-Great Wall
-Monuments
-Tombs
-Warriors
-Rice
-Silk
-Emperor
-Empresses
-Old
-Ancient
-China
-Music
-Gold
-Silver
-Dragons
-Festivals
-Palaces
-Temples