IRLS 575-Group 7.&nbsp

IRLS 575-Group 7 Wikis: I few barriers to my (Kathy's) success is that a had never used wikis before. I was learning something totally new in application and function, and then had to write about it intelligently. Monitoring wikis is more my speed, but having our own group wiki has encouraged me to sit down, read a tutorial and learn about this type of groupware. I enjoy that the wiki is "unobstrusively accessible" (Grudin & Fricke 2007) whenever I need it, and I can edit our group project on line easily. However, like Grudin(1994) states, my own personal expectation vs. the benefit I feel I recieved from this new application are mixed.

Message Boards: I (Kathy) much prefer message boards for communication, and have had much success with this type of groupware. Group 7 handled our communication for the project on message boards quite successfully, and avoided the "prisoner's dilemma" (Grudin 1994.) When our chat experiences weren't working out, (difficult to coordinate group chats) the plan was to continue communications on D2L discussion boards and email. The group agreed we had a goal, and we were flexible enough to utilize other forms of communication successfully. The advantage of message boards is obviously distance, time, and again the ease in accessibility. Our group "met" virtually 3-4 times per week for a month, but I still don't know what they look like! (I now realize that I type my thoughts much slower than "speak" them! That is a huge adjustment for me.)

Chats The main barrier to success for our group in our chat discussions was synchronization. Again, my (Kathy) lack of experience with this form of groupware also hindered my performance. I kept talking over my other group members, and was too impatient to wait for replys. I think I just love to talk more, than "chat" online. I like that Google Chat had other features for individual activities, but found it cumbersome for group discussions.