The most useful thing I learned this week is that when working on any group project, it is important:
- to be organized,
- use technology best suited for all group members, and
- be committed to communication and collaboration that supports the team’s goals.
Initially, I was communicating family genealogy updates to family members via email which was not productive for any of us. I quickly recognized that, as noted in the Tips for Online Students to Work Successfully in Groups, it is important to “create a comfortable forum to communicate through”.
I determined that a blog was a more comfortable forum and created a blog to share my research findings with my family members. But there was one problem, I was not posting regularly. I learned that if I want to get the most family involvement (as readers and contributors) then I need to commit to providing frequent postings that are of interest.
Now I will commit to posting weekly updates. I will also add links to another website I use to capture research logs information. This way, family members can read the blog to catch up and provide input when it is convenient for them. And if they are interested in more details, they can access the information easily all from the blog. The blog is the best forum for our family genealogy information sharing.