When I began researching organizational leadership theories and how they help companies and establishments realize their potential and bring their ideas fruition, I found that there was a consistent focus on teaching managers how to lead holistically. From this, however, I saw an opportunity to further reduce some of these leadership methods and apply them on a micro level. Micro in my world means applying leadership methods to the project level, settings that involve small teams of people. At the Macro level, Bolman and Deal’s organizational dynamics are broken down into discrete but relatable components referred to as “frames.” I was able to translate this larger framework and apply it towards working in small groups to build highly interactive eLearning objects. Overall, from my experience, these five factors have shown to improve the engagement and involvement of instructor experts within collaborative projects and subsequently increase the overall effectiveness of ILOs (interactive learning objects).
In this illustration of my Five Factors of Micro-Collaboration, you can see that each factor represents a merger of well-established theoretical frameworks and real-life professional experience from eLearning development. My research focused on three game/simulation projects being developed at the University of Wisconsin. Politically I witnessed a continual awareness of the power structure of professor and IT staff, and thus the importance of helping flatten power relationships. This week hundreds of game and simulation development advocates will be attending the Games, Learning and Society (GLS) conference here in Madison.
The GLS Conference, a unique “indie” event focused on video games and learning, will be held at the UW-Madison’s Memorial Union. I would like to extend a warm invitation to you to attend. You can learn more about the conference by visiting the GLS Conference website.
If you are interested in purchasing a copy of MindMeld or offering a review of what you have read, please feel free to visit the Atwood Publishing website, or Amazon. All orders and contributions are welcome and appreciated. I would also like to mention that as a way of saying thanks to all of the clients and people that have been involved with Web Courseworks throughout the years, and have in turn provided me the opportunity to explore these practices in real-world projects that had an impact on the framework development in MindMeld, I will be sending out signed copies of my book.
One last thing of note, Penny Ralston-Berg and I will be attending the UW Distance Teaching & Learning conference and hosting a workshop on Wednesday at 3 p.m. called, Improving the instructional design process through micro-collaboration. Please consider attending this conference and workshop, as it is a great opportunity to learn more about what makes this field so exciting. You can read more about the conference by visiting the 27th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning website.