Online Families

Online Families

(Latasha) Renee' Naphier

GEN300

Hillary Rank

November 16, 2005

Online Families

A team is only as efficient as its most in-efficient member, or as a wise person once quoted, "A chain is only as strong as its weakest link". Source: (Latin) as cited in WorldQuotes.com. You take four to five, sometimes six, adult "foster children" (University of Phoenix students) and "place" them with a "foster parent", (University of Phoenix), and tell them to play nicely together in the "sandbox", (online environment) and to work together to build a "sand castle". Guess what? There is no sand, there is no beach and "No Lifeguard on Duty".

The other sad part is that in my Learning Team at University of Phoenix, I was the weakest linkÐ'....Goodbye! I posted comments and questions in the team newsgroup folder, but I have not had one email from anyone on the team nor spoken with anyone. I am certainly faulting myself alone in this lack of communication with my siblings because it is my responsibility to contact them not the other way around. I do attribute the short length of the class for our infrequent contacts.

Since we were "adopted" by the University of Phoenix, according to "Group Dynamics", we are considered a formal team, placed together by our instructor. "Researchers show that formal groups serve two basic functions: organizational and individual". The concept behind this formal team is to solve problems, or make decisions that would be nearly if not entirely impossible for one single person to complete alone (McGraw-Hill, p 411, 2003). Based on the requirements for Learning Teams participation for this class and the standards for Learning Team performance established in the Learning Team Tookit, as bad as it may be, I would have to give our team two thumbs down.

When I checked on the website awhile ago today, we still had not submitted our Ethics paper that was due in week four. Remember, I stated in the beginning that none of us have communicated with each other very much, so I doubt that the paper has even been started.