Individual vs. Team Work - Why We Need To Learn To Do Both

Whenever technology evolves, it produces a new way to disseminate information in a different format than done previously. Online learning may seem "incomplete" to some, due to the fact that many questions arise in response to the quality of education that is really being received. However, the quality of information gained relies on the quality of the student. This is where personal skills come in handy.

The formation of strong personal skills starts early in ones academic career. Remember when your middle school passed out planners and your parents had to sign them each day? They weren't handed out to plan our limited social lives, but to teach us how to become responsible and accountable for our work. These skills continued to develop until we no longer needed parents to sign our planners, because we knew it was our responsibility to complete our work accurately and on time. 

As a dedicated online student and integral part of an online team, these factors still hold true. We need to make sure that our work is done on time, even early, to allow our other team members time to complete the project we're working on, or to have extra time to help others in the group. Working well in teams foreshadows how well you can work with your peers in the career field. As Hancock states, "The team also has authority and responsibility for gathering its own information and pulling it together. A team tends to be self managing." Each of us has an important part to play in our respective groups, and its common courtesy and respectful to pull your own weight in a group project.

Probably the best advice to keep the morale up when working in teams is to have a positive attitude  which was brought up by Enid Irwin in The Monster Inside Library Schools: Student Teams. She states that it is vital that the team continues to be enthusiastic instead of succumbing to "disastrous behavior" such as being "silent, absent, controlling, or stubborn." Being upbeat and excited about a project, even though you may not want to do it, will help you in the long run to make any group or team work enjoyable. 

I know that to utilize and make the SLIS program work positively for my professional life in libraries and museums, I must take the time and approach each topic, each assignment, and each assessment genuinely and comprehensively.