Topic 5 Activities

This week you are investigating the importance of collaborative decision making and the technologies that can support this process. It is imperative at the end of this week that you are able to:

• understand the basic concepts and processes of group work, communication and collaboration
• describe how computer systems facilitate communication and collaboration
• explain the concepts and importance of the time/place framework
• explain the underlying principles and capabilities of groupware
• understand the concepts of process gain, process loss, task gain and task loss and explain how GSS introduces, increases or decreases each of these items
• understand the concept of GDSS and describe how to structure an electronic meeting in a decision room
• describe the role of emerging technologies in supporting collaboration

1. Read the following chapters/papers

Course e-reader

Collaborative Computing Technologies: Group Support Systems, Chapter 7, pp. 361-407 from

Turban, E, Aronson, JE & Liang, TP 2005, Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems, 7th edn, Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

2. Watch the following videos

3. Make a list of items you believe are important in creating an effective team - bring this to the seminar and workshop for discussion

Seminar

1. Watch Collaboration video
2. Theory discussion: what did you learn about this week's theory? Are there elements of the theory that you don't understand? Discuss in your tables.
3. From the decisions identified in your organisation are there elements of team decision making that you can discuss - are they effective or not and why?

Workshop

1. Watch Team Work video - discuss the elements that make for effective teamwork
2. You are the Australian producers of The Amazing Race.  You have a limited budget and can therefore only visit five countries.  Competitors start at Uluru, Northern Territory and finish at the Eiffel Tower, Paris, France. In each country they can only visit 2 cities or towns. Using Qantas as the preferred airline, use the Qantas website plan and route maps to map out your competition. As a team plan the countries, cities/towns, 2 tasks/activites per location and mode of transport between locations. Plan where you are going to go, set tasks for team members and present your findings to the class where your display will be shown on the large screens around the room. During the activity you should consider how you are working as a team and how individual personalities and decision styles are impacting on the outcome of the activity.

1. Compile your Amazing Race activity into a page that can be displayed. Look for an alternative display method such as Prezi or Glogster
2. Prepare your thoughts on the team contract and plan for Assignment 3 - these will be required for next week's workshop.
3. Have you thought about your Assignment 2 part 1?  Time to get started...