We had perfect attendance for our Skype chat tonight (with one member checking in from Ecuador)! Team members are respectful, offering good questions of each others' ideas and solid feedback. And while the ideas sound creative and full of potential, each team member comes to the table with almost no research on their demographic (local community), no sense of possible competing products/platforms, and little to no mention of new tools/technologies they have discovered in their explorations. Most of their ideas utilize tools/functions similar to Google, Digg, MapQuest, nothing original or new. I am constantly encouraging them to research and investigate what's out there. And posts to our blog seem to happen an hour or two before a Skype call, so not a lot of interaction and querying of each other in between chats.
My question: is this okay? Shall I continue to encourage, cajole, prod and settle for the limited results I am receiving? Should we send a faculty e-mail to the entire group stressing the research component? Should Dianne weigh in with the students? I'm trying to stay somewhat hands-off with my team, but I feel like there needs to be some kind of re-focusing on the mission/seriousness of this project. I'd love to hear your perspectives/experiences. Sam? Marjorie? Patrick? How are things going for all of you?
Best, Marybeth
4 comments:
I have to agree with some of your basic concerns. My team is enthusiastic and motivated and all "there," but they don't have as good a sense of what's out there as they should.
I did take a lot of time to put together a long page like Dianne's and Kim's on nifty nooks and crannies on the Web, but I am not getting the sense that several of them clicked through.
I spent most of our last meeting reminding them what the mission was and trying to dissuade them from pursuing several ideas that are good but not at all original.
I dunno. I am thinking a faculty email to the group, perhaps from Dianne, might be a real help.
Or she could deliver a pep talk in Second Life?!
I'd like to see all the groups get the same pep talk or email from Diane.
Second life may not be possible for all the students. We need to make some decisions as to a group venue as the presentations are scheduled for July 2.
We have had success with our Skype meetings but they are limited to 9 plus the host.
What do you think we should do for the presentations?
Darcy -- I am not sure on the presentations -- can we get more guidance from Kim there?
I do want to note that the students are discussing "tools" and what other kinds of things are out there on the FaceBook page they set up called Ithaca Incubators '07. I appear to be the only faculty member who has joined the group so far ...
The lack of research is a problem - they need to think like marketers at some point - as well as understanding new technology. Why would someone use the sites they're proposing is a huge question. They could start by looking at a community - there's a lot of research on many communities - to see what tech skills, access, and interests the community has. We went thru this last summer too - i had to force them to stop developing ideas (which had no basis in any reality) and do some basic research - and they came up with better ideas after that and they used the research they did in their presentations to AOL to show why the idea was worth considering (from a customer point of view).
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