WEEK TWO - Reflexions

Now coming to the end of another 'hectic' week with the Oxford online VLE computer course. This week we have been allocated into three different groups: RED, GREEN and BLUE. I am in the GREEN TEAM. It turns out that we are the smallest group with six members (the other two each have seven). Nevertheless, being 'physically-challenged' myself, I am of the firm opinion that "small is beautiful".
The team are a great set of people. Lindsey started the ball rolling by suggesting we used Google Documents [Docs]. I confirmed that I was also a gmail user; however, I knew nothing of this aspect of Google, but was keen to learn.
Geli then stepped in because he had used this facility before and he took it upon himself to get us all registered - he did this fairly promptly.
Jenny then pitched in quickly [and did a good job inserting useful slides to the presentation] because she is off ski-ing for a break on Friday for a week. This will bring our number down to five - but the Green Team will soldier on.
John had some problems due to being busy at work and home, etc. Actually, I had previously checked his blog and left a comment about how busy his life seemed. He left messages on our Discussion board apologizing, and promised to get into things this coming weekend - I am sure he will.
Maxine in Australia input some brilliant ideas and slides to our presentation (despite a visit to her dentist).
I, in the meantime, inserted a logo (Robin Hood) and really, really wanted the team to use a Green Template from within Docs, but failed to get to grips with this application. It did not 'behave' as I expected it to do. I am a fan of PowerPoint 2007 [having recently passed my ECDL - European Computer Driving Licence - in that module] and tried some techniques from that software, but they did not work. I got very frustrated and felt that my contribution (and team effort) was being wasted.
Another delaying factor for me was that my partner was taking off to France for a week via EuroStar to improve her French. Therefore, that took a necessary priority during the earlier part of the week. Audrey departed on Thursday morning and I got down to things properly after that.
After catching up with a backlog of reading from Discussion boards and drafting out some ideas, I was then in a position to add something more tangible to our Google Docs presentation. I set my alarm clock for 0530 on Friday 13th, got up early, logged on and put my ideas down for the rest of the team to consider.
I will return to this blog later...