In every group work, there will be cases, reports or assignment that needed to be done on a weekly basis. The emergence of technology such as social media like Facebook, online messaging like Viber and most especially the Google Applications such as Drive, Sheets, etc. allowed the students to have a much easier time to communicate with each other and delegate tasks through these channels without actually physically meeting up. In a world wherein mid and night shifts are emerging coupled with a workload that demands their attention, it would really make sense to communicate via technology and work on your output via technology too.
When I entered
MBA in 2015, I still know the feeling of studying again after two years of
working. Also, things would be different because now I would have to
re-acquaint myself again with having male classmates inside the classroom as I
had been studying in St. Scholastica's College for six years. I did have some
male classmates on some of our subjects (Music or Fine Arts Students), but most
of the time there are no guys inside the class. Aside from this, I would also
have to deal with how the students use technology now. When I was about to
graduate college around 2013, smartphones were on the rise and some students
would actually use the device to store documents such as PowerPoint
presentations and study from there instead of the traditional printing of the
slides to study.
During our
Quantitative Methods in Business Class, I was fortunate enough that my
professor placed me in a group where my classmates had at least one term
studying in the MBA program. When the professor mentioned that we must do group
work and submit it online. I struggled in two things: one is having multiple
versions in a single file name, and the other is the online learning. I guess
that is the drawback of not having an idea what are you entering into your
first term in school. Unfortunately, I
ended up choosing subjects that are both considered as a "hybrid
subject" which meant that half of the time your class would be taught
online and the other half would be a face-to-face
session. Those are two out of three hybrid subjects that I took before I
proceed with my thesis writing.
Doing a hybrid
class has its pros and cons, of course depending on who you ask. One of the
advantages of having this hybrid class is that even if you are so busy at work,
you do not need to be physically present in the classroom to learn or submit
the necessary requirements. Also, because mid and night shifts are already on
the rise in the country, this would become more preferable to part-time
students who would like to learn and hoping for a chance to go up in the
corporate ladder. However, for me, this does not
bode well since I want the traditional school set up rather than the modern
set-up. But then, a hybrid class is not being offered to all subjects, and it
should be noted that introducing this mode of learning indicates that we also
need to address the needs of those people who would like to learn, but their
existing circumstance prohibited them from doing so.
During my
experience in graduate school, the one that I appreciate the most is the
various Google applications. Google Docs allowed you to construct your file
together without the need of having multiple versions of a single filename.
This would mean that each one of you can work together so that you can finish
the paper without the hassle of appointing someone to combine all the various
versions together. Having this application work wonders as the positives outweigh the negatives. Aside from having the
liberty to work on your pace without being the cause of bottleneck to your
group (in case you are not productive enough to do your part), it also allowed
you to communicate with them without even leaving the comforts of your home or
work. You could brainstorm the things you need to discuss via other modes of
online communication such as Viber or Facebook then translate the said output
via Google Applications without even filing for leave
or set a meeting just for you and your group to discuss some matters.
Overall, I really
like what technology can do in school and also in other aspects of our lives.
It made our lives simpler, but then, we
have to make sure that we can still communicate with our peers face-to-face to
ensure that we still have contact with reality - which means real people, not
just seeing them through chat or messages. Such example was whenever I would inform my classmate pertaining to a particular student who also attended the same hybrid class as ours, my classmates does not have any idea about the person. She would tell me that she does not know anyone during our hybrid class except her close MBA friends. Even if there was an interaction among various class groupings during the hybrid session, you were just having a dialogue with them virtually without actually mingling with them personally.
Again, despite the benefits of the technology, one must ensure that there should be a balance between them. We still need to have personal touch with other people.
