BP2_Gwap

Communication is a huge challenge where I work.  Many people believe words have only one meaning when they are spoken.  With this task to find a Web 2.0 tool out there to help me in my professional environment I knew I wanted to find something to help a common problem that is asked by clients frequently and that is how to make my team stronger.  Many people believe that communication is the key for any team to be successful.  How we communicate to each other and how we perceive that communication can lead to many of the conflict that groups come to training needing support with.

I never realized how many Web 2.0 sites are on the web as resources for individuals.  At first glace I felt overwhelmed with the amount of resources.  I knew I had to make find something fun but one that would help me with my goal of the group dynamic.  Gwap was a free website that had some games so I looked around the site to see if it was useful to me.

Once in the site I chose a game to play to see how it could be used in the area.  The game that caught my eye first was Squigl. 

The object of the game is to have the same work association as your partner to gain points.  Both are given the same word and a picture.  From there the two have to trace what the word means to them in the picture.  Once they have traced the image the computer calculates how similar the two traces where to each other and that's how points are awared.

After the points are awarded a new picture with a new word is posted and it continues for 2 min and 30 seconds.

This game is intended to get the partners to think not just about what the word means to them, but also what the word may mean to their partner.  This can be used as a conflict resolution training since words have multiple meaning to individuals.  If have a better understanding of how your work group communicates it will give you a better understanding on how to speak to members of your group by looking beyond your own personal thoughts and how your words may be taken by your fellow co-worker.