Week 16: D3

Pick a favorite concept that we have covered through this course and post about it.  Explain the concept to refresh our memories.  Tell the class why you have chosen this concept, and what it is you like about it.

My favorite concept in this course is listening in groups from chapter 7. There are four components of listening: sensing (hearing the message), interpreting the message, evaluating the message content, and memory: retaining and responding to the message. Of course there will be barriers to listening; lack of interest, external and internal noise, thought speed and ambushing to name a couple of barriers.

I chose this concept because it was fun reading about the barriers when it comes to listening to others. Personally I liked this concept because I saw how each of the barriers applied when I had to listen to others. In groups, I believe that it is harder to listen due to the number of people in the crowd. I thought that being able to listen without barriers is a good skill to have in any type of conversation, whether it’s with one person or with twenty other people. It is important to practice active listening because we need to fully understand the other person’s message. 

Week 16: D2

What have you learned throughout this class?  What was your favorite thing about the class?  What was your least favorite thing about the class?  How can this class be improved? 

I learned how to observe a group and how people interacted with one another. Since there are more people in the group I learned that others easily zone people out. Not only that but I learned how to watch for non –verbal messages from others in a group, which can tell me if they like what was going on in the discussion or event.

There were many aspects of the class that I liked. One of my favorite things in this class must be the flexibility of it. I like how we are able to do our assignments and quizzes when we have the time to. Even though there was a deadline, I liked how there was always a set date and time throughout the semester of when we are suppose to turn our assignments in.  There was not much that I do not like about this class, but one thing that did bug me was how we had to wait for other people to write their entry in order to comment. I saw how that was helpful to get the class to interact with one another. But there were weeks when I wanted to finish early, but I had to wait for some blogs to be written so I can comment on them. I thought this class was fine the way it was, I do not see the class needing any improvements. 

Week 16: D1

Discuss your Group Observation Project.  Was it a useful exercise?  What did you learn?  What was good about the project?  What can be improved?  

The group observation was a useful exercise for the class. I thought that it was helpful because I got to use what I learned from the class and apply it. Since I focused on a high school volleyball team I was able to see a lot of the flaws I once had when I was on volleyball team a couple of years ago. I learned that working in a group is a hard deed. With research, it deepened my understanding for some of the concepts that I applied on the project. I also saw how nonverbal messages were very apparent in larger groups and how sometimes it speaks louder than words. What was good about the project was that it actually showed me what I personally learned from the class that I did not before. I thought one thing that I can improved on my project is being more detailed with my observations. For instance, I should have observed more practices and games, which could be helpful in my determination of how the group interacted with each other. It was a fun project examining people and their interactions with one another. 

Week 13: D1

(Regarding Chapter 11) Distinguish among a forum, panel, colloquium, and symposium as a means for making a public presentation.  Why one would you prefer?  Why? 

A forum is for a larger audience. Everyone in the audience participates by examining the topic or problem. A panel means that there is a small group of experts discussing the topic in front of an audience. Normally the audience does not get involve with the panel until after the panel is done with their discussion. The discussion consists only of Q&A. The colloquium consists of a small group of experts with varied views to discuss the issue, develop and work through it in front of the audience. The audience in this case does participate. A symposium is when there are a couple of short speeches made about the issue. The audience can discuss afterwards.

Personally I think I like panel option more than the others. I feel like it is nice to have the people who are on the panel to finish what they would like to say before the audience gets involved. I feel as if this might save a lot of time because the audience does not get involved until the end. Also I think it is better to have a question and answer session instead of a full on discussion. It seems to be simpler in a big group setting. 

Week 13:D2

Briefly outline an example of collaborative conflict resolution that you have engaged in.  Contrast that with a competitive conflict.  Which was more satisfying to you? To the other party? 

In a collaborative conflict resolution it is basically a win-win situation. This means that the members of the group are open to contribute and listen to ideas. A lot of communication is involved with this option. A personal example would be when I play volleyball with a group of friends. Everyone has a position that they are play better at, while there are some who cannot play at any position. Also some people might have multiple positions of where they can play. After a discussion, everyone was put into a position on the court where everyone thought it might benefit to the team.

On the other hand the competitive conflict resolution is a win-lose situation. In this case, people do things for their self-interest. During my senior year of high school, I had some friends who wanted to design the senior class shirt and sweatshirt. Of course we can only have one design for the shirt because we did not want to buy more than one shirt. So in order to solve this conflict the class president set up a date of when they had to turn in the best design they could so the class can vote on it. The designers had to compete with each other to bring the best design in a short amount of time.

For me I think the better approach is the collaborative resolution. This is because it is better to have everyone working together to come up with the proposition. 

Week 13:D3

Pick one concept from the assigned reading, that has not already been discussed during this discussion week, that you found useful or interesting, and discuss it.

One concept that I found interesting was accommodation in dealing with conflict. It means that one is giving up all or most of one’s opinion and position for the other person. This is a lose-win situation and it is not ideal. Sometimes being able to accommodate to others is beneficial, but there are times when it’s not. I thought that this was interesting because I believe that we accommodate to people everyday. Whether we are in a conflict or just dealing with everyday issues, we seem to accommodate to the other person’s wishes because we want that harmony within the relationship. I personally believe that it there is good reason to accommodate to the other person. For instance, if it were small things, I would normally let the other person have what they want because I do not mind. But I also see how there are times when we should not give in so easily. I can see how being able to always accommodate to one person in the group can cause conflict within the group, because others might be resentful and angry with the person. Whatever the issue is one should be careful when they want to accommodate to the other person. 

Week 12: D1

Provide an example of creativity from your own experience.  How does it fit with the chapter’s discussion of creativity? 

             Creativity is trying something new, creating a new method to solve a problem. I think creativity is relevant in my current job. I am constantly thinking of new way to solve the issue because the previous solution did not work well or it did not work at all. I was thrown into the fire when I had to be head coach for middle school boy’s volleyball. With some previous experience behind me, I had to think of new ways for these boys to grasp the concept of volleyball. They were mostly new players, and they were all relatively young. I continually had to think of new drills for them that were fun but yet helpful to develop their skills so that we would be able to win some games. One drill I recall having them do was the blind man drill, this is where someone was blindfolded and the team had to tell the player where to stand so that the blinded player can receive the ball. This was fun for them as well as it helped them build team chemistry and talk to each other on the court. This fits into the chapter’s discussion because helped the player look at this game a different way, a game in which they needed to rely on each other to talk. It also helped solve the problem of them not being able to communicate on the court.