Thanks to the COM352 students for contributing a bunch of new pages! I'll be moving these pages into the main area of the wiki soon.
Class:COM352 - Group Dynamics - Spring 2008/course outlines and in-class activities/eighth day of class/Test
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look me in the eye
"True or False - When I read the title, the image I had was of being told to look the author in the eye. Explain when/how your image was confirmed or disconfirmed."
Selections:
"I already knew a little bit...this was something that people would say to the child..."
"...people could not see what he was seeing..."
"His eyes are shut on the cover to convey that he doesn't want to reveal or share anything when in fact he's letting us into his life through his retelling of experiences."
"I thought I was being told to look the author in the eye..."
"I imagined someone telling an autistic person to look them in the eye...I was already aware that its difficult"
"The image I had was a book about truth and integrity, with looking someone in the eye traditionally being a visual clue of honesty."
"I didn't believe it was to look the author in the eye, but people/others."
"I didn't think twice! If I were to think I would assume he is angry for the fact that people don't look him in the eye when they talk to him."
"I read wikipedia...I figured it was someone telling the author to look them in the eye."
"...unable to look others in the eye. He cannot connect with people the same way I can when I look someone in the eyes."
the what and the how
A person approaches life and interactions from a radically different basis than my own. True or False - They need to understand what has happened to me more than they need to understand how I understood what happened to me. Explain.
how matters most: "meaning for substance"
"We can all experience the same incident but we won't understand what occurred unanimously. . . The way one understands an event determines the impact it will have on an individual."
"People experience similar situations in totally different ways depending on their understanding."
"...understanding how it affected them, or how they understood it, is necessary information to make meaning of substance."
"The actions of what happened are not that important because they are just actions how do I understand and take these actions shows what the situation was and without knowing what I think/feel about actions to me people can't understand the actions that happened."
what is important, too!
"If you understand my interpretation of what has happened to me, it will not be the same as other people because we all have different interpretations of life. If a person has an individual understanding of what happened they will most likely have a greater understanding and are able to compare previous life experiences."
"It is easier to diagnose someone with a certain condition without fully understanding what they are going through."
Group Dynamics are EVERYWHERE!
Students were asked when they thought about this class during spring break.
Most named elements of group dynamics:
- friend from CA, "a very different frame. She had different ideas of what is cool, what kind of media is good."
- a frat meeting, discussion leader, reminds of our fishbowls
- Real World/Road Rules gauntlet challenge: "it would be perfect to watch an episode of this. We will have a lot to discuss..."
- Panama City Beach: "only college students...all participating in activities that are only acceptable for young adults" (questionable for "a 50-year old woman [to be] funneling beers on a beach") = different frames
- friends making decisions by polling or decision by one because no one would object
- friends: "where to go next that night" - "the decision ended up being made through some form of of voting that I'm sure our class would appreciate."
- on a cruise: at the dinner table, "like a meeting of two already formed groups, theirs and who I was with...the group evolved and merged...to the last night...no longer separated one group on one side of the table [and] the other on the other [side]. The group merged from being two separates to one big group."
- the coursewiki (!): "Whenever I saw "VAST EMPTY SPACE" I thought about...what it would look like in a few months!"
- in court: "trying to come to an agreement which was difficult...an adolescent stage...it became completely unorganized and there were no agreements on either side."
- how often people start conversations with "The Plop"
and a few responded based on the current assigned reading, look me in the eye:
- a grocery store in Colorado: "I was familiar with these traits [of Asperger's] because I read the book and I felt great about [my] interaction" with a bagger who showed some traits such as lack of eye contact and a sort of tangent about the weather.
- family: "To my dad he was just telling me 'firmly' not to leave the door opened . To me he was 'yelling' at me for something I had no part of. I gave him the "Look me in the Eye" book & told him that sometimes actions are not perceived the way you want them to be. I cited examples from John's life."
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