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.

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I love chocolate milk.

[edit] Who Am I?

I am Jazz. Contrary to popular belief, this is not my first name. My parents are not that cool. It is my last name and nickname because, well, who could really call a person "Steph" when their last name is Jazz? Something about it is just wrong.

I am 21 years old and a junior in the BDIC major. BDIC stands for Bachelor's Degree with Individual Concentration. Basically, it is a long process of form filling to create a major that does not currently exist at UMASS. I'm studying Public Relations and Children's Media. The process can be quite stressful and getting classes is not as easy as going on Spire and selecting it, but to me it is worth it because I am able to study what I am actually interested in and combine classes from different majors. So far it has enabled me to take classes in SOM, HTM, and Comm.

[edit] Group Dynamics- First Impressions

I have taken many psych classes, a business class that looked at ethics and group behavior in the business world, as well as attending leadership training seminars in the past. I like studying and working with people. These factors are what led me to look into the spring semester Comm352 Group Dynamics Class.

As I am not a Communications major, the best way for me to get into a class is to pretty much show up the first day and hope that there is an opening. I was already enrolled in five classes, but I was a little behind on credits and thought that this class sounded interesting, so why not make it an even 6?

I showed up for class the first day, and noticed that the class was missing something: the professor. "Interesting", I thought. After settling in to what would be my permanant spot in the back left-hand corner of the classroom, I noticed that there were instructions written on the board. It was now past 3:35...class had started.

The instructions on the board were vague. It said that we had fifteen minutes to: 1.Introduce yourself to your classmates (there will be a quiz) 2.Brainstorm a list of all the groups you belong to, know about, and can imagine. Write this list on the board

Well to be honest we didn't get much accomplished in those fifteen minutes. So little in fact, that the professor came in, saw our attempt at a list on the board, and left again. "Wow", I thought. "If she is going to leave this much all semester I am definitely taking this class." We weren't that lucky.

We proceeded to divide ourselves into two different groups: Leaders and Followers. The "leaders" (including myself) migrated themselves to another classroom downstairs where we were left to wallow in our own confusion. We surfed the web to try to figure out what " No Mas Farc" was, a possible field trip we were encouraged to take ourselves on. We also attempted to remember each others' names for the quiz we knew that we would be having. The method we used was trying to associate names with an article of clothing that the person was wearing. This way when we were taking the quiz we could look at the person and hopefully be able to remember his/her name. I do not remember who came up with the idea, but it was clever.

"What were the followers doing?" you ask. I was wondering the same thing. And why was our professor with them the entire time?

"Well," I thought, "They are followers. They need to be led."

Come to find out, the entire time we were wallowing, the followers were upstairs making a list of what they thought we were doing downstairs. They didn't have much faith. Hopefully we put them to shame when we proved them wrong.

There was no syllabus. No structure. I knew that the class was going to be a little out of the ordinary, and I wanted to join. I had no idea what I was in for.

[edit] So, What Was I In For?

A whole lot of confusion.

We each made our own blogsthat we made a few individual posts on, but mainly used them to link together and post replies to our professor,Steph's ( yes, we called her by her fist name).

We also had a class wiki where we could find an outline of every class and the homework assignments for that week.

Class basically operated with a general "whatever happens, happens" mentality. During many classes we broke into fishbowls, which is when a select group of individuals forms a group in the middle of the classroom and discusses a particular topic while the rest of the class sits on the outside and observes. Sometimes fishbowls would discuss an article that we read for class or ideas for the wikithat our class would be putting together on our own.

While observing, we took notes on what we witnessed happening in the fishbowl according to what group we were in: self-oriented (my group), task and maintenance, decision making and communication. We would write down behaviors that correlated with our groups based on what we learned from an article that we read by our idol, Edgar Schein.

One time we even had a fishbowl with John Elder Robinson, author of a book we read entitled: " Look Me In The Eye." Mr. Robinson grew up with Aspergers, and his book is about his personal story of how he dealt with it and how he became a successful business owner, and even customized guitars for the band KISS! In the fishbowl we were able to ask him any questions that came to mind. He even ordered us pizza. ::thumbs up:: I really enjoyed this particular class. No, not just because of the pizza. I found John Elder to be really interesting and I loved his novel. His story is truly amazing and I would reccommend that anyone read it, especially if you are an individual who suffers from Aspergers yourself, or knows someone who does. His success is inspiring. It was intersting to hear what he had to say about our class, and to have him there observing it. He was genuinely interested in what we had to say. While I know that I have used some form of the word "interest" far too many times in this segment, it really is the best choice to describe this particular class.

"Where was the confusion," you ask.

Well, my friend, as there was no syllabus, the only thing that we really knew for certain was that we were to design our own class wiki (see "wiki" link above) by the end of the semester. What was to be on it and how we were to go about it was completely up to us. We spent many a classes trying to figure out what our topic was going to be. You would not believe how long it took us just to vote. During this process, we passed through different group stages. These stages ( forming, storming, and norming & performing), came from an article we read by Richard C. Weber called: "The Group: A Cycle from Birth to Death." ( Sometimes our class seemed like it would actually end it death.) The first stage, Infancy or Forming, is when the group is still dependent on leadership and has not grown comfortable with one another yet. During this stage is common for group members to be superficial. We seemed to linger in this stage a while as we came to figure out we were not in the typical class setting with the typical class structure. Stage II, Adolescence or Storming, deals with the decision making. The name of the stage, Storming, basically describes it. Our class seemed to storm for quite some time as we each struggled to claim our place in the class and work through disagreements. When the clouds parted, we were in Stage III, Adulthood/ Norming & Performing. It was during this stage that we each took on different roles and began to function and perform together as a group. We learned about the different group roles through an article by Kenneth D. Benne and Paul Sheats called: " Functional Roles of Group Memebers." I identified myself as a "gate-keeper," because this role is labeled as one who " attempts to keep communication channels open by encouraging or facilitating the participation of others." While my efforts to engage were often misunderstood, I really only wanted to make sure others felt involved.

[edit] Did I Survive?

In short, yes.

And I learned a lot. Not only about how groups work but about myself. It is amazing what one can learn about oneself and others when put under pressure while trying to adapt to an enrivornent outside the norms. Sure there were times I wanted to pull my hair out, but all and all I would say it was a positive experience...and it sure was interesting.