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.

From UMassWiki

How to reach our teach: Steph
How to view my blog: Summer22

Stephs approach to educating: “It’s just like this class, as umass students and even broader as Americans, we’re used to being educated by a single leader. The leader is the professor who tells us what to do in pretty specified ways that are culturally accepted and generally not questioned. Steph’s teaching us with more of a focus on the group. She doesn’t assign us things we’d normally be assigned and doesn’t stand in front of us dictating as much as other teachers because she is more concerned with our group dynamic and how we can solve issues together. I feel like the emphasis is on “group” as opposed to leader so that we can look outside of our cultural limitations.”

Most important thing learned: The Importance of a Leader; There have been many things that I have taken from this class that will be really helpful in the future. My most drastic change, however, has to be my understanding of leadership. In different instances I have been dubbed a leader, and I think this is because my goal has always been to give off those perceptions of myself because in our culture it is what one strives to be. The conversation between me, Steph, freshkicks and ehanft has allowed me to understand this concept even more thoroughly and Steph sums up the importance of a leader well in response: “Leaders don’t matter at all if there is no task: the TASK is what actually pulls a group together, establishing boundaries that relate the members to each other instead of being simply an aggregate of individuals who happen to be in the same physical location. Functional Roles

Most memorable contribution to class : I really was interested in the idea of the wiki project and thought that the group could have been getting a little stuck in the storming stage (Fishbowl J on March 10th). By suggesting a personal page format I thought I could maybe encourage us to look outside of the box that we were stuck in: Key Elements Combined “This personal page type format would act as a way for us to not only learn from and about each other, but would also tie into what the class is about. I’m not dead set for this idea, just giving suggestions…”

Most memorable group growth moment: (week 4) Storming to Performing: “Schein Teams: be prepared to give a two-three minute oral report on the patterns of interaction that you observed in class, using classmates' names, the categories and examples from "What to Observe in a Group", and any additional terminology related to group dynamics.” Course Outline etc.
I was a member of the Communication (Peppermints) sub group and I felt as if there was a definite experience in class that made our group go from the storming stage to the performing stage. Many of the other sub groups had a little difficulty with their presentations prior to our turn, so we were a little nervous going up to the front of the class. We decided to go up as a group because with prior groups, only single members were going up and we didn’t want any single person within the group to have that burden, so we went together. Our group really did well once we were up there, and it wasn’t just one person who pulled us all together it was each member working off of one another. I felt that it was the first time this sub group had reached the performing stage, and was proud to see such noticeable growth within our group dynamic.

Frames

(week 7) Understanding frames in relation to our Wiki project: Personal Page Aspect

“ I think it would be very interesting to include within our collaborative project some of the things we’ve been learning about Framing and how it not effects our decision making process’, and group dynamics. I would like to create a “personal page” that gives some background about who I am, and by doing this I will give a sort of explanation of how my frame has been established/influenced. A profile-like page that gives history of the person, their passions/hobbies, and/or other facets of the person that are of importance to them. In my opinion these aspects are a few of what create the frame in which we automatically have going into situations and decisions. By adding this aspect to our collaborative project I feel like it might be able to help our class and other viewers of our project understand the “frame” concept. Also, if there is a more personal side to the page, it could be easier to understand why we made the decisions we did in creating our project (ie-what we put up, why it’s up there). I was looking for a site that would provide a good example of a personal page and thought that myspace had a similar format that I was considering: Example of Unique Personal Page Role at this moment in the group: Encourager: “This is the chance to speak our mind and contribute personal ideas, we don’t always get to provide our insight during class because of the fishbowls’ limitations.”
(Week 8) How does all this talking inform us about desirable content for the coursewiki?: Our interests mold who we are and what we are bringing to the class naturally, and most importantly, we are learning how to be a dynamic group by understanding these diversities. In her proposal Freshkicks defines what she thinks the projects focus is “our class wiki page wont have much to do with us as a class, but all of us as individuals as Umass students, and our personal interests.” I think we can make a link between us as individuals/our personal interests and us as a class. combinded key elements

John Elder Robisons contributions to class: “Steph constantly proves that when one steps outside our cultural normative boundaries they are met with concern and in many cases ridicule. John was faced with this problem through out his entire life, because he had Asperbergers his understanding of life strayed from the norm. John learned tactics that would help him function closer to our standard of “normal” and therefore was met with less ridicule and questions.”

John Elder

Diverse understandings of the title Look Me in the Eye contributes to our own personal frames: It is interesting, but not surprising that there are such diverse understandings of the title on the book because we are all coming from diverse experiences and backgrounds. One quote states that she didn’t think twice about the title and that she assumed its meaning: “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.” This quote shows that the person writing it felt as Id there were certain “normal” reactions and expectations that could come from this title. Making assumptions about what is and is not the right or wrong meaning can get pretty complex because who creates our boundaries and what is normal? Another person took the quote differently, explaining that they looked at it from a figuratively: “I didn’t think the author was literally referring to his eyes. Instead, I thought he meant it figuratively. That is, he meant to say, examine me closely . . . as I read I found there was a double meaning.” This understanding of the title strays far from the first one, but is still an acceptable answer. The third quote I chose was different than the others because the person connected with the title on a personal level: “…unable to look others in the eye. He cannot connect with people the same way I can when I look someone in the eyes.” This person related the title to him/herself more than the others. All of these interpretations not only prove that many meanings can come out of the title, but it also shows a little bit of each individuals personality. Maybe the third quote is by someone who puts themselves in situations in order to understand them better. What I’m trying to get at (pretty much what I get at in every blog) is that everyone interpret things based on their own experiences. Even after reading the entire book, people still had conflicting ideas about the title, and that is normal.

The Johari Window was invented by Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham in the 1950s as a model for mapping personality awareness. By describing yourself from a fixed list of adjectives, then asking your friends and colleagues to describe you from the same list, a grid of overlap and difference can be built up.

*Feel Free to take the quiz for me:
Johari Quiz

Importance of Role Felxibilty: my roles within different groups and sub groups has changed depending on the groups stage of development.

Examples of my individual role flexibility:

1.Initiator-contributer: Many times ( generally within the storming stage) during creating the wiki I felt as if our group would get very stuck and frustrated quickly. By purposing new ideas to the group (personal pages, bringing up the relevance of frames to the project.), I was hoping that the suggestions would help resolve some of the difficulties our group has encountered.

2. Recorder: Generally within our subgroups and even in the larger group I have the tendency to write down suggestions, decisions, ideas etc. When our schien, music and evaluation groups got together to collaborate I was almost always was the one who wrote everything down.. In many instances during this class I have helped others by providing them with notes and or emailing reminders about deadlines, procedures, etc.

3.Coordinator: I find myself (within the fishbowls) trying to tie together diverse ideas and suggestions that are given. In many instances I have listened to someone elses idea or suggestion and have been able to “piggy-back” my ideas into the conversation. I also have found it to be really helpful to be a good listener, and realize that a way to show that you’re listening is to be able to tie ideas and suggestions into one another. In order to be a successful coordinator one needs to be a good listener, and pretty organized. Coordinators also coordinate activities of various members or subgroups and I find myself doing that often through conversations and emails within our sub groups (Schien, music, eval., fishbowl)

User:Summer22/Music Group so far...