question #1

Face to face communication is very different from CMC. I agree that the reason why it is very different is because of the nonverbal communication that is missing from the conversation. I believe that these are very opposite because of real life situations that I have experienced with my family and friends. For example, when my dad used to text me to come home, I took it as a normal message, but when I got home, he was furious with me! I didn't know how to react because his text message seemed so calm but in his point of view, that was him very pissed at me. So I believe that if we had a face to face conversation my idea of him saying to come home would be totally different. I believe that only face to face communication should be used in problematic conflicts because without hearing or seeing the other person's reaction and nonverbal communication, it becomes very hard to solve a conflict

question #3

I feel that the chapter discussing storming, forming, norming, and performing should be further discussed because I wasn’t sure how the concepts fit a group that couldn’t get along well. I was confused if the group could not work together, is it possible that the group would stay at the forming and norming stage? I wanted to know more about how groups can work together to get pass those stages. It was a little vague about how conflicts can be resolved and how to come up with a solution. Some ideas about group conflict were good, but I believe that it’s a vital part in a groups communication to have knowledge of conflicts in groups. And I was wondering whether “norming” is even a word? Maybe they just had to find a word with “orming” in it but other than that, I believe this book was very thorough with the explanations of the concepts.

question #2

I’ve learned a lot of numerous things about this semester’s comm. 141 class, but the most interesting recent thing I’ve learned was from the Group Facilitation project. This project taught me to break down stereotypes I had about a group and to visually watch how they reacted with each other and how each of their roles played a part in their group. I’ve never experienced before the comradery and friendship I saw in the fraternity I observed. They were grateful enough to invite me into one of their meetings and even told me many of their traditions they follow as a group. It was a great experience learning from a diverse group of all different ages and ethnicities. It has inspired me to broaden my spectrum of friends and learn to listen to what they have to say before stereotyping what I see. I agree that this class has helped me a lot to observe outside groups in a whole different and meaningful way.

question #3

I found “focus groups” to be interesting, yet useful as well. A focus group helps you with a specific situation or problem that they have well-known knowledge in. For example, at my firefighting school, we had to do a project on different cities in the bay area. Recently, I had an interview with Milpitas Fire Department, and I had to know everything about Milpitas and it’s fire departments. So I asked that focus group to help me learn the information about Milpitas, so I would do well on the interview. I asked this specific focus group because I knew they specialized in this subject. It was helpful because they knew information within the Milpitas Fire Department that I didn’t know about earlier. So knowing this, I used their helpful information to pass my interview and put myself in front of other interviewees. Having focus groups helps individuals with different specific types of situations.

Question #1

A colloquium has a small set of numbers experts and audience participation as well. The meaning “is to identify, develop, and work through possible solutions to a problem for the benefit and with the participation of the audience” (pg. 220). A forum is “the group can speak and listen to a larger audience… [and] the full audience participates, examining a topic or problem after a short presentation by the group” (pg. 219). A symposium is much more formal in that the speakers must plan and prepare “brief speeches made on different aspects of a complex and difficult problem, the purpose of the symposium is to present complex technical information to the audience about the problem” (pg. 221). Symposiums also use a moderator and may have a formal discussion to have the audience ask questions. A panel has a moderator to direct the topic to the audience rather than the audience interacting with the speaker.
I would choose forum format because everyone has a chance to speak and also have feedback as well. I believe that feedback is important to have in a group speaking because it helps you become a better speaker and learner as well.

Question #2

My girlfriend and I are always having these mixed conflicts where one of us will have to give up their time to spend with the other. For example, I had just come back from a long day of class and the first thing is that I get greeted by my husky. Being gone for so long, I decided he needed to get some much needed exercise, so I tell her that I’m bringing him to the dog park. She argues that she hasn’t seen me all day and she wants to spend time also. We came to a decision that she would come walk my husky with me so he could get some exercise and we would be spending time with each other as well. There’s not always going to be a time where we make compromises for a win-win situation. That is where things start getting complicated and only one person will get what they want and one with not (win-lose). When you’re not the victorious one on competitive conflict, its pretty degrading giving up what you want, but you keep in mind for the next time that it won’t be the same case.

Question #2

The five cultural barriers to creativity are a requirement for conformity, an expectation of practicality and efficiency, particular arenas for competition or cooperation, an expectation of politeness and following rules for social order, and a trust in the power of reason and logic (Harris & Sherblom, 2008). I believe that these barriers would restrict a small group from being creative in many different ways. It would allow them to only confine to the “norm” and not the uniqueness of their group. As the saying goes, “hopping into the wagon” means that a certain group or person is following the crowd and not being creative in their perspective. For example, the fraternity I’m in currently, started off as a normal fraternity. All we did was party and go out every night. But we wanted to create a different kind of organization that didn’t follow the stereotype, so we created a fraternity towards community service. We are proud to say that this new change has helped our moral because there are few fraternities that dedicate themselves to helping the community.