Week of December 3 - 9

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

My group project observation project consisted of me observing my kids daycare. I chose this group because I am fond of people who have a daycare, teachers mainly anyone who is charge of watching kids in some sort. In my project I really had a great time doing this because I got to get hands on experience of what is what like to be in this profession. For those of us who have kids can attest to the fact that we would like to be around our kids 24/7 if we could. We all know that is unrealistic, we have jobs and responsibilities so when the time comes for us to go to work our kids must go to school. Nevertheless observing this group gave me chance to be a daycare provider. I know the assignment said to observe but I could not help myself. I felt the best way for me to observe was to engage and assist with the children and person in charge.
This exercise was useful because like I said I am fond of this type of work and if I do not find a job in the communication field I probably will go into this field of work. After all we all are going to need some type of daycare at some point in our lives, for those of us who have kids and for those who will have kids. I learned that this type of work is vastly under appreciated. It is a lot work watching someone else kids. There is so much that goes in the being prepared. You have to make sure you have enough food, supplies to keep them entertained as well as.
What I liked about this project was that we got to chose the group we wanted to observe. This gave us the chance to carefully chose what we felt was best for us. Some people chose to view volleyball teams while one group decided to step out of their normal position into a different position that they never had done.
What I would change about this project is I would probably make this a group effort. Maybe the assignment could be offered as group project that way it gives us a chance to interact with classmates as well the project itself.

Week of December 3 - 9

2). 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 have learned much from this class but what stands out for me is that I learned that to give some insightful feedback. This class was taught online and nearly everyone gave someone some type of feedback. Sometimes I wish there was more of exchange of what was said and the feedback itself but the fact that I got and received feedback for my posts put a smile on my face.
My favorite thing about the class was the length that we got to complete the assignment during the week. In another class of mine we got the the assignment on Monday and it was due on Wednesday. I thought one of the benefits of online classes was that you could take your time. This class as you know made it possible to start the homework or assignment as late as Friday and you still had the opportunity to get it done after Sunday night football. 
The least favorite thing about this class was that even though the teacher provided us with as much contact to get hold of her (email, blog's or phone call ) I wish this class would have been available to take during the semester. This is one class that I feel needs to be taken face to face rather than online.
My advice to improve this class would be to offer more of chance to meet up with a group. This is small group communication yet I feel that we did not do much with a group. Maybe one group project where we could meet up and do something as it relates to small group communication. That is all I can think of, this was truly and worthwhile class to take. 

Week of December 3 - 9

3). 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.

A favorite concept of mine that I enjoyed learning about is the concept of leadership in small groups. I really like this because I feel that we are all leaders in some way in our lives. Whether it be at home, school, or work we all have leadership capabilities. Being that we are in college I think it would be safe to say that we all want to be a leader at some point in our life and I feel that chapter 13 serves as a guide as well as gives us some tips on how to be an effective leader. For example Lee Iacocca former CEO of of the Chrysler corporation gives us the nine C's on what it takes to be a true leader. They are clear and straight to the point.
As the chapter goes on it talks about the three characteristics of leaders. They are vision, credibility, communication concept. What I feel is straight forward characteristics on how to be leader I felt that credibility deserves the most attention. Being that I am a coach I can envision my baseball team doing great things but if I do not jack about baseball (fielding, catching, running, throwing) how can I expect my team to even think about buying into my vision. Just as we are in this class I do not know if the teacher is really a credible teacher, all I have is that she is working for SJSU and well that serves as enough for me.
Being that we are graduating from SJSU sometime I think it would be safe to say that we all want to be leaders one day. How are we going to become a leader? Is that leadership role going to fall into our lap, probably not. There are many ways that a leader is going to come about as the book suggests. So I encourage you to be mindful of the choices you make, the type of leader who will become depends on it. 

Week of November 12-18

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

If the ideal conflict resolution strategy for any group os one of win-win, or consensus then we would all be living under sunshine and rainbows and drinking mu thai's. Unfortunately the world is not like that, this strategy does have a little bit of conflict just not as personal as the others. A time that I engaged in a collaborative conflict resolution occurred during when I was in the Marines. We had to secure a hill over in Afghanistan and unfortunately we had heard that this place was known to have enemy sniper living in the hills and holes. There were some team leaders that wanted to wait until morning to go begin this mission and some that wanted to complete it asap that way it can be over with already. Each team leader gave the reason why they thought they should go now and other team leaders gave their reasons why they shouldn't go. I was one of the that wanted to wait, not because I was afraid well I was little but because just two days ago we had seen numerous heads and bodies come back blown to bits. I thought that area was still hot and didn't eant to sacrifice Marines lives just so some Captain can get his silver star. Well if you read this I must say that we went out that night and engaged in some skirmishes with the enemy and later on that day that Captain got an earful by the General for sending us out on a reckless mission. He ended up having to clean our plates when we went to chow.
The competitive conflict is a win lose situation. Sometimes people have a bad relation with this. I guess it has to do with the fact that if you happen to be on the losing end of the stick. No one likes to lose but unfortunately it happens. It is how you adapt to ensure you wont lose again is what matters. What I like about this concept is  the "healthy competition" portion of it.I used the competition to find out who would be the next squad leader in my platoon. I asked the cook in the kitchen in the if we could use his refrigerator as a battle ground. Here I placed all five Marines in and said the winner is the one who comes out first. two things you had to do, 1. You had do whatever you had to do to make sure the other Marine didn't get out 2. You had to fight. I did this because I wanted to make sure I had the toughest guy leading my squad. At the end after everyone was battered and bloody we all knew who the winner was and were satisfied with the results.

Week of November 12-18

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

I am a traditional type of guy I like sticking with what works for me therefore I like forum method as means for making a public presentation. Although each of the formats for the groups presentations are effective the reason why I like the forum method is because it ensures that all parties, opinions, objectives, views, preferences and perspectives can be heard. Recently I attended a forum like this at our unions meeting during this past election. A lot people were not too aware of some the ballot measures that would effect us and some people went to get further clarification for what they were voting  for. During this time we heard expert analysis of some of the measures and why we should vote yes or no for the measure at hand. One thing I did notice about this forum from the last time I went to a forum like this was that this forum allowed people to speak after each expert spoke. The last forum asked that we hold all questions until all the speakers had spoken. That nearly made it an hour and half before anybody in the audience got to ask questions and since we only had two hours some questions were not asked or answered.
Although I must say that I do like the colloquium format as well. I recently attended two colloquiums here at the Communication Studies department and I must say that very entertaining and informative. One of the things that I liked the most about it compared to the forum format is that it does take long. Both of the colloquiums that I attended were over in a hour. It was almost short sweet and straight to the point.

Week of November 12-18

3). 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 of the concepts that was talked about comes from chapter 12 and it is the concept called Interpersonal Linkage Power. Interpersonal linkage power is when members of a group have personal access to people or information sources that is useful to the group. Their type of power allows them to engage the services of individuals, groups and organizations or to gain access to resources. In the real world it is commonly known as "who you know" type of thinking. Unfortunately I have seen this happen for the good and for the bad. For example in a psychology course I once took one, our group needed to set up an interview with a prominent member of a company we wanted to work for and get insight about the organization. One of our members had an uncle who worked side by side with the CEO of the company and we were able to get seen a lot faster than other groups who had no pull in trying to get access for their interviews.
I have also seen this happen negatively as well. I once worked in a group that the team leader wanted to set up a karaoke night at bar to help our fundraiser. When the leader was trying locate a DJ who would be the host he found it very difficult. Fortunately for us we had another group member who had a cousin who was DJ and volunteered to help. When we told the  group leader we could tell he was bit upset because he really wanted to find a DJ and kind of didn't like asking for help sometimes.
What I like most about this concept is that most of the time interpersonal linkage power always helps the group rather than hurting the group.

Week of november 5 - 11

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

I like to think as simple man  and I tend do do things under the motto business as usual. However there are times when I am looking to improve the things that I do in life. For example recently I noticed that I was always showing up to work right on time. I am not a person that likes to do this, normally I like to get there about 15 minutes prior to starting my shift that way I can hang out, get set up and prepare myself for the day. With traffic being unpredictable when I drive to work from the 101 up to the 280 and then to 880 I decided that I try and find an new way to getting to work. So one day as I was driving there was the same traffic jam that starts at tully road and it last all the way to 880. I decided to call my friend who always gets to work on time and comes from the same town as do and ask her for directions. She gave me them and I set out on my new route the next day. The next day I left about five to ten minutes earlier than I did before just so I can get a sense of how the traffic was going to be  on my new route. Tuns out it was actually a lot faster this new route and it got me to work with plenty of time to spare. The book states that when you are driving to work on a new route to avoid traffic jams you are being creative. Id like to think that my creative side has allowed me to enhance myself at work as well. With me being prepared and not rushed when I get to work has led me to be a better employee.