SPC 1017 - Group#3 Blog#1

                Group Project Reflection Blog              

Written By: Vladimir Fonte

              In the first place, I want to say that I am more than glad that we started our group presentations with these three chapters. It was like reading a cooking book and doing the cooking at the same time since we got to exercise the new obtained knowledge throughout our group meetings.

            Group one (Intercultural Communication) went over the importance of communicating withing our culture and outside of our culture. Reflecting on this, is important to point out that the stigma that we have had when it came to ethnicity, believes and traditions have been reduced due to globalization and the rise of the internet/ mass media. Through these recent changes, we are able to learn and understand the different cultures that surrounds us, and through this comprehension, comes respect. In a work environment, this respect comes handy since there are certain things that we do and deemed as normal, but it might be weird/offensive in another culture and vice-versa. In Latin America, we tend to greet people with a kiss on the cheek, yet, here in the U.S. that could get you a weird look from others.

Through communication, culture is passed down from generation to generation and this keeps the culture alive. Traditions, norms, food, dances… are all part of what make up a culture. Depending on the country you live on, there is going to be a dominant and a co-culture. Everyone must adhere to the dominant culture to be accepted within that society, yet, you could still have your own values and beliefs that might steer away from the dominant culture, known as a co-culture. After living height years in the United States, I have noticed that my identity has changed compared to when I was living in Cuba. Not only through education, but also meeting people from other cultures here in Florida has made me a more opened minded person.

Group two (Communicating in Groups) did a great job highlighting the different types of groups. Social groups meet up for the purpose of socializing, support and spend time together, like a group of friends. Support groups are like social, but the focus more in expressing their feelings more in depth and are in a safe and un-judging environment. Interest groups are for people that share a common interest like a book club. Service groups are for a non-profit group composed of volunteers that help our community overall, like the Red Cross. Is important to point out that for a group like this to be efficient and save lives, they need to have good communication withing each member. Work groups are formal groups that have a common goal in mind and work together to tackle it.

When creating a group in general, studies have shown that having five people is the ideal size. If it was to be less, then there would be less production. If there was to be more than five, then it would be hard to keep track of everyone and stay organized. Isabella also points out the two types of groups based on their member’s expertise. Heterogeneous groups work better in the long run since they can use their different knowledge instead of doing research. In the other hand, homogeneous groups work better if given little time since they can synchronize in their ideas easily. It is also noted that every member needs to be given a specific task, this way the work is equally distributed, and less time is spent on achieving the main goal. Lastly, virtual groups are groups that use technology to meet up despite their location.

Group three (Group Leadership and Problem Solving) had a very appealing and organized presentation. A good leader is what holds a group together, but not only the leaders, the members need to be doing their role as well to finish the goal. Even though a leader and a member of have different powers, there is a common ground when it comes to responsibilities. Roles like the “givers” who provide data and information during a discussion. Then the “seekers,” who’s job is to request others to contribute to share their ideas and purposely disagree to assess a topic. Lastly, the “analyzers” analyze the content and makes a logical reasoning out of a discussion. Another important role that everyone should contribute to a group is the “maintenance role”. This role focuses on solving conflicts that arises through the discussions.

Leaders not only have to schedule when a meeting starts and finishes, but also manage some aspects of the occurring meeting itself. Things like making sure that everyone participates, monitor the time the so that everyone gets a chance to speak, check in to see if the group have anonymously gathered a decision or if a decision picking method has to be implemented, and lastly summarize the decisions so that everyone knows their task in the group.

Participants in the other hand must do their task before a meeting begins. Task like looking at their previous notes, listing questions to ask during the upcoming meeting, and even be mentally willing to play a specific role if necessary. Is crucial for every group member to take notes of the discussion for them to be autonomous and dedicated more time to their assigned task. Not to mention that it is vital for a participant to keep the leader informed with their progress constantly so that other members can help and assess anyone who falls behind.

Not only is knowing how to interact withing a group important, but the method in which you do this is as equal as important. There are three ways that a group can communicate their solutions, these being: written format, oral format, and virtual format. Each of these have their pros and cons that can ease or harden the task of presenting your solutions, but a virtual format is the preferred method by our new generation           s. Is also important to divide the workload of delivering a presentation within all your group members to avoid all the work laying upon a single person. This is exactly what everyone in the three groups did, and in doing so they all did amazing.

Written By: Samantha Eyzaguirre  

As we started off the semester, our very first class assignments was all about group projects presenting different chapter of the books. What a way to break ice the first day of class and get right into "Introduction to Communication" Must I say, I thought it was very bold of  Professor Sinkoff to do so as well , but hey we all survived as students. The stress was all worth the A! The chapters chosen went perfectly with really grasping what communication is and how we use it in everyday life.

 

Starting with Group 1, they went over Chapter 3, Intercultural Communications. Overall I loved this chapter because it highlighted a lot of great points like culture and communication, socioeconomic status, individualism/ collectivism, and even sex & gender. One of the things that stood out to me was how Arialis talked about the importance of intercultural communication. She stated how culture is transmitted and modified through communication established by younger and older generations. Comprehending what cultural history is so important for us to carry on traditions and different aspects of EVERY culture. In the end everyone is blended in a small or big way. That’s what I took from her part and it’s very eye opening to think about. As a person who has kids and being born in the US but have parents of Latin countries how do we learn to carry one traditional cultures onto the next generation is a huge question. This lit a little light in my brain I must not attend to.

The next part of their project I was compelled to write about was Socioeconomics by Annamarie, she used a great visual aid to break down each class and described each one very clearly, being easy to understand. For example, while talking about the middle class she described them as people who are usually minimally educated, who engage in “manual labor” with little to no prestige. All though I agree, I do disagree that this would be the only way to describe the middle class, her description might represent most of all middle-class individuals but not everyone. In her next slide she had an amazing clip describing Co-Cultures by Generations which was perfect and didn’t need and explanation or break down to talk about this topic. It was right on point. Overall, this team did a great job when it came to presenting, especially being the first group to go. They had a lot of imagery and the video was great content. My overall feedback would be to not read from the screen. I think the audience can get lost when this happens, and they lose the focus. I do understand this might be someone’s first time speaking out in a college class or even are super shy when it comes to talking out loud in front of others but this is why these type of communication classes are so important because they can build confidence in real world scenarios.

         Moving onto Group 2, they presented Chapter 9 which covered Communicating in Groups. Main topics here were the nature of types of groups, healthy group characteristics, stages of group development and conflict in groups. One person’s work that stood out a lot to me was Eleazar’s slides. Although the entire group had the same theme background on every page which made it very visually to easily follow throughout, he did an awesome job with really making it informative. He provided pictures, bullet points, and didn’t just read from the screen he went off and added a little extra in each part. For example, when he spoke about the workplace team, he mentioned how a small business couldn’t fully function without specific workplace teams like departments within. Even small business has different people to take care of specific things, the tasks might be more for a small business compared to a larger business but overall, every business has different teams to take care of certain things.
Another person who had a great presentation within the group was Isabella, she also had a lot of great images and even spoke about them. She mentioned how in her group she was good with tech things but her two group leaders Meiling and Manuela took care of the other parts of the project. She used this example when describing Homogeneous vs. Heterogeneous groups.
            

        Altogether, Group 2 really did an AMAZING job with presenting. It could be because they were the second group to go so they did have advantage on the do’s and don’ts for their project. 😝 But hey, give credit where it’s due, I really enjoyed it. I loved how almost everyone in the group didn’t just talk of the screen, but they added a little something extra to the slides by giving examples, real life scenarios and made this chapter really come to life.  It was aesthetically pleasing as well; it was easy to follow and kept other engaged. All though there was a bit of technical difficulties they did well with picking up where they left off and never losing focus. Group 2 takes the prize for best presentation!

 

        Lastly, Group 3 was my group, and our presentation was about Group Leadership and Problem solving. Sections talked about were leadership, Effective Meetings, Systematic Problem Solving, Communicating Group Solutions and Evaluating Group Effectiveness. Nelta was a one of the leaders along with myself so of course it was only right for us to cover Leadership section in this chapter. She did well when presenting different tasks and roles of leaders and giving examples of each. Like the givers, seekers and analyzers. I went back to rewatch our class recording for our group because at the time of presenting I was mostly focused on the slides and making sure everyone was able to present on time since we were on a time crunch. For my part of the project, I overall think I was able to describe each shared leadership points and break them down with examples. Visually we did a good job with keeping the same theme and providing enough visual aid to keep focus on the topics. Only thing that did lose attention of the audience was when we were reading off the screen vs making our own little notes or flash card on the side of the presentation when presenting.

    

        Overall, like all group projects, they are never easy but we were able to help each other out throughout the way and even on the night before presenting we had to redo three sections because they got all mixed up within who was doing what. Vlad and Sophia stepped up and really made sure to crunch in what was missing and fix what was wrong. Lesson learned for our next project, I also do hope someone steps up to be a leader this time around. I was relieved once it was over. Of course overall this is all my opinion in the end. 😅

Written By: Isabella Martinez

        To begin with, I think that every group exceeded my expectations.  I can tell they took time to read and analyze the scriptures in the book.  They also made a didactic and entertainment decoration.  Because of this, they kept me excited on every slide. More in depth from group 1, who discussed chapter 3: Intercultural Communications, gave a clear explanation of how culture affects communication.  Also, how should I deal with people from different backgrounds.  I learned about the values ​​and ethics of cultures.  For example, they are divided between idealistic and realistic.  It’s important since our acceptance in society depends of knowing how to differentiate between right and wrong, I can maintain prudent and effective communication. I found that two or more cultures differ in various aspects that make communication between them more difficult, among them language, behavior, ethnicity, religion and education, among others... (Perez, Arialis) In other words, it is an infinite source of aspects that by recognizing us opens an adaptation to those cultures.  Thus we are able to relate to all kinds of people. The first group also made a list of the different examples of human communication, such as oral communication, visual communication and digital communication. This was interesting since we must also pay attention to what we write or message since there are no tones but still others have an interpretation.

        In relation to the second group, who presented chapter 9 Communication in Groups, I find the pictures and examples of the decoration very educational.  This is an essential topic since the teams are used for school, career, work, among others.  Lily Fernández, a member of this group in particular, made the comparison of the family and a group that are not related by blood or marriage but still work together for the same purpose, taking care of each other and highlighting their virtues to achieve it very useful.  She also commented about the leader of the group, who bears resemblance to the authority of the blood family. He/she is in charge of maintaining order and sharing responsibilities as long as everyone agrees.  In addition to added videos, my colleagues added like the one by Joseph Padron.  It explains how the use of virtual communication increased during the pandemic.  This is of great help because as we know not only in cases of social distance due to a contagious disease, but also it is an association for people from different locations. They exposed on the efficacy of ethics.  As we know, each person has their own definition of what is right or wrong, but while working in a group it’s important to set clear limits so that there is respect and that all opinions are valued. Something interesting and that I ignored about a team is that 5 people make better collusion, in this way the focus is not lost. They proved it through a clear graph and evaluated about the potential and the size of the group. 

        In terms of chapter 10: Leadership and Problem Solving, group in which I’m included, I think that we lack more animation.  Comparing it to other groups and being honest, we should have put more videos or entertainment.  Although, speaking of my experience while we were working to achieve it all was very organized.  From the first moment we chose a leader who kept us informed of changes and schedules.  At every moment we updated the group of everything that we included in our presentation.  For example, I had problems copying a picture that seemed useful to me in one of my slides, and one of my colleagues helped me to do it.  We also set ourselves a time to collaborate on Blackboard, so we could talk more effectively about issues we had individually.  Samantha was a perfect example of leadership, she created our agenda. 

 In terms of group 3: Leadership and Problem Solving, in which I am included, I think that we lack more animation for my taste.  Comparing it to other groups and to be honest, we should have put more videos or entertainment.  Although, speaking of my experience while we were working to achieve it all was very organized.  From the first moment we chose a leader who kept us informed of changes and schedules.  At every moment we updated the group of everything that we included in our presentation.  For example, I had problems copying a photo that seemed useful to me in one of my slides, and one of my colleagues helped me to do it.  We also set ourselves a time to collaborate on Blackboard, so we could talk more effectively about issues we had individually.  Samantha was a perfect example of leadership, she created our agenda although we were a large group. Coincidentally, this is what our topic was about, how to solve problems and how to distribute responsibilities.  I think as we read the book, we did a better job. One suggestion that could be used in the future is that we also talk about personal experiences in activities.  In this way we get more involved in the subject and learn from the real anecdotes of other colleagues.  I think it’s important in addition to guiding us through the book, expressing personal situations and also makes it more enthusiastic. To conclude, all the groups have great merit for me, they all put their grain of sand and while they presented it was well explained.  After this activity I began to value teamwork, since it was not to my liking.  Now, I think that strength is in unity and like it’s in the video of my presentation, if we all collaborate we can do great things. In other words, it helped open me up to new extroverted experiences. This includes enjoy the process ,each person is a book that we can read and learning to communicate with each other is also preparing for the future in a modern society where there are different cultures and origins. In addition to adapting to their ethics and discipline. 

Witten By: Sofia Torres

I think group one did a good job in their presentation. Culture is one of the things that is the most important thing to each person because it is the way they act, grow up and many other things. The way they talked about it was good because they gave good examples about everything. I learned a lot about culture. I liked how they talked about how people think and how important it is to respect everyone's culture. They did an excellent job showing videos and that gives more examples and keeps the audience entertained. They did a great job, but they should have practiced a little bit more, for the next presentation it is a good idea for them to meet each other before the presentation and talk about it and to make sure that everyone is doing their part correctly.  
 

For group 2 they did a great job like the way that they did the theme of the PowerPoint, it looks pretty and organized. They did a good job presenting, I understood everything they were presenting, I learned different things like diverse types of groups or how is the best type of way to work in groups. They did a good job showing videos and they were interesting. They use a lot of examples, for example when they mention virtual groups and how we used them because of the pandemic, that helps us even more to understand things a lot better. I think group 2 did a good presentation, but it is always good to practice before the presentation, and every group should always do that.

Chapter 10 relates a lot to this class because it is a class where we have leaders and groups. The chapter helps us more to understand how we should work together and how a leader should act. Group 3 did a good job presenting because they say everything clearly, and they gave several types of examples and how important it is to communicate in groups. I think group 3 did a good job, the only key for a good presentation is to practice and communication.  
 
Even though group 4 were presenting what we talked about, and the others group, they did an amazing job. They were able to talk and express everything really good. Their presentation helps me even more to understand the chapters. They did a good job, they give different types of examples. I think they are the best leader for this class because they are so sweet and they like to help.

I really like this presentations they are things that I enjoy to learn, and I hope I use in the future. I think my group is amazing and we did a good job even thought i got confuse but i was able to fix the problem thanks to Valdimir. At the end of the day we did a amazing job thanks to the group two.

Written by: Michelle Osorio

Reflecting back on chapters 3, 9 and 10 presentations, it provides and has left me with a lot of valuable information that will stay with me. There was so much to learn, all while having fun working together in groups. Chapter 3, "Intercultural Communications," is overall a very important chapter. Culture is very important to us all to make sure everything is diverse. Culture allows one to communicate and be aware of differentideas and people that are around them. It all relates to communication as well, because without communication, no one would be able to communicate and see and/or hear the different ideas and ways of being introduced to one another. Communication will always be an important factor in expanding and learning something new. Chapter 9, "Communication in Groups," relates to what I was explaining about Chapter 3. They are both similar in ways. Communication is a very important factor. Without it, there is no way for ideas to grow. Especially when communicating in groups, it is very much needed to make sure everyone agrees, and it allows for ideas and projects to flow together. In Chapter 10, "Leadership and Problem Solving" is the chapter I worked on, and honestly, it was my favorite. It was different from the past two chapters. Leadership, problem solving, and teamwork are all necessities that are needed to conquer and grow, whether working by yourself or in a group. It goes back to the other chapters about communication, because without communication, there is no way for problems to be solved and for one to take leadership.

I really enjoyed the chapter 3 presentation on "Intercultural Communications." It was my favorite. I really liked how you could tell that the group all worked together and were patient in putting the information in the slides together and organizing it. The theme of the PowerPoint was very cute. Also, for being group 1, the first group to ever present a project for the class, they were very prepared and set the bar high for everyone else. Group 1 is an excellent group, and they are very amazing presenters. I loved how everyone was prepared. Carlos talked about important topics like "Sex and gender, Sex orientation, and religion." These are all very important to be aware of so one can help themselves and others and to understand so there is no bashing or shame. Annamarie also played a video of how Gen-Z and millennials fight, and it was so funny, I’m sure the whole class enjoyed it. It showed the difference between Gen-Z and millennials, and it's crazy how groups of generations change time after time once new products come out like phones. To close the presentation, they talk about anxiety, stereotyping, and cultural norms. There were a wide variety of topics that were presented in the group. Overall, I really loved Group 1's presentation. They got a 10/10 from me.

Group 2 presentation on "Communication in Groups" This is a very, very important chapter. I really liked how their presentation looked because they kept the same theme and look throughout the whole presentation. There were no drastic changes from slide to slide, each had a lot of information and pictures that were placed the same. It was very nice. I loved it. Gabriella and Eliezer went and taught us about the different types of groups there are and the roles they provide. Some different types of groups are social groups, support groups, and service groups. What really interested me a lot from this presentation is that Joseph mentioned virtual groups, and I just find it cool how widely available and accessible they are now. Especially going through the pandemic, this is easily the most used type of group that is being used due to doing everything virtually and using the platforms like Zoom, Skype, Microsoft Teams, Blackboard, etc.

School is widely accessible to be done online using any of these platforms, and I just find it really interesting how much we have expanded and grown as a society, expanding ourselves and what we can do. I also really liked the video Alexander played on "Group Development Stages." He used Marvel movie clips that showed group development, and I really liked that idea because it keeps you engaged, and it isn’t something boring or random. Overall, this presentation was also one of my favorites It was extremely organized, and they were all prepared and delivered their topics excellently. They get a perfect 10/10! 

Group 3, my group, did "Leadership and Problem Solving," and I honestly really enjoyed working on our presentation and how it ended up coming out. One of the main topics of our chapter, leadership, was really demonstrated and exceeded. Our group presentation leaders from the first day that they took leadership, Samantha and Nelta, worked together to guide the group and provide us with information and answer any questions we had, and just kept everything extremely put together. Without them, our presentation wouldn’t have turned out the way it did without their help. I really enjoyed our presentation because it went into fine detail about leadership, which is really needed while in college or in the workplace. Then, Samantha, to help close her presentation about

leadership, played a clip from "The Office" that was extremely funny, and it really brought her point across. Something that stuck to me was when Rudy was presenting his part, talking about problem solving and related to cutting a tree, how you could start from the trunk or go and cut only a branch, which he then says that by cutting the branch you can eliminate smaller problems, but it doesn’t eliminate the root of the problem. This stuck to me, and I agree that it is true. Everyone in my group did an amazing job on their presentation and delivered it spectacularly. The pictures and videos that were included helped to emphasize the topics. Working together in a group was different because it is something I am not accustomed to. However, I quickly became used to it and I really like being in my group. Everyone is super helpful and all super organized in making sure everything is accomplished and, most importantly, done right. I enjoyed working on our project and can’t wait to work on more presentations with them.

Written By: Nelta Constantin

To start, all of the student’s presentations were good everyone was well-spoken and gave us a lot of information. As we begin Chapter 3 it was the first presentation their topic of discussion was chapter 3 intercultural communication. It started off well they dived into the culture and how it is a system of beliefs and norms that a group of people follows. Though I can’t remember exactly who I was remember that culture is developed it’s a way of life and how people live. As they continued, they talked about values and the types of values like ideal values and real values. One of the things that I liked about the presentation is how detailed and thorough they were. One thing I didn’t like was that the presentation wasn’t as interactive with the class at all. I felt like they could have asked us questions or even like crack jokes. What they should have done is even though they very detailed they should throw in a funny video of what ties into the topic of culture. For example, they could have used a clip from the American sitcom “ugly betty” a Mexican female living in New York and working at one of the best fashion magazines. Adding this element could have grasped some of the student’s attention. Also, cracking jokes is a good way to get the audience to engage by laughing and showing approval. Doing these types of exercises can help make any presentation so much better. Here are some of the things I learned from this presentation I learned about a dominant culture which is a “learned system” by the majority in Miami the dominant culture is the Hispanic culture it’s a huge influence in Miami. Then about race and ethnicity for instance I was born and raised in Miami, but my entire family was born in Haiti, so my ethnicity is Haitian, and my native language is creole. Next, I learned about sex and gender, religion, and sexual orientation. Which were a very interesting part and I loved how they explained it talking about things like how dominant culture deems what is acceptable and unacceptable from the opposite sex and what they can and can’t believe in or that you must be heterosexual instead of homosexual. Overall, the presentation gets 7/10  Good clear background and all relevant info.

    The main focus of the chapter 9 presentation was communicating in a group and even though I didn’t know much about the topic in the beginning I feel like I know so much more now. What I liked about this group presentation is that they were also informational as well. I loved that they were very visual with their project with pictures and videos. As they talk about groups, they added a picture of the sitcom “How I met your mother.” Now I know that a group is a collection of three to 10 people who attempt to complete a goal. Group communication consists of verbal and nonverbal messages shared among the members. As the presentation continues, they started talking about family and the different types of families. For example, in a nuclear family which is your mom your dad, and your siblings then it's an unrelated family not related by blood or marriage. I love the examples that they used for the nuclear family they used the children's sitcom “Good luck Charlie” and for the unrelated family they used “The Walking Dead”. Then I learned about different types of groups interest groups and virtual groups. I also learned about the stages of group development that start with forming, storming, norming, performing, adjourning, and transforming. Then how to be problem solvers in a group and how to communicate negatively or positively.  What I took away from this presentation is how to be in a group things I should and shouldn’t do.  Also, I learned that in a group it's okay to be independent a group because of our knowledge and strength. They did an amazing job with the visuals. If there was one thing, I am unable to read any of the text on the slide since it is so crowded. This is another illustration of how the image disagrees with the selected slide format. Plus, I felt like the presentation could have been more organized it was disorganized to me. But overall, I still enjoyed the presentation.

    Lastly, I am going to dive into chapter 10 group leadership and problem-solving. To start off  I loved the presentation format, I like the decision to use a pink and blue theme as it accompanies the topic well and makes it ascetically pleasing. However, the title section takes up a significant amount of space from the slides and, in some ways, reduces the available space for information. However, I did like how you kept the information minimum and told us all the information we needed to know. Showing us that they took the time to study chapter 10 and made sure they knew what they were talking about. I did appreciate the way the problem's background was explained using brief but informative presentations. They read quickly, allowing the audience to concentrate on what the presenter has to say. The design slides were presented well with an accompanying image and a few words so that the audience is not busy reading.  I believe this is a smart approach for this portion because the design is typically the most intangible aspect of these presentations. These slides, however, had a quite different format. I think there should be greater consistency in the format when presenting a group effort. However, I did learn a lot I learned about leaders and the different types of leadership like the formal leader, informal emergent leader, and shared leadership functions. I learned about task roles like the giver, seekers, and analyzers. Things like maintenance roles include supporters, interpreters, harmonizers, mediators, as well as tension relievers. I love the example that they use in the presentation of the office because TV programs and films often find humor in workplace conflict. I love this presentation because we often have one definition of leadership which is the person that is chosen to be in charge which is not true because there are different types of leaders. I also enjoyed the fact that they were very interactive with the audience. overall this was a very good presentation clear and concise and very informative.