I resisted teaching Interpersonal Communication in an online-only environment for a long time. How can we call this – typing to each other, and reading instead of listening to a voice & watching a face – a mode of direct interaction?
In the Fall of 2002, I took a graduate level Communication course called The Social Impact of Information Technology. It was my first year of coursework toward a doctorate degree in social science, specifically in the discipline of Communication. A few years later, I recall some of the things I learned in that class for an Electronic Frontier Foundation competition – which I did not win (smile).
After I earned my Master’s Degree (in Social Justice Education), I taught for several years at a community college – both traditional (face-to-face) classes and online courses (when the program was very, very new). When I began teaching online, I tried to use the same strategies that worked for me in regular classes – investing a ton of energy, encouraging and eliciting emotional engagement so that the subject matter had personal relevance to each and every student. I realized quickly that I cannot transpose my in-class manner to the cyber situation: if students do not log in and actively participate, no matter what I do has no influence: not only do more students simply fail online classes, many of those who pass hardly learn a thing. Pay close attention! Certain students will fall off the map (generally those who underestimate the time commitment and/or fail to generate the self-discipline or motivation to invest as much as necessary – and others will excel. The difference is in who shows up!
How does one measure presence when the only medium you have to use are printed words? A very successful and smart blogger that I met some years ago in Amsterdam wrote about living relationships ~ Lilia says, “there is something about the nature of interaction that makes the difference.” As I imagine how to revise the curriculum for this second attempt at teaching Interpersonal Communication Online, I find her insight instructive:
the feeling of being connected is much stronger in the cases where the interaction is about something, but not that much for the sake of interaction.
In other words, I wonder what will be “the something” that binds us – students and teacher – together over these six weeks of study. Lilia suggests that the strongest connections come from doing together. I agree. The question is what is “the doing” that we will do? We have an obvious task – to learn about interpersonal communication. But this may not be the highest motivation for everyone: some of you may be taking this class only because it is required or meets a requirement; some of you may intend to invest as little as possible to pass; some of you may want to earn an A without having to work very much for it; some of you may actually care about the subject for reasons which may or may not be shared by others in the class. One thing we must agree on is how we will communicate with each other. I found an excellent guide for online writing – please do not worry that these are academic guidelines from a high school student – we need to recognize and accept (in order to use!) the literacy of young people with a wide variety of text-based communication (e.g., texting on cell phones and instant messaging on computers).
Instructions for Students (any/everyone else is free to participate as you wish):
- Before posting a reply, open your own WordPress weblog. If you have not already done this, please be sure to register an anonymous name so that you are not identifiable to your peers, family, or friends.
- Write your reply in a word processing program first, and save it. (More instructions about the Reply are posted in the Course Website.) Copy your entire response in preparation for pasting.
- Login to your own WordPress weblog. (By logging in to your own Weblog first, I will be able to ascertain who earns credit for doing this assignment.)
- Return to this post.
- Click on “Leave A Reply”
- Paste your reply into the reply/comment box.
- Click on “Submit Comment”
- If other classmates (or anyone else) has already replied, please feel free to respond to their comments too – but give credit by naming who said what!)
And now – the fun begins! 🙂
PS – if your comment does not appear within a few minutes, it means my weblog does not recognize you yet as a real commenter (instead of as computer-generated spam). Be patient – I will moderate regularly and add you to the list.
A Place in Space 
Tuesday June 24, 2008 at 9:26 am
Hi everyone,
I am adding a “reply” to my own “post” in order to introduce the first assignment, which has several steps leading up to you posting “here” as a Reply. Our course on “Interpersonal Communication” will proceed in two internet places: the University’s official site (VISTA 4) and the general space of the world wide web. The VISTA/SPARK system is closed – there are security precautions (registration, passwords and such) that prevent anyone not in our class from entering “the classroom.” My teaching philosophy (and learning style) requires that we also have some kind of lab – especially with this topic of study!
I am sure you have each had some kind of physical science class which included a lab component, haven’t you? If not in college, at least in high school? (However long ago that may have been?!) In lab, we experiment – but these are not experiments for curiosity’s sake, they are experiments to test knowledge. In the social sciences, minimal emphasis seems to be placed on laboratory work……to be honest, I am not sure why this is the case except that historically it has developed this way. At any rate, this course will buck that trend – we will do our best, together, to articulate concepts about interpersonal communication with our own actual communication practices.
My guess is that each of you has examples of situations in your own life in which interpersonal communication has gone well and others in which interpersonal communication has gone in ways you either did not like or did not understand. Ideally, during this course you will learn to identify (some of) your strengths and recognize (some of) your weaknesses as an interpersonal communicator. Now – I am already making several assumptions! I am assuming most of you fit the typical profile of UMass student – but what is “typical”? You tell me! 🙂 And – why is it important to name assumptions? Because, in order to communicate effectively (whether or not my goal is, for instance, to teach, learn, connect, or chase away), I must envision an audience: a receiver, listener, reader – some human being(s) who (I hope) are attentive to the messages I generate.
You already know enough from personal experience to realize that reducing interpersonal communication to simple one-way messages back-and-forth between two people is inadequate to explain everything that can go “wrong” in a conversation (in communication theory, this is known as the transmission model of communication). I intend, over the course of this abbreviated semester, to make the case that such a linear, sequential model also fails to explain what happens when things go “right” in a conversation. In fact, one of the most basic skills of interpersonal communication is flexibility in judgment (this is why I enclosed the moral terms, wrong and right, in quotation marks).
Whenever we hear an utterance or read a sentence, we immediately interpret it. If no instant meaning comes to mind, we say we are confused. (Again, my bias/assumption of “typical” shows in my use of the word, “we.” I am doing at least two things when I write “we”: 1) generalizing from my own experience to you, i.e., assuming that what you think/feel in a particular situation is the same as what I think/feel in that situation, and 2) presuming that nearly everyone in the class is either American or has familiarity with U.S. culture. (I may also be “doing” other “things” of which I am unaware, or perceive are less significant during this interaction.) The second point justifies the first but there is no guarantee of match! In fact, chances are better that the generalization is only that – applicable (perhaps!) to most of us in this class but not to everyone.
Variations of interpretation are what make interpersonal communication such a fascinating area of study, and (in my mind) a crucial venue for skills development and lifelong learning. Wait – what variations am I referring to?! Just the fact that people come from different cultures? No, not only that, because – as you also already know – not all Americans are the same in all ways; significant distinctions exist. The intriguing questions are: when does distinction matter more than similarity, and which differences rule out commonality? When does something shared matter more than every possible difference?
The strategy I’m pursuing in this piece of writing (I suppose it’s a kind of lecture) is to get you thinking like a social scientist. Just like biologists, chemists, and physicists, social scientists seek reliable knowledge. People who study interpersonal communication observe patterns – not one time instances of, say, an individual life (like yours or mine), or a specific misunderstanding in a particular conversation, but multiple instances spread out over large populations and varied situations. The populations have to be defined, the criteria for the instances to be studied have to be identified – thus social scientists create categories through comparison and contrast. These categories, then, allow and enable interpretation to occur. From interpretations we build meanings – both generalizations (assumptions of similarity) and distinctions (respect for difference). The strength of conviction we give to our respective interpreted meanings are the source of meaningfulness; it is the meaningfulness of communication that determines the quality of interpersonal relationships.
Ok, onward to your responses! The actual assignment for students in the course is posted in the closed VISTA portion of class – please do not “Reply” until you have read and followed each and every step! If you are not in the course and you have read this far along (!), you are welcome to contribute to the conversation.
Monday July 14, 2008 at 9:23 pm
btw – be sure when you post your Reply here that you maintain your own confidentiality! Refer to yourself by your anonymous blogname. 🙂
In effect, you will have two different “identities” for this class. As I explained in the official (closed) course information, eventually we will all get to know which anonymous blogger you are, but the rest of the world ought not learn your real name – at least not until the end of class and you can make an informed decision about revealing your identity based on what has been written and learned here in the public zone of our classroom.
Deal?
🙂
Tuesday July 15, 2008 at 10:57 am
Hi! I’m not sure if I’m suppose to reveal my “real identity,” so I suppose I’ll just call myself commsyr09. I got that catchy little name from combining my major – communications (and psychology, which I picked up last fall), the school I attend – Syracuse University, and my graduation year – 2009, yes I am extremely sad to only have one year left! I am sure that answers many questions as to why I am taking this class, but the real reason is – I genuinely like communications! I declared my major after my freshmen year which gave me ample time to complete all required classes and fulfill the communications elective credits too. Now I am left with essentially all general elective credits but instead of taking “I don’t care 101” or “intro to whatever,” I opt to stick to what I know and what I am good at – communications! I am not sure what else is okay to disclose, so I won’t say anymore other than that I am excited to take this class and I look forward to learning a lot.
http://commsyr09.wordpress.com/
Tuesday July 15, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Hi commsyr09 – congrats on being the first one ALL the way done! (Did you submit your URL, yet?) 🙂 One person was ahead of you but a glitch has prevented their comment from being posted yet. And I am sure the rest of the class is close in line!
I wrote about surfing, since I got to do that for the very first time last weekend. I am always interested in new experiences – with activities and with people, that’s one of the reasons I chose to study communication. I’m older (!) than most graduate students teaching these courses, which is good for me. 🙂 It also means that I have taught often and in a range of subjects. I love the way that online teaching opens up the possibilities for conversations that we might be shy to talk about in person.
My main goal as a teacher for this course is to inspire your curiosity and engage your critical thinking skills. By critical I don’t mean only negative, but seeing past the surface, the usual, and the accepted to the problematic, confusing, even conflictual. Often communication does not go the way we want – how come? And when it goes well, can we say why?
I’m eager to take this journey with all of you. Catch the wave! 😉
Tuesday July 15, 2008 at 4:34 pm
I am currently a senior Psychology major at UMass. I am from Newton, MA and graduated from Newton North High School in 2005. I am taking this class not only for credits, but to also understand how influential our interactions with each other are. Part of our first assignment requires us to write about something we just learned about. In order to create some curiosity, please check out the link below to find out what I’ve learned over the summer.
http://tennisfan816.wordpress.com/
Tuesday July 15, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Hi Classmates and Professor Kent!
I’m “Deliver Me Summer” – which, as you’ll see by my first blog post, relates to my wonderful summer job as a nurse intern on a labor and delivery floor. Before I get ahead of myself, I’m a nursing major at a four year university. I’m basically like any other undergraduate college student in the sense that I live away from home and earn a baccalaureate degree in four years (I have one more year to go), but I’ll also take the NCLEX (the national registry exam for nursing) right after graduation and can get right to work.
As you can imagine, nursing requires a lot of interpersonal skills. During hospital orientation for my summer internship, we spent a significant amount of time going over communication and relationship builders. I’m looking forward to strengthening my understanding of this over the next couple of weeks – I’m certain that the knowledge gained from this class/experience will come in handy.
Oh, and on a side note, Professor Kent – I thoroughly enjoyed your blog post on surfing! I took lessons this past March. Despite being bruised and extremely sore, I loved every minute of it.
My blog is at http://delivermesummer.wordpress.com/. Enjoy!
Tuesday July 15, 2008 at 5:42 pm
A little about Me.
Well I like long walks on the beach, don’t read poetry, but do enjoy the sand between my toes.
I am a Marketing major and believe that this class will allow me to have a better understanding on how to recognize the different ways in which people communicate and allow me to get “into their mind” so that I can make a lot of money some day. Communication along with some psychology is vital in order to have a successful marketing strategy (when speaking of marketing in the media or advertising).
As a person I am somewhat laid back at home but enjoy being busy and in control of groups at work or in clubs. I like being involved in many things, always have been. I like to have fun and joke around with everyone but always keeping a level of respect (“treat others as you would like to be treated”). As I mentioned I tend to put a lot in my schedule and sometimes things get a bit hectic, but I have learned to always stay calm especially when times get a little crazy. On personal note, I am afraid of heights, love animals, and have one autistic sister which has helped me be a stronger person and appreciate little things in life.
Blog URL:
Tuesday July 15, 2008 at 7:34 pm
Alright since we’re being all secretive about this class I will keep my name out of this and will be known as JimiGarcia. My blog name is representative of some of the music I listen to, Jimi Hendrix and Jerry Garcia. I am taking this class as a part of my communications major here at Umass as an interpersonal requirement. I’m also interested in this aspect of Communications because I’ve only had a few classes on the topic. I am graduating in the fall of 2009 and my main study in communications is film. I’m hoping to get an internship in the last semester I have at Umass to get some good stuff on my resume and some experience. I was a member of UVC-TV freshman year and plan to rejoin in the upcoming semester. The blog that I posted was about the impact of music on society and mainly the community that followed the Grateful Dead from the late nineteen sixties.
Wednesday July 16, 2008 at 10:48 am
Hello! I’m a junior at the UMass Amherst, studying finance at the Isenberg School of Management. I’m originally Egyptian, and I just recently came back from studying abroad the past year at the American University in Cairo.
I decided to take a few online courses this summer to catch up with some credits that might not transfer from my studying abroad. I looked through dozens of courses, and this was one that struck me as something I’d find interesting, so here I am! Interpersonal Communication is something that although most of us think we are experts in, we could all use some help. I know that in the business world, where your dealings with others can be crucial, interpersonal communication must be a top skill. I hope to gain all the knowledge this course is going to offer!
My Blog can be found at
http://masr27.wordpress.com/
Wednesday July 16, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Hello, I’m a senior hoping to finish up my last remaining classes this summer before graduating in September with a Plant, Soil, and Insect Science degree. I am more interested in social change and political science than I am in farming or bugs. For reasons that parallel that sentiment, I chose this class because I am done with all my chemistry and entomology courses and must now work on electives that will hopefully provide some perspective for me.
As far as “me” goes, I was born and raised in central MA right around Worcester. I play guitar in a local metal band. I plan to stay in the area post-graduation because I enjoy it out here very much.
My Blog is
http://memphisburns.wordpress.com/
Wednesday July 16, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Hi everyone-
I am a junior English major at Umass, although I should have graduated this past spring. I am glad I haven’t graduated yet because I love being in college and I am not ready for the real world! This class does not fulfill any requirements for me, but I need credits and it seemed like an interesting choice. I love animals and the ocean, and I am terrified of bees. I have a lionhead rabbit named Hendrix. I wrote my first essay about the challenges of waitressing.
-Jaggerbunny
http://jaggerbunny.wordpress.com/2008/07/16/be-nice-to-your-waitress/
Wednesday July 16, 2008 at 6:14 pm
If you would like to know more about me, there is a great resource that you can use, however, you might need to pay for it. It’s HBO. More specifically, it’s the show Entourage. My name says it all. I am Johnnie Drama.
If you don’t know who he is I will explain. My name is Nick. I am your average guy just living the dream. I work full-time, and take classes part-time. I’m 23 now, but when I was a young man of just 21, I thought I was a hot shot ready to take the world by storm. Little did I know that I wasn’t actually going to graduate. While I was too hung up on my own self, I forgot to check how many credits I needed to graduate. Well, it turns out that I was 4 CREDITS SHORT…. Ugh…. Well I had gotten a job in the meantime, and decided to work for a while and then finish off those pesky classes later. I worked for a year as a salesman for Nascar. Then I moved down to Florida (from Massachusetts) during the Winter months to escape the cold. It was fun, but the bills kept piling on…
Long story short, here I am now: 23 years old, living at home, working a comfortable nine-to-five, taking my last course for my bachelor’s degree. What’s that you say? What’s my major? Well I am a business management major in the Isenberg School of Management at the fine University of Massachusetts located in the lovely town of Amherst. Why is a management major taking a Comm class? Well how are you supposed to manage those employees if you cannot communicate with them? I have had my fair share of supervisors that approach it the wrong way, and I don’t want to be one of them – I want to learn the best methods of managing via communicating.
Wednesday July 16, 2008 at 6:46 pm
I know my timing on this 1st assignment might stereotype me as the student that waits until the last minute to do his work, and sometimes I am lol.
But regardless of when I hand it in, I still put fourth the effort.
The style of this class will be very different than other classes, even other online courses that I have taken. The power of this class rides on the discussions that we have, with very little direct interaction. I pledge to do my part to make it work.
On to me….. I am a senior from Cambridge, and I have spent all four years at Umass Amherst. I took a year off and became a carpenter, then I decided to return! I am currently an intern at an advertising production company in Boston. So far I am learning a lot, and hopefully there’s more learning to come!!!!
My Blog:
http://outerbodyboi.wordpress.com
Wednesday July 16, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Greetings all, my name is swabbies24 and I am an extra semester senior at UMass. I am taking this class to knock out three credits before I leave to take my last semester in Sydney, Australia so as to not have to take as many credits while I am abroad. I also took this class because I am an HTM major in the Isenberg SOM and Interpersonal Communication is extremely important in my everyday environment. Everything I do at work is people related and these skills can make the job more understandable in terms of deciphering what people are really trying to communicate to you. I was curious as to how the class would operate but now I am starting to catch on to the logistics of blogging and such. I am earning credits through a UMass internship program while in Sydney and though I will be working I will also be interpersonally communicating to people everyday. Although this is essentially the same job I have here at home (I live just south of Boston), it will be different to learn what people on the other side of the world value and how they communicate what is valuable to them, as opposed to what I have experienced here at home. I consider myself a “people person” which is a must in hospitality but a good understanding of peoples’ modes of communication is also key to succeeding in the industry. I hope this class will bring out some quality interpersonal communication in all of us through the magic and wonder of blogging!
My Blog
Wednesday July 16, 2008 at 7:45 pm
Hi, I was a senior at UMass last year, currently finishing up my last 3 credits. I was a legal Studies major and Education minor. I absolutely loved UMass and am so sad to be gone!
I decided to take Comm250 because I have taken other Communication classes, and I have always enjoyed them. It will be interesting taking this course online, as I am not very skilled with computers and their programs.
I am from Sharon, ma, but moved around alot throughout my childhood. I am around the Boston area right now, looking for work and enjoying summer.
Wednesday July 16, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Hi. I am bridgeofideas (you might understand why I picked that name at the end of the semester, but for now hang in there). My son was clear it was not an appropriate Blog name. Sorry.
This is my final course before I receive my bachelor’s degree in Business/Organizational Development and Organizing. The reason I took this course is because I have always been interested in communication. In my career I strive to be a good listener and to observe people’s body language because I feel strongly that is a language in itself!
During the course I hope to sharpen my skills and to able to learn strategies to improve my interpersonal communication ability. I also look forward to learning from everyone in the class and from their experiences.
http://bridgeofideas.wordpress.com/
Wednesday July 16, 2008 at 8:46 pm
Hi! I’m a senior at Umass studying wildlife conservation. My codename, ninjacook, refers to my current occupation as a cook and my interest in martial arts. I currently work making dough and pizza at bertucci’s restaurant and I am helping with some research with wolves at Umass over the summer. I also spend a lot of time making music and art. I was required to take this class for my major but I am interested in the topic because I have recently been trying to start a small online business. My blog is at http://ninjacook.wordpress.com/
Wednesday July 16, 2008 at 8:47 pm
Passing this class means I graduate college. It took a little longer than originally planned for me to finish but I’m finally on the last leg of the journey. I only have my 120 credit requirement to fulfill and I wanted my last class to have something to do with social science. The course description and some input from a friend who previously took the class was all it took to get me in this class. I don’t have any concrete career path in mind for after graduation, and that’s completely fine with me. Right now I am landscaping. I like the hard work and the days go by fast. I work with my younger brother too, its not a bad gig.
Wednesday July 16, 2008 at 11:10 pm
I’m almost finished with a double major in Biochemistry/Molecular Biology and Women’s Studies, and a minor in Sociology (with the Criminal Justice Certificate). What do I plan to do with these seemingly unrelated fields? Research and regional planning with transportation in mind as “both the problem and the solution” to climate change and energy crisis issues. Either that or improving Paratransit systems and increasing accessibility through planning and software development.
You’re probably asking yourself how I managed to find an interest in transportation from my majors. Unfortunately explaining more here would give away my anonymity due to work I’ve done on campus, so I’ll just leave it at the name of my first blog post, “I love buses!”. I find the fields in fact do overlap, especially with social impact and environmental issues. Part of my interest in this course is that I feel it continues to integrate my interests. Planning at any level requires strong communication skills, and with new methods of working together through telecommuting, “webinars”, virtual classrooms, and video conferencing, it seems like an on-line version of this class is extremely relevant. Communication technologies are also making the global workforce “smaller”, so it is important to communicate with people from different cultures and backgrounds. I feel that skills in interpersonal communication are constantly being expanded and developed for everyone, because we are constantly meeting new people with different experiences, and who may have communication patterns we have never experienced before!
By the way, I am not ShinyGinger. She is my 15 month old “pound puppy” mix. Her adopted name is Ginger, but she is so easily distracted that she has begun to recognize my nickname for her – Shiny. She will leave her dinner if she sees a frisbee, then drop the frisbee if she sees a butterfly…and so on. My attention span is not much better!
My blog post:
I love buses!
Friday July 18, 2008 at 6:15 am
Hello this is the first time I’ve taken an on line class for credit. Needless to say it’s a little intimidating-but I’m ready for the challenge!! I’m also taking COMM 287, Advertising as a Social Control on line as well these next six weeks. I am a UWW student and have been working part time on my BA for the past 4 years-slowly but surely I’m getting there. I intend to learn more effective ways to communicate with others in personal or professional relationships by taking this class. My hope is to gain some new perspectives on communication and take a look at my own strengths and weaknesses. I believe that in order to achieve optimal results you must be willing to make sacrifices and work hard towards your goals. That’s why I’m taking this class and it will be quite an adventure that I am looking forward to and feel privileged to have the opportunity to take these courses on line.
My blogpost is http://grant2u.wordpress.com/2008/07/14/the-exciting-world-of-grantwriting
Saturday July 19, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Hello everyone, I am saboy82 I chose this name because it kind of describes my life. This meaning I was born and raised in South Africa in the year 1982. I am a senior at UMASS Amherst majoring in Psychology. I decided to do this course because when I read the course description I thought it will be very interesting and useful for what ever career I decide go into. We are supposed to write about something we learnt, I personally feel the best way to learn is from first hand experience, check out my blog if you want to know what I am talking about.
Sunday July 20, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Hello, I’m a senior (by credits, technically my 5th year at UMass Amherst, but had a semester off) and I’m a Comm major, just looking to fill in some credits, I’m all done with my requirements and such, just need to finish everything else off . I’m an avid gamer, some of you may recognize my name, others will just be confused, it’s a catch phrase from the game Portal for the PC. I’m currently working nights at the Boston Post Office in an IT department (looks good on a resume I suppose), but makes life a little difficult to synchronize with all you daywalkers :P. I’m a big metal fan, and some of my favorite bands are local bands that I saw before they signed with labels. I like movies and music, and even more, I love the Patriots.
My Blog is http://ohnothecakeisalie.wordpress.com
Monday July 21, 2008 at 2:20 pm
I play basketball for Umass I just transferred here from Oregon state as you will find out if you read my blog page. I love basketball to death that’s all I ever want to do I spend most of my days in the gym getting up shots just trying to get better. I’m taking this class for my second because I got a D in it the first time for not going to class that’s why I’m taking online this time. But I enjoy this class and communication is my major.
Monday July 21, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Hello everyone, I will be known as Sports08. I guess it’s pretty self-explanatory as to why this is my name… I love sports. Anyways I am a senior at Umass Amherst, I am looking forward to my final year. Although the past three years went by far too fast. I wrote about my current internship at CBS, and what I have learned. I explained News Editing as my choice of what I have learned recently. I find that it is very interesting, considering it pertains to my career goal.
My blog is
http://sports08.wordpress.com/
Monday July 21, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Hi I will be a senior in the fall studying legal studies…This summer I am working in Ireland for a computer company. I am taking this class because I really need some extra credits this summer…Between trying to experience all of the pubs in Cork. Well that and get some real job experience. Legal studies is kind of open and does not have a lot of required classes so I have had a chance to take lots of different ones. I am trying to see as much of Europe as I can this summer hopefully I will learn something from this class to.
The blog is
topofthemorning.wordpress.com
Tuesday July 22, 2008 at 3:31 am
I must be the last one to work on this assignment. Unfortunately, I registered this class late and I am a little behind with assignments. It should take some time to catch up with class, but I will try to make that happens soon. Like many other classmates, I am also taking this class to fulfill my credits for graduation. I got little surprised after getting access to blackboard for this class. I have taken several online classes, but I thought this class is somewhat different. I think this class provides chances for me to interact with the other classmates like how it said on the course description. As many of people probably have noticed already while reading my post, I have some trouble with writing in English. I am trying hard to learn English but I still have problems with communicating in English since it is not my first language. This is my primary reason for taking this class. I want to learn how to communicate with the others better. Hopefully, this class will help me develop my communication skill.
My blog is
Tuesday July 22, 2008 at 3:33 am
I forgot to leave my web site address.
It’s http://ooloveshoo.wordpress.com/
Wednesday August 13, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Hey yall-
So obviously, I am behind in the class, as this is my first post and there are 9 days left of the course. I’d like to explain why I am so behind, as I have explained to Stephanie. Since this class is about communicating with one another, I think we all need to have at least a little understanding of who each student/teacher is. For my part, I am taking this class because I am in my last year of college and need to earn credits in order to graduate on time. I fell behind in credits for a few semesters due to some anxiety problems; thankfully, I am very healthy these days and so chose to take on this course for the summer. However, I fell very far behind because I am one of those students who completely underestimated how much time I would need to dedicate to the course; I have been holding down a summer job, but its not the usual 9-5 many college kids take on during summer breaks. Instead, I have been spending my summer working at the all-girls camp I have attended since age 11; this is my 11th summer there. Since we are essentially on duty 24-7, I found it very difficult to make the time for myself to get to the “internet café” without being utterly sleep-deprived. I also found out after registering for the course that I would hold a new position this year, the village head for the oldest group of girls, called Sunrise. This meant that instead of simply being responsible for my cabin (of twelve fourteen and fifteen year old girls) as well as my duties working on the waterfront, I was also in charge of the three cabins in the village, supervising the village staff and dealing with any issues that came up for the village or anyone in it. It has been my dream to be village head since I began working at camp when I was 15, so I was very excited about it; and since this job is not at all a job for me, but a way of life, and another home, I threw my whole self into being the very best counselor and village head I could be. Therefore, many things, including this course, took a backburner in my life.
Now, with nine days left of this course and camp now over, I find myself struggling; I want very much to pass this class, not simply for the credits but because I do truly want to learn formally about communication. I think, though, that it is possibly one of the hardest subjects to teach and learn in an online setting, as in Steph’s post, we will not be interacting on a very personal level. Each of us experiences interpersonal communication every day, but what we learn from it and take away from it depends on how aware we are of our communication style.
So what I would like to propose is this: I would love to share my experience as a camp counselor and village head, in regards to communication, with all of you. I know that those of you who have actually stuck with this course the whole way threw are probably resentful of me, asking you to forgive me for slacking so hard-core. I have always hated group projects because of the people who never pulled their weight, and this course, I think is like a giant group project – that all of you have had to pull that much harder because I dropped the ball. I apologize sincerely that I was “that kid” and didn’t do what was necessary, and so I would like the chance to make it up to you. I return to camp each year for many reasons, one of the most important being that I always learn something new about myself; this year, ironically, I truly believe that I became a much better communicator than I have ever been, which will help me help others understand me better, help me resolve conflicts, and to express myself in ways I have not been able to in the past.
If you do not feel comfortable with this, please say so – we are trying to effectively communicate, afterall. If you feel that this is acceptable, again, please let me know; it is important not just to me, but to the whole of the class, that each member of the class is well-represented and understood.
I hope that all is well with each of you, and that your summers have been just as amazing, inspiring, and heart-warming as mine has. In peace,
SunriseUp02
Saturday August 16, 2008 at 2:32 pm
[…] the reasons to take this class, or the places they lived. For my introduction I, <a href=” https://aplaceinspace.wordpress.com/2008/06/03/interpersonal-what/#comment-1242 ” >ooloveshoo</a>, was not afraid to show my weakness to the rest of the class who does […]
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