As the blogging sessions of a BlogHog come to a close, I just want to say thanks to my group members for being great team mates for this wild rollercoaster through Com320. What a great time we had together: laughing, joking, emailing, frustration, and even helping Natalie. It was a wonderful time for me and I learned a lot about myself. As a result of this class, I believe my role as a group member has definitely changed. My organizational skills have led me in the past to have roles such as note taker. All roles are important:

While notetaking is an important role, it is a much quieter role. I think this is partly due to my introvert personality and indecisiveness. I have definitely grown as an individual and am becoming more of an extrovert. As a result, I am taking on roles such as project manager and many of my semester projects.

Pictures from Puppies and Puppy Chow:




And a video from the event: 

 Aren't these cute dogs? Natalie had 6 dogs, and some of them looked like this :)

Our service learning project went very well. We had six lovable cute dogs to be played with 130 Purdue students. To pinpoint the one major obstacle that we overcame to make this group project successful would have to be the misunderstanding of others. One important aspect that was a misinterpretation throughout the planning of our service learning project was non-verbal communication. As discussed in Wednesday's class, a key element to enhancing group communication skills is to adequately assess all of the non-verbals. Through emails, blogging, social media updates, and phone conversations, non-verbal communication cannot take place. I believe non-verbal communication helps express feelings, values, and beliefs. Without knowing these elements, communication can be difficult.

 In order to get in contact with Natalie, Sam primarily texted her, as this was her choice of contact. In addition, in order to put on this event through Windsor Residence Hall, the RA's had to "sponsor" us. The primary form of communication between the RA's and I as email. I think location confusion as well as other important details could have been clarified with face interaction. The problem is everyone has hectic schedules and coordinating six or more people to gather in one place is very difficult and often impossible. What better way than to use technology innovations for interaction. But wait, that brings us back to our first concern: lack of face interaction. As a student in Computer Technology, I think our goal should be to incorporate technology, while still using face interaction. This is starting to be implemented with Skype. In time, voice and face recorded emails and voicemails will be implemented.


A Wrap-up

1. Non-Verbal Communication and  Face Interaction is Important

2. Our Service Learning Project Went Well

3. Group Roles Change between Groups and with Time

*Everyone must do their equally important part(depicted by a colored puzzle piece) which will be different for each project or group

-Amy Lohrman