Reflections on past presentation

    Over the course of the last few weeks, we’ve gotten the opportunity to all work together and watch each other present as teams. As class leaders, Ian and I had the privilege of being involved in each of the three individual groups allowing us to work with the entire class. The groups consisted of about 10-13 people each, all with different approaches and ideas. Group 1 was in charge of giving a presentation on “Intercultural Communication” found in chapter 3. Group 2’s topic was “Communication In Groups” found in chapter 9. Lastly group 3 was in charge of presenting “Group Leadership and Problem Solving” found in chapter 10. As class leaders, we were able to watch on the sidelines as each group brainstormed and created the amazing presentations we had the honor to watch. 

The first group to present was group 1 giving an amazing presentation on intercultural communication. My favorite thing about this group is that the morning of their presentation they all logged on to a zoom meeting 30 minutes prior to class and rehearsed their presentation, allowing every member to get a feel for how long their individual presentation should be. It also allowed the group leaders to get an idea of what the beginning of their presentation would look like, allowing us to edit our introduction to perfectly fit their presentation. When the time finally came to present in class, they were flawless! Their presentation was vibrant, beautiful, and effortless. The first slide of the presentation had a beautiful introduction picture along with the title. On the top of almost every slide, the individuals in the group who worked on the slides put their names which made it easy to identify and appreciate who did what work. We start off with Alexander and Amarah’s slides on culture. Culture is explained as the system of shared values, belief, attitudes and norms that guide what is considered appropriate among an identifiable group of people. Art, language, artifacts, and religion can also be considered a part of culture. They included an array of beautiful pictures and a very informative video. They move on to cultural values, which are explained as the core principles or ideals that an entire community or society is based around. They list a few examples of cultural values and then highlighted the two kinds of values held by culture being ideal values and real values. Their last slide is centered around the explanation of intercultural communication and culture shock. Culture shock is described as the feeling of disorientation experienced by someone who is suddenly subjected to an unfamiliar culture, way of life, or set of attitudes. They attached a great video on 5 tips on how to deal with cultural shock. The next slides discuss different types of cultures, cultural identity, and code switching along with a few ted talk videos. Annabella’s slide on sex gender and sexual orientation were vibrant and informational, she included wonderful images. Her following slide was equally as wonderful, discussing race vs. ethnicity, and religion.

The few following slides all discussed how cultures differ and competent communication strategies. All in all, I really enjoyed group 1’s presentation. 

The second group to present was group 2, who gave the presentation on communication in groups found in chapter 9. The presentation was beautiful, aesthetically pleasing, and color coordinated! It was so cute. They start off by highlighting the different sections of the chapter which really help with visual organization. The chapter sections were split up as:

9-1: Identify different types of groups

9-2: Describe the characteristics of healthy groups

9-3: Explain the stages through which groups develop

9-4: Employ strategies to manage group conflict effectively.

The presentation begins with the nature and types of groups explained. Groups are described as a gathering of 3 to 20 people that interact with each other in many different ways to suggest ideas and opinions in order to achieve a similar purpose. The following slide is a simple explanation of what families are along with a video on the different types of families. None of the slides had the names of which individuals worked on what, which made it a little different to start identifying our classmates' work style. The following slides were on social groups, support groups, and interest groups. The slide following that is the one that caught my attention. It was a slide based on service groups which are described as a group of people who work side by side to conduct charitable work or to raise money to donate to charities or specific organizations, along with a list of some organizations. They included title pages to separate each section throughout the presentation, which like I mentioned earlier really kept everything very organized and easy on the eyes. The rest of the presentation had beautiful pictures that went perfectly with the material on the slides. The section I found the most interesting in this presentation was section 9-4 conflicts in groups. The slide explains groups that experience conflict but fail to fix the problem effectively are likely to never achieve their goals. Conflict can be aimed towards other members of the group or their ideas. The presentation ends with different types of conflicts. 

The final presentation was given by group 3 who presented on group leadership and problem solving which is found in chapter 10. The presentation starts off with Jessica’s slides on leadership which is explained as someone who takes charge and influences a group to achieve their goal, along with two different examples on leadership along with the definitions. The following slide was on task roles, maintenance roles, and procedural roles by Joel. Justin's slides included five key leadership responsibilities along with a youtube video link. The following slides were interesting because they touched base on how to ensure your meetings are effective. They included having an agenda, planning attendance, preparation, what to do during the meeting and after the meeting. The rest of their presentation discussed solutions to communicating in groups. These presentations were a wonderful opportunity to learn in a nonconventional way and I can’t wait till the next one!