[nabs-l] group projects issues

Sun Feb 3 15:42:27 UTC 2013

Good morning,
Ashley,

Best way I found to "educate" is to demonstrate 
just what we are capable of, through sheer doing, 
and attitude. Sounds to me like you got a bit of 
a chip on your shoulder and, I imagine that's why 
building bridges linking you, and your peers 
doesn't seem to come naturally. What do you think?
A suggestion would be to just act naturally, 
letting them come to you, asking to be grouped 
with you. It is true it doesn't happen 
immediately, like everything, it does take some 
doing. Don't be afraid of that doing.
Car, you wrote:
>Ari, Thanks; great points. at work we will know 
>each other and be a cohesive team, not strangers 
>put together for a 16 week term to learn a 
>subject. I talk to students around me; sometimes 
>it helps, but sometimes it doesn't help me get 
>included in a group discussion. I will have to 
>ask the professor to assist me in finding a 
>group to work with. Additionally, she has group 
>discussions most class periods and then asks 
>each group leader to speak to the class as to 
>what they answered. Often I enjoy group 
>discussions; but this time itâ€™s a bit 
>frustrating. Why? Because, I have to find a 
>group and ask neighbors. I  am put in the 
>position to ask, Amy, Susie, can I join your 
>group? This means I have to usually interrupt 
>them since they're already looking at each other 
>and/or getting started. Also, itâ€™s a crowded 
>room and I find the noise level too much. I 
>cannot get a sense of who said what in the group 
>or even what question we're on. I'll explain 
>what we do. The professor gives us like four or 
>five questions. She says get in groups of about 
>five people. One student is the scribe. He/she 
>is responsible for writing down the answers to 
>questions. He/she also will place everyone's 
>name on the paper so we all get class 
>participation credit. Finally, after we discuss 
>as a class, the scribe hands in the completed 
>copy to the professor. One student is the 
>spokesperson for each small group. So when we 
>discuss as a class, there are five or six people 
>speaking and she goes around the room 
>systematically. Sometimes she asks for 
>volunteers as well; so then a group member calls 
>out and shares their stuff. For the group 
>project, I am not looking forward to it. It is 
>an assignment where we have to make a skit for a 
>mock tv program illustrating sociological 
>concepts. Well, I have no clue where to even 
>begin. I do not watch much tv; and certainly not 
>reality tv shows! As to the other suggestions, I 
>did those. Kaiti, I do ask students around me, 
>but as I said before, they are already paired in 
>groups for the project. Brandon, asking students 
>around you does not always work if they already 
>know who they want to work with. They might even 
>recognize people from another class, in this 
>case sociology 201. I don't know who is sitting 
>by me all the time; it changes from time to 
>time. I cannot link voices to names as I do not 
>hear them often! I don't have the  benefit of 
>recognizing people by face. As for educating and 
>interacting with people outside class, um forget 
>it! People don't interact much outside classes. 
>I'm there as continuing education while I look 
>for work. These additional courses such as 
>business writing, intro to business and 
>technical editing will boost my resume as a way 
>to demonstrate I studied writing. It also shows 
>I'm a good writer from writing samples and 
>professor recommendations. I know itâ€™s a 
>commuter community college;  no sense of 
>community. I tried and tried to form study 
>groups to no avail;; only in one class did I get 
>a study partner and that was cause I asked him. 
>we chatted before class and he seemed mature and 
>friendly. Frankly, I go to school to study and 
>learn, not to be a ambassador for the legally 
>blind community. If I wanted to educate my whole 
>life, I'd work for a blindness agency doing 
>outreach work or something of that nature. I 
>will answer questions about blindness or braille 
>or whatever if they ask. But I want to be myself 
>and talk about lots of other things besides 
>visual impairment. I have a lot of other 
>opinions and things to share about me than the 
>characteristic of partial vision. So, I do not 
>buy this line that if we go out and educate 
>people that they will accept us. If people get 
>to know me, they will accept me for who I am 
>including my personality, values, and me being 
>legally blind. I don't make a big deal about 
>being almost blind. Besides students simply 
>study there and leave for home; very little time 
>to interact outside class unless you are in a 
>club. Thanks for  the thoughts and I'll work on 
>getting a group to be in next class. Ashley 
>-----Original Message----- From: Ari Damoulakis 
>Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2013 1:17 AM To: 
>National Association of Blind Students mailing 
>list Subject: Re: [nabs-l] group projects issues 
>Hi Ashley I couldn't agree with you more on 
>group projects and the issues people have with 
>them. There are many blindness-type related 
>issues. Like you, when it comes to being an 
>individual and participating in class, I do 
>participate and get complemented, but their are 
>many blind issues with group projects that I can 
>think of. The first issue is when group projects 
>are announced. Lecture rooms are so huge and so 
>many people are in the classes that the first 
>problem is finding the people you know from that 
>class. What normally happens with me is that 
>because obviously you can't look and find your 
>friends in class, you generally have to wait 
>after class to SMS them to see if they have a 
>group and whether their group has room etc. If 
>it is a class where you don't really know 
>anyone, I think your idea is right, just find 
>people nearer to you and try ask if you can 
>join. The next problem you then have is if you 
>actually do do that, because most of the time, 
>even though they know you might be smart in the 
>real class, somehow many people when having to 
>try actually talk to and interact with a blind 
>person somehow has a problem. When your group 
>members are discussing what tasks everyone 
>should be doing you have to ask one of them 
>"what would you like me to do?" or say "I can do 
>x or y." If you don't you stand the risk that 
>they just ignore you. It is interesting to see 
>that your group members interact virtually. 
>Mostly whenever I've done these things we meet 
>somewhere to discuss. You are right that most 
>times people don't do things and so on, but to 
>be really honest with you when it comes to group 
>work at university I wouldn't really be too 
>worried because this is probably not how things 
>will work in later life. I'm not talking about 
>the people doing nothing etc, I'm rather talking 
>about when you get a job. If you get a job and 
>have to work together as a group you probably 
>won't have to worry too much because you'd be 
>working with people you would work with 
>everyday, and they would over time become used 
>to seeing you as being a capable person, 
>therefore if you have group projects in the work 
>place they'd help you more. With university you 
>probably just meet people and work with them 
>once-off, so don't be too worried. Lecturers 
>probably can also see who worked in the group 
>and who didn't, but I also don't think they take 
>group assignments as seriously as individual 
>ones, because intelligent lecturers are not 
>blind to the problems that university group 
>assignments entail, I'm not talking about 
>specifically blind here, but sighted people in 
>the group have many of these problems as well, 
>such as others not doing work etc. For group the 
>advice I can try give you is don't overstress 
>yourself, just relax and do the best you can, 
>because luckily in the real world the university 
>form of a group assignment where noone knows 
>anyone else will probably not be bothering you 
>much. Ari 
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