Hey everyone:
Had a random idea the other day. Is there some way in 3068 that we can get students to ‘experience’ being a manager? Some way to design some ongoing project where students work in groups and rotate being ‘formally’ charged with leading the group? Then, we can use the course content to help them reflect on their own behavior? I have students work in paper/presentation groups now, but there isn’t some type of self-reflection in the process. I was thinking though of some other type of experience where peer feedback sessions integrating course readings might be brought in. The reflection can be about an individuals managerial communication behaviors but also the organizing process and communication more broadly.
As you can tell, i don’t have any specifics, but it came to me while i was reading ‘The Last Lectures’ – a book by a computer science prof about his teaching/life experiences. Might be something to play with Suzanne this fall?
ok, more later . . . c
This is a very interesting idea. Would the students be working on a project outside the classroom, maybe a volunteer project?
And would they make their own assessment/ peer review?
These are good questions about the ‘form’ the projects might take – i’m not sure. They’d have to be manageable and, I think, related to the kinds of work our students might do when they graduate. But, yes, the key would be to make them ‘real’ and sufficiently complex enough to allow students to offer peer review of their behaviors. Suzanne, I know you did the ‘training project’ at one time. We could also have students simply give peer feedback, regardless of the project they do in class.
Let’s keep brainstorming . . . On the road this week, but let’s keep thinking . . .
Linda –
Thanks for your message. I do agree that case studies do indeed provide a certain type of experiential learning. They are excellent resources and I think you use them in a very effective manner.
I guess I was thinking of something more physically or actively experiential, rather than cognitively. In other words, not having students ‘read’ bout a situation and then discuss, but rather ‘do’ something, produce something through organizing and then reflect on their communicative behaviors.
This is not to say that students can’t be put in case study groups having to produce a ‘report’ or some other case study-related outcome and then give each other feedback on how they interacted in the group. This is certainly one option.
Let me try to go further: for example (not that i want to get this elaborate:), i’ve seen classes which take on community and/or college ‘consulting projects’ to do during the semester. the whole class operates as an organization. that is, there is a president, VP, etc. and students must give each other structured feedback along the way. i don’t want to get this elaborate as i think this is a different class than we’re trying to develop with 3068 (i think;) . . .
but, maybe there’s some way to do small scale projects or some type of ‘work’ that will allow them to do peer reviewing in a more in-depth manner than ‘who did most of the writing’ for the group paper. Does that make sense?
And/or maybe as we’ve been talking about 3068, this isn’t the right place for more ‘practice’ — other classes do this better . . .
I just wanted to toss the idea out there – not that we need to do anything with this.
Linda, is there some way that student-to-student managerial communication feedback is exchanged in your class?
thanks for listening . . .