Put-Put golf is one of our planned events at Fall Family Fun Night.
We think the children will really enjoy this game.
In nearing our event, which will take place Friday, Oct. 10 from 630 to 8 p.m. at Madison Elementary School in Winona, Minn., we have compiled a list of events in which the children at Madison Fall Fun Night will take part in:
• Put, Put Golf
• Mini-Basketball Shoot Out
• Dessert Walk
• Fishing Game
• Sucker Prize Tree
• Bracelet and Necklace Making
• Face Painting
• Bozo Bucket Game
• Pumpkin Painting
• Prize Bag Creation
• Football Toss
• Limbo
We tried to give a vast amount of activities for everyone to do and have fun with, since it is a family night; however, we didn’t aim for the games to be gender specific—we wanted everyone to be able to take part in everything and not feel that it was a “boys” or “girls” thing to do. Also, we have gotten prizes for the children’s games, so that when they play, the will get something for playing. We are also busy getting supplies for it too, like face paint and bags and decorations so they can put their prizes in a bag.
Our viewpoints on communication ethics and diversity have changed since the beginning of this project because we have not only had more interaction with one another in trying to create activities for everyone, as well as communication between each one of us. We’re all very different people with very different opinions and have had to come together to accomplish piecing together this fun night so the other group we are working with just has to think about the night of the event—we’re the ones doing all the preparation and the other group is hosting the event. We’ve realized the relationship between and diversity has changed because we now see children are very diverse and will act differently. We needed to create many different activities for them; since they are not alike they will all want different activities. By learning different theories, our ideas on how to communicate may have not changed, but the way we think about other people’s communication and its effect on others have changed we believe.
This picture shows a group working on a project.
This group shows effective communication skills.
As far as the more recent approaches to communication ethics we have studied, we feel that all three aspects have affected our approach to communicate in such a diversity society and aspect as far as this project is concerned. Discourse ethics, as touched in the chapter on duties, speaks of norms (rules agreed upon by society); which we all use day in and day out to get through certain situations, such as deciding on appropriate activities based upon age groups and parental consent. Consequences, as mentioned through the term utilitarianism and having to find the greatest good for the greatest number of people, have affected our decisions as we have had to think of how to go about the activities so the children (and their families) will want to keep playing and not get bored with what we have to offer. Relationships are also important to approaching certain ethical standpoints. By learning the difference between I-Thou and I- It relationships, with I-Thou having a desire to be attentive to and present for each other and I-It involving not fully listening to what another has to say because of focusing on one’s own thoughts and feelings; relationships could be made better by trying to understand and enact on the I-Thou more. The children will want to have relationships with not only us, but also their peers and families, so we want to make sure everything is appropriate, everyone has a very good time, and give us the chance to be a good role models when communicating with them by really listening to what they have to say.
These are a couple links to help understand I-Thou relationships and ethical communications a bit better.
Also, the pictures shown above (1) represent a game to be played at Fall Fun Night and (2) a group communicating with one another... two very key pictures to give a visual understand to what we have been talking about in the blog above.
http://www.shanemjones.com/I-ThouRelationships.html
http://www.globalethics.org/
11 comments:
As with the first blog, there is an obvious connection with communication ethics and diversity. In chapter 5 we learned about I-It and I-Thou relationships and dialogic ethics. Dialogic ethics is, a system in which ethics can be judged by the attitudes and behaviors demonstrated by each participant in a communication transaction. Dialogic ethics are an interesting part of communication ethics. By understanding how other cultures or ethic groups interact and feel about dialogic ethics, can help us better understand other people perspectives on communication. I-Thou relationships, a desire to be attentive to and present for each other, are important to communication ethics. These relationships make our lives richer and happier. I-It relationships are also important to understand. As a cashier at K-Mart, I understand I-It relationships, a costumer comes to my check out lane and we talk small take, weather, sports, or about the products. These I-It relationships might not seem as important as I-Thou but they help us get through the day.
Communication ethics and diversity are very much related. As stated in the first blog, ethics is a method for making judgments concerning voluntary actions of people. Diversity then is how people interact with the world around us. So overall they go together since we make decisions based on the people around us and how we are being able to communicate with the. One term that I think describes communication ethics and diversity would be ethic of care. Ethic of care by our book says it stresses relationships, nurturance and actual human circumstances in a person. Ethic of care relates to our project since diversity and ethics is all about how we interact with one another. Another term that I think fits very well, is situational ethics. Since situational ethics is about doing the right thing and what feels right. So with this project we have to agree with one another, and also we hope the kids too will also be able to do that. That if they feel something is wrong they will come and say something before they go and try to correct it themselves. Although when thinking about our project I think that totalizing narratives goes with this too. Since it says to avoid generalizations, when working on this project we have to be very open minded. We all have to listen to everyone’s opinions even if we may not like what they have to say. Also it works with the kids too; we don’t want the children to be judging each other. We want them to have fun and be themselves just so we can watch them and see how they interact with one another.
Using more of an individualistic point of view, I feel there are a couple key terms that relate to the communication process and efforts we’ve put into the creation of this fun night, speaking in both ethical terms with diversity in mind. I believe objectivism, meaning people should not sacrifice themselves for others nor expect others to sacrifice for them, is an important term in the progression of the fun night. We all focused on getting our hours in time for the event and did not rely on one another for help when it came to accomplishing our goal. If it weren’t for our group meetings, we may not have talked to one another at all- so in that sense, objectivism may not be the best way to accomplish a goal brought on by a group effort. Different attitudes and behaviors that each of us brought to group meetings, whether it be good humor or distress of having too much to do in too little time, all have to deal with dialogic ethics and attitudes and behaviors demonstrated by each participant in the group. The fact that we all live very different lives and have many other things going on in life reflects in how we could possibly show up at our group meetings. Finally, I feel ethics of care relates a lot to my thinking on the whole group process. While I am an opinionated person and have a mind-set to get things accomplished ahead of time and to its full potential, I also feel it important to see that my group members are happy with me, and the progress being made within the group. So in that being said, a lot of my personal insights have to deal with attitudes of our group and how it can affect our progress in our project.
Beyond the obvious applied diversity with regards to the kids and their varying backgrounds, I've recently come to realize the diversity within our own group. By an interesting stroke of chance, our group ended up with some of the most varied personality types and backgrounds I've ever worked with. To a certain extent, it requires a great deal of objectives for our group to properly function, but also requiring a sense of camaraderie to keep each other positive and productive. I've also noticed that originally I took a very I-it view with my group, which I would assume would be expected from a group of people who don't know each other at all. As time goes on, however, as I come to better understand the personalities and see a glance into the lives of group members, I begin to better understand them and how they act, and my view and communication shift to more of an I-thou.
As for the project itself, as we plan for the night, I think to a certain extent it could be said we're looking at it from an ethics of care standpoint. It's a bit of a stretch, since we're not hitting any major ethical dilemmas, but we are considering what will be most fun and enjoyable for the children... which to me at least appears to be an ethics of care attitude.
Drat... that should read "objectiveness." I must have mispelled it and then too quickly accepted the wrong one. :x
As time goes on, and the class moves forward I realize more and more how much communication ethics and diversity are related. I always thought that diversity was just about different races and religions and that was it. But ageism is something that I now have a much better understanding of. I never realized how much employers and even people in general consider age a diversity issue. I think speaking in general things would be much smoother if people remained objective. If we all have an open mind and keep the mentality that we can learn from others, and those that are different from us can make us more well rounded and create different learning experiences. I also learned a lot from the concept of I-It and I-Thou relationships especially in “the island” exercise. I found it very interesting that at first glance I can read something and come to a quick conclusion about the characters relationships but once I heard the opinions of my classmates and further analyzed the situation, in this case at least my mind ended up doing almost a 180. I realized that it is important to really think about people’s objectives in comparison to your own and try and find common ground.
Okay so I was signed into a different gmail account in a firefox tab when I first posted my individual response so it showed up as "Justin" (it was actually Quietdrive's street team website and Justin, the guitarist, created the account). So I just wanted to say that I apologize for the confusion and that the post was by me. I'm not sure if/how to delete it.
Blog 2 Response
By Brianna Krusmark
Your group has put a lot of planning into this blog and event. From what it sounds like even when you said that it was hard to communicate within your group and also the other group you were working with I think you guys have done a very nice job at that. Also, when thinking about what you all thought would be write for the children at the event was nice. You wanted to keep them in mind and think of all the activities they would like to do so they wouldn't be bored at the event. Looking at your list of activities they all look like so much fun. I am sure the children will have fun and I can't wait for find out how your event went.
I believe your group used the right terms for this blog. I thought your duties term; discourse ethics, was appropriate because you needed a set of rule that would agree upon society. You needed to think not only about your group but also the what would be appropriate for then children to stand by and their parents to agree with without offending anyone. When your group decided on the consequence term; utilitarianism, to find the greatest good for the greatest number was perfect because your going to be having a ton of children at this event and your group needed to find what would be right for all of them. The relationships that you build along the way are good as well. Your group has an I-Thou relationship going with the other group your working with and also with the children at this event because your making the effort to get close with the children and their families and build bond of trust together. While on the other hand when your group with working with the other group you both have to have an open and honest relationship with each other saying what you guys feel will be best for this event showing one another that you are building an I-Thou relationship with one another.
Blog #2
Jourdan Togstad- Response #1
This blog entry looks well polished, nice work. Discourse ethics and norms seem like an appropriate term for describing this event, especially when you talked about taking into consideration age differences and differences among parents. I think that with the way you talked about creating games that we gender neutral, you could have talked more about the rules created by society for children based on whether they are a boy or girl and what that means for activities. Although you did not discuss it directly, it is clear that you understand the norms of gender and how that might affect what games children would want to or be expected to play.
Also, using Buber’s I-thou, I-it differences, you did a good job analyzing the different ways kids might go about building relationships, or what they want out of the event. You could have also expanded and talked about the ways in which this has affected your group communication. I say this because you could easily connect it back to the beginning of your blog when you said you have learned a lot about each other and your differences.
It would be interesting if you had developmental information about the diverse age groups that would be there, maybe a link to a chart about differences in ages. Also information on ways gender or age norms develop would be helpful, because it would impact the choices you make for activities. Another place of difference that relates to age development is the ease in which kids do large motor skill activities or small motor skill activities. Your activities do appear to cover a variety of motor skill abilities, so I wonder if you did research or had experience on these developmental differences.
(1) I believe that your group did a good job of picking out what terms to use from the chapters we have recently covered to go along with your project. The term that I thought went along best with your topic was discourse ethics. Since your project fun day revolved around the people in society and the duties and norms; rules that are agreed upon by everyone. So fitting this term in with the planning of the events that you guys were going to put on was a good term to use. Utilitarianism was also a good term to relate to your project, because in an event like the one you guys were putting together you always have to think and do what is best for the greatest amount of people. I also like how you guys described the relationship that you had to have as an I-Thou relationship, because when I read through your blog that is exactly the type of relationship I had imagined you would have to use.
(5) In the blog there was a section where you guys talked about the amount of activities you had to plan for and how you strived for them not to be gender specific, which I believe was a good idea. However, I was curious if you guys had also though about the ages of the kids as well. Like gender you want to be able to cater to all age groups that would be attending the event as well. I didn’t see anything about that anywhere, so if it was not something you guys though of, I think it would have been beneficial to do that.
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