Survivor: A Second Look

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The story continues to be as dramatic as can be considering we have a group of people on a island being followed around by a camera crew. We find out that for the first time someone has been kicked off the show, and it is one of the twin sisters. It is an interesting thing to watch the communication between the twins and it made me wonder of what will go on with the remaining twin through out the show.

We then watch another separation among the couples when John is sent to exile island and leaves his girlfriend behind.  This seems to be the most interesting theme in the show that with every person who is kicked off, their close partner remains. The comings and goings and the character development is just beginning so it is a bit much to keep track of, however i imagine as the people are voted off the island it will become easier.

The first need we see of the characters related to the book is the need for affection. It seems that the smart players are using this more than anyone. They give people false affection in order to play the game. We also see a need for control from the stronger personalities on the island. While this is beneficial up until now, i could see that when the Hanapu tribe loses a challenge (and they will), it could become a issue among the group.

We also get to see the different roles of the people in groups, some being very group oriented and the others being more self centered. While they all would like to take home the initial prize, i believe we are just beginning to see the strategy of all the different characters.

Hello world!

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Welcome to the wonderful world of Mrs. Barba! Join me and my adventures in the classroom, and let’s learn together!

Episode 2

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Episode two of Blood vs. Water is the first time that we see the tribes begin to create personal bonds within their tribes and group membership can be observed. Member roles started to appear in both tribes. On the blue team Drew and Jon started to act like the recognition seekers of the tribe, always bragging and showing off. Missy, who is competing against her daughter in the game, has become the encourager-supporter taking on her motherly instincts to calm down Natalie after her sister got voted off the island.

The blue tribe continued to dominate the challenges and the yellow team ended up sending another group member home due to lack of organization and membership roles. The membership roles aren’t very clear in the yellow team, but Josh is a hot commodity that both the men and women want on their side when it comes to voting someone off. I think that the subgroup in the yellow team, which is divided by gender, is really what is hurting them. They all need to bond together and create bonds regardless of gender. During the immunity challenge quite a few loved ones went up against their other half, and the yellow team lost every time but once. This was poor strategy and if they had a group member who was a coordinator then they could of organized them in a better fashion.

Overall I think it is still too soon for group membership to be completely clear in the two teams, they have only been together for a number of days, and the dynamic is about to change because of Val being voted off and Jeremy will now try to get Julie voted off and fight harder against John Rocker for not protecting his wife like they agreed to do while they were on exile island.

Survivor Blog#2

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After watching the third episode of survivor, I noticed different types of member roles  in the two groups.  Hunahpu won all of the challenges leaving the Coyopa tribe the burden of deciding who to vote out of their tribe. So far, Nadiya, Val, and Jon got voted off the Island.

Following Benne and Sheats functional group roles, I was able to distinguish the different member roles each individual from the tribes portrayed. A few members seemed to play a self-centered role while the other members demonstrated maintenance roles.  The first role that caught my eye was the “deserter,” from the self-centered role section in the text. Drew, from the Hunahpu tribe, showed signs of being the deserter by getting frustrated about braiding the palm leaves that was supposed to help with ensuring  that the rain wont seep through the roofing. He then stopped contributing by taking a nap while the rest of the group members continued to do the work. Because of this, he failed to pull his own weight in the group.

Keith was portrayed as having task roles when he was sent to exile island. To me, Keith seemed to be the information giver and coordinator because right away he suggested eating snails that was easy to retrieve. Baylor however,  was the special interest pleader because knowing  that there was a good chance she would be voted off, she tried encouraging all of the tribe members to vote John off the island and laid out several reasons why he should go home. Everyone in the Coyopa tribe  was seen as opinion givers and seekers by giving their notion on who to send home.

Dale, from the Coyopa tribe was the encourager/supporter by motivating each contender from his tribe as he sat by the sidelines while they were competing against the Hanupu tribe. By doing so, this helped promote confidence within his group to succeed. Even though, the Coyopa tribe did not win, hopefully we can see Dale’s motivation towards his tribe payoff in the next episode.

 

FIT Studio Open House: Join Us!

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CSUCI is proud to announce the grand opening of our Faculty Innovations in Teaching (FIT) Studio.  The FIT Studio is for faculty to record instructional videos using cutting-edge, professional technologies; learn how to develop high quality instructional video content; and meet with colleagues in our comfortable faculty lounge area. Join us for the FIT Studio Open […]

To include or John-seclude ?

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During this episode of Survivor it was a lot of turmoil. And a lot of group members trying to figure out how to the group work of how to be successful in the game. With having this to work with such different type member in a group like survivor will kinda force individuals to make roles and to have different wants. A lot of the episode lead to John Rocker going through the different needs and roles or a group member. Shutz’s theories on interpersonal needs showed that a lot of the group members want to be able feel inclusion, control and affection.

The beginning of the episode starts off pretty heated. The tribes come back together and are together for next challenge and Jeremy finds out that his wife was the last one voted off the islands. From a viewers standpoint you could tell from then on Jeremy said its one for getting John out of the show for not protecting his wife. Jeremy begins using the methods of FIRO needs to get his group members on his side and to be able to communicate better and also manipulate them to get what he wants.

Baylor had the need for inclusion when she went to go ally the guy members in her tribe to persuade them to break them deals and form and alliance with the girls so that would all be involved. It was also her showing her need for affection and control because she wants to be liked by all but also to control more of her fate on Survivor.

Survivor got real heated when Jeremy shed the light on John and his past and then all of the different members of all the tribes started to judge him for his past. All of the members of survivor need to know some  the skills with communicating to an apprehensive member. Instead of hearing John out they assumed he was a racist homosexual bigot which he could be. They could have made John feel included and not alone. They could have been more well prepared at their survivor tribal council so that they did not vote him out. They showed all of their hostility and so their communication skills could have been worked on especailly since the have never won an immunity challenge. They also forgot to visualize the end of winning and voted secluded then voted out one of the strongest members of their team.  Poor John!

 

Episode 2

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With episode 2 i believe that members of both tribes began to form their own personal bonds as well as attitudes toward each other. In hunnahpu the girls began to dislike some of the male members of the tribe such as Jon & Jeremy (might be different names, cant remember) Also, conflict erupted when Jon lost the flint which caused some tension and disappointment aimed at him. From the last episode, Natalie’s sister was voted off, emotions stirred and she was even brought to tears because she felt as though she was nothing without her sister, so her strength is now questionable whether she will strive in the competition or fall back.

The next challenge was for fishing gear- jon vs. julie
Julie won the reward while her bf and Jeremy went to exile island.Gossip stirred within the coyopa group about jon and how he is known as a racist and homophobe. With Jeremy and Jon together, Jeremy usually would want to keep his distance but with the sake of his wife they come together to save their girlfriend and wife from elimination.
Jon thinks it is his fault that the group had to bargain with the host to trade beans for a flint when ultimately hey had to trade their whole fishing gear for a flint.
They all agreed a fire would be more important than diving for fish.

With the next immunity challenge tribes worked together and encouraged each other to beat the other opponent. Women against women and men against men including loved ones against theirs. Strength was measured especially with Baylor and her mom, when they battled, Baylor’s lip split which i thought she was going to back out but she came back full force and beat her mom. Hunahpu won the challenge continues to strive while coyopa stays behind with no challenges won.

With Coyopa, Jeremy’s wife has lied about having 2 idols when she has none to save herself and jacqueline. Tactics have been used throughout the challenges and also eliminations, especially with strategies between loved ones.
They need changes to be strong and baylor was thrown under the bus because she has been switching between then men.
Tension in the tribe makes it harder to perform in the challenges.
Val and Baylor were tied for votes but a revote was needed which ultimately did not work for val’s plan because she was the one asked to leave.

Methods Causing Madness

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In the second episode of Survivor Method to the Madness there are a few different dynamics going on. After the first competition two people were sent to Exile Island Jeremy and John . They make a promise to one another that they will protect each other’s wives. I believe they are displaying what Schutsz describes as a social member. Clearly these two men are comfortable working alone to stay on the Island but they also work together, sharing the message and strategizing to help one another. They made an agreement that John would protect Val and Jeremy would protect Julie. Josh seems to be concerned about the interaction between John and Val after Johns return from exile island. I thought it was pretty witty of him to be concerned about the closeness of John and Val after John had spent a few days with Vals husband. He had never seen them walk off alone together. Josh has been behaving in a Observer –commentator fashion he seems to be very into what is happening he uses this to be a dominator in the group but he struggles to fully do so. If Val would have been honest with John she might not have been voted off but she also did display a over personal member attitude. Val really tried to get close to everyone when she got off of exile island but failed to do so all the while struggling. It seems at this point everyone is displaying Group Task Roles and Maintenance roles for their teams. Some team members are also displaying strong self-centered roles more so than others. In some cases the roles have been beneficial to the individual and in others it has cost them either relationship disparity or to be voted off the island. There are strengths and weaknesses in the roles that the members undertake and the roles they assume may prove to be a great or bad group strategy for the individual.

Week 7 – Starting a Web Page – CSUCI Viewing

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Here are several videos to watch as you start to think about what your web domain can do and how you can accomplish that goal.  Each of these videos is from the perspective of a CSUCI faculty member engaging this space for the first time.

There are three videos to watch out of CSUCI’s FIT Studio, a faculty initiative designed to encourage faculty to look at technology in the same way we are viewing it in this course.  The first video is from the perspective of Dr. Jaimie Hoffman, who only began doing tech-based coursework outside the LMS a few months ago.  Listen to the whole thing.

The second is from Dr. Jamie Hanans.  It is similar but a little more streamlined; what is great about listening to the two is you see the same passion happen in different ways.

The third is from Dr. Michael Berman, the Vice President of Technology & Communication.  He has been thinking about learning outside the LMS for a while now; he and I worked together on a colloquium about the LMS at a conference called EduSoCal in May.  These are his views on how he sees learning; this is a lot of the impetus that has allowed you all to build web domains through your CSUCI education.

Let the Games Begin

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Well, there is alot that can be said about Group Membership in episode 2 Blood vs. water. I think its best to evaluate each team individual. For starters, the blue team. Each team seems to have their members playing into their group roles pretty well. Jeremy clearly sees himself as the group leader for the blue team. He is playing at the group needs, and while he appeared to be working for his team, behind the scenes he was also working at an angle to help his wife Val get ahead in the game. Jeremy is defiantly a powerful player on the blue team because he is associated with multiple group task roles for blue team including: energizer, evaluate, initiator-contributor. In terms of self centered roles, i noticed John likes to view himself as the “Clown” of the group. When he lost the flint, he tried to play the goofball card hoping that that would ease the blame. Ultimately i think that approach is going to hurt him in the long run, especially because he costed the group valuable . rewards. On the other side the Orange Team Clearly has alot of issues. No clear leader has come to step up to the plate to lead the orange team out of their losing streak. There is clearly alot of Communication Apprehension in the group, which became especially clear at the tribal council. And with a split vote it is clear that the tribe is split down the middle and is divided. What this group needs for role members, is a tension re leaser in order to mend the communication blocks that have occured, they need a harmonizer and every member needs to start comprimising if they are to succeed. Val was kicked off the island because of her feeling that she could take the dominate approach/ she was too aggressive going into the tribal council, bragging about immune idols. I am really interested to see how Jeremy will retaliate against   John Rocker for breaking his word about protecting his wife Val.