Who Should I Believe?

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In the second episode of Survivor we seek for the membership between the tribes as well as the members themselves. We begin to see that both the Coyopa and the Hunahpuh tribe members are forming strong bonds between each other and their actual identities begin to show and become exposed. We also see inclusion. Its shown when a member in the blue team loses a flint making everybody in the tribe in a way look down on him for such an important tool to survive in there situation. He feels the need to feel included and involved and in a way forgiven by his group. Affection also was portrayed, the feeling of being wanted and looked as a higher power in the group, for example when some of the men would lift logs and squat while someone else did pushups.

 

On chapter three it talks about the (FIRO) theory and its 3 common needs being, inclusion, control and affection. An example for these would be Val and how we see that she struggles to feel included as well and on top of that not create friendships but just lies to help her get passed by which ended up getting her kicked out at the end.

 

Three categories are represented such as self centered roles, tasks roles, and maintenance roles which is mainly shown in the Coyopa tribe by Josh who takes part of being in a way part of both sides to remain safe and not a target towards anyone but focusing his strategic plan to reach the top and win.  Josh in a way manipulates and his behavior is portrayed as passive aggressive for example towards baylor. Hes a coordinator and his opinion ends up ruling the team and what they do and who they vote for. His strategy is gaining power and he’s becoming a leader secretly causing for Val to be gone.

Survivor Ep 2

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The episode begins with the blue team losing their precious flint, Jon, the clown of the group engages in absolving himself by being a self-confessor to his sins.  Despite his failure, he curries the vast majority of the maintenance tasks of his group and will be missed dearly if lost. The blue and orange team meet up and they find the twin sister gone. The other twin, so reluctant and weakened at this finding begins crying and gaining sympathy so masterfully, that she could’ve taught the class on it. In this game, pity is a form of currency and holds its weight in gold. We unfortunately don’t delve too far into the people and their time together to accurately judge their specific role according to Belbin’s theory. The orange team loses and the big guy and the black fireman go to exile island where they from an unconventional allegiance to defend eachothers women. They start the next survival challenge and orange team is determined but loses regardless. The loss is quite the shock and seriously demoralizes the whole group. After the shock wore thin however, the girls began their plotting against one another while the guys rode on the coattails of their schemes. Val, claiming to the whole world that she is safe and has an idol when in reality doesn’t, crafts an usual plan that she somehow believes will pay off royally. I’ll try and explain it but no matter how many times I think about it, it just seems reckless. She convinces the guys to split the votes between herself and the little girl, who had in the challenge previous showed how blatant it was that she didn’t belong there, because it would work in her favor. Self-assured and ready to rock, the voting is implemented and she ends up not revealing the idol, at the great shock of everyone in the group, and then proceeds to get kicked off the island. Unfortunately again, before she had left, she truly rocked the boat of the team and its unity is now faltering hard. So in the end, the policewoman burned some bridges and caused major upheaval within the group right before making her swift exit.

Episode 2

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In this episode of Survivor, we focus on the membership dynamics within each tribe. After spending a fair amount of time with each other, most of the members have begun to establish strong relationships with one another. Hunahpu (blue) and Coyopa (orange) both exhibited positive and negatives characteristics as members and as a tribe.

As in Chapter 3, I noticed how Schutz’s Fundamental Interpersonal Relationship Orientation (FIRO) Theory had played a part in the tribes. In his theory, Schutz explains that there should be a balance among three common needs that people search for within a group setting – inclusion, control, and affection. In this competition, I’ve already noted how there can be an imbalance that can impede members’ needs. For example, in the Coyopa Tribe, Val struggles to feel and be included in the tribe as a significant member. After the first challenge in episode 1, she was sent to Exile Island and lost important time that would have gone to group development. Due to this, Val was unable to begin create friendships and alliances as the others did. By the time she returned, her members had begun to establish themselves with one another. In the Hunahpu Tribe, John and Alec act as oversocial members where they try to bring attention to themselves.

The members within the tribes show aspects of the three categories – task roles, maintenance roles, and self-centered roles – Benne and Sheats Functional Group Roles. In the Coyopa Tribe, I noticed that Josh plays a strong part in the maintenance role. He tries his best to stand neutral with the tribe members, hoping to get along with each of them while also seeking his goal of winning by strategically eliminating select members.

Survivor Blog Post #2

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By the second episode of Survivor, members in both the Hunahpuh and Coyopa tribes have developed enough experience to become comfortable and ultimately expose more of their true personalities. As these personalities emerge, it appears that certain members are struggling to establish themselves within the group. For example, in the Hunahpuh tribe, members John and Drew are both shown boasting about their physical abilities and engaging in competitions with each other in front of their fellow tribe-members. It appears that in this case, their need for inclusion within the group has not been fully met, ultimately influencing them into becoming “oversocial members.”

In addition, John’s over-social behavior is also exposed after he realizes he is responsible for losing the tribe’s flint, a necessity for starting fires at camp. In a personal interview, John reveals that he feels it is necessary to emphatically express his admission to the mistake in order to ensure his place within the tribe. Already feeling that his status within the tribe is unstable, John believes that by attracting attention to the matter and profusely expressing his remorse, he will be able to avoid feeling ostracized by the group. Drew and John alike resolve to attract attention to themselves in order to make up for what they feel they lack: inclusion and companionship. In order to compensate for their feelings of inadequacy, they believe that by impressing the other members, they will be able to gain more acceptance overall.

On the other hand, in the Coyopa tribe, members begin to reveal their more of their assertiveness. In the episode, the audience begins to identify John as “low-apprehension member.” He becomes more confident overall, asserts himself, and expresses his opinions with the group more openly. However, as he struggled to successfully complete the first challenge, it appears that his assertiveness and lack of apprehension can quickly turn hostile and aggressive.

Coyopa member Josh also begins to assert himself more within the group as well, but in a very different manner. Josh, taking on the “coordinator” role within the group, brings it upon himself to strategize with other members before tribal council commences so that a common goal can be achieved. However, as alliances become fickle and decisions must be made, Josh’s behavior becomes “passive-agressive.” Towards the beginning of the episode, Josh converses with Baylor about his dedication to their own alliance, however later on, he meets with John and the other men in order to form a plan to vote Baylor off of the team. Although Josh has the facade of being a team player, he deceives and manipulates others only to further himself in the competition rather than do what is best for the team as a whole. He continually turns on the “alliances” he forms with the other tribe members and cannot commit to his word. Therefore, in the end, Val is sent home after he goes against his word to John and persuades the other men into questioning her possession of an idol. He is then able to keep his strongest alliance with Baylor and maintain his control over the team’s decisions through the plans he formulates behind-the-scenes.

Survivor #2

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In this episode of Survivor the teams are more aquatinted with one another as they have adapted to their new life and the people they have to work with and count on to further on. In the episode one of the members of the blue team lost the flint and this made the person who lost it feel bad and guilty. Feeling that the other members of the group are looking down upon him. This shows the need for inclusion, how he relies to feel included, involved, and accepted by the other members. When you do not have this you may feel under social. Also in the blue team the men at the beginning of the episode felt the need to show the women in the group of their strengths, where the men would lift logs and other items. This shows their need for affection to be liked and a productive group members.

The first challenge comes around. The challenge involved the need for patience and a steady hand. The challenge was against John and his girl friend Julie. Where Julie was the winner of the challenge because she had patience and a steady hand. John on the other hand was struggling as he did not have a steady hand and was loosing his patience during the challenge. During the challenge he seemed to exhibit some sign of aggressiveness as he was loosing to his girl friend.

After the challenge Natalie needed inclusion and affection due to hearing that her sister was kicked from the other group. This had a large tole on her and it was hard for her. The other members of the group felt for her and comforted her.

Later on in group yellow they find out more about who John is and his past. This makes the group feel uncomfortable around him and has some members agitated and having conflicting feelings about the guy.

In the last challenge of the day the blue team wins, though during the challenge there were some emotional times. The mother and the daughter for an example when they battled each other. The daughter hurt her lip and was bleeding. This concerned the mother as it made her feel bad and made her feel it was her fault and it had the daughter emotional about it as well. The batter tend to exhibit aggressive behavior between the people who battled each other as it was a type of combat which was one on one

Yet again the yellow team is forced to vote someone off the island

Survivor Blog #1

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In the first episode of survivor for this season the show is based on couples being spit from each other into opposing groups. The teams are going to compete against each other to dominate. In the first challenge Jeremy competes against his wife in the first challenge. It was very hard for him and was emotional for him to compete against his wife and send her to exile.

After the first challenge the two groups go to their places of the island to get situated with where they are going to be living. The Blue group begins in the forming stage, where they explore their personal goals and explore possible group goals but have not been set at this point as everyone is wondering off with their own goals. No group meeting has been established at this point and no assigned roles have been established as well. Jeremy begins with getting to know the other women in the group and the other women see Jeremy as the go to person and the person they can trust so Jeremy and the women in the group establish a relationship for working together and potential partners.

Yellow Group: are also in the forming stage as that is the first stage in forming a group. Their group begins with creating a group objective with being creating a fire and having shelter unlike group blue where they did not have a group goal in mind. One of the group members though by the name of Dale has not integrated with the rest of the group. He has been isolating himself from the rest of the group and feels left out and having nothing of use to provide for the group as skills and needs. Therefore he does not feel included in the group. But he still works with the group goal by himself to promote the welfare of the group and the people. This puts him in the mindset of constructive nonconformity as he is still working to promote the group.

Blue Team: In the meanwhile still do not have a group goal and are working on their own interests and goals. Drew starts to feel like he is in a state of power and begins to believe he may be or become the role model and leader of the group.

In this episode the blue team has been wining the challenges but just because they have been winning the challenges that does not necessarily mean they have a better group or well established one. The challenges but people on the same mindset and gives everyone a common goal to achieve that everyone wants to achieve but besides from the goal that does not mean that everyone still is on the same mindset and are still being productive and working together for the well being of the group. Group blue lacks teamwork outside of the challenges and lacks the necessary needs of a common goal and roles that are needed for an effective group. On the other hand team yellow has established a more well put together group. This is because the group has set common goasl and group members work together to achieve these goals. This is apart of the necessary needs that a group must have to be effective and last in the long run. This group does not seem to be putting personal goals or themselves before the welfare of others and the group overall. Which good for the health and longterm survival of the group and the people.

Towards the end of the episode the team yellow is forced to vote a person off the island. This vote begins to split the group in half where is the men vs. the women as the men want to vote a women off the island and the women want to vote Dale off the island. This is unhealthy for the overall good of the group and that is the problem with forcing a group to vote one of their own off the island.

 

My First Blog

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Being involved in an EdTech class has made me more curious about what people have to say about technology in education. I have been observant with these certain topics online. First of all, the EdTech class has allowed me to see Twitter in a different perspective. I used to use Twitter as a way to share my thoughts and feelings and read my friends’ feelings and thoughts, but now I use it more of a way to get information and share the information I have learned about. It has also given me the consideration to use Twitter as a way to communicate with students and parents. Just like it mentions in this article http://www.nea.org/home/32641.htm, you can have students thinking even after class by tweeting them! Therefore, students can be thinking about concepts even when they step out of the door. Not only can Twitter be a great way for me to communicate with students, but also to network other ideas with other teachers. Follow other teachers and see what they have to say about the education. This article gave me a different perspective of how Twitter can be implemented in teaching.

Another way this class has developed my curiosity about technology in education is that I recently attended the Ventura CABE conference. One of the workshops I attended was a Technology workshop, where the presenter went through certain apps on the Ipad that can be implemented in the classroom! Since I have been following on Twitter educational technology accounts, it has given more access to articles. One article in particular that was posted by @Edudemic was about tips for keeping students on task while on devices. This was very relevant to me because that is one aspect of technology I worry about and that is having students not be on task. One tip I liked was “Punish” with paper. If I were to see some students not on task, then the following day I can take away the privilege of using technology and use paper instead. I can replace their technology exercise with a paper and pencil exercise. This allows students to know that they do not have to use technology like everyone else, especially if they do not follow directions.
For other tips, feel free to read the article http://edudemic.com/5-tips-keeping-students-task-using-tech/

Another education technology account that I follow, is @TechnologyInEd, and they have retweeted a post from another account. This article that was reposted taught me ways on how technology is aligned with the Common Core. They have discussed how one way to differentiate instruction is to have some students read digitally. They give different ways how it can be beneficial. For example, they can mark up the text they are reading by highlighting, underlining, making fonts bigger or smaller, and/or bolding text. This allows students to mark up what they learned, don’t understand, or what they found interesting. Students can also expand their level of thinking by being able to click on links of other articles within the article they are already reading. They continue to keep reading new and different material.  This information was all new to me! For further information on the article, feel free to read http://languagemagazine.com/?page_id=78401

I have a website!

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I’ve never really considered my self to be not good with technology. Never did I think I was some tech. genius but I thought I knew something about the internet and technology. I’m now enrolled in an education technology course and have discovered that I know practically nothing about technology. It took me probably ten minutes to find the page that would allow me to make a blog post!
Before this course, I’d never paid attention to PLN’s or to edtech. Since starting this course, I’ve learned a lot. This magazine helped me understand a bit more about a topic that was fairly new to me: http://www.edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2014/10/report-card. I’ve learned that you can’t just be taught about edtech, you need to discover what it means to you. In addition, there is no “this is edtech; now utilize it” there are only aspects to edtech and you have to figure out how you can utilize edtech to your own advantage. Another big thing I’ve learned is that something is always happening in the world of edtech. The world of edtech evolves faster than I can keep up with all of it.
Now I have a website and a Twitter account! I can’t believe it. I’m not completely sure what I want out of this website. I don’t have a clear vision of where I see it going yet. However, I am really excited to see where this takes me in the world of edtech!
P.S. Still trying to figure this out… I have no idea why there aren’t spaces where I intend for them to be.

Will this be on the test?

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Yes, but there’s so much more!

Hello world!

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