Small Group - Chapter 1

9-13-10

2. Describe the worst group you’ve ever been in, and explain why it was such a bad group.

The worst group I have ever been in was a small group I was assigned to for a class presentation. The people I was assigned to work with had no concept of working together as a group. They also refused to take responsibility for their part of the presentation. Despite my encouraging, if not begging, for us to meet together to work on our presentation, we did not meet until the week of our presentation. Even then, they still had done no research whatsoever.

On the day of our presentation, I went into the library to work on something else, and my team members begged me to come help them put their powerpoint together. They had not even learned how to use Powerpoint until the day of the presentation! I showed them how to make a basic presentation and went back to my work, but I couldn’t help but cringe when I saw them copying straight from Wikipedia into their presentation.

As I had expected, when we gave our presentation, the other girls simply stood there and read from their power point slides. I was horrified, because my grade was completely dependent on our group presentation! In the end I had to beg the teacher not to grade me based on their performances, since I had put 110% effort into my part of the presentation, AND had helped set up their parts!

It was definitely the worst small group experience I have ever had!

4. Do you think computer-mediated groups should be classified as small groups? Why or why not?
I do think that computer-mediated groups should be classified as small groups. Though they may be an newly emerging type of group to many people, computer-mediated small groups have the potential to become very sturdy groups. Computer-mediated small groups often form their own society of sorts as they frontier new grounds in technology together. And the workings of a face-to-face small group are often still seen in the workings of a computer-mediated small group!