attachment styles

In chapter 15 of your text the authors discuss the impact of childhood attachment styles and later interpersonal relationships in adulthood. Attachment theory has received much attention from interpersonal communication researchers in part because it's fairly to easy to measure by having participants complete a survey. Then the results of the survey--each participant's attachment style--is correlated to a whole host of variables, such as current conflict style and friendship types. Although the research is interesting, it can also lead to a deterministic view of interpersonal communication if attachment styles are viewed as static. Children who develop anxious/ambivalent or avoidant styles due to interactions with their caregivers are not destined to repeat those same patterns in adulthood. Experiences in later interpersonal relationships and with other family members and social networks impact an individual's attachment style. As I note in the web lecture, "Although the bonds you form with your caregivers when you were young do influence your later relationships, attachment styles may evolve and change over time as you form new bonds with other people."

Still, attachment styles underscore the importance of those early interactions in a child's development. You learn from your caregivers how to go about communicating interpersonal relationships. Alexb commented about the link between attachment styles and cheating or infidelity. jdmINT referred to an article in Psychology Today that discussed parental favoritism. The researchers interview mothers, the majority of whom admitted to having a favorite child. I'd be interesting in knowing if the child and other siblings recognized these feelings. Goofy blogged about the secure attachments that form a central part of her family interactions. In blogging about her relationship with her niece, Sarina noted that attachment bonds go beyond the immediate family to include others who are a key part of a child's life, such as an aunt. Similarly, Jamie reported on the bonding that occurs between children and nannies. Foodie observed that attachment styles can impact friendships as well as romantic relationships, and discussed the difficulty of maintaining a friendship with someone who primarily exhibits the fearful/avoidant style. Caligirl522 observed that babies react to their parents, so can learn to adopt a particular style. Gian reported that attachment styles within a family can vary. And boyd013 said that those styles can even favor between twins. Danishgris observed that attachment styles can vary based on the relationship--so we might be secure in one relationship and avoidant in another. MJ suggested that the attachment within a relationship can change over time, as with going from secure to avoidant.

Attachment styles provide one glimpse into why individuals interact as they do in their interpersonal relationships. With so many of you blogging about it this week, it's clearly an approach that resonates with a lot of people.

--Professor Cyborg

conflict

Students always find Chapter 13 on conflict directly applicable to their everyday experiences. The department offers two courses on conflict, Communication and Conflict, COMM 115, and Mediation, COMM 116.

Jamie blogged about a housemate conflict that most college students have experienced--the person who thinks what's yours is hers/his but what's hers/his definitely is not yours. Carmen talked about the different conflict patterns that can be detected in relationships. Nicciri wrote about intrapsychic or internal conflict, which I find interesting as well. Interpersonal and intrapsychic conflict are often heavily intertwined. Rock N Roll noted that when we face a conflict situation our first choice is avoid or confront. Squirrelhands observed that confronting the boss at work often isn't the best way to go. In the workplace, conflict strategies must be framed within the reality of the organizational hierarchy and your relationship with your boss.

Communicators encounter conflict across a wide variety of interpersonal communication contexts. In spite of all those encounters, conflicts still remain difficult to manage productively.

--Professor Cyborg

culture, conflict, & interpersonal communication

Much of the research in interpersonal communication relies on student participants attending U.S. universities and colleges and often those participants are communication studies majors or students enrolled in communication studies classes. I'm not the first scholar to make this observation and some have even defended the use of student populations, arguing students are representative of the general population. I don't find this argument persuasive. Communication scholars must do a better job of studying a wide variety of groups so we can examine differences and similarities across populations.

That's why in the web lecture for this week I discussed research that examines conflict in multiple cultures. For example, the Ting-Toomey et al. study I discuss focused on self-construal and conflict style using a fairly diverse population. The researchers found conflict styles are influenced by how communicators view themselves. What I found even more interesting was the Oetzel et al. study which provides a more fine-grained analysis of collectivist vs. individualist cultures than is usually offered. Rather than assuming facework strategies to manage conflict are the same within each group, these researchers found that strategies within each type of culture can vary. Squirelhands found similar research discussed in Chapter 12 interesting as well in part because it meshes with concepts and research in other communication studies courses. Rubei found the research on Chinese teachers and conflicts something she could relate to because it identified cultural differences in compliance gaining.

These two studies and others discussed in the web lecture remind us that culture influences definitions of conflict, interpretations of communicative behaviors associated with conflict, the conflict styles communicators choose to use, and how those styles are enacted. Particularly as the U.S. population becomes more diverse, interpersonal communication scholars need to move away from surveying undergraduates at a large midwestern university and make a greater effort to find out how conflict plays out in a variety of relationships with a variety of people.

--Professor Cyborg

interpersonal communication and aging

Last night my Dad and his spouse Marian had a dinner to celebrate the publication of my text, Public Speaking: The Evolving Art. They invited several of their friends. As I looked around the room, I realized I was the youngest by a few years in one case and a lot of years in most cases. Listening to them talk reminded me of the importance of intergenerational friendships.

One of the attendees recently turned 90. He served in World War II and talked a bit of public speaking experiences during his time in the military. Another became an author in her 80s. And another, in her 70s, after a long career in nursing and public health, manages the website for the Democratic Party in her county. Marian talked about the Book Buddy program she's organized for the kids in her neighborhood (many of whom are eligible for free breakfast and lunch programs in the summer). Finally, a retired engineer in his 70s works in the local schools to promote an understanding of the United Nations.

So last night I had the opportunity to talk with a group of active seniors with interesting experiences involved in their communities. As I note in the web lecture, the youth-oriented focus of the dominant U.S. culture often leads younger communicators to dismiss and overlook more elderly communicators. Yet many of the projects the dinner guests are involved in as volunteers keep society going and help strengthen the ties of our interpersonal relationships.

Developing and maintaining friendships with people in a wide range of age groups gives you an appreciation for differing experiences and perspectives. My interactions last night encouraged me to think about what I might want to do when I retire and gave me additional insight into the key contributions of strong social networks in the aging process.

--Professor Cyborg

dialectics

Although relational dialectics is called a theory, I consider it more a way of thinking. When I first read about relational dialectics it really resonated with me. It seems rare that people have a single affective response to something, especially something as complex as relationships. Often we have mixed responses, such as wanting to be with friends but still wanting time alone.

In my research on persons with disabilities who blog about disability, I identified four dialectics in the blogs I examined:

• individual-societal: disability as a private and public experience
• difference-unity: unique identity and commonality with others
• permanence-temporary: stability/change in identity; temporal nature of disabilities
• dependence-independence: control and relying on others

The individual-societal dialectic was the one most-often addressed; permanence-temporary received the least amount of attention.

In a similar study of women with breast cancer who blogged about their experiences, my colleague, Joy Hart, and I identified four primary dialectics in what the women wrote about:

• control-acceptance: influencing vs. accepting outcomes
• same-changed: person unchanged vs. different
• private-public: individual vs. social experience
• selfish-nurturing: caring for self vs. caring for others

The last dialectice, selfish-nurturing, was one of the more difficult dialectic for the women to cope with due to strong societal norms that emphasize women as caring for others rather than caring for themselves. Same-changed was a common theme, as the women grappled with new and changing definitions of themselves, normality, and difference.

Relational dialectics can provide insight into how people think about and construct their relationships with others, and ultimately how they enact those relationships. Blogs provide a useful source of data for understanding interpersonal communication.

Rubie commented on research reported in this week's web lecture, observing that although some of the research fit with her experiences, other findings did not. In applying relational dialectics, it's important to remember that some will be more salient to you than others--recall the chapter on individual differences. Gian also blogged about relational dialectics and research that suggests some of the dialectics are intertwined. In my research with Joy Hart mentioned above, the control-acceptance and same-changed dialectic seemed related in that those who felt they influenced outcomes also viewed themselves as a different person in positive ways. kcee talked about the importance of balancing openness and closedness in interpersonal relationships in relationship to privacy. That's something we also examined in the blogs about breast cancer. Some of the bloggers were very open about their experiences on their blog and with others, but others were more private and didn't want to talk about it much, except on their blog.

Good insights into relational dialectics--I'm glad so many of you blogged about this research.

--Professor Cyborg

friendships, turning points, balance, networks

Like Carmen, I'm interested in research on nonromantic (platonic) friendships. Kathy Werking's groundbreaking book, We're Just Good Friends: Women and Men in Nonromantic Relationships, peeled away some of the mystery of cross-sex friendships. One point Werking makes is that a romantic partner can't be expected to fulfill all our relationship needs. That's why we have friends--both same sex and opposite sex--who round out our relational lives.

beatles123 blogged about turning points in relationships. In many respects, I find the notion of turning points more compelling than relationship stages. What's most interesting for me is that sometimes turning points intersect--both people in the relationship identify the same turning point. Whereas in other cases, a turning point for one is something the other person doesn't even recall.

foodie commented on equity in relationships and maintaining a work/life/school balance, something we're covering in my COMM 144 class this week. Maintaining a work/life balance isn't something we do alone. Others help us out or sometimes hinder our ability to find a healthy balance. Establishing equity in a relationship can be difficult when trying to compare what each person brings to the relationship. And equity may be determined across different time periods--within a day, a week, a month, a year, five years. And as foodie points out, changes in one person's obligations (in this case, school) impacts what is equitable in the relationships.

Gian blogged about an additional relational maintenance strategy--networks and associations. These are relationships to which those in the target relationship are connected. The idea is that these relationships can make your own relationship stronger, especially if a couple has a strong friendship network. One drawback of much of the literature on romantic relationships is the lack of context for understanding them. The larger network within which a relationship is embedded can have a strong influence on how the relationship functions and that relationship can also greatly impact the network (consider what happens when a romantic couple splits up and the two parties have a lot of friends in common).

These are all interesting topics! I look forward to reading about additional interesting topics later this week.

--Professor Cyborg

blogging about relationships

Students in the class have already started blogging about chapters 9, 10, and 11. Jamie declared chapter 9 "a winner" when blogging about how the section on liking and intimacy applies to one of her friendships. Jamie also noted surprise at the importance of physical beauty in attraction and gave an example that shows there are exceptions to every rule. That example also reminds us that many research findings are generalizations not necessarily applicable to every communicator or every situation. Blogging about the anthropological perspective on attraction discussed in the web lecture, Alexb observed that people can mistakenly assume others seek a particular physical type and try to look a certain way, or use strategies that attract persons they don't want to attract.

Goofy blogged about the importance of relationship maintenance, which can be the really hard work of interpersonal relationships. As Goofy notes, people can get bored easily, so looking for ways to keep the relationship fresh and new are essential for maintaining the relationship. And this is true of any interpersonal relationship, not just intimate ones.

Rock N Roll commented about relationship stages. This approach is appealing and useful, although it doesn't fit every relationship. Still, it provides a reminder that relationships don't stand still and are always changing.

A good start for the week! Stay tuned for more blog entries and comments.

--Professor Cyborg

relationships and disability

Chapter 9 presents some cold hard facts about the beginnings of relationships. One that I write about in web lecture four is the role physical beauty or attractiveness plays in whether or not you even decide to interact with someone. So much research has found that people who are viewed as more attractive are also perceived as smarter, friendlier, more competent--the list goes on and on. And what's even more distressing is that beauty is associated with good and ugliness is associated with bad. Just watch any movie or TV show--the "baddies" are almost always unattractive. In the web lecture I discuss the Batman movies and the association of disability with being bad or evil. Many other films and works of fiction follow this pattern--the bad person has some sort of disability that explains why the person is bad. Imagine the impact this has on persons with disabilities. For a useful counterbalance to this theme, view Murderball, a documentary film about rugby players who are quadriplegic.

I've done several studies focused on communication and disability, including two surveys of SJSU students with disabilities. I've also written about metaphors for disability, such as disability as medical problem, disability as culture, and disability as community. Those metaphors not only shape how you think about disability, but also how you interact with persons with disabilities. As one of my colleagues at Ohio U once told me, keep this in mind: persons without disabilities are TABs (temporarily able-bodied).

--Professor Cyborg

sex differences

There are several places in the text that discuss gender or sex differences in interpersonal communication, as with factors affecting self disclosure in chapter 7. In 2002, Julia Wood published an essay in the Southern Communication Journal titled "A Critical Response to John Gray's Mars and Venus Portrayals of Men and Women." You've probably heard of or read the book, which was quite popular.

Wood evaluates Gray's claims against scholarly research as well as everyday experience and finds those claims lacking the empirical evidence needed to support them. She makes three important points in her essay. First, differences between women and men are not innate or immutable. Second, socially constructed differences between the sexes do exist, although they change over time; consider women's and men's roles in the home and the workplace 100 years ago. Third, there are greater differences within each group in terms of how individuals communicate than between each group. That is, there is more variation among women in their communication and more variation among men in their communication than variation between women and men.

Wood's analysis is important because it tells us women and men can interact with each other collaboratively and productively. Miscommunication between women and men is not pre-determined. Although girls and boys may be raised to communicate in different ways, those differences are not innate. Which means we can change how we interact with each other. And that suggests we can find ways to communicate more effectively and reduce instances of miscommunication.

--Professor Cyborg

thursday, week 3

In discussing the notion of secrets in interpersonal relationships, Sabrina had positive things to say about the text, which I appreciated. Choosing a text can prove difficult. There are many interpersonal communication texts for lower division courses, but not many for upper division. This book strikes a good balance between theory/research and the practice of interpersonal communication. As Sabrina observes, the authors break down concepts into their parts or elements and give examples to make the concepts more concrete.

Boyd013 gave several good examples of excuses. You use them in an attempt to manage impressions others have of you. Generally you don't want to appear incompetent, stupid, uncaring, or any number of negative qualities, so you use accounts to try to spin your actions in a more positive way. That relates to Carmen's comments on embarassment in that you can also use accounts to avoid embarassment, and help others by smoothing over embarassing situations. Gian also blogged about embarassment and gave some suggestions for dealing with such situations.

In discussing self-presentation strategies, forrent36 focused on self-glorification. Although the dominant U.S. culture expects some self-glorification or self-promotion, too much reflects poorly on the self. For example, when interviewed on TV, professional sports players in team sports rarely take all the credit for themselves, even if they had a great game. They usually say something like, "I couldn't have done it without my teammates" or "It was really a team effort."

Chapters 6-8 provide key insights into how the self is constructed in and through communication with others. How you define yourself is grounded and reflected in your communication with others.

--Professor Cyborg

privacy and self disclosure

No comments on your blogs today. I'm on my soapbox.

The third edition of the text for this class addressed issues of privacy and self disclosure, but the fourth edition has much more in depth coverage. This additional coverage is one reason why it's worth purchasing the fourth edition. With some textbooks, the authors make just minor changes between editions. For this text, there were major revisions.

Although I don't agree with all aspects of Petronio's communication privacy model, I do like the attention the model draws to the notion of privacy (so a move away from complete openness being the best way to communicate) and the idea of negotiating those privacy boundaries. So the boundaries aren't fixed, but can be altered through communication in relationships with others. One weaknesses of the model is that power isn't addressed very well. For example, in families, parents have more power to negotiate privacy boundaries than children. Similarly, in organizations, supervisors have more power to set privacy boundaries than employees. For example, research my colleagues and I conducted on workplace surveillance found that organizations exert a great deal of power in defining the reasons for surveillance.

A story on NPR this morning on email surveillance got me thinking about privacy boundaries. The NPR host interviewed a woman whose company searches through the email of organizations' email (at their request) for legal reasons. We're talking about thousands, 10s of thousands, and millions of email messages. The bottom line: email never goes away and it is public. So all the negotiation employees may try out in managing privacy boundaries in the workplace will face the cold reality of email message longevity and accessibility.

As you read through the chapters, consider the ways in which the concepts and theories apply--or don't--to your interpersonal communication experiences. If a concept or theory doesn't seem to fit, that doesn't mean it's wrong, only that it may need modification or a different concept or theory may be a better fit.

--Professor Cyborg

self presentation

Early work in interpersonal communication posited a dichotomy between in person self presentation and online (also called viritual) self presentation. But more recent work recognizes that online and other new media venues simply give individuals additional formats to develop and present the self. Whether communicators present the self (selves really is the better term as there is no single self, but rather multiple selves) in person, via cell phone, in a web chat, or online discussion, all those activities are part of the self. (Unfortunately, the text for the class does a poor job addressing identity issues associated with new media.)

Sarina mentioned the dramaturgical perspective discussed in Chapter 6. This perspective views life as a series of performances and recognizes the interdependence of communicators in achieving self presentation goals. Facebook provides a good example of this interdependence, as part of an individual's self-presentation on Facebook is the person's friends and what friends write on the individual's Facebook page. Both Sarina and Carmen referred to presenting different aspects of the self to different audiences. Using different impression management strategies depending on the situation and relationship with other communicators is not only common but expected. My friends wouldn't expect me to present my "professor" self to them and start lecturing during a dinner party. Yet online self presentation can make impression management more challenging. For example, who are my audiences for Facebook? I have "friends" who are colleagues, students, coworkers, family members, social friends, professional friends--many different groups. How is each group interpreting my self-presentation strategies?

CGH blogged about ingratiation, or the strategies used to get others to like us. Generally, these are positive strategies, such as being friendly and complimenting others. But when used to manipulate, they are considered unethical. Rabbit Tale blogged about the concept of self disclosure in Web Lecture 3. When I was an undergraduate in the late 1970s, interpersonal communication courses tended to emphasize openness and complete honesty--no matter what the consequences. But communication scholars have learned that there are times when saying what you're thinking is not appropriate, and you might regret what you said later. In the web lecture I talk about reasons communicators might not want to disclose information.

The three chapters and web lecture for this week are especially interesting because they focus on the self and how the self is so intertwined in our relationships with others. Who you are influences how you communicate with others and how others communicate with you influences how you view yourself. In addition, how you view others influences your communication with them and how you communicate with them influences how they view themselves.

--Professor Cyborg

naming communication

When I was a master's student in communication at Central Michigan University I taught an introductory course that surveyed the communication discipline, covering topics such as interpersonal, small group, organizational, and public communication. The first day one student said, "I don't know why I have to take a communication class. I've been communicating all my life." By the end of the semester, he realized that he hadn't always been communicating very well, but more importantly, he learned to be more aware of his communication with others. Studying interpersonal communication theories and concepts gives you the language to better identify and reflect on your own communication. Sarina found this out when she read the listening chapters and applied the concepts to her workplace communication.

Rabbit Tale's entry about harmful listening took me back to my In Pursuit of Awareness class I took as an undergraduate. The professor promoted a completely "open" class where students would self-disclose whatever they were thinking or feeling at the time. But being "open" is not always appropriate. And sometimes what we're thinking in a precise moment isn't what we'll be thinking at the next moment. So blurting out whatever can be harmful and having to listen to those unmonitored thoughts can prove difficult. All communicators have a responsibility to consider the other. Revealing feelings and difficult emotions can prove therapeutic, but in the process we don't want to traumatize listeners.

Alexb blogged about empathy, noting how crucial it is to effective interpersonal communication, especially listening. Yet the chapter on social cognition suggests that we all have different cognitive structures for organizing interpersonal information. How is empathy possible? Shared schemata that stem from similar cultural and social experiences provide one avenue for empathy. And while total empathy isn't possible, listeners can still attempt to consider others' perspectives. Beatles123's entry about exhibiting patience with listeners is related to this notion of listening. A good speaker recognizes and takes into account the listener's perspective.

Kcee noted that implicit personality theory suggests individuals make their assessments of other quite quickly. Sometimes this can be advantageous, but oftentimes we jump to conclusions and make hasty generalizations about others that later prove to be false.

The blog entries this week are demonstrating the importance of reflecting on communication practices in everyday life by naming them. Naming these practices makes us more aware of our communication and impact on others' communication.

Tomorrow ends week 2. The weekends are busy days for me as I read and re-read all the blog entries and comments, so I often don't blog on the weekends. But I'll be online, answering your emails and reading your blogs.

--Professor Cyborg

cognition, communication, listening

Chapter 5 on social cognition is one of the most interesting chapters in the text for me. Much of my research is on the links between social cognition and message production and interpretation. In addition, my father is a psychology professor (now retired) and I was a psychology major before switching to communication studies, so my interest in human cognition started long before my interest in communication. The two are deeply intertwined--we can't communicate without thinking and how we think is grounded in our experiences with others.

Alexb discussed the importance of empathy, which is introduced in C. 4 on listening, but also plays a role in social cognition. For example, empathy is often a part of prototypes such as friendly and helpful and lack of empathy is typically associated with unfrlendly and selfish, as Alexb alluded to. Kcee's experiences provide a good link between cognition and listening and how the two influence each other. In addition, how we perceive people also impacts how we listen to them, and how we listen to others influences how they perceive us.

Amaja brought up the new COMM tagline: Listen • Speak • Engage. In the faculty discussions about the department's tagline, we spent some time trying to figure out which term should come first--they really happen all at once. The department's name used to be Speech Communication--note the emphasis on speech. And that emphasis is clear in course offerings not only in our department at SJSU, but in nearly all communication studies departments. Especially in the dominant American culture, speech is privileged over listening. Goofy talked about attributions, which structure our communicative experiences. How we explain what happens influences our response to a situation.

I grouped together Chapters 4, 5, 14, and 16 because they are highly interrelated, as you'll find out as you blog this week.

--Professor Cyborg

listening and interpersonal goals

I spent a good part of today listening--and giving advice. As acting chair, I scheduled drop in advising hours 9a-1p today, sending out a message via mySJSU to all COMM majors and minors. I lost track of how many students I talked with (at least 20), but I didn't finish until 2:40p. Although the setting was educational, the conversations weren't in the classroom. The goals were primarily instrumental--students making sure they were completing requirements and me making sure students understood what they needed to do. But there were relational goals involved as well, as some students I had talked with before and others I'll likely talk with in the future.

Several people in the class have blogged about listening. Carmen noted the use and importance of backchannels to let others know we're listening. Caligirl522 observed that in the organizational context individuals often focus more on speaking and listening. Yet poor listening skills can lead to all sorts of problems in the workplace. Aleks related a situation in which she was distracted by the speaker's jargon. What can listeners do in that type of situation? Nicciri talked about the importance of listening in romantic relationships. One of the most difficult communication tasks is taking another's perspective while listening--because we're so focused on what we think and what we want to say.

Keep those blog entries coming!

--Professor Cyborg

monday week 2

Originally I was going to have students blog (graded) the first week of session, but now I'm glad I decided against that. It took most of last week to get everyone on the class listserv and blog roll (and added to my Google Reader). Assigned blogging would have been too much--and likely sent students to mySJSU to immediately drop the class.

This week starts the graded blogging. Although last week I read all the entries and commented on most of them, for the graded blogs students do the commenting--I only write about student blogs on my blog.

In her first blog entry this week, Gian focused on listening and the importance of letting others know that you are listening. My dad has always been a multitasker. He'd grade papers (he was a psychology professor, tho now retired) while watching TV with the radio on. When we'd (my 4 siblings and myself) would say something to him, he'd appear not to be listening--he'd never stop doing whatever he was doing. But then he'd repeat back what we said. Still, I'm not convinced he was always listening. Repeating back the words doesn't mean he really processed the information. He became a better listener over time, especially about giving the feedback Gian described is so essential to effective listening.

How does the concept of listening translate to online communication, especially text? How do you let others know you're listening in email exchanges? Texting?

-Professor Cyborg

deadlines and such

COMM 110 follows a calendar week, so starts Sunday morning (12:01 a.m. to be exact) and ends Saturday at midnight. That means you must complete all your Process Tasks and take the first quiz by midnight tomorrow.

As Acting Chair much of time in the summer is spent advising. Students new to communication studies often wonder how this discipline is different from others, such as psychology and sociology. Although communication scholars may focus on topics similar to scholars in other disciplines, the primary concern is always on messages, or more accurately, messaging. So Chapters 2 and 3 in your text clearly identify what communication scholars mean when they talk about messages and messaging. For example, a psychology researcher may ask, "How are people's cognitions affected by their moods?" A communication researcher may ask "How do people's cognitions influence how they interpret and produce messages?"

Just over 24 hours for you to complete the readings for this week (Chapters 1-3 and the first web lecture) and take the quiz. Nearly everyone has joined the listserv and set up their blogs. So we'll be blogging away next week!

--Professor Cyborg

day 3 week 1

Nearly everyone in the class has accessed the class blackboard site, set up their various google accounts, and emailed me. So we're off to a great start! If you're having problems with blackboard you are not alone! Email me if you can't access that part of the class. Recently updated instructions are also available on the eCampus website.

There aren't many interpersonal communication books for upper-division courses. I like the Canary et al. book for several reasons. A primary one is the focus on goals the authors articulate in the first chapter. By defining communication as a goal-oriented activity, the authors differentiate communication from behavior. You may have learned about the axiom "one cannot not communicate." But there are times we're not communicating, we're simply behaving. Therefore, not all behavior is communication.

I hope you're finding the first few readings in the text interesting and the web lecture a helpful addition to those chapters. Note that you don't have to blog this week, but it's helpful to try it out so you're ready for Week 2.

--Professor Cyborg

let the blogging begin!

The class blog roll has already passed the halfway point. Getting the class set up (students signing up for the listserv and a blog) is always a bit hectic at the beginning of the term, which is why there's no graded blogging until next week.

As I mention on the Process Tasks and Participation pages, it's easier to keep track of everyone's blogging activity if you add your classmates' blogs to your own blog roll and set up Google Reader. Both are easy to do. If you have problems, first check with Blogger help (blog roll) and Google Reader help (generally I've found all google help functions actually helpful). Then email me or the listserv if you have additional questions.

I've spent a good part of my day answering class emails and adding your blogs to the blog roll. Later in the week I'll blog about class content.

In the meantime, email any general questions you have about the class to the listserv (google groups). And blog away!!

--Professor Cyborg

blackboard site available

Rosters have been uploaded to the blackboard part of the class. We'll only use blackboard for quizzes and grades. If you've never used SJSU's version of blackboard before, you'll want to go through the practice questions to try out the quiz function.

This week we'll focus on Chapters 1-3 and the first web lecture. If you haven't already, set up a gmail account, join the class listserv, start your blog, and make your first entry (not graded, just to get used to blogging). You also need to take Quiz 1 by Saturday at midnight.

Class starts tomorrow. The six weeks will fly by!

--Professor Cyborg

students notified

I just sent out the welcome message via mySJSU and using the notifier option on the class roster (message goes to students' email addresses if included when students registered for the class). I hope this helps get everyone off to a timely start in the class.

--Professor Cyborg

110 update

The summer session starts Monday and so far no students in the blackboard roster. Thank goodness I'm using the Rogue Communication server and depending on eCampus. I'm just hoping that students find their way to the class website. Apparently, eCampus failed to send out any notifications about the online classes. A few students have emailed me, but usually at least half have contacted me by now. I haven't yet sent out my welcome message because mySJSU was unavailable as of 5pm last night. But it seems to be up and running now, so I'll contact my students right away.

--Professor Cyborg

another reason why I don't use blackboard

Ordinarily I'd post this on my COMM 144 blog because I started my critique of eCampus and Blackboard there, but since the most-recent eCampus email only went to my COMM 110 account, I'll discuss the issue here.

I received this email from eCampus yesterday afternoon:

Dear Summer 2008 Faculty,

Due to a recent change in how Open University (OU) students register for courses, Open University students in online classes will need to do the following:

1. On the first day of class, students will contact the professor to get access to their online class.
   
   
2. To provide access, the professor will give each OU student a guest account. (Share with them the guest account ID and password)
   
   
3. The OU student will access the course via the guest account until June 9, the first day that OU students can register through MySJSU.
   
   
4. Soon after an OU student has registered in MySJSU, their 9-digit MySJSU ID will be added to the CE6 course. The student can then use that ID to access the course.
   

NOTE: Open University students are allowed to register on a space-available basis. The 1 week window between June 2 and June 9 is to allow matriculated students time to register for classes. OU students attending class during the June 2—9 period does not completely guarantee that they will be able to register on June 9.

Also note: The Open University students don't need any special permission number to register for the course through MySJSU. On June 9, they will be allowed to enroll via MySJSU.

Mark Adams
Instructional Developer/Blackboard Application Administrator
San Jose State University eCampus
One Washington Square
San Jose, CA 95192-0135
408.924.2618
http://online.sjsu.edu
Mark.Adams@sjsu.edu

Here's the problem: There's no way to merge what the student did as a guest with what the student subsequently does as a student formally enrolled in the class. Discussions comments will be posted as "Guest User" with an ID such as "30178guest1" and any exams or quizzes will be recorded in the gradebook under Guest User as well. All papers uploaded, personal webpage developed, chat comments, etc., will be listed under the guest user ID. There's no way to move over any assignments. The instructor will have to transfer the grades by hand.

This policy affects any class that uses blackboard, not just online classes. The email's wording makes it appear that no one is really responsible for this change: "Due to a recent change in how Open University (OU) students register for courses. . . ." But the same folks who are in charge of Open U are also in charge of eCampus: SJSU International and Extended Studies. So I'd think that someone would have said, "Wow, maybe we should consider how this might impact students and faculty using blackboard in their classes." And of course telling faculty late Friday afternoon--the Friday before classes start on Monday--demonstrates the complete lack of thought that went into this decision.

Still, this is a minor issue compared to eCampus's major blunder in going with Blackboard in the first place. Completely ignoring the CSU's Accessible Technology Initiative, eCampus chose a learning management system that's not accessible. This means that eCampus signed a contract without finding out first if the LMS is compatible with screen readers such as JAWS and VoiceOver. Consulting with faculty first might have avoided this issue. But the folks at eCampus made the decision with no input from faculty, students, or the Disability Resource Center staff. Now we're facing a situation where once the blackboard contract is up (2 years) faculty and students will need to learn a new platform--less than three years after making the move from webct to blackboard.

For my Winter 2008 COMM 144 class I decided to go back to the future, coding all my own class pages and hosting them on my server, as I did when I first started teaching online. In 2002 I transferred all my classes to webct at the insistence of eCampus ("it's so great! so many wonderful features!" and "if you don't use it you can't teach online"). Many bugs and problems (such as the 6 weeks at the beginning of one semester in which Mac users never knew if their messages would post to the discussion board or not--sometimes it would take 10-15 tries. eCampus's response was, "Oh well, you'll just have to keep trying."). Many student complaints. Poor tech support. But the quiz feature was handy and students got used to the platform, so I stuck with it. But this latest version of blackboard is so awful, I simply won't impose it on my students (except for quizzes and grades, and if I had a viable option for those, I'd go with it).

My class webpages are completely screen readable. Google seems committed to accessible websites and tools. Blackboard talks about accessibility, but seems short on implementation.

This is a bit off topic, but I do want students to know why (in part) we're using Blogger rather than blackboard and why the class website is on the open internet and not on blackboard.

--Professor Cyborg

COMM 110 3.0

Today I launched the website for COMM 110, Interpersonal Communication. In a way, I've taken the class back to its online roots. When I first taught COMM 110 online, I hosted the site on the Rogue Communication server space. Then I moved to using WebCT after the folks at eCampus strongly encouraged me to do so. But now that SJSU is using Blackboard CE 6 (aka Blackweb), I'm moving all my online classes to the open internet again (with the exception of quizzes and student grades). There are so many negatives associated with Blackboard CE 6 (that I go into detail about in my COMM 144 blog), I can't in good conscience inflict it on my students.

Still much to do for the 110 class, but I wanted to get the site up and running so students can start browing through it. My primary task now is developing the quizzes. I'm using a new edition of the text. There are quite a few updates, so like the online presence for the class, the quizzes are undergoing a complete overhaul.

I'll keep you posted on my progress as I work on COMM 110 3.0.

--Professor Cyborg