Alyssa Gonzalez- Blog post reflection #1

 Beyond the Presentations: How we communicate with others and each other

 Alyssa Gonzalez: Blog post number 1

May 22,2025

After seeing my classes group presentations I was very impressed to see how well everyone of my peers did. And to see how thought out every presentation was and how much effort they put in and being able to see all of the information given between each group was amazing and it was a very good learning experience. 

Chapter 3: Intercultural Communications 

Starting with my group which is group one I thought that all the information that we included in our presentation was very eye opening even to me and my group members because all the information that we included in our presentation was about how different views and beliefs affect intercultural communications. One of the main things that I found very interesting was how different hand gestures are interpreted in different cultures. This is something that we all do and before seeing it in my presentation I didn't really know how hurtful it can be to other people when throwing up a peace sign because we thought it meant bye. But to others it means something completely different. 

This is one of the slides from my group's presentation and what truly stood out to me front is how things we do on the daily could mean something horrible to someone else. This shows how involved we are in our own worlds and how something so simple can ruin so many relationships whether it be work related or friendships. Because of simple hand gestures. But we do it anyway cause many people including myself don't take the time to think about how this could be offensive or hurtful to someone else because we all think that everyone we come in contact with has the same social norms as us or we expect them to know that it means bye or peace. 

Chapter 9: Communicating in groups 

Now moving on to group two personally I believe that they have such an informative presentation.Their presentation gave me a clear and new view on group communication and how group communication can truly help people within their own lives. For example talking to support groups and to people with common interests, this can help so many people whether it be about school/work or something personal in their lives. What stood out the most for me was when they started to talk about working in groups and how conflict may rise, but also giving the solution for peak performance with your group and its all with communication.

This is a slide from group two and it really stood out to me because all throughout high school and some of college we are put into groups to do assignments and projects but about 75% of the time there will always be an argument at least in my experience. But this slide made it clear to me that this happens to a lot of people and there are some ways to fix and manage conflict between people in your group and I truly think that this is something everyone should take note of especially for the future because you never know who you are going to work with and how it will all work out. I think that everyone should take the time to look at all the different ways to manage and mend conflict between group members and take the time when you first meet to divide the power evenly because everyone should be doing the same amount of work.   

Chapter 10: Group leadership and problem solving

Lastly group three which they presented on leadership within groups and how to problem solve. This presentation showed me what truly makes a group leader and the different kinds of leaders a group needs to be successful. Because without someone in charge you won't be able to make any progress. They also talked about the sub leaders such as task, maintenance, and procedural roles that help the group and leader with a successful outcome.  

Take this photo for example without someone there taking charge and taking the time to do research they wouldn't be able to do anything. That also counts as problem solving. Without problem solving you won't be able to complete any obstacles that may get in your way. This group showed us all the steps that it takes to be a problem solver or how to solve a problem. I personally believe that it is necessary to be able to solve a problem if you want to be a leader and take charge. Group three informed us that to be a problem solver you need to analyze every situation and let the people you work share whatever information is found and not many people do that. And not many people do that and I think that everyone should be given the chance too.  

The one thing I think that each group could’ve done better is figuring out who was going to share the screen and making sure that when the person's slide was up there were to start talking because at some points someone's slide was up and there was just an awkward silence till they started to talk. But that all comes with practice and takes time to get used to it. Overall in the end it wasn't that bad it just could've been better. But even after that overall I think that each group did very well with their presentation. 

Looking back I have to say that I was very nervous about doing a presentation the first week of class with people I have never worked with and I think my peers would agree with me. I thought that trying to do a presentation in just a handful of days was impossible. But I was definitely proven wrong. Each of these presentations all had great information and all of my peers did so well while presenting during class. I believe for the first class presentation the bar was set very high and I can't wait to see what the outcome will be next.