Group 3 update

Hopefully we will conduct survey 16th-18th....Mary Watkins is looking for teachers who volunteer

JohnJ_9_Q

Don't bore your listeners - is it really your fault?

I was talking to a professor of my the other day and we were talking about how she has noticed over the last decade the attention span of her students drop. She then stated how she can no longer show these documentaries about certain buildings because her students fall asleep. Ten years ago the videos she showed were cited in her end-of-year reviews as one of the best parts of her class.

I started telling her how I feel it’s the fast pasted movies and music videos, it's the 15 sec you tube clips and short flash clips, and it's the random song collection of IPODS that have trained today students to desire fast paced, high intensity snippets of information. She responded with a study she read which reported the average attention span for current students is about 7 mins before the topic needs to be changed.

Do you agree or disagree?

Team 1: Update! (Chad, Tim, & Sarah)

The video was shot on September 30^th. We’re currently going through the video & editing it. We did an audio interview/photoshoot on October 4^th. This Thursday (Oct. 11^th- 9AM) we’re meeting to put together the photo-audio slideshow. We’ve done some sketches/preliminary animation for our website, but we’re waiting on specific guidelines from the design team.

Jeff_8_Idea

I am in class and my shirt "kinda" fit the theme....

Take a look and see it what you think...

"This is where I nod and act like I'm listening"... Well this is true when I can't capture everything of what people said through lipreading... Yes listening is very vital which I believe that you can get the whole picture and the meaning and purpose if any behind the story but you can get the feel of it. If you pretend, what a dishonest person you are! I think it is important to listen and hear their word! Be cool with it and share with them your feelings weather you agreed or disagreed.

Overall, I have grew up and I find a lot of people don't understand what it is like being Deaf... Yeah I can talk but that doesn't mean I can hear. Overall, People think talking louder, talk verrrrrrry slowly... , covering their mouth, lighting is too dim or dark... I am trying to accomindate to the poeple but I would like people to accomindate to me. Just be yourself and if I'm lost, I will ask to repeat.

Stay cool!

Group 6 update

Some misunderstanding between our group and Ms.Richards in Storer Elementary. We wrote her and talk about it, we are waiting her response. Basically, the problem is about the communication between our group, the Wellness Center, and the school. But we'll see.

Curt Sutterfield the Digital Storytelling Liason from Fisher Institute for Wellness and Gerontology suggest us to look for other schools to cooperate with. We will also take her advise and think about start to contact other schools.

Kyle_8_I

Through digital technology listening has become an epidemic, or rather the lack of listening. Our attention has been diverted by, laptops, cell phones, IM, Facebook, iPods, Television, video games, etc. We are an ADD nation. Just looking at cinema from 50 years ago many now would say those once great films are now considered boring and slow. To entertain us has become a matter of how much content can be throw at an audience in a short amount of time. The average length of time between cuts on TV has dramaticly decresed over the last 15 years. We have become impatient listeners of the course of history. This makes the job of the storyteller ever more difficult. Capturing the attention of an audience takes more today then it once did. Our desire for good stories has not changed the way we recieve them has. I wonder if the reason for this is due to our advancing in how we can absorbe information and the quantity of information. Culturally our ability to process data and information has incressed, possibly causing us to need more information and data at a higher rate. Humans appitite for information is growing and so as a storyteller we need to acknowldge this and adapt.

Matt_8_I

I also thought the central theme of "listening" was interesting in this chapter. As far as listening being "waiting for your turn to talk", this reminded me a lot of my family. Growing up with three siblings, it seemed like it was a constant competition to see who could talk the most and get the most attention. Admittedly, there are even times now that we revert to some of our old habits, including our "listening" skills of waiting for our turn to talk.

Erik_8_I

I connected to this chapter more than some of the others... even though I thought that this chapter was much more so about listening (as it begins) than it was about storytelling.

Specifically, I find it curious how you can influence people by listening to their stories. This seems to be an extension of the belief that to get people to trust you, you have to make them think that they're your friend. I've read other such texts where there's a heavy emphasis on the 'think' part of the prior sentence. In other words, people are convinced that a person is invested in their personal life, but what is really going on is that this person is just being used... the other individual is simply ACTING like they care to use the person for their own devices.

However, Simmons seems to genuinely believe that the listener of a personal story not only gets the trust of the teller, but also gains something more meaningful from the transaction. Simmons suggests that the listener is enriched by hearing others' personal stories. Compared to other texts on how to influence people, I found this concept to be quite charming.

Indeed, Simmons says that you learn from hearing other people's stories. You learn something about life. Perhaps this all comes down to the age-old idea that you can learn from others' experiences... that you can live something out vicariously through hearing about it.

Brian_8_I

Ok before I go into my blog, one of Simmon's first line from the chapter reads:

"New ideas need room to grow. When old beliefs crowd new ideas out, the new ones wither and die."

Reminds me of a great Homer Simpson quote:

"And how is education supposed to make me feel smarter? Besides, every time I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain. Remember when I took that home winemaking course, and I forgot how to drive?"

One more pop culture reference was about 6 lines down from the last. Simmon's relates a question she posed to one of her groups about the definition of listening. Her client responds, "Listening is waiting for my turn to talk." If this doesn't remind anyone of Fight Club I'd be surprised. "Why do you do it?" "Cause when people think you're about to die they really listen instead..." "Instead of just waiting for their turn to talk."

Enough.

Good chapter, probably one of the better ones actually. I try really hard to listen to folks but I'm so distracted and ADD that I kinda suck at it. When it is an important conversation, especially with a girlfriend...I do listen really well. I can always tell that the other person appreciates it so I just do it naturally now. But when people are being sarcastic or talking when I'm in the middle of work I just say 'oh yeah' or 'uhh that sucks'.

Perhaps I need to find a happy medium.

Brandon_8_I

I wish more “business people” would take into consideration the lessons that this chapter infringes upon us.

I believe that listening is a key to success.

In a problem situation, listening also allows us to map out all the areas of a problem. The opposite of this would be to go into a situation immediately thinking of rebuttals to issues that are occurring.

I have dealt with a number of clients who come into situations thinking “I already know everything you are going to tell me.” If this were true, there would be no need to communicate with them about issues they are having.

Nobody knows everything. Everybody can learn something from everybody.

I was once having a chat with a client of mine who has quite a successful business. I was curious to what his thoughts were on “keys to success.” So I asked him what he tells people and what he has done to get where he is.

His answer: “I listen to people.”

From the book:
“One of our ancient methods is to tell a story begging the listener to say – and to feel – ‘Yes, that is the way it is, or at least that is the way I feel it. You’re not as alone as you thought.’”

I think this quote points out that, in order to communicate positively with somebody, we must be able to relate to them. Relating to a person helps to stifle the ability for negative emotions to occur in a communication situation.

John B_Chpt8_I

This chapter really didn't do much for me. I feel like Simmons is trying to explain and reinforce good listening skills. That's all fine and dandy, but I think that from being a middle child in my family, I have learned a lot of the listening skills that Simmons refers to at a young age. I know we have talked about this in class, about Simmons' writing being geared towards people working in cooperations and big businesses, but reading this chapter really depresses me when thinking ahead about getting a job myself. I don't know if I could work with people who haven't learned the basic listening skills that Simmons writes about. What amazes me is that there are people out there who actually need help in learning how to listen and tell stories. Like we discussed in class, I think all of us in this class are creative people and don't need the same kind of help that CEO's (for example) need when telling a story.

Martin_8_I

People really don't know how to listen anymore. Aggressive listening is the name of the game. You listen long enough to get a general idea of what the other person is saying and then tear right into them. Because they are stupid for holding a viewpoint different from yours.

Fox News is particularly bad at this. Old white people may love Bill O'Reilly, but I can't stand him. He's a little bully yelling at everyone to make his point. Or Nancy Grace! Wow.

And there are people that I know in my life that are this way. My Uncle Randy is an idiot sometimes. He's a conservative Lutheran and holds all kinds of fun ideas about how all Muslims are terrorists. That kind of thing. You can't talk to him about these things because he absolutely refuses to listen and that pisses me off to the point where I just don't bother. He and my dad are terrible. They always end up arguing. Then again they are brothers.

I'm not always all that great of a listener myself. Oftentimes when I'm listening to a friend talk, I realize that I'm just waiting for them to say something that I can make a sarcastic comment about. I have to admit that I sometimes can't even pay attention to all of the stories in class. I'm not saying anything about the quality of the stories. It's more the quantity. After about three stories, my attention is anywhere else. Then everyone starts laughing and I wonder what funny thing the storyteller just said.

Sarah_8_Q

When I was reading the “no therapy zone” I laughed because I felt this part of the book was really speaking to me. I feel like I am constantly bombarding faculty (and select GA’s) on the door and saying “hey- do you have a minute?”

I have a (mental) list of people to go to when I have problems or questions. Sure, I definitely try to figure things out on my own first, but sometimes I just can’t get it. I realize I have a select group of people who I consider “expert-advice-givers” in certain areas. I consider myself a part of that group for some of my friends. I really enjoy having that group as troubleshooters.

Does everyone else have groups like this? I’m assuming I’m not alone on this one…

JohnJ_8_Q

Does it ever frustrate someone when someone does the pretend to listen to you and they make it painfully noticeable? For example, you get the uhua, oks, yehas, and it becomes even more painful for you to finish your story?

Does anyone have any suggestions for someone like this? Should you just stop. Should you say never mind your not listening anyways, or do you change your story midway through just to have some fun with the person?

And a confession, I talk too much and need to start to listen more.....

Sam_8_I

When the topics comes of "listening" I cannot stop my mind thinking of the video Jeff brought up in TCOM 680 class.
It was a video about the people who can not hear, and the discrimination they suffered.
http://www.d-pan.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=36&Itemid=45
I think this video is awesome.

Several years ago, when I was preparing the travel to France, many people says French people are very arrogant, but when I was there, I feel it is not the case. French people just don't understand English very well. I saw their confused eyes and half-opened month, then I know, they're not arrogant and not willing to listen, they just don't have the clue what I was talking about.

I think listen to people is important, listen to people who use different way to communicate is a much tougher, but more important when we're going to face the people from globe village.

Han_8_I

I kind of disagreeing the author's opinion about pouring the old ideas out of the mind. I do believe that we should keep accepting new stuff. However I don't think it is a good way to empty all the old ideas in our minds.
For some reasons, I think the experiences are very helpful when we are dealing with some situation. Therefore, we need what we had already to face the circumstance. When we try to influence people, we can't just use new things to do. I think the best way is to combine new and old ideas to together.
I am saying we need to insist keeping our old thoughts. We definitely need to renew our ideas by accepting new thngs. Nevertheless, I beleive there are still some useful information in old ideas. Moreover, if we combile two ideas together, it would be a totally new idea;even better than just the new ideas. I don't think it can't influence people. Hence, do we really need to discard the whole old ideas? I don't think so.

Vince_Ch8_I

Overall, I liked the chapter's idea on listening. I can think of a few people in my life that live the definition 'listen for your place to speak'. They will not listen to you or they will pretend like they are until you are done so they can put in their own opinion. I am even guilty of this at times. We do need to work on this as a culture that values time like currency.

Jessie_8_I

I tend to have some song going constantly in my head. My life seriously has it's own soundtrack, its neat. There's this song called Little Wonders by Rob Thomas that stopped me in my tracks the first time I heard it. This chapter made me think of a line in the song.

Let it slide,
Let your troubles fall behind you
Let it shine
Until you feel it all around you
And I don't mind
If it's me you need to turn to
We'll get by,
It's the heart that really matters in the end

Everyone needs someone to talk to every once in a while and more often than not they need someone to talk to that understands what they're going through. You can pay a therapist to listen to your problems, they might even offer some helpful advice. Usually, though, they aren't in a position to really understand what it is you need to talk about. So what do you do? You go looking for a friend, a collegue, a significant other or even your mom (guilty on that one). But if you notice, they number of people you have to turn to when you need someone to listen is pretty closely related to the number of people in your life that you are willing to listen to when they need it. Does that mean that everyone you ever listen to is going to be that receptive when you need to talk? No, not in the slightest, sometimes not at all. There isn't an exact formula to quid pro quo that says someone owes you for the time you spend listening and sometimes people have enough of their own problems without taking on yours as well. Then what can you do? You do what you can to let people know that they can open up to you when they need to. You listen, you offer to help, you let them see they can trust you. You let them know that you really don't mind if they need to turn to you and you mean it. You take a chance and listen, not with any expectation of return, but with the hope that when you need to be heard someone will return the favor.

Iris chapter 8

Well...indeed listening properly is something we have forgotten and that needs to be trained again. For me it was quite interesting to read about that people don't listen because they are actually selfish..."If I don"t get attention then why should I give you mine"
.....honestly: we don't even listen to OURSELVES. How can we be able to listen to others? We push ourselves past any limits of physical and mental bearance. We swallow nutritionless food not paying attention to the signs (screams) our body sends us. We swallow a bad working climate pushing away the burned out feeling. We swallow the rules of a competitive environment evaluating things by their efficiency or the benefit they may bring us and not questioning the system itself. We scream for attention from all the world not realizing that we give (the right) attention (at the right time to the right aspect) to ourselves.
Listening means perceiving - fully perceiving. Being with no urge to respond, advice, judge, argue etc....

Eh?

Liz 8: Q

Eh? Anybody listening? I don’t think we listen well…unless we care about someone else more than ourselves. Even Simmons is constantly talking about listening. For what reason ….obtain a goal …..a position of influence, get our way? She states, “our emergent social patterns have us running in a disconnecting spiral of ‘I’m not getting enough attention. Why should I give you attention? In this environment, cynicism replaces mutual respect, alienation replaces community, and resistance replaces influence.’” Until we really care about another person, will we truly listen? Question: Do we exacerbate the problem of disconnectedness by using communication methods like text messaging and facebook which involve little of the 85% of connection in the message highlighted in chapter 4? Does this form of storytelling in essence diminish it’s effectiveness?

Sarah_8_I

I like this line on page 182: "Listening to people helps them pour out a little of their current thinking so they can make room for new thinking." This is reminiscent of the idea of using others as a sounding board. I like this method for venting, personally. When something is frustrating me or weighing on my mind, I like to just have another person available for me to just spew out everything that is in my head to I can clear away things in order to move on. The other person isn't there to offer advice or even respond in any way. They just exist in that moment sort of as a funnel for me to empty my head and heart so I can make room for something new and positive. And really I don't care if the person is actually listening or if they're thinking about what to have for dinner. Their simple existence is enough.

Tim_8_I

Chapter 8 gets to listening, something I have been trying to do more of lately. It is reminiscent of the typical communications model, we have a sender, but also a receiver. Many times I find myself thinking about something other than what is being said. I try to be an active listener and I can tell when I am successful, I can recall more of what was said to me.
I can also identify with what the author calls story stoppers. I am going along with a story weaving the details with a lesson about to be revealed when the hand goes up and a question interrupts my process. I want to be sure my audience is understanding what I am saying, but one inquirer can distract the rest of the room too.
I was concerned at the start of the chapter when the author writes about throwing away old stories to make room for new ones. She goes back to this point near the end of the chapter to clarify that we should keep the old stories and use them as a foundation for new ones.
Simmons also points out an interesting listening idea. If you listen long enough, the person will get to what they want you to hear whether they know it or not. They open up once they know you are listening.
I see how our class is closer after listening to each other’s stories every Tuesday. We hear stories they wont tell their own family, ones that make us think about our own lives, ponder what we would have done and even laugh out loud.
I appreciate when someone listens to my story, so I try to return that attitude and listen actively to theirs.

Brian_8_I

I know I am taking this slightly out of context, but on page 197 Simmons says:

"Asking someone who is trying to tell you the whole story to 'cut to the bottom line' often dumbs the story down to a meaningless bullet point"

That is a great point, and it fits in with my feelings when telling stories in class. When I tell stories to my friends, I don't have time limits, and I have a base on which to build the story. (I know the extent to which they actually know me, and I can either fill in the gaps or skip over certain facts that they already know.)

When in class, we have to give a certain amount of back story which forces me to tell the story in a completely different way. I then have to deal with the ever-present timekeeper. (Hi Tim!)

That makes me feel exactly like what Simmons is talking about. I have to dumb the story down and it seems to make it a meaningless bullet point.

Brian_8_Q (and the moral of this story is...)

I'm going to pull a "Chad" and do both a Q and an I this week!

My Q: I would love for several people to comment on what traditional story they think is of extreme importance in the lesson it teaches. The story that comes to mind for me is "The Boy Who Cried Wolf." (If you are not familiar with the story, you can read it here: http://www.storyarts.org/library/aesops/stories/boy.html )

I think this story is important because it teaches that you will lose your credibility if people find out they can't trust you. (Are there any politicians reading this?)

I would love to hear traditional moralistic stories from other cultures also!!

Team 1 Update

Thursday, Oct. 4:

Wandered over to the Christian Ministries Food Pantry in downtown Muncie. Met with the manager and interviewed her, gathering print and audio attributes.

Took a load of photos. Edited and color corrected em. Edited the audio for a slideshow to be included on our site.

Chad_8_I

I expressed boredom with the stories last week, but a line in one of this week's stories caught me. It's the one about the march on Selma, Alabama.

" ... It must have been warm because on the way home that night we had the windows rolled down ... "

Wrapped up in this thought is proof that some people recall broad ideas only because of the details associated with them. Ask a person to describe the best summer he's ever had. He will probably not explain in terms of ideas. Instead he will relate it with the color of the fireworks on that 4th of July; or the size of the waves one afternoon at the beach.

"Glengarry Glenross" is a cool movie about real estate sharks. Al Pacino's character says at one point: "What do you remember most about the best ... of your life?"

Hmmm, it's actually unfit for the blog, but I would encourage you to see the movie and decide whether you believe him. It's the scene where he's talking to the poor sucker in the bar.

Chad_8_Q

From Ch. 8, p. 187: "To listen is to bear witness and validate someone's fear, sadness, or anger at injustice in a way that allows the individual to move past these paralyzing emotions and regain their power and will to act anew."

An idea Simmons introduces later is that listening necessarily involves silence, too, to a certain degree. The listener shouldn't feel like he has to advise or fix his companion. To be there with open ears is enough.

Often I have ignored opportunities to listen in this way. It can be hard to listen to old people reminiscing about times I can't relate to. It can also be hard to listen to trusted friends on the phone, when I'm free to mess around the house while paying only partial attention to the phone conversation.

I'm curious: What are some listening opportunities you all feel like you regularly pass up?