Comments on: Consensus and Difference in Workplace Collaboration http://courses.johnmjones.org/ENGL605/2012/11/04/consensus-and-difference-in-workplace-collaboration/ ENGL 605, WVU, Fall 2012 Wed, 14 Nov 2012 02:44:42 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4 By: ewardell http://courses.johnmjones.org/ENGL605/2012/11/04/consensus-and-difference-in-workplace-collaboration/#comment-3276 ewardell Mon, 05 Nov 2012 01:26:28 +0000 http://courses.johnmjones.org/ENGL605/?p=984#comment-3276 Jay, I really like what you're saying and agree: conflict can't be forced nor should we teach "disagreement for disagreement's sake." The process has to be both organic, but not out of hand. I used to hold a staged debate in my class to teach my students how to identify fallacies. The idea was given to me by a colleague. The debate was called "Robot, Pirate, Ninja, Monkey." Students were divided into teams and had to argue why one person/animal/thing would win if these individuals were pitted against each other on an open battle field. Usually the debates are lively and fun and students are effective in identifying fallacies made by other teams: "you say that my pirate would lose because he's a drunk, but that's a hasty generalization and a stereotype, etc." The groups would have to negotiate their ideas and record ideas of other groups so they could respond as a team. This could lead to intra and intergroup conflict. In fact, once in my colleague's class, one group threatened real physical harm to a member of a different group based on the claims made and the debate had to be shut down. It seems that a productive kind of conflict is somewhere in-between finding a word's definition online, and this kind of vitriol. Also, as teachers, it's only natural to want to put out the flames when they flare up (and I especially have this tendency) so it's hard to see a way where conflict results in a positive thing and not a mess and a lack of control. However, I think regarding technical writing and collaboration, we have to find a way to make a space for conflict in the classroom since so many projects in the technical writing world are created by multiple individuals and multiple individuals rarely agree that things should work in the exact same way. Jay, I really like what you’re saying and agree: conflict can’t be forced nor should we teach “disagreement for disagreement’s sake.” The process has to be both organic, but not out of hand. I used to hold a staged debate in my class to teach my students how to identify fallacies. The idea was given to me by a colleague. The debate was called “Robot, Pirate, Ninja, Monkey.” Students were divided into teams and had to argue why one person/animal/thing would win if these individuals were pitted against each other on an open battle field. Usually the debates are lively and fun and students are effective in identifying fallacies made by other teams: “you say that my pirate would lose because he’s a drunk, but that’s a hasty generalization and a stereotype, etc.” The groups would have to negotiate their ideas and record ideas of other groups so they could respond as a team. This could lead to intra and intergroup conflict. In fact, once in my colleague’s class, one group threatened real physical harm to a member of a different group based on the claims made and the debate had to be shut down.

It seems that a productive kind of conflict is somewhere in-between finding a word’s definition online, and this kind of vitriol. Also, as teachers, it’s only natural to want to put out the flames when they flare up (and I especially have this tendency) so it’s hard to see a way where conflict results in a positive thing and not a mess and a lack of control.

However, I think regarding technical writing and collaboration, we have to find a way to make a space for conflict in the classroom since so many projects in the technical writing world are created by multiple individuals and multiple individuals rarely agree that things should work in the exact same way.

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