Class Session: #1

(Heather)

Explaining Systems to an intellegent 12 year-old

-Use MySpace as a starting point for understanding that others come from a different family, different culture, and a different way of relating to the world.  Then expand on the notion that all things are connected by thinking about events in a past/present/future orientation.  Finally, the use of the human body as a self-contained system and the importance of balance within that system.  Eating too much junk food will have a negative effect on the quality of the body, etc.

 Class Session #2

 (Sandy)

Class Session #3

  (Dan)

Our combined Learning Team discussion created an interesting dynamic in comparison to our singular Learning Team discussions. The addition of 4 other individual led to more limited input from our team. It's an interesting dynamic that as you expand the number of people in a group, the less aggressive opinions don't get presented.

(I'm not sure a less aggressive opinon got presented, I felt like we were going around and around about a couple of points and landed on a pretty liberal way of thinking of this issue.  I felt like the combined group stifled some individuals from presenting their opinons on the issue.  This is always a challenge of being in a group, excpecially when thinking about emotional issues such as the one on drug/alcohol corrections.)

It appeared that the group was in agreement with the point made by Stone (2002) "Precise rules stifle creative responses to new situations. We can never fully anticipate future circumstances, so it is impossible to write rules that account for new facts, technologies, and contexts" (p. 290). Our discussion on the concept of a student drug policy seemed to confirm that there is a need to make a definitive statement on what is allowed to avoid chaos, but it is necessary to give the administration the flexibility to response to the uniqueness of every situation. There was agreement that a "zero tolerance" policy is too limiting in dealing with more complex situations and doesn't allow for all of the variables that a complex system like 2,000+ 18-20 year olds living on a campus creates.

There was also good discussion around the value of a systems thinking approach when developing and implementing policies with complex organizations. We discussed the need for extensive training and communication of key policies to insure students understand the ramifications of non-compliance. This training then enables the administration to enforce its rules with confidence that the students were aware of the expectations.

Class Session #4

(Diane)