Practically Speaking

Students taking CMNS 420: Virtual Team Communication in Winter 2019 had to communicate virtually with their instructor and online classmates, because their instructor was teaching from Australia. Virtual teams create collective action without team members working in the same time and space. In this class we used technologies including video conferencing, instant messaging, blogging and short videos to interact with each other.

We researched useful platforms and tools for virtual team communication including SSharepoint (and IR System), Yammer, Trello, Slack and OneNote, BlueJeans, Skype, Dropbox, Google docs, WhatsApp chat and Blink.

Check out the videos below where students, Lisa Matty and Heather Simpson describe the features of some of these tools.

Watch Lisa Matty’s self shot review of OneNote, Collaboration at your fingertips (5.07 mins). Lisa demonstrates how to be a responsible hands-free driver while also collaborating with her teams.

Watch Heather Simpson’s quick introduction to using Zoom for video conferencing and instant messaging, Knowing your options: An introduction to zoom (4.35 mins).

Try these tools out and let us know what you think.

To meet demand in the Fall 2019 term, our department ran two hybrid sections of CMNS 180, Introduction to Intercultural Communication. In practical terms this meant stepping up the amount of out of class and online activities while still meeting learning outcomes around improving intercultural competence in the daily lives of our students. Intercultural competency is something that really needs to be accomplished through interpersonal interactions and that is hard to do online.

Working from an idea found in the course textbook “Introducing intercultural communication: Global cultures and contexts” by Shuang Liu, Zala Volčič and Cindy Gallois, students were asked to “Get together with several friends, family, coworkers, or students (from classes other than this one) and get people talking about (insert topic here)… Make a journal entry about content and communication dynamics of the conversation.” There were five topics spread across the semester of which the class members needed to initiate four out of five. Topics were: intercultural issues in politics The Canadian federal election happened in October), identity, cultural appropriation (always a good discussion prompted by Halloween), cultural adaptation, and conflict.

NO ONE was excited about the prospect of completing this assignment but some took it on right away while others lagged to the very last minute, and everywhere in-between.

However journaling was not the whole assignment. The culmination of all those Blackboard journal entries was our One Day (research) Project in the final class session. Drawing from what they had written, each student was asked to answer six questions based on the Who, What, Where, When, How and Why framework (concentrating not on the content of the discussions but on the dynamics). The answers were then crowdsourced onto six posters and the class divided up to look for patterns in the answers, relate those patterns to things they had been learning about intercultural communication, and to ultimately come up with a list of “best practices” for engaging in tough conversations around intercultural issues.

Some of the things that surprised many of the students were that:
* family, friends, coworkers and even strangers were interested in elevating casual conversation beyond surface topics (i.e. the weather 🙂 )
* they learned a lot about the people they thought they already knew really well
* they started to look forward to having the conversations
* the people in their lives were interested in the details of what they were learning in class

In the end our list became “best practices for getting more comfortable with having tough conversations.”

First, choose:
* people you already know or are in a context where they might already expect such a conversation (i.e. university)
* places where you are comfortable and where a conversation is most likely to happen naturally
* places where you already know people
* places where you go frequently

Then:
* Work towards going out of your comfort zone (engaging with new people in public places)
* Find new comfortable places
* Pay attention to surroundings for what might impact participants willingness to engage
* Watch for right time/place; Make sure conversations are in a safe environment
* Consider age/maturity of those in conversation
* Approach topics casually
* Make conversations one-on-one personal
* Do during normal routines of the day; During free time, preplanned w no surprises

Think about:
* Using an indirect approach (don’t be blunt and demanding about having a conversation)
* Looking for common ground
* Demonstrating attention/active listening
* Taking responsibility to lead/guide the conversation
* Using current issues
* Always having an eye to building relationships
* Having conversations regularly
* Possibilities for having a facilitator (third-party)

Prepare yourself to:
* Be willing to ask questions
* Show curiosity
* Validate others
* Be present in the conversation
* Give prompts
* Value others opinions
* Use examples
* Be open-minded and show others that you want to listen
* Be willing to challenge your own beliefs and ways of thinking
* Be intentional

Improve your own comfort level by:
* Personally engaging in and learning about topic so you feel comfortable and can engage others
* Start with video/article/info to create interest, knowledge and participation
* Developing relationships and meaningful connections to learn about others interests and to create an environment where one feels safe addressing culturally sensitive topics
* Setting aside intentional time or incorporating into everyday conversations

On Wednesday May 23rd, Communications student Natasha Knight was honoured along with a host of amazing student researchers at the 2019 Undergraduate Research Excellence Awards at the University of the Fraser Valley. Here is what Natasha had to say about the research she completed for her W19 CMNS 351 course [Professional Research Report Writing for the Workplace] with instructor Dr. Marcella LaFever.

My project topic stemmed from an underlying passion for health and fitness. Since health and fitness has become a popular trend in today’s society, I decided to compare five health and fitness apps to see which apps best motivated its users and kept them actively engaged. I searched for the highest rated health and fitness apps through Google and the Apple Store. The final list included MyFitnessPal, Fooducate, Fitness point, Nike Training Club and 8fit Workouts & Meal Planner.

The report reinforced that not all fitness apps are operated the same and some do not motivate consumers as well as others. I was able to differentiate each app and determine which apps provided easy navigation techniques, provided useful information to the consumer, and used motivational features to keep the consumer engaged.

While none of the five apps were difficult to navigate and provided a variety of useful information, two were superior in providing motivational strategies. Both of these apps had social networking techniques. MyFitnessPal allowed you to add friends to motivate you along your journey and share your logs with them. Fooducate had a platform similar to Facebook in which users could post anything motivational such as progress photos, healthy recipes, and inspirational quotes, to name a few. Having these kinds of features in an app is something that will keep the consumer engaged and wanting to use it more and more. Not only do they get to learn about health and fitness, they get to connect with others who are going through similar journeys.

Engaging in this research project has allowed me to enhance my education in terms of gathering information in a variety of forms and taking a hands-on approach to research. This allowed me to gain more insight on the kinds of reports written in a business setting and has advanced my skills.

I am a third-year student in the Bachelor of General Studies Program minoring in Business and Communications. I have previously completed a Social Services Diploma and a Professional Communication Essentials associate certificate. I plan to apply this degree towards a project management or a human resources related position in my future career.

GUEST BLOG by Maxina Spies for UFV’s Centre for Social Research

On March 26, 2019, University of the Fraser Valley students from a variety of faculties presented their research findings with posters and mini-lectures at the annual Student Research Day in Evered Hall on the Abbotsford campus. Several individuals and teams presented projects related to social research and won awards for their outstanding work. We are proud to highlight them here.

Among the winners was Erin Haan, a second year student minoring in Communications, who was awarded the $200 Associate Vice-President, Research, Engagement & Graduate Studies prize for her research on “Media Framing of the Dairy Industry in the Canada/US Trade Renegotiation,” supervised by Communications faculty member and Centre for Social Research affiliate Dr. Marcella LaFever. As part of her Professional Research Report Writing class, she looked at the framing of the new USMCA trade negotiation, with a focus on the dairy industry because of her own experience working on dairy farms for over six years. Erin also has taken a dairy certificate program, which helped her interpret her research on how Canadian and American newspapers framed the dairy conversation during the 2018 free trade negotiation. She stressed that “media outlets have had a large impact on the renegotiation issue by presenting particular points of views,” and that “biased headlines can cloud the public opinion on the renegotiation.”

Nursing student Christine Drew, supervised by Professor Shelley Canning, won the $200 Dean, Faculty of Health Sciences Award for her research titled, “Exploring the understanding and comfort levels of nursing students with Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD).” Christine’s research flowed out of a directed studies research course in the nursing program and her recognition of the layers of ethical and practical challenges for nurses in relation to the recent MAiD legislation. Her research contributes to a small existing body of research on the topic and helps address these challenges. Christine said her research highlights that “comfort levels surrounding MAiD are very multifaceted and can be influenced by age, gender, work experience, educational levels and background personal beliefs such as religiosity.”

Christine found that when she began the project, people would often ask for her opinion on MAiD, although she feels that the “opinion of the nurse innately shouldn’t be considered for a patient requesting MAiD.” This dichotomy intrigued her and spurred her interest in her research question. In reflecting on her research, Christine stressed that “it is vital that nurses reflect and be aware of their values and beliefs surrounding MAiD so as to provide impartial patient-centred care,” which points to the importance of education for nurses on end of life care. Christine will be presenting this study in May at the UBC Graduate Nursing Student Association annual symposium, and will be graduating in June.

Psychology student Caroline Duncan won the $200 Dean, College of Arts – Social Sciences Award for her poster presentation on “Loneliness, Resilience, and Cognition of Older Adults.” Duncan’s research was supervised by Dr. Lesley Jessiman, a psychology professor and member of UFV’s Centre for Education and Research on Aging (CERA). Dr. Jessiman’s work with CERA has looked at issues related to improving quality of life for aging populations, researching ageism and higher education, and the effects of typical aging on emotional and cognitive functions. She points out that Caroline’s research has is “particularly important given the growing older adult populations in the Lower Mainland, which is where the data was collected.” As a mature student, Caroline shared about the relevance of her research to her own life as she cares for her aging father, who has “struggled with loneliness and loss of his resilience when faced with adversity later in his life.” Caroline’s interest in completing this project as part of her honour’s thesis for her psychology degree grew after taking UFV’s Adulthood and Aging course.

The research also connects to the intergenerational aspect of aging, because, as Caroline puts it, “We are all hopefully going to be given the opportunity to grow old in our lifetime, and loneliness does not align with our human nature.” The chance to interact with participants and learn from their life experiences was a highlight for Caroline as she conducted her research. She hopes that this work pushes UFV to integrate a gerontology program for students. Dr. Jessiman hopes that the research “will help inform policy by identifying specific means with which to reduce levels of loneliness among our aging populations,” which has been recognized by the World Health Organization as a significant factor in rising morbidity and mortality rates in older populations. Both researchers hope to continue a second phase of the study with semi-structured interviews of a wider sample set.

Business students Allan Les, Ford McMahon, and Simeon Gellert were awarded the $200 Vice Provost and Associate Vice-President, Academic Award for their poster presentation on “Crime Rates in Canada,” supervised by Professor David Dobson from the UFV School of Business. As part of David Dobson’s Economic and Business Statistics course, the team developed a research question focused on whether there is a correlation between a local police force and lower crime rates. The group focused on Surrey’s expensive decision to switch from RCMP to a local police force. Based on a statistical analysis, the team concluded that there is a positive correlation between having a local police force and lower crime rates. Although this was a strong factor in reducing crime rate, they also found that socioeconomic factors played an even more significant role, stressing that, “In order to ensure continued decreases in the local CSI (Crime Severity Indexes), Surrey’s City Council should continue their work to encourage post-secondary education, stable families, and economic development to provide well-paying jobs.” Although this project was not directly related to the business program, Simeon Gellert stated that it was an enjoyable project and he hopes to work with Allan and Ford again in the near future.

We congratulate these students for their excellent contributions to social research which not only enriches the UFV academic community, but also has important applications in our wider communities.

For more information on the Centre for Social Research:

Website https://www.ufv.ca/social-research/

Twitter @4socialresearch https://twitter.com/4SocialResearch

In case you need a reading recommendation… here are six great reads that could help raise your intercultural competence along the way.

On March 13, during Valley Fest week, the students from Communications 180 showed off their semester project. They spent the weeks leading up to the event reading, reflecting, and planning. It wasn’t easy. Their job was to pick out concepts from the book that they were also studying through other materials in class and be able to tell their audience why their particular book was a good way to learn about that concept.

It was my pleasure as the instructor to spend the previous summer reading through a dozen wonderful books to pick ones that would engage, intrigue, and also connect to real life Canadian stories of challenging intercultural encounters. Connecting the assignment to Valley Fest seemed the perfect vehicle to press the students to do their best and the rose to the occasion.

Of course the project had a broader goal as well; to work towards meeting the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s several Calls to Action that ask again and again for institutions to increase the levels of intercultural competence for professionals and all Canadians.

This is also a great place to announce the exciting news that while the Introduction to Intercultural Communication course has only been running once a year for the last several years, it will run twice in the 2019-2020 academic year. Check out the timetable for one section in Fall 2019 and another for Winter 2020.

All of the books featured by these students are available through the University of the Fraser Library and through most public library systems throughout Canada (as soon as the students return their copies of course) 🙂

NOW RESCHEDULED: Monday Feb. 25, 2019

Hot on the heels of Dr. Mai Anh Doan’s talk at the Scholarly Sharing Initiative event this month about financial communication as it relates to crowd-sourced fundraising you will have a chance to catch up on a research project undertaken by another member of the Communications department, Dr. Marcella LaFever at the upcoming February 13 event.

Marcella, in examining the implications for herself to decolonize her communication practices, has focused her ongoing research program on listening to Indigenous voices that have been saying for a long time what colonizers need to do to change their attitudes and practices. Dr. LaFever’s current work alongside Shirley Hardman (UFV’s Senior Advisor on Indigenous Affairs) investigates use of First Nation storytelling as a form of dialogic participation, specifically in relation to how stories were used by Indigenous participants in submissions to the 2010 Cohen Commission on Decline of Sockeye Salmon in the Fraser River.

The presentation for the Scholarly Sharing Initiative follows up on stories that were initially coded through use of Stó:lo story types: Sqwelqwel (oral narratives relating to personal history) and Sxwôxwiyám (oral histories that describe the distant past). This discussion focuses on the third stage of the analysis, the use of Linda Tuhiwai-Smith’s “Twenty-Five Indigenous Projects” as explained in her 1999 innovative book “Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous peoples.”

The presentation will ask participants to engage in a discussion investigating the validity of using this as a qualitative coding framework.

From the UFV Events Calendar:

Scholarly Sharing Initiative — Indigenous Stories, Reflections

For years now, when people asked me why I didn’t have a cell phone (no it wasn’t because I refused to keep up with technology) – I would tell them “as soon as a carrier makes it seamless to cross over the Canada-U.S. border and still have service, I will get one.” Finally this year, a Canadian carrier figured it out and the price stabilized to something reasonable. I signed on.

I traveled last spring and everything worked as promised. No extra charges; coverage 100% of the time (excluding super remote rural areas of course). However, on my most recent trip I ran into a few problems, not the fault of my carrier but more related to the nature of my phone use – I was contacting friends and family to make plans for visiting.

I was merrily texting and leaving phone messages. I did realize that for many people the only contact method I had for them was Skype, Facebook via messenger, or ultimately through email which we had been using for years because phoning was just not an option for them or for me given cost and borders.

Then it got tricky…

My granddaughter was asking me why I had her blocked. I was horrified – of course I didn’t have her blocked. We figured out it was because she could get my texts and voice mail but she couldn’t reply because she didn’t have either an iPhone or a service that let her respond to a Canadian phone number [No wonder I wasn’t getting answers from a few people I expected to respond]. I asked her what other messaging she used besides sms and specifically whether she used messenger – her answer “nothing” and “no, I don’t like it.” How is that for not wanting to keep up with technology, and she a post-millennial? We settled on email, but really, I know and you know that isn’t going to work, right?

One friend and I have always connected through skype and we settled that we would just keep doing that. I long ago cut down on skype use so I am not sure how well that will work.

Another friend who I have only ever connected with through FB sent me the message above and asked me the big question “What does the communication expert have to say?” I don’t know what to tell her but this has made me question how we stay in touch in such a globalized world and reminded me why “communication” can be so complicated (this particular example is merely a symptom).

Interestingly, searching the net doesn’t give us much of an answer about what to do when traveling internationally. There are of course things like buying a new sim card for each country (you can imagine the complications here I am sure); or there is advice on how to find free or cheap WiFi (not all that helpful); and then of course the least helpful perhaps, one-way stuff like write a blog or send a postcard. If you can get everybody onto the same app maybe that’s a solution but good luck with that venture.

So – no solutions here but feel free to comment on what you do to stay connected and make meet-up plans while traveling internationally.

twitter: @MLaFeverPhD

Dr. Marcella LaFever (University of New Mexico, 2005) is an Associate Professor in the Communications Department at the University of the Fraser Valley. She specializes in intercultural communication and brings that expertise to various subjects such as communication for workplace, instruction, social media, team and public speaking contexts.