[AlbuquerqueApache]

I know that the world requires peer cooperation, but some of the worse that I have ever seen has been from groups in the classroom. I am working on a network project right now and granted, the other members of my group don't have hands on experience but they could READ THE DAMN BOOK!

I had a 30 minute conversation with a girl in my group last week who literally tried to tell me that she couldn't understand the material (we were talking about wireless networks so its not THAT bad). She tried to tell me she couldn't picture what I was saying because she is a woman and women can't picture things in their minds the same as men do (okay?).

I tried to talk about it further with her and come to find out, she didn't even read the damn chapter. She wasn't the only one. Another guy in my group complains he doesn't understand either but won't do the assignments.

I am just frustrated as hell with this.

[oscode]

I recently graduated and I sympathise, I found the same in university. It's worth mentioning you concerns with their lack of effort to your lecturer, keep your own notes of all meetings work you have done in a dated log book. They will try to take credit for anything they can, these people don't want to know about the job they are trying to get, they want a degree.

This post has been edited by oscode: 26 October 2010 - 07:37 AM

[hookiethe1]

Yeah, groups can be good or bad, I always prefer to just get it done myself. I was assigned a lab partner for one of my classes early this semester, I have never seen him in the lab or spoken to him aside from a couple of e-mails, he asked me for my phone number and I refused to give it to him. Yesterday the lab TA asked me if he was still in the course and I said well he's still coming to the lectures.
On the other side though, I recently had a group project that worked out well for me, I was buried in assignments and exams and they looked after the majority of the work for me, not that I was the one sitting on my ass, I did contribute and continually offered to contribute more, but they took care of it and that was a relief for me at the time.

[Lemur]

I hate to say it but welcome to a light taste of the working world. Dealing with incompetent people is something that you have to deal with daily. I'm a freelancer and I get enough of my fair share, I've heard enough from people I know that program or do sysadmin work to know that they have it substantially worse.

Just remember, stupid students become stupid workers who somehow always manage to get the same job as you do.

[AlbuquerqueApache]

I just hate group assignments. They always seem to turn out like that. A few people do all the work, some do nothing.

One semester I actually lost a letter grade because one of them was too lazy to paraphrase when they were plagiarizing. He was one of these people taking 20 something credit hours and just wanted a degree.

I understand that working with people is a key part of the workforce, but I have seen a distinct difference in working with students versus co-workers.

[xclite]

I hate group assignments early in the curriculum. In the higher level courses, it's more likely that your group members will be competent (although by no means is it guaranteed).

[hookiethe1]

The best system I've seen for group work was in a class I had back in Australia, they listed all the students in the class in order of GPA and then took groups of 3 in that order, so if you were a good student you had other good students, and if you sucked, bad luck.

[AlbuquerqueApache]

xclite, on 26 October 2010 - 08:01 AM, said:

I hate group assignments early in the curriculum. In the higher level courses, it's more likely that your group members will be competent (although by no means is it guaranteed).

I'm in my senior year for my bachelors in information systems. I dont think its getting any better, lol.

[lordofduct]

I've never known what to do in those situations. And the professor is rarely any help, they give you the schpeal about how you must learn to work with others, and at times they will be just as difficult, and blah blah blah.

Sorry, no, because if I was at a job and my peer said "I don't know this, don't plan on putting any effort in, and I'm completely unqualified for the line of work."

...

well then they are FIRED! Get out of the damn office! If they don't get fired then they're the bosses son and I'm telling the boss I won't work with that person, and if they can't handle that, then tootles... I'm gone.




Luckily I dropped out of college nice and early. The only classes I had to do groups with were bullshit classes unrelated to my area of study (not a lot of 'group projects' in math classes... yey!). So my group projects were in crap like Speech and Physics Lab. Labs are easy to get through as if my partner is to retarded to do stuff I make him my go-for, but it actually didn't turn out that bad... he was maticulous about measures, I was about the math. Perfect grade.

But the speech was horrendous. We had to do a 'group speech' on 1 topic out of 5. 5 topics were voted on and then randomly given to each of 5 groups.

Yeah don't let a group of college freshmen vote on speech topics. Guess what the list came down to...

Abortion - oh really! Cause that one is going to work out just oh so well.
The War in Iraq - meh, ok, topical I guess. Yet it still fell flat on its face.
**some crap I don't remember**
**another I don't remember**
Pedophilia - OH YEY!

And guess which one I got. Ped-o-baby fucking-phelia. Better was I was stuck into a group of 4 girls, 1 a mom, the others Christian. I was SO elated! Just tickling with anticipation about how awesomely fun this is going to be.

It'll be 20 minutes of 4 girls completely lambasting the male psychy and comparing freaks who sleep with 8 year olds to normal adjusted men with normal sexual appetites. Furthermore it'll be some good ol' hate mongering saying we should castrate and/or euthanize the pedophiles of our society... because you know, they aren't human and deserve to DIE for it. It's not like just 100 years ago the idea of marrying a 13 year old was actual a daily occurance amongst civilized nations.

Shit still is in some places of the world.

So yeah, lets burn em' all.



Good ol' fun.

This post has been edited by lordofduct: 26 October 2010 - 01:46 PM

[creativecoding]

I love group work.

It's like free time in middle school

[AlbuquerqueApache]

creativecoding, on 26 October 2010 - 10:27 PM, said:

I love group work.

It's like free time in middle school

*feel anger surging through body*


Dude.......

[AlbuquerqueApache]

lordofduct, on 26 October 2010 - 12:42 PM, said:

Yeah don't let a group of college freshmen vote on speech topics. Guess what the list came down to...

Abortion - oh really! Cause that one is going to work out just oh so well.
The War in Iraq - meh, ok, topical I guess. Yet it still fell flat on its face.
**some crap I don't remember**
**another I don't remember**
Pedophilia - OH YEY!

And guess which one I got. Ped-o-baby fucking-phelia. Better was I was stuck into a group of 4 girls, 1 a mom, the others Christian. I was SO elated! Just tickling with anticipation about how awesomely fun this is going to be.

It'll be 20 minutes of 4 girls completely lambasting the male psychy and comparing freaks who sleep with 8 year olds to normal adjusted men with normal sexual appetites. Furthermore it'll be some good ol' hate mongering saying we should castrate and/or euthanize the pedophiles of our society... because you know, they aren't human and deserve to DIE for it. It's not like just 100 years ago the idea of marrying a 13 year old was actual a daily occurance amongst civilized nations.

Shit still is in some places of the world.

So yeah, lets burn em' all.

Good ol' fun.

Oh come on! you don't like the fem-nazis? Who tell you that having sex with a woman is next of kin to an act of violence? (yes I have heard this and the WTF factor was 9.85). Gotta love those fun loving gals....lol.

And topics like pedophilia, rape, domestic violence, etc. seem to just be a rallying call to these types. Kind of reminds me of the Lifetime channel

"Lifetime, where men are all evil unless they are the "hot" handyman slaving away for Dr. gorgeous (fill in a pretty woman here)"

Talk about gender discrimination...some of the worst I have ever seen has been on that channel and it seems to be a favorite of the women in my family.

Anyway /rant

This post has been edited by AlbuquerqueApache: 27 October 2010 - 05:26 AM

[eZACKe]

Definitely depends on who you end up with, but in general I find it quite annoying as well.

Professors do it because it will "get us prepared for the real world". I don't think so. In the real world we will be working with people who actually want to get the job done.

[xclite]

eZACKe, on 27 October 2010 - 09:54 AM, said:

In the real world we will be working with people who actually want to get the job done.

This is hopefully the key. If you're working in the real world and people don't want to get it done, I'm sorry you found an unproductive workspace. It's never been the case at my workplace that somebody's handing off all the work to me or that somebody isn't pulling their weight. That also keeps me honest, because I certainly don't want to be "the lazy one" either.

[AlbuquerqueApache]

eZACKe, on 27 October 2010 - 05:54 AM, said:

Definitely depends on who you end up with, but in general I find it quite annoying as well.

Professors do it because it will "get us prepared for the real world". I don't think so. In the real world we will be working with people who actually want to get the job done.

Yeah, I don't think this concept is valid because 1. in the workforce, there's a penalty thats not enforced in school.....Termination.