1. Read the article “Is Email Evil?” Discuss 3-4 of the author’s ideas on email and share your own professional/ personal experience, including how many emails you send or receive each week. Is email use still important or can another form of communication replace it?
2. Think of a time when the way a workplace message was delivered to you made a difference. Give 3-4 details about this message, explaining why it was important.
- What were your message expectations and how were you influenced by the way the information was delivered?
3. From the article we can see that reflection and reflexivity are closely related, but are different from each other.
- Reflection is what you think.
- Reflexivity is what you do with those thoughts to learn something new about yourself, the people around you, or even the world you live in.
As a reflexive exercise, share a time when you were in a public place and someone did or said something that you found upsetting. Without discussing the other person’s behavior, answer the following questions:
- What was your initial reaction?
- Were you aware of your thoughts at the time?
- When did you become aware of your thoughts?
- Reflect on this situation now. Could there have been other influences on your perception of the situation in the moment?
- Given this reflection, what could you do differently next time?
- Be sure to respond to at least one of your classmates’ posts. Where appropriate, suggest strategies to help your classmates gain a deeper understanding of their story.
4. The purpose of this exercise is to develop a more nuanced understanding of gentrification.
Watch this video A Short Documentary on Gentrification, and write your answers to the following questions.
- What are the costs of gentrification? Are the costs more than financial? Who pays those costs?
- Who benefits from gentrification?
- What is the relationship between race and gentrification?
- How is gentrification a reflection of systemic inequality as well as individual inequality?
