Miscommunication

I have not had any experience in the work place where there has been miscommunication, but the television show The Office is a great example of frequent miscommunication in the work place. In one particular episode, the manager of the Scranton office, Michael, is told by his superior, Jan, to choose a health plan that cuts back on benefits. Instead of completing this unpopular task himself, Michael delegates the task to his employee Dwight and then locks himself in his office. When Dwight chooses the worst health care option available, the employees of the office object. Michael emerges from his office long enough to reprimand Dwight for his health plan choice, tells Dwight to pick a better one without giving him any specifics, and promises everyone in the office a big surprise for all the stress they've gone through that day. Dwight goes through more conflict with the other employees of the office, causing them to loose confidentiality rights. Nothing is solved, and the employees are disappointed with Michael's "big surprise" of ice cream sandwiches.
Many examples of miscommunication occurred in this situation. First off, Michael causes huge a huge barrier between himself and his employees by locking himself in his office. Second, Michael should have explained to his employees that the health plan had to cut benefits, and not just blame Dwight. Michael was the person in authority, and he is the one who should have picked the health plan in the first place. Michael did not explain the task well to Dwight, and Dwight, being a salesman, was unqualified to make that decision. Dwight's solution for choosing the health plan is for everyone to write the illnesses they are suffering from on a sheet of paper. This causes the employees' confidentiality rights to be violated, and they become disgruntled. Another miscommunication was Michael's promise of a "big surprise." Michael did not have anything in mind when he promised the big surprise, and the employees were picturing a more significant reward than ice cream sandwiches. Michael should have spent his time wisely on choosing the health care plan instead of searching for a reward to make up for his mistakes.

Online Portfolios

My favorite presentation was Kyle Cook's on the top 5 Clemson dunks from this basketball season. I liked it because he used appropriate visuals and he included video footage from the games. It also helped that he was enthusiastic about his subject.
I must say I have not had a great deal of experience with online portfolios. Someone once gave me a brochure to create an ePortfolio, and I did, in fact, make one of those. I'm not sure if that counts, as I merely downloaded about two essays from my English 103 class. But I assure you, it was a good experience. Having the brochure that laid out instructions step by step made a big difference. I will probably need to know how to set up a portfolio before the portfolio draft is due.