FocusGroups

Fri­day Class Activities

 

1. In-class writing:
  • Reflec­tion: dis­cuss one com­mu­nity prob­lem, civic con­cern, social issue
    — at present and in past experience.

  • fast­write: post on your blog (entry can be draft/saved and pri­vate if preferred)

 
 

2. Ideas for Group-Site Topics/Focus
  • Dis­cuss in class and post ideas pro­posed in com­ments here
    (ini­tial list, to add/modify over weekend)

 
 
 
 




 
 

About GHink

-- Gary Hink, Ph.D. Digital Composition Faculty Program for Writing & Rhetoric
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45 Comments

  1. The per­pet­u­a­tion of stereo­types through media. Although I believe many efforts have been made in order to have more minor­ity pres­ence in media, often times the por­tray­als are very stereo­typ­i­cal and there­fore dam­ag­ing to the respec­tive communities.

  2. –Death penalty
    –Chem­i­cal weapons
    –Child labor
    –Euthanasia/Assisted sui­cide
    –Abor­tions
    –Legal­iz­ing mar­i­juana
    –Same sex marriage

  3. Media treat­ment of issues

  4. Home­less issue in Boul­der and poverty that is being ignored all around geo­graph­i­cally. Peo­ple with severe men­tal dis­abil­i­ties are being ignored and not prop­erly taken care of, there­fore they are becom­ing home­less and suf­fer­ing post jail or once given up on.

  5. –Sui­cide Pre­ven­tion
    –Men­tal Illness

  6. Lan­guage bar­rier between native eng­lish speak­ers and immi­grants whose lack of eng­lish hin­ders their abil­ity to par­tic­i­pate in soci­etal and com­mu­nal activities

  7. The lack of fund­ing in the Den­ver Metro and sur­round­ing areas for the home­less com­mu­nity.
    –Where can the city invest there efforts to have the biggest impact.
    –How resources should be pri­or­i­tized?
    –How could we dig deeper to under­stand the causes of homelessness.

    https://www-static.bouldercolorado.gov/docs/Homeless_Action_Plan_Strategy-1–201408191322.pdf

  8. ille­gal immi­gra­tion– The Dream Act

    Abor­tion

    Colorado’s water

  9. Nutri­tion Edu­ca­tion as it relates to health­care and pre­vent­ing dis­ease.
    Lack of Nutri­tional edu­ca­tion in schools/Nutritional ignorance

  10. dis­par­i­ties in pub­lic edu­ca­tion fund­ing lead­ing to an even larger gap in resources and oppor­tu­ni­ties for success

  11. Teach­ers are not being prop­erly trained on how to work with stu­dents with dis­abil­i­ties. The focus would be to look at how this is affect­ing the stu­dents, why it is a prob­lem, and how to han­dle the problem/what might need to be done.

  12. Lack of edu­ca­tion and pub­lic schools in Wash­ing­ton D.C which causes a major seg­re­ga­tion issue through­out the city as the lower class attend these ter­ri­bly funded schools and the middle/upper typ­i­cally attend expen­sive pri­vate schools through­out the city.

  13. Makayla McGivern

    - The lack of care for peo­ple with men­tal ill­ness around our coun­try causes most to end up liv­ing on the streets where they then end up in jail due to com­pli­ca­tions with their dis­or­der.
    – This relates back to the prob­lem of home­less­ness.
    – Cur­rently a vicious cycle.

  14. –How funds are dis­trib­uted for pub­lic schools within our coun­try specif­i­cally in the areas around Boul­der. Who decides these funds and how can our coun­try make the dis­tri­b­u­tion more fair?

    –Legal­iza­tion of marijuana.

  15. Under the umbrella term of “food jus­tice” and pre­ven­ta­tive health care mea­sures
    –Food waste in Amer­ica com­pared with large-scale pro­duc­tion and large-scale waste
    –Envi­ron­men­tal degra­da­tion caused by large scale farm­ing
    –Access and edu­ca­tion to afford­able, healthy, quick food preparations

  16. All of the issues sur­round­ing tex­ting. Tex­ting has ruined peo­ples abil­i­ties to hold face to face con­ver­sa­tions, tex­ting and dri­ving kills, and tex­ting bills drain peo­ples wallets.

  17. –Racial dis­crim­i­na­tion in the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem and . Can a com­mu­nity affect a social issue by cre­at­ing laws etc. Can there be some­thing sim­i­lar to the “ice bucket chal­lenge” related to race that could be started through social media?

    –Com­mu­nity aware­ness about envi­ron­men­tal impact of con­sump­tion of meat and com­mu­nity aware­ness about the meat indus­try and food indstry in gen­eral: what is actu­ally in our food?

    • I ques­tion the same thing Iris does, in the fact that can there be some­thing related to the ALS ice bucket chal­lenge that can be applied to another issue such as race through social media? This is inter­est­ing because the chal­lenge took off so rapidly. So why can’t other impor­tant issues get that much atten­tion? Very inter­est­ing to think about.

  18. Pub­lic Reform Plan: need to focus on reach­ing out to peo­ple who do not have direct con­tact with peo­ple who are cur­rently enrolled in pub­lic edu­ca­tion, get­ting their sup­port. Moti­vat­ing teach­ers to mold young minds and indi­vid­u­al­iz­ing (whether by class or stu­dent) to meet unique needs. Prob­lems with tenure and lack of motivation.

    Inequal­ity among dif­fer­ent schools, some schools have a lot of money while other, older schools have little.

    Com­mu­ni­ties get to elect their school boards.

  19. Do you care about Net Neu­tral­ity?
    Com­cast and its cable lobby part­ners spent over $70 mil­lion in the last decade lob­by­ing for the new net neu­tral­ity rules that would allow them to cre­ate a slow lane on the web, charge more for tiered ser­vices, and arti­fi­cially slow traf­fic to com­peti­tors.
    http://www.esquire.com/blogs/news/comcast-astroturfing-net-neutrality

  20. Water con­t­a­m­i­na­tion issues– can these local issues inspire oth­ers in dif­fer­ent com­mu­ni­ties? Take a local case study and apply it to a big­ger pic­ture
    Police bru­tal­ity
    Food deserts
    Re-use and recycle–Re-usable bags

  21. Sui­cide Pre­ven­tion
    Anti-Bullying

  22. Sui­cide Pre­ven­tion
    ALS Ice Bucket problems

  23. Ideas pro­posed:
    –crim­i­nal jus­tice hav­ing to do with racial dis­crim­i­na­tion: dis­cus­sion and opin­ions
    –food indus­try and how peo­ple need to be more edu­cated about it, aware­ness
    –com­mu­nity aware­ness, case stud­ies, images for approach­ing envi­ron­men­tal issues or com­mu­nity con­cern
    –pub­lic edu­ca­tion: school board meet­ings, com­mu­nity action, bring­ing forth oth­ers peo­ple input
    –sui­cide pre­ven­tion
    –gay mar­riage
    –home­less peo­ple state wide and their hunger issues and how peo­ple work­ing in the food indus­try waste plenty of food

  24. –abor­tion
    –increase in home­less­ness
    –changes in health care
    –media view on cur­rent issues
    –suicide

  25. Local Farm­ing, how peo­ple can pur­chase their crops locally

    Wealth gap in Ameica

  26. Rep­re­sen­ta­tion of Women in media (why women are one sided and one-dimensional)

    Rep­re­sen­ta­tion of Sex Work­ers in Media

    Rep­re­sen­ta­tion of Mil­len­ni­als (or lack, thereof)

  27. Domes­tic vio­lence in tra­di­tion­ally patri­ar­chal soci­ety (usu­ally immi­grant fam­i­lies from South Asia. Pak­istan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, India, etc.)

  28.  
    » Pro­posed Top­ics for Group Focus
     
    Sec­tion 028

    • Mar­riage Equal­ity ? (*social issue?)
    •  

    • Mar­i­juana Legal­iza­tion ? (*social issue?)
    •  

    • Home­less­ness (x3)
      — treat­ment, men­tal dis­abil­i­ties, arrest/jail, resources/funding
    •  

    • Men­tal Ill­ness (x2)
    •  

    • Sui­cide Pre­ven­tion (x2)
    •  

    • Lan­guage bar­rier” between native and non-native speak­ers of Eng­lish ? (*social issue?)
    •  

    • Water quality/scarcity ? (*social issue?)
    •  

    • Nutri­tion (x2)
      — health-care, effects, issues
      — edu­ca­tion; in schools (or lack thereof)
      — access, afford­abil­ity
      — eco con­cerns, e.g. waste, pro­duc­tion, farming
    •  

    • Pub­lic Edu­ca­tion
      — Fund­ing (x2) & “Gaps“
      — Teacher train­ing — stu­dents with dis­abil­ties
      — “seg­re­ga­tion” re: funding
    •  

    • Rep­re­sen­ta­tions in media (or lack thereof):
      — of women; of sex work­ers; of Millennials
    •  

    •  
      → please con­tinue post­ing — new ideas or mod­i­fi­ca­tions
      (espe­cially clar­i­fy­ing / qual­i­fy­ing issue in terms of social issue, civic con­cern, com­mu­nity prob­lem;
      i.e. not legal, polit­i­cal, eco­nomic, technical/technological — although these aspects are related and likely will be addressed…)
       

  29.  
    » Pro­posed Top­ics for Group Focus
     
    Sec­tion 034

    • Racial Dis­crim­i­na­tion & Crim­i­nal Jus­tice ? (*social issue?)
    •  

    • Envi­ron­men­tal Impact of Food/Industry (x2)
      & Local Farming
    •  

    • Edu­ca­tion Reform
      — inequality/gaps in funding/resources
      — moti­va­tion of teach­ers and students
    •  

    • Net Neu­tral­ity ? (*social issue?)
    •  

    • Water Issues
      — contamination
    •  

    • Food Deserts” (nutri­tion scarcity)
    •  

    • Police Bru­tal­ity ? (*social issue?)
    •  

    • Sui­cide Pre­ven­tion (x2)
    •  

    • Anti-Bullying effots
    •  

    • Home­less­ness
    •  

    • Media Stereo­types — specif­i­cally of minor­ity groups
    •  

    • Domes­tic Vio­lence
      — par­tic­u­larly among families/members of tra­di­tion­ally patri­ar­chal societies
    •  

    • Wealth Gap” in Amer­ica ? (*social issue?)

     

  30. The abil­ity for those with men­tal ill­ness to attend proper schools and receive state fund­ing is a huge prob­lem typ­i­cally overlooked

  31. Alco­hol Pol­icy
    –dis­crep­ancy of leg­is­la­tion vs imple­men­ta­tion
    –col­lege cam­puses
    –drink­ing age, legal limit

  32. Recy­cling:
    – On CU cam­pus
    – Around the city of boul­der
    – Efforts made around the US

  33. –Home­less­ness around Boul­der
    –Aware­ness of Food Indus­try and Local Farm­ing
    ALS Bucket chal­lenge aware­ness and how another orga­ni­za­tion in need could cir­cu­late in a sim­i­lar fashion

  34.  
    » Sec­tion 028 Poll   (sign-in with @CU iden­tikey required to see form)
     

  35.  
    Sec­tion 034 Poll     (sign-in with @CU iden­tikey required to see form)
     

  36.  
    » Sec­tion 028 — Ten­ta­tive Groups
     
    (ini­tial focus, issue/problem
     

    Home­less­ness
    Dylan
    Jeff
    Nuni
    Sabra
    Tamarah

     
    Edu­ca­tion Prob­lems / Reform
    Con­nor
    Mea­gan*
    Tyler
    Kyle

     
    Men­tal Ill­ness & Sui­cide Pre­ven­tion
    Jonah
    Mikayla
    Whit­ney
    Zach

     
    Nutri­tion Concerns/Issues
    Jenna
    Junior
    Matt
    Alex

     

      * = dis­cus­sion host (on blog)
      — note: list will be updated soon with blog hosts for each group discussion

     
     

  37.  
    » Sec­tion 034 — Ten­ta­tive Groups *unre­solved

      * = dis­cus­sion host (on blog)
      — note: list will be updated with blog hosts for each group dis­cus­sion (*vol­un­teers* needed)

     

     
     
    » Eco-Concerns (Food, Water, Farm­ing, Indus­try)
    and Nutrition?

      Garima^
      Jeremy ?
      Nicki^
      Shelby^
      (Iris ?)
      (Luke ?)
      (^ = nutri­tion interest)

     
     
    » Con­ser­va­tion, Recy­cling, Sus­tain­abil­ity poli­cies & efforts ?
    (—— as social prob­lem, civic action? define)

      Colin
      Dave
      Luke ?
      (Jeremy?)
      (Shelby?)
      (Nicki?)

     
     
    » Sui­cide Prevention

      Chelsey
      Han­nah
      Juliet*
      Ken­neth
      Rachel
      Zach

     
     
    » Home­less­ness

      Abby
      Con­nor
      Iris
      Michaela
      Mikki
      Colin (2) ?

     


     
    * Pos­si­ble Alter­na­tives
    (espe­cially if first two groups consolidate)

     
    » Domes­tic Vio­lence
    Abby
    Garmia
    Han­nah
    Juliet

     
    » Edu­ca­tion Reform/Issues
    Chelsey
    Michaela
    Abby

     
    » Inter­net Issues
    (—— as social prob­lem, civic action? define)

      Dave
      Con­nor
      Ken­neth
      Zach

     

  38. Sup guys.
    I’ve got a post going for Inter­net Issues, feel free to jump in with some com­ments. Work in progress.

    http://skullduggery101.wordpress.com/2014/09/06/x-internet-policy-social-issue-discussion/

  39. ECO-CONCERNS
    Let’s get this group solid­i­fied! Please com­ment if you are interested.

    http://lupa5302.wordpress.com/2014/09/07/eco-group-food-water-farming-industry/

  40. Okay! So I will def­i­nitely need some help here, but I noticed nobody has started any­thing for edu­ca­tion yet so I made a blog for us, it def­i­nitely needs to have a cer­tain look/feel to it. So if you are want­ing to do edu­ca­tion go here: http://mejo6595.wordpress.com/

  41. I have a post on my blog for sui­cide pre­ven­tion, feel free to post and dis­cuss on there.

  42. I started a blog for the Con­ser­va­tion, Recy­cling, Sus­tain­abil­ity group, post or com­ment any­thing you want to add!

    http://shelbykopf.wordpress.com/2014/09/10/conservation-recycling-sustainability/

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