It's been a quiet week (thus far) in Lake Wobegon, with my first group meetings and first huge, ginormous project assigned and time already ticking. It's funny to contrast the Webb group meeting and the UMich group meeting. Let's workshop: suppose you are in a four-person group at Webb. All your groupmates will be in your class, have an identical background. Contact them by yelling across the dining hall. Meet in the library. Use free laptop, free printing, etc. to improve productivity. Now suppose you are in a four-person group at Michigan. One groupmate has dropped the class but you don't know that. You have three classes represented and two totally different backgrounds. The good news is you can contact everybody by jumping online and creating an email address just for your group. The bad news is that once everybody has agreed to meet (and when) you'll have to take the bus to get there, bring your laptop because the lab will be full, and watch out because you can't print wirelessly. I guess the moral to this rambling is two-fold; groups work better when you are in a close setting, and blogging is an excellent diversion from NA562 homework.
Wednesday, September 22, 2004