Thursday's class was definitely an interesting new experience. Our homework for our previous class was to do a four panel comic on how we made it to college. Jimmy Moss had us put our assignment on the desks that were in the center of the room so we could all read and take a look at everyone's work. And then, unexpectedly, he told us to arrange everyone's assignment from best to worse. At first, it was a little hectic. A couple of people were trying to suggest on how we should go about in arranging it. The first try was to have everyone select their favorites. There was no limit at first, and a lot of the students just seemed hesitant in going about in choosing their favorite piece. It was also taking awhile. So then more suggestions on how we should arrange it came about, eventually bringing out the assertiveness in a few people. Some of us could tell that we were losing patience. Eventually it was decided that we should just check mark only one of the piece that we liked the most to herd out the good ones and the bad ones. After the good ones were chosen, we did another check vote on the next set. And then did another for the last set. We were losing time in deciding so we had rushed at the last minute on figuring out the arrangement of the comics from best to worse so by the time everything was done, we had forgotten to look over the check marks to see which truly was the winner. It was startling for me to hear him say that we failed the whole task. We failed because the comics ranked with the highest check marks were out of order so that the best comic truly wasn't the best (based on check mark ranks). But I was more surprised that other students tried to fight back in defense as to why we failed. So in the end, the two top ranked comics received prizes after all.
After that, we were separated into groups to discuss what we did. We had to come up with a group opinion on what qualities we were looking for when we chose which comic we thought were the best. We also were to discuss the group process in the arrangement of the comics. Here's a list on some of the things we thought was necessary for the criteria of a good comic:
Clarity; If the story was clear and it made sense
Logical order; If the panels weren't all over the place. For example, if the comic reflected upon a timeline, it wouldn't jump from being a kid to an adult to a teenager.
Quality/Artist's ability; Some of us could tell that the work was done at the last minute. This influenced our judgement greatly. There were others where one could tell that they had spent a lot of time working on the comic. We also discussed the artist's ability to draw and on how as design/art students, we should be able to have some knowledge on basic drawing skills and their ability also had some influence on whether it would be considered good or not.
Story; If the story made sense.
Upon deciding on whether the decision we made was fair and if the way we had organized it been fair, as a group we decided that it was, for time's sake. Though, we also agreed that it was flawed and should be tweaked a bit but overall, the way we decided on choosing to arrange the comic seemed fair.
The reason I found this experience interesting has to do with a couple of things. One of our group members mentioned that once we get out there in life, everything would be like a checklist. We also saw how we would react as a group when something changed. During the whole decision process, Jimmy had announced that we only had a couple minutes left in deciding the ranks. Near the end of the class, Jimmy mentioned that these were things that happened in the real life. Things like deadlines getting picked up or getting dropped. I don't doubt his words at all, but it certainly has opened my eyes more towards the real world.
Provocative- something that provokes...
Erroneous - error
Alone - by itself
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