Over this past semester, creating my Fishbowl with my peers was an eye-opening and unique experience. It made me do something that I have not before: look beyond common structures and archetypes to create my own understanding, as well as take in the individualistic viewpoints of my peers. Coming up through the education system I did, every concept was presented as a concrete structure, something universal that everyone could find consensus in. What interacting in the Fishbowl has taught me is that each person has their own unique understanding and interpretation of a concept, and this is something we should celebrate and take advantage of. A compounded base of individualistic analysis, interpretation, and response to a given concept can bring about a much greater, more meaningful understanding and widen our collective breadth of knowledge. It has also brought to me an element of introspection when considering a concept. Extracting a felt experience during the process in the Fishbowl made me reflect upon my life and memories and make connections I may never have had the wherewithal and peripheral thought to ever notice. The creation of my Fishbowl was not just a learning exercise or a collection of knowledge, but it was also an exercise that influenced my patterns of perception and process of reflection.
One of the first exercises that really opened my eyes and made me realize the impact of the Fishbowl was the 10 + 1 exercise where we deconstructed Integrated Networking Systems. My first attempt at the 10 + 1, while challenging and confusing, was the first step into my conceptual development in this class. Taking a concept that, like the others I have been taught, can be presented as concrete and encouraging everyone to present their personal interpretation provided me with a wider base of knowledge from which I can derive my own insights. The interactive nature of this exercise connected me with my classmates as we created something greater than the sum of its individual parts. This connectivity is something that at times can be emphasized, but not actually achieved. The Fishbowl helped us attain this goal, and positive impact of that is something that is essential to our development not just as students, but also as people who will be emerging into society and the workforce soon. As Carissa reflected on transferring to URI in her felt experience, she said something that really interested me. She had hesitancy towards being able to blend in, but found a different experience: “I was able to connect with other students and learn more about the school and what goes on here. I formed friendships and work relationships through the experiences the business school gave me.” We are lucky to be afforded the opportunity to create relationships through our studies, as these are fundamental to our development and preparation for the next phases of our lives.
Moving into the next exercise was where I really began to understand the impact of the Fishbowl and started to feel more comfortable. The 10 + 1 exercise deconstructing Complex Adaptive Systems really helped me expand my mind, and the first step of defining each word in the concept was the one that I found the most interesting and opened the floodgates for the rest of the exercise. My definitions helped me dissect the concept:
COMPLEX: a whole made up of complicated or interrelated parts
ADAPTIVE: able to adjust to the conditions of a particular environment
SYSTEMS: regularly interacting or interdependent group of items forming a unified whole
By interpreting the parts of the whole separately, I was able to construct my own meaning for this concept, rather than accepting a given definition for the whole. Each piece has their own meanings, connotations, and connections to make, and this aggregate of meanings creates something more resonant for me. Being able to then evaluate the input of my peers in this scenarios just amplified the dissection and extrapolation of meaning from this concept. I like the way that Carissa reflected on this: “People have different perspectives on how they view and read things. Everyone's knowledge is slightly different as no-one’s minds work in the same way. I will gain a different experience than someone else would, even if we are doing the same exact thing.” The divergence and re-emergence of meaning between the participating members in the Fishbowl is one of the most dynamic and intriguing elements. What we can create is something special; it is collective enlightenment through the conglomeration of our reflections. Another aspect of this exercise that I found interesting was how we could connect this concept to our lives and the outside world. As it was astutely put in the Fishbowl: “Like this class, the world itself consists of many different and connected parts. We learn how to adapt and conform to different obstacles that come our way. Things that are seemingly unrelated show how they truly are.” Deeper reflection reveals to us deeper connections; these are the things we overlook constantly as we rush through our daily lives. Without questioning and introducing introspection into the equation, we only see things at their surface level, and fail to access the deeper aspects that can be much more meaningful. One of the most impactful factors of the introspective aspect of this class was that it led me to reflect on my family, one of the most important and fundamental things to me. While I always appreciate my family, it is so vital to actually express my gratitude outwards, if nothing other than for myself to reflect, absorb, and appreciate it. I said in my reflections in the Fishbowl: “My experiences with them have been CRUCIAL in forming my personal character, ideologies and drives. The support and wealth of knowledge that my whole family provided me ACHIEVE my goals and be motivated for more.” Taking the time to acknowledge what I have been blessed with is so important to me, and is something that we all need to take more time to do. We focus on our hardships and develop a blindness for the blessings and support we have around us. Being able to take a step back through introspection to realize your priorities, your ways of thinking, and your fortunes around you keeps you grounded and helps to guide your development.
The Fishbowl has been unlike any experience I have ever been a part of. While I started as a skeptic, my eyes were opened along with my views as I went through the exercises. I learned about deconstructing and reconstructing meaning, the magnitude of importance that the aggregate of our collective opinions and reflections have, and ventured into introspection, all of which have led to my development not just as a student, but as a person and member of society as a whole.