We need to get people into groups of people with like interests, ideally groups of 4-7 people each, and we need to do this online.

So, we’re going to do that through a three-step, speed-dating like procedure, which will repeat a few times:

Step 1: Topic Announcements

The first step is topic announcements. I’ll ask everybody to give single-sentence topic ideas that they’d want to start a group to talk about. I’m picturing folks saying something like:

• Taylor Swift memes
• Language of the Harry Potter Fanfic community
• Twitch and Streamer Memes
• YouTube Video Essay language use
• Language of the League of Legends eSports world

So, everybody with a topic will raise their hands, and when pointed at, will loudly and clearly say just that one sentence about their topic, and if you’re interested in a particular topic, you can note who and where that person is, in preparation for…

Step 2: Relocation and Discussion

Once the announcements are done, everybody who’s interested in Twitch memes will go stand with the person who shouted out their topic of interest. Then, folks in that area will all talk, and in that process, discover…

• Whether there are enough people who want to be a part of that group or not
  • If you have fewer than 4-5 people, you might broaden your announcement at the start of the next phase, going from (e.g.) ‘Language of League of Legends Esports’ to ‘Language of Esports’
• Whether you have too many people
  • In this case, you might see if there are subgroups of 4-7 people which could work together on something more specific (e.g. splitting the anime team into ‘Death Note memes’, ‘Manga language’, and ‘Studio Ghibli fandom’)
• Whether you’re connecting well with this group of folks
  • It may be that you’re into TikTok memes, but don’t really inhabit the same parts of TikTok as the other people interested, and want to make your own, more specific group
  • Or maybe you share the interest, but just aren’t vibing with that group of humans, which is fine, and can either move to a new group now, or wait until the next step.

Step 3: Decision Making

At this stage, you can make decisions as a person and as a group:

• If your group is big enough, and doesn’t need new people, you can choose not to announce your group in the next round
• If you’ve created a new group, you can choose to announce that new interest group in the next round
• You can choose, as a person, to announce a different interest than raised before.
• You can choose, as a person, to visit a different interest group than before, either now, or during the next announcement

Step 1: Repeat!

We’ll go back through the process again, with people again announcing groups looking for people, new and old, and go back through the process. We’ll do a few times.

The Aftermath

Once we’re done with this process…

• You can ask me for Discord rooms so that your 4-7 person group has a ‘home’ for the course and so I (and your classmates) know what groups are out there. Or you can use a private group chat, that’s fine too.
• You can exchange contact info, so you can communicate with your group members in whatever way you’d prefer.
• You’ll sit with your groups for future sessions, work with them on activities, and if you’d like, work with them on field reports and your final projects.
• Folks who missed today can connect with existing groups, or form new ones
• You’re always welcome to change groups if your interests shift or if the vibes do