Meeting facilitated by Dante, apologies from Sophia W and Niamh
REFLECTIVE PIECE:
- Reflective piece by the 5th January
- Can be anything (video, text, art)
- Dialogue (recording, email correspondence)
- Art piece (collage, painting)
- Can be a good idea to combine an image with supplementary text
- Fragments of images to communicate a more complex message
- Experiment with multimedia and different materials
- Ask questions through your piece
- Essay (reflect on the process, explore a question that came up for you) – alternate endings?
- Poetry
- Cinema essays/video log/interviews/news report format
- If you choose a more creative route, it could be helpful to research artistic theory to help you make the transitions from words/thoughts to a visual medium
- Journal entry/log book
- A criticism piece – there’s value in bringing conflict into discussion
- Do feedback of two people’s work (by first session)
SESSIONS FOR NEXT YEAR
- Neil Mullholland – paragodgy/para-academic schooling
- Give him an hour?
- Sofia L contact him weeks 3-8
- Neil Thin – wellbeing and happiness
- Lucie to contact him
- Interviews??
- Sociology magazine
- Rattlecap (Paula to contact)
- Skillsharing
- Facilitation (paula)
- Ethnography (cara)
- Reading discussions/raising concerns (maybe after external speakers/discussions)
- 3x group presentations (hour) – should these be at the end of the course? Should the presentations happen before or after the projects are completed? Should there be a like halfway formative presentation as part of the project process then a final one at the end?
- Project groups take a session is and plan it completely – 4, 5, 6
- Post it on wordpress, finalise the plan by end of first session
- Deans and associate dean of progression might come? – Dante to keep in contact with them
Tentative plan:
Week 1: reviewing reflective pieces
Week 2: reading group
Week 3: (external speaker?)
Week 4: bureaucracy group-run session
Week 5: pedagogy group-run session
Week 6: permaculture group-run session
Week 7:
Week 8:
Week 9:
Week 10:
To fit in:
- Facilitation session
- Ethnography session
- Neils x2
- Fit these around external speakers
EVALUATIONS:
- Planning sessions have been useful but quite time consuming and not everyone can make them
- Hopefully they’ll be less needed this year
- No panic about being hyper productive all the time
- Would like to bring back more physical and interactive activities as part of the session
- Experiment with different ways of running sessions
- Outdoor sessions in the nice weather!!
- Having structure will help, working towards a goal is nice, having something to show for your work
- Readings
- Autonomous group communication is important
- Transparency may not be completely necessary for the smaller groups – could it be a waste of time
- Experimenting could have been pointless at the start of the course, it could
- Production of a manifesto of the group, something to show and work towards is reassuring and helpful, and allows for experimentation
- Not everyone agrees that a long term goal is appropriate
- Looking at a new definition of learning and knowledge acquisition – the feeling of agency is refreshing in formal education and that feeling is what is important, not necessarily something to show at the end
- Some think that taking the process as the product is limited – everyone has a different experience of the course and some may not get as much out of it without an end goal
- Some form of product will help validate the course, as it is an experiment
- Creating a reading list will help people to engage more
- The reading list should not come from lecturer “authority” but from the group
- People contribute expertise but do not try to angle the direction towards their areas
- Some do not love reading so much – but if you do please bring articles to the group
- Being active creates focus and productivity, creates a generative atmosphere, and having fixed aims can limit that energy
- Being an alternative course means that it can’t produce the same amount as a more formal course, and it should identify areas that need to be questioned in the system and that can be it’s contribution
- Find a balance between burden with structure and aims – structureless and aimlessness can provide its own anxieties
- We can avoid having everything formally marked and graded, but we do have to play into it in a way
- University is good at reproducing itself and creating more and more of the same – we should aim to leave something behind so this course is able to do the same – this course is an opportunity to create a resource for the future
- The difference in involvement is a slight issue – some people taking it for credit, some auditing
- Finding our own authority and taking control of our education within the group is important
- The most important lesson of the occupation was from the declaration of occupation
- People take different things – do we want concrete and tangible outputs or personal learning experiences – we must value both
- And people should take action on what it is that they want from now on – if you think something is missing from the course, bring it to the group and it can become a part of it
- The reflection is a good way to bridge the gap between tangible and learning
- We could benefit from time outside of class to reflect on what’s happened
- There are thousands of manifestos
- We could reject the reproduction of the course – this is a personal and collective process and everyone has their own manifestos
- De-academising the course and it feels good to not have to be well read and like relating to existing philosophers
- Strength in organising is incredibly important
- Novelty is not necessarily a good thing
KEY AREAS OF EVALUATION:
BRING BACK BEING ACTIVE/SILLY
RETURNING TO EXPLORING READINGS
EACH GROUP OFFER READINGS PER SESSION (deadline? 2 weeks before your session)
EACH GROUP PRODUCES A DOCUMENT ABOUT THEIR PROCESS (not strict – like a log)
SOME SORT OF ARTEFACT ABOUT THE COURSE FOR THE FUTURE
MORE REGULAR REFLECTIONS (maybe incorporate photography – be proactive about documentation of the course)
