Sprint3: Inhabiting Practice&problem scenario
I chose the What? So what? Now what? model to reflect on my sprint3.
What?
In Sprint 3 I was asked to design an open workshop, which I think is part of the preparation for the barcamp, what are my options? Or how do I create a teaching activity (similar to a lesson plan) that can be run in a short period of time, it has to be valuable, workable, low cost and something that the learners want to actively participate in. This puts a lot of pressure on me, I mean, to be able to ‘program’ this art project in a very short time, I am confused about decoding and coding.
So what?
I participated in the workshop with debi, dan and neil. I had the experience of being part of a worshop, we learnt to dance and practice in small groups, learning collages and reconstructing paintings and designing rules for art games. I think I don’t need to look at ‘education’ as being too complicated, it’s not just what the learners learn, but what they experience and how much they are involved. I think I need to start with the details and design a teaching activity that works (and preferably is fun).
Now what?
After two weeks of all the workshops, I started to design my open toolkit, I determined what I wanted, starting with the details, I designed a tie-dye workshop because I knew something about the process and I was involved in tie-dye culture and I could teach something about tie-dye to others, other than that I needed to make sure that this open toolkit I had I need to make sure that I have the ability to organise this open toolkit and that the raw materials I need are available and inexpensive (I have written it all down on miro). The advantage of this open toolkit is that the learners get the results (similar to de bi’s collage restructuring workshop) and each participant gets a piece of their own artwork, which I think motivates the learners. Another advantage of this workshop is that it comes from traditional Chinese culture, and although it is difficult to become proficient in tie-dye, the barrier to entry for this technique is low, so learners who are interested in traditional Chinese culture will not find it difficult.
By tackling Sprint 3, I think much of the difficulty I encountered stemmed from the fact that my definition of education was so macro that I was beginning to be unsure that my programme would be able to teach others skills or knowledge that were important enough, or to externalise the expression of internalised knowledge. That is, until I realised that my learners were not experts, or that they did not need to be. What I needed for my open toolkit was not enough specialist knowledge and skills (of course specialist knowledge is important), but how to engage the learner and be able to gain some insight. (An understanding of some artistic concept, an understanding of some culture, some artistic inspiration, even if it is a training in creativity.) I think these are the values that make barcamp exist.
Thank you for your article, it made me empathise with the same confusion I had when I was studying, which was to go to the same macro level as you did to define education so that I was defining whether the people I was going to teach would be able to achieve the level of professional skills I was expecting. I think it has to do with our similar educational backgrounds. It is harder to find the right place in education for each other and a smooth way to share knowledge in a kind of unconference communication in barcamp, but I think we can definitely set things right in the time to come if we are aware of this.