Resource Review & Knowledge Validation
For my two projects I used plenty of resources which I will present in the following:
- Experiences of people: There is firstly Declan Kennedy who has an, as he says "Irish ways of teaching", which is very flexible and uses very strong the method of storytelling. I learned a lot about teaching in a non-formal way and it really inspired me to see the objectiveness in his lessons. His teaching strategy is very unusual and some people are not satisfied with this, because they are used to learn in a more strategic and structured way. Then I talked with different people from the community about education and learning and all conversations were very valuable for my thinking. I talked about experiences they have made with learning, our current school system and alternative learning strategies. All these new information formed my real life thinking about learning and education
- Internet: A big part of my inspiration I found through research in the Internet. There I read various pages written from people with a complete different background (teachers, students, learn advisor, etc.) and I combined different scraps of information (best practices, experiences, theories) with my own thinking and needs. This time I tried to work more strategic and I did not end up researching all the time but really gain an advantage from all the information by implementing it to some sort and act on it. I felt not lost in the internet and stopped researching when I know I received enough information. All the learning theories I read about in the internet are tested by myself and those I did not test I will test in the next months. So I am looking for information I need and then test it almost immediately in real life... Thats th way the internet makes sense!
- Books: During this time I have read the book "Anastastia" which is about a woman who lives in the Nature of Russia by herself and is still very deep connected to nature. t was a very inspiring story and I read through it very fast. Anastasia talks about learning and education as well and has her own philosophy about the human ability for learning. It is a very inspiring book which influenced my thinking a lot and I want to combine it with all things I found out in my research.
- My own experiences, thoughts and ideas: In the end all the knowledge is directly connected to me. All the experiences I have made so far, all my ideas and thoughts influenced this project. I do something with the new gained knowledge and try to make use of it.
Terra Preta Workshop (supporting documents)
Learning material (supporting documents)
Annotated Resources
Please view this list to get an overview about the resources I used to produce this OP (including my projects)
Furthermore I started a list of methods and best practices for project management
Digiphon
In this section I am presenting all tools and platforms I used while I worked on my OP.
Tools:
- Libre Office to write texts
- XMind to create Mindmaps
- Excel to create documents
- Photo Camera to take pictures
- Laptop to write on
- Simple Image reducer to reduce the size of pictures
- Image quick to cut pictures
Platforms:
- Mahara to present my OP
- Dropbox to save and upload (additional) material
- Flickr to embed pictures into Mahara
Participation Records
Gaia University:
My MoYP called "Steps towards resistant bees"
Peer Meetings:
Local Support:
Bees: Anne (exchanging, my role: support person), Micha (experienced bee-keeper = teacher, is answering all questions)
Workshop: Declan as an experienced wise man ;-)
I had one Main Advising Session after I submitted OP3 with Laura Kaestele. But I did not use any other of the GaiaU services (Elf/Skillflex meetings)
Main Advising:
One session with Laura Kästele
Wordcount
Wordcount 3562: including OP Specification, Process Reflection, Introduction, Main Body and Conclusion
Journaling OP4
22.09.16 Community and/or agricultural work?
Visiting two communities in Italy was a very rich experience! The first community called "Corricelli" was located in the hilly landscape in Tuscany. There lived 6 adult (retired) people in strawbale houses and yurts. Everybody had its own house and a communual building is under construction. Their motto was :"Life simple". On the very steep land they had a very simple outdoor kitchen, shower and compost toilet. In summer they really live outside. On a social level their communication was very easy but clear as well. They are all friends and we did not had the feeling that there are surpressed fellings or unspoken expectations between the community people. The social life is very easy. The people share two meals a day together and one day a week they have a community meeting. The rest of the time everyone can follow the personal work or interests. They only have some view roles about money, and the common goods. There is no legal or hidden "chief" in the community. Everybodys opinion is accepted and decisions are decided in consensus.
What definitivly comes to short in my eyes is the agricultural part and designing the landscape. They have a small vegetable garden, which does not look overcared and some never cut, fruit trees which almost produce no fruits on the land. They are interested in being-self sufficient but there is not the neccessary energy and motivation behind it. I ask myself if there is a stable relatively small community which is socially strong and at the same time self-suffiecient...I did not really hear about one in Italy...
The second community we went is called "Giardino della Gioa" in southern Italy next to the national Parc "Gargano". Well, it is actually no community anymore. When we arrived there was no responsible person, just three other just arrived wooffers. On the 1 hectar big land some yurts were spread and a small neglected vegetable garden next to the kitchen. There was no community at all... People told us that the owner of the land was the hidden "chief" and wanted to make decisions by himself. Over time the twenty community members left and he ended up alone on the land left with some very nice structures (great bath, kitchen, toilet, yurts, treehouse). Although it was in the beginning an intentional community the social dealings between the people had no future-reliant capacities. What a pitty!
(01.10.16)
Lost in the Internet:
Because I have a passion for learning almost everything I recognized that I read too many books at one time and research about many different things in the internet. Then there are some topics I am really interested in and I like to dive deeper e.g. Bees and Terra Preta. I spent weeks with reading articles and gain first-hand experience, but I am not able to document and structure it. Sometimes if I am able to do so, it is somewhere written on small pages of a notebook or in my laptop and I loose the overall-view on what I already wrote down and where it is now
09.10.16
If I have a question about something I will find the answer in the Internet. The answer of a question today is very often:" Oh, I do not know... just google it!!" .
And yes, it is true that you find the most of the time an satisfiable answer in the internet. It is so practical! But what I recognized that as soon as I started to google something new questions arise and I spend hours researching and end up in an endless sea of knowledge. I don' t know what I have really learned and never can recall the information. One day, after I was a little bit frustrated I just decided to find a way to research more strategically. I started to always track my research by writing all topics and websites with the Core Content down on a scrap of paper. After this research I was a little more satisfied. Then I reached the point when I thought that I need to set priorities and only reseach things which are now really relevant for me in life. And that is what I did. I stopped researching irrelevant things and instead the idea arose to collect the knowledge which is relevant for me in life even better. I thought about different possibilities to collect knowledge in a non-digital easy coprehensible and nice way. And in the end I came up with a prototype which I can use for all my learning material. Puhh... now it is time to collect strategically knowledge and stop researching not necessary things. Lets create material!
10.10.16. OP-Process
I actually know which projects I want to put in my OP. I already prepared some texts for the OP. Nevertheless I am not sure if I will catch the OP bus in November. Actually I want to work a little more on my learning prototype. And for my OP it would be so great if I already would be done with the resistant bee learning material. But to be realistic the time is just a bit too less... So I will only present the prototype in the OP.