Skills I gained
Life and Career Review 1A
The first OP I created is a review of my life up until I started studying with Gaia University. It presents my family background, education, experiences and interests. Furthermore it explores transition patterns I went trough so far. Click here to view my Life and Career Review.
Learning Intentions and Pathway Design OP 1B
This report is a collection of ideas that I wanted to implement during my first Action Learning Cycle. I created it as a guideline for my Gaia University pathway. For example it lists skills I want to gain and different project ideas. The LIPD is a glance into the future starting at present time and taking into account my long-term goals.
OP-Design Framework GADIE (Goals, Analysis, Design, Implement, Evaluate)
Outcomes
- Overview about different action learning areas I like to engage in and skills I want to gain
- To track my pathway: Flexible Implementation Plan, pathway poster to visualize projects and a timeline
OP2
Explore Regenerative Methods in Ecological and Human-based systems (click on the title to view the OP) - Designing a bee biotope, earth-sheltered greenhouse and soil building -
My first content related OP presents a bunch of projects I was involved-in when I volunteered in the permaculture area next to the community “Lebensgarten Steyerberg. I started with projects of learning areas I was the most interested, which are: Bees, soil and alternative building.Without any experience I jumped into various design processes. OP2 is a collection of different land-based action learning fields.
OP-Design: Framework GaSADIE (Goals articulation, Survey, Analysis, Design, Implement, Evaluate): For each stage of the process I wrote several to-do steps and questions.
Outcomes
- gained first general understanding about different design processes
- implemented my first land-based permaculture design (bee-biotope)
- gained experience in weaving a bee-hive
- worked on a building-site (earth-sheltered greenhouse) & gained knowledge
- experimented with collecting indigenous microorganisms
OP3
Observing Educational and Bee-keeping systems (click on the title to view the OP) - Theoretical and Practical Bee-keeping and Education -
OP3 describes within two action learning areas - Bees and Education - the balance between thinking and doing as well as personal inspirations and external knowledge. The used Design Process for the projects as well as for the OP is called Kolbs Model. In the Bee action learning area I present how we apply an alternative bee-keeping concept and what I do to support my practical learning with theory. In the 'action learning area' EducationI had the opportunity to co-facilitate two alternative educational trainings. In this OP I write about these experiences.
Outcomes
- used only one simple design process which proved itself as very effective
- found a way to actively learn theory and be able to recall it after a longer time
- balanced consciously between thinking and doing & active experimentation and abstract conceptualization
- learned a lot about bees (practical & theoretical)
- first experience in teaching and facilitation
- learned about teaching strategies and methods
OP4
Ways of learning and leading (click on the title to view the OP) -Co-facilitating a workshop and developing an exercise book prototype -
This report focuses on the action learning area “Education” by presenting two projects in the Core Report. The first project is about organizing and co-facilitating a Terra Preta workshop in the permaculture area for which I created learning material as well. This way I was able to connect my knowledge about Terra Preta in a creative way with education. The project was designed by using Dragon Dreaming as design process. This process was a new powerful experience for me. In the second project I researched a lot about brain-based learning and found out more about alternative learning strategies. In the end I came up with an exercise book where I am able to summarize, condense and visualize all content I receive of a specific topic. For this project I used “SADIM” as a non-land based design framework.
OP-Design: SADIM (Survey, Analysis, Design, Implement, Maintain)
Outcomes
- expanded my capacity to pass on knowledge by co-facilitating a workshop
- developed Terra Preta learning material
- practiced organizing and designing a programs (timetable)
- used two very effective design processes
- combined new learning methods and strategies to create a prototype exercise book for alternative learning
- selection of brain-fulfilling learning strategies that I can use for others and myself to learn more effectively
Bees
My focus of the action learning area “Bees”, was to learn how to keep bees in an alternative natural way and learn about the bee in general. In my first project I was involved in designing and implementing a biotope to create a bee-friendly environment right in the middle of the agricultural landscape of northern Germany.
Then I wanted to learn more about bee-keeping and started to learn a bee keeping concept called “resistant bees”. With that bee-keeping system bees in long-term get independent from human . To round the action learning area off I tried effective methods to learn theory about bees. These methods also helped me in the action learning area “Education”.
Soil
My main focus was to learn how to build fertile top-soil. In the practical part I learned a lot about Terra Preta (black, man made soil) production, Indigenous microorganisms and Bokashi. As an outcome I am able to produce Terra Preta by myself and teaching beginners about Terra Preta. Over more I experimented with collecting and cultivating indigenous microorganisms and found in the end different ways to do so. In the theoretical part I read some books and articles about Terra Preta and soil in general and created with the most important knowledge mindmaps.
Projects in detail
In this document I present an overview of all projects I was involved during the first Action Learning cycle. I share the goals, outcomes, design processes and what people were involved for each project.
Education
The nature of the action learning area "Education" was two-folded. On the one hand I practised myself to be a facilitator in trainings and on the other hand I researched and applied a lot alternative sustainable learning strategies which lead to self-directed learning in long term. As an outcome of this Action Learning Area I facilitated three trainings in different environments and target groups. Over more I started to create content-related learning material which supported the last workshop. I ended up creating a learning template filled with a selection of alternative learning strategies. The template serves as a guideline for the first learning material about the concept of "resistant bees".
Natural Building
I followed the action learning area "Natural Building" only in the beginning of my pathway. The focus here was to build an earth-sheltered greenhouse in the permaculture area. I was part of the organization and implementation part and learned about how to use the thermal mass of the soil and the energy of the sun sustainable and efficient.
Mid-of-Year-presentation
On October 13th I held my Mid-of-Year-presentation with the topic "Steps towards resistant bees" (click to open the presentation on Google Slides). In this presentation I talked about a part of my bee-project, including designing a bee-keeping environment, keeping bees in a natural way and creating learning material.
End-of-Year Presentation
On 18th January 2017 I will present my End-of-Year Presentation called: "My first Year with Gaia University". This presentation gives insight about challenges, highlights, best practices, projects and Output Packets in my first year with Gaia University.
Steps I did to reach my longterm goals
During project work I discovered the following behavior patterns:
1. In the beginning I read a lot of information (not necessarily project related) without conscious tracking.
2. I started often unconsciously with my project work and depending on how much time I had left for OP submission the project work was not always effective or goal oriented.
3. Not consciously tracking my work or not specific enough goals lead to confusion on how project work was done.
4. OP production started approximately one month before submission date of OP & felt like a lot of work at once (not enough strategic design process).
Next Learning Cycle
During my next Action Learning Cycle my goal is to...
... expand documentation and tracking skills: Write on a paper all resources I used during the day with a short comment about the resource I used, what I learned and my final thoughts
...outline a clear specific goal of the project in the beginning and outline within the design process next steps. Start with the first step and go on with the next step. After each step write a short note of what specifically reached (How did I reach the step? How long did it take?).
... start to write the Core Report shortly after starting with the project workshop
... write a journal at least once a week about e.g. learnings/challenges in life and project work
Please view this list to get an idea about all skills I want to build.
Conclusion
I really hope that the Learning Review provided a well-structured overview about my first year with Gaia University. Summarizing I can say that I followed my interests since the LIPD in March 2016. In the following are my Major Outcomes:
- experimenting with different action learning areas to find out what interests me in a deeper way. Bees and Education and a little bit of Soil are definetely the areas I want to stay engaged in!
- get familiar with GaiaU including project work, OP production and design processes
- action learning, experimenting, prototyping, implementing, practical experience
- following my interests and trying things out (not always a clear goal)
- discovering my interest in learning itself and my motivation to facilitate workshops
Now I am aware of my learning edges as well as some action learning areas I want to work with in the next Action Learning Cycle. It feels that I really know what comes next and that I have learned a lot from this first year. Thanks to the positive Core of Appreciative Inquiry I complete the Action Learning Cycle with a lot of gratitude towards my unlearning journey.
New goals
Main learning edges
- clear documentation and evaluation of skills
- setting milestone goals
- working with knowledge: critical assessment
- tracking and documentation of OP
- reflection on applied design process and intuitive processes
To view a more detailed list about my learning edges please see this list.
I end the Year with...
...experience in project work (includes time and process management)
...experience in design thinking
...realistic assessment of what a project is
...being more focused when I work on a projects
...not wanting to implement too many projects at once→ start with less and when I am able to manage them I can add one more
...an idea about how to learn self-directed and sustainable
...a lot of joy, gratefulness, happiness about my great first year with GaiaU