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OP Process reflection ❋
This includes the following four sections
- Learnings
- Goals
- Incorporation of Feedback
- Dissemination Efforts
Learnings
What did I learn? This was one of my longest project OP cycles yet. I learned way more than I could fit into this OP. My experiences at the two projects in India (I assessed for this OP) where rich and eye opening. I learned about cultural context of projects and the challenges that come with being an outsider designing such projects (you can read more about my experiences on the Supporting evidence page). I also learned many things from the 2 months I was in Rishikesh, India with my Guru Baba Shyam Kishore Das. I have known him since 2010 and visited him 4 out of these 5 years I have known him. It is a personal learning and growing which I have a hard time to articulate in this context. What I will share is that a simple life of dedication to others is a profound way to live and teach. While working on this OP I drew a portrait of him, seen below.
My un/learnings of this project (writing a teachers manual for facilitating an oven course) were more profound than I could have guessed. As I have said, this project allowed me to externalize my meta-level reasons and roles of teaching/facilitating which were in my subconscious. The meta-level reason is the participatory creation of culture through community. Critical pedagogy concepts are taught in the Gaia U orientation. My orientation experience was focused more through the lens of being an active learner. This project took the lens of being the facilitator (which is a different form of active learning). This new frame of reference has transformed the idea of teaching from this more static transfer of knowledge to the dynamic engagement that is critical pedagogy. I have learned that the process of creating such a manual is not as easy as just writing it, formatting it and disseminating it. There were many twists and turns that forced me to go deeper, questioning my own values and approach of teaching.
What were the highlights of this cycle? One of the more interesting things for me was discovering how large this gap (of pedagogical guides) is in the field of EcoSocial design. I am excited to work on bridging this gap by getting other Gaia U associates to submit their work to create a wealth of these guides as a resource. During the Google Hangout meetings with my Gaia U peers, I learned of Ava starting a Gaia U printing press, so it is only getting better.
My interaction with Kiko Denzer was a definite highlight; he transformed my entire experience and this project.
In the beginning, having no experience with ebooks, I was a bit skeptical that I would be able to accomplish this goal. The outcome of creating a slick looking ebook is a definite highlight.
What would I do differently next time? Looking back at my LIPD and the choice I made for projects, I feel I could have done some pre-assessment of fields before I chose the projects I did. This could have averted several months of searching and might have given me the time to line up a project in India prior to arriving. However it did give me the chance to dive into pattern language and look at what had been done in the pedagogical patterns field. In trying to line up an oven course while in Switzerland I would have made an attempt to get several potential hosts and consulted them all at the same time. This would have given me some redundancy when one of the hosts decided they couldn't do it.
Goals
Did I meet my Design goals for this OP? This was a challenging OP for me. When I was engaged in this project, I did not realize what the meta level reason for the OP would be. Once I questioned the purpose of this OP, I realized that it was to help other teachers write pedagogical manuals. This second layer for the purpose of this project made it make much more sense and helped me structure this OP. I have gathered so much content related to this project that the organization and presentation were a challenge. I am happy with the way it turned out, especially the two animations. I did meet all my goals for this OP!
Incorporation of feedback
I have integrated feedback from my previous OPs from both my peers and main advisor. Most of the feedback I have implement is about being concise and how to organize the OP for it to make sense to the reader. My F.L.E.C. check list (top of center column) was created from the feedback of my end of cycle review, this has helped me to incorporate that feedback in this OP. By creating my OP design cycle using my Gaia Radio notes (here➚) of the PoDAPO series calls, I have implemented a lot of feedback from the questions and answers with Jennifer English. I tried to be more clear on my context and I also broadened the scope of this OP to make it applicable for a wider audience.
Dissemination efforts
As I am just finishing up my OP4 on the deadline of the May OP-bus, I have yet to disseminate this OP. As always, once I pass pro-review I will be sharing this on the Associate Gallery of OPs.
I have been disseminating the teachers manual. I have posted links for viewing and downloading the manual to Google+ which shares it with all my G+ friends including 64 people associated with Gaia University. I posted it on my Linkedin account, that shares it with 210 connections, nearly all permaculture based. I have uploaded a PDF version of this manual to Academia.edu, Google books, Foboko and Slideshare. I have uploaded a free ePub version of the manual to Google Play. I shared all the different downloadable versions on an oven builders forum here➚.
OP4 EOC Manual check list
Create a manual for how to teach an earthen oven workshop - through teaching one and tracking my steps
Articulate my goals for OP4
Meet with Mark to brainstorm so of the things I should be taking into consideration for this course
Network to secure an Oven workshop in Switzerland.
Go through course outline and detail materials needs for the course. Convert necessary measurements into metric.
There will be some adjustment to when depending on the foundation. - I put in a lot of energy to get this course to happen but it fell through.
Get feedback on the ebook
Completion date: 7 Apr 2015
Create the design cycle and begin the process of writing the OP
Make the final touches
Finish creating OP4 on mahara e-portfolio
F.L.E.C. Checklist
(deconstructing negative paradigms) interventions & World context
deconstruction-reconstruction-critique-expansion
Comparative assessment of my thinking to others in the field.
How my thinking arouse from others, identify gaps and articulate interventions
Best practices in the field evidence of gaps
Integrate comments when including various media (who created it? how were your involved?)
Share your roles and accountabilities within context
Finish thoughts and complete explanations of the different components of the project including OP itself
Participation records
I made concentrated effort during this OP4 cycle to attend as many of the Gaia Radio calls on edge-cation as I could. I have since listened to the calls I missed taking notes and passing them on to the Gaia U. admin and my peers. You can see all my Gaia Radio notes here➚.
During the time I was in India I struggled to connect with my peers, the extreme time difference made it very difficult. I did manage a few peer meetings and one advisor meeting. I also continued my work on the Activity Hub (a group I started) posting to the forums and creating new resources. From India I traveled back to Switzerland in March and the difference in time zones was no longer a problem. I attended one Gaia Community call on Pathway management which was very insightful to the evolution of Gaia University and the need for dialogue on this subject. I continued my work in the Hub which included setting up group peer meetings on Google hangouts. The first hangout had an attendance of five people. We really enjoyed the connectivity and felt that others would to. We decided to hold the group meetings on google hangouts weekly. These hangouts have been a great inspiration! Connecting face to face with the video feed and having a group dialogue has really helped to break the feeling of isolation. One aim of these meetings is also to help the Activity Hub become more active. Participation in Gaia U has been a serious focus for me over the past year, as I feel it is Gaia U's weakest link in creating a transformative integrative experience. I have also recently contributed two of my poems to the Gaia U. newsletters➚. See the Supporting evidence page for the documents of my Participation records during this project.
Managing time and promises
This project took me way off track from my original plan in my LIPD. My efforts and the time I put into Gaia U has been consistent throughout this OP cycle, even during the three months I went on pause. My OP3 was handed in Nov. 1st on time. In December I started to asses my original plan for My Capstone OP4, an in-depth look at Pedagogical Patterns. I felt this was a great project as the theme for my capstone year is Teaching. I researched and networked learning a lot. In assessing the field of pedagogical patterns I met Joseph Bergin who published a book on Pedagogical Patterns➚. On purchasing his book I realized the amount of time put into this project and the level of accomplishment was substantial. I felt I could make a better contribution to the field elsewhere and began to search for a different angle. As I was traveling in India I felt there must be an organization that I could volunteer to teach a permaculture course for. I was offered to assist in a PDC in South India which I had done for the same organization in 2012, but decided against it because of my past experience. My wife and I had a pretty set itinerary for our travels so I began networking and connecting with organizations that were near the areas I was going to be. Many times I would get no response or the response came too late. You can read about the two organizations I did connect with which did not meet my requirements for my OP4 on the Supporting evidence page. During this month of January I stayed in program thinking I would find my project and use feedback from my main advisor to guide me. I didn't find my project and decided to go on pause until my OP4 was clear and I could reassess and renegotiate my deadline. I keep in close communication with my advisor whenever I am needing to renegotiate or have questions about my program management.
After more than two months of trying to pin down my OP4 I had a pivotal meeting with my peer Liam. Through a series of questions Liam was able to help me realize my OP4 project had been under my nose all this time. I met with my advisor and consulted her about the new potential project as well as with Mark Krawczyk. Both meetings encouraged me to go forward with it. I started by assessing how much time it would take. I estimated that I would need the rest of my time in India and the full two months I was in Switzerland. I edited my LIPD timeline to reflect the renegotiated scheduling. While I was in Switzerland working on my OP4 during March and April I continued on program pause. In April I assessed my in-Program months and Main Advisor hours left and wrote to my main advisor telling her I was thinking of going back in-program for May and my reasoning. I wrote to her to ask her opinion if my reasoning was solid on managing the end of my Capstone cycle.
Learning Journal Extracts
❊ This Journal entry was made right after my meeting with Liam. I show in this entry my assessment and critical thinking skills as well as project/program management.
01/21/2015 OP4 Teaching an Oven course
I have been reflecting on my OP4 including the feedback from my last guild and advisor meetings. I also just listened to the Gaia Radio PoDAPO call on Design. This is culminating in a clearer picture as to what my final project should be.
Here are some points leading to the decision of doing this project on Teaching an Oven course.
1. Publishable - although this doesn’t apply as a requisite to my orientation cycle I still see it a flex. There will likely be multi-media as well, which can be a great asset to this project.
2. Teaching to teach - In my meeting with Liam this came up as a critical feature to my capstone year theme of teaching as a Meta level flex.
3. Oven courses is where I have this skill - From which I can harvest the most in-depth information, in order to be the best contribution.
4. There is a potential for having this in content in multiple languages - I am looking to teach a course when I am in April in Switzerland - June in Vermont.
5. I have a key allie in this project - Mark Krawczyk who can help me bring it to a high level of polish.
6. Gaia U wants to see one OP really focused on assessing the field - I see this as a good opportunity for this.
I “wasted” two months being in program thinking I would have completed a project for my OP4 in this time. Though I don’t feel it has been a waste I need to be careful to finish within the twelve month cycle. This means I will likely be on pause for several of the coming months. I want to spend much of my two months in Switzerland designing - drafting and drawing what will become a publishable booklet of teaching an oven course.
❊ This journal entry shows my initiative to network for the information and skills my project requires. It also shows my active participation in Gaia U and how I am working to evolve my program with the thinking of Gaia U admin, while sharing that with my peers.
01/31/2015 pause - OP4 thoughts and design tools
Today marks the last day of my in program day for awhile. I feel I wasted two months of in program time. I had one advisor meeting and one guild meeting and didn’t get any further on my OP4. I will structure the rest of my in-program months more strictly. I have another meeting with Mark Krawczyk on Thursday that will be a skill flex meeting.
It feels right as it is the main field I have practice in teaching and where I can offer something valuable to the field. I have been spending extra Gaia Time on the Hub posting in forums and presently building my Design tools page➚, so it is comprehensive in chronological order of my OPs. It is a collection of the design frameworks and tools I used and how they worked for me. I also got Rex thinking about making his own page. I heard in one of the calls it would or is compulsory for graduation (details?). So this is a good addition and a jump start on my OP5 Learning Review.
❊ This journal entry shows my vision of how this project is relevant to the EcoSocial field. Its relevance is in addressing a major gap in the field and being one example of how to bridge it.
3/27/2015 Re-framing OP4 Gap in the field
I have been doing some research into this field specifically teaching to teach oven building and natural building. Just as I have thought, and my previous searches have backed up, there are plenty of resources to learn these topics from teachers, but I can’t find any resources on how to teach them.
I see this as a huge gap in the field. Creating good teachers does start with first training in the specific topic, but there is an much more broad knowledge needed when it comes to teaching these topics. You can research teaching and glean something, but it won’t have many of the specifics you require.
Now, how am I considering to write my OP addressing this gap? I am hoping this OP will be an example of how we, as EcoSocial designers, can start to address this gap, which I believe is present in most of all EcoSocial relevant fields.
OP Design
I participated in many (and listened to all) of the online Gaia Radio calls that where dedicated to the PoDAPO form, which is the reviewing form (outlining criteria) for our OPs at Gaia University. This was a great in-depth look into OPs. I decided to create my Design cycle for this OP by building a mind map from my call notes.
This mind map helped me to stay on task and served as a checklist to see if I was including the required criteria. I feel this is a great tool for all associates to have and hope to make a PoDAPO meta mind map which is more extensive and that everyone can use. See the mind map below, click the bottom right corner to view full screen.
Revised Capstone timeline
I have revised my timeline and renegotiated my OP5 because my projected timeline for OP4 changed. I am now planing to be finished with my OP5 July 1st. I came up with this new timeline by assessing the amount of in-program months left, the work I have left to complete, and consulting with my main advisor. I have given myself a full two months buffer of in-progam months for my end of year presentation and the internal and external reviews which will conclude my Capstone year. You can see the original timeline of 2014-2015 in my Capstone LIPD here➚ and the revised timeline below.
Having fun with editing
I have three nephews who live next door here in Switzerland. They are ages 5, 6 and 7 and they love paper airplanes! So instead of just recycling the printed copies of my ebook (I used for editing) I got onto Youtube and learned to make some amazing airplanes! This is one of my favorite channels for paper airplanes - https://www.youtube.com/user/TriKdanG. It also has some cool origami to try out. See some of my planes in the images below.
Pathway tracking
I filled out the progress tracking rubric which I created in my capstone LIPD for this project (image below). This process involved implementing feedback I received from my last project. My peer reviewer made a comment that I had scored myself high. I admit that this process of quantifying my progress is very new to me and a bit abstract. I went back and reassess my progress level on these past two projects. On looking over my projects and my rubric, I agreed with my peer reviewer and made a few tweaks to my rubric, and proceeded to score myself on this project. One of the improvements I made to the rubric was writing out the qualitative levels (from the key) at the end of each aptitude sphere. This helps me to see my progress, rather than the abstraction of a number.
I am happy that my peer reviewer gave me this feedback. I now feel that my rubrics reflect a more realistic level of progress. My progress has been steady in most aptitude spheres I outlined in my LIPD. I have tried to identify and add new skill flexes with each project. In this project I added the aptitude spheres of: project proposal, contribution to the commons, eBook formatting, Google SketchUp and sharing my passions. I see that these are congruent and beneficial to my overall learning goals, particularly empowering others
See my original learning goals mind map for this year in the center column. Although this project changed from my original LIPD plan, it still touches on almost every goal. This project has a continuity with my last OP on User Interfaces➚, as one of my new goals is to collect and disseminate these types of pedagogical manuals digitally. UI design is a key skill both for creating such manuals and disseminating them.
To ensure that this OP was improving from my feedback loops, I completed a checklist tool (F.L.E.C.) that I created in my Learning Intention and Pathway Design. This checklist ensures that I touch on eight specific elements. I extracted these elements from my end of cycle review from last year. This is a great tool to have! I am posting it to my Design tools page➚ (on the Activity Hub) to offer it to other associates for their own use. See the F.L.E.C. check list at the top of the center column.
OP4 Self-assessment Rubric and Key
The first form is the Self assessment rubric and the second is its key. To see the full sized image, first click it (a new page will open with the image information), then click the Image title.
Skill-flex assessment
Below I reflect on my personal, professional, peer, and patrix skill-flexes of this OP Cycle:
Personal: My personal growth during this cycle has been abundant. One thing I notice is that I am finally feeling comfortable on my Gaia U pathway. I think a large part of this was being confused about managing my pathway and not feeling very integrated into the Gaia U community. Taking three months of pause had a lot to do with this growth. It allowed me to be more reflective, not focusing so much on getting things done. The growing success of the Google Hangouts (I helped initiate) has given me a deeper sense of community within Gaia U and hope for a more interactive and integrated experience for all associates.
Professional: This project has renewed my inspiration for teaching and given me skills to be a better teacher/facilitator. The experience of creating an ebook has given me another skill for my toolbox that I can flex and share. My continued work in the Activity Hub and with the Google hangouts has deepened my experience and skills of group facilitation, organization, user interface design and networking.
Peer: This has been my most interactive and integrated cycle yet. Meeting new associates and supporting my peers in their lives and projects has been deeply satisfying. This dynamic of this cycle is the fruition of many months of work to make my Gaia U experience more interactive.
Patrix: This project has revealed how ingrained the patrix system is in myself. I set out to write a pedagogical guide that would break free of standard education but instead actually perpetuated the same dysfunctional education model with a content centric guide. Being able to inquire into and address why this happened and look at my own approach in teaching has expanded my awareness of the need to unlearn. I have been vigilantly searching for resources and tools of patrix busting and posting to a thread in the Activity Hub Hallway forum here➚. I am grateful this aspect of unlearning and rewriting our own worldview is a central skill-flex in Integrative EcoSocial Design. It is what puts the transformative in transformative learning.
How does this skill building relate back to the LIPD? You can look at my Un/Learning goals mind map from my LIPD in the center column on this page. The five categories of my learning goals are: Teaching, Patrix, Design, Social and Organization. The skills I have acquired in this cycle are congruent with what I outlined in my LIPD. Although this project didn't touch directly on teaching land based permaculture, the Meta-level of teaching that this project addresses is applicable to this field as well.
How does this project affect my pathway development? Nearing the end of my Capstone year I was starting to question if teaching was really for me. This project has inspired me to continue this pursuit of teaching as a career. It has given me a broader perspective of WHY I want to teach and some tools to help me in fulfilling this goal. This inner-conflict helped me to realize that there are others just like me who struggle with entering the field of teaching. This realization showed me how important support and resources (such as pedagogical manuals) are for these individuals to succeed.
Digiphon
This OP was created on a MacBook Air. The text was created directly in Mahara then copied and pasted in TextEdit and saved as plain text (to resiliently document). My photos where taken with my iPhones 4 & 5 saved as a jpg, and imported at 50 kg to Mahara or taken as screenshots. See this page➚ for how I take screen shots. The photos that have been altered with effects and drop-shadows were altered in Pixelmator (highly recommended - cheap $20 photo editor).
The Animation of the oven on the Process page was created from screen shots of Google SketchUp and uploaded into GIMP as layers and saved as a .gif file. The slideshow on the Conclusions page (of an oven course) was done in the same way with some tweaking to make the fade effects. Animation .gif files are big so I host them on my Google Drive (instead of Mahara) and then copy and paste the share url of the image into an External - Google Apps block.
The mind maps were created in XMind and embedded. Self-eval progress tracking rubic and key images were created in Mac Numbers; I took a screen shot, resized in preview, then uploaded to Mahara. Scrivener video was recorded with Quick time player from a Google hangout meeting and edited on iMovie, then uploaded to youtube and embedded in Mahara. The Annotated resources are an RSS feed that was embedded from my Xmarks account which allows you to share your bookmarks with notes.