Hi from Dawson City

Hi from Dawson City

by Meg Walker -
Number of replies: 3

Hi everyone,

I've been reading through several intros from our group and it's neat to see the geographic spread. I'm way up in Dawson City, Yukon - a colleague with the other Yukon College (about to be Yukon University!) folks in this group but also typically connecting with them virtually, so distance communication is a norm for me. This past academic year I had the pleasure and pain of teaching fulltime via distance technology, working through Office Administration courses with students in 7 different Yukon communities.

With that experience and one of the FLO courses, I have lots of questions and also a lot of interest in the flexibility that online learning can bring. 

Specific to this microcourse:

  • What big question do you have about Liberating Structures as we begin our time together?

I've doodled a visual for my answer, but to give words to it as well: I find the generating of ideas/content pretty fun and expansive, especially when people allow themselves to relax and get into the flow of not being perfect, and/or of bringing their own expertise to a discussion. But what happens when we have to get back to the clock-dictated world, whether that's the work day or, in the case of teaching courses, the syllabus and the actual limits of classroom time and number of weeks in a term? 

Here's my image for that:

drawing about moving from grid to loose ideas to grid

  • What do you hope to get from and give this group this week?
Receiving: I look forward to reading and seeing ideas, nuanced questions, creative investigations. The questions that have been stated about cultural context and about translating between different uses and definitions around time are dear to me. 

Giving: Attentive reading and conversing, creative ideas for LS activities as they can/may play out online, drawings.

In reply to Meg Walker

Re: Hi from Dawson City

by Donna DesBiens -

Hi Meg-nolia! 

I'm so happy to connect again here :-). I really enjoyed our conversations in FLO last year, especially your thoughts on how we can 'forget' technical expertise if well-learned and get into the imaginative part of exploring alt approaches, media, and unknown outcomes. 

Your graphic speaks to me. It's hard to balance creativity and clock even just as one person. As a member of a few collaborative teams, I might need to add several more scribbles, colours, and squares to the pic! 

And I agree, forget perfection, and enjoy relaxing into creative flow for the next five days, forget the demands of the data square and focus on the scribble.  I'm into exploring the Heard, Seen, Respected liberating structure myself :)

A black&white graphic of a conversation bubble inside a heart Affectionately, Donna  

In reply to Donna DesBiens

Re: Hi from Dawson City

by Meg Walker -

Hi Donna,

Great to see you here too! Thanks for reflecting back to me about the discussions last year about the ease that can come when technical processes become familiar - I had forgotten about that and it's good to revisit because after teaching online for 8 months, I can now say Moodle interfaces are (mostly) comfortable and it's much easier to create space for unknown, student-generated outcomes.

I appreciate the tip to look at the Heard, Seen, Respected LS. We have a version of that in a class that talks about conflict prevention, and even in a quick read-over of the LS version, I can see some things to add in/improve - specifically in the "Tips and Traps" section of introducing the activity. 

Looking forward to seeing what comes out of spending time in the "scribble" area!

Meg

In reply to Meg Walker

Re: Hi from Dawson City

by Beth Wilson -

Your graphic speaks to me as well!  I facilitate goal planning meetings with people who have developmental disabilities (along with their family, friends and support networks). I can easily get lost in exploring ideas/dreams/possibilities, then have trouble getting them into some form that will meet compliance requirements. I always worry that something will be lost, or not expressed in the way that is relevant and meaningful to the person.