Open Forum

Using LS for teaching is really fun and creative!

It humanizes learning!

What is important to me about this week is that I stretched my thinking a little bit. Not so much with the designing, more so with the open forum comments that I wish I'd had more time to engage with.

Patterns, lots of LS have an 'individual' followed by group sequence that really makes them work. I think the online environment really supports that way of doing things and I want to remember to pull back for the big picture when thinking about using them and not get hung up trying to make a particular structure fit.

Things that are emerging, but then again, not exclusive to using LS:

• Really good instructions are so important. (Keep it simple)
  
•  It will require some creative thinking and experiments with online tools to shape some structures into asynchronous activities
• Always go back and look at the purpose - why are we doing this?  What's the goal.
  

Began the course with the assumption that LS activities were simply common-sense facilitation techniques to create safe, needs-specific, engaging learning experiences for participants -- ending the course with the sense that LS is actually a conscious deconstruction of dominant power structures and a careful reverse-engineering of those with the goal of amplifying what might otherwise be marginalized perspectives.

I entered the course as a self-described "LS skeptic".  While I still have some questions and need to do more exploration, I've experienced an attitudinal shift and feel much more open and positive about the potential uses and benefits of LS for teaching and learning.

I don't believe that LS are appropriate for every situation (as mentioned in 'What?' I think some purposes just don't fit within the existing LS menu) and I still find the selection process somewhat overwhelming, but I will certainly use LS more often moving forward.

• What is important to you about what you experienced designing with LS this week?
• What meaning are you drawing?
  
• What assumptions did you make or hold about LS or teaching/facilitating with LS?
• Do you notice any patterns or themes?
• What conclusions are emerging?

I recognized that I need to be clear in my goals in order to select an LS. 

I'm excited by how LS will increase engagement in the workshops I facilitate.

• I came into this micro course without a lot of background with LS. Consequently I didn't have a lot of preconceived notions of what they were. While I understand them better now, I think they are as useful/interesting as I imagined they would be.
• I find them inspiring and that they stimulate my creativity. 
• I like that this variety of LS is available in one place for easy reference

• What is important to you about what you experienced designing with LS this week?

I realized that I likely can't shift the structure of the meeting I was planning on its head. Thus I chose a 'safe to fail' LS that would give people a taste of what it feels like to be engaged and also have a little fun without stretching them way out of the comfort zone. 

• What meaning are you drawing?
  

So I guess I realized LS can go as far as we want to take it in terms of 'liberation'. Or perhaps liberation is different for everyone depending on where you already sit on the spectrum. 

• What assumptions did you make or hold about LS or teaching/facilitating with LS?

I assumed it will be easy but I think not everything is easy and not everyone is ready for it. There needs to be a level of trust and wanting to truly engage people for a lot of these techniques to be meaningful. 

• Do you notice any patterns or themes?

I notice that there are a lot of similarities in this to Art of Hosting methods, Open Space and old school rural development methods of 'handing over the stick'. Basically getting others to do the heavy lifting and simply creating the space to do it. 

• What conclusions are emerging?

Don't call it LS. 

Embed the philosophy into what you can! 

Time. I always forget how much time is takes to truly engage with the open forums, but I'm grateful for the value and richness of the conversations and collective knowledge in the group. 

My assumptions about using LS for teaching/facilitating was that they will be another suite of cool tools to use - not that they will fit every situation - and my experience this week matched that. 

I'm intrigued to spend more time playing around with LS, as well as other "improv" structures that I know from other situations (playing music, painting, camp games, etc). 

I really enjoyed watching and joining in the discussions around the themes of destabilizing traditional hierarchical structures. There are some good comments and resources that appeared in the Open Forum that I will be chasing later.

Hello all, 

So what? 

I got past thinking into making an activity that has been on mind for a long time - that I'll be able to use in a current course development. 

One assumption I had was that LS was mainly about inclusion. I learned that it’s also about sharing power and knowledge so now see more possibilities for integrating more equity activities in my work. 

It was very challenging to think of ways to engage and support the affective aspects of learning in synchronous online that seem to happen more naturally in f2f contexts.  The examples shared in this course are so helpful to meeting that challenge! 

Having the opportunity to practice in a safe space allowed me to design a possible lesson plan. 

With decades of classroom teaching behind me, I was surprised by how user-friendly LS is, and I had assumed it was just going to be a repackaging of regular classroom activities. And while there is some overlap, I have now had the chance to explore and use LS and see the power that lies within.