Faith Whiting

fwhiting@yukoncollege.yk.ca - I'd love to stay in touch over the next little while and hear how your project goes. I can tell you a bit about mine too - sounds like we share the commonality of working with First Nation governments and communities (such a wonderful thing to have in common).

Hi Rachelle, 

I've put a few comments in the margins above. I've tried to put myself into a participants's shoes in your scenario, with my purpose in mind - to reflect on the Northern Gateway Pipeline Issue and notice what new learning has been revealed from using a 'Think Aloud Strategy.' 

I like the dual purpose of this activity. I appreciate that as a participant, I'm modeling how things happen for me before/during/after reading a case study and I imagine it would be very interesting to see what happens for others in the room while engaging in the same process. Will we realize the limitations of our own perspectives? Will we draw out much more information while in collaboration? Will we learn from each other some strategies for comprehension of written materials? I like that at the same time, I am reflecting on the issue at hand, based on the case study.

I would love to be a fly on the wall to watch this activity happen! It seems like this format will truly engage everyone in the room in the discussion, while building those essential skills you mention through the 'think aloud' activity. Well done!

If you need a guinea pig to run through this activity, let me know. I feel like I'm SO much more effective in providing feedback on something after I've actually experienced it. I'm having a tough time envisioning the first part of the activity but I think it's because it needs to be experienced (and it wasn't relevant for these purposes to include all of that information). You've done a great job creating an engaging session and the topic/setting seems so exciting!

Thank-you Meg, Rachelle and Beth for your feedback. I found it all helpful! I'm always a bit curious/wary to try different ways of doing things (like LS) within an altered environment (they all seem so lovely as described in their face-to-face uses). I think this is partly due to my newness in teaching via distance (and my difficulty letting go of a face-to-face classroom). 

I can't wait for more information to come out around the uses of LS in synchronous and asynchronous distance environments. For the LS I presented, I couldn't help but wonder - will the technology interfere? In what ways? Will the hesitancy of turning a microphone on to speak change the dynamic of conversation in this activity? What if I have a "quiet" group of students (I find that encouraging students to speak in a distance environment can sometimes be more challenging).

I think the only way to explore these questions is to try things, respond to what happens and connect with other instructors trying things.. here we go!

Ha! I posted my feedback for you before seeing this. You've so astutely addressed my point #4 - amazing! This activity is so different with this added info. Maybe I need to try it again from the top. It's such a creative activity. It definitely feels liberating. 

Hi Meg, 

I'm glad you chose this LS. I am one of those people who really connects to expression through words so this activity challenged me in all kinds of ways. I tried first to experience the activity based on just your description, before looking deeper into how the LS is described through the "menu". 

Here's what I came up with, in terms of feedback, based on that experience:

1. I love the technical considerations you gave when adapting this LS to a synchronous zoom classroom (in terms of using Word vs the whiteboard vs paper).
   
2. As an expression-through-image challenged person, I felt like I might have benefited more from this activity (and felt more "buy in") if some of the info found in the "what is made possible" section (http://www.liberatingstructures.com/20-drawing-together/) was offered in the intro to the activity.
3.  I had to chuckle at myself. When I first tried to create a story, I was really stumped with what a rectangle/spiral/circle/star/person could mean. I then saw in the description of the activity that they were actually all ascribed meaning (ie. circle = wholeness, triangle = goal, etc). That changed everything for me! I'm sure you'd include that info in your actual class but I thought I'd mention it as things felt way too far-out for me before I had that knowledge.
4. Lastly, I wondered about this part: Invite participants to combine the symbols to create the first draft of a story, working individually and without words, about “the journey” of working on a challenge or an innovation. I was curious - if the goal is to explore our thoughts and feelings around public speaking, should participants not focus their story/interpretations/debrief around a public speaking experience? When I created my story around a challenge/innovation, it wasn't connected to public speaking so it would have been difficult for me to relate my story to this topic. Does that make sense?

Well done Meg! I'll reiterate that it's so good for learners like me to be challenged to explore concepts/journeys through different mediums. I liked this activity!