Faith Whiting

Great activity Hillarie!

As a student, I'm wondering about this: "What process might you go through to find out each other's strengths?"

Should I be doing a bit of research around various ways this can be done? Will there be examples of how to do this in class? Are there resources I can refer to?

As someone with a bit of a background in career exploration and career counseling, I feel like finding strengths within a team might potentially be a tough thing to figure out how to do without guidance of some sort (especially given that the person in the scenario is new to the job and likely doesn't have a relationship with their colleagues yet). As a student, I can do some searching and find a way to do this, I feel like I just might need to be guided to do so..

Perhaps,

Use this week's readings and your own research to help you determine a process your team could use to find each other's strengths.

What do you think?

I like when the debate is placed more in a scenario context, as Gina has suggested. Her example is not asking me, as a student, for a truly personal opinion, only to argue one side of an issue (while being able to see both sides).

I'm glad you brought this question forward Jeff. As an instructor, and a moderator of the discussion forum, I find I often have a fear of treading too closely to a controversial topic that could be heated and personal, potentially making it difficult to discuss politely and professionally (I'm worried about things getting out of control, inappropriate behaviour and students getting offended). I also like the idea of waiting to do something like this before you have a better sense of the group, and what type of controversial topics you feel they may be ready to wade into (as Alice suggested).

I'm developing an ethics course at the moment so this will be something I will be thinking about too..

Great activity Karen, it's always so nice to be invited to share through a different medium. I love the picture option. I had one clarification I wanted to request, after reading the post from a learner's perspective. According to the instructions, it seems like the questions are just to get me thinking while crafting my picture? Am I including words at all with my picture? (I'm a bit confused because further in the post it says I should comment on what stood out from other's responses - so maybe I am including a written bit as well)?

I ask because I'm one of those learners who feels strong expressing myself through the medium of words and not so strong expressing myself through art. When I think of the "no-words" scenario, it scares me a bit but I love the picture and words (or even a picture of words) option - that excites me. 

Thank-you so much for that feedback Gina. It's nice to hear positive encouragement, given how unsure I felt crafting this post. I'm new at teaching online and I'm feeling thankful for this opportunity to put stuff out there to hear from others!

Background 

This discussion post would be for a course in a new program at Yukon College (Community Education and Employment Support). The program aims to increase capacity in front-line education and/or employment support positions within First Nation Governments. Many of the students (not all) will be people currently working in these roles. 

After reading the posted articles, I wanted to try a prompt similar to the one provided to us at the beginning of the course - one where we imagine what we don't like about a process, in order to better understand what changes could be made. In "Liberating Structures," this type of question can be linked to the TRIZ approach. I've also included a prompt around what is working well and an opportunity to dream about an ideal situation. I wanted to incorporate brainstorming, reflection, role play (assuming a fictional persona), and connection in this discussion.

(The prompt)

Sometimes it can be helpful to try to see situations from a different perspective. In this week's discussion forum, you will be asked to look at education and employment support roles from the client's viewpoint. Do your best to put yourself in their shoes.

Imagine you are a citizen of Yukon Fictional First Nation (YFFN). You would like support from the Education Department in your community to either:

a) find a summer job, or

b) apply for University in the fall

What are the reasons you look forward to speaking to these people? What are the reasons you'd rather find help elsewhere?

In an ideal world, what are some of the few key ways you would like support to look like within your community?

Slipping back into your role as learner, can you connect these thoughts and ideas to the guiding principles, goals, standards of practice and models of case management that we talked about in class this week?

Please post your initial response by Wednesday at 11:55 pm. Take the time to freely respond to the posts of classmates by Friday at 11:55 pm.