Las Enigmas: fish swimming together make a school

John Cage in "Some Rules for Students & Teachers" underlined the fundamental requirement to show up and keep showing up for learning to happen. Who shows up on a Friday afternoon puppet workshop at the Demonstration Gardens  determines what we make and how.



This fall we are exploring Pablo Neruda's "Las Enigmas / The Ocean Knows".

You've asked me what the lobster is weaving there with his patas de oro?

I reply, the ocean knows this. You say, what is the ascidia waiting for in it's transparent bell?

What is it waiting for? I tell you it is waiting for time, like you.

We don't know what we think until we see what we do...

Environmental Literacy Bibliography

Environmental Literacy Bibliography Across the dimensions of sense of place, time, community and personal identity, culture and agriculture a way of reading the environment develops which influences the ways we think and respond and then write upon it or through it. What traces do we leave? What strategies for survival? What do we choose to survive and how as a community do we equably decide?

Working through adaptations of Service Architecture [Resmini&Rosati,2012] for Learning Experience Design [wikipedia] these milestones appear:

• validity of evaluation is relative to degree of its integration within the learning experience [what tools can we use for this?]
• constructive learning is promoted through learners' view of evaluation "where do I stand wrt my goals and the learning objectives of community, organization (as its defines discipline, skill set or knowledge base).
• a responsive or "smart" environment allows self-assessment, balances challenges to skill [ ] and affords customization of the "way in" [Gardner,2011] to a discipline, skill set or knowledge base.

Environmental learning through touchpoints & themes

Physical activity in the Demonstration Gardens supports language acquisition that situates Environmental Learning as a fundamental cognitive discipline. I see it at all ages and stages of life, among people who are neuro-typical or autistic and among those acquiring fluency in a second language. Similarly shadow puppets in representing interior realities gives a glimmer of where grammar, that is structure, comes from. I'd like to be able to demonstrate this. Its not enough to share what I see but must be connected with others' experiences as evidence. What frameworks can I use? Linguistics, environmental studies, neurology, architecture? My friend Carmela reminds me that people deserve concrete experience, require it for that Aha moment. Maybe this is more important than analysis. D'uh, certainly until its built, functional and can be tested and iterated. So for now I focus upon structuring and situating experience. Who are the learners, the facilitators, the community for the Demonstration Gardens? To integrate virtual experiences and physical channels there need to be 'touchpoints' that are structured and managed so information flows easily. Focus upon the interaction sequence of: - entranement - contribution - exchange governs how to organize touchpoints. Spreadsheet of Touchpoints: http://tinyurl.com/bptdxpf Themes are vehicles for ideas that can be threaded through the whole system so that participants can grok it from their own viewpoint. 2009-10 Meditteranean Biome 2010- 11 Permaculture 2011-12 Abundance

Shadow puppets help with second language acquisition

Language acquisition: intermediate Arabic students tell stories with shadow puppets. Steps 1: brainstorm characters and plots with available vocabulary 2: write individual treatments 3: meld into common story, refine expressions 4: construct specific puppets 5: run draft story, select music, sounds, settings 6: refine story, finalize & memorize script, choreograph puppet play 7: perform These steps were executed over 6 days of a workshop at San Francisco State University May 2012. Small group work helped to consolidate language learning around Thousand & One Nights text. Participants seemed delighted to construct their own meaning and see evidence of hard-won communication proficiency. Play was called "Booba Gets a Bride".

Learning at the vertices/around the edges

For the past month I've been struggling to pare down my instructional menu.
Its time to write my thesis and I shouldn't overcommit is the thinking.

What to leave out?
chorus - singing is elevating and brings joyful connectivity, provided practice is kept up
arabic - i've invested 3 years to learning it, its one of the main reasons I came back to school & have access to a superb teacher; once I leave school can I become fluent?
land use - this is a basic techniques course for community planning
work - well thats silly everyone has to work: ASC is shadowpuppets & autism @the Y
Demo Gardens - this is my lab project

As ever - it is the interconnections between disciplines that make learning meaningful.
So if everything that has come to my hand to do is essential how to get it all done?
Simplify and only the neccessary and right on time.

Thankful for ThunderPuppets

The troupe performed live yesterday and it was a victory.
The bookstore setting was warm and meaningful for all of us.

All:
Logistics - Diana (DiDi), Pecolia, Robert, Joseph
Fabrication - Maria, Tita, Niani, Stu, kasey
Animators - Tita, Niani, Diana, Stu, kasey
Engineering - kasey, Stu
Soundtrack - kasey
Video - Didi

Notes so far:
Maria - people need scripts & she volunteers Didi to do more since she has a degree in theatre.

kasey - soundtrack was largely non-functional, clipping, too short cables, hard to hear the poem, needed scripts, better movies, more preparation for animators, sandbags, 'holsters', bear hat.

Next steps
- calendar for the year w practices, rehearsals & gigs
- follow-up get together from 11/20/11 performance
- script preparation
- tree fabrication
- improve website, update
- cut video, share
- improve sound track delivery & components

Book Club

Cal Educamp trip Notes

Cal EduCamp Aug 5 @ Haas School of Business was promoted as an "unconference", that is, an event generated by participants.
Twitter: #caleducamp

It lived up to the billing and more. Sponsored by UC Berkeley's instructional technology groups it featured a webinar by Howard Rheingold, workshops for learning social media tools, presentations and interactive sessions. About 75 people attended.

The best aspect of the conference was its laboratory atmosphere at once inclusive and challenging in a friendly way. Many people shared works in progress through the main live channels or back channels of twitter, wiki and blog posts.

There was lively interest in varied topics: using game platforms as learning environments, cloudware integration, persona development through comics. I was excited to see distance learning course management represented by two poles: 1) Google sites (Sage Adams, distance educator) (2 Echo from NewTech, a drupal platform for public HS that uses facebook's API as well as integrating other cloudware into a true network, that is it fosters co-construction in problem based learning.

Almost all the educators included mindmapping sw in their toolkits for collaborative learning.Mindmeister, Bubbl-Us & MindNode were all mentioned favorably.

Twitter feeds to follow:
@mashable
@edutopia
@readwriteweb

Other intriguing software:
visibletweets
Write or Die (write 500 words in 10 min or else)

Jeff Brain from SFSU CEL/ITEC lead several great sessions:
- 1-2-3 SuperHeroes (visual storytelling)
- BricknMortar to Distance where he described development of the K-12 technology competency course and techniques to make a hybrid course rich and functional
(group teams by time zone, use embedded video, integrated assessment)

What's a general purpose toolkit for hybrid, problem-based teaching and learning?
-Webinar: Elluminate or Adobe Visual Communicator
- MindMap: LucidChart, Mindmeister, Bubbl-Us
- Sound editing: Audacity
- video: iMovie
- collaborative content generation: google docs, UTube, vimeo, voicethread

Common theme: don't expect it to be immediate, ease of use takes work.

My take-away: this is all great fun, very exciting but mostly not accessible. Although design for multiple pathways of access (Rheingold and others) is attended to. Many people are still waiting for the technology to just "do it" automatically, probably because its complicated and technology does have a way of catching up - oh wait, that's us!

User Experience meets Learning Theory

From
UX of Learning, T. Tate on A List Apart, 7262011.
another IA's take on learning theory and designing the learner's user experience for maximal effect. Stimulating article but there's a pretty hefty reliance on Bloom's Taxonomy treated in a linear fashion. It seems clear that human learning happens in more of a network of interlinked experiences that maybe mirrors the form our nervous systems take (curly, bushy, differentiated). So Bloom's Rose has more appeal to me.

Setting up learning sequences may benefit the instructional designer more than the learner, at least this is a question. Is the specific sequential organization of material helpful to the learner -bottom up - or is it a top down convenience.
[the steps were all presented so why didn't the student learn it?]
Presenting wholeness and providing access...thinking out loud here...might lead to student or learner taking initiative to grapple with and generate knowledge on their own terms.
After reading Ron Eglash' "African Fractals" I am cautious about taking a recursive approach that leads to demanding that students know how to study something before the skills are available to them. So what would H. Gardner ("Five Minds for the Future") have to say on this: some level of a 'disciplined ' mind must be available to make self-driven learning meaningful. How is this to be decided? school board? class room teacher? act of congress?

"A further element that establishes a climate for self-initiated experiential learning is emphatic understanding. When the teacher has the ability to understand the student’s reactions from the inside and has a sensitive awareness of the way the process of education and learning seems to the student, then again the likelihood of significant learning is increased." I think the word that's meant is "empathic".

Begs the question if self-initiated or self-directed learning is the goal then isn't the primacy of the teacher's empathy for the student's process displaced to the responsiveness of the system? But ... in practice the relationship btw student and teacher turns out to be key - so a system of technology alone can't do it.
Bard College prison initiative appears to be so successful precisely because of emphasizing teacher-student relationships.

From teaching (in a facilitative manner, I aspire) is how I came back around to trying to build learning systems that support relationships whether in "real" time/space or virtual, sometimes called "hybrid". [SFSU Instructional Technologies program uses this, ref B. Beatty ]
Looking for a better way of expressing the idea of close linking btw virtual and "real" I've seen other IA's talking about transchannel or crosschannel UX. Not sure if finding the right words will help with the fundamental problems of generating it.

Method of loci - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Method of loci - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I wrote about spatializing virtual experiences
here

Systems & Resources

Priority / Date	System	Description	Resources
	Life Support		Materials	Workers
1 –end of rains	Irrigation	Installation of mainline and auxiliary lines (See site map) to support collections, catchment pond and workspaces.	Needed: 240 linear feet of mainline, pvc or copper. 12-15 valves. *Ask Berkeley Indoor Garden & Plant It Earth.* Pond liner 2x6x8, 10 -15 rocks*, 5 bags of concrete mix. We have 3 pumps.	Line:Multi-level team, 3-5 people. More plumbing experience the better. 8hrs Pond: 3-5 people, carpentry & plumbing. 4 hrs
2	Soil Cycling	Vermiculture(2), compost (2) & mulch(1) beds (See schematics).	Needed: o       1x2x18” pine/redwood slats – 64 o       4x4x12’ redwood posts – 4 o       woodscrews	2 teams, 2 people each, carpentry & strong helper. 6 hrs
1- ASAP	Planters/Containers	Tree planters (10), East wall 100’ (ledge reinforcement), vegetable beds (8) fence planters (vines) (4)	Needed: o       2x10”x12’ redwood planks – 30 o       concrete bolts – 50 o       4x4x12 redwood posts - 16	2 teams: cutters & assemblers 4 each, 8 hours. Mixed carpentry levels, physically strong.
	Collections
3	Greenhouse	Shelves Drainage Door	Needed: o       2x4x8 pine – 8 o       1.5”x 12” x 12’ pine shelving -  10 o       4-6 bags of gravel o       curtain rod (over door) o       heavy pvc sheeting (clear)	1 team 4 people, light carpentry. 4 hours
1	Ornamentals & Trees	Plant trees and shrubs in beds	Mulch, as much as we can get 160 feet of rip-wrap, topsoil- sandy loam, 2 pickup truck fulls	Tree team: 4 people, 4-6 hrs. Beds
2	Biome Exploration Wall	Configure Irrigation, organize and plant ornamentals.	Needed: soil, mulch as above.	3 teams, 3 each, mixed strength,
	Culinary Program Planting	Organize and plant seeds, seedlings	Needed: Seeds, sets, soil, mulch and fertilizer.	2 -4 teams including program participants + horticultural helpers. 4 – 8 hrs
	Human Uses
	Handwashing	Basin on pedestal by greenhouse.	Recycled, install graywater line.	1 plumber, 1 helper. 3 hrs.
	Quiet Spaces	Benches	We have them, Place them as desired.	Teams include youth, senior, activity leaders & participants.
	Outdoor Meeting	Tables	We have them place them as desired.	Teams include youth, senior, activity leaders & participants.
	Mobile Stage	modules	Needed: 6 modules on casters (24) o       2x6x12 pine – 24 o       2x4x12 pine - 18	2 teams: cutters & assemblers 4 people each, 8 hrs.
	Outdoor Program Integration	Sports & other activity	Unidentified, but important needs	Teams include members of all programs.

 

SYLCentral Y Gardens Establishment Plan

Asberry Spring 2010

1 / 1

Field Notes: Need for case notes form

Thinking about confidentiality and ease of recording.

Assets Manager

This tool works to satisfy the need to keep up with sketches, profiles and other entities as I create them before they are integrated into systems or polished.

Y Gardens: Logistics

This form is for scheduling.

BART Accessibility Maps

Information scientist, Josh Miehle has been leading a collaboration between Smith-Kettlewell Eye Institute and Lighthouse for the Blind in San Francisco to develop feature maps for BART stations and environs. This has tremendous potential to improve autonomy and safety for blind travelers.
 The tactile station maps are designed to be navigable with a Smart Pen, a low-cost ($150) audible, hand-held tool. Mapped features are categorized into three layers (Street, Concourse, Platform) within a highly selective taxonomy.  Map readers would peruse maps during route planning to memorize station layouts in advance rather than consult them in real time during travel. To facilitate communication with sighted or low-vision map readers and those who don't read braille each feature is displayed in high-contrast colors, embossed, braille and with single character acronyms. Because of this 'Rosetta Stone' characteristic of the map elements and the necessity that layouts be committed to memory the taxonomy has been deliberately  restricted to no more than 8 -12 per layer.

 [Images]

Sample map book, 03-05-11

Tactile cartographer, Greeta Ahart (LFTB), accessibility architect BJ Epstein and project manager Greg Kehnart (LFTB) have been working with Dr. Miehle to produce base maps, design team workflow and organize volunteers to collect feature sets by station. This team has produced tactile map book samples and a first generation tactile map of the Oakland Coliseum BART station. All other BART stations were surveyed on March 5, 2011 by a volunteer team of approximately thirty Occupational & Mobility experts, architects and cartographers.

Tactile maps will be produced from the data sets in the coming weeks. 

Interim results of this mapping project were presented Friday March 11, 2011 at the CTEBVI- California Educators Transcribers for the Blind and Visually Impaired, http://www.ctevh.org/conference.htm. In the conference Dr Miehle spoke about his hope that this effort can provide a useful model for transportation systems around the world.

Y Gardens: Curiosity Club

The youth from de Marillac Middle School at St Boniface Church on Golden Gate Ave come to work in the garden weekly as an elective in their after school program. Each group of 8 - 10 boys and girls signs up for a quarter at a time. They can and often do repeat.
This quarter finished on Tuesday 3/8. We innovated in several ways during this session:

• all gardeners were offered inexpensive journals
• we made maps
• we built a pond
• we considered accessibility
• we planted into sheet mulched berms on the asphalt 

Other activities included propagation from seed and slips, small team and full group projects.
I was surprised by how ardently everyone took to journalling, to map-making; how seriously the challenges of access were considered. Especially unexpected: that when after all the team work this Q during the last session I had organized 1 task per participant -

1. move straw from "Growing Cuisine" to pond entrance in "redwood understory" area
2. assemble a donated hose caddy 
3. transplant container flowers to berms
4. plant out marigolds
5. fill water cans
6. work compost into soil
7. fill planters with fresh soil
8. cultivate fallow planters

- they were eager for the hardest tasks and they chose to team up and to move between teams as they finished. The most complicated assembly project kept them going beyond the class time. Just as they had solved the puzzle it was time to go so they asked to take it with them to finish and bring it back later.
Their enthusiasm is contagious, also working with KinderGardeners in the morning stimulates my  work with the older youth in the afternoon.

Accessibility in the Demonstration Garden

Context: Working outside with 8, 12-13 yr olds in the SYL Central Y Gardens
 Map
 03.01.2011

Influenced by H Gardner, Five Minds for the Future [2006] discussion of development of the ethical mind.

Intro: After pointing out the windchimes in each corner of the garden and explaining their purpose as orientation devices. Who has someone in their family or among their friends who is blind?

Responses: 3 knew someone well who was blind.

Exercise: Ok everyone get a partner and we'll meet in the center of the yard. Each pair gets a blindfold. One of you will wear the blindfold the other will be the guide. Remember that the person who isn't sighted is the leader and will take the arm of the guide. The guide's job is to steer clear of danger but help their partner explore the garden. Try to visit all the stations in the garden. You will take turns.

Results: The guide nearly always took the lead, during feedback both parties complained that the partner didn't listen. Some of this is developmental age-appropriate. Also the barometer was dropping because of coming storm.

Conclusion: So you can see that navigating and enjoying our garden without sight will be challenging. Until we see each other again be thinking about what we might do to make our garden safer and more fun for blind people.

Autism Social Connection meets thunderpuppets

Beginning in April  the thunderpuppets players will work with ASC to explore social learning and collaborative narrative building. 10 year olds.

BART feature survey for vision impaired

Here is the start of a new and fascinating thread: with Lighthouse for the Blind I'll work to assess BART stations features for their accessible mapping of transportation systems.