07 Session

posted Mar 23, 2013, 6:57 AM by John Henry Thompson   [ updated May 4, 2013, 8:43 AM]

April 1: Learning in Communities (Session 7)

Panelists: Geetha Narayanan, Natalie Rusk

Readings in Preparation for Session 7:

* Natalie Rusk, Mitchel Resnick, & Stina Cooke (2009): Origins and Guiding Principles of the Computer Clubhouse, in The Computer Clubhouse: Constructionism and Creativity in Youth Communities.  

   - En Español from Eduteka.org: Origen y Principios Guía del Club Juvenil de Informática 

Geetha Narayanan (2007): A Dangerous but Powerful Idea

Activity:

Find out about and visit a creative learning space in your local area.

By "creative learning space," we're thinking of a place in which people are creating projects --and learning from each other as part of the process.

Here are some questions you may want to note when visiting. You could focus on one or two, and share back to the group.  If you are already an active participant, share your experience.

  1. Projects - What kinds of projects are people working on? How would you describe the range or diversity of projects?
  2. Interests - Where do the ideas for the projects come from? Are the projects based on individual, group, or community interests?        
  3. Learning Community - Do people help each other learn?  Are there mentors in the space? Is there a trajectory of participation from newcomer to leadership roles?
  4. Values - How do people treat each other in the community? Are there community guidelines or values that are discussed or agreed upon?
  5. Space - Which aspects of the physical space support the creative learning process? What materials are available?

 

Additional Resources:

* Roger Malina (2013). Towards a “Cloud Curriculum” in Art and Science., The STEAM Journal.

* Seymour Papert (1980). Mindstorms (Chapter 8: Images of the Learning Society)

Great intro to STEAM
http://stemtosteam.org
http://seadnetwork.wordpress.com

Turn STEM into STEAM with arts education - John Maeda.

Roger Malina (2013:
John Maeda, President of the Rhode Island Schoolof Design instigated compelling testimony to the U.S. Congress (STEMtoSTEAM.org, n.d.)articulating three types of arguments. First is the “creativity and innovation argument” thatgood ideas often come from friction or exploration at the boundaries of disciplines. Second,the ‘jobs of the future’ argument; that no government predicted the explosive growth of thegame industries and social media industries, but many of the concepts came out of the artsand humanities community, and the cultural sector....The third argument is the ‘social and cultural innovation argument’. Most inventions arenever socially adopted often for no good reason than the lack of design of the culturalappropriation process. We live in ‘silos’ even in this networked age (that often reinforceslike-minded connectivity rather than divergent thinking). In the innovation industry there arenow ‘accelerators’ that act as transitional spaces between the R and D and business incubatorenvironment (Healthbox, n.d.).

Geetha Narayanan:
Dangerous ideas...  challenge the dominant paradigms of the time and can be described as heretic (Brockman 2006).
The dangerous idea is that school reform, in India in particular, but across the world too, is impossible.
- wellness, not survival
- self & planet
- stories
- slow learning


Seymour Papert (1980): mentions Samba, leads me to Capoiera and neighborhood Yoga schools: http://yogagardennarberth.com/workshops/


Creative space: http://sweetmabel.com/
http://www.sweetmabelart.blogspot.com/p/open-studio.html
Build a workbench and created mosaic in March.

Computer Club House Principles
1. Learn by design
2. Following your interests
3. Building a community
- work together
- build on each others ideas
- mentors build too, teach by example
4. Respect & Trust
- Critical to building a community