Today's activity is about making - Chrissi explained
Let’s make a model! - We often complain about learning spaces… in school, college, university. Well, today is your chance to create a model of your ideal learning space. Feel free to use any materials you like or have access to and create that special environment that would help you learn. When creating your model, focus on a specific learning situation so that the model can be contextualised.
I wanted to connect the idea of 'making a model' to the 'making of a story': a story that expresses my idealistic notion of a space within which ecologies for learning can form. To my mind the best learning situations result in experiences from which we create meaningful and memorable narratives.I see my life spaces, contexts and circumstances as providing the fundamental affordance for learning and creativity. So the context for my 'model' is my life - my lifewide experiences through which I learn.
A few years ago I wanted to do something a bit different for my 5 year old grandson's birthday. I decided to write a story about our adventures together on the hill behind my home which we had decided to call Chalk Mountain. It was so much more meaningful to us than the actual name Box Hill! So I set about weaving some ideas together based on the adventures we'd had on our walks.
I was pleased that my story said what I wanted it to say but I didn't have any pictures to go with it. I decided to offer the task as a competition so I posted an advert on various websites inviting illustrators to show me how they would illustrate one of the scenes. I had perhaps a dozen responses but one stood out and through this I began to develop a wonderful working relationship with artist illustrator Kiboko Hachiyon who has been the community artist for Lifewide Magazine for the last five years. The ideas in the articles in the magazine provide the context, need or inspiration for our co-creativity and together we have co-created many illustrations that help convey the meanings in the stories in our magazine.
So here is the model of an ideal learning space in my life - its in the form of a story and it was co-created with artist Kiboko Hachiyon & sound recordist Ed Sillars, and of course my grandson.
Let’s make a model! - We often complain about learning spaces… in school, college, university. Well, today is your chance to create a model of your ideal learning space. Feel free to use any materials you like or have access to and create that special environment that would help you learn. When creating your model, focus on a specific learning situation so that the model can be contextualised.
I wanted to connect the idea of 'making a model' to the 'making of a story': a story that expresses my idealistic notion of a space within which ecologies for learning can form. To my mind the best learning situations result in experiences from which we create meaningful and memorable narratives.I see my life spaces, contexts and circumstances as providing the fundamental affordance for learning and creativity. So the context for my 'model' is my life - my lifewide experiences through which I learn.
A few years ago I wanted to do something a bit different for my 5 year old grandson's birthday. I decided to write a story about our adventures together on the hill behind my home which we had decided to call Chalk Mountain. It was so much more meaningful to us than the actual name Box Hill! So I set about weaving some ideas together based on the adventures we'd had on our walks.
I was pleased that my story said what I wanted it to say but I didn't have any pictures to go with it. I decided to offer the task as a competition so I posted an advert on various websites inviting illustrators to show me how they would illustrate one of the scenes. I had perhaps a dozen responses but one stood out and through this I began to develop a wonderful working relationship with artist illustrator Kiboko Hachiyon who has been the community artist for Lifewide Magazine for the last five years. The ideas in the articles in the magazine provide the context, need or inspiration for our co-creativity and together we have co-created many illustrations that help convey the meanings in the stories in our magazine.
So here is the model of an ideal learning space in my life - its in the form of a story and it was co-created with artist Kiboko Hachiyon & sound recordist Ed Sillars, and of course my grandson.
When I made this story I did not see it as a model of an ideal space for learning but in making the contribution to #creativeHE, I saw the affordance in it to represent an idealistic space expressing the values of openness, collaboration, playing, using imagination, story telling, sense making. Its an ecological space full of potential for action. It combines the physical world in which all the senses can be utilised with all the relationships it affords that gives our life meaning, with the imaginary world which we invent for ourselves where we can play with experiences in our lives to create entirely new meanings.
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