There is no doubt in my mind that feeling joyful helps you to tackle difficult or boring tasks.. I had a work plan that was going to help me deal with something that I didn't really want to do but had to be done. But the sun was shining so I decided to go for a walk..putting off the inevitable you might say. I walked down to the lake and as neared it there were a lot of splashes which I knew would mean fish.. so I  stood and watched and the sunlight just caught the surface in such a way that from where I stood I could see lots of fish.. Moving a few inches forward I could no longer see them. Perhaps this is a metaphor for seeing and not seeing things.. we need to put ourselves into an area with potential, we need to appreciate what we are looking for then we need the right conditions to enable us to see.

I carried on down to the woods.. the ground was all boggy after the weeks of rain we have had but the woods was alive with birdsong and a carpet of green with delicate beautiful coloured wild flowers sometimes isolated and sometimes in a carpet.. It was very uplifting and for the sake of 30mins I have come back a different person..

This is proving to be a useful site to try out new things. We are trying to establish a format for our new e-book so I want to try and download it onto a kindle.

I am trying to develop a new business idea called storyshare (see April 20 entry). This was an experiment to see if I could produce a flip book using the free software and my chalk mountain adventure story. More about storyshare later.

Where does joy feature in lifewide, lifedeep and lifelong learning?

It's a glorious Sunday morning one of those amazing, bright sunny spring mornings with a heavy dew on the grass that is so uplifting. I was reading the latest draft of the summer issue of Lifewide Magazine. Each of the articles seemed to be expressing in some way the  joy of what I was feeling and when I started to look more deeply it seemed to me that all the pieces were connected by this theme of joy but in what way is it related to lifewide learning? So where do our community members find joy?

For Anna Vartapetiance, joy was found in tackling the challenge of coming to live in the UK from another country and the joy of learning and adapting to enjoy another culture and the opportunities that living on a multicultural campus brings.

For Nick Jackson  -who 'always tries to look on the bright side of life', joy is to be found in discovering that his commitment to developing and continually trying to improve a broad range of skills and interests, is his secret of success and personal fulfilment.

For school teacher Peter Rhodes joy was in discovering a new way of engaging his pupils so that they discovered the joy in their own learning and personal achievement. Joy was also found  in the accomplishment of pupils in a primary school who created and performed a magical mystery tour assembly for their fellow pupils and teachers.

For Joevas Asare, an ambassador for lifewide education, joy comes from pursuing his passion to be a successful rap singer (called J Peace) and working with talented people in the music business to learn from them and become a better musician.

And for Harvard Professors Joe Blatt and Chris Dede joy is realised by helping to change the way education utilises the diverse range of communication  technologies  so that more students experience the rich pleasure of learning and what they call the 'joygap' is closed.

While for our featured artist, Kiboko HachiYon, his joy is realised in turning abstract ideas into images that help people recognise and celebrate the deeper meanings in life.

I began to appreciate that joy was an important part of the lives of all the people in our community who were contributing stories from their life. By contributing to the Magazine they were really sharing some of the joy in their lives and in doing so they are encouraging other people to recognise the joy in their own lives

It seems to me that joy is within us as we experience the everyday incidents of life but that it originates in achieving or trying to accomplish the things we value ....It involves feelings of happiness but happiness can be related to a transient pleasurable experience. Joy is deeper, more profound and sustained than happiness because it affects the spirit of who we are. And because it's a state of mind rather than a state of body it has the potential to continue to affect what we do because it is part of who we are and who we want to become. The sense of exuberance and empowerment that fills us seems to infect everything - as the young people in the photo are doing (a photo I love so much that I used it on the cover of my book) we literally jump for joy because the emotion affects us physically 
So perhaps joy is an achievement, an achieved state of mind that helps us see and interpret and enact our everyday experiences as we interact with the world around us. This is the lifedeep side of learning- the deeper spiritual meanings of living and being aware. I was curious to know what other people felt joy was and both my children saw it as being something deeper than mere happiness.

I googled and I was struck by how many of the websites I found that discussed joy had a religious or spiritual context. Here is one the explanations I liked.
Trying to define joy is like drinking water from one hand.  You can only capture a bit at a time.  It is more than happiness, more than contentment, more than gratitude, though they all are certainly components of joy.  Joy is a feeling, but it is also an attitude toward life. Abraham Lincoln said “most people are just as happy as they make up their minds to be.”  The same could be said of joy.  Most of us are just as joyful as we decide we are going to be.

It is hard to always, and in every circumstance,  find things to appreciate, to enjoy and, even sometimes,  to find hope for the future.  There can be crushing experiences in health, employment or relationships.  What brings us through them?  It is the splashes of joy that cross our lives....In joy we find gratitude, happiness and hope for the future.  Sometimes those splashes seem random, sometimes they come from others but they lift us up.  And then we can lift others.

So I'm convinced that joy is something that relates to the lifedeep dimension of lifewide and lifelong learning

A Pinch of Joy website
http://www.apinchofjoy.com/2011/08/what-is-joy/

Well our bid to RSA Catalyst Fund was not successful.  I think I had already decided in my mind that it wasn't going to be. I have been forming a view that RSA has its own educational agenda's and I suspect that the panel believed that we might be duplicating some of the things they are already doing. Perhaps that was my failure to not explain or sell what we are trying to do.

Nevertheless, while this seems like a setback, part of me thinks its actually a good thing that we don't have to work to someone else's time scales and expectations. It does however mean that Chalk Mountain is going to have to pay for the cost of developing the scheme unless I can find some sponsors. Will be interesting to see how the other react.


From: norman jackson <[email protected]>
To: RussLaw <[email protected]>; jjenny <[email protected]>; JohnCowan <[email protected]>; NicholasBowskill <[email protected]>; BrianCooper <[email protected]> 
Sent: Saturday, 21 April 2012, 12:03
Subject: RSA Catalyst Application - Learning Partnership Scheme

Disappointing news from RSA but I had already adjusted my expectations and in some respects I'm relieved so that we don't have the pressure to work to their time scale and expectations.But I  still believe that it would be good to have RSA on board eventually.

have a nice weekend
norman


----- Forwarded Message -----
From: RSA Catalyst <[email protected]>
To: 'norman jackson' <[email protected]> 
Cc: Alice Dyke <[email protected]>; Michael Ambjorn <[email protected]> 
Sent: Friday, 20 April 2012, 19:46
Subject: RSA Catalyst Application - Learning Partnership Scheme

Norman, Thank you very much for your application which was recently judged by a panel with representation from both Fellowship Council and senior RSA staff.                  

Decision on grant 
Unfortunately, Learning Partnership Scheme has not been awarded Catalyst funding. 

Decision on other support 
However, Catalyst is not just about awarding funds, it is also about trying to harness the expertise that resides within the Fellowship and the panel to support projects and so we are happy to provide you support of this kind. 

The panel wanted to express that Learning Partnership Scheme was an interesting idea. The RSA has a keen interest in helping people reflect on their habits/behaviours, as you can read from our social brain project. The tools you propose seem to people to themselves reflect and let other see their learning experiences. As a first step, the panel suggest an introduction to the Fellow coordinating the coaching lunches at the RSA, to see whether there is any cross-over between the coaching they practice and the lifelong learning you propose. We would also be happy to search for Fellows at the Open University to see what they encourage students to use and to put you in touch with a Fellow building a network of institutions to share innovative practice and support a national strategy about education possibilities for adults for whom full time education is not an option. Networks Manager for the South East, Alice Dyke (copied in here), will lead on these connections. 

Decision justification
The panel justified their decision not to award your project funding in respect of the following parts of the stated Catalyst criteria;-       In the ‘need’ section of the application form, the panel ask for you identify similar services out there already to articulate the gap that you fill. The panel were not convinced that the proposed solution differs to tools already out there like Moodle and those available through the recently-launched National Careers Service-       In the ‘your solution’ section, the panel ask for explanation of how your solution tackles the need identified. They were unconvinced because you did not substantiate the “simple tools provided.” The panel, of course, appreciate that space is limited in the application form. But in a competitive market, the panel did not see that as strong evidence that you would be able to articulate your offer to potential users. More to the point, they were unsure that if cannot identify exactly what tools are needed to help lifelong learning after three years of research (admittedly not all focused on this specific aspect), what Catalyst resources will be able to help you with.-       This also related to the amount required section, where the panel were unclear how you could estimate the cost of services that you wanted to “develop outline proposals for.”                                               

Next steps
Please get back in touch if you want us to support your project with the above connections to Fellows. It is worth bearing in mind that the panel will only reconsider any further application if you have convincing answers to the questions/challenges raised above. Any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch. Your feedback is always welcome,

Kind regards,
Alex WatsonFellowship Networks Manager, RSA Catalyst

PROGRESS REPORT 20/04/12
Another take on fostering creativity in others.. Following TA's progress principle (my blog  17 March) I now try to provide regular updates to show the team how much progress we are making with our lifewide education project. Earlier this week I thought we weren't making much progress but things seemed to come together today. I agree with teressa if you feel good about what you are doing and then throw yourself into the enterprise.

So here is my progress report...

RSA Catalyst grant bid - still awaiting outcome.. I judge our chances 50:50 Russ and Jenny are now Fellows so there are three of us and perhaps we could organise an event just for Fellows who might be interested in what we are doing.

Summer Newsletter - Jenny has done an excellent job again and we have some great pieces - thanks Jenny. Today I received a really good piece from two Harvard Professor. Its great to think we are attracting such distinguished people.

Twitter seminars - Nick has come up trumps with a really good idea for a series of twitter seminars. I particularly like it because it will 1) help us engage our 200 members 2) help us move outside our membership  3) it wont cost us anything.

E-book - Brian has been busy sorting out guidance for authors and we have written a short introduction. Nathan has agreed to design a book cover and I have applied for an ISSN number. I have also finished a first draft of chapter 1 which I hope to circulate to you next week after a bit more work. Our target for publication is May 15th. Harvey Brough has chapter 2 well in hand and I think it will be a cracker. My hope is that we can publish a Chapter 1 month for the first 6 months to get it established then ease off to 1 every 6-8weeks.

Possible HE partner  I have sounded out the Director of Solent University Business School with a view to involving her and the School in developing the Learning Partnership scheme with some of her students. She is very enthusiastic and for all sorts of reasons I think this would be a good uni to work with.

 China conference - I have written my paper for the Creativity in Higher Education conference in Chengdu. Its called Developing Personal Creativity through Lifewide Education and I will use it to take the ideas into a different sort of audience.  Eventually, it can become a chapter in the e-book.

PLEASE ADD ANY OTHER THINGS THAT WE CAN CELEBRATE

In thinking about my creativity in everyday experience I am struck by how much of it involves other people. Indeed, I guess a good use of one's own creativity is to help someone else be creative. My work with chalk mountain is very much like this. A few months ago I came up with a  business idea which we called storyshare. The idea is that storyshare will enable people to create a real or imaginary story involving themselves and other people who are important and special in their life and bring it to life through pictures, sound or animations that are created by freelance artists working for chalk mountain.

 The product offer includes
1)            Short story in words and pictures printed in colour
2)            Cartoon strip poster (could also be printed on a T-shirt)
3)            On-line digital story and pictures with or without spoken narrative and sound     effects
4)            On-line animation

To demonstrate the idea I wrote a short story called adventure on chalk mountain and included some photos for context. Then I commissioned an artist to have a go at interpreting the story. Ed created a small sound booth in our studio and we recorded a soundtrack and he added some great sound effects. He then set about creating a website. I got a bit frustrated waiting for the illustrations but eventually they came. Some of them didnt fit the story too well but with a bit of feedback and a bit of doctoring by Ed using photoshop we eventually had the images we wanted and Ed put them into a digital story book together with the narrative and sound effects. Take a look and see what you think.

Chalk Mountain Adventure - example digital story with narrative, illustrations and sound effects

When I reflect on the set of experiences I think it involved a lot of creativity. It involved generating an idea which I think was quite novel. An idea that could only have been born in the context of our Chalk Mountain enterprise. It was probably driven by the need to create new ideas for business that were consistent with our mission to enable organisations and people to share their knowledge and values. Then together we brought the idea into existence. Each of us making our own contribution and these were combined by Ed, using technology, in a way that achieved what we had imagined. My role was to create the conditions which enabled it to happen (idea, example story, capable people, relationships, resources and interactions).

But who is to say its creative? Well the example story was a true(ish) story and I wrote it for my grandson's 5th birthday. I sent the link to his mum and they read it together several times. He loved it and I know he did because he told me the story in exquisite detail. So it made me feel good that our efforts had been worthwhile and it made me realise how much my own creativity can be enhanced by combining my ideas and products with the talents of other people. But then I have always known this.

A new challenge for my personal creativity
I am hoping to attend a conference on creativity in Chengdu in China in June where I will give a talk on personal creativity. I have put my paper together which crystallises my thinking and connects lots of other people's ideas together in a way that makes sense to me and supports my arguments that personal creativity lies in our everyday experiences. So over the next few weeks I am going to think about how and where I think I'm creative.

One of my arguments is that creativity is not just about having imaginative and novel thoughts but its about doing things to enable these thoughts to be realised in some way.. bringing new things into existence. We need to engage in activity that is purposeful, deliberate and meaningful in order to stimulate our creativity to accomplish something we value. One of my main work-related activities is writing. I call it work but I have always seen my academic writing as more of a hobby a pleasurable pass time. I think writing is one of my most important creative outlets and I have the sense that it's the way I am trying to communicate and spread my ideas, the way I am trying to have impact or influence on people who care about these sorts of things, the way I am trying to accomplish what I value.

So these thoughts are fresh in my mind as I approach this conference in China a country I have read about and seen many films about but which I have yet to experience. In putting my paper and presentation together I was conscious that my ideas will be exposed to a new audience and I want to make them as accessible as possible and try to understand how they might be perceived and have meaning to people living in China. I guess that provides me with a new contextual cultural challenge for my creativity.

 I have uploaded my paper and annotated slides to my creativity page.