Brainstorming creative activities

Continuing the discussion from 4 - Activity: Learning with peers (in action):

(was Re-imagining LCL Activities")

List of previous sessions:

• Session 1 ("Reimagining LCL Activities session 1 4/13/14" - starts @ 25m37s)

Sign-up form for our next session:

Session 2 form spreadsheet on Google Drive

Our other resources:

Our Google Drive folder

This group is for brainstorming creative activities for different types of learning environments. Feel free to jump in and join our group. Post in this thread, send me a private message, or fill out our form for our next session to make sure we include you in the list of people we send a private link to.

Hi James, if you're talking about taking the pure LCL course materials thus far and talking about how they can be adapted to real life/outside world situations, that's all I've been working on for the past year, so I would be down for working with you on that. I can share the experiences my colleague and I had in doing that and what transpired, how people reacted at different levels, etc. Is that what you meant, or were you envisioning something else entirely?

Is this akin to pj's metaMOOC idea or different?

I would love to have you on board, it sounds like you have invaluable experience and perspective here. Yes, I am talking about different ways materials and activities can be adapted. I will post more information and links to resources about my workshop tonight after it is over, and I would love to read about the experiences of you and your colleague. Maybe we can kick around some good adaptations and open up some meta discussion about these topics.

@pjtaylor It seems like there might be some interesting overlaps here. When you say real life/outside world, @shari, can you be more specific? Curious what environments you are working in.

I work in the international development arena - so I work with international/national non-governmental organizations (INGOs & NGOs), as well as community-based organizations (CBOs), mainly throughout Africa, Asia and the Pacific regions. I also don't work in the digital world per se, I work in the social change sector, but we do have some digital opportunities vis a vis SMS/mobile technology, etc.

Cool, good luck tonight with your workshop!

@Grif @James_B @shari Would love to "play... around with variations of LCL activities tailored for specific communities, interests and purposes." If someone arranges a live hangout (or proposes to use one of http://bit.ly/LCLevents times), I'll try to join (but not Weds).
peter/pj

I'm more available either daily early evenings Pacific Time, or weekends Pacific Time.

@grif @shari @pjtaylor

It looks like we can easily rule out Wednesdays. I created a Doodle for us and anyone else that might happen in here. Maybe this can help us pin down any times/dates that are best for everyone:

http://doodle.com/i6r8v2kvd7dvidwr

I'm sure I'm "Doing It Wrong," if you look at all the dates it zips way off the screen and it involves a lot of scrolling so feedback appreciated. To get us started (I can edit the poll however is best later), please check it out (signup not required) and just enter in some good times for you coming up soon. You don't have to sit there and click through the whole span, I just did that in case we needed more dates to consider or to maybe get a good idea about scheduling recurring Hangouts for this.

@pjtaylor I hope there isn't so much overlap here that this is basically a carbon copy of what you are already doing. I am pretty sure this is specific and different enough, but if through discussion we find that not to be the case we can maybe ask to close this thread and merge these efforts over into your discussions. We'll see how this goes. I also want to check out your Hangouts you've been putting but I keep missing them.

@shari One of my specific focuses for tonight's workshop (thanks, BTW.. it seemed to go well) involved thinking about how to adapt a workshop like my variant for learning environments with technology accessibility barriers and just simply environments where technology is not a tool of focus. I had you in mind based on past conversations and am working on coming up with an "offline" version (printed materials, hand-drawn materials, etc) as an example. I hope you like what it gets at as one example and I will value your honest feedback here. It looks like I am going to have a lot of potential resources and content to come out of this, so I will post a blog about it and share a link here.

Thanks for the feedback and discussion, all

PS: The Doodle is set up for GMT times. To check your local timezone in GMT, try this link: http://www.worldtimeserver.com/current_time_in_UTC.aspx

Thanks for taking the lead here. (There could be a whole field of study around finding times then getting people to come at times they signed up for....)
11pm GMT Sunday evening looks ok so far.
But might 12.30am GMT Thursday (=8.30pm US EST tonight) work?

Yes -- 4.30am PST is too early! But any chance of a morning hour before your work/family day?

pj, realistically, the earliest I could do would be 8:00amPT, I work from home so my work day is whenever the work calls, but I'm useless before 8:00am PT at the earliest!

Hey all, I will check the GMT time diff for PST, I was just coming here to say that even with all the intl travel I do, I am hopeless at translating GMT into local PST! Will do so this evening, promise!

@shari Here's another tool I found: http://www.worldtimebuddy.com/pst-to-gmt-converter

PST should be GMT -7 hours, so add 7 hours to get GMT. It depends on how Daylights Savings Time works in your area, though, too.

I went ahead and created a Hangout, not sure if I have done this right or not.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15yZap1xang

I scheduled this for this coming Sunday, April 13th at 7:00PM EST.

That should be 11PM GMT, which should be 4:00 PM PST during Daylights Savings Time.

Will that work for everyone?

That opens up some more times during the week. Let's wait for James_B's doodle results and meanwhile keep up interesting posts...

@shari @Grif @pjtaylor

The workshop seemed to be a success. I went with a very different direction, but hoped for a same spirit.

My space already hosts a kind of peer-based learning exchange every Tuesday night (sometimes facilitated by experts, sometimes not). My adaptation aimed to help break the ice, warm-up with quick team-based creative exercises, run through simultaneous and more brief learning exchanges, and offer time for group discussion and reflection after a final bonus exercise involving the interests discussed and a random idea generator I created in Scratch.

Here's a blog post I made about the evening: A Night of Learning Exchanges

And here's my project and resources: Random Idea Generator

Also: quick, printable PDF materials on Instructables

For offline modes with accessibility barriers or preferences away from technology tools, materials can be printed out and topics can be drawn from a hat or another substitute for a random generator. The project is remix-friendly so others can change it up and add their own topics to the generator as well as change up any aspect to suit their needs or make their own personalized improvements.

This is an example of how I adapted an LCL activity for my learning space's purposes. Any thoughts on this adaptation or changing things up like this? Looking for feedback so I can make my future workshops better.

Also interested in collaborating on variations and seeing others' variations.

Also, looks like Shari has joined the Doodle. It looks like Sunday at 11PM GMT is our best option coming up, so I will stick with that for now. I look forward to our Hangout!

Again, that Hangout link is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15yZap1xang

Hopefully, this will happen without too much error. Please be patient and stick close to our forum thread here in case we get a hiccup, we'll figure out a backup plan if needed. If you spot anything about it that should be changed, please let me know!

Time is good for me. Looking forward to it. (Impressed by your event.)
The link you gave us is, I believe, for watching the streamed version of the hangout. You can get the actual URL we need to use from the address shown on your browser when you go to "Start" the hangout. Then you can post that in this thread. (Perhaps there is a simpler way, but that works.)

Okay, by my meager translation, I do believe that is 4:0pmPST, yes? If so, it's on my calendar and I'll be there...

BTW, I am not an expert at all in this online meeting stuff with video so...I see a YT channel but is there a google link to the actual hangout?

@shari @pjtaylor

Sheesh, yeah 11 PM GMT would be 4 PM PST (California time). I can't believe I did that, gang. Haha, I was looking at 7 PM when I tried to make my tired brain do maths and I originally tried to say that'd be noon. Phew, good catch Shari.

Here's a cool tool I found after exploring that site a bit more: http://www.worldtimeserver.com/meeting-planner.aspx?locationid=UTC

YT.. It looks like I won't get the live link until I actually start the session. If anyone wants to schedule a private test session, send me a private message and maybe I will be on at the time or before Sunday's broadcast.

I think I might send the link in private to you all first, then we can figure it out and maybe post in the thread here in case any late stragglers want to join. If you don't have notifications on for this thread already, maybe turn them on at least until our Hangout. If you can, hang around the Discourse area or your inbox if you get e-mail notifications for private messages here and I will try to start the Hangout and send you two private messages right at 11PM GMT.

It looks like we have someone else on the Doodle, so after this thread gets situated in the Hangout I will err on the safer side of setting up the chat before posting a public link to it. Google actually recommends you don't post public links, so I'm not sure how to proceed. I will have a backup Hangout ready to go in case posting a public link causes problems and we'll forego a publicly posted Hangout in that event. Any friendly lurkers looking to Hangout, consider peeping in and saying hi in this thread so I know to PM you, too!

The link appears to just go to a view page. I'm still figuring it out, there's probably a better way to do this. Help appreciated! We can manage, anyway.

Hi...so are we on for 11pmGMT/4pmPST tomorrow? Just double checking...FYI, I have to work tomorrow so I may not be able to participate, I wont know until a half hour before...My work partner canceled on me today so we need to work tomorrow to get something done for Monday...sorry for that guys. I will try my best though!

That's OK! We're just experimenting here, and work should take priority. We should still be on. I'm open to reschedule, too, and we can always try multiple sessions.

We'll be trying something out for this Hangout. The public link posted above to view the video is going to be different than the link to actually join the Hangout. After a few minutes to try to work out any kinks between whoever joins from our group, we might try posting a link for others here reading to join in. If you want to make sure you get a link to join our Hangout, send me a private message or post in here.

We'll be trying this Hangout in about 45 minutes after the time of this post.

i am online. apologies for lateness. but i ned to real hangout url -- not the youtube streaming url
thanks,
peter

Thanks for everyone that showed up! It looks like we got a few people popping in to check out the live stream. Maybe we can figure out a better way of getting the actual Hangout link to people.

Here's a link to the YouTube video (starts after our freewriting exercise): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15yZap1xang&feature=share&t=25m37s

I have quite a few things to take from this experience, thanks to @pjtaylor for bringing up great points and topics.

At first, we decided to try Peter's idea of taking time to do freewriting. I really liked this exercise, and it has me thinking about ways to incorporate things like this in workshops as well as steps I can take before something like a Hangout so I am not as disorganized and distracted. I tried to type up a message screen that explained we were doing a free writing exercise in case someone popped in, but I forgot to change the focus to my screenshare. I also forgot to mute my end while I typed and Peter likely got an earful of annoying keyboard sounds. Next time, I think we can smooth things like that out.

We also may have missed out on getting people in that wanted to participate. We are looking for feedback and tips on that front and all feedback appreciated. Sorry that we may have missed anyone trying to join!

I may need to adjust the settings so that the video changes focus based on who is speaking. I am not sure how to do that.

I liked that Peter made sure to state his name often and what we were talking about for the benefit of new viewers coming in.

I also liked that Peter seemed well-spoken with his thoughts gathered. A reflection here is that I think trying freewriting or a similar stream-of-consciousness exercise could help me reduce nervousness about speaking as a step to take before something like a Hangout.

Peter also brought up how tools and materials are not as important in a creative space as a focus and we discussed audience types that different spaces might naturally attract. After viewing the video again, I do want to clarify that there are plenty of young learners that have interests in fields like science, engineering, and technology. Many young learners can easily code circles around me and we even have a local youth who often shows up to blow our minds with very sophisticated and inspiring projects although we seem to mostly attract adults interested in making, hacking and tinkering.

It might also help if we try to plan what next sessions will look like. I think the freewriting exercise is a great idea. Maybe we can start each session with a creative exercise such as freewriting (or similar). We could also offer some time for those joining for first time to introduce themselves. After that, perhaps our wrap-up of this first session could be a starting point for next session. Does anyone have any ideas about where we want to explore in the next session?

We are looking at about the same time next week, that's 11PM GMT on Sunday, April 20th. Peter might not join us until about 15 minutes later, and we may have late stragglers so we will probably have a casual start to the session. Please post in here or send me a private message if you'd like to join! We can also look at ways of opening it up more by posting the link in public. I am new to Hangouts so we might not have to be as cautious as I am trying to make it. If anyone else wants to head up the next one, we can do that, too.

Here are the resources that were shared during this event:

Taking Yourself Seriously - posted by @pjtaylor
Freewriting - posted by @pjtaylor

Hey @James_B and @pjtaylor! I've been behind on projects and in the process of catching up just happened to visit the Hangout link as you were broadcasting near the end. I couldn't join this time because there's a bit too much chaos in my computer space right now ("The cat needs a bath!" "UGH!"), but I enjoyed listening. Initially I didn't know if this topic connects to my interests. Listening to you talk, however, I realized that you're asking questions about the same problems I'm trying to explore. (Getting people involved in communities and groups on the Internet.)

I think James brings up great points about some of the challenges associated with learning video chat and broadcasting, which is pretty integral to the experience here and in Google+ communities. For me it's new and uncomfortable. I know how to idle and participate in chat rooms but am learning how to do the same on camera. I feel like I'm learning how to chat on the Internet all over again. It's part exciting, part embarrassing, and part scary. From participating in the sessions I can see that there are varying degrees of experience and comfort here. I really appreciate Peter's approach to getting the conversation going and encouraging a policy of honesty in terms of "where we are" mentally when we come to a Hangout.

@Spamigail I saw your comments on YouTube but it was too late. Weird afterthought, but I could not reply to any of the comments like I would normally be able to. They are just there.

I would like to add you to our list of people we know to update in private with the Hangout link, is that OK? You are welcome to join in if you like.

I am really not sure myself what this group will turn into. A simple initial goal was to bounce around new ideas for activities inspired by LCL such as creative workshops. I am completely OK with the direction changing as we figure out what is important to us as a group.

You bring up great points to consider about Hangouts. As simple and helpful as YouTube seems to have tried to make Hangouts, it can try to be intimidating for a first time as an unfamiliar environment. @Spamigail would you like to run through a test Hangout sometime with me? Also, if you gain interest in this group, you are welcome to try to lead our next session. This is just an experiment and while I think you would do fine, it would not be the end of the world if we ran into snags. If you are interested in a test Hangout or leading our next session, let me know. I'll do what I can to help and would enjoy learning from your experience.

This was the kind of experience that makes me appreciate the LCL Team even more. I have no idea how they survived last year.

I had nothing planned and it was just one other person in the Hangout with me. I think I imagined the first session would just flesh itself out because I did not want to assume others wanted the exact same thing as I for this group. I did not think to anticipate that it would just be me and one other person in the Hangout, so our first session may have been more stale had Peter not stepped up to take the lead.

I know that in my responses to Peter I continued to bring up things such as how FabLabs generally have specific tools. I agree that it is not about which tools you have but what you do with the tools that interest you. I also want to offer that there are gobs and gobs of makers/tinkerers/hackers that have wide interests not just related to their favored projects. A given coder might also be passionate about oil painting. A more important factor of a creative space and who it naturally attracts as well as the interpersonal habits and projects it encourages involves the peers themselves. How they interact and encourage one another and new people, ideas and projects; how respect is shown; and what they treat as important shared goals and values. Having said that, a physical space and the tools available are still important in who and what is attracted in the same way that one would not hunt for deer using fish bait. If you have mostly robotics equipment, tools and material, you are going to probably attract more robotics enthusiasts than people showing up trying to make music. That's also not to say that a robotics-heavy shop can't have music, though. There's a lot to consider about how tools and physical environment can affect what happens and who is attracted, I think. Also some things to consider about how to open up an environment to encourage and cater to a more diverse range of interests and peers. This has strong ties with the type of activities an environment hosts because the tools, physical space, interests, peers, and social practices of a given environment may change the desired parameters of an activity and what an activity becomes fashioned into (related: Peter's elusive 5th "P").

Continuing the discussion from Empowering users to create their own learning communities:

I have been following @Grif's peer group this week and interesting discussion there and on P2PU includes focusing on how instead of about setting up learning environments and identifying technical and nontechnical items that can encourage others to start their own learning environment like a MOOC. @Spamigail brings up interesting ideas and also reminds me to be brief and considerate.

One thing that might be helpful is how to run a Hangout since so many of us seem unfamiliar with various aspects. I am not sure which direction their group will take, but maybe we can consider documenting our experiences (especially if we rotate out who leads each session). Just throwing that out there. There are already countless video and other tutorials on the Internet about this, but experimenting in the documentation process might help familiarize us better and consider things we might not have included in resources for those just getting into Hangouts.

Also, @Spamigail was addressing something specific in her other group, but she gave me an idea for our group. Maybe we can do a quick group exercise next session where we create a new creative workshop idea together next session. Thoughts on that and other Hangout session activities like Peter's freewriting?

Also, I created a Google Drive folder for us to help us organize and keep our posts shorter in this thread:

Brainstorming Creative Activities folder Google Drive, anyone with link can create new documents and edit folder items
Sign-up for session 2 Google Drive spreadsheet, includes room for session 2 planning

Hi Everyone,

I know I'm jumping in late here but this is an area I have been very much interested in as well.
I've have not been on-line as much as I am working on a global project with some friends and family to launch a balloon up into suborbit next weekend. This is such a good example of how some of the course materials can be integrated into real life situations. http://www.balloonchallenge.org/about/
I will try to post some photos if any of you may be interested in how such a project could be adapted and enable us to use the 4 Ps in learning.

Interestingly enough the content of this course has been so applicable in my personal life over the last few weeks. I was just chatting with a writer who runs workshops and we discussed how she could use SCRATCH to develop some spoken word interactive poetry projects. Additionally, I had an interview last week, and shared some of the work I've been developing from this course.

More soon,
Sandra

@sandra_poczobut

Your balloon challenge sounds like a lot of fun! Best of luck! And interactive poetry projects sound fun to me.

Check out our sign-up for session 2, consider filling out some information like a good time for you coming up. Don't worry about being late, join in at any time. We will gladly welcome new people to the group!

Are you familiar with Hangouts yet? If you would like to schedule a test session, we can play around with one. If you are already familiar, maybe you can help us out with feedback. I think we are going to try rotating out who leads a week's session, so you should have a chance to get in on the action there, too.

Thanks for joining us! I'll add you to the list of people I update with private links about our sessions.

@Spamigail Google Hangout allows you to "mute" your video, so you can participate on audio only.
@James_B I didn't think about it being Easter Sunday -- We will be with friends for dinner so I won't be able to join live. I have some thoughts on your posts, but don't sit on the edge of your seat waiting for me to have time to type them up.

@pjtaylor Good catch. Let's take time to regroup and figure out when would be best, everyone please use the Session 2 check-in to offer good times/dates:

sign-up for session 2

We used Doodle the first time around, let's switch it up and try this spreadsheet. If anyone else has any ideas, we can try them out for a recurring session.

@James_B You are very thoughtful and introspective. LCL is lucky to have you.

I'd be honored to be added to THE LIST. My life is a little unpredictable right now but tentatively I will plan to join the next session. For now let's sign me up as a participant.

I'll let Mr. Smith re-enact how I felt during my first group Hangout: http://youtu.be/dijVbM9DpxU

I struggle with brevity, probably because I need to write to organize and understand my thoughts and feelings. Growing up in a text-based community, it's what I learned to do. Keeping a journal or (more realistically) writing an occasional letter to myself helps me work things out. In busy communities, it's challenging. I find that I write more than I need and then whittle my post down, sometimes painfully.

@Spamigail @sandra_poczobut If you observe a few windows of dates/times that are good for you just update the form or post in here. If you do not know when is good for you yet, I will just include you in THE LIST Also, if there are general windows of time that might work for you but you just don't know a good date yet, chime in and we'll take it into consideration as we figure out the next meeting. Peter cannot do Wednesdays, but we have some times that conflict already and can also look at taking turns and rotating which time zone we cater to so everyone gets a better chance to make it. The more info we have, the better we can try to work out best scheduling.

Welcome to our creative activity brainstorming group!

Spreadsheet is well designed/thoughtful. Thanks.

@pjtaylor Thanks for filling out the spreadsheet!

Gang, I'd like to take some cues from Peter here and encourage others to consider the same. In our first Hangout, Peter made sure he had pencil and paper handy so that he could write notes while actively listening to what was being said. I think that's a great idea and seems like the kind of thing that could help deepen interactions and help us to be more considerate. It won't be a requirement by any means, but I do suggest trying it out.

Also, Peter has offered a useful resource to consider: http://www.faculty.umb.edu/pjt/FivePhaseFormat.html

We might not match this format exactly in our Hangouts, but there are some great takeaways here.

First, if you visit our spreadsheet (here) you might notice that I left room for you to enter in topics that you are interested in discussing for Session 2. This gives us all an idea of which directions the group is trying to shape into, and gives us opportunity to consider topics before the Hangout. However, as Peter's Five Phase Format suggests, we should remain fluid and versatile to the direction the Hangout takes. We will not know what each other is going to say until we actually show up and listen. We might get around to all the topics or only a few. A goal should be to build off of each other during the conversation, not try to squeeze in every opinion no matter how unrelated. I think we will be fine because everyone in the group so far seems friendly and considerate.

Something else I took from Peter's Five Phase Plan is that we can actively take steps to manage the time so we do not get carried away. This can help make sure we have time for any quick group exercise, introductions, main topic(s) discussion, and a wrap-up.

Please feel free to use this thread to help us flesh this out, but also consider trying out this spreadsheet with us. It is just an experiment, we can try something else next time.

My goal for this is to get some more entries filled out in the spreadsheet so we have a better idea of why each of you are here, when we can meet, and maybe get a neat quick group exercise put together we can all do during the Hangout.

This 2nd Hangout will be more structured than our 1st, but I want to leave room for our group to explore what our structure should like for subsequent Hangouts. As part of our wrap-up, I would like us to try and hone in on a few (3 or less, perhaps) topics to focus on for our 3rd session. This should let us ease into a structure that is better-planned where we as a group have set the structure itself.

I invite feedback here, but that's my idea. Thanks!

Anyone is welcome to join our group at any time. We would love to see everyone show up every time, but also feel free to come and go as you please. Everyone has different schedules and abilities to dedicate to our group. Come once, every so often, or every time. Hope to see you at our next Hangout!

@pjtaylor @shari @Spamigail @sandra_poczobut @xcriteria @Grif

I figured out who the mystery Doodler was. If you know someone's real name and you try the @username using it, it brings up their Discourse @username. I believe xcriteria is in our group. Welcome, if so! Sorry I left you out!

OK, so between the old Doodle that @pjtaylor and @xcriteria filled out, new info in the form, and conversations, I think we might have a best bet trying for this coming Saturday, April 19th at 11 PM GMT. That's 7 PM EST, 4 PM PST. This is short notice and a holiday weekend for some so if you can't make it don't worry, we'll do another one. We'll try to get our scheduling worked out over any next sessions. This will be a casual start but we will try to really get started and stay time-conscious about 15 minutes in. I'll send a private link through Discourse, but if you send me a private message with your e-mail address or some better way to contact you I will contact that way with the private link.

If this is not a good time, please reply and we can go from there. If it isn't good for anyone, we'll regroup and try for a different time/date. I would say if at least three people can make it we'll go for it. It's on a weekend which might increase shari's chance (though she may not be able to make sessions coming up), it looks like it might be agreeable with pjtaylor's needs and enough time after dinner, and it looks like it might match up with xcriteria. Others are tentatively available. We can see how it goes, anyway.

Oh my. I just sent you a message to say that my Easter dinner got moved to Saturday night. It is so hard to arrange group times so I feel bad that I'm the one who has now thrown the wrench in the works twice. I'll leave it to you to decide whether to stay where you are, change back to Sunday or move to another time.

I'll give some time for others to chime in on what's best for them. I've already made plans for Sunday evening, myself. You all are welcome to go for it on Sunday and I can make the next one.

Would you rather meet this coming Saturday or Sunday if either? Could you make 11 PM UMT/7 PM EST/4 PM PST?

7PM EST either day is fine with me.

One thing to consider to help with coordination is doing recorded hangouts, so others can watch later. I've been running most hangouts I've been coordinating as unlisted YouTube Live Events (basically, private Hangouts-on-Air.) One advantage is the ability to go back and learn from them... another is the potential to clip out key parts and share them with those who missed the hangout, and don't want to sit through the whole thing.

Moved this to '4Ps in Practice,' thanks for advice @Grif

@xcriteria That's some really useful feedback. I think that's a great idea for our next session. We can continue with the idea of sending out private links to those that might be interested in joining and then clean up things to post as a separate video later. I might go back and do that to our first session to take out that ~30 minutes of me just staring at a screen

All, my apologies for dropping the ball. Things have been hectic and I have had to switch my focus to deal with other priorities myself.

I think we could spend a lot of time trying to get an absolutely ideal time slot scheduled and we can still make ourselves flexible for recurring sessions, but for now I say we make an executive decision and just run with Sundays at 11PM GMT / 7PM EST / 4PM PST. That seems to be one of a few prime times to try to schedule global streamed events and appears good for multiple parties in our group, so maybe let's stick with that unless we get specific requests or a given Sunday @ 11PM GMT turns out poor timing for most in our group.

Unless someone else wants to, I'll take the lead for this next session. We have some topics to consider already from our spreadsheet, please add to it if you have anything to add:

Session 2 form on Google Drive

Next Hangout: Sunday, April 27th, 2014 11PM GMT / 7PM EST / 4PM PST