Tag: learning science

EMERGENCE: From Personal Networks to Connected Communities

 

emergence

I had a great time  last Thursday facilitating a  co-work session with a few of my peers at the MSU Hub on the theory of emergence. Our topic was specifically related to  personal networks to connected communities with emergence as an underlining theme. Those who know my teaching style know intimately that I tend to inject art, movement,  sound, and high media elements into my teaching so it carries over into facilitation as well.   We didn’t get as far as I wanted yet we uncovered things that I probably wouldn’t have gotten from a normal meeting. Check out the flow and artifacts that was created from the meeting:

What is emergence?

definition of emergence

My current thoughts on emergence:

  • Emergence always involves connections and networks
  • You can create conditions for emergence through connections
  • Personal connections are important
  • change happens through emergence
  • the whole is greater than the sum of its parts
  • new properties emerge at the level of the whole
  • unique properties that emerge from the whole of the system
  • Interaction is needed from the sums of its parts to emerge
  • Divergent thinking
  • Holism vs wholism vs Human centered design??????
  • “Art without Science is Nothing.” (Latin Proverb)
  • “Everything you can imagine is real.” Pablo Picasso

I’m still in deep thought on this!!  This will be my focus for the next two years.

Emergence Inspiration pieces shared:

Side conversations:

  • Does emergence have anything to do with the sum of its whole?
  • I noticed that the music from the inspirational clips where scary and eerie…does that have to do with creating something new and unknown?
  • Emergence relates a lot to Fractals in mathematics.  Its a from of patterning across different scales.   (Images of Fractals below)
image of a fractals
image of a fractals
image of a fractals

First story prototype:  How do you learn?

Mindset:  Being Authentic 

I would typically start a session off with this question and introduce a particular mindset for the group to create a safe space for empathy to arrive.  Due to the close nature of myself and my peers that atmosphere is a given.  We  greet one another everyday with love and respect.   So I moved the group to do some prototyping without saying what they were prototyping.  How do you learn?  What does that mean to you? How does this shape you as a person?  These thoughts link deeply into who you are as a person and how you learn as well as teach.  Here are some initial prototypes below:

What did I learn:

  • Learning artifacts – definitely will use smaller clips and make sure I use a variety of learning artifacts that is inclusive of philosophy as well as systems design.  Although I do believe that many of the clips were a fusion of everything.
  • Tempo –  the tempo has to be set at the beginning as well my facilitation style and technique while setting the tone of each mindset for each activity. I didn’t get a chance to get to the heart of the co-work but that just means doing it again with more people will help shape the topic as it goes along.
  • Light installations – thinking about creating an art installation that represents emergence for me to use during other co work sessions.
  • I love learning. I will keep moving forward.

Deeper Reflection:

As an immersive learning designer, empathizing, patterning, transforming, and observing,  are many of the creative thinking tools that I use whenever I decide to explore or create.  Often more than most, I like to study subjects from a Social Science Lens as well with my Learning science background,  such as “How does learning effect adverse learning environments in higher ed?  Why is there a creativity shortage within the higher ed system in America?”; “What does the theory of emergence mean to me as a learning professional in the ed tech field?”,  Once I find the connection through exploration (observing, collecting evidence through interview, and developing insight through practice and intense study), I’ll use it as part of my personal story. Learning for me is making sense out of something within life.   It allows me to develop a language and intuitiveness to understand what I’m learning from a global view.  The theory of emergence is guiding me someplace.    So I’ll ask questions from a diverse array of people who are apart of my personal learning circle (circles make so much more sense to me than groups).   It has cultural design significance using circles that create a powerful framework to share, grow, and learn.   Women understand the intuitiveness and power of these as it develops an intimate space to question, heal, and grow.   Some of my larger circles are indirect at times…I learn from art, mixed mediums, philosophy, and movements of other people who may not directly know that they are apart of my learning practice.    Jeff Grabill, the Associate Provost of the MSU Innovation Hub for Teaching and Learning asked this provocative question that allowed me to articulate that specifically.

Do people apart of your learning network know that they are apart of your learning network?  Is it passive or active ? Why?  – Jeff Grabill 

I’ll dig deeper into this question in my next blog post it has many connections to the role of a mentor and mentee and its significance in our society as a whole.

From me to you,

@keesav  #mylifeasalearningdesigner