Co-creating Experiences!

What I had read and heard of the Magic Bus Learning Centre was not enough I realized as I walked towards the dining area for breakfast after dropping in my luggage in the dormitory. The food was lovely and during the next few trips to the dining area it would be difficult to not over eat! Quiet walks in the campus were fun, once during the late evening and then during the next morning. I was there to participate in the 2^nd Experiential Education Conclave and in the coming lines share some thoughts from the event. Need to get back to the campus to indulge in the activities though!

I indulged in some very interesting conversations on a wide range of topics with co-participants from diverse backgrounds! To begin with I put forth two very interesting lines I came across during the two day event:

v We are in the 16^th year of the 21^st century and our education practices still belong to the 20^th century!

v If my students don’t fail, I fudge up to give them that experience at least once – they need it!

The entire team at Centre for Experiential Education had put in not commonly seen arrangements; in other words – the entire event was very well done. Positive vibes reverberated in the campus. Some lines on the sessions now:

In ‘Pains in Practice of Experiential Education’ by Vishwas Parchure it was interesting how the facilitator noticed a frame on wall depicting multiple knots. ‘Pains’ then became ‘Knots’; all this while sitting in a circle with participants. His body language, the ease and calm, was enviable and infectious! We were asked to select a knot we identified the most with. This had me confused for on looking at them, with the objective of selection, each of them appeared similar. We then discussed the proverbial knots in our lives in sub-groups. The manner in which one of us expressed the knot, in the sub-group I was a part of, was for me succinct and identifiable: ‘Need for authenticity in a word which is perhaps not even looking for it’! After this we moved on to offering plausible solutions to one particular participant. The closure then was in form of facilitator’s words, albeit in a light tone ‘I need to have the last word and would not like any of you to move out wondering what the hell was that’!

The session ‘My experiences in Education’ by Mahesh Chaturvedi was different from what I had perceived on reading the blurb, but interesting none the less. The idea, it appeared, was to focus on being childlike and not falling into the rut of being an adult. ‘Adults are horrible people’ we were told more than once! The speaker appeared to have a wealth of experiences to talk of and also stayed away from reading the slides! Slides that had some very lovely quotes including couple from classic ‘The Little Prince’: ‘All grownups  were once children . . . but only few of them remember it’. One of us pointed out to the room getting cold and I too with my inability to face the blasting air conditioners felt the chill. We were asked for solutions and while there were ones like shutting fan and air conditioners to moving in the open the most interesting and childlike response (read original, real, enjoyable, from the heart . . ) was to cover ourselves with the dari (carpet) we were sitting on!

The Keynote ‘Changing the way we understand how people learn through Experiences’ by Colin Beard was just wonderful. He brought in connections with personal experiences into the realm of the topic in a very interesting fashion! When talking about class-room teaching he shared how there is now very little taught by way of telling and we are moving from a transmission mode to a transactional mode in class rooms. The class room design too is moving away from the ‘rows’ format and not all classes have four walls! He ended on a challenging note as he conveyed that what he had talked of were all American experiences which may or may not work here; we need to have our very own Indian stories and narratives. I enjoyed being a part of his workshop as well: ‘Understanding the Design of Learning Experiences’ as well; the preparation and closure were encouraging.

My favourite though was the workshop ‘Connecting the Task with the Team, with the Individual’ by Rob Thomas. We walked out of the room after 5 – 10 minutes and he pointed out how faces espoused smiles and bodies got relaxed just by the virtue of walking out. How true I wondered as I played with stones then! We walked around the campus discussing the ripple effect after causing some in the pool formed in the river – ‘Ripples of learning’. ‘Action Centred Leadership’ followed by way of actions which included shuffling and re-arranging cards and discussing the overlaps amidst work, personal and leadership spaces. The cards were brought in by him in a reactionary mode! We were to get reading material on the topics later over web along with the videos of the session; the later to observe how we act! This we have since received. I was also left wondering on how much we could bring in within 90 minutes in an interesting fashion without asking participants to either make notes or to bear the power-points.

Another plenary ‘Philosophy and Methods of Experiential Education: International Perspectives’ by Dr. Christian Itin proved a difficult time for me to pay attention to! Also, could not fathom why the initial moments had a negative line like ‘a pizza can feed four people but an experiential educator can barely feed himself’! Put forth my surprise with the lower turnout and – to an extent – lesser energies as compared with the first edition with a participant and was immediately told: ‘That was Bangalore and this is Bombay’!

Some images from the conclave here.

Warm thanks to Centre for Experiential Education, Magic bus and co-participants.