finding some traction

Okay.

So my last post was in November. I started a blog. But why?

enough hours in the day are spent in front of the comptuer screen and spending more than a few hours a day here are draining. the interaction can leave me disconnected with the world around the me+computer+world'o'internet bubble.

I'm starting to understand that my goals, responsibilities, desires and drives can be lived out in a deeper way by understanding how to make one action serve many purposes. Maybe not so much "make it serve" those purposes, but see value of that action in context of multiple needs. Sometimes the needs conflict with each other. let me explain.

I can really go off onto some wild jungle trails with this idea here, but for the moment, i want to limit it to thinking about the use of this blog in the context of my life and what i do. I am testing to see how this blog can be an extension of what i already do and to see how a different context (a blog) influences what i'm doing in other settings (writing, recording, communicating, researching, sharing, learning, etc. with people in cafes, in rooms, on paper, email). The assumption here is that there is an influence and that i can somehow come to understand the nature of shape of that influence on me (and/or others).

I'm still skirting the surface. Let's dig a bit.

I'm 25 years old living in toronto, ON with my parnter Laura Arsenault. We live on Albany avenue at Bloor Street on the third floor of an early 20th century home. the place is huge. skylights and a gas stove for cheap rent. Our landlord is the real life version of the "big lebowski". Outside our bedroom window we can see the twinkle from the lights atop the CN tower. Urban living at it's best we suppose, but we're not exactly sold.

I am registered as a student OISE - the ontario institute for studies in education at the university of toronto. They have me written down in the books as a 'Masters' student in the 'Education Administration' programme. I gave them some of the money the government gave me for my fancy research proposal so i could spend time in various rooms with students and faculty. Here, i would learn about education administration and be encouraged to pursue my scholarly interests with others. Indeed, I have learned something since enrolling in September 2005, but the real lessons are not in the content of what I'm reading; they are with seeing how everything makes the whole show happen the way it does. To understand my experience, why I am doing this blog and what the Free University entails is about understanding 'the way people be and do'.

The institution is not able to provide me with the sorts of learning opportunities I need in many ways right now. My programme advisor told me last week that I'm acting like a doctoral student and that never before has he seen someone place so many demands on the learning environment - only to be turned down at the most important points along the way. This is a story in itself and is perhaps something I want to write about in this blog.

I may want to write about this experience here, because there is the potential for legitimate, recognized value in such an activity. A few students from around the building are creating our own course tentatively entitled Learning as a Contact sport. This course can used towards the completion of our Master's degrees as an 'Independent Research and Reading' course. We're exploring how people learn, the processes and dynamics of human interaction in the context of our own lives. Experience counts and so does good ideas, good theories, good questions, and good ways of communicating it all. The idea behind the course is that learning doesn't have to take place in the classroom under the motivation of a lecturer that doesn't ask about our own learning needs. Learning then, is a free activity, and when we know how to learn well (the skills, the dynamics, etc.) and live out what we know, then the learning will be of high quality. Hence the free university.

I recognize that I have been enormously influenced by the educational institution. I'm glad I have, the experience has been so amazing. It has been amazing, in part, because of the encouragement and support from some of the teachers I've had to pursue my own questions with others. I am the best steward of my own learning and recognize that I need others to support me and challenge me in that stewardship.

the blog, then, will serve as a way of capturing thoughts and ideas as it relates to what i see as the 'free university'. it will feed into the course and into my other activities (teaching a course, writing a book)

my agenda for the next little while:
- post research from ralph stacey and emergence
- share some of my struggles and tensions with the institutions of learning
- post some older ideas i've had

sp