Play to Learn: the play city model for Community-based Learning

Notes from the event hosted by @Ulrike von Ruecker:

(@Ulrike von Ruecker, I think you could add a short description here, to be shown in the preview of the wiki - that is trimmed version, as I understand it)

Ulli’s Background as bank clerk, worked at ISEC, aiming to develop leadership and management skills, then worked on Pioneers of change (group of former ISEC graduates) aiming to learn to ask relevant questions as a tool to learn and understand better.

Following then to Art of hosting, a group of practitioners interested in how people learn and especially how children learn.

Other projects:

  • The Learning Village in Maribor, one week event in a Slovenian castle, to find answers to doubts of families interested in the challenges of "alternative education" (this end of August).
  • Mini Medina, children come together and can create their own city, role playing everything that is needed to run it (can this morph into a "Lord of Flies" scenario? Supervision by adults).

How did we get here.

@Alessandro Mambelli

Kim Robinson TED talk and The Element book

Positive Psychology - flow

Interesting experience in "alternative (disruptive?) Education at Tumo center in Yerevan

@Anna Kamay

Disabled people educational work was inspiring

Interested in giving her daughter, and not only, an opportunity to learn freely and develop her potential

…didn’t catch her name?

Journalist and teacher working with autistic children

developing interesting deductive models to approach learning

Learn the skills to contribute to society. Active citizenship is all about this.

Tools currently in use: 24h Education Hackathon

Examples of existing models: democratic schools (Open Space approach: barcamp and edgeryders kind of message-board oriented schedule for conferences)

Big question: how can you maintain a minimal structure of educational curriculum your children will need? Look through evolution of education and see what worked in history

A strong example of how learning can be effective: Curiosity -> Challenge -> Learning: loop. And take ownership of your own learning.

Challenge: we needd spaces needed to express you curiosity and experience new ways, unlearning what is being wired into your brain by traditional education.

Question-method: Take this approach into schooling to acquire a sense of responsibility. Fear of failure and not knowing stops the exploration and asking stimulative questions.

Top down approach? How about “chaordic”! A balance between chaos and order

Student feel respected for taking charge of their learning process. learn the value of indepency.

  • Reggio Emilia approach (and Montessori), environment for student groups to express themselves
  • Open space principle
  • Caro Dweck, "inspire me and terrifies me"

We need Educators, not teacher. Selection process to understand who has the right mentality for this.

Get the students to document their own learning processed, collect memories that can help up bring up the stories at a later stage to crystallise and help delivering the knowledge.

Also mentioned

Coder Dojo - sort of Code Academy for kids. @Marc and @piersoft are involved in this.

Kids can teach themselves - Computer-in-a-hole project in India

@community builders

Hi Ale, and thanks for posting this!

Just wanted to say thanks to @Ulrike von Ruecker for telling us about the International Learning Village and your yearly events in northern Slovenia. I quite like something I’ve read on the website “the place where we all belong” - warm and speaking to a community.

Here is the link, in case more community builders, hosts, educators are interested to attend: http://statenberglearningvillage.weebly.com/

La ferme des enfants

A very nice school in France is called “La ferme des enfants” which is part of an eco-village in Ardeche (a rural area).

It was created by Sophie Bouquet-Rabhi who is the daughter of a famous French permaculture “guru” : Pierre Rabhi.

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