January 22, 2009 - 13:40, by Dostalek, Kevin
Early in my career I was a technical trainer and then later a training manager for a staff of 8-10. I was recently reminded of some of the lessons I both learned and tried to teach back then and wanted to get them down electronically before I forget about them for another 10 years. Edu-Chaos is the first one of these that comes to mind.
As I got to teach groups of various sizes and backgrounds (all adults though), I noticed that some classes were dull and boring with little interactivity while others were full of chatterboxes and egotists that could quickly get away from you and turn the class to chaos. What I discovered was there was a narrow place just on the edge of chaos that was the perfect context for pedigogical flow.
Good learning nearly always involves a feeling of discovery rather than acquisition. The best teaching creates an efficient context for this.
As I tried to explain this place to my fellow trainers and we brainstormed techniques for geting a class into this state and keeping it there for long periods, the phrase "edge of chaos" was shorthanded into a new term of mine: Edu-Chaos
The idea is that you want to increase levels of interactivity and "stuff going on" within the class so that each learner has a "place" they can go where they feel most comfortable and can learn the most. This goes beyond interactions just between the trainer and the students, but must also be between the students themselves as that is where they can discover problems and work them out in a way that will be memorable for them. Again
another tweet from Kathy:
Good teachers set us up for success, but they should ALSO set us up for strategic failures. When things work as expected, we remember less.
So increased interactivity can be achieved through many facilitation techniques. At all costs we want to get out of the "lecture" style of teaching. In cases where that is necessary, just the basic use of pattern interuptors can go a long way. However, to really increase the level of chaos (interactivity) usually more drastic measures are needed. This is especially true in mid-sized classes where most of the students don't know each other (like in a public class setting).
One of my strategies for this that worked out very well is to intersperse periods in the class where small groups of students on working on diverse activities all at the same time, which are designed to teach the same thing, but in very different ways. I found that people would tend to migrate to the activities that were most interesting to them and best fit their mode of learning. While some liked "switching stations" to get better coverage, I didn't force them to "rotate". After these periods though, I did ask for feedback about each activity from those that participated in each so that the rest of the class could get a flair for what they may have missed.
This type of facilitated learning activity because of it's nature almost always brought the class to that "edge of chaos" just due to the fact that there was so much going on at once. As a trainer, it is our responsibility to insure that we, as a class, don't cross that fine line and fall over the edge into chaos. This was most likely to happen in large groups where most of the people know each other (like a corporate training setting).
One of my trainers had a great method for reeling a class back in (he liked to be a lot closer to the "edge" that I ever did). What he would do is walk around to help/observe the different groups and if he felt the class was teetering on crossing the chaos line, he'd casually leave his coffee cup somewhere in the room and about a minute later shout "STOP! EVERYONE STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING! ... WHERE IS MY COFFEE CUP? OH YOU HAVE IT AGAIN. THANKS. CARRY ON." This, of course, always got a laugh, but I was amazed at how effectively this little interuption would setting the class back down and back onto task. I tried this a couple times myself, without nearly the positive effect- so basically, you need to find techniques and methods that compliment your own unique personality.
So to summarize this Edu-Chaos concept, here's my graphical depiction:
My goal now is to figure out how much of this is just good classroom management, and what from it can be applied to other settings, such as smaller facilitated meetings, or even un-facilitated meetings. Certainly the ideas from Lencioni's
Death by Meeting come to mind. Just increasing drama within a meeting with a little chaos could be healthy.
December 3, 2008 - 19:58, by Dostalek, Kevin
Ran across this trick that switches your mind out of defensive excuses mode and into an offensive problem solving mode. Whenever you find yourself saying I want to do x BUT y. Just replace the BUT with the word AND... then add a SO z on the end with a possible solution.
For example:
Defensive Excuses:
I'd like to see my family more, BUT I have to travel a lot for my job.
Problem Solving Statement:
I'd like to see my family more AND I have to travel a lot for my job, SO I need to figure out how to bring them along on trips more often or maybe find a new job.
Another:
I want to read more, BUT my morning commute just got longer and eats up my spare time.
<<turns into>>
I want to read more, AND my morning commute just got longer, eating up my spare time, SO maybe I could try audio books in the car and see if that gives me what I'm looking for.
And one last one:
I want to change the world, BUT I just don't have any influence.
<<turns into>>
I want to change the world AND right now I don't have any influence, SO let me build a tribe to leverage my influence into something that can make a difference.
You try some.
November 25, 2008 - 14:47, by Dostalek, Kevin
This is Richard St. John from the TED conference 3 years ago. He defines success in 8 simple words in under 3 minutes.
Ted Video
Passion, Work, Good, Push, Ideas, Focus, Persist, Serve
I especially like the term "workafrolics" :)
November 24, 2008 - 10:42, by Dostalek, Kevin
Here's a fun little video that teaches the basics of Pointers in C. I love lo-tech/hi-concept productions!
YouTube Video
The video was made by Nick Parlante, and you can find it and other supporting materials at the
Standford CS Ed Library site. Another series that I love that falls into this categoy is all the stuff at
Common Craft. Does anybody have other favorites in this particular genre?
November 13, 2008 - 23:51, by Dostalek, Kevin
I just came across this site wikihow.com. Not bad, nice layouts and some of the articles seem well done. Interesting though was this feature that allows you to embed an entire article in another blog posting. So of course I need to try this out!
I picked the article on juggling. It starts out quite intesting, stating an un-attributed statistic that people that learn to juggle show an increase in 3% of brain matter. ANYWAY, I would also like to point out two other posts related to juggling on THIS blog, which are
Juggling as a Learning Experience and
Agile Dev. Related to Juggling? Now let's see how this embed thing works.
from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can EditJuggling is a challenging but rewarding hobby; studies show that people who learn to juggle show a 3% increase in grey matter! Juggling may be difficult at first, but becomes easy once you've learned it. This article takes you into the basics of three-ball juggling.
Steps
- Pick balls. Beanbags are good. To start, find balls that will not bounce a lot, or roll away when they are dropped. A set of beanbags can be bought for a very low price or made by hand. Tennis balls filled with sand and covered with a round balloon also work well. They don't bounce and they provide a slip-free grip.
- Toss one ball for a while to get the feel of juggling. Start passing one ball from one hand to the other. Also practice selfs (throws you catch with the throwing hand). The ball should come to eye-height or higher. Your hands should not move very much, is a good thing to keep your elbows at your hips.
- Practice scooping. This is a technique to make juggling smooth: Scoop, or dip your hand, before tossing the ball. Dip your hand only shallowly. Practice scooping and tossing from one hand to another, so that arc does not rise above eye level.
- Take one ball in each hand. Toss ball A, and when it reaches the top of its arc, toss ball B. Practice until it is comfortable.
- Juggle three balls. Try to make three passes in a row.
- First hold two balls in right hand and one in left-hand. (Vice versa if you are left handed)
- Begin with passing from the right hand. (Again; vice versa if you are left-handed)
- Throw ball to left hand and in the moment ball 1 is at the peak throw ball 2 (the only one in left hand) under ball 1 to right hand.
- At the moment ball 2 is at the highest point (at this point you should also catch ball 1 in the left hand) throw ball 3 under ball 2.
- And when ball 2 is in the right hand just catch ball 3 and this should be it.
- Try to make those three passes as many times as you can.
- Try to juggle four and five as explained in steps before. Learn to juggle two in one hand, then do two in your left hand and two in your right hand at the same time. You are juggling four! Juggling five balls is just like juggling three, but you have to move your hands a lot quicker.
Video
Tips
- Begin juggling with your better hand.
- Learn all juggling tricks with both hands.
- Start out with handkerchiefs or scarves. (But look out; this can give you a sense of juggling being far easier than you think, so that when you start juggling balls, it is going to be harder than you thought)
- A bed or couch is useful for catching dropped balls.
- Stand in front of a wall to stop balls from going too far forward.
- Juggle inside.
- Relax, breathe, don't get frustrated. It may take days, to be able to juggle three a couple of times in a row!
- It helps to think of juggling as being less about catching and more about learning to accurately throw a ball so it will land in the catching hand.
- You should juggle for 10 minutes and then take a 5 minute rest and juggle for 10 minutes and take a rest, it will improve your skills.
- Try to find a pattern that works best for you. That way, you can juggle with ease.
- Learn new patterns. In this article the simple pattern "Three Ball Cascade" is explained. After learning the "Three Ball Cascade", you should learn to do "Over-the-top-throws". Instead of each ball going under the one before, they go over it. You can start by juggling a normal "Three Ball Cascade", and then letting one of the balls do an over-the-top all the time, so that 1/3 of all throws are over-the-top throws. If you make one hand throw over-the-top throws every time, you are juggling a "Slow Shower", and if every throw is an over-the-top-throw, you are juggling a "Reverse Three Ball Cascade". When you have learned this, you can advance onto things like cross hand juggling, columns (one in the middle, to on the sides), and "Mills' Mess"
- Whilst juggling, put on some music with good beat to help you find a rhythm.
- If all else fails, and you're still struggling, go to: Juggling is a Snap
Warnings
- Avoid juggling heavy objects.
- Never try to catch a ball that has gone behind you.
Things You'll Need
- Suitable juggling balls
- Lots of patience
- A juggling book, like Charlie Dancey's "The Encyclopedia of Ball Juggling" (The Klutz Juggling book is another great one, and it comes with beanbags. It teaches you other fun ways to show off too.)
Related wikiHows
Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Juggle. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.