pepperdine

Robby and I go to the skate park together about once a week or once every two weeks. One of my favorite things to do there is watch the interactions between people. It's very interesting to see how more experienced skaters mentor, critique and guide the newer skaters (age not a factor). It also interests me to see the different techniques that people there use to teach each other new tricks. In this project, you will study or observe a community of practice where learning is an implicit part of the activity. As an ethnographer, you must walk a fine line between presence/participation and unintrusive observation. The results of your study will be published using unconventional means, leveraging the storytelling abilities of media to relate the teaching and learning patterns within the group to specific learning theories. The deliverable should be a learning artifact (you choose the medium) that you can share with the cadre via the Internet. Be creative and have fun with this.

Choosing a Community

Your community should meet the following factors: • You should be an outsider to this community, not a part of it. • The learning should be implicit and informal • It must be observable

Your learning artifact should answer the following questions: • How does this learning environment compare to a traditional or formal learning environment? • What learning theories seem to be at play in how the members of the community relate to each other? • How is expertise in the community determined? • How does one "join" the community?

Your artifact can take on whatever form you choose, as long as it is not primarily text. Cartoons, video, animations, music, stop-motion, sculpture, interpretive dance, etc, etc. The goal is to use media in an innovative fashion to express an idea.

As you work on your artifact, consider the 6 values expressed by Daniel Pink in his book, A Whole New Mind (if you haven't read it, just Google it... You can get the idea):

1. Design - Moving beyond function to engage the senses. 2. Story - Narrative added to products and services - not just argument. Best of the six senses. 3. Symphony - Adding invention and big picture thinking (not just detail focus). 4. Empathy - Going beyond logic and engaging emotion and intuition. 5. Play - Bringing humor and light-heartedness to business and products. 6. Meaning - Immaterial feelings and values of products.

These are valuable guiding principles in terms of communicating any concept in a powerful and engaging way.