how course content is organized:

 

I have for years spoken of my teaching process as a cyclic complex that consists of evocation, explanation, experience, and conversation -- all embedded in each person’s living.    Taking this course to the internet has
been an attempt to replicate what works in person online -- and I think based on our experience so far, that has been remarkably successful. 

Practically, you will find that the organization is:

  1. 1.Prior to the weekly meeting, read the webpages for that unit and the assigned readings. There may be further links to follow and some weeks there are instructions for doing activities and observations that serve as part of the experience that deepens understanding of concepts.

  2. 2.Feel free to phone, skype or email me at any time if there is something you wish to clarify. Unless something unexpected happens in my life, I will normally respond within 24 hours.

  3. 3.Make journal entries, basically observations of what you are learning as you are inspired.  These will be due periodically as either oral or written assignments every other week - for a total of 7 throughout the course (see Assessment for details).

  4. 4.Participate in the Group meeting and your Team meeting, ready to present your experience with the activities, and ready to discuss your reflections, insights and ponderables concerning this week’s work. 
    This is of course where a great deal of the deep learning of what you have prepared for takes place, we all learn in relationship.

  5. 5.Review your journal entries and make further notes based on the group meeting. This will be useful for both the oral and written assignments.

At any time, questions are not only acceptable but desirable. 
In some cases I may delay answering some fully to another unit if the grounds for the answer require further development.

question

Conceptually the content corresponds to my cyclic complex of teaching:

evocation

Evocation is intended to create a sense of presence and resonance.  Many presenters tell jokes to connect with their audiences; this is not my style.  I think that the inscrutable emotion of presence with you is the most relevant factor in this. 
I hope this shows up in my writing and conversation, and it is part of the reason I include videos, images, and poetry.  (unless otherwise acknowledged, all of these are my own work)

explanations

Explanations come in the readings, the links, the text I write, and the “nuggets” I will provide.  Nuggets are short slide shows made with Mac Keynote that are recorded with a voiceover (see first example on the next page). 

I wish to acknowledge the teachers at Creative Minds for acting as the alpha testers for these nuggets. Namely they have been responding to the more or less weekly presentations I made there as I was designing the course (and we continue now, using the prepared website materials, as I still learn a lot from them!)

experiences

Activities are assigned throughout the course, some of them involving the package of materials that I sent to you, are all intended to serve as isophors of the ideas that are being explained thereby.  Sometimes the activities will precede the explanations, sometimes the other way around.  Many will involve a partner, so it would be nice if you have someone in your household, or a friend who lives nearby, who is willing to do them with you.  In many instances your partner can be a child, over about 5 to 8 years old, depending on the activity and the child. 

conversation

Conversations will take many forms; though obviously the primary venue will be our weekly group meetings.  I’m planning for these to be free flowing, i.e. not pre-structured or directed by me.  If it turns out to be desirable, I will moderate.  The opportunity exists for online chats using skype, and for asynchronous text conversations with me and each other. 

living

This is a crucial, significant, portion of the course - yet it is not something that is in any way provided by the course!   The course is only fully relevant to you as it becomes part of your living, and the living becomes part of the course.  This is of course always the case, but given that we’re not dealing with collections of facts, it behooves us to be aware that relevance takes time.  Namely some idea really only reveals itself as relevant when the appropriate circumstances arise for the notions to afford an expanded vision of where you find yourself and thus how you can act.

                ... but it’s not that separate!

Lest it sound like each bit of the course is intended to do one thing, I want to emphasize that these are but dimensions that correspond to particular ways of looking.  In the systemic happening of your living, all of these meld into a unity. 
Thus any one “thing” in the course can bring forth any of these dimensions.

You may have noticed the path metaphor on this page and in this unit.  It is a common, and obvious one, and I will return now and then to the idea of a path, as seen from many perspectives.