Week Three – Learning Log

What we did?

The Apocalypse is over and we have emerged from our bunkers and have to start over by re-building our world, we had to take the following points into consideration.

1) How will you run your world?

2) How will you educate people?

3) How do you ensure everybody is housed in good health and well fed?

We were asked to get into groups of five and were given a year after emergence. As a team we discussed how we would re-build our world after being given year 0. We mind mapped our ideas on a sheet of A3 paper. We discussed  this in a group for twenty minutes whilst filling in our mind maps, the middle of our mind map contained the year we were given and we had different headed sections protruding from the centre with titles such as Education, Health, Safety, Food, Housing. Once twenty minutes had passed we had to elect two people from our group, one person to be apart of the panel of judges and another to pitch our work to the panel and the rest of the class. After every individuals pitch the panel would make notes and at the end was a little Q&A.

Why?

There are various ways in which we learn and I feel each week we have explored a different method. For this task we covered both social and kinaesthetic as this exercise came across as a think, feel and do sort of exercise as it was a simulation. This task also had its other benefits such as group bonding, not only within our own groups but the class as a whole. This task encouraged team work as we had to work together. It also helped to better develop our communication skills as it ended in a bit of a debate, which promoted our critical and analytical thinking as the panel challenged certain groups work so we had to come up with a good argument. This task developed self-confidence as some of us had to present our work in front of the whole of the class (which happened to be me as I lost the coin toss).

What I learned?

I learned to not rely on a coin toss because I always tend to lose. Standing up in front of the class was not as scary as I thought it would be (pick a point of the room to focus on and you are fine). People engage in many different ways and I noticed for quite a few people it brought them out of their shell a little more (myself included). I felt emotionally engaged with this task as others may have too, especially as the second half of the lesson got quite debated as people felt strongly about their worlds, the choices they had made, what had drawn them to these decisions etc. A lot of thought and emotion had gone into this task.

How I will remember?

By the way I was made to feel, a little nervous s I was working in a group with people I hadn’t had the opportunity to really met yet. Excited and challenged by the task we were given. Nervous and self-conscious with having to speak in front of everyone. Overall I really did enjoy this lesson and on top of that had a great group of people to work with plus I made some more new friends. I also conquered my fear of having to speak in front of everyone.

What next?

I now plan to blog my learning log. I would also think about if there is anything I would have done differently, if so, what? Next I would have a go at answering the take-away questions which were,

1) What is the purpose of an education system for a society?

2) What Is the purpose of education system for an individual?

3) Whose interests do you think an education system has to serve?

4)What education system or strategy would you put into place and why?

5) If you had to sum up the ethos or values embraced by your perfect education strategy, what would they be?