Un-lecture week 4

This week’s un-lecture was symposium style. I’m not usually a fan of the whole question/answer system, speaking up in a lecture theatre scares me, but I think that it is a relevant style of learning for Networked Media.

I guess it comes back to the reading about double-loop learning. I am slowly starting to appreciate what Networked Media is demonstrating by being so open and experimental.

I enjoy this type of learning more than I thought. When everyone is encouraged to contribute, I sometimes surprise myself and do have something to contribute. In classes like cinema, where the classroom is very open (everyone sits in a big circle facing in), it feels more like the tutor is a part of a team discussion, rather than being at the front of the class. As daunting as it may seem, it is pretty good for building confidence when you have a lightbulb moment and realise you have something valuable to add.

I also got thinking about work environments and immediately remembered the Youtube videos we were shown during our first class for Client Relationships this semester. The videos were from a series called ‘Cubes’ – think MTV ‘Cribs’ but for workplaces…The first video was about Google, and wow, they have got the whole ‘happy workers are productive workers’ mantra down-pat.

It really makes you think about working and learning in a different way. It’s 2013 – maybe we should be taking a more experimental approach in order to be more innovative.

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Film: Stoker

http://vimeo.com/51340177

I watched this film yesterday, and I highly recommend it!

It is visually beautiful, unpredictable, and the performances of Mia Wasikowska and Nicole Kidman suck you into their enchanting world.

And the best part: it was written by Wentworth Miller…of Prison Break! Wot! How can someone so buff write such an intricate thriller as their first screen play? Amazing.

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Chris Argyris reading

When I first opened the reading I was like…

Chris Argyris: theories of action, double-loop learning and organizational learning looked intimidating. As a Prof Comm student, anything with the words ‘theory’, ‘models’ and ‘research’ makes me want to cry then take a nap.

Which seemed kind of ironic once I started reading, particularly this statement about Model I:

Touche, Argyris, touche.

So maybe I was being a bit defensive coming into this reading (and also this subject), but it was difficult to break it down in a way I could understand. The main points I took away from this reading are SIngle and Double-Loop learning, and Models I and II.

Mental modes are subtle patterns of reasoning. They are personal mental maps that determine how we plan, implement and review our actions.

Single-loop learning: When you identify and correct a problem without having to change the underlying policies and objectives.

Double-loop learning: When you have to modify the organisation’s policies, objectives and norms in order to solve a problem.

I think this concept of double-loop learning is quite liberating, and can be applied to more than just how we learn. When you are honest with yourself and investigate the reasons why you want to achieve a specific goal, you are no longer just going through the motions, you have changed the foundations of your own personal ‘policies’.

For example, I recently became a vegetarian. I realised that all my life I had eaten meat without much thought because I had been brought up that way. I might occasionally cut down on meat to achieve a health/weight loss goal, but hadn’t thought about why I eat meat.

When I delved a bit deeper and was exposed to some horrible truths about the meat industry, I made the decision to re-write my personal beliefs and stop eating animals. This evaluation of my own ‘policies’ has been the most confronting part of becoming vego. I also think it has enhanced my potential for growth, because I am no longer ignoring or ‘moving away from’ that fact that most of the animal products I ate came out of suffering.

Model I: Win, don’t lose, control the environment, treating one’s views as obviously correct, avoid embarrassment.

Model II: Shared leadership, focus on achieving shared goals, free and informed choice, encouraging public testing of evaluations.

These models make me think of the course so far; it’s broad, open to interpretation, and we’re encouraged to share anything and everything. Very Model II. This model makes me want to hide and save myself embarrassment (just call me Model I Molly), by not expressing much, not having questions, and avoiding involvement in class conversations.

So even though Chris Argyris wrote about all of this ages ago (and, like, without the inter webs!), it is still relevant to us.

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I’m on a boat

“I got a nautical themed pashmina afghan.”

What is Networked Media? That is the question…The answer is much less straightforward.

It appears that Networked Media is a boat that sits on top of a sea of infinite ideas.

Now, I’m not the sailing type. I can appreciate the outdoors, the beauty of Mother Nature etc, but I’d definitely call myself an indoor person. Perhaps I used up all my time outside as a kid growing up on a ‘farm’ in the bushlands of a town called Buln Buln East (I know, lol).

It’s much more comfortable indoors and instead of bobing, floating and weaving through an ocean of ideas, they are all readily available and easy to Google on my Macbook. Simples.

Although I also realise that my current method of learning is lazy. Regurgitating information that was spoon-fed to me in lectures defeats the purpose of being ready for employment in just about a year.

I can relate to the idea of currents and waves being like thoughts and ideas. Some are stronger than others, some don’t really lead anywhere, sometimes you follow an idea down its ‘current’ and it brings you to another idea. Ideas are fluid; water is a fluid…Ok that’s enough.

I expect my Networked Media experience to be more of an opportunity to explore and discuss (if only with myself) a mix of ideas from the readings, ‘unlectures’ and ‘other’.

Let’s just hope I don’t find myself ‘up shit creek without a paddle!’

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