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The A229 Project

March 12, 20175 min readen
CityVP Manjit

CityVP Manjit

The A229 Project

 

The A229 Project is the physical space that has emerged where I can anchor my learning journey.  This emergent space is referenced as "Weekend Warriors" because it will become whatever it becomes from occupying it.  It is akin to a skunkwork project or that space where for a brief moment a window opens up where an idea has a chance to be incubated.

The beam of light that flows online is what I reference as my learning journey, and over the last couple of weeks I have opened up a physical learning space that potentially will contribute greatly to my offline learning journey and whatever that emerges in an associated cross-collaboration.  The best thing about it is the continuity of making things up as they happen.

This emergent approach is still got strings of control and in a separate class that I have just begun taking called "Agile Methodologies", I have come to realize that while I may do well expressing my learning in an emergent way, I am not really agile - if anything the first two classes have shown me that I am far more mechanical and methodical than I am agile.

The class as also allowed me to determine that agile and emergent are not necessarily the same thing and in what I am learning about agile, is a totally different skill-set.  Another group I have attended workshops for brought in a professor who talked about thinking.  In that group I came to realize that I am pursuing one type of thinking but need to pay attention to two others.

The professor's name who is Jeremy led a workshop on Creativity.  What I determined from that class is that I do major in a type of thinking that most people do not engage which is metacognition, but I need to pay attention to two other forms of thinking -  which are critical thinking and creative thinking.  What I engage here to date has been reflective thinking.

REFLECTIVE THINKING

CRITICAL THINKING

CREATIVE THINKING

I learned from the creativity workshop just how challenging creative thinking is, or at least in the exercises that I was provided.  I also already recognize the challenges associated with critical thinking and these include understanding the existence of logical fallacies and being absolutely objective - this makes critical thinking challenging as getting to the depth of creative thinking.

So it is the The A229 Project is beginning to take shape in an emergent fashion and swirling around it is the serendipity of programs that I have taken on a whim rather than as a design.  A set of bizzare factors led me to to enroll on the Agile course on the Friday before the first class was due to meet.  Once we met the instructors had created a course based on agile principles.


So there is a confluence of offline activities that are coalescing around now what I have given a name to which is The A229 Project - Weekend Warriors.  The "Warriors" is a plural because as I organize an offline space, it is a part of a space which other students are involved but their involvement has nothing to do with my own learning journey - but their own learning journeys.

They do not know that they are a part of The A229 Project, they just happen to share a learning space that is a part of a student club which in turn is an off-shoot of a larger club, which just happens to meet on a weekend.  What I do have is upwards of 2 hours to explore, organize and play with what is for me a blessing - a small group affinity where learning journeys combine.

It will be interesting for me to see what I can learn about creativity and how I bring it into my offline learning journey.  I have already seen that there is great scope for me to explore and practice creative exercises - and because of the nature of the student group that will emerge I have the space and time to present ideas in a collaborative space designed to be that. Equally as I learn about creativity for my own OFFLINE learning and present those findings, so it is I will begin learning more about critical thinking and again use the format and space that I now call The A229 Project.  Critical thinking is not a separate animal from Creative thinking, it is a triangulation of thinking and ONLINE it will support my reflective thinking I engage here.

What I do know is that I have had exposure to critical thinking and the form that I have seen it is not particularly inviting, yet in an OFFLINE space where the people in the room expect a presentation based on learning the skills of presenting - it means that no one in that room has come to hear me - they have come to the room to engage their own learning journeys.


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