permaculture

[georg <georg@2012.org>]

>I would appreciate your comments and experiences on this shorter course.
>For example: How does the curriculum differ relative to timing? How does
>the  community building work and what do you do to enhance it? Are students
>even more intimidated by the immense download of information in the shorter
>time frame?  Is it more beneficial to present packets of the handouts at
>the beginning of the course to reduce note taking anxiety and allow more
>attention to lectures and presentations?  Is the lack of reading and/or
>library perusal time critical?  How does hands-on fit in? Do you notice
>more attendance due to shorter course length?
>What do you see as the drawbacks? The advantages?

hi jude:

maybe i am not perfectly fit to answer these questions, as i have never
taught a long design course. my only experience with this format was my own
design course (perth 88) - and i do remember it as extremely tiresome.

with the 10 day format i have had the experience to co declan kennedy on
austria's first design course (gumpoldskirchen 96), and recently i ran my
first one in february 99 with a schedule strongly leaning on declan's.

we had few 'hands-on' in terms of physical work (partially due to climate
restrictions - november and february are quite nasty around here - but it
is the time when farmers and gardeners can most easily take time off, and
we had encouraging numbers of participants from these trades), but we had
lots of 'hands-on' in terms of practical planning. we had 2 properties to
be turned into pc systems in the vicinity of the course place available,
that have been worked on in teams of 3 or 4 participants.

we had at least 3 hours a day dedicated to the 'designing-exercise',
starting with collection of data on day 3, and increasingly more hours
dedicated to the task as the course went along. we even found that it makes
a difference if the properties are actually going-to-be permaculture
places. in 96 we had three properties, but 2 of them were fictional - and
the difference in quality of the student designs on the one that was
actually owned by a pc-inclined person was noticable. even though we always
left the option to design 'as if this is your group's place'.

we were working very long hours, it was packed full days - and several
groups even spent time designing during their breaks. they just loved it -
and it really showed them what they knew and what they lacked, so in the
evenings we had several lectures-on-demand to topics that students had
realized during the process they needed information about.

during these design exercises assistants (graduates from the 96 course) and
partially myself were going from group to group, spending a few hours with
each, giving them a chance to really go into details and ask specific
questions from people who have been through the process a few times.
another benefit there was, that i had some time off, which was greatly
appreciated since days went from 7:30 to 9pm or longer a few times.

the information-transfer process itself was lively learning for me myself
too - we started out the way i knew it from my own course in perth and from
declan - 1 guy lecturing, the rest listening and asking questions at the
most. declan was also using a lot of slides. o.k., so i started out
lecturing and using slides, also i have been giving out neat writeups of
each lecture. on day 3 or 4 (?) due to massive feedback i tried something
different - i was just giving the topics and ask the students to provide
the information.

from then on i was more of a facilitator, guiding the process and keeping
certain participants from getting carried away and wander off to other
subjects when they threw in their share - the results were impressive. i
would say that at least 80%, propably closer to 90% of the data was
contributed by 'the class', and there even were a few pieces of info new
for me that i was adding to my own notes. but the process was so much more
lively and interactive - i am completely convinced of the validity of this
approach. when the class was 'finished' on one point and there was still
this or that missing, before supplying the piece of info i would just try
to point at it with a slide (if i had one) - it was great fun. so i was
giving out the notes at the end of the lectures from then on, which helped
them organize it in their minds i think. also during the 'lectures' i
pointed out when there was info coming that i didn't cover in the notes, so
they can write it down and add to the script later.

btw, on the point 'patterns' i think we have really been breaking ground,
the results of which are still waiting to be published (i will, big
promise).

drawback of this approach is imho that it takes more time, and as it is
more process-orientated we needed to be very flexible with the schedule
(glad it worked out so well with the cook, praise to him!) - and make a new
one on the beginning of every break. also due to the time stress we had 2
points that i would have like to see handeled in more detail (finance and
professional designing) whipped through in a couplwe of hours.

i could imagine that if applying this process at other occasions, that i
would have to complete more of the data, as i believe this having been an
outstanding group  (3 organic farmers, a pro garden designer and feg shui
consultant, a general building contractor turned feng shui consultant, an
ag dept consultant, to name the most significant professions) with big
variety  of age (17 to 65).

community building worked fine and was supported by daily sharing circels
and circle dancing in the mornings as well as common kitchen work (there
was only 1 cook who was also an assistant) without anyone organizing it -
students did this on their own. this was also supported by the collective
schedule-creation and priority setting (as soon as we were clear that we
couldn't cover All points in so much detail, we needed to do this - which
to just race over and which to give a lot of space)

the library (approx 400 titles) was set up in a corner and intensely used
(don't ask me When they did this ?!) and quite a few times during out
'lectures' someone threw in a piece of info they said they had picked out
of this or that book shortly before.


that is it. thank you for asking the question, gave me a chance to reflect
it once more.

*



georg


********
follow your heart -
it is the only way to heaven on earth.. .  .
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