Course

[ladyofastolat]

I went to a course today on supporting adult learning - the first of three days spread over the next few weeks. Because of the timings of the ferries and trains, I had to leave home at 6.45 to get to a course that started at 9.30 in a place only about 15 miles away, as the crow flies. The half hour walk from the station at the other end didn't help with the timing, though.

There was an interesting ice-breaker, in which we had a list of statements, like "I have been to America" or "I am left-handed," and we had to go round and collect people's signatures next to something that was true for them. We were only allowed to get one signature from each person. This was interesting to observe. It was like an economy in microcosm. The sole left-hander was the economic fat cat, with everyone clamouring for their favour. The many people with pet cats were the peasants, labouring away to sell a signature no-one wanted.

I treated it like a game, and planned my tactics carefully. I looked at the list, and worked out which ones were likely to be hard to find. I then eavedropped a bit, and amended by ideas accordingly. If someone wandered up offering to sign as a cat owner, I first asked them if they could sell me something of higher value. Since I was one of only two people in the room who knew what ESOL stood for, I felt I had something of value to put on the market. This meant that I didn't run into the problem that several people hit, in which they'd already got the sole left-hander signed up as a cat-owner, so couldn't complete the game.

And yes, yes, I know it was just an ice-breaker, and I was totally missing the point. Sometimes I think I've played too many games... ;-)

Actually, I think the above has potential to be turned into an LJ meme, but I'm too tired to do so.

I also concluded that I have played too many role-playing games, or written too many stories. Later in the course, we were given very short case studies of adults with essential skills needs, and were asked to describe their barriers to learning. In the course of short discussion, I'd created a full background for my character - her backstory, her family, her interests etc. Later, when we were asked how she could overcome these barriers, all I could think was things like, "Ditch that awful boyfriend" - i.e. things derived from the backstory I'd made up, not from the actual text.

Comments

[tovaglia.livejournal.com]

I had to do an ice-breaker like that recently. Quite a few of the statements were factual knowledge "Knows what X is". But then if someone tells you what X is, even if they've already signed a box, then you know it too, and if you tell it to the next person you meet they will also know it and you can get them to sign their name. Also you can copy off other peoples' lists /forge signatures... actually that was the most fun bit!

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Librarians are clearly too honest for their own good, since no-one thought of forgery. I don't think people were doing the clever "passing on knowledge of X" trick, either, but I don't know. I was one of only two people who knew X, so I was telling people what it meant, but I don't know what they chose to do with the knowledge afterwards.