Week 1 on CPsquare Foundations workshop
26 September 2008
So there we were on our first telephone conference.
We were around 30 people, a few of us knew some of the others, most of us were complete strangers. Some of us were at home at the time of the telephone conference, others at the office, and others up in the mountains in Canada, trecking the way up in the snow!
While for those in Europe and Africa it was close to bedtime, for others in the US it was still in the middle of the afternoon - sunny for some, rainy for others - and in Australia the day had just dawned.
Crossing four different continents, different time zones, the call gathered people with different cultures, different backgrounds and different expectations, but we were all moved by the same motivation of knowing more about communities of practice.
The first week in the workshop was mostly dedicated to know more about each other and to do so we were given an exercise: to find a six-degree connection with someone in the workshop. We engaged in many conversations and ended up finding out about each others views from the office window, our pets' names, how many children we have and what do we eat for breakfast!
I must say it was very funny and interesting to see the connections between people that had never met before.
This funny exercise had, nevertheless, a deeper purpose: to prepare us for the following week, where we were assigned to different households while we discuss domain issues: what are communities of practice, what models of CoPs can we find, what do they imply - and from there, determine what are our personal learning objectives for the workshop, i.e., what issues do we want to discuss and learn about.
Despite all support and availability from the workshop leaders and mentors, I still feel overwhelmed by it - there are lots of discussions going on and it's sometimes hard to keep up the rhythm.
I'm keeping in mind the learders advice: don't try to catch up on everything because you can't - just focus on what you feel it's important for you and try to ge the most out of it. But even that is hard to do: it all seems important, it all seems interesting!
I guess that's another learning I have to do: decide what's important and focus on that. Will let you know how I'm managing it!
CommentsOriginal Language:
It's great to hear your perceptions of the workshop, Carla. Thanks!
Thanks Bev! It feels good to do it, but I always have the impression more could be said... the more I write about it, the more issues arise in my mind!
Aha! So what you really need is a blog :-)