The final moments in any creative learning activity are critical. During this time, facilitators take time to reflect on their practice. They think about their own growth and learning as facilitators in the workshop, just as they deftly guide workshop participants to share and reflect. Delve into the mindset of seasoned creative learning facilitators and develop your own ongoing facilitation practice.
Week 4 Quick To-Do List
Nothing is mandatory, but you'll get out of the course what you put in!
Miss a session? No worries. You'll be able to find Zoom recordings of our Community Gatherings and Make'n'Meets on the PLIX Forum.
Featured Facilitation Technique
PLIX has seven facilitation techniques, and this week we highlight the last of them all!
️🏀 Remember: Facilitation is a practice!
Don’t stress about being “good at it” right away. Becoming a creative learning facilitator will be a continuous process of trying, reflecting, and iterating. Remember to allow ~10 minutes for self-reflection after each workshop you facilitate.
Things to Think With (Doing, Reading, Listening)
We've identified some readings that relate to the themes of the week. Read as much as you have time to read and head over to the PLIX Forum to share your thoughts.
PLIX Conversation Starters
Michelle Hlubinka of PLIX chats about the critical practices of sharing and reflection in creative learning workshops with Ricarose Roque, founder of Family Creative Learning and Professor of Information Science at University of Colorado, Boulder, where she directs the Creative Communities research group. (Time: 25 minutes)
Week 4: Ricarose & Michelle PLIX Conversation StarterRecommended Core Doing / Reading
Make Your Own Facilitation Mantra★ ★ ★ This is the primary activity this week—and a major output for the course that you can take with you into your future as a creative learning facilitator. If you are short on time, make sure you focus it here! ★ ★ ★
- “Becoming Facilitators of Creative Computing in Out-of-School Settings” by Ricarose Roque and Rupal Jain, ICLS 2018 Proceedings (2018, 7 pages)
- "Equitable by Design: Creating Equitable Learning Spaces" by Jaleesa Trapp excerpts from her thesis Uncovering Hidden Pathways pages 25–29 only (2019, 5 pages)
PLIX Activity Repository Spotlight
What will you play with at the cosmic picnic in the intergalactic garden? Space has been expanding ever since the Big Bang, and with Inflatables you’ll be blowing up the playground! Lighten up the mood with an airy element. Find a "pneu" way to play with new pneumatically-activated toys and party decor of your own design!
Playful PlanetDeeper Dive
- “Participating in a Computational Society”, “Preparatory Privilege”, “Family Learning and Computing”, and “Family Creative Learning” by Ricarose Roque excerpts from her dissertation Family Creative Learning: Designing Structures to Engage Kids and Parents as Computational Creators selected sections on pages 19–29 only (2016, ~6 pages)
- Offering Library Programs at a Distance by PLIX (2020, 2 pages) While not strictly about our practice as facilitators, this blog post demonstrates how the PLIX team took the challenge of the pandemic lockdown at MIT and in much of the world and translated it into a thing to think with. We pose some research questions about distance learning and facilitation from a removed location and reflect on them here. Blogging is a great way to reflect and share.
- "Reflective Practice", "Digital Storytelling and Popular Education", and "Documenting to Reflect" by Michelle Hlubinka excerpts from her thesis Behind the Screens: Digital Storytelling as a Tool for Reflective Practice. selected sections on pages 19–23 only (2003, 3 pages) These short section of Hlubinka's thesis frame in friendly language a few theoretical bases for taking time for reflection in the creative environment of The Clubhouse Network. The sections reference Donald Schön, Paulo Freire, and the Reggio Emilia model.
- STEAM Learning in Public Libraries: A “Guide on the Side” Approach for Inclusive Learning" in Children and Libraries (CAL), the official journal of the ALA's Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) by Brooks Mitchell, Claire Ratcliffe, and Keliann LaConte of Science-Technology Activities and Resources (STAR) Library Network (STAR Net) (2020, ~5 pages)