Saturday, August 25, 2012

community psychology

i have always loved the study of social interaction and this article on the psychology of a "community" is a stellar example, right down to the mathematical simplification of the feelings and hopes of any number of people to the following equations for community cohesiveness:

shared emotional connection is equal to contact AND high quality interaction, which is itself equal to (events with successful closure WITHOUT ambiguity) MULTIPLIED by (event valence MULTIPLIED by sharedness of the event) AND the amount of honor given to members WITHOUT humiliation.

the amount of sense this makes is amazing considering how initially incomprehensible it seems to be. throughout reading, the community to which i can best relate in my life to this setup is, conveniently, the kcai graphic designers.

our shared emotional connection (studio culture!) equals the fact that we all spend time together in studio AND give good, solid critiques and conversations (which run the course of class periods and allow for feedback to ensure understanding) MULTIPLIED by (how much we enjoy what we're doing and talking about it, MULTIPLIED by the fact that we have these classes always together, following along through every step of the processes) AND the amount of rewarding feedback and good critiques and advice WITHOUT being a jerk and tearing into people's work and making people feel bad.

the sense of "all-in-this-together"ness; that we are stronger and cleverer through our support and collaboration than we could be "designing in the dark," all by our lonesomes; and that we know this, (and find joy in the fact,) is what makes our studio a solid community.

that fits absolutely perfectly, does it not? and having established how much sense it makes in one community, it's easy to see how people who cooperate or connect in any capacity run through a similar set of experiences resulting in their consistently increasing closeness and cohesion.


Thursday, August 23, 2012

senior year begins: the first mx post

first of all, let's just say that starting the first school day of the year with a girl showing us how to look nice for school even when we're running late: spot on. we're all gonna be using that eyeshadow trick from now on, and everyone will know we're exhausted by the white highlights in the inside of our eyes.

the 8 multiple intelligences are something with which i'm very familiar because the junior high i went to structured its teaching methods around them. if i remember correctly, back then, i ranked very highly in verbal/linguistic, visual/spatial, and interpersonal. i don't think those things have changed; that's definitely still how i work best. in my school, a public charter school which never failed to baffle the rest of the school district, students sat 4 around each round table, and rather than exams or papers to test our learning, we had what were known as "inquiries," which could take the form of any of a collection of different options dreamed up by the teachers, based around the different intelligences, whether it turned out to be a something written, a poster/brochure, a skit, or any number of other things to be done alone or with a group. this was designed to ensure that everybody got to demonstrate their learning on equal footing, as they felt they could work most strongly.

according to this absolutely puzzling 4 learning style questionnaire, i am a type one learner, with which i identify fairly well, seeking meaning, bringing unity and cooperation, fixating on people and culture, and looking at things from all the way around. the way the axes of the coordinate grid work, though, is a bit absurd... there's no reason they couldn't have run negative and positive numbers in their normal directions and labeled the quadrants to fit. this also read a bit like those experiments wherein everybody agrees with a fake personality assessment because it is just vague enough to apply to anyone who reads it, while having just enough specificity to feel personal.

i had seen this absolutely gorgeously animated presentation before, and was similarly blown away this time. i find it to be a very hard line to walk between the optimism and trust it takes to believe in these improvements being possible, and the cynicism to know that the overhaul necessary for such a change would be massive and devastatingly unlikely. in small ways, though, we're making progress, and this project, i think, will end up opening our eyes to that progress and allowing us to see where else it can go.

as for my own research, i've unearthed this documentary on unschooling. 

unschooling is a philosophy that dates all the way back to rousseau musing that the best way for children to learn is for adults to set the environment and get out of the way. unschooling is based around the notion that the most productive and truest learning comes from people's own pursuit of their interests and passions rather than being forced into a stilted social scenario and having information banked into them. obviously with the development of today's interactive technology, we're in a better position than ever before to facilitate but ultimately not interfere with independent learning.