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Mapping our ecologies of practice
In order to gain a footing in the landscape of learning ecologies we must dive in, experience the messiness of learning as we practice and perform in our work environments and pay attention to ourselves as we interact with the world. We must become the mental cartographers of our own experiences mapping our processes and their effects, and the changes that happen to us as we perform and learn. The first stage in this situated personal project is to develop self-awareness by making maps of our experiences and our engagements with a world in continuous formation. By making a map we reveal the landscape of our ecology of practice and the way learning emerged from this landscape on our journey through it. This Guide was prepared for LILA participants. It aims to illustrate narrative and visual techniques for mapping, recording and reflecting on the ecologies of practice we create within our work environments in order to learn, perform and create new value. |
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Developing ecological self-awareness
Programmed into every human being is a need to understand themselves and the effects of their thinking and actions on the world. This type of learning or self-awareness enables us to perform better and create better versions of ourselves and feel more fulfilled as we appreciate the way we can influence our own destiny. Self-awareness is key to understanding that we are all implicated and involved in an ecological world of practice and learning, and to think and practice with such ecological awareness we must become cartographers and analyzers of our own experiences. The first step in this process requires us to develop an understanding of what we should attend to. The model of a learning ecology / ecology of practice (right) provides a useful set of prompts on which to base our maps.
Mapping, analyzing and visualizing one’s own multitudinous experiences is a learning process in its own right and a way we can make better sense of the world we are interacting with. By making a map of our ecologies of practice we are trying to synthesise our experiences of interacting with people, our problems, challenges and opportunities in the particular social-cultural and material environments we are inhabiting in order to gain deeper understandings of ourselves and our effects on and in the world. The type of learning we are developing through the process of making a map and the reflections it prompts is an enhanced awareness that can be drawn upon in new situations in the future.
Programmed into every human being is a need to understand themselves and the effects of their thinking and actions on the world. This type of learning or self-awareness enables us to perform better and create better versions of ourselves and feel more fulfilled as we appreciate the way we can influence our own destiny. Self-awareness is key to understanding that we are all implicated and involved in an ecological world of practice and learning, and to think and practice with such ecological awareness we must become cartographers and analyzers of our own experiences. The first step in this process requires us to develop an understanding of what we should attend to. The model of a learning ecology / ecology of practice (right) provides a useful set of prompts on which to base our maps.
Mapping, analyzing and visualizing one’s own multitudinous experiences is a learning process in its own right and a way we can make better sense of the world we are interacting with. By making a map of our ecologies of practice we are trying to synthesise our experiences of interacting with people, our problems, challenges and opportunities in the particular social-cultural and material environments we are inhabiting in order to gain deeper understandings of ourselves and our effects on and in the world. The type of learning we are developing through the process of making a map and the reflections it prompts is an enhanced awareness that can be drawn upon in new situations in the future.
Experience defies precise definition. It’s a broad and fuzzy concept that needs to be untangled to work out what matters. To make a map of our experiences is a purposeful exercise through which we are creating meaning. Ultimately, what we put into our map is a matter of selection: we have to decide which aspects to include and which to leave out. There are no right or wrong ways of making a map: we have to select the ways that are most useful and meaningful to us from many possibilities.
I welcome feedback on the guide and additional suggestions for mapping experiences. [email protected]
I welcome feedback on the guide and additional suggestions for mapping experiences. [email protected]