DESIGNING A LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Taking the course "Leaders of Learning" at HarvardX (EdX) this Summer (MOOC addiction)
Design challenge (last assessment): Flexible Hexafunctional Model


(click on the image to enlarge)

YES, ALSO TWITTER

I finally decided to sign in and get a twitter account. Well, 2 accounts. I had been very reluctant to join twitter but I somehow managed to find personal benefits (they're clearer when it comes to companies and their marketing, PR and advertising management). It's practical to have a tool to share quick thoughts and images+thoughts, as well as content, directly, instead of having to include or attach it in an email which might get sort of forgotten in the inbox since forwarded content is normally not a priority.

@yolda_gn 
more serious/professional-like and academic contents

@_sumireneko_
tweets about curiosities, personal thoughts (and news?), hobbies, etc.

I though that, by having 2 separated accounts, it'd be more comfortable for followers, since some may have no interest in personal issues. An viceversa....there might be followers who might not like to follow more "serious" contents. Having these 2 accounts I can also follow different kinds of account profiles to re-tweet contents.

Last but not least, my aim is not having huge amounts of followers but sharing content with followers who care. I do prefer quality to quantity.

IDEAS COLOURING FEELINGS COLOURING IDEAS: SOMETHING ABOUT AFRICA

It’s not been a long time since I started developing a greater interest in Africa. Back in 2002 or so, at university, we did study a bit about Nigeria, focusing on contemporary politics and some issues concerning its society and history (it’s all linked, indeed). I enjoyed it but that was all. I later focused on Asia, in which I’ve been really had a keen interest for many years (why does the East –not only the farthest east- attract me?) and enrolled in a 2—year master course on Asian (and also Oceanic) studies.

Less mainstream

I tend to be especially receptive to information about less popular issues (i.e. the dimensions beyond mainstream culture and mainstream topics) since I’m not exactly very conventional. By “not very conventional” I mean questioning settled beliefs, actions, conventions and not following them if there’s a better or rather rational, healthy or beneficial option (it doesn’t mean being an outsider or a radical follower of whatever).

So, I found myself with colourful, intuitive ideas that formed feelings about those rather-unknown fields, dimensions, issues. And, these ideas and feelings brought an increased curiosity, which made me seek information and other ideas. 

Knowledge is dynamic and it’s quite impossible to acquire 100% knowledge about something (or is it?). Concerning Africa, I went for geography (in fact, we had studied quite a lot of world geography at school, lucky me) to refresh blurred data I had about the continent. Then came cinema and literature, and also languages. I also took part in a language volunteering program (helping learners of Catalan) and my partner was a guy from Senegal. Ah...and the latest, yesterday (February 6th) I went to a book presentation by Mactar Thiam Fall (books on Wolof language in relation to Catalan) which included a short documentary.

Shapes, colours, scents

The shape of the feelings I had initially sort of changing after having watched some movies and reading African literature, but the colours remain. Geometrical patterns in brilliant colours, movement, simple lines, some kind of purity, the ultimate causes of a broad smile.  It somehow feels like digging into oneself and feeling the warm and bold scent of the soil from some forgotten and uncorrupted place.

However...

Of course there are also some negative ideas and criticism, as it happens with most places we read about. But here I just wanted to focus on positive ideas and feeling.

LA PLATEA ESDEVENIA LLAC

En la xerrada donada pel Lama Thubten Wangchen en la seva visita a Granollers (23 de gener de 2014, al Centre Cultural La Caixa), els darrers moments van compactar l’auditori i, alhora, el van fer fluid, com si ja no fóssim éssers diversos amb alguns interessos comuns. Els 2 mantres que es van cantar van fer que aquell espai esdevingués una mena de llac. Ulls tancats per percebre una altra claror.

Mantra de la compassió (Avalokiteśvara)
Oṁ Mani Padme Hūṁ









Mantra de la saviesa (Mañjuśrī)

Oṃ A Ra Pa Ca Na Dhīḥ

Una sala de butaques.

Canviaven els cossos i canviava la percepció de tot plegat. 

Sense temps, sense espai. 

Un llac.

QUÈ PENSA UN MITJÓ REAPAREGUT? (CONVERSES AMB MITJONS)

La mirada adreçada a un mitjó acabat de trobar i que agafem per una punta (inici o final, és indiferent) acostuma a ser sostinguda i va ben maridada amb una pregunta retòrica: On havies estat? Cap mitjó ha respost cap pregunta (i molt menys aquesta) fins la data actual. I ara tampoc ho farà, és clar. És el nostre estat d’ànim i l’actitud que ens predomina en el moment concret allò que determina la resposta hipotètica del mitjó. En dies positius, el mitjó (Subjecte Tèxtil) adquireix una personalitat juganera o potser fins i tot hi veiem cert desempar i ens desperta llàstima. En dies de mala lluna, en canvi, el Subjecte Tèxtil esdevé una criatura malèfica que es proposava fer-nos la guitza i que ha provocat la pèrdua o desaparició del seu company.

La realitat es modifica quan li concedim certa personalitat o entitat pseudo-humana a determinats objectes, quotidians o no. És un pas per valorar-los, tot i que hauria de servir per ser conscient del cost de la seva adquisició i el valor de la seva utilitat. Hi ha, no obstant això, el nefast perill de venerar-los o de crear-nos ídols (fet ben perillós si pel mig hi ha el valor de marca).

Més enllà de l’esmentat valor que podem atorgar a costos i utilitats hi ha l’exercici de prendre consciència del moment, del present, de la nostra posició i del rol de tot allò que ens envolta (o de què ens envoltem). Parlo del concepte de “mindfulness”? Doncs sí. Però també hauria de fer el salt mental per referir-me a la vacuïtat. És possible també observar fixament el mitjó retrobat, fer-li les preguntes pertinents, i acabar en un estat meditatiu que ens porti a copsar la vacuïtat. 

POSITIVELY PICKY

I thought about different moments and contexts after reading some posts on creativity and variables affecting it. It seems (see links below) that those we are surrounded by affect us....i.e. if they’re creative and productive, we’ll be prone to be creative and productive as well (I guess it might not really work well with those with a lazy nature and no interest in creativity...I guess). It happens for sure too with motivation.

At work...

I have many good memories from the years working as consultant. I felt lucky to be working in teams with productive and motivated people. The atmosphere in general was very positive and we were eager to help each other. I couldn’t really (still I can't) understand when friends and relatives told me about bad atmospheres and relationships at their workplaces....why do some "enjoy" acting in conflictive and lazy ways and having negative attitudes?  Unfortunately we can’t really choose the places we end up working at nor the people we’ll share many hours with. But what if we try to be the positive variable, the positive influence (the motivator, the enthusiast, the creative one)...no matter if we end up being some kind of outsider or the odd one out?  I firmly believe in what the articles I read say and I believe in positive features and attitudes being contagious. Besides, if I feel I'm doing something right, social acceptance is secondary. It should be something secondary if we're acting towards improvement for all.

Personal relationships....

Many kinds of relationships and many people come to my mind. Some people remained somewhere in the past, some other relationships changed, some others came back. Nothing is mathematical when it comes to personal relationships and it makes little sense (or none?) to rationalise them, since emotions lie on their basis. I’ve always preferred quality over number and those who know me know that I wouldn’t be a facebook enthusiast nor would boast about how many contacts-friends or whatever I might have.

Back to the influence of those among us in our productivity and creativity, I’m really sure that I’d rather avoid those who might bring me to stagnation, to “plain” and “shallow” conversations, who are full of prejudices or who just don’t “think forward” and ask themselves questions.  It might sound like I’m a demanding and picky person but I just know that those sort of personalities would do no good to me. They are likely to make me feel bad (emptied, useless, numb, lethargic) and sad (somehow, as the consequence of those feelings I just mentioned). I need challenges, getting the most of the short term and learning always new things, and questioning things and that applies also to my personal relationships. And sometimes I end up feeling ok after some people fade away in the past or some relationships change just because it means that some negative effect goes away.  Ah...and it’s not related with being a well educated person....it’s all matter of attitude.  I admired one of my grandfathers, who had always a particular sense of humour, thought about possibilities and improvement, accepted challenges, and so on. He just didn’t go to university but was an intelligent and clever person who managed to grasp reality in a particular way. ..and spread something positive affecting other people’s attitude, motivation, productivity.  

It's good to be positively picky. Yes.

Some links on the topic:

--Being Around Smart People Makes Us More Innovative | Psychology Today

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201309/being-around-smart-people-makes-us-more-innovative

--Why Your Friends Shape Your Happiness, Creativity, And Career | Fast Company | Business + Innovation

http://www.fastcompany.com/3021184/leadership-now/why-your-friends-shape-your-happiness-creativity-and-career

--Why Our Creativity Depends On Who Surrounds Us | The Creativity Post

http://www.creativitypost.com/business/why_our_creativity_depends_on_who_surrounds_us

ORDINARY LIVES REACHING DIFFERENT DIMENSIONS

Talking with a friend about movies made me remember scenes from classical Japanese movies. I didn’t expect to be exchanging opinions with somebody about Ozu Yasujiro’s movies and, in general, Japanese cinema in the 1950es. I remembered some characters and the atmospheres portrayed. I kind of liked the aura of simplicity that transcended the story, as well, as some kind of beauty that scented the daily lives of the characters. I wonder if the same stories, filmed in western culture settings would have been the same. I don’t really think so.

Then, these days the media talk about Tokyo Kazoku (東京家族) in cinemas. This modern film, by Yamada Yoji, was described as a remake, very positively by many critics (and not so positively by others, obviously). It all made me think again about the feelings mentioned above. Even though the action takes place in modern Tokyo, I do believe there’s still something that can reminds us of the atmospheres and characters in the classical Ozu movies. I sort of idealise the 1950es simplicity in general because, from today’s perspective, people seemed to give a different value to things and to other people. True... Societies  back then were much more conservative, but there are many precious things beyond conservative-liberal values (much more beyond prejudices, inequality, discrimination, etc.) which are hard to find nowadays in the way we treat things and people. Those old movies brought always to my mind the expression “物持ちがいい”　(ものもちがいい, mono mochi ga ii), which refers to handling and keeping something carefully.  I’d say that there’s some of it to be found in the film by Yamada...but there’ll be for sure a lot that reminds us of rush-throw when useless-replace-violence-shallowness coming from the younger characters and the westernization since the context is radically different. Would Ozu have kept the essence of his films if he was to film something nowadays? What a hypothesis. I guess I’ll end up watching Tokyo Kazoku...

L’AMPLITUD D’ONA, LES CRISIS I TROBAR RODES ADIENTS

Fa no gaire vaig encetar un llibre preciós, Absolutely Small, de Michael D. Fayer, sobre física quàntica explicada per a no avesats en la matèria i defugint l’ús de formulacions matemàtiques complexes....Clar, això no vol dir ni que el llenguatge sigui planer ni que sigui senzill. SI quelcom és complex en la seva essència, aquesta qualitat romandrà encara que fem servir unes altres paraules.

Les explicacions sobre les ones (en totes les seves variants) m’ha fet pensar en l’aplicació del concepte d’amplitud d’ona als cicles econòmics. Quant de temps entre punts àlgids de l’economia d’un estat i els punts més crítics de depressió-crisi? Es tractaria d’una amplitud d’ona expressada en anys. No m’aventuro, però a pensar en la freqüència i a extreure’n conclusions relacionades amb el sistema econòmic capitalista i les seves dinàmiques. És potser un tema en què pensar més aviat quan hi hagi bonança econòmica. Potser.

Havent llegint un article a La Vanguàrdia sobre patinadors nocturns per la jungla urbana vaig recordar la sensació d’esdevenir lleugera anant sobre rodes en moments d’inèrcia i els instants en que l’equilibri queda suspès en un canvi de postures i de forces. Impuls-moviment, impuls-moviment. Res no sembla constant i en la lleugeresa del cos sembla esvair-se la pròpia dimensió física mentre les ones dels cicles de l’economia segueixen el seu curs. Sobre rodes, un cop agafat l’impuls pot ser més fàcil anar de la part baixa de l’ona fins un altre punt àlgid. Cal trobar les rodes adients, les que millor ens funcionin o que millor s’ajustin a les nostres característiques físiques i no físiques. S’hi troba també l’equilibri per no caure, i endavant.

ALGORITHMS ARE HERE

Having studied and read quite a lot about SEO I ended up trying to figure how its philosophy transcends marketing and computers. Optimization is always welcome and it’s linked to much better outcomes when it’s done without tricks or doubtful methods.  

Beyond search engine algorithms, there are other hidden algorithms in the analogical world. We change and so does life’s algorithm. In this case it’s also better that it keeps being kind of unclear, mysterious. Just having some hints about what matters to it to bring us some or other results, is enough. As in SEO and Google Panda, Google Penguin and more recently, Google Hummingbird, it’s better to focus on doing things right, focusing on what we aim in a honest way, doing things right and ethically.

Yes...algorithms can be beautiful and priceless since they can make things better and make us thrive and also get positive results.

川の流れのように...*

No sabem com pot ser el corrent del riu quan ens hi hem de tirar, quan l’hem de travessar, quan l’hem de contemplar, quan l'hem de vorejar...Tot flueix. Savi Heràclit...

Per què arribar a caure en el parany de pensar en arguments o plantejaments basats en un llarg termini inherentment difús i incert o de donar les coses per suposat si fa temps que no s'hi acaba de creure? Millor sempre centrar-se en un present sòlid amb actes, les conseqüències dels quals siguin positives i profitoses per qualsevol mena de futur, bé sigui immediat, bé indefinit (o un llarg termini plantejat en clau d'hipòtesi). A més, es perd molt si es perd la consciència del moment present i del fet de ser-hi.

Agafo ben fort la meva coherència en un dia de núvols i de grisor omnipresent...Som-hi endavant!!!

*cançó que dóna nom al títol a aquesta entrada: kawa no nagare no you ni (fluir com un riu), de Misora Hibari.