Lesson Plan 1 BSU LA471
Lesson Plan 1 for John Motloch's LA471 at Ball State University. Feb 2014. Prepared by Chris Reinhart for Open Source Ecology
Contents
[hide]Background
John's class has been researching a region of the world and identifying a best practice of that culture's relationship with the land. They have been reading the books Emergence and Full Planet, Empty Plates.
Intro
Sit in a circle of desks.
Everyone take 5 minutes to visually represent on an 8.5x11" the region they have been learning about, and the the best practice of people engaging place. Help me out (as my geography is not perfect) and include a thumbnail sketch of the world map with where your region is.
Each person, using their visual diagram, give the 90-second, "elevator pitch," version of their first project, learning about best practices of people engaging place.
The teacher participates in the game, too, and I will do my diagram and 90-second introduction about the MicroHouse, as it is my current main project. John played along with us, and did his diagram about the LA471 class and systems-thinking and people-land relationships.
OSE and the GVCS
The best introduction to OSE is, of course, Marcin's TED talk. If John has already showed them the TED talk, we'll watch this video on open source philosophy, instead.
Link to Marcin's talk on the TED site
Open Source Philosophy. from Open Source Ecology on Vimeo.
Link to the Open Source Philosophy Video on Vimeo
Introduce the OSE wiki.
Introduce the GVCS page on the wiki.
Creative Commons Licenses
10 students in class. Break them into 3 groups. Have each group look at the Creative Commons website and learn about the different types of licenses that can be used. Have them talk about them amongst themselves and just describe out loud in their own words. Share any initial reactions.
Creative Commons Licenses Page
Creative Commons License Choosing Tool Page
Come back as a circle. Discuss the different types of CC licenses and make sure that everyone understands them.
Mention roots of Creative Commons, the GNU/GPL and BSD licenses. Andrew Katz in "Authors and Owners," p.66 of Open Design Now.
Why OSE does not support the CC-NC license.
Possibilitarians and Realitarians
Quotes from Marleen Strikker in the Introduction of Open Design Now.
- "The pioneers of our time are not taking the world at face value, as a given from outside; rather, they see the world as something you can pry open, something you can tinker with."
- The difference between possibilitarians and realitarians: "new opportunities, even if they do not know where they might lead" vs. "accept the conditions and the institutions as given, and are fearful of disruption."
- That said, "Whether a person is a possibilitarian or a realitarian has nothing to do with their creativity. People representing these frames of reference can be found in all professions: entrepreneurs, politicians, artists."
- "Possibilitarians see the disruption that open design brings to the design world, and respond by embracing the potential that is inherent in that disruption."
- "Possibilitarians engage in open design as a process, trusting their own abilities to guide that process. And as possibilitarians, they pursue strategies to be inclusive, to involve others, to build bridges between opposite positions: North-South, old-young, traditional-experimental. Possibilitarians represent a sharing culture which is at the core of open design. As such, they trust others to make their own contributions and to build upon what has been shared. Trust, responsibility and reciprocity are important ingredients in an open, sharing culture."
Comments from students on the implications and possibilities of an open source world.
Even the Fed has recommended the possibilitarian approach, as discussed in this article.
Possibilities for Class
John and I have discussed different ways of collaborating. Initially, we thought that groups would create master plans for FeF.
- This seems limiting, as much of the planning for FeF has already been done by Marcin, Catarina, and me.
- Share current master plan
- We would still love ideas and comments about the FeF, though.
As a more interesting design exercise, what if the ideas of affordable access to the GVCS were incorporated into your design ideas for a contemporary, rural village in the region of the world you have explored?
