CIRAL Components

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Learning Objectives

The following learning objectives are from the Patterns of Intelligence program (Fall 2011). They may or may not be relevant. And — probably — they'd need to be augmented when strongly coupled with community work.

The program has 12 learning objectives. Obviously, not all of these objectives will receive the same emphasis in the program. Equally important, each student will find some objectives more important and interesting than others. For these reasons I encourage every student to consider these objectives in relation to their own goals, interests, learning styles, etc. As you consider the objectives, remember that the most important or interesting objectives may not be the easiest to achieve for you or for the class overall. Finally, a thorough understanding of program objectives will help both students and faculty in the evaluation process. The student's self-evaluation of progress and the faculty evaluation of student progress should both be based on the learning objectives to a large degree.

1. Program Themes. To gain a better understanding of major program themes including intelligence, collective intelligence, and civic intelligence — and their relation to various sectors and components of society

2. Understanding of Context. To gain a better understanding of underlying social, technological, and other circumstances that affect the spectrum of possibilities for understanding and addressing challenges

3. Processes of Social Change. To gain increased knowledge of how social change takes place

4. Understanding of Challenges. To gain an increased understanding of the particular challenges of our era and the mechanisms that are now governing it

5. Risks and Responsibilities. To gain a better understanding of the risks and responsibilities of civic engagement and civic intelligence

6. Speak the Language. To gain a better understanding of pertinent lexicon, theories, issues, ideas, and data

7. Skills, Tools, and Processes. To gain a better awareness, appreciation, and proficiency with communication approaches and other skills, tools, and processes available to the public that can influence social directions as well as learning about the barriers to participation

8. Tools and Frameworks. To gain increased knowledge of useful analytic tools and frameworks

9. Foundation for Future Work. To build a foundation for future paid or unpaid professional, avocational, community, or activist work

10. Foundation for Future Inquiry. To build a foundation for pursuing the questions we didn't answer after the program ends

11. Active Role in Personal and Community Education. To improve your own approach to learning, to do what you can to ensure that your educational needs are met, and to help improve the educational environment around you, for you and for others.

12. Personal Power and Social Imagination. To gain a better sense of one's own power and social imagination for the future. To learn how to catalyze change; to speak the truth even if your voice shakes

Core Class Contents

• Teaches basics of understanding ideas in a group context
• Enables people on different contracts/projects to communicate, share ideas, compare and enhance their own projects
• Has a manual designed to help students ask the right questions, especially in terms of coordinating group planning. (Tasks For Planners)
• Provides space for ideas to have pollenate, or at least resembles Steven Johnson's idea of a coffee house, where students will "identify environments that stimulate networks of ideas/insight," and where this "liquid network of ideas and experiences lead to innovation" and hopefully the "slow hunch." ("Where Good Ideas Come From (Ted Talk)).
• Creates an environment where ideas can spread as potent memes to pragmatically deal with and confront real world issues.

What do we do summer quarter??

Activity Grants to help cover lack of Financial Aid?

Course Topics

Brainstorm topics that should (or could) be covered in the core class.
(Tasks For Everyone)

Please add to this list (Tasks For Everyone)

• Budgeting
• Cybernetics
• Epistemology
• Ethnography
• Facilitation skills
• Grant Writing
• Information Science
• Intelligence -- Individual, Collective and Civic
• Models of Non-profit Organizations
• Motivational Speaking
• Non-Violent Communication
• Ontology
• Planning and Management
• Social Change -- Theory and Practice
• Sociology
• Trust (in ones' self and community)
• Writing Evergreen Learning Contracts
• Visual Presentation Abilities

Course Projects

A large portion of CIRAL is to provide continuity to ongoing research and action projects. The following proposals will not necessarily be offered as a part of the Lab. These explorations of possible projects will help us develop a sense of what goes into developing a project that could take place in the context of CIRAL.

Things to keep in mind while fleshing these project ideas out:

• Community Partners - who will the project work with
• Resources - is it something that will need a funding source, or faculty support
• Scale - what size of student team is needed to accomplish the project
• Scope - how long will the project go on
• Development - is there limited scope or could the project develop into a standing partnership that does a specific thing in the community

Local Economy

• Alternative Currencies
• Community Asset Mapping
• Time-banking
• Barter Events
• DIY Workshops

Producing a good or a service

Examples:

1. Growing food
2. Cleaning water
3. Building machines
4. Creating a space for community to come learn and teach

Community Building/Life Enriching Event

Hosting an event that will either strengthen the community or enrich peoples' lives.

Examples:

1. Secret Cafe
2. Non-zero sum game nights
3. Workshops

Crowdsourcing information for civic ends

Scientific research through smart phones, imagery analysis during natural disasters.

Organizational Accountability

Researching an organization through publically available information, as well as investigating private details.

Public Mental Health Care

Creating a (radical) local mental health solution that connects people with neural diversity/mad gifts with resources that they need. Depathologize mental illness, as well as mental health symptoms that we all face as everyday life issues, by providing alternative literature/audio for self-care.

Non-zero sum game workshop

Simulation of how life is a non-zero sum game, and making the connection through activities that use a proxy as the platform of discussion.

Revamping Shelters

Working with several communities and companies to pull resources, especially in this time of hardship, to help youth, minorities, battered men and women the displaced. Provide better opportunities to learn trades/skills and the resources for education.

Projects from Workshop

We were addressing a foundation for how a class could start out and progress long term, and what types of actions and research they would be doing along the way.

Pattern Card Workshop The following photos probably don't belong here!

Cluster 1

Cluster 2

Cluster 3

Cluster 4

Please correct project themes if this is inaccurate. (Tasks For Everyone)

1. Multicultural Community Space
2. Free School Project
3. Wiki Training

Research

Here's our summary from Saturday's workshop.  
Can other folks in the research group add to this?  
It doesn't seem to be a very complete recollection of our insights.
(Tasks For Everyone)

The first step for our research component is to build a framework for exploration. As we begin data gathering we will need to develop tools for parsing that information. Specific research projects will develop out of interest of participants and better understanding of the group's capability. The scope of research will broaden from local inquiry to international as the project develops.

Action

Can someone post a summary from Saturday?
(Task for Nur, Brandon, Erika, Gary, Jerrimiah)

Think Tank / Ongoing Research and Other Work in "Home Office"

"Home Office" / "Think Tank"

In addition to preparing people to go into the field (which includes cultural competency, skill-building, etc.), the following research and related activities could be undertaken as part of the research work in what we might call the "home office" or "think-tank". Although these activities are specifically listed in relation to Evergreen's Gateways project, that supports education for incarcerated youth at Green Hill, they are generally applicable to other projects as well.

• Policy research and development work
• PSA & other public awareness work
• Research on economic impacts of incarceration (now about 60 - 70 billion dollars direct expenses yearly in US)
• Institutional memory of the project
• Curricular development or other training and educational programs for Gateway and Evergreen community members
• Educational philosophy of the project and Evergreen's support
• Institutionalization of the project, in general and at Evergreen
• Exporting model (to other schools and other regions)
• Researching other relevant approaches (in other regions, countries, departments, etc.)
• Placement in jobs, education
• Surveys and other approaches to understanding the problem and evaluation
• Technical support to project, e.g. logistics, computer, administration, planning, facilitating design
• Mapping and community studies (e.g. of places students come from)
• Understanding problem domain, history, economic and political contexts,
• Maintain relevant reference (etc.) library or other resource
• Identifying resources and securing them
• Facilitating conversations, conferences, working sessions, etc. about the problem and possible solutions

Administering CIRAL

What are the processes that we need to consider? E.g. How might we develop, maintain, and, possibly, disengage from a community partnership? I.e. is a "partnership" different from just sending an intern or two out?

How would we describe various "life-cycles?" (And where might we go to find out more about this?)

What documents might we sign? Is there a covenant, for example?

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