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)

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

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.

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.

REMOVE THE LABEL

Never black and white.
Features blend. Be creative

The space they lived in as well as the air they breathed were prone to some sort of stagnation. Lacking some inputs from the world outside, too quiet in a holiday-mood period of time, their selves saw something else at the mirror.

Our human nature leads us usually to routine and sometimes, unexpectedly, after some time unconsciously facing ourselves with reflections and different perspectives, things have to keep changing. It could be tiding a room differently, buying a new and very unexpected item, trying something new in a meal, cutting (or getting cut) our hair....or more radical changes such as moving or looking for a different job or career.

I do believe that being labelled erodes us somehow. It might be comfortable to have everything and everyone around us perfectly labelled so as to be able to know how to act and know what to expect. Our self is dynamic, not static and our changing throughout life collides with the label the others assigned us and also with that one we chose for ourselves.

STRIVE, REMOVE LABELS, SHINE

Break it down!!! Is it that necessary to be that labelled? It requires a lot of flexibility and having a “brave” self, capable of applying creativity to its position in the world and to its relationship with others. Not everybody will understand some sorts of flexibility and relativism because it means “breaking” the mental schemes (labels) the others see tied to other people. It might be a bit tiring to try to explain the creative change and the creative fitting and balance between situation-world-self and we might end up giving heuristical explanations based on describing some sort of different label.  But after all we’d have gained a precious space of freedom and harmony through creativity and finding a better fitting for our self and society. We’re empowered to do more things than we might be aware of and balance is possible.

SHARING AND TOGETHERNESS (PLACE AND MIND)

downtown (Granollers, V. Oriental)

Yesterday, 11th September (the Diada), walking around Granollers with a friend I spotted a building hosting the offices of 2 "pretty opposite" political parties: Ciutadans and SI. How might be their daily life sharing that building? I think the elites are much less democratic than citizens and small representations and delegations of parties. It's people who are rather moved by feelings, by belongingness to a collective or a society and it's people who really deal with real problems in any country. And thus it should be citizens who, empowered, manage to change things. It was on the occasion of La Diada that people displayed a shared feeling of belongingness to a collective, to a society and to an identity. I did like the romantic side of such a collective action as was the Catalan Way (I found it beautiful and awe inspiring), even though I can't be any kind of nationalist (I rather focus on non-attachment and becoming a bit more selfless and less linked to any identity). Internationalism has also a romantic side but it's somehow less compatible (I'd say) with human nature and nowadays proneness to focus on the self and personalization of whatever might be customizable. Well, I'm talking about western culture countries in general.

Ah...but there's a nuance of internationalism within any nationalism in the sense that people from any place are prone to feel attached to a sense of belongingness to a culture, to a nation. We're all social creatures and need to some extent some kind of approval and "haven" from our peers. I know I can't deny I belong to a society and a culture, but I can't go beyond that and have nationalist or belongingness feelings. Facts on the one hand and subjectivity on the other hand.

CUINAR SENSE CADÀVERS I LA CREATIVITAT

El fet que resulta més agradable i divertit cuinar per d'altres i el fet de comptar amb algun entusiasta de la cuina vegana (great, Marcel!) i els experiments culinaris m'han portat a engrescar-me i provar de fer nous plats...i afegir interessants opcions als menús quotidians. Les possibilitats de la cuina vegetariana i vegana semblen realment infinites i s'aconsegueixen àpats realment interessants, complets i molt vistosos. Diria que cuinar veganament potencia molt més la inventiva i porta a un procés creatiu apassionant.

Primer van ser els daifukus...vam provar (en Marcel i una servidora) primer amb pasta de mongeta negra dolça ja feta i després ens hem atrevit amb anko. Tanmateix, l'anko casolà endolcit amb estèvia no va quedar gaire dolç, gust positiu per a mi (que no sóc gens llaminera) però insuficient per d'altres.

Després les hamburgueses a partir de tofu, flocs de civada i xampinyons...i, partint de tofu, una salsa tipus tofunesa.

Voltant per les opcions de la cuina d'altres països, vam optar per la mexicana...fajitas i burritos amb "tortillas" casolanes. 

I una de les meves receptes favorites ha estat el formatge vegà, especialment la segona versió, amb més gust de pebre negre i sense fruits secs (però amb més pasta de miso i una mica més de Marmite).

Bàsicament no segueixo les receptes fil per randa i adapto els ingredients als que puc aconseguir i als que tolero (res de ceba, per exemple).

El darrer experiment ha estat kimchi (vegetarià) de col, sense all ni ceba...

INTUITION, SERENDIPITY & CO.

They work in most fields and situations and can be really useful. But those lucky ones who have both intuition and often come across with serendipity won’t be able to measure or prove them, at least beforehand. It’s a bit like having a good taste or being able to see everything creatively. ...or being prone to find right things or surprises by chance.  Both in personal and professional life can all these be really important and useful but can’t be thought, even sometimes it can be read about techniques and strategies to boost some of them or to try to “force” oneself to meet them.

USES:

• Finding the right place or being sure about the right moment for something
• Knowing that something is heading toward the right direction and will work
• Choosing things that match
• Being able to see unexpected but good solutions or alternative

Being intuïtive, being prone to serendipity and chance, being creative...all positive but they can make one feel frustrated since they're hard to defend. Maybe just other intuitive and creative people will be able to notice those qualities. 

SUN RIVER AFTERNOON

It’s possible to create parallel dimensions just for us and for our theories.

We can belong to wherever we want to.

***

There wasn’t anything above us but we pretended to see something up there.

Aren’t we free?

Don’t we have a bondless imagination together?

Isn’t our own dimension flexible and expandable?

***

Parallel and synchronized creatures next to a river on a sunny spring afternoon,

Grey high-heeled shoes and dark violet pantyhose do go with t-shirts with metal band names.

Some other day we became outsiders and also foreigners.

SUGAR-SWITCH (BEYOND KOOTHRAPPALIAN DYNAMICS)

Cold skin and random walking,
polka-dotted legs unaware of time.
Let's pick a word.
Smoothly.
Sounds of pounds and fountains.
Flowing water on Adverb's day.
***
Open windows and doors,
so that you can send me paper airplanes
with something written on.
Above seas of chocolate.
***
Fruity bubblegum smell
and colourful juices.
Farewell to winter.
Switches' day.
***

Как можно лучше,,, (*)

(*as well as possible)

per ardua ad astra.

Stars and yellow boots to follow long and sometimes tough paths. Better to add colour and positive shapes, better to leave greyness and darkness in the background, better to share something positive and colourful with those we meet and come across in life.

HOPE AND TURNING POINTS

Beyond the image of a graphic showing a change in a trend of no-matter-what, we often face turning points which don't show up as turning points. We (usually) don't represent mentally events in any graphic and we're little prone to make calculations with them so as to get a more "rationalised" daily life and structured theories about ourselves.

There might be a change, a sudden situation, a problem, something we receive or lose. That is something either good or bad comes and decides to bear some consequences. Decisions and chance aren't mathematical...or is there some kind of rule/principle/being/force/energy tidying up all we experience and end up doing? I believe that there's some reason behind everything, something sort of karmic or based on laws of cause-effect. I'm not talking about justice, which might be something human rather than a ruling principle behind things and events, but about our ability to observe and find an order, theories, some kind of guide along the path we walk along.

What does define our degree of awareness toward turning points? Personally, I've been mentally analyzing turning points in these last years (and even in my whole life) but I don't focus at all on "possible" present turning points (or possible turning points to come). These are bad times for hope and I don't like planning or trying to foresee or forecast anything. I can just think about short term plans, events, etc.

OBRINT FINESTRES

Ja queda poc! Fa ja unes quantes setmanes que, en una "cimera" informal amb en Khimenèzov (Ivan) va proposar-se la idea d'un blog diferent sobre temes asiàtics, en part per rememorar els temps del màster i, en part, per motius més personals, com ara projectar-se en els mitjans i enriquir-se via investigació-reflexió-escriptura.

En breu podrem començar a escriure i publicar entrades un cop passat un període estrany d'adaptacions a noves etapes laborals i d'estudis.

GRANDÍSSIM PUNSET!

Quin anunci més gran! em fa molta gràcia el final, amb en Punset dient "aaai". Gran personatge....L'he anat seguint en diversos "Redes" i estic llegint 2 llibres seus (fa temps ja en vaig acabar un). A hores ara deu ser el culpable de nombroses addiccions a la divulgació científica i, és clar, al coneixement científic. Gràcies ha l'endinsament en les dimensions punsetianes, vaig llegir "El ladrón de cerebros" d'en Pere Estupinyà. Quina meravella també! Ambdós autors empren un llenguatge proper i alhora rigorós i curós i fan que costi molt deixar el llibre en qüestió en "standby". Aix...Bé, ja m'havien agradat les ciències i sovint, si topava amb un documental sobre ciència em quedava una mica adherida a la pantalla. Des de fa anys també anava seguint el "tres14" i el "quèquicom".

La fotografia és del 5 de novembre de 2011...ja fa temps, ja....feta amb el telèfon mòbil, al caprabo (bé, llavors encara era eroski, crec) de Granollers-polígon El Ramassar.

SELF-FORWARD

The circumstances might not be the best ones (they aren't...but at least now my health is finally much better) but there are always many reasons and impulses to move forward. Even when dreams blur and when what we aim for is not so clear, the key is to keep being active, receptive. Being physically active is also the right tool to have onelself fully balanced and better prepared for the coming times (coming days, coming weeks, coming months and even coming years). Anything positive will be useful, all efforts are useful, even if they don't seem to be fruitful in the short term.

A brand new year is not much more than a brand new month, a brand new week and even a brand new day. Just some mindfulness and awareness, look at oneself and the "beginning-of-something"-effect will help to be able to improve something or many things.

This 2012, in my case, began positively, after quite a bad 2011. Getting up early (very early, in fact) as always, studying, organising things at home, housechores, physical activity, interesting readings, some documentary film....and even setting new goals. I'm already thinking about starting some new undergraduate studies. After many years since I graduated on Political Science, and then did a Postgraduate-Master program (2-year long) on Asia and Pacific, in 2010 I started with Advertising and PR studies (undergraduate). There are not many subjects left to finish and keep as motivated as when I started and keep enjoying all lessons, papers I write, discussions on the net, bibliography I come across and read....And, why not something more? why not going further? As time goes by we're more able to see our strengths and those things we really really like and are suited for. I'm about to enrol on Psychology....I might not be old when I graduate but now is the time to begin and we never know in life. Psychology and advertising (marketin) match pretty well....and both are very compatible as well with some fields within political science.

LIFE OUTSIDE SOCIAL NETWORKS

Despite having received several invitations to join facebook, I always felt (and still do) reluctant to join any social network. It might be a bit like being an outsider but I just find there are other ways to keep in touch. I don't think I need more passwords, more time to configure a profile and I don't think typing short messages is really useful. Express communication, wanting something now, reporting all daily life events, no matter if people might or might not care about it. Is any piece of information really information? Why do we end up giving so much importance to the self, profiles and what we might like and do?

Where did that "analogical" world go? the time when when we could life without cell phones, the time when we didn't need profiles to label ourselves in a jungle of information, the time when people wasn't that virtual...

SWITCH!

Strange times. Bad times for stability are not necessarily bad times if we're able to switch ourselves positively, to have a more creative look at ourselves and think carefuly about our possibilities and potentialities. What if stability froze us? what if stability made us lose some strength, impulse and thus value? what if stability switched us off?? It's time to switch ourselves on.

Coincidence...People take the streets and the situation at the company I had been working for some years lacks projects for employees and the several of the existing projects might no last much longer, so there was a goodbye (it's a pity because people there was very nice until the end and work was stimulating). Farewell in a sunny Wednesday.

Once I get my health back completely I'll finish the switching process....But meanwhile, there are things to do to keep improving myself for future switches....keep studying (end of semester coming soon), keep learning languages (go on with Russian and boost my Japanese....), keep thinking and rethinking constructively....and trying to be more creative. It's a pity not to have taken more advantadge of all available tools. Once I'm healthy again I'll go back into running sessions, which I badly miss....and need.

BLUR AND SHINE

Winter days here are often sunny, something that prevents my silhouette from fading. Of all these days, there was a specially bright moment: beholding the sea from the train heading to Calella (to attend a meeting), on 1st February. I could feel myself melting, becoming part of that liquid landscape.

I was no longer going anywhere by train.
I keep going nowhere but to some space everywhere, beyond tangible places...