Page History: Learning Path #5: Facilitating Peer Learning in Offline Settings
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Page Revision: 2010/04/03 07:17
How do we best take advantage of peer learning when we are together face to face offline? Here are a few ideas of methods to facilitate peer learning.These are methods you could incorporate into a meeting (rather than simply doing presentations and panels.) They all focus on interaction between peers, rather than simply the broadcast of content. If you are looking to try to engage people more deeply at a meeting, consider one of these approaches. For an even larger list of ideas, see the "
methods" page on the "
KS Toolkit" - a wiki full of ideas about tools and methods for knowledge sharing. They all apply to peer learning! Much of the content on this page was based on pages from the Toolkit, which uses a
Creative Commons License making it easy for other people to use and reuse the material. (Yes, another peer learning opportunity!)
===[Open-Space-Technology|Open Space
]===
Open Space (also known as Open Space Technology or OST) is a method for
convening groups around a specific question or task or importance and
giving them responsibility for creating both their own agenda and
experience. It is best used when at least a half to two full days are
available. The facilitator's key task is to identify the question that
brings people together, offer the simple process, then stand back and
let participants do the work. The process is admirably described in a
number of languages at
http://www.openspaceworld.org
.
Read more on our wiki page on
Open Space Technology.
Peer Assists
Peer Assist brings together a group of peers to elicit feedback on a
problem, project, or activity, and draw lessons from the participants'
knowledge and experience.
When to use:
Peer Assists may be useful when:
- You are starting a new job, activity or project and you
want to benefit from the advice of more experienced
people. - You face a problem that another group has faced in the past.
- You had not to have to deal with a given situation for a long time.
- You are no longer sure what new procedures to follow.
- You are planning a project that is similar to a project another group has completed.
How to use:
Learning from your peers; someone has already done it:
- Communicate the purpose. Peer Assists work well when the purpose is clear and you communicate that purpose to participants.
- Share your Peer Assist plans with others. Consider whether others have already solved the problem; they may have similar needs.
- Identify a facilitator external to the team. The facilitator is responsible for managing the process so that meeting participants reach the desired outcome.
- Schedule a date for the Peer Assist. Ensure it is early enough to do something different with what you have learned.
- Invite potential participants who have the diversity of skills, competencies and experience needed for the Peer Assist. Avoid the usual suspects. Peer Assist works well with six to eight people; break up larger groups so everyone has the opportunity to voice experiences and ideas.
- Be clear on what you want out of the Peer Assist (usually options and insights) and plan the time to achieve them.
- Allow time to socialize in order to develop rapport.
- Spend time creating the right environment for sharing.
- Plan the event to allow a balance between telling and listening.
- Listen for understanding and for how you might improve your own activity.
- Consider others who might benefit from this knowledge, then share it with them.
- Commit to actions and keep the Peer Assist team updated.
Peer Assist Resources:
The World Cafe
Speed Geeking
Human Spectrogram
A group face to face exercise to help surface similarities and differences in a group, help people to get to know each other and to do something together that is active.
History
The first web citation found was via
Aspiration Tech. Not sure of the deep history of
this method.
When to use
- As an opening exercise (i.e. icebreaker) to help people to get to know each other
- As a way to get issues open and discussable
- To interact with both words and with our bodies (to break up too much sitting -based activities.)
- For helping a group get a sense of the complexity of an issue or problem.
How to use
- In a large open space put a long piece of tape on the floor. It should be long enough for the full group present to spread itself out over. So for larger groups, longer tape or more room around the tape. For smaller groups, it can be as short as 3-5 meters.
- Ask everyone to stand up and gather around the tape. Explain that the tape is a continuum between two answers to questions they will be asked. Then kick off with a simple, fun question to demonstrate the method. (I.e. I love chocolate - go to that far end of the tape, I really really don't like chocolate, go to the other end, then everyone else spread themselves along the tape depending on how much they do/don't like chocolate.)
- (With a microphone if it is a large group) walk up and down the tape and take a sampling response from people as to why they positioned themselves on the tape the way they did. Usually it is good to sample from both ends and somewhere in the middle. If, upon hearing other people's responses, people want to move, encourage them to do so. This is about meaning making, not about an absolute measure of peoples' opinions.
- Then move on to your "serious" questions. These will vary based on the context. See the following section on developing useful spectrogram questions.
- As you ask questions, encourage people to notice who is where on the line - this helps people find people in common or who have different views that could be useful discussion starters.
- Depending on time, use between 3- 7 questions. You can tell it is time to quit when people stop moving and are talking to each other more than participating. This means either they are bored, or they have become deeply engaged with each other. And the latter is a good thing!
Developing
Useful Spectrogram Questions
- Start with questions that are easier to answer and move to more difficult or ambiguous questions. The debrief interviews become more important as the questions become more complex.
- One format is to have all the questions framed around "agree/disagree."
Resources
rogram
