Learning by doing
I had the most beautiful and amazing conversation with Jodi Rose on Tuesday. It’s been a year or two since we last caught up. As always out time together wasn’t long enough. We did get some work done. We are editing ‘Our love affair with trees’ book down to do a soft cover edition. It feels good to be throwing out images and words making the body of work stronger and more succinct.
One of our discussions was about how I am currently teaching online. And Jodi said ‘you are teaching in a way that your students are learning by doing’! I had an epiphany. Because when I started professionally in education at 18 experiential education was my passion and medium for teaching. We’d set up amazing wilderness and bush experiences for people to learn in. Give them problems to solve, skills to practice and use. We’d finish by practicing and lots of reflection. I was an experiential facilitator. I read all the books and that shaped my career path and my study. After my art education degree I studied adult education at Masters level and again I specialised in experiential education. Actually I chose UTS because the lecturers were famous in this specialised area of education.
The epiphany was that I finally realised that I have been doing this all along, and I hadn’t consciously thought about it. I did a diploma in online and distance learning and the theory is so traditional and so boring. It has taken me twenty something years to figure out how to do it experientially. It’s taken me a long while to figure out to do it my way and not how someone or some textbook tells you to do it.
I am so excited because as I move forward with my designs and on online courses I now have a clear path forward and extra confidence in what I am doing. That it’s not only right by it’s also great.
The master class is so much like this. For its true beauty and the best learning comes from it when you choose to engage and learn by doing in a structured and facilitated manner. Working in exercises, studying little bits at a time. And most importantly working on projects that are self generated. The masterclass becomes the structure and support for your own learning by doing.
Learning by doing.
How do you learn best?
These are all from the Tarkine. July 2025 I will be back with a lovely group of photographers. Can’t wait for that either.
https://www.lensschool.com/workshops-tours/p/tarkine-photography-tour
