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--- awhi_world [2008-12-18 20:38] – 118.93.164.11
+++ awhi_world [2020-06-04 20:27] (current) – old revision restored (2009-02-15 21:07) nik
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 A parallel universe uncovered through transdisciplinary facilitation, hybrid story-ing and ungenreable activities.
-Primary Location: East Papakura, South Auckland, New Zealand (37° 5' 0" South, 174° 57' 0" East)
+Primary Location: West Papakura, South Auckland, New Zealand (37° 5' 0" South, 174° 57' 0" East)
 http://www.maplandia.com/new-zealand/auckland/papakura/
 Interstitial Coordinator: [[http://www.blogger.com/profile/16743176167581637877|Maggie Buxton]]
-**Background:**
+=== Background: ===
-East Papakura is a economically deprived area populated by indigenous maori, pacific island, and migrant groups. It has recently warranted special focus by police and civic authorities due to high rates of criminal activity (drug houses and labs, gang violence, truancy, tagging, theft etc). Initial entry into the area came via the local community constable who needed some community development consultation and expertise. He and his colleagues had initiated the Awhiwraparound Project, an experimental initiative where 11 streets in a square block are given a dedicated police presence and community centre. (Awhi means embrace in Maori)
+West Papakura is a economically deprived area populated by indigenous maori, pacific island, and migrant groups. It has recently warranted special focus by police and civic authorities due to high rates of criminal activity (drug houses and labs, gang violence, truancy, tagging, theft etc). Initial entry into the area came via the local community constable who needed some community development consultation and expertise. He and his colleagues had initiated the Awhiwraparound Project, an experimental initiative where 11 streets in a square block are given a dedicated police presence and community centre. (Awhi means embrace in Maori)
 In this socially deprived area the physical, digital and imaginal realms have been deactivated and disconnected. There are large tracts of land that are underutilised and abandoned: A set of 6 netball courts that have not been used for ten years, and Te Koiwi Park which is an ancient spring/swamp with a foreboding atmosphere. Access to the virtual world is challenging, and not widespread.
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 There is also a strong community spirit flowing throughout this area and the relationship oriented cultures that exist in the few square kilometres of the boundary do much to counter the social and economic hardship many families face.
-**Discovering Awhi**
+=== Discovering Awhi ===
-While working on the Awhiwraparound project it became clear through a number of peripheral conversations, haphazard archeological finds, and awkward interuniversal encounters that a parallel world existed. This world seems to be connected through a complex web of synchronicity lines and interdimensional portals.
+While working on the Awhiwraparound project it became clear through a number of peripheral conversations, haphazard archeological finds, and awkward interuniversal encounters, that a parallel world existed. This world seems to be connected through a complex web of synchronicity lines and interdimensional portals.
 Discovery is only recent, but already interworld activity is taking place.  Locations for this activity are the primary school garden, backyards and walkways of neighbouring houses, Smith's Avenue Netball courts, and Te Koiwi Park. New hubs, portals and connection lines appear every day.
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-**Record of Awhiworld Activities**
+=== Record of Awhiworld Activities ===
-{{:consensusrealityawhi.doc|}}
-[For reasons of confidentiality some information needs to stay offline and be provided as appendices to final research report.]
+[For reasons of confidentiality, and to maintain calm in the face of extremely disturbing and extraordinary phenomenon, the name and exact location of the school is currently hidden]
 ** June/July 2008**
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 **December**
-Awhiworld rests quietly over the summer season while schools are out.  Two new guardians sit in the garden watching over the portals. [[http://un-fiction.blogspot.com/2008/11/garden-guardians.html]]  Work is taking place in the school so that ICT infrastructure is up to date.
+Awhiworld rests quietly over the summer season while schools are out.  Two new guardians sit in the garden watching over the portals. [[http://un-fiction.blogspot.com/2008/11/garden-guardians.html]]  Work is taking place in the school so that ICT infrastructure is up to date. Debrief begins of Awhiworld activities over the term.
+=== Overall Results ===
+In general teachers were keen to repeat the experiment and this time embedd this into their long term planning to ensure it was given quality attention, and was more sustainable as a project.
+Their comments showed that they saw behavioural shifts as a result of the material and the the children loved it. They also recognised areas for improvement and possibilities for the future. Many of these areas were related to factors that effected the whole school such as poor resources internally and issues related to poverty spilling over into the school at different times.
+**Teachers comments:**
+[narrative extracts from debrief interviews]
-**Overall Results**
+"Great for boys to keep them engaged". "Excellent to stimulate their imaginations". "Much harder work than normal curriculum as you are working with their imaginations rather than hard data". "Fun to not give The Truth..but to play with this with the kids". "Needed a little more focused energy..too many other things going on in the school and couldnt do the concept justice"."Children loved portals and gatekeepers theme". "The dramatic introduction into the school worked..needed to have more of this on a regular basis". "loved the portal examination" ."Hard to plan for but exciting to plan for..we could take any direction, children could go off on a tangent and I could follow them". "They really got the gatekeeper idea, one boy told me: "I'm a gatekeeper because I look after the school, and the gardens"". "Great way to get them thinking about Kaitaikitanga [guardianship in Maori]". "Notice that children are behaving differently around the gardens - at the beginning of the year were running over the gardens and dropping litter, now that is rare"."The forensic investigation was fantastic - it made them observe more closely and that is a real area of need". "Our children need to be introduced to things they would never be introduced to. Exposed to different ways of thinking, things and experiences. This did that for them". "Need to have a much simpler storyline for the little kids"."Teacher knowledge, skills and pedagogical framework plays a big part in how a project like this is delivered" "The trip to Nextspace was amazing. It was the highlight of the year for me and opened a door to a whole new world" "The children were really motivated and they loved the topic. They enjoyed
+drawing but struggled writing fiction. The work on gate keepers was successful. they responded really well to portal work and went looking for them in their own time.". "I am hoping next time that we have more ICT equipment which would help us also and allow the students to be incredibly creative in 3D with computers etc."
-Teachers comments:
+**Interstitial Coordinator comments:**
-"Great for boys to keep them engaged". "Excellent to stimulate their imaginations". "Much harder work than normal curriculum as you are working with their imaginations rather than hard data". "Fun to not give The Truth..but to play with this with the kids". "Needed a little more focused energy..too many other things going on in the school and couldnt do the concept justice".
+  * project was unable to explore the digital component of Awhiworld due delays in installing ICT infrastruture.
-My comments:
+  * more of time was needed than often could be provided. However, often after arriving back after an absence it was obvious there had been a tremendous amount of work done by teachers in a short space of time without any extra support or input.
-  * Digital component of Awhiworld was unable to be explored due to poor ICT capability but this will change next year.
+    * there were many ideas but not enough resources.  The school is Decile 1 which in NZ, means it is in the poorest catchment area possible.  With more physical resources and time it would have been even more successful as staffing and money were a major issue.
-  * Constantly felt like I needed more time and that I needed to be in the school more to support..but noticed that I kept arriving at the school after an absence of a week or so and would see a tremendous amount of work done in a short space of time without any input whatsover.
+Given all of this the project was successful in assisting the teachers to extend their learning and practice. It introduced children to different ways of learning maths, science, social science and english making links between some of their leisure activities and learning. It also taught children to pay attention to their environment in a way that they would not have previously, and supported a number of different changes in their behaviours.
-  * Concept of Gatekeepers/Guardians seemed embedded among the older children. Also the idea of portals. This will help with developments in curriculum next year.
+More fundamentally, it exposed both teachers and students to a paradigm that is beyond traditional concepts of true and false, and reignited their capacity to imagine.  Exposure to new ideas and technologies in some cases generated a sense of awe and disrupted previously held notions and assumptions about what 'teaching' and 'learning' is about.
-  * Too many ideas and not enough resources.  This school was a Decile 1 School which means it is in the poorest catchment area possible.  With more physical resources and time it would have been even more successful. But staffing and money were a major issue.
+It is an excellent example of ARG's used in educational practice as it was fully integrated into the curriculum for nearly two semesters, not simply a 'nice to have' addition.  There were multiple positive outcomes from a curriculum enhancement point of few, and there is currently discussion to embed Awhiworld into long term planning to ensure that it is integrated across multiple years of teaching.
-  * Give that was the case the project was a successful experiment in so far as it developed the teachers and pushed them to extend their learning and practice. It also introduced children to different ways of learning maths, science, social science and english making links between some of their leisure activities and learning.
+The teachers are keen to take the project forward and move it to another level, integrating this even more fully into the curriculum and the community development initiatives taking place around the school. With further funding and support this is possible, as is the potential to further develop trans-local gardening iniatives with Foam, brussels.