Open Master's Program

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= "Socially-activated, self-directed higher education – organized in small groups and peer reviewed".

URL = http://www.openmastersprogram.com/


Definition

"A participant-run, member-supported project that emerged as a P2PU Labs project with a grant from the Shuttleworth Foundation, building directly on the experience and community of P2PU and Citizen Circles." (http://www.openmastersprogram.com/about/support/)


Characteristics

Four Stages

See: [1]

Rhythm of the Open Master’s Community

"Even while are each at different stages in the process- and while we are working in self-directed studio groups spread out around the world- the Open Master’s community maintains a common cycle of trimesters (Jan – April, May – Aug, Sept – Dec) so that we are always completing personal reflections and peer reviews together in the last two weeks of each trimester.

Just as in nature and in formal schooling, this cycle helps us create a sense of both continuity and renewal. It creates a natural moment every four months to pause, take stock of progress, reflect, and refocus.

Our anchors throughout all of this are our plans, our study buddies, our studio groups, and external mentors, advisors and coaches."


Time and Duration of an Open Master’s

"You may complete an Open Master’s in 1-3 years, depending on your plan.

A full-time member- who has no other obligations except completing his or her Open Master’s and spends 40+ hours per week on his or her plan- may become a Candidate for Graduation after completing 3 full-time trimesters.

A part-time member- who is completing his or her Open Master’s along with other work or obligations and spends between 8-40 hours per week on his or her plan- may become a Candidate for Graduation after completing six full-time trimesters, or up to nine."


More

Alan Webb:

(introduced the 2nd semester)

"Studio Groups, which are groups of 3-12 people that will act as our home base of support and accountability in the program. -> Read More about how this fits into the overall structure of community.

A Member Checklist to guide us through the path of becoming full, peer-endorsed members of the Open Master’s, and this class. Our goal is for each of us to complete the member checklists to the satisfaction of our studio groups by April 31st and, when we do, earn our student cards.

A detailed schedule for the next four months, to help us focus on main priorities each month on our own, one-on-one with partners, in our studio groups, and together as a community. This is to serve as a starting point to help us through this process together, but not as a hard-and-fast rule." (http://www.openmastersprogram.com/blog/2013/01/01/new-developments-for-the-second-trimester/)

Status

Alan Webb, 9/2012:

"We are very excited about the 30 folks who have signed up for the Open Master’s Class of ’13. There are 22 of us in Washington, DC and 8 more spread out in other locations- from Oregon to Berlin." (http://www.openmastersprogram.com/blog/2012/09/28/welcome-class-of-13/)


Case Study

Alex Simon's study of chairs

Alex Simon:

"I still find chairs interesting: I decided to study chairs on a whim. I happened to see some chairs while I was thinking about what to study, so I decided to study chairs. The story is a bit more nuanced than that, and one day you all will have the opportunity to enjoy my telling of it. But seriously, I’m more than a bit surprised that I still speak with a bunch of enthusiasm about my chair studies. Chairs are awesome, there’s no doubt about it. Still, it’s been more than a few months and I’m still psyched about the prospect of reading through the many thousands of chair-related pages I have to read. I’m not sure whether this speaks to the topic or to the wonders of the Open Master’s process.

This is a good introspective vehicle: I don’t want to go into mind-numbing detail or anything, but I will write that I’ve probably spent more time concertedly thinking about my own interests, thought processes, etc… than I had ever been motivated to do during any other extended educational (or any) exercise (including high school, university, etc…) . I’ll probably write a post at some point that will chronicle how I developed the thought process around why I’m enthusiastic about studying chairs (I only partially figured it out at least a couple of months into the process, and there’s still plenty of thinking to do on the subject) and that will dig a bit deeper with this.

Surprisingly, people find chairs to be interesting (except chair salespeople): A more accurate label would be that “People can convince themselves that anything is interesting.” My mind is blown a little bit every time I talk to people about chairs and they say something to the tune of “Oh wow, that’s really interesting.” A bunch of people have told me that after our chair/sitting-related conversations they’ll observe chairs in a new light (or at the very least, they’ll be conscious of their observation of them.) I’ve definitely experienced an uptick in chair-related consciousness as I’m walking around. I’ve also noticed that I take many more photos with my iPhone than I ever have before, but I’m not sure these things are so connected. Amusingly enough, the one group of people who have expressed absolutely no interest in my study of chairs are furniture salespeople. They generally give a deadpan expression and grunt disapprovingly upon learning about my study.

I like finding the connections between things: I’ve read, thought, written, crafted, and talked about chairs for the past four months or so. After all of this I think my favorite part seems to be finding and thinking about the random connections between tons of little chair-related things and other things. It’s been cool to form a mental map of the world (geographically, historically, culturally) with chairs and chair-related events as the little nodes. Perhaps this is to humor an associative mind, whatever that is.


Fall 2012 Accomplishments

Buying: This isn’t much of an accomplishment, but I’ve acquired about fifteen books about chairs. The only reason I count this as an accomplishment is because I was convinced before I started this study that there would be practically no study materials to be found. Luckily I was wrong. It’s easier to study something when there’s something to study.

Podcast: I have recorded four podcasts, each between 6-10 minutes long.

Reading: If memory serves, I completed only two books in their entirety over the past few months. They are The Chair: Rethinking Culture, Body & Design by Galen Cranz and Rethinking Sitting, by Peter Opsvik. I am in the process of finishing A History of Seating, 3000 BC to 2000 AD: Function versus Aesthetics by Jenny Pynt and Joy Higgs, Makers: The New Industrial Revolution by Chris Anderson, and The Architecture of Happiness by Alain De Botton. I think reading multiple books at once lends itself to the connection-making that I enjoy.

Writing: I have written nearly 50 individual notes, essays, and random materials about chairs in Evernote. I have written 16 journal entries in OhLife (a cool service I recommend checking out.)

Sketching: For about 20 days I sketched a chair every day, rain or shine (during 24-hour pig roasts or not during such roasts). This was cool, but it kind of fizzled out. Every chair was different. None looked awesome, but some seemed pretty unique.

Crafting: To my house-mate’s chagrin I’ve been building chairs out of cardboard. They aren’t very nice, and I’m not sure I’ve learned anything from the experience, but it did lead to more curiosity about simple construction methods. This in turn led me to purchase and construct a SmartDeco dresser for my room. Again I’m not sure whether I learned anything, but at least I have a dresser now.

Building a Chair-Related Network (asset map development): The amount of people who have in some way supported or offered to support my Chair study is really astounding. My grandmother stands out as the leading contributor of chair-related news (from the NYTimes, which she reads cover-to-cover.) She literally clips (with scissors) all of the articles and images of chairs from the newspaper and mails them to me. Other people who have sent chair-related materials my way or have connected me to cool chair-related people/places/things include , Dick Simon, Patty Simon, Katie Simon, Michael Garate, Nabil Hashmi, Mike Durante, Max Nussenbaum, Will Levitt, Laura White, Laura Tomasko, Mary Galeti, Jess Rimington, Axle Brown, JJ Jimenez, Hunter Pritchard, Haley Priebe, Giordano Sordoni, Betsy Broun, Amy Lazarus, Joanie Schrier, Alex Budak, Alan Webb, Sonia Gaillis-Delephine, DJ Saul, Simone Eliane, Alec Jacobs, Rob Lalka, Jimmy Soni and more.

Standing: I successfully converted both my home and office desks into standing desks. I’m glad I do this because it’s probably the best “experiential learning” exercise I’ve done since the beginning of the program. In case anyone was wondering, I’m pretty sure I feel healthier than before. I’ve also started walking (rather than metroing) more and am informally experimenting with the theory about how humans are naturally supposed to be (running around and such rather than being sedate all the time). I’m also convinced that my posture is better than before but I’ll need to find a third-party to validate the assumption.

MiniChair-collecting: I’ve found some cool children’s chairs at flea markets and antique stores. See image above. I’ve also bought a cool secretary’s chair from the mid 20th-century. I’ll eventually write a post about it.


Fall 2012 Challenges

Forming a Learning Plan: I did a lot of somewhat random learning and organizing of information, but I can’t say I stuck to my initial learning plan in many ways. One of the corollary challenges is that I’m not entirely sure I did enough work, or at least as much work as I would have done if I had been as organized as I could have been.

Sketching Enough: Really I just should have created more stuff. This is a big part of my intended arch of the Open Master’s experience and I was negligent a bit in the first semester.

Narrowing My Focus: Right now my approach to chair-studying is about as broad as it could be in that there’s no topic or aspect, direct or indirect, that isn’t on the table. This might work right now, but I think finding some focal areas for longer term study will help me organize my Master’s education to the extent it probably should be.

Creating a Time Management System: I’ve spent a lot of time on weekends and random weeknights working on chair-related stuff, but there’s no method to A. the amount of time I spend on this and B. how I break down or organize my chair-related time. I couldn’t tell you how much time I’ve spent looking at pictures of chairs vs. writing about chairs vs. reading about chairs, for instance. I think it might be nice to track what I spend my chair-related time doing in the future.


Spring 2013 Goals

Podcast: I’ve been listening to a lot of popular podcasts because I would like to substantially improve my podcast making abilities. The easiest way to do this (I think) will be to continue making weekly podcasts.

Sharing What I Learn: Besides the weekly podcast, I should be posting about different things. One idea I had was to feature a specific chair every week and write up some fun stuff about that chair.

Experiential Learning: I need to either do some research that involves activity (organizing a research project around my sitting habits, conducting interviews with people for a specific purpose, or the most obvious chair building) so mix up the types of learning I’m doing. This goes without saying, but I suppose I just said it.

Curriculum Development: Relative to my enthusiasm and random knowledge, my curriculum structure is fairly weak. Compared to a real university course (which I’m not necessarily using as any sort of benchmark) there’s very little structure. This needs to change if I’m really going to call this a “Master’s” level pursuit.

Complete an Online Course: I took one very quick 3D printing course through General Assembly (LINK) and started a Coursera course about “Design of Artifacts” but I hope to complete one course in its entirety that is connected to chairs in some way. This is both to establish some discipline around the study and also to ensure that I dig a little deeper than I might be inclined into a particular subject.

Presentation about Chairs: I’m pretty good at ad-libbing fun facts and monologues about chairs, but I need to feel the pressure to create a real talk or presentation about chairs. I hope to give this talk to some people so that the pressure is really on.


Where I Need Support

Legitimization of this Process: I’d like members of the Open Master’s Community to play a role in critically reviewing and revamping my Learning Plan and overall process. This will likely be accomplished by some of the plans in place within the Open Master’s community, but I’ll throw it out there anyways.

More Chair Designers: I don’t have many personal connections with chair designers. Needless to say this is an important group to know.

Academic Mentors: I don’t have any people on board as mentors who have academic chops. Eventually I would like to be connected with the mainstream in this regard, so I’ll be on the lookout for this kind of advisor.


My Participation in the Open Master’s Community

Presentation about Chairs: While I may present about my studies to a random assortment of people, I would also like to present my learnings to the Open Master’s community. I think this group will have a unique ability to give critical feedback." (http://www.chairsplease.com/?p=44)

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