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Institute of Global Education Part 2 Orientation Course Instructions |
PROJECT NATURECONNECTPage 2 Instructions
What is it like being on the course once it has started?
Below is an example of what the course looks like when it is
running smoothly. Our challenge here is to make this description
a reality by painstakingly following the guidelines and instructions
on these web pages.
Preparation: "Carol, an online course member has
done her preparatory "homework. She read through the introductory
course and web site material, submitted her application to the
course and received a course participation confirmation. She
ordered her optional Reconnecting With Nature book, completed
the required prerequisite activities and her self-introduction,
and set up a group mailing list from the addresses sent to her
by the course organizer. Then she carefully read the instructions
you are reading now.
The specific dates for her course were made for the convenience
of all and send and receive dates for email assignments were
set. Group guidance roles were offered to participants, the co-facilitator
was identified, and the email addresses were checked to assure
that they worked properly.
Attitude: "Enthusiastic" is the way Carol feels
about the course. She knows what is important in it to her because
in the prerequisite material she identified areas of interest
and results that others found important for themselves. She also
tried some of the activities with friends and knows they work
well for her. They help her thinking reasonably co-create with
nature's intelligence, balance and beauty by safely connecting
with it. She recognizes that with respect to Nature's eons of
balanced relationship building experience, there is no known
substitute for the real thing. Substitutes often pollute or deteriorate
naturally balanced relationships.
Schedule: Carol reads her course instructions online from
a "base camp" web page. She learns from them what activity
she and her email partners, who live in many different countries,
will to do on this scheduled day in their local park, backyard,
or even with a terrarium. In general they have been doing two
activities a week. The schedule they use is posted at their Internet
Base Camp web site whose address they were given when the course
began.
Role of attractions As Carol begins this day's activity
she seeks what's most attractive to her in a local natural area
at this moment. Unexpectedly, she becomes aware that the delicate
sparkle of a water droplet on a fern attracts her. She does additional
activities that reinforce this nature-connected sensation and
she becomes aware of other things that come to mind from the
total experience. They include other times she has felt its joy
and meaning as well as her past disconnection from it, what caused
it, and the effects of the loss. She discovers the droplet being
attractive to her was not an accident. It was subconsciously
attractive to parts of her that sought the fulfillment of the
balanced tenacity, brightness and refreshment it provided. Contact
with the droplet brought these parts of her into her awareness.
Written material: Carol then reads, or has already read online,
(and optionally in her Reconnecting With Nature book,) material
which helps her understand and model various aspects of the activity
she has just done and how she might apply them to improve and
further enjoy her daily relationships with people and the environment.
Guidelines and process: Carol closely follows the seven-step
guidelines that come with the activity instructions. At some
convenient time on the due date for the completion of the activity
and readings, Carol goes on-line and shares with her 7-person
interact group her thoughts, feelings and reactions from her
nature connecting experience. She also downloads, reads, and
later reacts, to the attractions she finds and things she has
learned in all the emails she receives from the group by the
due date. They become the course textbook. They convey her group
member's experiences in nature with the same activity and readings
she just did. Later she reads their reactions to the experience
description she just sent to all of them.
Unity: Carol finds the course process is enjoyable
and educational. She feel relieved that participants hold something
important in common and are therefore supportive and not bogged
down in "flaming" arguments about differing viewpoints,
ideologies, religions, politics etc. Carol feels alive and spirited,
sustained by her email partners genuine responses and the group's
rejuvenating reconnections to nature.
Value and self-empowerment: Her day brighter and energized,
Carol looks forward to applying the activity by using it to further
connect with people and natural places that attract her. They
gain new value and she becomes aware of an often unrecognized
natural self-worth in herself and others along with additional
values in natural areas. She has new confidence for she has done
the activity and known its effects. She owns it, can teach it,
and gain its rewards at will.
Why the process works: The course work sounds and feels simple
to Carol, but explaining to others how and why it works challenges
her intellect and spirit in fun ways. The process and its effects
are so steeped in nature's balanced ways that for most people
they are, like nature's perfection, beyond words. To be known
and understood the process must be experienced first hand. To
our loss, in our nature disconnected society that is often suspect."
What guidelines help the course organize itself?
Below are the guidelines and instructions that Carol and her
classmates followed to help them make the course operate in ways
that optimized their learning and rewards from their participation.
Please proceed to Part Three
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