Great trainers are sharing, motivating and supportive. They practice what they teach with a range of examples. And they are familiar with other cultures and environments, not just their own. And the online teaching space has evolved as people have become more familiar with the internet. I have practiced and taught Permaculture for 35 years. Now it is time to share some insights and growing concerns for the future of online training.
35 years evolving
My name is April. And few people know what I do, which suits me. I don’t want to be a celebrity. I enjoy the freedom and flexibility of anonymity.
My father was a soldier in Vietnam. So, my early childhood was spent on an army base. There a lonely clump of bananas surrounded the septic tank. There were no bird calls. All I heard was dogs howling. But when we settled in Wollongong I was suddenly surrounded by beautiful beaches and forests. And a strong sense of place and belonging.
My mother was a great gardener, artist and hard-working book-keeper. But my father wanted me to be a software writer. He believed that computing was the future and people would work less. And so, in 1986, I got a computer trainee-ship at the local university. By 1993 I had some basic computing skills and a supportive partner and mother. I also had a masters in Creative arts. I knew how to research. And I knew how to teach complex skills. And I had a baby and a toddler. So, I knew how to work. I still loved my environment. And I was fascinated with Permaculture. And I wondered how it would fit in the emerging world of the internet.
Life and Death? of Internet
At the dawn of the internet, Computer games and internet pages were painfully slow. And they had no graphics. You had to use a lot of imagination.
But the fun thing about making content for the internet was the equality. Gender didn’t matter. How you looked didn’t figure. Content was all the mattered. And so, in 1996 with the help of my family, we set about to create the first online Permaculture course.
In 1996, my mother and I drove across Australia. We visited my birthplace in Perth and went to the great International Permaculture Conference and Convergence. Thanks to the tireless work of Ross Mars and Permaculture west, the proceedings are still available.
There I met a lot of amazing Permaculture people. And at the Convergence, I saw a small discussion group in a back corner talking about Information Technology [IT]. I told them my idea to start online teaching and they all started offering support. Even Bill Mollison chipped in and said he thought that online teaching could work. And I knew there was a need. Especially for participants in isolated places and working mums like me.
Land-based Permaculture Design Courses are often run by charismatic leaders. So, to make online training successful we offered something different. Our online courses were self-paced, flexible, organised and tailored for the student needs. Also, we adopted a student-focused approach. And I applied my research experience, enthusiasm and applied knowledge to explore many aspects of Permaculture. But it is difficult to keep participants enthused via email so a lot of people dropped out. But those who were self motivated became exceptional graduates.
Internet Choking
Now, internet users have to navigate past information pollution – ‘Infollution‘. Getting past excessive, unreliable and irrelevant digital clutter hampers and impairs decision-making. The modern educator needs to guide participants in their research with clear pathways. And offer strong avenues of support.
Slowly Maturing
After 20 years I started digging deeper, asking more. And I was truly lucky to have an informal mentor in Stuart B. Hill. I could ask Stuart questions and he would answer straight away. And for this I am forever grateful. I started to develop skills in deep listening and set about to interview many elders.
Decades later, we had a vibrant food forest, supportive community and creative fun. Ted Trainer said – it is not work if you are having fun. We worked and we had fun.
3 functions of Education
1. Share knowledge and ideas for a wide range of conditions.
2. Motivate and support participants into action
3. Connect people through community and integration with their environment.
Sharing Knowledge and Ideas
Knowing how to do something doesn’t mean we know how to teach it. Teaching is a craft in itself using psychology, and communication systems. Content knowledge (CK)is fundamental. This is the mastering the Permaculture skills – the knowing of what, why and how this work. On the other hand, Pedagogical knowledge (PK) is knowing how to help others become skilled. And the third knowledge needed for online training is a framework and method for keeping people on their learning pathway. It is easy to fall off the internet surfboard.
At the core, teaching or demonstrating Permaculture introduces holistic thinking. Then it sets about to pull apart the parts. And finally we work on how the parts interact. There is a lot happening in a Permaculture system. And complexity is tricky to show in modern bite-sized chunks.
Instructors also need to show how they applied the principles in their own practice as well as other situations. And help their participants find out more about their situation. In reality, the sharing of expert know-how is never going to come from one person. It will come through a conversation with many pioneers.
This is the strength of the Permaculture movement. We share. We converses. And, we are generous.
Motivating and Supporting
When we motivate participants, we need to follow through. Our support mustn’t end when the course ends. This is where the social design is essential in the growth of Permaculture. Teachers must foster others. The traditional formal education system in the western world has a deeply entrenched economic and academically competitive framework. We must do better. We need to learn from one another, support good work and foster diversity.
Connecting and Providing Ongoing Support
We all grow when we build a network of experts and a community of knowledge keepers.
All training requires an understanding of the work, an ability to break it down, then reconnect the ideas. But online training has extra pitfalls. Online participants are at risk of being disconnected from their peers, their dreams and trainers. And few trainers can afford to commit to supporting their participants for years. What we need to foster is a community of trainers.
Become part of our new mode of Permaculture Training. Contact us to join our Online Advanced Permaculture Design course community.