Our focus in the blog and in the Summer Institute is on exploring connections between the Interactivity Foundation's "sanctuary discussion process" and the classroom. In earlier postings I've talked about the character of our approach to collaborative and...
I'd like to offer a brief word of farewell to commemorate the passing of a dear friend and mentor, Jay Stern. Jay passed away this past Saturday, June 13, 2009. He was 95 (you can find his obituary here). Jay was, among many other things in his long life, the...
In the Interactivity Foundation (IF) we often talk about "sanctuary discussions" or "the IF discussion process" in pretty interchangeable ways. In this post I'll describe some of the key features of of what we mean by calling them sanctuary discussions.
Matthew Crawford's thoughts about "Shop Class as Soulcraft" bring up some interesting connections with IF's approach to student-centered discussions.
Here's a quick overview of what we do in the Interactivity Foundation, including our 3 focal areas of Sanctuary Projects, Citizen Discussions, and Education.
I'm uploading here a series of "Conceptual Essays" on IF and our approach to public discussion. The essays complement our other more hands-on documents by placing our work in a larger context and exploring the reasoning behind why we do things the way we do. They...
Let me add my hearty "Welcome to the '09 Summer Institute!" to those already expressed by Jeff, Pete, and Sue. I'm very much looking forward to the week, all the more so after reading your bio's. Here's hoping your summer is off to a great start. Adolf P.S. For a...
I just wanted to send a short greeting to everyone. I look forward to meeting you and will be posting some materials here on this site that will hopefully be helpful to you as we proceed toward August 1, when we will finally all get to meet. I attended the Summer...
Setting the tone for our collaboration on the Summer Institute: it’s vital to adopt an attitude of “yes-and,” a spirit of creative generosity and innovation. This is one way to embody generosity of spirit, a core aspect of our approach to discussions.
The Foundation has published 3 guidebooks for facilitating discussion. You can download a pdf of these guidebooks by clicking on their titles below. Facilitation Guidebook (Jack Byrd, Jr., edited by Adolf Gundersen, 2005) Facilitation Guidebook for Small Group...