[OSList] Open Space in university classrooms

[Michael Wood]

I have opened space a couple of times in university classrooms. One was for a friend of mine in the Business School and I'm pretty sure it was an MBA program. The space was scheduled in the last week of semester and a couple of weeks before the exam. The topic, something like, 'what do we need to talk about to get ready for the exams'? All the topics were posted within half an hour and the students got down to some rich co-learning for a couple of hours  - effectively posting topics on things that they were a bit confused about from some aspect of the semester, and then  teaching each other! (I appreciate that 2 hours is very tight for an Open Space. I think we actually called in 'self organising conversations' - but the four principles and one law where introduced and it ran just the same). The second one was in a unit on Engineering and Social Justice.  The theme was something like 'how do we engage local communities in engineering projects'? All the students were asked to invite guests/friends/colleagues from the local community (anyone interested in the topic). Again - only 2.5 hours, but it went well and the comments in the closing circle included lots of appreciation from the students about how to enage in a more organic way with stakeholders than what Engineeres might typically do. It seems to me there are infiniate possibilities of opening space in university classrooms - the same set up conditions apply - genuine open question; honouring the 4 principles and one law etc etc.
Michael Wood
Perth, Western Australia