Collective Learning: why, what and how?

This is a photo that was shot by @rotanarotana in the garden of the Museum Rodin, Paris, France.

Recently, after reading a great post from Gianpiero Petriglieri offering a different view on MOOCs, here is what I tweeted:

“Education is not just about skills, concepts, knowledge as commodity. It is also about ties/citizenship.” — @rotanarotana

So if education is also about relationships and citizenship, how do we harness new learning curves?

How do we go with learning flows?

Learning flows are already everywhere. People didn’t wait for online courses to learn from each other and on their own.

“We are moving away from the model in which learning is organized around stable, usually hierarchical institutions (schools, colleges, universities) that, for better and worse, have served as the main gateways to education and social mobility.

Replacing that model is a new system in which learning is best conceived of as a flow, where learning resources are not scarce but widely available, opportunities for learning are abundant, and learners increasingly have the ability to autonomously dip into and out of continuous learning flows.

Instead of worrying about how to distribute scarce educational resources, the challenge we need to start grappling with in the era of socialstructed learning is how to attract people to dip into the rapidly growing flow of learning resources and how to do this equitably, in order to create more opportunities for a better life for more people. ”

— Marina Gorbis

If you want to go deeper, you might be interested in diving into the Institute For The Future research: “From Educational Institutions to Learning Flow”.

Collective Sensemaking

I think that Marcia Conner describes how collective sense-making and learning are shifting.

“How do you define social learning?

I define social learning as participating with others to make sense of new ideas. Augmented by a new slew of social tools, people can gather information and gain new context from people across the globe and around the clock as easily as they could from those they work beside.

Social learning is not just the technology of social media, although it makes use of it. It is not merely the ability to express yourself in a group of opt-in friends.

Social learning combines social media tools with a shift in the corporate culture, a shift that encourages ongoing knowledge transfer and connects people in ways that make learning a joy.

– Excerpt from “Where Social Learning Thrives” (Marcia Conner with Steve LeBlanc).

In defining social learning, and what it isn’t, Marcia Conner also shares her learning experience and insights:

“Learning can easily occur anytime, anywhere, and in a variety of formats. It always has, but augmented by social tools, now it’s easy for others to see and learn from too.

Together we are better. Together we participate with others and learn non stop.

Every day I connect and learn from people across the world through social technologies. Some of these people I’ve met in person, increasingly they are people I didn’t know before social media.

From them I glean new insights about topics I set out to learn as well as get introduced to new topics and related information I didn’t realize would help round out what’s important to my life and in my work.”

Dennis Callahan also described in a terrific post how social learning is like gravity:

“Learning with and from others fosters an environment that creates the birth of new ideas, connections, products, etc.

Think about a positive brainstorming session that you had with someone or a group of people. This creates an energy that propels you into creating something new.”


The Big Shift is a Learning Shift

Since 2009, John Hagel has been talking about the big shift as a “movement from the world of push to a world of pull”. We are moving from knowledge stocks to knowledge flows. Learning is changing because ways of learning are evolving in our connected world; as J.P. Rangaswami wrote in this piece:

The ability to observe. The ability to imitate. The ability to try it out for yourself. The ability to get quick feedback. Four critical requirements for learning.

We’re in the midst of a digital revolution. Everything that happens can be observed by more people than has ever been possible before. The internet is a copy machine, the ability to share and to imitate has never been cheaper.

Tools continue to be invented to make it possible for all of us to be able to try more things for ourselves than we could ever do before.

This digital revolution is a learning revolution. As long as we don’t waste it. Waste happens when we constrain the ability to observe, to imitate, to try out, to get feedback.

Particularly when we have the opportunity to make it all affordable, ubiquitous.

Education drives the solution to so many of our perceived problems. Education is so incredibly accelerated, assisted, augmented by digital infrastructure. If we let it.

We who are here on earth today can make a difference to that earth by ensuring that we don’t waste this incredible opportunity, of using digital infrastructure to enfranchise everyone, to provide the opportunity for all to learn.”


How do you keep learning in networks?

To contribute to collective intelligence, you need to learn how you grow and learn? So then, how do you cultivate your curiosity and self-directed learning? As Jon Husband wrote:

There just isn’t any choice other than continuous learning because ongoing change—permanent whitewater—is our only remaining constant.”

So how do you learn faster, better from each other, and on your own? Are you curating smart networks? Gideon Rosenblatt said: 

The way we curate our connections shapes our networks in ways that affect their health and effectiveness.

I think Mark Oehlert nailed it when he said:

“Go with the flow…feel the Force…be the ball….focus on building your network. You don’t have a 1:1 relationship with social media — what you should be building is a many to many relationship.

Social media is a network, and you need to respond to the output of that network with your own network. I’ve got a strong network that kinda looks like a patchwork quilt.

It’s my responsibility to architect the right network. The cool thing? Me and my network are also part of other people’s networks — at absolutely zero incremental cost to any of us.

Start thinking like a Subject-Matter Network.

Across many industries, many people think and learn in networks. They are networked learners. For instance, many healthcare professionals are networked learners. It becomes a reality.

“I speak to doctors, and they tell me to just what extent they are learning from international peers through social media”. – Daniel Ghinn


Are you both mindful & networked?

But among the most challenging difficulties for learning from each other in our hyper-connected society is the ability to be mindful and connected to ourselves. Disconnect to connect,” said Tiffany Shlain and Whitney Johnson. If you have time, I also recommend watching her fun, short and insightful videos.

So being mindful, connected to ourselves, thinking critically, and learning in networks, imply using our five senses in smart and modern ways. Why does it matter? It matters for each of us to be networked and for tribal knowledge because, in a fragmented world, we need to go deep; as Nilofer Merchant said:

“It’s a fragmented world. And it’s only becoming more so. It used to be that when people wrote, they wrote more deeply. In the early days of the web (pre-twitter), I remember hand picking the few voices I would listen to and then putting them into my RSS feeder and checking for their essays.

Essays, not tweets, were the way we shared what we were thinking. But as “content” has become more important to maintain a standing online, more and more people are entering into the fray. More and more people who may not even have a point of view to advocate but just want to participate in the conversation. ”

— Nilofer Merchant

So how do you go fast and slow for navigating the knowledge flows?

Towards network thinking & libraries

As William Gibson said: “The future is already here — it’s just not evenly distributed.” So are we heading to a world of connected learning, network thinking, and networked libraries? These words from Greg Satell paint the age in which we live.

“I am also meeting and collaborating with people online that I would have never had a chance to know before. I can even gain access to knowledge in other languages through online translation.

In other words, I am to stumble over people and knowledge to a degree that wouldn’t have been possible even a relatively short time ago.

And that’s why we can expect life to continue to get better. While earlier technologies allowed us to master energy and matter, newer advances are giving us something far more valuable: They are unleashing the power of human potential.”

Collective Learning & Future Skills

Did you enjoy the post? Check out Future Skills.

I reflect on the value of defragmenting and unifying our artefacts, our writings and ourselves in a fragmented world. Read on more in this post.

Defragmenting our Arfefacts

For past Winter holidays, I grabbed the Greenlights Journal by Matthew McConaughey. As he introduces:

“Greenlights: Your Journal, Your Journey is a guided companion to the memoir Greenlights, filled with prompts, pithy quotes, adages, outlaw wisdom, and advice on how to live with greater satisfaction.”

Sometimes it is not so easy to map our thoughts when we face the challenges of fragmented writing.

With personal knowledge mastery’s activities and tools I use, I don’t just write on one platform, but on many ones. From Slack to IM messaging tools. From my blog to a book. From Google Workspace to M365 documents and Clickup documents. Less and less on email. #NoEmail

Lately I have also been sharing a few thoughts on Mastodon and LinkedIn, one conversation at a time.

My crumbling of writings through blogging, microblogging, asynchronous and live chat is fragmented. I wonder.

How can I unify and streamline these streams of writing into one river of writing?

Grant Snider’s comic strip is full of stellar insights. Enjoy it.

“To sketch what you observe is to change the tempo of your observation. It necessarily slows your sensemaking down, and sharpens what you see.” – Fiona Tribe

Rewind: The Learning Journey sketchnoted by Klara Loots and moi.

“Slowing down is important for deep observation and learning.” – Dibyendu De

Defragmenting our Writings

The other thing I notice is that my writing time is still an unplanned activity.

I don’t do it consistently. I’m aware of it.

“I thought of myself as like the jazz musician: someone who practices and practices and practices in order to be able to invent and to make his art look effortless and graceful.

I was always conscious of the constructed aspect of the writing process, and that art appears natural and elegant only as a result of constant practice and awareness of its formal structures.” – Toni Morrison

How do things work for me?

If I notice something, I might think about it. Do some research or not at all.

Then I would make a draft and sleep on it for a while. When I come back to it, I will refine the post before sharing it with my network on social or in person and through the online communities I engage with.

But it all starts with why I am writing.

“We write to taste life twice, in the moment & in retrospect.” – Anais Nin

We write to reflect and to practice.

I have a blogroll to engage with and read deep thoughts, shared experience, reflection and musings from bloggers around the world.

Being aware of ourselves. Noticing ourselves and trying to unify ourselves could begin by blogging on our own blog. But the challenge is to unify or defragment ourselves in a fragmented world. As I noticed in this old post:

In a fragmented world, we need to go deep; as Nilofer Merchant said:

“It’s a fragmented world. And it’s only becoming more so. It used to be that when people wrote, they wrote more deeply. In the early days of the web (pre-twitter), I remember hand picking the few voices I would listen to and then putting them into my RSS feeder and checking for their essays.

Essays, not tweets, were the way we shared what we were thinking. But as “content” has become more important to maintain a standing online, more and more people are entering into the fray. More and more people who may not even have a point of view to advocate but just want to participate in the conversation. ” —  Nilofer Merchant

How can we go deep and defragment ourselves in a fragmented world?

Defragmenting Ourselves

Like this post you are reading, I wrote a first draft a while ago. Then I slept on it until I got my blogging mojo back. Because I read a good recent post by Meredith:

“That put me in mind of this quote that I found somewhere on my internet travels:

“Each person is to build his or her soul by bringing the widely scattered elements of experience into a unified whole.” – Ilia Delio

How do we unify those widely scattered elements of experience? We all have our own way of coming at that challenge, and, for me, I always turn to creativity and the arts” – Meredith Lewis

I carry on the conversation on Mastadon with Meredith on the topic of unifying/defragmenting ourselves.

@dangerousmeredith A fine piece, Meredith. You made me think. My pen pal, Daniel Durrant wrote in a conversation in 2015 this:

“A network of fragile fragmented selves gains from disorder and evolves as we become aware of their failures.”

Your latest and his thoughts made me mull over.

How can we defragment our fragmented selves in a fragmented world?

As Daniel wasn’t on Mastodon for this conversation, we’ll continue it with Meredith on Twitter. Especially as I revisited this oldie “A Networked Community of Fragmented ‘Selves” by Dibyendu De, which is fully of nudges to ponder:

“What happens if the ‘selves’ weren’t aware of each other?

What happens if the selves simply knew each other well enough to form a community of strongly networked selves that help each other grow?

What happens if a person tries to create or design synergy between different selves?

How does one become a better spectator and player in the networked community of human society that constantly interacts with nature – both within and without?

March is a very special month for me. Every year a cascade of deep thoughts, events and movements happen at the same time. As I have blogged:

March. Is it the month when I am in motion, exploring, activating, rewinding my journey, updating my toolkit, staying curious, colliding, asking myself why, innovating, developing new capabilities and mindset, and embracing the unknown.

Keep it real.

Happy Spring.

Did you enjoy this post? Check out The Tapestry Book.

Did you have a pleasant summer? Do you enjoy Fall ?

Please find below my eight seasonal gems: book readings, exhibitions and cities. Enjoy.

Gem 1: Le Continent Blanc x Matthieu Tordeur

55980389

I read the paper book version since the early days of Summertime. What a great real story from an explorer to disconnect and wander while travelling or not.

Gems 2: Le Havre & Exhibits

Le Havre in September 2019

Source: By Martin Falbisoner – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=82036024

I previously visited Le Havre and fell in love with this Normandy seaside town once again this summer. Take a look at this Les Ambassadeurs’ city exploration. I’m particularly fond of the architectural style and flair by French architect Auguste Perret, who has left his imprint not just on Le Havre, but also on Paris and Amiens. It exudes charm, refreshment, modernity, class and boasts impressive architecture.

The present displays, ‘Un été au Havre‘ in certain artistic locations both inside and outside the buildings, are splendid and captivating regardless of whether it is sunny or rainy.

Were you aware of this?

“Paris, Rouen, Le Havre, une seule et même ville dont la Seine est la grande rue.” – Napoléon Bonaparte, premier Consul. Le Havre, le 8 novembre 1802.

Translated:

“Paris, Rouen, Le Havre, a single city with the river la Seine as its main street.” – Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul. Le Havre, 8 November 1802.

Gems 3: Dublin, Howth, Malahide

In the ‘Amateur Traveler’ podcast, Chris Christensen and his guest discuss about travelling to Dublin, Ireland.

According to them, Dublin acts as the gateway to the rest of Ireland and is renowned for its welcoming atmosphere.It is also a compact city which allows tourists to easily visit all the prominent and lesser-known sites in just three days.

This is what I experienced during the transition from Summer to Autumn in three cities. The highlights of my trip included listening to traditional Irish music at O’Donoghue’s in Dublin, wandering through the medieval castle and gardens of Malahide, which is a fortress spread over 105 hectares of parkland, adorned with antiques, paintings and a fairy trail, and exploring Howth. See below a photo of the stunning landscape I photographed while hiking on a sunny and gusty morning.

learner experience propelling expérience apprenante propulser sea ireland howth

Gems 4: Exhibit Busan, the world at your fingertips, the Korean Cultural Center, Paris

I continue to develop my curiosity for Asia through my intrigue with Busan, the Korean city, and and its culture, which I explored through an exhibit I attended in Paris.

“The exhibition you’re going to see will help you explore various aspects of this southern city, which is less known than the influential Seoul, but just as appealing and vibrant. Discover the locals who, despite the twists in history, have managed to keep their bubbling optimism alive. The Korean Cultural Centre invites you to ride the wave and delve into a culture that has been greatly influenced by foreign elements.

Divided into two main sections, this exhibition gives a broad overview of what has made and represents Busan. Firstly, a first section presents its history and identity. Then, a second chapter takes over by revealing an exciting cultural part.”


Gem 5: Tous pédagogues ! Former, enseigner, transmettre (Enseignement supérieur) x Didask

My year of designing learner experiences and teaching has been engaging, rewarding and insightful. During this year, I have delved into this book to refine my teaching techniques and pedagogical skills, given that I am now in my second year of teaching.

Gems 6: Nantes & Third place

hangar a bananes 4

Source: https://www.iledenantes.com/operations/hangar-a-bananes/

I am fascinated by the futures of workplace and third places that supercharge work and collective learning. During this summer, I had the pleasure of discovering and relishing such a third place in Nantes, France.

“The Hangar à bananes, an old port wasteland located on the western tip of the Isle of Nantes, has become one of the most iconic entertainment venues in Nantes since 2007. Over the years, bars, restaurants, a nightclub, an art gallery (the Hab Galerie), and a theatre have been established there.”

Gem 7: Exhibit Le Paris de Gustave Eiffel (1832-1923), Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine, Paris

I thoroughly enjoy the architectural exhibition that showcases the works of Gustave Eiffel. The exhibition is brimming with intricate details and highlights his remarkable accomplishments, which have left an enduring legacy in France.

“To mark the centenary of the death of the “iron magician”, the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine is unveiling another facet of the genius’s career.

He is known the world over for his famous 300-metre-high “Iron Lady”. But who knows about his department stores, his synagogue, his church or his secondary school? The Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine, located in the Palais de Chaillot, is revealing a completely different facet of the illustrious architect’s career with its exhibition The Paris of Gustave Eiffel. To mark the centenary of the death of Gustave Eiffel (1832-1923), the builder’s sometimes overlooked achievements in Paris are presented. Behind six of them, only the most initiated know the imprint of the genius.” – translated from the article from Le Figaro

Gem 8: À l’aube de nouveaux horizons x Nathalie A. Cabrol

75610882

I listened to a fascinating fifth episode of “Who We Are” on the “À voix nue” podcast by France Inter, featuring the author of the book. This episode piqued my interest and curiosity. I have added the book to my reading list.

Your turn. What are your favourite seasonal gems?

Did you enjoy this post? Check out the Tapestry Book.

Fall is here. The switch between sunny days and rainy grey days is constant. The weather is still lovely and windy. Then, the leaves start falling, and I can see how the trees change while walking.

Like leaves that morph in different shades of colours, which personal growth evolutions have you noticed from Summertime to Fall?

It makes me think of teaching at a French apprenticeship school.

Step by step

Teaching requires a lot of energy, patience and optimism.

Subjects covered will include creativity and innovation, digital project management, communication and marketing, entrepreneurship, IT and digital literacy.

Each session per course or workshop includes a deep dive, an individual or team activity, templates to use, a deliverable to produce, a space to drop the deliverable for evaluation, and resources to go further. The content is integrated and shared in a dedicated Moodle space per class, one session at a time. The activities are done in-person or remotely, live or asynchronously.

For each course or workshop, I go through the same process.

Step 1: Scoping

The aim is to identify the specific profile for the learner experience. To do this, I answer the questions below related to the specific theme I will cover.

Question Response What’s in it for my learner experience?
Who is the person ?

What is his/her profile?

What does he/she knows in the subject?
Any bias?

Any wrong habits?

What is he/she doing today that needs changing?

What’s in it for the learner?
How is the learner experience likely to be welcomed?


Step 2: Designing & integrating

This step is the one I enjoy the most.

I ask myself the following questions:

  • What changes do I expect?
  • What does a beginner do?
  • What does a skilled person do?
  • What do people find difficult?
  • What steps, situations or themes should learners have in mind and in practice?

To do this, I specify the learning moment, the suggested activity and the time spent for each learner’s goal.

My pedagogical sequence should contain more exercises than passive transmission. The activities must be spread out over time, and must include sufficient breaks. I start by setting aside these breaks.

I don’t forget to give reminders and alternate subjects.

A teaching sequence looks like this table and can have several teaching methods.

Learner Moment

 

Face-to-face learning approaches

 

Remote learning approaches

 

Self-assessement Coaching session Quizz
Deconstruction Immersive session Quizz
Content delivery Course, book, practical guide Webinar, how-to, wiki
Practice Role play, Learning by doing through innovative project co-design & development Learning by doing though innovative project co-design & development
Reflection Mentoring, knowledge sharing & co-creating workshop, book club Forum, chat
Automation Flashcard, Q&A in duo or trio, game cards, icebreakers Icebreakers
Evaluation Peer evaluation, exam Quizz

It involves curating and connecting the dots between the knowledge I pull. From my blog, archives, environmental scanning, experiences, use cases, conversations and knowledge sharing from my network and the communities I engage. It takes time and involves sensemaking, content management and clarity. At the same time, use personalized templates from decks to sheets and documents.

Here is how I go each time: I create the outline, frame questions, share deep dives on basic skills, approaches or tools, roadmaps for an individual or collective activity to practice and reflect on, and resources to curate to go further.

Designing in-person live and asynchronous learner experiences is an individual craft. This work can also be done in collaboration.

Rotana, a quality person, I particularly appreciate his calmness and, at the same time, his liveliness of mind. We built modules for apprentices BUT TC in the second year of their specialization.

The exchanges were fluid and fruitful, and we were able to build on each other’s skills.

He brings a lot of advice and tools that he proposes to his clients, and that favours the methodology.

A rich and relevant relationship: we were meant to work together.” — Christine, Digital Learning Manager / Learning Designer

Once the outline and content are ready, I integrate them into a Moodle space so each class can explore it one session at a time.

Step 3: Coordinating

I am planning live and asynchronous sessions – remotely and in-person over months on the school’s learning portal, Clickup and my calendar. That way, I can anticipate which session is upcoming and has been hosted. Which time estimated and time done are per session to scope, design, host and review each session.

I often block slots on my calendar to dedicate time and energy to each step of managing pedagogical projects.

Step 4: Onboarding

Each course or workshop comprehends four to six sessions of three hours spread over several months. To get an overview, I send an onboarding message to the class. In that way, they can save the dates in the calendar and know the intent, the skills to develop, the theme per session, the on-demand support, and the next step for the first session.

Step 5: Hosting

For each session, three possibilities

Possibility 1: Live session in-person

Hosting gatherings per cohort and team takes patience, refinement and practice. When it is in a physical classroom, I often start with the traditional setting of the space with tables and chairs in rows, especially when I introduce the session, take deep dive into an essential skill, approach or tools, show and explain, share instructions and tips to produce the expected deliverables.

Sometimes I use a wheel of names to nudge participants to share their experiences or Learning of the week collectively.

When it is time to gather and collaborate to co-create a deliverable per team, I invite the cohort to stand up and move the chairs and tables to bundle two tables with chairs around them to create a pod. In that way, they are in a better mindset and conditions to communicate, reflect and collaborate. In addition, I often leave an empty chair on a pod to come, observe, jump into the conversation, share feedback and leave anytime during the session.

The roadmap per expected deliverable with the deadline and resources to use to produce it is always visible on the physical whiteboarding of the classroom. I project one of my slides with the instructions on it.

Possibility 2:  Live session hosted remotely via Zoom

There are always five moments. The welcoming, the icebreaker, the collective moment in the same room, the activities and virtual peer assistance in breakout rooms, and the regrouping for a debrief and wrap-up.

How to foster conversation with remote learning and distributed work?

“If there are 120 people in the room and you set the breakout number to be 40, the group will instantly be distributed into 40 groups of 3.

They can have a conversation with one another about the topic at hand. Not wasted small talk, but detailed, guided, focused interaction based on the prompt you just gave them.

8 minutes later, the organizer can press a button and summon everyone back together.

Get feedback via chat (again, something that’s impossible in a real-life meeting). Talk for six more minutes. Press another button and send them out for another conversation.

This is thrilling. It puts people on the spot, but in a way that they’re comfortable with.

If you’re a teacher and you want to actually have conversations in sync, then this is the most effective way to do that. Teach a concept. Have a breakout conversation. Have the breakouts bring back insights or thoughtful questions. Repeat.

A colleague tried this technique at his community center meeting on Sunday and it was a transformative moment for the 40 people who participated.” Seth Godin


Possibility 3: Asynchronous session guided remotely

The session is asynchronous. I use email, Google Chat, Google Meet, and Moodle to communicate and bring virtual assistance on demand. The apprentices are autonomous and often in teams to get the work done.

On the D-Day of each session, I provide a roadmap, templates and resources to go further via a programmed email. In that way, I am ahead and not drowned by the workflow.

The templates and resources to go further are canvases, tools, and questions to nudge apprentices and encourage them to share their inputs to create added value and share. Name a few: business strategic analysis tools, digital strategy map, personal business model canvas, whiteboarding, agile project management tool, brand identity and essence canvas, and marketing tactics.

Step 6: Supporting

I teach to share knowledge, questions, experience, and use cases and highlight the reflections, insights, deliverables and results brought by apprentices. I am also here to support, coach and level up each person regarding their strengths, skill set, IT and digital literacy, drive and leadership.

Providing links and resources before each course or workshop is another way to nudge the apprentices to be responsible for their learning and team projects. Especially when I am away, they are learning and working outside the school building.

Next steps: Evaluating, Debriefing, Improving

The following steps are evaluating, debriefing and improving a learning experience. Stay tuned for deep thoughts. In the meantime, here are actionable insights from my network:

“Teacher is a hierarchical title to approach learning with students. Go beyond that with coaching and not being above the students but at the same level as them. You learn among and with them.

Create the environment so that they learn and reflect, you encourage them to learn on their own, together by doing.” — Paul Simbeck-Hampson

I try to embrace what Harold Jarche shares in his post on modelling as the best way to teach:

“(…) With a standardized curriculum and constant testing, there is never enough time for most school students to fully learn. There is too much information and much of it is without context. But mastery often comes from modelling. It is how the apprentice becomes a journeyman and in time a master. It is not done in isolation.

The core method (of six main components) for the teacher/master in cognitive apprenticeship is modelling. This can be aided by external coaching and scaffolding, but it is up to the learner to spend time on articulation, reflection, and exploration. Developing mastery requires deliberate practice over time.

Testimonials

“The whole of Team Perso* (brought by Clara, Amin, Jordy & Andy). would like to express our satisfaction with the project we carried out alongside Mr Ty. Your guidance and the skills you passed on to us played a crucial role in our collective success. The chemistry between us has been remarkable, with each member adding their share of quality, which has greatly contributed to our collective success.

This message helps to celebrate our shared achievement and to identify areas for improvement for our future projects.

Thank you for your support and contribution to our professional development.” 

*Perso, the inclusive BeautyTech project, make-up for everyone

“You hosted Digital Marketing workshops at CFA Descartes, which enabled me to develop a strong passion for the field of digital marketing.  Your teaching style and guidance throughout our projects and deliverables truly made the difference.”

“The Sneak’Renov project, carried out as part of the workshop dedicated to business startup co-design, was a very rewarding experience for me. Despite certain difficulties encountered with my team, we were able to demonstrate great perseverance and remarkable discipline.

Team spirit, often considered a stumbling block, was an innate notion for us throughout the project. Everyone’s ideas and experience enabled us to be effective at every stage.

What’s more, the experience enabled me to develop new skills and reinforce those already acquired. Finally, Sneak’Renov proved to me that the collective aspect is stronger than the individual.” 

“Being able to create a project from scratch as part of the workshop dedicated to business startup approaches like this has been an instructive experience. It teaches us to stand on our own two feet, collaborate and build a common project. For me, the group work was a great success, with everyone pitching in and working seriously. This enabled us to work quickly and productively. Finally, I’m proud of my team.

It’s not always easy to work with several people, and it’s even harder to stay motivated on a project like this.”

“Co-creating the Sneak’Renov project as part of the business startup workshop was an enriching personal experience for me.

I learned about business creation and developed my leadership, planning and teamwork skills. This experience has given me confidence as an entrepreneur and helped me grow personally and professionally.” 

“This workshop, dedicated to the process of setting up a business, was very well supervised and gave me a good grasp of the business creation process. What’s more, handing in deliverables enabled my team and me to make faster progress despite the workload involved. Mr TY guided us well in terms of task organization and was always looking for us to outdo ourselves.”

“This workshop, dedicated to the steps involved in setting up a business, was very enriching and enabled me to get a real idea of the stages involved in carrying out my project. There are often stages that are overlooked, but which are essential if the project is to succeed.

We were really supervised for this project by Mr TY, which was beneficial because we felt the daily support of the workshop host and had a complete framework for our work.

The expectations were clearly stated, and with each intermediate deliverable we had feedback on the work done, which enabled us to improve and deepen the work for the final rendering.” 

“We would like to express our deepest thanks to our workshop host Mr Rotana Ty for his help and involvement in this entrepreneurial project.” 

“I enjoyed the work; we were able to divide up the work well. Thanks to this project within the workshop on entrepreneurship I was able to use the skills I had seen in place to apply them in class and learn new skills. I developed my document writing skills as well as my presentation skills thanks to the various appearances in front of the class during the face-to-face sessions.” 

“This workshop on the theme of the marketing mix was very stimulating and instructive. The fact that we were able to develop our project over the year enabled us to immerse ourselves in the startup spirit. Indeed, we imagined a concept in small groups and developed it over the course of the sessions: from competitive analysis to marketing and communication plans and costs, we were able to practice all aspects of the marketing mix and discover new digital tools.

Despite the difficulties we encountered, we were able to organize ourselves and to build on each other’s strengths to bring the project to a successful finale. ” 

“Carrying out this project during this workshop on the theme of the marketing mix was both very rewarding and very interesting to accomplish. I particularly enjoyed having to apply what we’d learned in class to our personal project.

However, thinking about how to design an application in its entirety is not an easy task. Nevertheless, our group managed to meet the workshop’s expectations. I’m very proud of the work our group accomplished.” 

“This workshop on the theme of the marketing mix enabled me to develop new skills. We were able to clarify our ideas according to our passions and interests. I liked the project because it highlighted our creativity as well as our priorities.” 

“This workshop on the theme of marketing mix gave me confidence in my choices, more organization and a certain satisfaction with the product chosen and produced.” 

“I learned how to analyze a market for a product and build a detailed study using the different methods proposed.

The project carried out during the marketing mix workshop was very interesting and rewarding. In fact, as the sessions progressed, we were able to learn a little more about how to carry out a project properly, and what needed to be done/achieved in order to be able to create it in the best possible way.” 

“We were able to consider all the steps involved in designing and promoting a product/service, which isn’t exactly easy because there are so many stages and so many things to think about.

We learned a lot from this project, which we carried out during the marketing mix workshop. It even made all seven of us project ourselves into the future.

What’s more, our host was with us from the start to the end of our project.” 

“This multidisciplinary workshop was a different experience for me from other workshops, with a very thorough follow-up by the host, who made himself available. I was able to understand all the steps to follow and the development of the project. The expectations were concrete and useful.” 

“Our experience on the project during the multidisciplinary workshop waś extremely positive and waś a valuable source of learning for our team.” 

“I found this work during the multidisciplinary workshop very interesting, there are several steps that I often find in my daily business life. It helped me visualize certain points more clearly and improve them.” 

“This multidisciplinary workshop was very different from the others, in that we had to draw on our coursework to come up with ideas, but also on our general culture. Our project also involved the aspect of civic awareness, and I also enjoyed working with new and enriching people.” 

“This multidisciplinary workshop was more than enriching; I was able to develop many skills that I think I’ll use every day for my future projects. I learned a lot about project management and environmental issues. I was able to put my finger on things that seemed abstract to me, and that enabled me to assimilate them.” 

“It was an extremely rewarding learning experience. I learned how to set deadlines, break tasks down into achievable steps and set priorities to reach our objectives. I was also able to develop my skills in researching and gathering official information. Gain valuable experience in using analysis and planning tools.

Although there were challenges, the positive results were achieved, and the lessons learned were invaluable.” 

An enriching experience that confirmed the importance of working together. This multidisciplinary workshop required a great deal of effort and a great deal of thought in terms of our work and the coherence of what we said.” 

“Through this multidisciplinary workshop, I developed a huge number of skills, in particular: autonomy, creativity and responsibility. The theme was extremely enriching and captivating, and I developed new skills in particular: REX, Clickup, SMART Objectives, and so on…”

“We would like to thank Mr Rotana Ty for his commitment and availability during this multidisciplinary workshop.” 

Did you enjoy this post? Check out Future Skills.