20 Minute Workshops: The New Vogue?

Once again I very much enjoyed actively performing and participating for a class! I was most amazed by how much groups managed to cover in 20 minutes or so, as I came in feeling that this would likely be a big problem, and that I wouldn't take as much as I liked from the experience as the workshops were so much shorter than most I tend to see and be exposed to. However, forcing us to concentrate on the essentials really seemed to bring out the best in everyone, and while no one got terribly deep or detailed, I think I have retained most of what I learned, at least a week later. I wonder if the "20 minute workshop" might become the new vogue, in the way that having short snippets for screen casts seems to be very effective.

It was interesting to see the very wide arrange of approaches we took, especially in the participatory sections. I think my group was skewed way towards the side of open-ended discussion, where the thinking and discussing with group members was core and while we didn't come up with hard and final answers there were some very creative answers. Other groups tended more towards working with a problem that did have a correct solution which added to our knowledge, and others were in between. Overall the approach to the participation sections seemed to reflect the topics well. I guess before I get to giddy about how much fun the projects are in this class I need to keep reminding myself that we're all very polite participants and real life isn't always so devoid of lemons. Maybe we should haul in a group of disgruntled grouchy people or something to serve as audience for next time to ratchet up the discomfort level and get some practice? Because I don't have it in me to be grouchy.