it is a delight to bring you another story about “NGLS-ers in action”. Let me introduce you the brain child of a man who is not only curator and founder of the first TEDx event in Slovakia (@TEDxBratislava) but also founded, last summer, a lovely tinkering school in Bratislava. I hope you will enjoy this interview with Rastislav Geschwandtner about his motivation for doing so and all the joy around his project Kreolab. (Do not forget to check out its website for pictures and more)

  1. Why did you decide to create Kreolab?

Do you want to hear a long story or a short one Well, I guess I’ve always been fond of creativity and I consider myself as a creative person. My daughter, now 12, grew up loving arts and crafts, singing and all other kinds of self expressions. Since this is generally true for most kids, I took it for granted. But then some four years ago I came across now famous Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talk on how schools kill creativity. I realized how important creativity was in everything we do and how current education systems around to world fail to nurture this gift we are all born with. The talk had a profound effect on me and after some more research and watching several other talks on TED.com I decided to share these ideas with my community – my daughter’s teachers, other parents, friends, …  Soon after I put together a small group of volunteers and together we organized the first TEDxBratislava. The event turned out to be extremely successful. We managed to create a great forum for talks, networking and discussions about inspiring ideas of unconventional thinkers and doers. In spite of the success of the event I soon felt I have to do more than just talk about these ideas. And that’s when another TED talk showed me the way. Having watched Gever Tulley’s Teaching life lessons through tinkering I decided to run a small tinkering class as an afterschool activity in my daughter’s Primary school of Maria Montessori in Bratislava. Every Friday after school we fool around with various materials and we built stuff. We do a lot of woodworking, using saws, drill, glue guns, … We’ve managed to do a number cool projects with kids over the past year – kites, balloon powered cars, wooden toys, sculptures, bristlebots, periscopes, musical instruments, puzzles, spaghetti towers, what have you, but one thing that we somehow always lacked was time. If only we had a little more time. We often had to leave our projects unfinished for the day. That one-hour Friday afternoon class was simply not enough for any more serious project where kids could fully unleash their creativity.

After consultations with my wife and daughter we founded Kreolab – a small non-profit organization. Inspired by Gever we decided to organize a summer workshop called Skola majstrovania /Tinkering School Bratislava. When Gever Tulley came to Bratislava to speak at TEDxBratislava he stayed in our home and I learned from him that he started his Tinkering School with just a few kids in his family house. I saw it could work for us, too. My in-laws have a family house with a big garden, small woodshop and a yard with all sorts of domestic animals not far from Bratislava. It turned out be an ideal place for the workshop. Back in August last year we had 15 kids coming to the workshop in two sessions. We spent most of our time outdoor tinkering with materials and building stuff. Kids loved it. And so did we.

2. How did you ‘sell the idea’ to parents of the kids who attended? Why is it good for their child?

I explained to parents that my intention was to create an opportunity for children to design and built something large, with their own hands and their own wits, and experience the joy of discovery and skill building in the process. I wanted the kids to experience the feeling of deep satisfaction and pride for accomplishing something that they may have initially perceived as incredibly difficult or even impossible. For practical reasons I decided to approach only kids and parents from my daughter’s school. We knew each other reasonably well, so not much selling was needed. Kids loved our tinkering Fridays and were excited about the idea. Parents trusted me to create a safe environment for their kids to use sharp tools. I was really in a privileged position, because it allowed me to focus on what I wanted to do with the kids rather than on marketing and administration.

3. Did you take active part in the creative process or did you let kids to work independently?

One of the principals I learned from the Montessori education is the importance of so called “prepared environment” designed to facilitate maximum independent learning and exploration by the child. Also the role of an adult in such an environment is different from what we are used to seeing in conventional schools. The motto “Help me do it myself!” reflects kids’ need for independence and joy of learning. So, rather than giving kids detailed instructions on, for instance, how to hold a power drill and how to design and build a chair I created an environment in which it was safe for them to use the tools and experiment with available materials. Every project was presented as a challenge and an opportunity for exploration rather than a defined road to a fixed outcome. I was much more interested in kids being involved and enjoying the process than in building something specific. The whole process was very child-centric and we often completely changed our plans to accommodate for kids needs or wishes. We started with simple projects where kids could work and make discoveries on their own and gradually transitioned to more challenging projects requiring a great deal of collaboration. I encouraged kids to copy from one another if they saw an idea they liked. It helped to create a non-competitive environment and made learning more effective. The projects were also failsafe and allowing many different approaches.  For example, when kids started to build chairs they were happy to find out that as little as three blocks of wood can make a simple chair. However, by the end of the day each of them had created an elaborate throne or an armchair with bottle holders, retractable writing pads, roofs, leg rests and other cool features. All of that with a minimum adult intervention.

4. What are the plans for 2013 with Kreolab in Slovakia? Any plans to take it internationally?

Well, since Kreolab is only our leisure time activity (I’m a professional interpreter by occupation), there is only so much we can do. Rather than organizing workshops for hundreds of kids our aim is to continue experimenting with small scale workshops and share ideas on how to nurture creativity and creative thinking with hopes of inspiring others to get involved with kids in their own local communities. We are going to organize another Tinkering School Bratislava this summer, but we’ve made no specific arrangements yet. I was also approached by an enthusiastic parent in Barcelona and we are discussing bringing the tinkering experience to Spanish kids.

5. What was the most inspiring moment(s) of Kreolab?

For our last summer project we wanted to come up with an ultimate challenge for kids. We wanted them to design and build something that would require them to really unleash their creative potential, hone their building skills and test their ability to collaborate. It had to be something for which there was no preconceived idea of how the thing should look like and how it should work. My wife Jana came with an idea of building a time machine. Kids got excited and started brainstorm their ideas – a long tunnel, a cockpit for three pilots, laser beams, a system of mirrors, secret codes, … but they soon realized that they have only limited material, tools and time. It turned out that these 7 to 12 year olds were able to realistically assess their options, refine their design, come up with feasible solutions, self organize as a team, learn new required skills (soldering) on the go and build an amazing creation. It was very inspiring to see what children are capable of when you prepare a right environment and let them express themselves.

Feedback from parents was exceptionally positive, too. Some parents reported that their kids wanted cordless drills, glue guns and pocket knives for Christmas. Others were saying that their kids seemed now to take on new challenges more easily. And that was extremely gratifying.

6. Did any other NGLS-er(s) help you with launching your idea?

Yes they did. Jan Jadud (@janjadud) and Marek Rohon (@marekrohon) helped me with early versions of my website and Peter Horak donated a lot of timber and some electronic components for Tinkering School Bratislava. What’s more, Peter also trusted me with his son – a fine young tinkerer and maybe a next generation leader of Slovakia

***

Rastislav, thank you very much for your answers and for what you are doing!

- is

let’s start new year with yet another inspiring true story of NGLS-ers, who took responsibility into their hands and organised first TEDx event in Nitra. “Maturant” Michal Molcan (@molky_) with his girlfriend decided to spent their summer 2012 to put together TEDxNitra. Hear out what has Michal and his team learned from this @TEDxNitra experience.

#1 Michal, why did you decide to ship(=to organize) TEDx Nitra?

It all started a couple of months ago, when I took a part on an NGLS conference (yeah, Ivka – you’re one of my first boosts:). There I’ve met Rasto, who is one of the TEDxBratislava founder. We have been talking about TEDx and stuff and he kind of inspired me to organise my own independently organised TEDx event. I know there is a lot of conferences out there – but TEDx is somehow special. We wanted (and still want!) to bring young people experiences from people “in business”. Our goal is not to motivate, but to inspire. I guess we have succeeded with this first event.

#2 How did you build your team and who are co-organizers?

Our team is self-improving. People come, people go. Nowadays we are 4 people in the core team and we have got a few volunteers. Building a team for a non-profit event is not so easy, as it looks like. You could not act as a boss – you have got to find a way, how to communicate with people. It’s all about collaboration an initiative.

#3 What was the most delightful part of the organization process?

When things were going, as they were supposed to. What was really nice about the whole organisation, was the relationships, that were made between organisers. At first we were just people with the same interests, but then we became close friends and I am glad to have such a great people around.

#4 What was the most difficult and surprising moment during preparations?

What was surprising? Well, if you have an hour to starting a whole event and our team realise, that we don’t have any intro video (and no internet in event venue) – which is necessary – it is kind of a surprise. And when in your speaker’s keynote are not working its fonts and everything looks “mashed up” on the screen – you get +100 heartbeats in a minute and a big problem to solve. (you know what I mean).

#5 What are your hopes for possible outcome(s) for participants of TEDx Nitra?

Maybe it looks, that the TEDx is about the people, standing on a stage. Yes, they are the “building stones” of the whole event, but actually the attendees are the most important thing. We gave a platform to stories and ideas of speakers, we gave an event to people to attend and we hope, that everyone took something home from this interaction.

***

Thank you Michal for your answers.

Thank you also for being committed not only to one gig, but that you continued with TEDx Nitra Salon event in December and that you are already cooking second TEDx Nitra day full of inspiration.

Rock on.

P.S.: it absolutely fantastic that there were another two NGLS members on TEDxNitra team. That is the way to go, guys.

]]> http://ngls.sk/2013/01/tedxnitra1/feed/ 2 http://ngls.sk/2012/05/education_manifesto/ http://ngls.sk/2012/05/education_manifesto/#comments Thu, 17 May 2012 12:09:06 +0000 IvanaSendecka http://ngls.sk/?p=644 Continue reading →]]> Hello NGLS-ers,

4 weeks after our 3rd NGLS Conference here is a link for our Manifesto on Education website or you can simply enjoy our NGLS Manifesto Video.

Thank ya’ll who made NGLS 3 so memorable once in a lifetime experience.

Yours,
- is

with less than one week to go -> please get to know our last but not the least speaker of #NGLS 3 Conference: Alasdair Rawsthorne. His talk on #NGLS 3 will be about his “Lessons Learned from Mistakes in Silicon Valley.” Wohoo!

Alasdair Rawsthorne greets NGLS-ers. from NGLS on Vimeo.

We all are so exciting to meet bold doers from Slovakia!

See you on Saturday.

Watch this talk on Youtube.

See you in a week, guys!

Hey NGLSers, meet a second speaker who will hit NGLS stage and join our bold NGLS 3 squad of doers: Imanuel Goncalves. You can get an idea about Imanuel’s passion and charisma in his short clip: The Path to Fulfillment. Imanuel has confessed that he is preparing one shocking surprise for us, which will be part of his moving speech. Yey! 10 days to go…

Note that registration is open until 18th April. Secure your seat here .

- is

@SheratonBA + @LeadersSlovakia from NGLS on Vimeo.

Thanks to NGLS-ers @borissebosik for assistance with recording and “OH” for equipment.
All brave doers from Slovakia, see you in a while at NGLS 3.Yay!
– is

Hey NGLS-ers,

let me introduce you the speaker, who will talk to us as the first one on #NGLS 3 conference -> Prof. Sugata Mitra, who is the visiting professor at MIT, Media Lab, USA and is Professor of Educational Technology, ECLS at Newcastle University, UK. He is famous for his ‘The hole in the wall project” he was featured in BBC, Google Zeitgeist and other world class stages. In two weeks time we shall be welcoming this great educator on a Slovak soil. You can watch Sugata in moving pictures in his most recent clip.

For more of Prof. Sugata’s art. I encourage you to watch to of his two TED talks, bellow.

Sugata Mitra spoke at TED Global 2012 about : “Children driven education”

Sugata’s talk at LINK 2007 was posted on TED as well: “How kids teach themselves”

We are humbled and moved by the fact, that Prof. Mitra agreed to  share his wisdom with us, with NGLS-ers who carea about our little Slovakia.

See you in two weeks -> you still can register for NGLS 3 -> here.

- is

we have 18 days to go till our 3rd Annual Conference. Registration is live, wonderful venue is ready and speakers are impatiently waiting for their first contact with you, doers from Slovakia. Thanks to generous help and creative genius of a friend of NGLS -> @kristinasagan we have prepared for you NGLS 3 “sneezing* kit” ( *sneezing = spreading word). Download NGLS 3 Facebook Cover Picture, so more of your friends will know about what a great event you are going to attend or you are fan of. Go, go, go sneeze!

NGLS 3 Facebook Cover

See you soon.

- is

pred viac ako rokom sme na NGLS 2jke rozprávali aj na tému vzdelávanie. Pripomeňme si nápady a návrhy vylepšenia toho ako sa učíme od NGLSákov. Prednášku za tím, ktorý si vybral tému vzdelávanie vedie Rasťo Geschwandtner, ktorý je okrem iného kurátor a organizátor bratislavského TEDx-u.

Takto krásne sme sa zahriali na minuloročnej konferencii a teraz je čas riadne načrieť do témy vzdelávania a nadizajnovať systém, ktorý je hodný 21. storočia. Urobíme tak 21. a 22. apríla na NGLS 3jke => ak aj tebe záleži na tom ako sa učíme, tak by si tam nemal(a) chýbať.

- is