Reflection: Method of Loci

I struggled with this process. That shouldn’t be the case, I’m a visual person, so this should come easy for me, but somewhere in the intricate wiring of my mind, my brain drifts off into the need to decorate the areas that I’m visualizing. The Method of Loci is based on the idea that you will be able to remember places that you are familiar with, so by linking something you need to remember with a place that you know very well, the location will serve as a clue that will help you to remember. Unless you are me, and my mind gravitates towards ceiling beams, shiplap walls, and interior color. I sat in the floor, like an ancient yogi, while my husband read Activity 5 out loud to me, while attempting to visualize doorways, windows, and features of my favorite room in my house. I said to myself, “you just need to relax,” “take a deep breath, or ten, and count backwards.” Now try again, just relax and visualize. Somewhere between the chaos of a world where people are jaunting out their front doors in the hopes of buying the last roll of toilet paper on the shelves at Kroger, I can’t seem to get into a blank enough head space to connect the pieces of this process together. So I sat down, and I mapped out flow charts and grids, to help me focus on the task at hand. In my attempt to do this, I came to the conclusion that the front door is represented by the concepts of learning, which encompass the notions of access for all students, learner centered, engagement, and a vast wealth of knowledge at your fingertips. This doorway represents the entry to online learning, and things that must be present, in order to bring validity and purpose to the process. The next step is in visualizing the second familiar feature, which is at the end of my entry hallway, opposite the front door. Seated at the dining table are the teachers, and seated at the sofa, are the students. The dining table represents a platform for serving up the various “offerings”, and in this case it is information. The sofa represents those that are waiting to be served. The teachers at the table, have wasted their efforts to “serve” if they don’t have students who enjoy what is being “offered.” As the students approach the table with the teachers, they look closely at each serving platter, which contains the goals that each party wants to receive. Goals such as, accessibility to current technology, an engaged community, valued feedback, challenge and growth, and relevant content, are all filling the table, and both students and teachers look contented by the students filling their plates. In the kitchen, are the chefs, cooking up new methods of using the technology, to create new dishes for the students and teachers to learn from. There is a symbiosis in this scenario, where we are all interdependent on each other, to use technology in new and innovative ways, to solve problems, answer questions, serve one another, and overcome boundaries that previously held us back. I will continue to practice this method, and as the world finds its way back to a state of normalcy again, I believe that this will get easier for me.