What is Experiential Learning and Where Can We Find That in Singapore?

Artwork by Make The Change

Exhausted the cafe-hopping list? Here's an alternative activity to consider.

As Helen Keller puts it, the best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, for they must be felt with the heart. Experiential learning pulls us in to understand this a little better.

Imagine the sound of sunshine. Try imagining the sound of sunlight.

What does sunlight sound like?

What does sunlight feel like?

What does sunlight taste like?

To some, sunlight sounds like the crisp chirping of sparrows. Sunlight feels like newly-washed bedsheets and taste like maple syrup on fresh pancakes. There is so much more beauty to the things around us that we give credit for.

An interesting approach, experiential learning enables us to enter into the world of another in ways more than one. It allows us to step into the frame of another’s life and see things from a particular point of view, for us to see the true ability in dis-ability.

By going into the world of another, we are taking our first step to discovering meaning and perhaps, a milestone as a changemaker.

In a bid to introduce different worlds, a handful of social enterprises focus on experiential learning in Singapore today. We had the honour to work with one of them for one of our social media marketing workshops in 2016. Dialogue In The Dark (DIID) is a special space that uses experiential learning to re-introduce sight. Their tour guides invite guests to drive on the road less taken and embark on journeys in complete darkness.

Looking for something new to do on weekends? Try having your dominant senses flipped over.