Balance: this is the word that springs to mind when thinking about how to become a more sustainable practitioner.
A balance of lots of things:
- individual sustainability
- for me
- knowing how much flexibility and availability for all and sundry is sustainable for me, and what is not. Covered this before.
- working out and implementing ways of being more sustainable requires input for course development
- using existing ideas and OPEN EDUCATION RESOURCES to manage these new requirements
- for students
- thoughts from the article around over-lenght course materials and disengagement of learners
- being careful that if material is added to a course that it is accessible, readable, engaging, relevant, achievable and therefore sustainable for learners.
- this excerpt from Lockwood rang true - and I think this is a reality of too many options and resources. Just overwhelming, rather than helpful. A down side of offering too many choices for how to learn???
"Furthermore, studies elsewhere have demonstrated that students employ a cost benefit analysis model (Lockwood, 1992) as they balance the benefits offered by the various course components against the costs they are likely to incur. The consumption of study time is regarded as a major cost. The skipping of set readings, and failure to respond to associated activities, to contribute to discussion boards, and to ignore whole parts of the course in an attempt to save time, not only detracts from both the scope of their learning and its quality but also contributes to feelings of inadequacy. It results in a poor learning experience." Lockwood, 2005
- local sustainability
- reducing consumables in teaching(eg using recyclable scrub brushes, recycling practise bandaging materials)
- providing alternative resources like media files rather than the real deal, to limit repeated use of resources (eg post-mortem video cf dead animal)
- global sustainability
- balancing how much we can do, with the realities of living in 2012 - does knowing the big picture just make it too hard and cause disengagement? (eg carbon and tipping point issues; peak oil and energy constraints)
In my view sustainable learning is largely based around the idea, that rather than providing all the answers and ticking all the boxes of every concept and detail (whether this be around traditional sustainability or educational susstanability), that we produce graduates that can problem solve: they know where to get the information, or how to look for information AND then can critique what they find. Life-long learners.
Happily, it seems that my institution is of a similar thinking...
"Education for Sustainability at Otago PolytechnicThe skills and values of Otago Polytechnic graduates contribute to every sector of society. Our curriculum, teaching and learning therefore is pervasive and influential with global impact. The Otago Polytechnic sustainability vision is that our graduates, our practitioners and our academics understand the concepts of social, environmental and economic sustainability in order for them to evaluate, question and discuss their role in the world and to enable them to make changes where and when appropriate. Our goal is that every graduate may think and act as a “sustainable practitioner”."So that the learner bit, and the me bit (as I don't have to spend loads of time to do this. It's about enabling learners for the long term).The global bit - personally, I believe we are completely done for, and it won't matter what we do from now... too much carbon released and we've passed the tipping point. The world will implode, and look VERY different to how we know it currently. But that's another whole story. A bleak one at that...Try reading Michael Lynos', "6 Degrees" - very depressing stuff.
3. My reflections about sustainability having viewed the presentations and completed the readings...
I thought that Sir Ken's pressie was awesome and every word of it true. Loved the idea that we only educate the waist up and that gets progressively higher up with age... that the body is just a means to move the head around... that education has mined our minds for academic learning only... Love it, every word. Funny guy.
A fabulous post Helen. The quote from Fred Lockwood says it all really, and many teachers are overly concerned with stuffing students full of content. So yes they practice avoidance and probably learn those skills better than the more important skills of problem-solving and exploration and critical thinking.
ReplyDeleteAs an organisation, Otago Polytechnic is contributing to global sustainability by contributing open education resources to the global community. A small amount is done already, and it is great that plans are afoot to up the ante on this. For every video we source on Youtube, we should give back to the community - a bit like planting trees to help our carbon footprint.
You have inspired me to read the book six degrees. It is Mark Lynas by the way as I discovered when looking for the book in the Dunedin Public library catalogue.
Yes I agree, we have to help students to learn with their whole being if they are going to engage. I like the idea of recording things like post mortems so you can proudly say: "no animals were harmed in the making of the movie". Years ago (in the early 90s) when I worked in Zoology at the uni, we started using videos of dissections mainly for the conscientious objectors. It seems 'old hat' now but at the time, teachers believed that you could not learn these skills unless you got up to your neck in blood and gore. Well the smell is enough to put a lot of people off, so I am glad things have changed. Fewer animals need to be killed, and it is more cost-effective for sure.
What one thing do you think you can do immediately to offer more holistic learning opportunities to your students - less intellectual if adhering to Ken Robinson's suggestions?
I have the book if you'd like to borrow it??
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