Okay – so some of you are hiding under the desk in the opening ‘test’ – and some of the words had you holding your heads… But this form of instant revision is really important. If we do not revise what we are learning – we will forget 98% of it in just three weeks (see Tony Buzan Use Your Head)!!
Reprise – words and people to think about:
Dialogic versus dialectic
Utilitarianism
Neo-Kantianism
Positivism
Topic Mediated Dialogue
Research METHOD
Jean Luc Nancy – ‘being with’
Bakhtin – dialogic.
This week’s people and ideas:
Hobbes – we are born in war
Rousseau – we are noble savages
Illich – we need to de-school society
Peter Elbow – freewrite – develop a writing habit
Role of drawing and/or collage in thinking and in research
Role of simulation and role play in teaching and learning
Role of education in society
Multi-modality
Research methods
Literature Review.
SO GET READING!!! GET TALKING!!!
Why oh why oh why do we have to do all that reading?
As students we join in a conversation about life, the universe and everything that has already started. These ideas – these people – have been useful in helping people think about education. Now it’s your turn to think about and discuss and write about and represent these ideas. So – How do they help you understand education and what it means to be a successful educationalist?
Post-apocalypse: world-building: W0, W5, W10
So – we emerged from our bunkers and we had to re-build the world – but how? we started by drawing our worlds on the table – and then building the worlds that we wanted to see… Take away questions from the activity:
- What is the purpose of an Education System for a society?
- What is the purpose of an Education System for an individual?
- Whose interests do you think an Education System has to serve?
- What education system or strategy would you put in place – and why?
- If you had to sum up the ethos or values embraced by your perfect education strategy – what would they be?
On role plays and simulation: We like thinking about education through the medium of this role play/ simulation, centred around re-building the world post-apocalypse – BUT HOW WOULD YOU DO IT?
How would you ‘teach’ this topic – would you do it completely differently? Would you run a different simulation – or would you manage this simulation differently?
Research Project – Proposal – Methods
Many of you turned your table tops into ‘thinking art’ – with drawings, collage, notes… (and many of you used the drawings when you gave your presentations – do that again!!). WELL – there you go – you have played with another potential RESEARCH METHOD!! Those collages – your drawings – that writing = another rich METHOD that you can consider using in your Research Project.
You might be noticing by now that there are links between creative teaching methods – and creative research methods. What helps students talk and think and be with each other in meaningful ways – also helps us to elicit meaningful or interesting information or data when we are conducting research.
Research project – Proposal – Literature Review
When we conduct research – we have to read what other people have written on the topic or issue or thing that we are researching. So – if you are researching notemaking – you have to find useful articles on the role of notemaking in learning OR on student attitudes to notemaking OR do Cornell Notes help students to learn> – and so on.
If you are going to research the role of creativity in education – here are a couple of cool resources on creative educational practices – read through to be inspired about your own future practice – your own final performance – and your research project.
This is by Norman Jackson (05) ‘Making Higher Education a more creative space’:
http://uhra.herts.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/2299/2595/902905.pdf;jsessionid=B0FB143CE14B222DFA96712CA782AEF6?sequence=1
This is entitled Innovating Pedagogy – produced by the Open University (2014):
http://www.open.ac.uk/iet/main/sites/www.open.ac.uk.iet.main/files/files/ecms/web-content/Innovating_Pedagogy_2014.pdf
This is a brand new up-to-date publication on the teacher’s role in educational innovation:
http://openeducationeuropa.eu/en/paper/teacher-s-role-educational-innovation
AND – if you want a big dollop of inspiration we, your tutors, are involved with this free open online course #creativeHE – which is happening right now – and even if you don’t feel you have the time to participate – you might want to browse through some of the activities, prompts and resources:
https://courses.p2pu.org/en/courses/2615/content/5632/
UPCOMING ADVENTURES
You will be asked to present information ‘multi-modally’ when you report back on your W5 explorations
W5 you will be exploring the university as a site or various sites of learning. You will be asked to present the information that you discover back to the whole class in a multi-modal exhibition in W7.
Multi-modal means using more than one ‘mode’ – where writing is a mode – drawing is a mode – collage is a mode etc. So as you used the table tops to draw and collage and write you were being multi-modal. With your re-presentations of your findings, we will ask you to be even more radical than that – try to enjoy the challenge!!
Each group has to present their findings in a different MODE – choose one that challenges you:
Comic book
Jigsaw puzzle
Pack of cards
Marvel Comic
Song
Dance
Poem
Newspaper article
Memory envelope
Cabinet of curiosity
Short story
3D object
Pop Art
Patchwork
Something knitted or crocheted
Painting or drawing
Collage
Academic poster
Installation
Animation
First come first served!!
Confirm mode in W4 – at latest by W6.
More ways to show what you know:
http://www.teachthought.com/learning/60-things-students-can-create-to-demonstrate-what-they-know/
Good luck – we are waiting to be blown away by your wonderful exhibits!!
Postscript: Writing
A big concern for most students is academic writing – producing essays and other assignments – being assessed and judged…
That is why we ask you to write a weekly blog – not just to torture you – not just to get you actively reflecting on your learning to make the learning conscious – but also to help you to get a writing habit – for that is the best way to get better at writing (see the work of Peter Elbow).
If you are really interested in developing your own writing why not use 750-words http://750words.com/ – and/or sign up for a WRITING MONTH: http://www.hybridpedagogy.com/announcements/digital-writing-month-2015/
Becoming An Educationalist 