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In our last post we suggested that you had a look at Hybrid Pedagogy’s #moocmooc on Critical Pedagogy. This week they are discussing the limitations of an education system totally geared to employment – and ask whether it is possible to create educational alternatives. This is what they say: MOOC MOOC: Critical Pedagogy is a six-week exploration of critical pedagogy. During this fourth week of MOOC MOOC: Critical Pedagogy (MMCP), we will be discussing Jeffery Shantz’s essay, “Spaces of Learning: The Anarchist Free Skool” (chapter 7) in Anarchist Pedagogies and considering the impulse to dissent as seen in Thoreau’s essay […]

In UKHE a significant aspect of the work of central Educational and Learning Developers is to help university staff develop their pedagogy and their curriculum practice. We work with staff to help them become educationalists – to teach and assess more effectively – and to develop their practice to tackle emerging changes in society, in educational policy – and in the aptitudes and attitudes that they encounter in the students before them. Our work involves change: in our practices – of our resources – to our ways of thinking about teaching and learning. Change can provoke disquiet, unease and even […]

Write a brief summary of any work-related activities undertaken on 15th January 2015 and/or your nearest working day . In posting your reply, you consent to the potential use of anonymised extracts from this material in resources that may in future be published by the Association for Learning Development in Higher Education (ALDinHE), for educational and professional development purposes only. It was a day of meetings meetings meetings! I won’t go through all of them in detail but each meeting gives an insight into the things I am doing in the near future: Met with 2 colleagues who I am working with […]

So – there we were W7 – and there they were, 63 first years, giving Poster Presentations to an audience of 70+ people. They had explored ‘learning spaces’ and constructed great arguments that referenced the reading (Thornburg and Giroux) and dazzled us with their Posters, their Prezis and their animations… It was thrilling How did we reach this lofty pinnacle of academic practice? Well – a couple of weeks before the Poster Presentations we prepared text-scrolls of just two key articles with which we wanted the students to engage: Giroux’s article on lessons to be learned from Freire: http://truth-out.org/archive/component/k2/item/93016:lessons-to-be-learned-from-paulo-freire-as-education-is-being-taken-over-by-the-mega-rich And […]

The apocalypse is over – we struggle out of our bunkers into the forlorn landscape. All is dust, rubble, destruction – and we have been tasked with world building: What world would you build? How do you ensure everybody is housed, in good health and well fed? How will your world run? How will you educate people? What laws might be needed? What are we talking about? Simulations and role plays Learning is intellectual and cognitive – learning is also embodied and emotional. Arguably, successful learning is active whole body learning. To facilitate whole body learning, we have devised a […]

Last week we met our new students – typically faced with lecture theatres full of unknown faces – exuding anxiety – or hiding their stress behind faces of studied nonchalance – or boredom – or both! Adrenalin and cortisol levels were flying high – everybody’s brains shrank to the size of a pea and panic ensues as we realise that we have forgotten everything – remembered nothing – impostors all. So – the Take5 question for us was, could we find a different way to introduce a module that did not involve us telling and the students forgetting everything we […]

Welcome to Take5! So – it’s Week Zero (W0): another day another dollar; another Semester and another Year.  Change is all around and we can’t help noticing doing Inductions and Preparation for Study courses how things move on. Buildings, rooms, modules, staff and of course students – all moving – all changing – and all diverse. ‘Diverse’ could be a prefix for London Met – and no matter what sort of student you have taught before – it’s all changing again. Everybody is already exhausted and wondering where the summer went … and here we are – the Take5 project – […]

Write a brief summary of any work-related activities undertaken on 15th November 2014 and/or your nearest working day . In posting your reply, you consent to the potential use of anonymised extracts from this material in resources that may in future be published by the Association for Learning Development in Higher Education (ALDinHE), for educational and professional development purposes only. My day:I work as a Learning Advisor at Leeds University Library (Skills@Library team). Yesterday was my first almost “clear” day of the semester where I had no teaching and only 1 meeting! In the morning I had a meeting with a […]

Write a brief summary of any work-related activities undertaken on 15th October 2014 and/or your nearest working day . In posting your reply, you consent to the potential use of anonymised extracts from this material in resources that may in future be published by the Association for Learning Development in Higher Education (ALDinHE), for educational and professional development purposes only. Ella Hi all,It has been really interesting reading some of the other posts on here- thank you!Sorry I have been meaning to do a diary entry since my colleague sent this through to me. As per usual with the winter term- […]

On the 8th of September, the University of Bedfordshire hosted a regional group for learning developers based in and around the Eastern region. This report by the organiser Steve Briggs provides an overview of the day. The event was promoted via the LDHEN JISCmail list, and attended by 16 delegates representing 8 Universities: University of Bedfordshire University of East Anglia University Campus Suffolk Anglia Ruskin University Birkbeck, University of London University of the Arts, London University of the Creative Arts Nottingham Trent University The morning included opportunities to network and to compare the  ways in which Learning Development (LD) is […]