Redefining Resources

Otago Polytechnic Staff Development conference 2009

Russell Butson

Higher Education Development Centre

University of Otago

Theoretical Considerations

Emerging Paradigm – Barr & Tagg

Instructional ParadigmTraditional

Self-Directed ParadigmEmerging

Knowledge Transfer from faculty to students Jointly constructed by students and faculty

StudentsPassive vessel to be filled by

faculty’s knowledgeActive constructor, discoverer, transformer of own knowledge

Faculty Purpose Classify and sort students Develop students competencies and talents

RelationshipsImpersonal relationships among

students and between faculty and students

Personal transactions among students and between faculty and students

Context Competitive and individualisticCollaborative learning involving

teams and faculty

Assumptions Any expert can teachTeaching is complex and requires

considerable training

Findings

Teacher Perspective

Student Approach[consumption of information]

Student Approach[Group Presentation]

Individual students had some ‘amazing resources’ including..

– YouTube animations/videos

– Articles

– Web sites

– Research Blogs

– Research Wiki’s

Staff were actually very impressed by the quality of many of these resources....

Which raises the question...

is it the responsibility of staff to source/supply resources?

Closer investigations revealed...

In higher education the focus has been on content and the delivery of this

content to the student. Adopting this new paradigm would see us

harnessing the collective intelligence of our students to continually

improve the student experience through a more intensive interaction in

the educational process. This represents a far more complex environment

than is presently in place. Students would be viewed not as receptacles

for information but as an integral element of the construction of

knowledge. In fact, to adopt this approach is to make students an

essential part of the educational process in ways that blur the boundaries

between our traditional conceptions of teaching and learning.

The Potential of the Emerging Model

Solutions

Teacher Perspective

Where to Next...

We need to broaden our current narrow view of ‘resources’ .

Currently resources support consumption of information rather than the construction of knowledge [...they are not part of a purposeful workflow].

Resources are currently supplied by the course, but should be supplied by staff & students and be accessible from a course/paper repository.

Key Points