Upload
graham-jeffery
View
9.199
Download
1
Tags:
Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
Presentation for the UWS learning and teaching conference given on 23rd June 2011. For some notes and thoughts as a follow up to this, please visit http://generalpraxis.blogspot.com
Citation preview
Reinventing higher education for a networked age
Graham JefferyReader, School of Creative and
Cultural Industries
different metaphors/histories of the university
Cloister/ walled garden/retreat? Community of scholars? Repository of knowledge? Liberal arts curriculum with roots in Classical civilization
higher education after the industrial revolution
University as knowledge/skills producer for an industrial economy?
e.g. Strathclyde motto: “Useful knowledge”
19th C industrial/vocational/utilitarian tradition
Public service/private industry: contested terrain
vocationalism and critical thinking
Functional metaphors of higher education: university as factory, university as technopole, university as training provider
large knowledge factories produce alienated subjects – ‘rehumanisation’ needed?
the rise and rise of mass higher education
technical colleges reinvented as universities
the ‘polyversity’?ever widening range of
demands – teaching, research, business/community engagement, knowledge exchange
the ‘popular university’?
University as ‘validation machine’Certification, validation,
assessmentTension between propositional
knowledge and procedural knowledge (“know what” and “know how”)
Knowledge is contested, multidimensional, situated, dynamic
Students want ‘degrees with value’
Universities as places to codify, classify and sort knowledge: the authority to award degrees
models of pedagogybeyond provider-consumer
relationshipsindustrial/factory metaphors and
functional thinking – but the growth of ‘network enterprise’ supersedes a production line model: multidisciplinary teams in workplaces and communities
student as producerhow is knowledge generated?
How does innovation work? How do we need to adapt?
creativity as guiding metaphor for 21st century learning
The informational university
Information systems and knowledge management
Procedures to manage large scale educational systems across multiple sites – efficiency, effectiveness, accountability, feedback
Functional thinking and metaphorical thinking
The risks of being risk averse and wasting time – questions of professional judgement and responsiveness
Need to encourage sharing and open-ness: making space for innovation/experiment and promoting ‘quality’
(Hornsey College of Art, 1968)
2011: the networked university?
Increasingly porous institutions
Enabling collaboration? Interdisciplinary problem-
solving should be a major theme given interconnected challenges for societies/communities/businesses
Re-imagining the universityBuilding exchange between communities
of practice inside/outside the organisation
Developing tools to work in transdisciplinary ways: tensions between ‘deep subject knowledge’ and applied knowledge?
Bringing fields of study together in innovative ways? Who decides? What are the risks/constraints?
RESOURCING collaboration and partnership: technologies are part of the answer but not the whole answer
time. space. resources.physical infrastructure
(buildings, resources)
human infrastructure (networks, communities,
groups)
digital infrastructure(web, media, platforms)
…how this is designed at the level of modules, programmes, schools etc creates ‘learning architecture’…
where does learning take place?
What is a campus for?Where is ‘the classroom’?How do we access learning?
How do we learn?Where is ‘the university’
anyway?How do students and staff
access and experience our “learning communities”?
the relational university?‘Quality’ in education boils
down to the quality of relationships between members of the learning community:
– trust, confidence, support, communication, good systems, good resources, good use of time.
Relational forms of knowledge construction (Bernstein, Illich, etc.)
Return to ethical questions about purpose/value
www.twitter.com/UWScreative
uwscreative.wordpress.com
www.uwsmediaacademy.com
generalpraxis.blogspot.com