' Help people to
determine how to learn on their own ‘ is one of Noam Chomsky’s concepts of
education that really resonated with me as ultimately we are wanting our
students to become lifelong learners beyond the course materials we provide.
Chomsky also termed the
need of ‘learning for tomorrow’ and the importance as educators to keep up to
date with the ever changing technology and pedagogy trends available for both
teaching and learning.
This is a really
interesting topic and I could see straight away the importance of utilizing
technologies and trends that complement our educational sector of Veterinary
Nursing.
After watching both Grainne Conole and Noam Chomsky’s presentations one of the concepts I really took on
board is when students are given the opportunity of learning in real world
situations, they tend to become more engaged and motivated which will led to
further self-directed learning and even collaboration with peers.
This is something that
I believe we do quite well within the Veterinary Nursing School. Our full time
students based in Dunedin now have a functioning Veterinary clinic which they
can learn side by side with our wonderful staff, and distance students are
required to complete practise hours in a local Veterinary clinic of their
choice where they get to work and learn alongside a Veterinary clinic team. This
gives the students many opportunities to be involved in real life situations
and a number of our unit assessments are based around these, for example US
5191 admitting and discharge the students need to complete a case study report
on an animal that they have helped discharge to a client.
What I believe could
work really well for some of our units like the one listed above is for our
students to complete a formative reflection e-portfolio before the submission
of their summative assessment. This would help them to identify and breakdown
the whys and how’s of what is happening which can help to reinforce
underpinning knowledge. Comments can be provided by the lecturers to help guide
the student with their reflections around the topic but the mode in which they
submit their reflection could be entirely determined by the student eg – audio,
written or video just to name a few. This could also work well as peer
collaboration where they can ask and discuss directly with one another about
their experiences. Confidentiality of clients and Veterinary clinics is
paramount so this portfolio would need to be set up as invitation only and have
some very clear guidelines provided to the students about content.
I think this fits well
within the flexibility continuum as students can access and work through their
reflections about a topic when and how they choose. They have the autonomy to
structure the portfolio however they wish however there would still be a time
restriction within the programme to make this work as a formative assessment.
References:
Chomsky, N. (2012). http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/03/13/noam-chomsky-on-the-purpose-of-education/
Conole, G. (2013). http://play.op.ac.nz/video/09-October-2013-Polytech-Keynote---2/ee39bf8a34a068cf717cca8068cbb841
Navigating Digital landscapes]. Otago Polytechnic.
Hegarty,
B. (2012). ePortfolios – getting to the
nuts and bolts. Prepared for flexible learning 2012. Retrieved from http://www.myplick.com/view/0tvI1ZlEeKQ/
Image retrieved from https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaNdq_c9SDlMw7aAJeoO4mQUjFKSZk45sB6r3WYS-gE-QUlwpGUE-Ul7vqJJQs4PjUw_J9vGbBJGPEIeO58RMDVkEBR4uP53wYZBK7io7Mk0e3iT5aBoL7KzmYHvYW3O2eF9lIinyKLwg/s400/Cat-Lookin-In-Mirror-01.jpg.(Nov
25 2013)
