Social media, the democratisation of knowledge and physiotherapy. Can they play nice together?

Two weeks ago I attended a teaching and learning workshop on campus that was pretty interesting. I just received an email from the coordinator highlighting the following key points that were raised:

1. Our students…experience many social problems and this could be regarded as a barrier to their learning.
2. As lecturers we have to make active use of the support structures on campus when we are constructing our curricula, which means we have to involve our librarians and the individuals in the Centre for Student Support Services and other support structures on campus in an active
   process of collaboration. This could mean that we involve these individuals in meetings, making explicit what we require from them and they will in turn make their expectations and needs explicit.
3. Lecturers mentioned that we should consider what we as teachers in higher education could do to improve the teaching and learning on campus rather than focus on the deficits that students have.
4. We need to coordinate the academic and support structures on campus so that we can provide a holistic higher education experience to our students.
5. The academic programme, support structures and social activities should add value to students’ experiences so that when they graduate they are confident, competent and independent
   thinkers.
6. We admit students with different language backgrounds and different mother tongues and we should look at ways of using this as a resource.

For me, the main benefit of attending the workshop was finding out just how many resources are available to the students. Whether or not they’ll make use of them is another story