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

OK, so I’ve been back for a few weeks now and have had a little bit of time to gather my thoughts regarding the HESS conference, and thought I’d make a note of some of the highlights from my limited perspective.  If anyone from the conference feels that I’m way off the mark, feel free to drop me a line.

One of the key themes that emerged was the idea that research should be taken down off of it’s pedestal and integrated into the curriculum as a functional, useful and exciting aspect of teaching and learning.  Dr Angela Brew established this idea in the first keynote of the first day.  That research should not be seen purely as a series of steps to be undertaken in the lofty towers of higher education, but should rather be seen as an integral part of teaching and learning.  The phrases “research-based learning” and “inquiry-based learning” cropped up regularly over the three days.

This idea that research should become part of the curriculum, rather than something tacked on, moved the conversation into another strong theme, that of the “scholarship of teaching and learning”.  In order to teach in your field, it’s no longer enough to merely know your subject.  The move towards evidence-based practice doesn’t only apply to our own niche fields, but should be applied equally strongly in how we approach the way we teach.  The concept of “communities of practice” came through strongly in this realm.

Martin Oliver’s keynote negotiated the fine line between technology in education as an all-powerful saviour, and a potentially misleading mindset that puts the technology, rather than pedagogy, first.  While e-learning was generally lauded as a powerful tool, enthusiasm should be tempered with optimistic caution.  With technology changing so quickly, it seems that a predominant focus on the tools themselves, rather than pedagogy, will be met with failure.

There were a few presentations I attended that urged educators to become more aware of students social lives, which came with evidence of the fact that they are not always as we imagine them to be.  Realising that students often have significant difficulties in almost every aspect of their personal lives can (and should) change how we relate to them.  As educators, we should understand that not only do we bring our own personalities and quirks into the higher education space, but so do our students.

Here are the notes I took while at HESS 2008:

Summary of HESS 2008 (OpenDocument format)
Summary of HESS 2008 (MS Word format)

Day 2 of the HESS conference is over.

I gave my presentation first thing this morning and it seemed to go down well.  A few people had some nice things to say, which is always nice to hear.  Sometimes I think I’m so far behind what other people are doing, then you get a day like today when you realise that we’re all just trying to figure things out as we go along and that we all have a lot to learn from each other.

I think it’s a pity that we’re not doing more together.  I’m not saying that everyone should be doing the same thing, but there’s a lot of overlap where we could share ideas, discuss what’s worked, in what contexts and with which students.  I had a few very interesting conversations with people who are struggling with some of the same issues in their departments, that we have in ours.  I hope that these conversations will continue over time and that we can begin building relationships between our higher education institutions that continue to evolve and grow long after this conference is over.

Today I was lucky enough to see the following presentations:

• Keynote: Pandora’s box, cornucopia or Trojan horse? The introduction of technology in higher education
• What do our institutional leaders perceive as e-learning success?
• Creating a true community of academic practice through research based learning
• The implementation of technology-enhanced problem based learning methodology in geographically dispersed learners
• The challenges of teaching anatomy for a kinesiology context
• Teaching sociology.  What am I doing?

All in all, today’s presentations were extremely thought provoking and at the very least, interesting.  There wasn’t one presentation where I left disappointed.

I mentioned earlier that I’m staying at an old prison that’s been converted into a backpackers.  I thought I’d share a little something of the place I’ve called home for the past few days.  The building is a national monument, so the proprietors can’t make any changes to the structure, which sounds great but it does have it’s drawbacks.  Luckily this is the kind of place I quite like.

[View with PicLens]

So, I’m in Grahamstown for the Higher Education as a Social Space (HESS) conference that begins tomorrow and I’m staying at the Old Gaol, one of the oldest prisons in South Africa, which has been converted into a backpackers and is a national monument.

The programme for the conference looks great although as usual there are too many presentations that I really, really want to see.  I’ll be spending most of my time at the venue for the e-learning track but there are a few others that would be great to see.

I hope they’re going to record them all and make them available online to registered participants, which not many organisers do and is something I can’t for the life of me understand.  They know it’s impossible to attend all the presentations, because we haven’t quite figured out bilocation, yet often they won’t even make the audio available for download.

To combat this, I’m taking a stand against the madness and making my presentation available here, for your viewing pleasure.  Consider it your own very small part of the HESS conference.  I tried to make it a little different from the standard Powerpoint presentation, which I find very difficult to sit through.  Having said that, I haven’t quite found my own style, so I guess it’s a work in progress.  There are notes for each slide, which contain all the detail.  Basically, exactly what I’m going to say.  I’m not quite confident enough to wing it.

Click here to download the article: The use of ICT by South African physiotherapy students

Note (03/12/08): I’ve since found out that the conference organisers are making the presentations available, but alas, no audio or video

I just found out that the abstract I submitted for the Higher Education as a Social Space conference has been accepted.  I’ll be presenting a paper on the use of ICT by physiotherapy students
in South Africa, based on the results of my masters thesis.

The conference will take place in Grahamstown from the 30 November to the 03 December and will include the following themes:

• Institutional development (including quality management and enhancement)
• Curriculum in higher education (including teaching, learning and assessment)
• Academic staff development
• Student development
• Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in teaching and learning

Obviously my main interest is in the use of ICTs in teaching and learning, but I’m hoping to attend a few presentations looking at curriculum in HE.