Sustainability
in Education
Activity
6
To Sustain
- In music, sustain is the length of time a sound continues after
the input energy stops. The toll of a bell happens with the strikes of the
clapper, and the sustain is what we hear as the sound decays.
So taking
what we do in our education field (our Impact) and seeing it continue(the
momentum).
If we are
teaching a philosophy of a way of learning and working it should be able to
continue long after we have delivered it.
In our automotive
programs we continue to develop our educational material resources so they can
sustain future students learning and be measured against the requirements of
the industry.
Such as;
Ø Use of Moodle and on-line resources
for material delivery and learning
Ø Very little printing
Ø Reusing of workshop parts and equipment
Ø Morale responsibilities ( Volunteering
Days)
Ø Environmental Impact ( waste
products recycled)
To go to
another level on this last item would be to develop an article or documentary on
the way that the big car companies have policy to take back their end of life
vehicles and recycle the materials into parts for the new models.
When I am
teaching, the strategies I use to highlight sustainability are” Best Practise Demonstrations”
showing the effect of quality workmanship and using open discussion around the effects
of not living up to this expectation. In industry this equals returning
customers that are happy with the service and have peace of mind in the fact
that the business they support takes their social, environment impact seriously.
Key Learning Areas
- Self understanding- developing sustainability values
and ethics; developing an ecological identity and sense of place;
developing a personal educational and leadership philosophy
- View of the world- understanding sustainability issues
as interconnected, holistic, and relational; developing systems thinking;
understanding and valuing the importance of multiple perspectives
- Relationships- developing strategies for working with
diverse groups to affect change; understanding how power, privilege and
justice impact relationships; developing sustainability networks and
partnerships
- Tools for change- developing a toolkit for enacting
sustainable change; gaining tools for educating for sustainability;
developing leadership skills.
While
working through this module I have thought about how we incorporate the four
actions promoting student learning. And I feel we are strong in all of these
areas, but giving the time to reflect on our course and we would find some room
for improvement.
· Cooperative Learning - An interactive model for teaching and learning. More
than working in groups, it is a process requiring guided facilitation.
- Workshop tasks and demonstrations
· Inquiry Learning - An holistic,
integrated approach to teaching and learning, raising questions to investigate
and taking action for a sustainable future.
- Research projects
· Experiential Learning - Developed through personal experience, guided
reflection and learning conversations.
- Work experience
- During class time and before assessments
References
Another thought-provoking and interesting discussion about the topic explained so well in your context. You have answered my question in the previous post about co-operative learning.
ReplyDeleteHave you considered getting students to engage in problem-based learning or actual mini projects?
For experiential learning you could also add the practical activities in the workshop - couldn't you?
Another area to consider is how an inquiry learning and cooperative learning contributes to a sustainable learning environment. One thing that can happen - if it is organised well - is that students contribute resources to the learning space. To do this they do need to access open resources and share them in an open environment. OER - Open Education Resources.
How would this appeal to your learners do you think?
This is more sustainable because it reduces both students' and lecturers' workloads when sharing resources. The teachers don't have to create everything, and the students don't have to find or read everything. Energy and frustration is saved.
Do you have a mechanism for students to share resources that they are discovering together?
- Perhaps an open wiki page could be used to compile resources?
- A facility that others' in this class are trying out is called Lino it.
- Storify is a useful platform for mobile devices -
- Pinterest - a place to collect images of interest from websites
- using blogs with students can also develop a series of useful resources - just like you are all doing in this course.
I really like your idea "to develop an article or documentary on the way that the big car companies have policy to take back their end of life vehicles and recycle the materials into parts for the new models." This could be done as a podcast - video or audio with some writing or even with images and text. Fabulous. I hope you do it.