Report on Kristian Sund's workshop

Attendance, Employability and Learning Technologies: Are we getting it right?
Kristian Sund

Kristian Sund, Middlesex University

Kristian, Senior Lecturer in Strategic Management in the Business School, had carried out a survey among final year undergraduate students and presented the findings as a starting point for discussion in this workshop. Low student attendance was evident to Kristian and with this study he wanted to explore some of the reasons students may have for this, and how the use of learning technologies may contribute to high or low class attendance levels.

Are our graduates ready for employment – or not? Based on to Kristian’s study, corporations expect graduates to have the soft skills, e.g. communication, interpersonal skills, team working skill etc. required for work when they start their job. So how will students further develop these important life skills during their time at university with low or even no attendance? If the attitude with some students is that there is no need to attend a class when you can down load all the materials then are we therefore making it too easy for our students to avoid attending?

What can academics, many of whom are ‘Digital Immigrants’ do in supporting these ‘Digitally Native’ students when using learning technologies and at the same time encouraging attendance? This workshop echoed some of Steve Wheeler’s keynote discussion, in particular, the development of a facilitator role for lectures where the boundaries of expert and novice are blurring?

Findings of this interesting study could not offer definite conclusions or solutions but it raised many important questions for all those working in HE. It also highlighted the worrying trend of low student engagement in their studies - and created some passionate viewpoints and discussion in the workshop.

Thank you Kristian – carry on the good work with your students!

Pirkko Harvey
National Centre for Project Management
Middlesex University

Report on Mike Howarth's workshop

The Self-Editor: A strategy for improving reflective writing.

Mike was inspired to create his self-editor ‘tool’ to help students who come to writing tasks as part of their studies having little or un-practiced writing skills. His own students were often submitting first assignments with poor writing but very valuable content.

His aim is to help students with the process of “externalising the internal mish-mash of story and experiences”.

The editing process

The self-editor process is based on a light touch ‘tricks of the trade’ approach to help structure content, rather than a more formal academic writing, or ‘basic skills’ approach.

Mike touched on some underlying concepts; the brain searches for clues (patterns) in words, chaining and linking (key words) and computer navigation (via text).

The session was enlivened with Mike’s ‘thole’ and other props in an effort to portray The Experiential Metaphorical Concept. The group were also immersed in an individual editing task, which included as one of the steps, the active process of walking around.

References: Chapman, 1987, p.83, Lakoff and Johnson, 1980, p.19

See information on The Self Editor at: www.mhmvr.co.uk

Louise Merlin
e-Learning Development
Middlesex University