I have been looking forward to the start of the new semester at the University of Canberra.
I really enjoy the opportunity to have face to face meetings with students. Yesterday I met a group enrolled on an Australian Sports System unit. Most of the 220 students on the unit were at the first meeting.
I am extremely sensitive to personal differences in learning environments and am acutely aware that a lecture theatre is not everyone’s choice. I smiled when I saw this chair in the lecture theatre:
which takes the notion of a captive audience to an extreme.
I have been thinking about this first meeting for over a month.
As with all my sporting experiences, I arrived at the room very early (there was no preceding use of the room).
I made sure the projector was working and as usual I played some classical music through the speakers for any students who arrived early.
I had shared two versions of my presentation with the group through the University’s Moodle platform. I used the second of these to suggest a problem based approach to understanding the Australian Sports System.
The session lasted 40 minutes which was longer than I anticipated.
Every time I present to an audience, I think I am talking with my family. This makes every opportunity personal for me as everyone in the audience is loved by their family and I feel extremely fortunate that I have access to that.
I was delighted that two students in the class were from Braidwood and that they were able to say hello in person.
I liked the noise as the group was leaving and, as with every time I meet students, I thought about how to blend the collective with the personal.
I see immense opportunities to transform education by supporting personal learning environments and to celebrate this personalisation with moments of being part of a group (real and virtual).
Hi Keith I would have liked to have been present as your talks are always interesting no doubt it would have been a great introduction to the unit and UC for the students.
Many thanks.
John D.
Thank you, John. You gave me the opportunity to do this.
Keith
I too have had the privelege of feeling the transformational energy in face to face meetings with students. Especially at the beginning of a new pathway to knowledge. I enjoyed your narrative Keith.
🙂