Near Future Teaching, notes on report

The report highlights many ideas that I agree with, such as the fact that ‘education should not be treated like a commodity’ and ‘should encourage creative thought’. However, even if I fully agree with these ideas, I do not think that these ideas are supported by management since in my school programmes are valued not for their pedagogical achievement but through the number of overseas students we recruit.

I also believe that ‘one-to-one experiences between students and staff should be supported’, the reality however is that we are short-staffed and have a lot of admin. It is therefore difficult to find time for one-to-one meetings with students.

I wished this report was fully backed-up by management and there were enough human resources (staff) to make this happen!

I also agree that technology is a very important part of teaching now but that ‘too much technology can threaten well being’ for staff and for students. I teach time management to my students and emphasise the importance of taking break and not working at weekends, etc. But the University as a whole does not particularly emphasise this message or rather it does but in practice things are very different!

I believe in all of the values highlighted in the report: ‘experience over assessment’, ‘diversity and justice’, ‘relationship first’, ‘participation and flexibility’ although as mentioned earlier we do not have the human resources necessary to engage with this fully. Also our cohort of students have a very different learning background (mostly Chinese) and some of the values clash with what they have been taught at home. It makes our jobs very difficult in terms of ‘participation’ and ‘creative thought’.

The 6 aspects of 1) community focused, 2) post digital, 3) data fluent, 4) assessment oriented, 5) playful and experimental 6) boundary challenging also sound amazing. My favorite ones are more emphasis on contact time, redefining what it means to be ‘here’, diversifying assessment practice (blogs, videos, audios, etc.) and focus on ‘exceptional learning experiences rather than assessment and performance’

I look forward to a future in which we can integrate them all without having to work 70h a week!