Being a student again!

Recently I was at a conference, I attended the event along with colleagues from different educational environments and subject backgrounds, we were all interested in this particular conference theme. The theme of the conference was ‘interdisciplinary studies’ at this event we explored how subjects can work together, complement each other, be studied side by side and add value for students along the way and the educators involved!

I so enjoyed being a student again at the event, attending sessions, making notes and capturing my thoughts on the sessions and then getting to talk about them in breaks. I had several takeaways from the event that I wanted to reflect on and share. One of these takeaways was a theme that really emerged from the event, this notion that broad study helps students become more rounded, more able to work flexibly, improve organisational skills, be more open minded, increase their analytical and problem solving skills and be more aware of their own self-development.

In one of the sessions I attended (which was run by students) they shared a visual of the ‘T-Shaped Student’, exploring the skills and attitudes and the depth of learning. I understand the image came out of a JISC Conference in 2015 and was created by Bryan Mathers (find out more about his work here) I really liked the image and what it is conveying.

This session helped me to reflect and consider that when I am designing, creating, writing or supporting curriculum I should ensure that I support this notion of a rounded student and help to promote it further. That might be the ways I construct the curriculum, or deliver it, bring in tools like Flipped Learning, or refer out to the plethora of MOOCs and short online free courses that are available to bolster study and of course exploring how sites like Twitter help us take the conversation on learning, sharing our thoughts to help build a learning community taking it outside the boundaries of the classroom.

I so enjoyed my time as a student again, learning for the joy of learning, and finding ways and places for my new knowledge to take root and grow!

Picture credits go to Bryan Mathers to find out more follow this link https://bryanmmathers.com/the-t-shaped-student/