1. Redefining Resources
Otago Polytechnic Staff Development conference 2009
Russell Butson
Higher Education Development Centre
University of Otago

2. Theoretical Considerations

3. Emerging Paradigm – Barr & Tagg
Instructional Paradigm
Traditional
Self-Directed Paradigm
Emerging
Knowledge Transfer from faculty to students Jointly constructed by students and faculty
Students
Passive vessel to be filled by
faculty’s knowledge
Active constructor, discoverer,
transformer of own knowledge
Faculty Purpose Classify and sort students Develop students competencies and talents
Relationships
Impersonal relationships among
students and between
faculty and students
Personal transactions among students
and between faculty and students
Context Competitive and individualistic
Collaborative learning involving
teams and faculty
Assumptions Any expert can teach
Teaching is complex and requires
considerable training

4. Findings

5. Teacher Perspective

6. Student Approach
[consumption of information]

7. Student Approach
[Group Presentation]

8. Individual students had some ‘amazing resources’ including..
– YouTube animations/videos
– Articles
– Web sites
– Research Blogs
– Research Wiki’s
Staff were actually very impressed by the quality of many of these
resources....
Which raises the question...
is it the responsibility of staff to source/supply resources?
Closer investigations revealed...

9. In higher education the focus has been on content and the delivery of this
content to the student. Adopting this new paradigm would see us
harnessing the collective intelligence of our students to continually
improve the student experience through a more intensive interaction in
the educational process. This represents a far more complex environment
than is presently in place. Students would be viewed not as receptacles
for information but as an integral element of the construction of
knowledge. In fact, to adopt this approach is to make students an
essential part of the educational process in ways that blur the boundaries
between our traditional conceptions of teaching and learning.
The Potential of the Emerging Model

10. Solutions

11. Teacher Perspective

13. Where to Next...

14.  We need to broaden our current narrow view of ‘resources’ .
 Currently resources support consumption of information rather
than the construction of knowledge
[...they are not part of a purposeful workflow].
 Resources are currently supplied by the course, but should be
supplied by staff & students and be accessible from a
course/paper repository.
Key Points