2nd Campus Session (Module 1)

Summary of the 2nd Campus session for module 1

Looking at yourself through someone elses eyes
How do other people see you and your responsibility?
Seeing the familiar differently
We started off the day by looking at ourselves through someone elses eyes. Having gone in to pairs, we explored what we think the other did in terms of their job. It was very interesting to see in black and white, what someone else thinks you do. Aicha was my partner and she was very accruate in how she perceived my job as a teaching assistant but it was still a little odd to see all my duties and responsibilities in a long list. We then relflected on the fact that you can be very familiar with something (eg, your own job), but can also see it differently by listening to someone elses view of it.


Knowledge
Experience
Noticing

Next, we started to discuss 'knowledge'. What is knowledge? We decided that in order to have knowledge of something, you have to have experienced it in some way or another. Sometimes you could be experiencing something without realising that you have a knowledge of it. My own example of this was- I had been experiencing Web 2.0 for many years (through using Facebook etc), however because I had no knowledge of Web 2.0, I didn't know that I was experiencing it. We also realised that in order to have knowledge of something, you have to have noticed it. Continuing, we asked

At what point does an experience start to be something you notice?

The point being, if you don't take the time to notice an experience, you're not really gaining knowledge of it. If you don't notice an experience, the experience is meaningless.

We are being asked to start having ownership of our learning by starting to disect and reflect on the experiences we have. We can do this by starting to understand the way that we individually learn. (See reader re. Concrete, active, abstract and reflective ways of learning).

In conclusion, we were encouraged to frequently record our experiences in the form of our journals, observe our experiences by taking our time in quiet surroundings and listen to other people's point of view to help to develop our own thoughts.