Activity 10- Sustainability

Through reading the article from Lockwood (2005), a number of points resonated with me about my teaching and the course I am looking at. The nature of DFO as a paper has highlighted the issue with workload- for both the student and lecturer.   

In attempting to learn about all conditions/diseases/ disorders a practitioner may face, we have ‘crammed’ more and more info into the course (once described as an 'overstuffed sausage').  Excessive workload will ‘tax, and eventually drain’(Lockwood, 2005, p. 6) people involved.  To be sustainable, staff must free up their time resources for development and investment in supports. In 2013, a new repackage of the course has allocated directed time, directed unsupervised and self directed time depending on credits so in itself, this will be sustainable in terms of workload.

 

On an environmental note: In Hamilton, we have struggled to provide/ set up services for recycling- we would like to implement a system however have struggled with the logistics of this.   I enjoyed re reading the Otago Polytechnic sustainability policy- I did not know about the Poly bikes but will look for them next time I am in Dunedin.

The  Education Swirl- ‘Education for Sustainability’, looks at the economic, socio- cultural- political and also environmental aspects of education for sustainability.  Collaboration and consultation are identified in the economic swirl strand.  We can and will be having more interactions with practitioners for knowledge and data gathering for DFO.  Also, increasing students reflective thinking around the case studies and how the occupations might be effected for a person needs to be increased.

My simplified philosophy (no pontification here just yet!) around sustainability is around 1. reducing wastage and 2. Utilising skills and knowledge of practitioners so not to reinvent the wheel (time, energy, money, resources). 

With the plan to stop photocopying a 100 page book of articles relating to conditions for the students, this in itself will be a decrease in use of paper.  With the plan to use videos online and also have the template of the ‘Process of learning about disease and disorder’ also online for students to complete, this will also decrease wastage.

Students are encouraged to bring a laptop to class as opposed to printing out materials- although this can be cost prohibitive for some students.  Maybe with work online, students do not need to always come into classes each week.  There can be a change in structure of the course into block teaching...

Through the use of case studies and practitioners knowledge, students have the ability to learn from others- saving time and energy on researching themselves- but also leading to inquiry based learning (also sustainable) with material learnt.  Otago Polytechnic has a clause based on students completing work before coming to class and being lectured to- the OT school has a blended learning package for delivery so adheres to this. 

(I have caught the bus to work and also recently purchased an apartment close to work so I can walk into the city campus -if I choose to and it is not raining here in Hamilton!).