Community action + knowledge exchange: community engagement within and beyond the undergraduate curriculum

NCCPE/HE-STEM Workshop 1 March 2012

Nick Plant

University of the West of England, Bristol

Objectives

• Summarise academic context• Present a vignette of “Consultancy Project”• Identify and analyse outcomes for students,

clients and academics• Optionally explore other forms + developments• Stimulate discussion and critique

Background/interests/roles• Community and voluntary sector practitioner• SL Information Systems –> Information Science• Practice education in and around the curriculum– BA Systems Analysis, BA Business Information Systems

(historically)– BSc Information Technology Management for Business,

BSc Web Design and others (now)• Faculty Leader of Teaching & Learning Projects• UWE Learning & Teaching Fellow• AHoD (Student Experience), CSCT Department

Multiple forms of community engagement/ work-based learning

• …ie episodes of experiential learning in external real world situations that contribute to the student experience

• …include, in my world:-– embedded + accredited project modules– embedded + non-accredited placement modules– “Professional Practice” WBL module– student community volunteering– community action + knowledge exchange (CAKE)

Modes of real world experience/WBL – a spectrum

Curriculum Embedded

ExtraCurricular

Curriculum Associated

“Community Action + Knowledge Exchange: proving the concept, critiquing the pedagogy”UWE LTFS Conference 26 May 2011

“Curriculum Associated Knowledge Exchange”? or…

“Having your CAKE and eating it: Community Action + Knowledge Exchange in sustainable communities” UWE ESD Conference 10 May 2011

Sustainable communities focus

"Sustainable communities meet the diverse needs of existing and future residents, their children and other users, contribute to a high quality of life and provide opportunity and choice. They achieve this in ways that make effective use of natural resources, enhance the environment, promote social cohesion and inclusion and strengthen economic prosperity.” (Egan, 2003, cited at http://society.guardian.co.uk/mindtheskillsgap/story/0,,2176901,00.html )

Student Consultancy – why? Academic drivers

• Information science = eclectic socio-technical field with immature theory base

• Integrative requirements for success in embedding IT in human contexts for business/social advantage

• Application of knowledge to pro practice• Live projects in community organisations• “Learning on the job” in real world situations –

values experiential epistemology• Knowledge exchange => theory up for grabs,

student as producer and co-creator

Curriculum-embedded case studies

• Windmill Hill City Farm 2010/11• Student business/web consultancy team

developed online room booking system to develop and apply integrative skills in an unfamiliar environmental charity context

• Viva vegetarian recipe club 09/10

http://www.flickr.com/groups/uweconsproj/pool/show/

Small group exercise: outcomes and issues for students, clients and academics

• Study example “ConsProj” student posters• Identify outcomes and issues for all/any

stakeholders– Students– Clients– Academics

• Pool, analyse and discuss results as a group

Extra-curricular case study

• Community Action Day at Glenfrome Primary School

• Volunteer team rejuvenated a growing space as a volunteering ‘taster’ and to get to know the city, its people and places

Curriculum-associated case study

• Degree Tree Project• Aims for every graduate to plant a tree, to

engage students with sustainability issues within communities, both locally and globally

• Proof of concept/pilot ‘curriculum-associated’ • Demonstrate contributions to employability• Enrichment of holistic student experience• Partnership in practice – global/civic/

sustainability awareness, public & community engagement

• Recognition via HEAR? …accreditation?• …alternative to legacy industrial placement?• …threat to (propositional) programme content?• Student as producer – crucial constructivist push?

CAKE project goals and issues

• ‘Silver surfers’ ICT skills training scheme• Leading Edge project – BSc ITMB (e-skills

accredited) national Race Online challenge – digital inclusion

• Bristol Civic Day – digital media contributions to celebrating public spaces

• Unmet community demand + committed student volunteers = ‘win-win-win’ schemes – eg community webfest for BSc Web Design– Hewlett-Packard CSR-driven partnership– brokering service fronted by placements office?

Local instances & activities

• Student ‘sustainable communities’ film projects

• Peer exchange around sustainability and behaviour change in a local secondary school

• Bioblitz/Festival of Nature engagements• “Construction in the community”• WBL option in MSc Sustainable Development

in Practice (from 2012/13)

…and possibles in other disciplines

• Nick Plant – University Learning and Teaching Fellow and Associate Head (Student Experience), Department of Computer Science and Creative Technologies, University of the West of England, Bristol

• nick.plant@uwe.ac.uk• http://fet.uwe.ac.uk/staff/staffDetails.asp?

Nick.Plant

Further info