Keynote II: Could do Better: Assessing the Assessors

Professor Paul Haywood, Middlesex University, School of Art and Design

If Professor Haywood had been giving the keynote address at a conference on student engagement his presentation would have got full marks for walking the talk - the whole audience was totally engaged from start to finish. Highly entertaining delivery coupled with the offer of free apples for participants (which, I have to say, were not too forthcoming) proved a winning combination and the keynote sped by. A bit too fast for me actually as I had been charged with reporting on the session, but my frantic note-taking could not keep up with the speed and the range of information delivered so I will summarise a few key points and recommend you to watch the video for the full, highly worthwhile experience.

Professor Haywood whisked us through a quick history of the modern university, from Bologna to Middlesex. The first universities were, he claimed, set up as propaganda machines to oppress difference. Now we claim to celebrate difference and, to paraphrase V. I. Lenin, see education as the core of our so-called democracy. Indeed, mass education defines us as a democracy, with all aspiring to equal rights of access leading to the widening participation agenda.

Paul Haywood addressed the issue of social mobility – people leaving behind communities and people that they love and understand, to go to far-removed ‘institutions of learning’ – and highlighted the alternative offer, outreach education that invests in the communities, growing them rather than asset-stripping them. A model of total engagement, where education resources link to community activism, practice environments and life-wide learning led us to an outline of Paul's major project. Rooted in Salford whose grim statistics belie the experience, knowledge and creativity within, the project aims to break down institutional barriers to learning and rather than importing culture to the area, use and develop the rich diversity of knowledge, experience and creativity that already exists.

One of the key aims of the project (see video for full outline) is the development of the E.L.L.I.E. (Experiential Learning Live and Immediate Evidence) App tool for mobile devices linked to student blogs and on-line learning journals. This is a tool for learners through which they can capture, store, profile and disseminate evidence of learning from experience or practical engagement. It allows the student to start a process of reflection without breaking their flow of activity. The technology is a means of populating and structuring the student’s digital learning journal with raw content to support the process of reflection and, later, portfolio development.

Informal/formal education, institutional learning/social learning, cooperative learners’ action networks (CLANs), onions, apples, all human (and vegetable) life is here. But don't take my word for it - watch the video and let Professor Paul Haywood - the human dynamo - explain this all to you so much better than I can.

Report by Celia Cozens, e-Learning Content Manager, Centre for Academic Practice Enhancement (CAPE)