1. Authentic Experiences
Risky Pedagogies?
Helen Keegan @heloukee
National Teaching Fellow, Higher Education Academy
Senior Lecturer, University of Salford, UK
EdMedia, Victoria BC, June 2013

2. Taking RISKS
Making MISTAKES
In a culture of
RISK AVERSION

3. Technology
Learners
Experiences
Transformations

4. Higher Education as an
increasingly
COMPLEX SPACE

5. Higher Education for the Elite

6. Higher Education for ALL

7. Growth in online learning

8. http://cogdogblog.com/2012/07/17/mooc-hysertia/

10. Education is a self-organising system,
where learning is an emergent
phenomenon” – Sugata Mitra
“We are educating people out of their creative capacities” – Ken Robinson
“Reality is broken. Game designers can fix it.”
― Jane McGonigal

12. Supercomplexity

13. “The way forward lies in construing and
enacting a pedagogy for human being.
Learning for an unknown future has to be a
learning understood neither in terms of
knowledge or skills but of human qualities
and dispositions. Learning for an unknown
future calls, in short, for an ontological turn.”
(Barnett, 2004)

14. Pedagogical options: a schema
(Barnett, R. 2004)

15. Digital literacies, digital citizenship
Attention
Critical thinking/filtering
Participation
Collaboration
Network smarts
(Rheingold, 2012)

16. Pebbles and Boulders
Imagine surveying the media, information and cultural industries in the
mid 1980s…The scene would resemble a large sandy beach, with
crowds organised around a very few large boulders. These boulders
were the big media companies… Now imagine the scene on this beach
in five years‟ time. A few big boulders are still showing, but many have
been drowned by the rising tide of pebbles. Some of the pebbles they
drop are very small: a blog post or a comment on YouTube… A
bewildering array of pebbles in different sizes, shapes and colours are
being laid down the whole time, in no particular order, as people feel
like it.
(Charles Leadbeater, 2009)

17. Curiosity, Mystery, Intrigue – and Assessment
VERSUS:
“I‟m paying X amount per year”
“I just want a first”
“What do I need to do to get a first?”
Transformative learning
(Mezirow 1978)

18. Rising university costs driving
changes in behavior
Get a qualification that leads
to a well-rounded job
Getting a rounded education
Finding yourself
Having fun

20. A tale of
curiosity, mystery
and intrigue

21. Video which is basically the next 15 minutes
of this prez (24 slides which which I‟ve
removed) can be found here:
http://bit.ly/10V6RhU

22. ARG reflections
Transformative: learners – ways of
seeing, openness to experience/world
around them
Transformative: my practice – wanted to
recreate sense of excitement, something
happening, chaos, unexpected…

23. Pedagogical options: a schema
(Barnett, R. 2004)

24. This year‟s module
• Authentic experiences: Living the meme
• Post-curricula: attitude
• Explore, play, put yourself out there
• Pt.1 – weekly tasks (pebbles/boulders and
spreadable media)
• Pt. 2 – international collaboration
(nz, co, fr), visual backdrop to opera
• 3 examples/critical incidences

25. Harlem Shake

27. Where „flow‟ meets policy

28. The general feel before filming was
anticipation. My fellow students all felt as one,
i spoke to people on my course that i haven‟t
ever spoke to, making me think that the Shake
is a good thing. „Of course it‟s a good thing‟, i
hear you say, true, it is. I have never seen
something on the internet bring so many
people together for such a bad joke (obviously
at the songs expense). Making me think, who
came up with this simply elegant and almost
impervious idea?

29. A culture of “let‟s”
LET’S DO…
LET’S TRY…

30. Brittney Panda

38. #dudesdoingthebrittneypanda

40. The task that went wrong…
• Major organisation
• Major charity event
• Spreadable Media
• Memes – irreverent humour
• Pebbles and Boulders

41. Final Reflections
• Pebbles and Boulders as a metaphor
• Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic motivation
• The hidden curriculum behind the
prescribed curriculum
• Culture of “let‟s” – shifting
dynamics, building trust
• Being vulnerable, taking risks together

42. THANKYOU
Helen Keegan
National Teaching Fellow, Higher Education Academy
Senior Lecturer, University of Salford, MediaCity UK
Twitter: @heloukee
Blog: heloukee.wordpress.com