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Portal Pedagogy: Transnational and Transdisciplinary Teaching
- 2. The Portal -Why we do it Beyond the limitations of online delivery and student exchange to offer a more flexible, meaningful, and globalised learning experience. “portal pedagogy” brings together geographically distant students through innovative curriculum and technology to create a student-centred community of inquiry neither bound by disciplines nor countries.
- 3. The Trans-space In Portal Pedagogy the ‘trans’ prefix expresses the notion of open spaces, the deconstruction of barriers, and the bridging of gaps either disciplinary or geographic. TRANSGRESSIVE TRANSITIONAL TRANSCENDENT TRANSRATIONAL TRANSACTIONAL
- 6. The Portal -What we do Forms of Identity explores notions of individual identity Interdisciplinary input aiming for transdisciplinary outcomes Transdisciplinary and transnational cross-fertilisation of ideas – problems and solutions(?) Student-centred space (technology used in support of this) Student driven impact on unit design – Student ownership of space and learning
- 7. Challenges and Opportunities Technology Staff- embrace the space Content Growth – demands on space Internationalisation without travel Dynamic learning moment for staff and students Not just access to, but engagement with, the best
Editor's Notes
- Since 2012, I have been involved in an educational project between Monash and the University of Warwick called The International Portal, which is a specialised teaching and learning space. Before, I get into talking about the portal itself and what we do in that space I just wanted to take a moment to give you the back ground to the project and why we are even doing it.
- What we are trying to do in the portal is to go beyond the limitations of online delivery and student exchange programs in order to offer a more flexible, meaningful, and globalised learning experience to students. By bringing together a firm commitment to cross-disciplinary interaction, student driven learning and technological solutions to pedagogical and logistical challenges, the approach we term “Portal Pedagogy” connects geographically distant students through innovative technology and curriculum to create a student-centred community of inquiry neither bound by disciplines nor countries: It is transdisciplinary and transnational. This community engages in meaningful shared learning experiences shaped by the unique physical and disciplinary environment in which they learn.
- transgressive (where barriers between students and teachers are suspended), transitional (as learning exists between defined spaces), transcendent (moving beyond traditional learning styles), transrational (requiring both intuitive, physical responses as well as rational information processing), and transactional (where ideas are exchanged freely and openly).
- The portal is a hybrid teaching environment that blends F2F and virtual modes of learning and teaching within and between two purpose-designed classrooms At each institution, there is a classroom with cameras, microphones, and a large screen on to which the other end is projected. .
- What is unique about this project is that rather than students connecting with each other via laptops, or an international expert being beamed in to give a lecture via teleconferencing, both groups of students and the teachers can hear and see each other almost as if they were in the same room. The large screen at the front – the portal – was described by some students as a window onto the other side of the world. After some experimentation, we found that the best way for everyone to see each other and communicate with maximum ease was to have each cohort sitting in a semi-circle around the circle shape on the carpet. When the Portal is switched on, the effect is such that the circle appears to be completed by the distinct participants. Thanks to the numerous microphones and surround speakers, the high definition, adjustable multi-angle cameras and the expansive wall projection, students and teachers at Monash and Warwick can communicate essentially as they would in a face-to-face setting – paralinguistic features including facial expressions and gestures are for the most part clear and easy to read, without the need to direct one’s voice to a microphone or press a button, and with no concerns about overlap over and above those of normal face-to-face conversation, there is no necessity for teacher-directed turn-taking, allowing for a much more student-centred space. Minimal responses are picked up by the microphones and transmitted to the other side of the world meaning that listeners can support and show agreement with speakers. The distinction between those who are “in” and “out” of the classroom, for the most part, appears meaningless.
- The unit “Forms of Identity” was offered for the first time in 2013 and was taught over an intense block of five weeks consisting of nine two-hour sessions, each designed by a different subject specialist, and facilitated by a core team of academics. The unit aimed to explore notions of individual identity including national, bodily, gendered, racial, and spiritual identity, as well as the increasing prominence of hybrid, border, and marginal identities, and the notion that identity may shift, be fragmented, or exist in simultaneous plurality. Transdisciplinary and transnational cross-fertilisation of ideas – problems and solutions(?) Student-centred space (technology used in support of this) student driven social space driven by them – Facebook, but also contact via email, skype and other means of connection to debate and create, also within the room we insist that the staff who come in to present are not separately miced to maintain the dynamic of a wholly shared space in which the staff are facilitators rather than ‘sage on the stage’ – students are encorgaed to interrupt, question and make links across the sessions – takes time to get used this but embrace it A series of other ways of creating student sub-groups are being trailed next year, aim to futher increase the sense of being a single cohort and bridging the gap Student driven impact on unit design – Student ownership of space and learning – panel session -