Activity Nine

Activity Nine

How can I be a more sustainable practitioner and what sort of learning and teaching strategies meet my philosophy of sustainability?

In order to be a sustainable practitioner I need to further develop skills in the following areas:-

·                Systems thinking

·                An understanding of the connected nature of our socio-ecological system

·                Critical and creative thinking

·                Ability to act as change agent

·                Understanding of ethics

·                Sense of participation and action

(11808 OT5083 CIT3 & 4 Prog Doc, 2010, Otago Polytechnic)

Often sustainability is seen as something extra or on top of what we do.  In order to be a sustainable practitioner I need to see sustainability as part of the systems that I am already within.

Sustainability effects both how learning takes place and what learning takes place.  As a sustainable practitioner I need to act sustainability.  This includes social, environmental, and economic considerations.

I need to consider how I effect the use of students’ and lecturer’s time.  Am I providing options for students to be able to have choices about when they complete course work and assignments?  This is about allowing students flexibility in access to materials and assessments and also to equipment and facilities.  Am I considering my work load?  Can I work smarter and make use of resources etc to reduce work load on myself?

I need to both teach and practice environmental sustainability.  I need to decrease the amount of waste that my courses produce.  I need to recycle/reuse materials and resources.  I need to examine the carbon footprint of my courses.  I need to equip the learners to do the same, through both teaching and encouraging deeper thinking and systems thinking.

Economically I need to demonstrate financial sustainability and equip my learners with the skills to do the same.  This involves thinking ahead and looking at whether choices made now around my courses’ content are actually viable and cost effective over the long term.  Should I be investing now in approaches to learning that may have an initial cost but over time actually save money?  How do I balance the financial cost of a decision to other benefits for the learners?

Utilising on-line resources and assessment has assisted me in providing more sustainable programmes.  Students use on-line resources in their learning.  They receive and submit assignments digitally through Moodle.  Assignments are marked using digital marking schedules and the result and feedback are given instantly through Moodle.  This hugely reduces the consumption of paper and improves the accessibility to all processes of the learning and assessement.

Students learn about sustainable practices within the IT industry.  This includes teaching about re-use of equipment, equipment disposal practices and selecting appropriate equipment.  Students are introduced to Best Practice Guidelines and to ethical considerations (NZCS Code of Ethics).  The bigger role of the courses, however, are in preparing students for further study and for further personal and professional development as sustainable practitioners.  Hence there is a focus on preparing students for collaborative work, problem solving, systems thinking and so on.  This is done through encouraging forward thinking and reflection of practices.  This is a “work in progress” and one of the strategies for my flexible learning plan is to further use journals to improve this reflection process.

Virtual Machines within the courses allow the students to experience different software and hardware configurations, whilst minimising the amount of equipment required.  “In these regards the intention is for sustainability to be seen as part of a new business as usual for computing.”

(11808 OT5083 CIT3 & 4 Prog Doc, 2010, Otago Polytechnic)

11808 OT5083 Certificate in Information Technology Levels 3 & 4 Programme Document, 2010, Otago Polytechnic