I must begin by indicating that I really love the idea of Living-Learning Communities, residential programs which are offered at a number of universities, including Virginia Tech, although I have personally never had the opportunity to be a part of one. I think they have the potential to foster a lifelong love of learning and to promote learning outside of the classroom. However, since these residential programs are department or field-based, I wonder whether they promote the pervasive silo-mentality in many academics ("young" and "old"). I do not think, by any means, that the model needs to be completely revised, as I think there is great value in it. However, I wonder if there is a way to make it more interdisciplinary and more innovative. Perhaps these residences could have "house parties" in which they invite members of other Living-Learning Communities to casual symposia, discussions, think tanks, etc. Or, perhaps the Living-Learning Communities could be organized as Problem-Based Learning Living-Learning experiences around various societal issues. I think this would be feasible, since we already have Enhanced-Learning communities that are focused on an interest rather than an academic major. I think that moving Living-Learning Communities in this direction would help disrupt academic silos and promote innovative, collaborative, interdisciplinary learning.
1 Comment
Maria E Nieves
4/28/2015 03:34:46 am
The idea of Living-Learning Communities seems really cool to me. My only concern is the margination that can occur through dividing people in academic majors. It is already hard sometimes to make friends outside of our disciplines, imagine if you are living also with the same people. To make this model work I think it is crucial to diversify the learning communities, having people from all majors and promoting interdisciplinary research. As you suggest, I think a PBL approach could be useful in this case. We can still have everyone working in their own area but towards solving the same global problem. The students could work in teams composed of people from different majors, which will give them a diverse perspective towards finding solution. I think this is critical advancing in the future.
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GEDI BLOGI am taking a Contemporary Pedagogy, a Graduate Education Development Institute (GEDI) course towards the Preparing Future Professoriate (PFP) certificate. In this section of my blog, I will be posting about topics related to innovation in teaching and learning. Archives
April 2015
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