This blog is to record and share my reflections and daily learnings from my visits to teaching and learning centres in the UK. My first few days here have been very busy and I keep running across exciting people who are doing extraordinary things.
I’ve been at the University of Sussex since Friday – it’s a “red brick” university built in the 60′s, and looks a lot like the University of Waterloo where I did my undergrad. It even has “Engineering 1″ and “Engineering 2″, just like Waterloo.
The UK has 74 CETL’s, Centres of Excellence in Teaching and Learning, and Sussex has a joint CETL with the University of Brighton which is InQbate the CETL in Creativity. The brochure say, “The centre pieces of the InQbate are two technology-rich Creativity Zones enabling groups of individuals to come together within a high-technology environment to communicate their ideas and generate designs.” The space is designed to be as flexible as possible so that instructors and students can come up with new ideas about how to learn and how to teach. Though the final touches are still being worked out, the space has been used since last September. I took some pictures of it, but they don’t do it justice. Tom Hamilton, Associate Director of the CETL in Creativity, said he’ll send me some pictures of the space while it’s in use, so I’ll let you know when I get them.
Well, I wanted to get this first post up and see what it looks likes before I go wild with lengthy narratives. So I’ll talk more about my learnings tomorrow.
