Why I do it
This section is rather waffly but outlines why I do what I do within the Interface Design module and the personal ideals I employ during interactions with learners. In my own summation, what I feel is:
We try to teach our children to be independent, and when they are we become upset that they don't need us any more. This also applies to students: we offer them structured support at the start of their studies and encourage them to grow as researchers, learners, thinkers and independent entities. They then fly our nest with their newly gained expertise and enter the world of work, safe in the knowledge that they can succeed.
My work at the university is multi-faceted but primarily student-centred.
A humanistic paradigm or holistic approach underpins all that I undertake, but given the enormous variety of roles for which I have direct responsibility, I have to approach each with a differing emphasis. It is so easy to view a module in isolation. What about the whole person? Students develop transferable skills and they bring knowledge from a variety of sources into a module. It is important to harness that wider knowledge and different perspectives. I love learning, there is always something new to learn. Sometimes I meet a student who says 'I know all this'. What a shame they are missing the point that there is always something new, a new perspective, a new approach and a new person with whom to discuss ideas.
One of my objectives for the module is to move students from the position where success is defined as "I can use the software package" through "What can I do with the software?" to "How can I use the software to solve a problem?" to the position "How can I facilitate an appropriate interactive user experience (using current software)?"
