The Playing Records School of Career Development

It’s not that using video in an educational context is so new it’s just not usually done very well. I’m still dipping into the nominations at the recent New Media Consortium event: The Web 2.0 Online Learning Film Festival.

Here’s one that would make a good entry on the LEAP site here at UBC: Ze Frank on Memory.

Who knew study skill advice could be so cheeky.

The inspiration from this event came from a post by Gardner Campbell (via Abject Learning).

My friend (it was usually one-on-one) would bring over a stack of records, and I’d have my latest acquisitions, and for several golden hours we’d play songs for each other. By the end, I’d have had a full run of sharing and learning in about equal proportions, and with about equal intensity, so much so that sharing and learning became two versions of the same thing.

At times, teaching is like playing records, even though (or perhaps because?) I’m now the one with the huge “collection,” much of it unfamiliar to students, and most of it something they’re paying to find out about. I have a good deal to share, but I still like to be shared with as well, and I’m always thrilled when a student responds to something I’ve said with “hey, that’s interesting; have you read (or seen, or heard) this other thing too?” I’m especially taken when the exchange happens in a surprising context. Some of that serendipity factor: not random, but not predictable either.

I wonder if Career Services delivery could be like playing records or sharing books; don’t we really want to inspire students to just get down and try stuff out? If so, then we need to be finding and sharing artifacts that do that and share them in a way that let’s students share as well.