Thoroughly enjoyed the introductory lecture today with three very different styles of teaching and presentations to support. The 1st, from Dr Danielle Tran was very clear and very concise presenting one page with focus’ and key points with a link in the header for further information. The 2nd speaker James Wisdom presented a longer presentation with 24 very detailed and informative slides with graphs and statistics. There was quite a lot of information and the presentation went on for some time. I believe this could have been summarized in parts for all to digest and retain more as well as making it more manageable for those where English is not the First language. The final speaker was Victoria Odeniyi who presented 11 slides. The content was very digestible and engaging, however could have been improved by putting on her camera allowing us to connect with her while she facilitated her presentation. All were very engaging, however, I found individually some held my focus better than others.
I found I retained a lot more of Victoria’s presentation. For me it was a lot more engaging and inclusive in contrast to James’ which was very information driven. Victoria discussed her research and ideas on reimagining conversations with multilingual students presenting key topics at the beginning progressing into key points with an opportunity to engage in discussion encouraging us to think more into the topic of language providing time to reflect on personal experiences of language allowing greater perspective in understanding her research and outcome and further consider the language we use as academics and how we use it or what language we choose to use. A key point that stuck with me was considering the use of silence and pause as teaching tools.I believe in the moment silence can seem quite daunting, posing questions of ‘Do they understand?’ ‘Are they interested?’. However this can be used as time for all to ponder on key points. We can then pose further questions to drive discussion points on the back of silences and pauses such as ‘ What does this mean to you?’ or How would you implement this into your practice?’. And in this stimulating students to connect with content and contribute.
I found James’ presentation put forward great insight into the impact of higher education on a person’s life versus not having a degree and the disparities across genders (gender pay gap). The future for HE and the impact of the pandemic economically to future student cohorts and University funding. A few points were made by James where he considered gender pay disparity and socio-economic impact however didn’t acknowledge or consider the impact on minority groups or intersectionalities across within this giving the sense of a Eurocentric focused content that was not so inclusive to the diverse student population that he was delivering this to. It was reported that ‘black male graduates were being paid 17% less than white male graduates – the equivalent of £3.90 an hour or £7,000 over a year. For black women, the “pay penalty” was 9%, or £3,000 over a year.’-Osbourne, H. (2020) The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2020/jun/20/financial-inequality-the-ethnicity-gap-in-pay-wealth-and-property (Accessed on 10th January 2021) I feel a lot of thought provoking valuable points were put forward for our consideration in approaching academia, providing and defining value for students however I feel this could have been condensed and packaged better.
Becoming a student again has put forward its challenges. Being a student alongside a full-time job has shown to be more stressful in parts as I jungle the urge to do well with managing my time. I have enjoyed applying my critical skills to readings and methodology allowing me to strengthen these skills further and take in valued teachings that I can apply to my teaching methods going forward.