Learning is lifelong. As tertiary educators, we are not just limited to the delivery of undergraduate and postgraduate education. It is quite rewarding to pause for a moment and recognise that every student has a different learning history prior to commencing their studies at UNSW.
We can always adapt our teaching strategy and approach to cater for this student diversity and ensure that (hopefully) all students are effectively inspired and guided to achieving critical learning outcomes.
However, wouldn’t it be great if we could go back in time by riding in a time machine and finding those students and inspiring them to just be passionate about thinking, as we would like them to at a university level?
This is what educational outreach programs aim to achieve. Being committed to providing lifelong education is about contributing to education at all stages of a student’s career.
I was thrilled to be an invited scholar for the final Ashburner Society meeting this year at The Scots College (agenda below).
The Ashburner Society is “the academic honour society of The Scots College. The Society gathers student Scholars and staff Fellows interested in ideas and thinking about thinking. Membership of the Society is by invitation of the Principal.”
The topic of thought led by one of the students was concerned with VR/AR technologies and the implications they have on our social systems. Students paired up to think about and discuss the concepts raised, then shared their insights with the rest of the attendees. It was amazing to see how their discussions generated new and influential ideas that have never been raised before on the topic to my knowledge.
I responded by providing attendees with a short masterclass, which allowed me to share my own perspectives on how thinking about multisensory contextualisation can generate new knowledge that could be applied to improving the capabilities of immersive technologies.
The content of my presentation was structured to encourage students to see how advancement of some technologies depends not just on innovation in engineering, but also on our understanding of psychology and the perceptual constructs that form the interface through which we engage with the world (regardless of whether that world is real or a virtual).
The questions from students at the meeting were no less insightful than those I have received from other researchers at international scientific conferences. Congratulations to The Scots College for running such a successful and beneficial program for their students. I hope to see similar programs emerging elsewhere.
"Richard Ashburner was The Scots College’s first Rhodes Scholar, a recognition that he shared the broad range of values that we would hope our students will develop. Rhodes’ aim was to encourage recipients to develop their abilities, broaden their views and work to improve humanity."
