Curiouser and curiouser

This conference organised by UCA was held at the British Library and involved a series of workshops on innovative teaching methods. I attended three of them, the first was a workshop by Sue Shearer who had been working with a group of blind students at Epsom. We were blindfolded before we entered the room and remained blindfolded throughout the workshop which allowed us to experience some of the problems blind students face. Samples of different fabrics were then handed round for us to feel and we also had to manipulate a piece of paper. It was a thought-provoking experience. I then went to Rebecca Skeels workshop where she described a peer-learning support system she had instituted in the jewellery department at Farnham. The final workshop I attended was Sarah Sutherland’s talk on her experience with non-traditional learners on the MA course at Farnham. As part of this workshop, six of the MA students (including me) had to give short accounts of different technology we use as part of our course. I talked about setting up a blog and how useful it is.