How can we destroy higher education?
An open activity based on Making space with TRIZ
This is an open activity with anonymous, public comments. The activity ran as part of the PGCertHE welcome event 2022, and may be reused in future. If you missed the session or for any other reason would like to take part, please share your thoughts below. The comment streams are anonymous and public. Please be civil and do not include personal information :¬)
1. Brainstorm 💬
“How can we destroy higher education?”
The aim is to gather as many ideas as possible — try not to ‘filter’ too much. Use the public, anonymous comment stream to share your ideas.
2. Be honest 💬
“What am I currently doing that in any way resembles one of these ideas?”
Look through the first list, and choose an idea (yours or someone else’s). Below, summarise the idea and one activity/process you are part of, which contributes to this idea in any way, however small. Repeat for more ideas. Try to be honest. The aim is not to make you feel bad, but to see that you are not alone; we are all complicit in things running against our values.
3. What now?
“What first steps could I take tomorrow to help lessen any of the above?”
From the list above, decide what first steps may help you stop contributing to things which run against your values. Some things may be unavoidable. Some may seem big. Look for things within your power — and decide what first steps you can take to stop doing them. The aim is to feel empowered and united to make small positive changes towards our values.
Activity concept based on Open Education Ethics session at OpenEd2017, itself based on “Making Space with TRIZ” (Lipmanowicz and McCandless, CC BY-NC 3.0), in turn inspired by an element of “TRIZ (теория решения изобретательских задач)” (Altshuller et al, summarised by Zhongsheng et al). Testament to the power of open knowledge in education!
