Education (ANU Podcasts): Recent Episodes
Communications and External Liaison Office
Recent public debate about educational quality and standards raises questions about which teaching styles are most effective in supporting student learning. Of all forms of teaching, the lecture isthe most traditional. It also has the potential to be the most tedious experience for students. This talk makes the argument that it is still possible for the lecture to be an important part of a high-qualitylearning experience. With creativity and flexibility on the part of the lecturer, the lecture can be stimulating and rewarding. But for this to happen we have to adjust to the different ways that students,especially young students, find and absorb knowledge compared to those from the past. So what exactly is a quality lecture?
The internet is having a profound impact on the 300-year-old model of scholarly communication. New technologies allow for new modes of interaction between researchers, and a wider audience of administrators, funders, governments and the general public. The lines between formal and informal communication are becoming increasingly blurred and publishers and librarians find themselves playing new roles in the scholarly communication chain. One of the most powerful new ideas to emerge with the development of the internet is open access - the notion that the scholarly research literature should be made available to readers free of charge. This presentation described current developments within the scholarly communications landscape and provides an indicator of possible future directions. This lecture was part of the ANU Public Lecture Series 2009, presented by ANU Division of Information and the National Library of Australia.
We now have an opportunity to reposition higher education for the future and to move away from tinkering and adjusting rather than coherently changing. While it will take some time to unstitch the knotted fabric of accumulated incremental policy shifts of the last decade and to build up the capacity for creative policy formulation, it is nevertheless important now to think radically and envisage the architecture that will best serve Australia over the longer term. Labor’s concept of mission-driven compacts, complemented by a strategic approach to the funding of research, based on rigorous evaluation of performance quality, offers a powerful vehicle for strengthening and diversifying the higher education sector. We have a responsibility within the sector to provide leadership to drive this agenda.