The task was to devise and deliver a 20 minute microteching session to facilitate object based learning. We delivered this in small groups of around 6 students. I decided to take social enterprise as the topic of my session as it’s central to the unit I teach on MA Arts and Cultural Enterprise.

I used slides to provide a brief introduction to the course I teach on – I felt this was relevant as it’s an unusual structure being a 2-year masters, mostly delivered online and partnered with Hong Kong university. I also provided an introduction to social enterprise utilising some examples and providing a list of societal issues to be used as inspiration as well as some example business models. For the task, I placed a number of everyday items into a bag, split the students into two groups and asked them to select an item. They were then tasked with using the item to inspire a societal issue they would like to tackle, coming up with both an issue and a business model they could use to generate the revenue to tackle the issue. Students had 10 minutes to complete the task which was followed by feedback and discussion.

One group chose the comb and had the idea to have a pop-up hair salon offering free haircuts to the homeless, funded by profits from a regular salon. The other group chose the plug and after much debate went with the idea of ‘give one, get one’ with small kitchen appliances which could help those in need. The task was well received and both groups embraced the subject matter and gave good feedback on the task. Ideally they would have had more time for discussion and debate.

Although there was some variation in the group in terms of preference for slides, I would continue to use slides if I was to repeat the task but I may make them shorter and return back to a learning objective to round off the task. I could also add a further instruction that the object didn’t need to provide literal inspiration and could be used in a more figurative way. This was a question which was asked by the students which I had to clarify.

My session was the last of the day and I really enjoyed the opportunity to take part in the tasks set by my classmates. There was a great amount of variation; from making dumplings to learning about 3D printing. Several of the students really utilised the senses in their sessions, for example coming up with a list of adjectives to describe flip-flops or folding dough to make dumplings. This wasn’t something that I utilised so much in my session but perhaps it’s something to think about in terms of how the objects I used could inspire ideas. It was also interesting to provide live feedback to classmates, ensuring any constructive points were delivered correctly. I really enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about other’s teaching practices and subject areas. Building a better network at UAL has been one of the joys of the course so far!

Edit: following my tutorial with Lindsay we discussed feedback and Lindsay told me about a couple of techniques which may be useful when working with groups. For example, asking students to provide ‘2 stars and a wish’ or asking for very perscriptive feedback. This could be useful in the context of my online teaching and also in-person presentation sessions.