Light and dark: constraint, compliance, control, and contract

Several weeks ago, I visited our Vet School, based in Roslin, a few miles outside Edinburgh. It was a beautiful blue sky day, and I was in awe of the beauty of the building and the environment for their students my colleagues had created. Earlier this week, I was talking to a colleague from another College (as in, Faculty) about student learning and how to square ‘experience’ with ‘learning’ (actually, when I typed this first, I omitted the ‘l’ from learning…). This absolutely inspiring video says something about both, and the failure of constraint, compliance, control, and contract. (If this week’s THE is to be believed, automated staff surveillance will be thrown into the mix, too. See “Peak indifference”: Cory Doctorow on surveillance in education. Who knows, next you will see popups all over your browser when you attempt to access your VLE because you haven’t given your course feedback responses…)