The previous post, University of Planetshire approach to integrating sustainability across the curriculum (Part 3 of EDUCATION pathway to a Sustainable University) http://su-notes.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/university-of-planetshire-approach-to.html, introduced an innovative approach, taking a fictitious UK University as an example. This post describes the suite of outputs – tools, resources and mechanisms – in more detail.
The
proposed outputs of the University of Planetshire (UoP) Approach are broadly of
three types:
§ Online tools and
related resources
§ Other (non-online) tools,
resources and mechanisms
§ The RCE Planetshire tools
These
outputs would be developed innovatively using free resources (free website
builders, social networking and PDF-MS word combination) as is the case with
the UNEP-recognised Sustainable University One-stop Shop http://www.sustainableuni.kk5.org/.This three-year-old
live experiment has been the basis of the UoP Approach.
All
UoP outputs can be summarised as follows:
§ Online tools and related resources
o
Planetshire
Curriculum for a Sustainable Future
o
Satellite
websites
§ Research
for a Sustainable Future
§ Sustainable
Campus
§ Green
Ideas Bank
§ Sustainability
in the Wider World
§ Light &
Deep Sustainability
o
PDFs
§ Flier
§ Knowledge
sheets
§ Newsletter
§ Annual
review
o
Social
networking
§ Project
blog
§ ESD
(Education for Sustainable Development) Reflective Diary blog
§ Twitter,
FaceBook, LinkedIn, YouTube (videos) and Flickr (photos)
§ Online
Library (issuu.com)
§ Other (non-online) tools, resources and
mechanisms
o
Help
Desk
o
Publications
§ Academic
papers
§ Press
articles
§ Book
o
Notice
boards
§ Subjects
network
§ Interests
network
§ Global
regions network
o
Exhibitions
§ World
Days exhibitions
§ Annual
exhibition
§ RCE Planetshire tools
(RCE Planetshire’s website, news website and
Twitter)
Each
output is considered in more detail below:
The
online tools and related resources
Planetshire
Curriculum for a Sustainable Future
§ Main pages: Home | ESD
& Curriculum | Sciences | Social Sciences | Humanities | Industry
§ Online one-stop shop,
central platform, education, informal curriculum, disciplines, ESD,
employability, e-learning, marketing
§ A one-stop shop type
central platform that would give access to all other online tools, resources and
PDFs
§ Three main pages
(Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities) would outline how main subject areas
of UoP (e.g. Business, Sociology) relate to sustainability
§ Industry page would
outline how professional bodies view sustainability in relation to
employability
Satellite
websites
Research
for a Sustainable Future
§ Main pages: Home |
Sustainability in HE & ESD | Sciences | Social Sciences | Humanities
§ Research, ‘hard’
approach, informal curriculum, community (local to global)
§ Full references to
academic publications related to sustainability, giving links to abstracts (or
papers themselves if available for free access)
§ Tags of four types –
Subjects (e.g. Civil Engineering), themes (e.g. Poverty), author surnames and
years of publication – would facilitate searching
Sustainable
Campus
§ Main pages: Home |
Sustainable Campus | Carbon | Energy | Waste | Water | Procurement | Transport
| Biodiversity | Buildings
§ Operations, campus
curriculum, interests pathway, good practice at campus, marketing
§ This website would extensively
use photos to showcase good sustainability practice at UoP and also other
universities worldwide
§ Tags of two types –
Interests (e.g. Waste) and universities – would facilitate searching
Green
Ideas Bank
§ Main pages: Home |
Sustainable Campus | Carbon | Energy | Waste | Water | Procurement | Transport
| Biodiversity | Buildings
§ Operations, campus
curriculum, motivation, engagement, participation, Interests pathway
§ Students would submit
ideas on how to make the campus more sustainable
§ Selected ideas would
be on display (with their names)
§ Others could comment on
them using unique twitter #hashtags
§ Best ideas would be
recognised with prizes periodically (e.g. every term)
Sustainability
in the Wider World
§ Main pages: Home
(updates) | Africa | Asia | Australasia | Europe | Latin America | North
America
§ Community (local to
global), informal curriculum, ESD, Subjects pathway, Global regions pathway,
CSR, (knowledge) marketing
§ Daily updates: news,
features and blogs from (online) media worldwide
§ The six main pages
would outline how global regions relate to sustainability
§ In selecting updates,
priority would be given to those with clear links to UoP subjects
§ Tags of four types –
Subjects (e.g. Law), Interests (e.g. Carbon), Global regions (e.g. Africa) and
themes (e.g. Politics) – would facilitate searching the daily updates stream on
the home page
Light &
Deep Sustainability
§ Main pages: Home |
Quotes & sayings | Poetry | Folktales & myths | Anecdotes | Art
§ ‘Soft’ approach,
education, ESD, informal curriculum, motivation, engagement, cultural knowledge
§ Although presented as
‘light’, this could be viewed as deep learning because it could engage the
values domain, hopefully resulting in pro-sustainability behaviour change at
some point
PDFs
Flier
§ Communication,
marketing
§ One-off overview on
the UoP Sustainability in the Curriculum project and its services
Knowledge
sheets
§ Education, informal
curriculum, campus curriculum, Subjects, Interests (e.g. Water), Global regions,
themes (e.g. Food)
§ Four sets: Subjects,
Interests, Global regions and themes (those not covered under Interests)
§ Awareness creation on
sustainability themes (e.g. Climate Change) and how Subjects, Interests and
Global regions relate to sustainability
§ Two-page A4 per topic
(e.g. Biodiversity)
Newsletter
§ Communication,
networking, marketing
§ A four-page quarterly
§ Also emailed to
anyone when registered for an email list
Annual
review
§ Communication,
networking, marketing
§ A 20-page review
published at the end of the academic year
§ Also emailed to
anyone when registered for an email list
Social
networking
Project
Blog
§ Networking,
communication, engagement, marketing
§ Creates awareness of
the UoP Sustainability in the Curriculum project
ESD
Reflective Diary Blog
§ ESD (Education for
Sustainable Development), reflection, engagement, participation,
networking
§ Random reflections on
ESD, presented as diary entries
§ Students, staff and
alumni would be welcome to submit entries for publication
Twitter,
LinkedIn, FaceBook, YouTube and Flickr (photos)
§ Networking, informal
curriculum, education, communication, engagement, participation
§ An integrated and
systematic social updates sharing scheme, directing users to the tools and
resources of the UoP Sustainability in the Curriculum project (where applicable)
§ Social networking
tools would be used to engage stakeholders and others
Online
Library
§ Education,
communication, networking
§ Created by using
issuu.com
§ This would act as the
single place where all PDFs and other publications of the project would be
available for downloading
§ Publications would be
stored here systematically for convenient retrieval (e.g. categorised into
types, pathways, year of publication, etc)
Other
tools, resources and mechanisms
Help
Desk
§ One-to-one help for
UoP stakeholders, guidance, information, networking, engagement, motivation
§ Provides guidance,
information and networking opportunities to internal stakeholders on request,
especially on how subjects relate to sustainability
§ Support would be
provided via email, phone or personal appointments
Publications
Academic
papers
§ Research, ESD, campus
curriculum
§ Dissemination of the
findings of the UoP Sustainability in the Curriculum project’s research study
on how to integrate sustainability across the curriculum, taking UoP as the
case
§ A means to engage
with other universities worldwide on the endeavours of ESD and on integrating sustainability
across curricula
Press
articles
§ Education,
disciplines, themes (e.g. globalisation), CSR, (knowledge) marketing,
engagement, participation, UoP professionals’ expertise
§ Press articles on key
sustainability themes written with UoP professionals (e.g. academics,
researchers, managers) as resource persons
§ Would help UoP
achieve a CSR goal of public education on sustainability while showcasing UoP
expertise in the public domain
§ Indirect but
effective marketing for student recruitment
Book
§ Research, ESD
§ A book, How to integrate Sustainability across a
Curriculum of a University: Lesson from the University of Planetshire Approach,
providing a set of guidelines, mainly based on the findings of the research
study taking UoP as the case
§ Although mainly based
on research, it would be written in simple language to engage non-academic
staff and students
§ Examples from other
universities worldwide would also be included to illustrate points where
appropriate
Notice
boards
§ Awareness creation on
how Subjects, Interests and Global regions relate to sustainability
§ They would provide
students with green windows to ‘see’ the wider world as well as the campus
§ Located in key public
places throughout the campus premises
§ Refreshed
periodically (e.g. every term)
Subjects
network
§ Disciplines,
education, ESD, informal curriculum, discipline-based knowledge
Interests
network
§ Interests (e.g.
Energy), education, campus curriculum, scientific knowledge
Global
regions network
§ Global regions, ESD,
education, informal curriculum, cultural knowledge
§ Contributes to
inclusion of international students in the UoP community by showcasing their global
regions’/ cultures’ contribution to sustainability; hence an indirect marketing
tool for international student recruitment
Exhibitions
World
Days exhibitions
§ Education, informal
curriculum, networking, motivation, engagement
§ Awareness creation on
selected World Days (e.g. Water) in partnership with external stakeholders
(e.g. local water supplier, Water NGOs)
§ Would also showcase
related efforts at UoP (e.g. water conservation measures)
§ Open to general
public (especially the local community)
Annual
exhibition
§ Education,
communication, networking, motivation, marketing
§ An event that creates
awareness of and celebrates the UoP Sustainability in the Curriculum project
§ Open to general
public (especially the local community)
RCE Planetshire
§ Education, informal
curriculum, community (local to global), networking, motivation,
internationalisation, global citizenship
§ If UoP is not
situated in the region of an existing UK RCE, the university would benefit from
setting up and leading an RCE as part of the UN University’s global RCE network
(e.g. The RCE London http://www.londonrce.kk5.org).
§ Benefits of leading
or actively participating in an RCE include:
o
Engagement
and networking with the wider world – from the local community (including
education providers, businesses, authorities and charities) to over 100 RCEs
worldwide
o
Under
informal curriculum, an RCE could facilitate local community-facing projects
for students (e.g. with local businesses or NGOs)
o
An
opportunity to use of UN branding for ESD-related events and initiatives
because the logo of the RCE network contains the UN logo
§ RCE Planetshire
tools: Main website, news website and Twitter
The
next post will look at the feasibility of this innovative Planetshire Approach
on integrating sustainability across the curriculum of a university. But will
it really work?
Note:
This post is the
fourth in the EDUCATION pathway to a sustainable university. The previous
related posts are:
EDUCATION
pathway to a Sustainable University (Part 1): curriculum content and delivery
Opportunities
for integrating sustainability across curricula (Part 2 of EDUCATION pathway to
a Sustainable University)
University
of Planetshire approach to integrating sustainability across the curriculum
(Part 3 of EDUCATION pathway to a Sustainable University)
The Sustainable University One-stop Shop:
Satellite websites: News and Information | Research | Good Practice | Quotes | Blog | Diary | Micro-blog (Twitter)
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