Flexible teaching & learning

Hiya - Tracy Kennedy here lecturer with the School of Fashion @ Otago Polytechnic - I have a special interest in the sustainable future of the fashion industry, sustainable models within the industry and the implications for fashion educators. Those visiting will soon realise that this blog has been recently set up by a newby and at this stage is very bare. I am hoping to have a blog with lots of images and discussion about sustainable issues within the fashion industry and hope to use this site as a research base in the future.


Meantime it is the start of my life as a blogger and part of the requirements for the Flexible Learning course.


So far I am a bit behind, a wee bit confused about the whole blog setup (but getting there!) and need to catch up with the rest of the students in this course. I have however been gallavanting about and have been to an International Fashion conference IFFTI in Melbourne, on a Fashion industry field trip to CHCH with our year 2 BDes Fashion students in the last 3 weeks and am about to go to the Costume & Textile conference being held over the weekend here in Dunedin, so have good excuses for being behind.


What do I want to get out of this Flexible learning course? I have already got alot out of it with the realisation at how I can utilise the blog as a teaching/learning tool within both my Design Theory and Design Communication papers - intend setting up blogs for student interaction as soon as I get a grip of the whole process myself.

8th April:ok so its now been a couple of weeks and I still havent got very far with the course requirements!However I have commenced a research project collaborating with Caroline Terpsta from design. We are working on a project (abstract at this stage) that will hopefully be accepted and a paper presented in its earliest form at the FINZ fashion educators conference in August this year and later in a more complete state at the IFFTI conference next April 2009. Focussing on a group of fashion students we are doing a study that will look at'How an educational experience can influence attitudes and raise awareness of sustainablity issues and impact on student practice.' A very tight timeframe so lots of work over the next month or so. Should be enlightening. Will catch up with the course stuff asap.