Balancing Inner and Outer Technologies: Mobile Devices and Contemplative Practice

This article briefly considers elements of an exploratory study undertaken in a small first year university class in Community Studies in which both mobile devices and contemplative practices were intentionally integrated. Incorporating these two pedagogical elements provided valuable insights, each in their own right, and together they created scaffolding for a Contemplative Inquiry Assignment in which students were encouraged to mindfully observe their patterns of engaging with social networking and mobile devices. This experiential learning helped students raise awareness and make conscious aspects of their social network patterning in ways that no reading or lecture could

20. The Transformative Potential of Creative Assignments in Higher Education

This paper encourages shifts in praxis to promote the thoughtful inclusion of creativity into higher education assignments in order to broaden and deepen student experience, and offer greater integration between required assignments and the complexity of students’ lives. Obstacles to integrating creativity into academia are also briefly explored. An example of what is meant by a creative assignment, from a second-year undergraduate Community Studies course, is offered, illustrating the transformative learning potential that can be stimulated through this application. Faculty observations and quotes from student surveys serve as additional evidence of students’ enthusiasm, growth, and personal empowerment achieved through this type of assignment.