JISC CETIS 2007

Interoperability - All at “C”?

Prof Mark Stiles - Staffordshire University

JISC CETIS 2007

JISC CETIS 2007

Control

Confusion

Collaboration

ConflictCollegialityCopyright

Cultures

CorporateChange

Communication

Contrived!Conservatism

Cooperation Constructivism

JISC CETIS 2007

A Hypothesis

In our desire to produce a holistic and inclusive view of the the use of technology to support and enhance the entire learning experience are we in reality creating a world which will alienate those we seek to help?

JISC CETIS 2007

A few of my favorite slides from my last year of ranting…

JISC CETIS 2007

The Strategy game…

“Build it and they will come…” (“Field of Dreams”)

JISC CETIS 2007

The Strategy game…

“Let a thousand flowers bloom”

JISC CETIS 2007

The Strategy game…

“The philosophers have interpreted the world – the point is to change it” (Karl Marx)

JISC CETIS 2007

The Strategy game…

“Seed change by funding innovative projects”

JISC CETIS 2007

Old stuff:

What are we doing with VLEs?

From 2005 JISC MLE “Landscape Study” of UK HE and FE consultation document:

…the results also show two thirds of modules of study being web supplemented which would seem to indicate that the ‘stuff your notes into your VLE’ model is prevalent and increasing

I suspect this not just still true?

JISC CETIS 2007

The VLE as straightjacket?

VLE use “can” be innovative but:

Have they creating a new orthodoxy?

Do they encourage the “mundane”

Are they tying institutions down for the future?

Are they now a barrier?

JISC CETIS 2007

The corporate VLE?

JISC CETIS 2007

Other factors…

And… The eFramework

Liberating or an opportunity for more subtle control?

The “new” Web

• Sharing• Collaboration• Learner initiated• Informal learning• Diverse communities• Outside institutional control

Unstoppable?

JISC CETIS 2007

Some questions to mull over…

JISC CETIS 2007

We live in a society which seems increasingly to see regulation as the solution to all problems…

• Have we mirrored this in our educational practice?

• In our desire to enhance the learning experience with technology, have we created a generation of learners who are watched, monitored, measured, intervened with, and controlled more than ever before?

JISC CETIS 2007

• Have we missed a point somewhere?

• Might the “newer” generations of learners already arrive with the collaborative and sharing practices we seek to promote?

• Might they use these practices and skills to merely bypass our attempts at “control”?

JISC CETIS 2007

• Are we relating too much to the needs of “old people” because we are “old people” ourselves?

• We know (or ought to know) that we have to address different markets differently, BUT:

• Do we in fact need to address the needs of different generations differently?

JISC CETIS 2007

• Are educational institutions in a cleft stick?

• Has our educational practice actually become controlling?

• Is much of our corporate practice focused on regulation and satisfying the regulators?

• Will our conflicting internal cultures derail our attempts to really innovate for the needs of “the new world”?

JISC CETIS 2007

Freedom vs Control

How to “loosen the chains” to encourage innovation without losing organisational control?

What are we selling?

JISC CETIS 2007

Freedom vs Control

• Nature of Universities promotes regulation & control

• Funding, audit & inspection promote the same

• Academic culture tends to be conservative

• University as “Professional Bureaucracy”

JISC CETIS 2007

Freedom vs Control

excessive hierarchy and over-heavy bureaucracy, the comfort of ingrained routines, strong vertical command structures and weak lateral and bottom-up communication, unbalanced and non-integrated authority across professional domains, conservatism and risk aversion, territoriality, defensiveness and insecurity as well as wilfulness (Middlehurst, 1998)

The individual experts may be highly innovative within a specialist domain, but the difficulties of coordination across functions and disciplines impose severe limits on the innovative capability of the organization as a whole. (Lam, 2005)

JISC CETIS 2007

The place of policy…

Have we, as institutions, moved from Revolution to Stalinism?

If we don’t introduce Glasnost, will our efforts (and possibly our institutions) go the way of the CCCP?

I’d like to suggest our salvation lies in policy, but using policies which enable and facilitate and not control and regulate unnecessarily…

JISC CETIS 2007

However…

Working with technologies from the “corporate”, “departmental” and “personal” worlds is a minefield of policy issues…

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JISC CETIS 2007

A possible framework?Control level

Institution Initiated

Tutor Initiated Learner Initiated

Control Enrolment

Progression

Summative assessment

Course structure

Submission of work for assessment

Manage Tutor led discussion

Lecture

Course Resources

Facilitate Group Project Course/Group Discussion

Enable Formal Peer discussion

Blog of learning experience

Recognise Informal peer discussion

Personal Blog

JISC CETIS 2007

A possible framework?

A quick demonstration:

See:

Tensions Between Innovation and Control

http://staffs.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6572643972

JISC CETIS 2007

Thank you for

your time

- and patience

m.j.stiles@staffs.ac.uk