Education Commission Project & Research Proposal The Distributed Change Lab keys for empowerment, reflection & institutional expansion Alain Senteni Virtual Centre for Innovative Learning Technologies (VCILT) University of Mauritius © 1 September 2005

Education Commission Project & Research Proposal A SADC wide professional development project to enhance competence of teachers in the SADC region for integrating ICT in pedagogically meaningful ways in schools and educational institutions 2

Education Commission Project & Research Proposal School-based ICT communities in Botswana, Mauritius, RSA, other communities of practice { collegial support change labs involving teachers, head teachers, teachers educators, etc { resource centre collaborative set up of a regional resource centre, using infrastructure, HR & tools available at { institutional framework Professional Development & Academic Progs in Technology-Enhanced Pedagogy UB, UoM-VCILT, HUT-Dipoli, U Helsinki, TECFA Geneva, ... { 3

Education Commission Project & Research Proposal { School-based ICT communities in Botswana, Mauritius, RSA, other communities of pratice are supported by education authorities promote structured, activity-based, project-oriented learning (Schneider, 2004) (Chun Wei Choo, 1998) are steps towards sense-making knowledge-creating decision-making organisations 4

Structured, activity-based, project-oriented learning regional resource centre } WITFOR Education Commission Resources Portal vcampus.uom.ac.mu/witfor/ (available for process bootstrap) + Structured, activity-based, project-oriented learning { e.g. collaborative contextualisation of Open Educational resources (OER)

Education Commission Project & Research Proposal { collaborative set up, using infrastructure, HR & tools available at the regional resource centre also provides access to an international network of partners, thus contributing to set up a regional institutional framework { Professional Development & Academic Progs in Technology-Enhanced Pedagogy institutional framework UB UoM-VCILT HUT-Dipoli TECFA-UGeneva 6

Education Commission Project & Research Proposal institutional framework Professional Development & Academic Progs in Technology-Enhanced Pedagogy MSc Computer-Mediated Communications & Pedagogies Starting point 7

activity-theory based collegial support change labs involving teachers, head teachers, teachers educators, etc { school/project-based ICT development groups change laboratory methodology teachers ( & head teachers) teachers, head teachers, teachers educators as change agents developmental, activity-theory based intervention ICT training level CL training level Change Lab

(see The Change Agent Tool Box) collegial support change labs involving teachers, head teachers, teachers educators, etc { for institutional reflection & expansion decisions at the level of the individual First decision - To participate in the professional development workshops or not Subsequent decisions - To participate in the intensive training sessions - To commit oneself to act as a change agent in present position - To obtain preliminary agreement from the workplace to use the method - To commit to continue in the change agent role even if not full time - To commit to collaboration with the other change agents - To qualify to act as a change agent (see The Change Agent Tool Box)

{ decisions at the level of the institution collegial support change labs involving teachers, head teachers, teachers educators, etc { for institutional reflection & expansion To be commited to change, by contract To involve principals or head teachers in the contract To designate at least two staff members to act as change agents decisions at the level of the institution the goal is an organisational structure combining the efficiency of hierarchy and bureaucracy to the flexibility of the task force (Hypertext Organisation)

The Distributed Change Lab now that we know about the components, - how to link them up ? - how to connect and organise them as a consistant whole ?

Education Commission Project & Research Proposal institutional framework resource centre collegial support communities of practice 12

Related interesting examples ... National Technical Assistance Center for State Mental Health Planning MOST Circumpolar Coping Processes Projects Current research project 2004-2007: Globalization from Below?

Education Commission Project & Research The Challenge of Distributed Communities • to maintain informality and build trust across distance • to share ideas & projects across different organisational units • to honor different national & organisational cultures • to build support allowing local variations, while linking to a larger structure • to convince a critical mass of practioners to participate (Wenger, Mc Dermott & Snyder, 2002) 14

Education Commission Project & Research research milestones regarding analysis & intervention regarding technology Y. Engeström, 1987 Expansive Learning & Developmental Work C. Hewitt, 1991 Open Information Systems Semantics (OISS) Dillenbourg & Baker, 1996 CSCL, the group as unit of analysis DCL Wenger, 1998 Communities of Practice Schneider, 2004 [C3MS portals] Paavola, Lipponen, & Hakkarainen, 2004 CSCL epistemology Beguin & Clot, 2004 organising the action outside the subject 1987 1991 1996 1998 2004 2005

Education Commission Project & Research The role of the change agent using the CL method * negotiates the project with the management and the intended work team or unit * collects video data and other types of mirror material about the work to be used in the sessions * selects and edits the mirror material for the sessions plans the agenda for the sessions and the learning actions the practitioners are supposed to take: task, material, analytic tools * facilitates the discussion sometimes acting as a radical outsider prompting discussion * secures the multivoicedness of the discussion and a balance in the participation * helps the group to report the process 16

How to extend the method and adapt it to the context of the region • Pilot principle first a few units unit, that meets the new challenges most clearly and are willing and capable to develop • Scaling up the observations from the pilot(s) are used for creating a more condensed laboratory process of for similar units and for training internal change agents • Strong leadership a steering group collects the strategically important observations made in the laboratories and brings them to managements’s discussions • ICT-enhanced support a C3MS portal acts as a repository of mirror data, and as a

The Distributed Change Laboratory, a research proposal Developmental intervention for the integration of ICT, enabling innovation, capacity building & knowledge creation in developing countries’ organizations ICTs is usually considered as a priviledged entry point for innovation and development in developing countries. However, the integration of ICT as an engine of innovation and development in organisations requires effective sociocentric methodologies, particularly in the context of developping countries. Developmental Work Research (Engeström, 1987)has been defined as an effective intervention methodology to help work transformation in organisations. So far, DWR has been applied in several large scale projects, but mainly in the context of developed countries. The proposed research programme aims at creating a regional research pole in the Southern Africa and Indian Ocean Region, investigating DWR approaches for effective ICT integration.

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