JISC CETIS 2007 Interoperability - All at C? Prof Mark Stiles - Staffordshire University JISC CETIS 2007

Control Confusion Collaboration Conflict Collegiality Copyright Cultures Corporate Change 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 dont introduce Glasnost, will our efforts (and possibly our institutions) go the way of the CCCP? Id 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… By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing.

JISC CETIS 2007 A possible framework? Control level Institution Initiated Tutor InitiatedLearner Initiated ControlEnrolment Progression Summative assessment Course structure Submission of work for assessment ManageTutor led discussion Lecture Course Resources FacilitateGroup ProjectCourse/Group Discussion EnableFormal Peer discussion Blog of learning experience RecogniseInformal peer discussion Personal Blog

JISC CETIS 2007 A possible framework? A quick demonstration: See: Tensions Between Innovation and Control

JISC CETIS 2007 Thank you for your time - and patience