Network Weather Or… How Digital Technology is changing Academic Practice. Jane Carne UELT E-Learning Summer School 4 September 2013

Prof Martin Weller - OU Weller, M. (2011) The Digital Scholar: How technology is transforming academic practice. Bloomsbury Academic: London ‘… capturing the zeitgeist of digital scholarship.’

Network weather ( Adam Greenfield ) A metaphor to describe the impact technologies are having on our lives – even if we are unaware of those technologies. ‘If you don’t know what they are and how they work, you’ll never have the foggiest clue why things shook out the way they did. … You’ll have been tossed this way and that by the gusts and squalls of network weather.’

 Consider the technology you have been exposed to at recent conferences…. Online bookings Conference blogs Twitter hashtags Wi-fi logins Elluminate Crowdvine Clickers Live video streaming Presentations filmed and available post -conference Slideshare Cloudworks You Tube Flickr  Do you recognise any of these…?

 Enables remote participation, back channel, amplified events, socialisation  Changing formats  The interactions, structure and record of a physical conference are being altered by the use of technology.

Academic Practice...writing  Compared the process of writing a book in 2010 compared with  He lists 13 tools….

What he found…  Increased quantity of digitised content available  Significance of his online blog and network  Diverse range and variety of content he drew on: blogs, draft publications, conference presentations..and the discussion around them

 Not just increased quantity and availability of these other sources  his shift in attitude towards them  their legitimacy  their central, vital role in everyday scholarly activity

What is Digital Scholarship?  A profound change or a continuation of traditional practice?  His book is now both traditional format and online creative commons (with extra resources)  Not just book production but any aspect of academic practice.

Relevant in all 4 aspects of Academic Scholarship  Research / Discovery – creation of new knowledge in specific area or discipline  Integration – interpretation and interdisciplinary work  Application – ‘service to wider world’ / public engagement  Teaching – curriculum changes, delivery methods, students

3 key features for change: digital, networked and open  Digitisation of content:  creates range of alternatives to the forms of academic practice (e.g journal, conference)  Networked:  the Internet allows ease of distribution of digital content over a global network, creating wider access.  Social network allows networks of peers to share on a daily basis  Openness:  Technical  State of mind

3 key features for change: digital, networked and open  Openness:  Technical  State of mind

Tools and techno-determinism Types of tools:  robust enterprise level (VLE, SDS) – ‘core technologies’  fast, cheap and out of control (experimental) – ‘peripheral technologies’

A role for people and context  Technological determinism (technology shapes human behaviour)  Socio-technical interaction network (people, institutions and technology)  SCOT - Social construction of technology

Is there a choice?  As practice spreads the ‘network weather’ gathers and academics will need to consider their individual practice and digital skills.  The onus is on HE institutions to adapt and find benefits that are inherent in an open, digital networked approach.

There is network weather, it is impacting – how should we respond?

Ideas to ponder…..  Academics attitudes’ to changing practices and what constitutes ‘proper academic work’. How will this be resolved?  How does the institution respond to the use of ‘emerging’ tools? How do we plan our developments?

Ideas to ponder…..  Weller suggests a working definition of a Digital Scholar may be: ‘Someone who employs digital, networked and open approaches to demonstrate specialism in a field’  And is therefore:  Not necessarily attached to an institution  Defined by the network and online identity they establish  Not necessarily a recognized academic BUT not just ‘anyone who blogs’.  What is your response to this?

A young engineer was leaving the office at 3.45 p.m. when he found the Acting CEO standing in front of a shredder with a piece of paper in his hand. "Listen," said the Acting CEO, "this is a very sensitive and important document, and my PA is not here. Can you make this thing work?" "Certainly," said the young engineer. He turned the machine on, inserted the paper, and pressed the start button. "Excellent, excellent!" said the Acting CEO as his paper disappeared inside the machine, "I just need one copy."