Cyberacademics or sidelined guides? What roles does the educational use of web 2.0 technologies offer to academic staff? Cate Thomas

Overview Context Background to question The self-teaching student Losing control Not my-space Brave new roles Conclusion

Context Engaging academic staff, strategic, operational, Focus of most e-learning research has been students Focus on staff – how to engage What does engagement (or disengagement) mean for academic staff? What is it to be a digital (or analogue) academic?

Background to Question What does it mean to be a teacher in a web 2.0 environment? Who are you? First generation online learning environment – some characteristics Second generation online learning space - some characteristics Sage on stage to guide on side? KubiSpace study

The self-teaching student Characterisation of web 2.0 student Corollary of web 2.0 teacher? Why divergence?

Losing control Workload Anxieties around negotiation of authority Boundaries Language Roles

Not my-space modest and self effacing trespass on foreign ground foreign language, no maps disjuncture

Brave New Roles Regaining autonomy Architects of networks Organisers of Communities of Practice Research a shared and public event New kind of University?

Conclusion Represents re-constitution of what it is to be an academic Up to us to design the future roles

Cate Thomas KUBIS Director Kingston University