1. 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
© September 2005

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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)

6. 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

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

8. 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

9. (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)

10. { 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)

11. 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 ?

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

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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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.

19. Thank you for your attention...