I re-read the About section in this Elgg software instance and noted that the guide to developing this community of practice is broad. It seems to hinge on the word Innovation.
Browsing the blog entries it seems there is a lot of focus on so-called web2.0 software and its use within educational institutions. To me this is not technical innovation and any potential project would not be focused on software development. Rather it would need to be about cultural change in Universities. Asking questions like: (1) what does it mean to publish these days, (2) who owns intellectual property etc
Take lowering the carbon footprint and cost incurred by an educational institution in respect to their ICT provision - the solutions to this general problem is technical and I suspect the cultural barriers negligible (especially when you say its about nothing more than saving money).
So what does iinnovation mean in relation to this community of practice?
Overview for Keywords: innovation
Blogs with Keywords: innovation
Comments
Good questions Howard. I am not sure there are any technical issues that are not also cultural issues. Speaking for myself (rather than as project director) I'd say that exposing the cultural dimension of any educational development programme or project and addressing the issues that are raised is one of the innovative aspects of this project and programme: making the cultural dimension explicit through the users. That is circular, I know. We are in a project in a programme that is about projects and programmes. All that sits in a wider cultural context: HE, education, the West, and so on. I do occasionally get accused of trying to "boil the ocean", but every small step opens up a 1000 mile journey.
Innovation in this programme means, I would suggest, that every project put forward should involve real end users and have (or address) a well thought out interface (HCI).
Or a really innovative process with institutional policy/ practice changes discussed?
There's my point - is innovation really in creating new tools or new practices. I feel we have a wealth of tools but can't use them.
Maybe its like walking into a DIY store and only walking down the 'familiar isles'.
Maybe we should equate innovation with impact?
According to the Wikipedia, “Innovation is the introduction of new ideas, goods, services, and practices which are intended to be useful (…) The main driver for innovation is often the courage and energy to better the world. (…)”
In this sense I think that Emerge, our newly born online community, maybe not yet in practice, is on its way to some innovative projects.
I have been observing its development and I must say that the exchange of ideas has increased more significantly in the last days. Some people already established their main interests, shared them with the rest of the members and are forming sub-groups to discuss the issues that they are interested in. We have people curious about the educational implications of SL; we have people interested in PLEs, etc
There isn’t yet any signs of any applied ideas (the practice), but the floor for discussion has already been opened; there aren’t – at least I still haven’t heard about them – any tangible projects, but there are a lot of perspectives being provided. It is a process that takes time.
Trying to change the pedagogical approach in Universities will be a heck of an innovative practice, that’s for sure. And it something that I too would like to see and be part of. We are still not even close to the modern times, let alone to innovation in that area. But, once again, before introducing the changes, we have to discuss the best way to address the issue and transform retrograde practices into innovative ones.
I suppose what I am saying is that there is already a lot of technology, that if used effectively would really benefit educational organisations. I think this "effective use" might not be prevalent largely because of out-of-date institutional policies.
I agree that web2.0 could help but this movement might be just what the IT industry does cyclically which is centralise development and hosting resources. Perhaps a post-web2.0 the climate will return to provisioning services that are more customised where management is more devolved. This would bring us back to where we are now albeit with better services, and a more IT literate population etc.
To focus on web2.0 is still to be seeing the problem with technical goggles on though.
The problem with sub-optimal use of technology are in my opinion due to out of date policies towards assessment and publishing. We can say what we want about web2.0 and new approaches to teaching/ learning/ research - in the end the process is defined by policies in these areas.
Specifically:
1. how relevant is selecting students that perform well when sitting in a room by themselves with paper and pen
2. what is the real cost of publishing adequately reviewed (under peer and other review processes) academic works for free access to anyone with an Internet connection
I think that if as a CoP we focused on studies and technologies to improve practice in these areas the impact would be enormous.