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Network Weather Or … How Digital Technology is changing Academic Practice. . Jane Carne UELT E-Learning S ummer School 4 September 2013. Prof Martin Weller - OU. ‘… capturing the zeitgeist of digital scholarship.’. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Network WeatherOr… How Digital Technology is changing Academic Practice.
Jane Carne UELTE-Learning Summer School4 September 2013
Prof Martin Weller - OU
Weller, M. (2011) The Digital Scholar: How technology is transforming academic practice. Bloomsbury Academic: London http://iet.open.ac.uk/people/m.j.weller
‘…capturing the zeitgeist of digital
scholarship.’
Network weather (Adam Greenfield - 2010)
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 2004.
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 openDigitisation 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-determinismTypes 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 importantdocument, 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."