from individuals to networks and sustainable communities?

Steven WarburtonKing’s College London

http://claimid.com/stevenw

Institutional Web Managers Workshop 2007

“the first IWMW was more like therapy”

dimensions of communities• descriptors:

– connected, authentic, visible, bounded (fuzzy), symbolic artefacts

• processes:– social, shared purpose, self identity (enlightening),

collaborative, negotiated, emergent, ephemeral

• typologies:– formal, informal, non-formal– ‘real’ and ‘virtual’ – communities of practice, of innovation, of interest, of learning

and so on

community• problematic• negotiated and fluid• community exists in relation to the

individual• boundaries are contested• roles

architecture the discourse of virtual learning environments

• rigid, formal and hierarchical - a scaleable industrial model with an agenda of control (tracking and administration)

• teacher/course centric push model (content delivery and assessment)

• standards (SCORM, LOM, QTI, LIP, IMS LD) and quality frameworks

• contributions are owned by the institution, designed to protect IP

• poor record of innovation and interoperability• self centred knowledge acquisition

where is the locus of power? discourse of control?

policy

institutional

web managers

users

IAdesign/brandIPRaccessaccessibilityAUPknowledgequotasmonitoring

paradigm shift?

merely rhetoric?

• freedom, choice, ownership• sharing, collaboration• creativity, creative commons• technical choices expanded (free, open

source, proprietary, in-house, outsourced, distributed)

• informal versus formal - disruptive spaces

ecology the discourse of personal learning environments

• open, distributed, interconnected - a flattened structure with user chosen services linked by feeds

• integration of both personal and professional interests• provision collaborative and individual workspace• a profiling system for making social connections • support for community-based knowing within disciplines,

programs, institutions and individual learning contexts• protects and celebrates identity• respects academic ownership • net-centric supporting multiple levels of socializing,

administration and learning

community mapping?

or network mapping?driven by the individual as node

rss/tags

digital identities

• curating the self• leveraging a number of services• structured and unstructured data• creating a distributed identity

digital identity: impact and policy?

institutional reputation management

personal reputation management

ethical issues

consent• personal, autonomous, owned

– how do we reconcile personal freedoms and institutional responsibilities

• public and private domains– respect for and protection of student privacy– student visibility/invisibility, the quiet learner

• identity performance – adding personal spin, managing reputation, transparency

• tracks and traces– the permanence of blog posts

• developing new policies in these areas? responsive and agile?

first step? digital literacy for participation (Eshet-Alkalai, 2004)

• photo-visual literacy: the art of reading visual representations

• reproduction literacy: the art of creative recycling of existing materials

• branching literacy: hypermedia and non-linear thinking

• information literacy: the art of skepticism• socio-emotional literacy

“Digital Literacy: A Conceptual Framework for SurvivalSkills in the Digital Era” Jl. of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia (2004) 13(1),93-106

second step? towards empowerment

• cultural literacy (judgment, self knowledge)• digital literacy to identity literacy• acknowledging institutional structures

(inscribe power)• unlearning (tutor literacy)

iwm community and roles

• developing shared purpose• how will this community coalesce and

respond to emerging pressures • how and where to articulate understandings

of self, role and community• consideration of issues that are both socio-

cultural and socio-technical

Thank you