Dissertation 17082006 No Appendices

8/14/2019 Dissertation 17082006 No Appendices

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A Protean career and its impact on e-learning

A synthesis of personal studies and helping the learning school

Mr Eric A Knutsen

September 2006

MSc E-learning, Multimedia and Consultancy

Supervising Tutor: Prof Brian HudsonDivision of Education and Humanities, Sheffield Hallam University


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Author: Eric A Knutsen

Qualifications: BA (Hons) Classics, Pacific Lutheran University

Financial Planning Certificate

PGCE, Sheffield Hallam University

Job Title: Assistant Headteacher, School B

Supervisor: Prof Brian Hudson

This dissertation illustrates a protean career, highlighting its impact on

e-learning developments overseen along this pathway, chosen for

professional advancement. The theoretical framework is founded on a

literature review characterising and synthesising ideas related to the

Protean contract: cultural intelligence (CQ), organisational dynamics,

team working, learning culture and learning technologies.

This study adopts an autobiographical approach to inquiry, presenting

data that has been gathered through a portfolio of project reviews.

Successes and learning points are equally reflected upon, using a PPDP

(personal and professional development planning process) framework.

This reflexive discourse has resulted in the initiation of actions for similar

projects in two different contexts.

As a teacher enrolled on the MSc in e-Learning, Multimedia, Consultancy

and Change, I describe how I have fostered opportunities for multi-

layered growth, ranging from personal to colleague to organisational

levels of growth, in different contexts for personal and professional

development. In having organisational aims taken forward, my schools

have benefited from this evolving maturity, through projects in which my

own thinking on e-learning has progressed.

The concept of the protean contract, through which the individual is

responsible for ones own professional growth, is developed and

contrasted with more traditional ideas ofjob progression. I set this

contractbefore the reader as an alternative vocational pathway, found to

be a more satisfying focus than straightforward, organisationally-biasedemployee promotion.

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Contents

Description Page

Chapter 1 Introduction 1

Chapter 2 Literature Review 6

Chapter 3 A Personal Protean Career 24

Chapter 4 Technology College Status, execution of targets 33

Chapter 5 Development of school administrative capability 38

Chapter 6 My growth as educational practitioner 42

Chapter 7 Assistant headteacher, in charge of e-Learning 46

Chapter 8 Evaluation 52

Chapter 9 Reflection and discussion 53

Chapter 10 Summary 55

Appendices

A Chronology of Development

B Intranet User Guide, School A

C Intranet User Guide (Admin Users), School A

D Intranet User Guide (Students), School A

E Staff Intranet User Guide, School B

F Presentation used for VLE Training, School B

G VLE Training Feedback Form, School B

H Consent Form, School B

I VLE Training Feedback Results

Figures used iii

References cited iv

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Chapter 1 Introduction

Dissertation rationale and objectives

A description for this dissertation is a career development profile, with key elements drawn

from my career to date as a classroom teacher of ICT, head of department, and assistant

headteacher in the secondary school environment.

These roles have been held contemporaneously with studies through the MSc E-learning,

Multimedia and Consultancy (ELMAC) programme at Sheffield Hallam University and

during developments at the two schools employing me. These developments allowed the

application of the skills and change theory in practice learned through the programme to

develop over time.

It is with this in mind that the synthesis of my schools, students and own learning and

context will be described, allowing others who are called upon to lead developments in e-

learning an insight to constructs that are based on less experimental methods than those I have

employed.

I will also be exploring the wider impact of such a path on several levels, including my own

students (11-18), colleagues in school, and the schools as organisations.

Questions for this dissertation

1. What chain(s) of developments led to the most improvement in professional growth?

2. What factors were possible considerations when judging the endeavours at the time as

being worthwhile, especially given the teaching workload at the time?

3. What were the ways of working that can be substantiated through the current body of

research as being good practice undertaken at the time to fulfil the potential of the above

developments?

4. What key strategies can be extrapolated from the pathways taken during the past

years?

5. How are these strategies currently being used in the context of School B and what is

the impact of these strategies?

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Research methodology

The key activity in producing this dissertation will revolve around reflection on events, an

examination of the contexts and elements making change possible within those contexts, and

a prcis of strategies undertaken, whether through design or accident.

Through Hudsons personal and professional development planning process (PPDP), I will

highlight several cycles of this process, as outlined in his short paper:

Accordingly in order to undertake action research, one aims to develop aplan of

action, actto implement the plan, observe the effects of action in the context in whichit occurs, and reflecton these effects as a basis for further planning, subsequent action

and so on, through a succession of cycles. (2003, 1)

The reflections will be threaded throughout each discussion and summarised at the end. What

emerges is a picture of my career that is strewn with such events. What is challenging is to

focus on those events that had the greatest impact on my career to date and how that impact

has been spread to my colleagues and students at the time.

I have, since the beginning of my time on the MSc course, kept every key draft of work and

published via my website,www.ic-t.net, my portfolio up to and including my Project Studies

unit work. Additionally, other work outside of school and the MSc has been well documented,

with my overall professional portfolio dating back to the beginning of my teaching career in

1999. This has aided the development of this dissertation immensely and, at the same time,

kept me working within the spirit of the PPDP process. The fact that I am reflecting so closely

with the MSc in mind is indicative of the depth to which my notes extend.

To reinforce this reflection will be a small-scale action research project in the current context

of the school where I am currently employed. Being on the senior leadership team, I will

describe my work in a collegiate way in order to effect permanent change in a variety of areas.

Sensitivity to the varied needs of colleagues at all levels in the school and the longer term

impact on new developments described will be highlighted.

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http://www.ic-t.net/http://www.ic-t.net/http://www.ic-t.net/


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Chronology of developments

The best introduction to my experiences to date is summarised in Appendix A (see figure

below). This shows clearly the parallel developments at various levels which have affected

the potential to carry out the work involved.

Figure A: Thumbnail of Chronology of developments, found in Appendix A

Especially relevant is the way in which university and school developments coincided with

my ability to engage with the process of change. For example, during 2000 2001, I took my

first unit (OFLE) on the MSc course, applied some of the core principles I was learning to

teaching my level 2 (GNVQ ICT, year 1) students, began some project work based around

both the MSc course and the Technology College targets, and assisted our schools partner

primary teachers through NOF (New Opportunities Funded) ICT training. Additionally, one

benefit of the ISDN initiative for the school was the ability to run video-conferencing. My

thoughts on this were formed during studies, again through the OFLE unit.

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A personal Protean career

The dissertation begins with a discussion on my approach in developing aProtean career, not

relying on any one employer, organisation, or part to the MSc course for future prospects to

apply skills and knowledge to new contexts. The contexts experienced to date will be outlined

to aid the understanding of how the developments described fit within the organisations.

Additionally, how my career developed with each organisation will give some insight that

there have been occasions when my placement was concurrent with some need on the part of

the organisation. This served both my development professionally and the organisations

ability to progress.

Contextual impact and developments

Figure B: Levels of impact and development, stemming from my work

The above figure represents the way in which developments are focussed within the context

of my schools. It is intended to show that any one development can affect, and therefore have

potential to develop, an individual group. Alternatively, and more likely, most have impacted

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on several levels, not necessarily all levels for each project, either simultaneously or as the

project progresses with time.

The approach to this dissertation is to demonstrate how several developments as contexts

allowed for me to impact at the levels above:

Technology College Status bid and execution

Delivery on two schools ability to function better administratively

Development of my educational practice as an ICT teacher

Requirements on me as assistant headteacher in charge of e-learning

The framework on which the above is to be built revolves around four strands in each case:

Experiences which had an impact on my ability to function in context

Knowledge and/or skills developed through the course

Ways of working, developed both within the MSc and via work in schools

Application of work components as an MSc student to the role of teacher

Reflections and SummaryCommon strands will be explored, with a highlight given to those that the reader might wish

to consider for personal or professional career growth.

Appendices

These include user guides for the systems described in the text, the latter guides being based

upon both experience and less organic, best practice. Also included are a presentation

delivered during the VLE training session described in chapter 7, a training feedback form for

staff completion and consent form used to obtain permission to use data and anonymised

quotes within the context of this dissertation.

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Chapter 2 Literature Review

Overview

The development of a teaching career has developed into primarily two paths, pay rises

coupled with development as advanced teacher status and management of curriculum and/or

pastoral parts to the school. According to the Training and Development Agency for Schools:

Experienced teachers can apply for assessment against national standards and move

on to the upper pay scale.

You can also move into management whilst staying close to teaching and to your

subject.

You may become a head of department or a subject key stage coordinator or head of

year.

For those that want to concentrate on classroom teaching, an advanced skills teacher

(AST).

Headteachers shape the vision, lead and manage the school community.1

What is left for teachers who wish to develop their professional practice and couple it with

personal interests, without taking responsibility for more than their teaching groups?

An emerging theory of professional development surmises that the individual and not the

organisation is responsible for this undertaking and that the organisation is responsible for

supporting this approach. The Protean contract places a greater emphasis on inward

reflection, psychological success as the baseline by which to judge a career:

The Protean career is a process which the person, not the organization [sic], is

managing. It consists of all of the persons varied experiences in education, training,

work in several organizations, changes in occupational field, etc. The Protean persons

own personal career choices and search for self-fulfilment are the unifying or

integrative elements in his or her life.

(Hall and Moss, 1998, 157)

The purpose of this literature review is to examine the varied categories of literature that

support this approach to developing the individual. The synthesis of the following strands will

then be used to underpin my approach to date:

The Protean contract

Cultural intelligence (CQ), organisational dynamics, in relation to team working

Learning culture, in relation to education

Learning technologies and their implementation

1http://www.tda.gov.uk/upload/resources/pdf/r/routes%20into%20teaching%20presentation%20%20london.pdf

(accessed June 2006)

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http://www.tda.gov.uk/upload/resources/pdf/r/routes%20into%20teaching%20presentation%20%20london.pdfhttp://www.tda.gov.uk/upload/resources/pdf/r/routes%20into%20teaching%20presentation%20%20london.pdfhttp://www.tda.gov.uk/upload/resources/pdf/r/routes%20into%20teaching%20presentation%20%20london.pdf


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These categories can, at first, appear disparate. However, examination at a closer level will

help to indicate the joins and how action research has a direct impact on both the organisation

and the individuals using it as a tool for change.

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The Protean contract

There is relatively little written about career development in teaching with this perspective.

One proposition might be that education is about the wider good done to learners and thus

society. Armstrong highlights the reasons why this notion is altruistic.

As Peter Drucker wisely said many years ago (1955): Development is always self-

development. Nothing could be more absurd than for the enterprise to assume

responsibility for the development of a man [sic]. The responsibility rests with the

individual, his abilities, his [sic] efforts. (2003, 590)

This gives an indication that those in education should seek ways in which to develop their

practice outside of the schools in which they work.

US librarians, a public services organisation similar to education, has been analysed for thebenefits of a similar approach, though there remains some hesitance over relinquishing

intervention by the library organisation in career development.

Continuing education attempts to address the needs of librarians as they learn new

skills, but placed in the larger context of our profession, we need to also address the

needs of the organization. (Peterson, 2004, 1)

This demonstrates a lesson that whilst the organisation should not assume responsibility, it is

necessary for the organisation to align the professional development opportunities with the

organisational objectives. Peterson emphasises this point by simplifying the ambition of

training programmes being to recruit architectural ally (ies) in the remodelling [sic] of a

learning organization (Rutherford, 1999) (2004, 1). In addition to this being an over-

simplification of the benefits to a Protean contract, it relies on a very high level of recruitment

skills to probe for employees who are moulded to the organisation. Whilst this isnt too much

to ask, it could ultimately run counter to the Protean contracts ambition of self-fulfilment

when the model of the organisation no longer matches the development requirements of the

individual.

A more realistic model offered for public service in the context of personal development is

outlined by the US Agency for International Development:

No one individual, organization, or discipline holds a monopoly on the truth.

Collaboration is necessary, yet carries the risk of homogenizing our differences in

favor [sic] of expediency, suppressing creativity and learning. (2002)

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This view is supported by the Agencys perspective on a leader being anyone in a public

service organisation and the focus for development prior to meeting organisational ambitions

(see figure below).

Figure C: Population Leadership Program (PLP) Framework

The strength in this viewpoint is that it is through the network of individuals (relationships

above) within the organisation that performance and, subsequently, sustainable programmes

arise. (US Agency for International Development, 2002) Another strength in this viewpoint

lies in that, although the model was developed within the context of public health with a very

wide definition, the PLP encourages variation in the experience of its participants: we

achieve our goals for healthy communities by working in diverse groups (US Agency for

International Development, 2002). This allows for the changes in occupation outlined in Hall

and Moss (1998, 157) above.

Armstrong developed a useful chart (below, 2003, 595) for employers to focus their energies in

a useful way to assist career management. Although not set in the context of a Protean career,

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Ive highlighted in red stages that fall within Hall and Moss (1995, 165) Ten Steps to

Promoting Success Protean Careers.

Figure D: Armstrongs process of career management, adapted

In summary, to develop a Protean career-minded individual, there is the need to focus on the

needs of the individual employed, whilst balancing how satisfying these needs can mutually

benefit the organisational objectives.

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Cultural intelligence (CQ), organisational dynamics, in relation to team working

Moving outward from analysis of individual needs, a discussion is required on how the

relationships between individuals can develop into teams. Much literature is available about

how to develop teams2 and to maintain momentum in team-based endeavours. This isnt going

to revise such material. More important in this discussion is the more recent gloss placed upon

how individuals should orientate themselves toward one another in order to cleanly integrate

their expertise with that of others, particularly with a discussion on an emerging concept,

cultural intelligence.

Cultural intelligence concentrates on the individuals ability to take into account the culture, in

the widest possible definition of the word, and background of associates. Putting this into

context with organisations, Triandis defines it thus:

Many organizations of the 21st century are multicultural.This reality results in

numerous dyadic relationships where the cultures of the two members differ.Cultural

intelligence (Earley & Ang, 2003) is required for the two members of the dyad to

develop a good working relationship. (2006, 20)

How does this relate to the current discussion? When a number of individuals, all with their

developed set of skills and contexts on their Protean career path, come together to tackle a

project, they should have a heightened awareness of and enhanced attention to current

experience or present reality (Thomas, 2006, 84), particularly with reference to the team in

which they are working. Thomas is particularly concerned that part of the individuals

development is that ability to function in a new context: A key component that distinguishes

CQ from other related ideas is the ability to generate appropriate behavior [sic] in a new

cultural setting; that is, based on knowledge and mindfulness3... (2006, 87) He places CQ at

the intersection of knowledge, behaviour and mindfulness (2006, 84):

2 A good starting point can be found on the Accel-Team website, http://www.accel-team.com3 Thomas defines Mindfulness as a metacognitive strategy focuses attention on the knowledge of culture and the

processes of cultural influence as well as on an individual's motives, goals, emotions, and external stimuli. By so

doing it controls cognitive processing and response by (a) bringing to mind knowledge relevant to the focus of

attention, (b) choosing not to respond automatically, (c) inhibiting undesirable responses, and (d) editingresponses to be consistent with motives and goals... (2006, 86)

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Figure E: Thomas Components of Cultural Intelligence

More helpful is the outline of virtuous cycle of development by the individual of CQ. The

diagram below demonstrates that through approaching relationships in a culturally intelligent

way, the individual benefits and is better equipped to deal with relationship-building in future

(Thomas, 2006, 89):

Figure F: Thomas Development of Cultural Intelligence

This approach reinforces one of Hall and Moss suggestions for Protean career development:

Promote Learning Through Relationships and Workmost real training comes from peer-

assisted, self-directed learning through such vehicles as project teams, personal networks,

support groups (1995, 168)

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Two areas for consideration by a person with CQ arise in Triandis:

A culturally intelligent person suspends judgment until information becomes available

beyond the ethnicity of the other person because personality attributes such as

idiocentrism - allocentrism need to be considered. (2006, 21)

More particularly of relevance is whether there is a match between the associate and the

organisational objectives, whether the organisation is intrinsically idiocentric or allocentric.

The individual must be aware whether there is a match and, if there is a conflict between the

associates and the organisation position, how to ensure that this doesnt affect the work

undertaken. Punctuating this point, Triandis states that Individuals who are allocentric in

individualist organizations or idiocentric in collectivist organizations are countercultural.

(2006, 26)

The above discussion again focuses on the individuals ability to function within a team. From

the organisational perspective, once the team is established, Wageman and Gordon outline the

need for some understanding of how a task might be orchestrated:

Task interdependence in teams is the degree to which a piece of work requires

multiple individuals to exchange help and resources interactively to complete the

work. (2006, 687)

They go on to outline four factors that lead to orchestration for task interdependence being

successful:

how the task is defined to a group

the rules that managers establish about process (e.g. working alone or not)

physical technology of the task

allocation of resources (skills, information, and materials) (2006, adapted 688)

This is again consistent with the proposal for promoting the Protean career: Provide Career-

Enhancing Work and Relational Interventionsmanagers and career practitioners must be

able to influencehow job and other work assignmentsare made. (Hall and Moss, 1995,

168).

Most importantly, there is a benefit to the task and thus the organisation in ownership of the

work undertaken:

'Members of highly task-interdependent groups...exhibit high-quality interpersonal

relations, engage in extensive learning from each other, and develop a sense of

collective responsibility for performance outcomes.' (Wageman and Gordon, 2006,

689)

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This could lead to more enterprising practice, whereby teams adopt a no-blame ethos and are

better able to identify with the success generated both through their individual efforts and

through that generated by the team more widely.

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Learning culture, in relation to education

In education, there are two types of learning that need consideration. On the one hand, there is

the learning on the part of students, on the other the learning by the organisation (staff and

management), whatever the stage of learning (i.e. primary, secondary, tertiary and higher

education) in which it is involved, in order to deliver its potential for its learners. The latter

often deals with the management of change and how it can become the learning organization,

outlined by Peter Senge as meaning one that is continually expanding its capacity to create its

future (1990, 14).

How students learn is well documented with a wide variety of learning theories, e.g. neuro-

linguistic programming (nlp4) and its impact on learning, social constructivism5, and Blooms

taxonomy6. There is no shortage of information on how these apply to todays life-long

learning culture. The learning theory I wish to address applies particularly to how educators

can be helped to adopt new skills and knowledge, particularly in light of the need to take on

new technologies for the benefit of their students.

Joining skills and knowledge is the approach which teachers must adopt in order to

appropriately address learning needs, as discussed in Hudson, et al. (2000, 3). Primarily it is to

outline the application of the technology to the learning requirements, not blindly putting

technology where the learner or the learning culture is not in a position to receive it. A strength

to the MSc as outlined in ELMAC is the balance of the three elements, particularly the views

that the technology undertaken on this course was not a quick fix (Hudson et al, 2000, 10)

and that technologically rich learning requires an attitude that is tolerant and open to the need

for repairs to communication as one would expect in more traditional forms of

communication. (Hudson et al., 2000, 11) This highlights the need to carefully align

technology into educational values held and with learners in a position to fully exploit the

advantages. This has as much to do with the learning culture as with the strategies advised for

undertaking this integration.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuro-linguistic_programming5http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/constructivism.htm6http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom's_Taxonomy

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Figure G: Triangulation of Learner, Culture and Technology in delivering MSc ELMAC

For the individual teacher or student, Armstrong restated a definition for action learning:

Revans produced the following formula to describe his concept: L (learning) = P (programmed

learning) + Q (questioning, insight). (2003, 561) Teaching staff are in a good position to

approach delivery of their learning objectives, with their new learning often tinged with what

can be perceived by some as cynicism, but when examined is their questioning of anything

new.

More difficult to shift is the programmed learning mentioned above. Again, Armstrong on

Revans: Learning is deepest when it involved the whole person mind, values, body,

emotions [sic]. (2003, 561) This applies equally to teachers, being a worthwhile endeavour for

effective staff development and to students, if effective learning of any material is theambition. Once deemed valuable by the teaching staff, new ways of learning then need to be

learned by the students, often at the instigation of the teacher. This will only be successful if

the teacher is truly committed.

There are two ways in which such change can be instigated for the benefit of the learners; one

is driven by the organisation, the other by the teaching staff. In either case, once an innovation

or renovation (of current practice) is reviewed, lessons need to be learned as to the efficacy of

the change. Hence, the organisation goes from one that survives the day-to-day running of

itself to one that is empowered to create its future as mentioned earlier.

A good starting point to how this can occur for education is to look at the learning school.

Aspinwall argues the important reasons for (teams of teachers) coming together for support

and learning (1998, 45). Although this doesnt review the notion of the idiocentric

environment as described by Triandis above, the trust engendered in such teams, with

groupings often driven by the teachers themselves, allows for positive working practices. The

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following benefit is again an idiocentric outcome, Aspinwall not yet outlining the benefits for

the organisation: The purpose is to help this individual (teacher) to take action in the light

ofnew insightto change(a) situation.(1998, 47) Described as hot spots of learning,

Aspinwall goes onto state that they need to be aware of and linked to each other to allow

organisational learning. (1998, 48)

Aspinwall defines five organisational learning styles:

Habits the standard operating procedures, rules, ways of working, methods of

teaching(that) continue regardless of changes of staff

Memory the stored experience of an organisation

Imitation / Modelling using other schools as a benchmark and taking best practice

and learning from elsewhere

Experiment learning through innovation and trial and error Critical awareness / Enquiry perhaps the most-wide rangingrequires(a)

questioning attitude to the organisation itself (1998, 63 67)

There is no one style in the learning school and a style might be the result from or a driver for

a particular group of staff carrying out a task. Also, each must be considered on its strengths

and downsides, with ultimate decisions being taken on next steps, once the school is mindful

of its current learning style bias. Again taking into account the individuals development of

CQ, individual and collective organisational learning styles need to be accepted and

remembered by all parties, once known, to put into practice the best actions subsequent to team

working.

Peter Senge takes this one step further and describes within the team context the need for the

willingness to consider each other as colleagues(which) acknowledges mutual risk and

establishes the sense of safety in facing the risk. (1990, 245) This establishes an important

ground rule before team working. In the individualist environment of a school, this is

important. Any team working activity thatprima facie takes the teacher from the core activity

until the new activity establishes different new working practice perceived as appropriate

should be shared risk. However, in establishing a collegiate approach, Senge argues that the

dialogue and expectations need to be set out in advance by the facilitator. (1990, 246) This

dialogue in turn aids the working practice of the team.

Senge develops this thinking, applying the need for a coherent team language to the

management team of an organisation.

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Perhaps the single greatest liability of management teams is that they confront

complex, dynamic realities with a language designed for simple, static problems.

(1990, 266)

The management team sets the agenda for the organisation through its collective vision. It can

be surmised that if their language for success in achieving their vision is appropriate that the

operational teams, however comprised, chances for success are enhanced. Senge capitalises

the discussion: The conversation becomes about the structure, the systemic forces at play,

not about personalities and leadership styles. (1990, 268) Aspinwall underlines the importance

for such objectivity when discussing practical barriers to change. Healthy questioning is

essential and lack of resistance can lead to ill-thought-out developments being pushed

through. (1998, 110)

In summary, the learning organisation in the educational sector should be aware of the learning

style of the individual, team comprised of individuals and the organisation prior to embarking

on change. Additionally, the management team of the organisation should at least co-ordinate

groups initiating change according to the organisational vision, if the best effect is desired,

giving careful thought to the language for success. This ensures objectivity, a positive dialogue

and avoidance of a blame culture creeping in where risks are concerned.

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Learning technologies and their implementation

Another key responsibility for the management team is how to view future planning, in line

with the organisational objectives. Given the pace of technological developments, what are the

key drivers for new technology and how is it best to implement these within a chosen

timescale? Key considerations include radical versus incremental change, the soft

technology7 (Sloman, 2001, 111) required for success, and the causal ambiguity8 (Ambrosini

and Bowman, 2005, 493) that might arise in the process of change. In the body of the

dissertation, the discussion will draw on these issues and cover specific innovations, such as

virtual learning environments (VLEs).

To begin, a table from Child (2005, 288), outlines examples of radical and incremental change

against planned and emergent change. This is, perhaps, the best explanation for his notion of

categories for change by all or part of the organisation:

Planned Emergent

Radical

Business process

reengineering

Organic development

(e.g. start-up company)Whole

organization

Merger of departments Changes to selection of

new members made by

teams

Part

organization

Incremental

Annual targetedimprovements

Organizational learning Wholeorganization

Changes agreed in staff

performance plans

Continuous

improvement through

project teams

Part

organization

Figure H: Childs grid of Planned vs Emergent developments in organisations

Child outlines the disadvantage to planned changes, as often occurs when an organisation

intends to implement new technologies:

A planned organizational change almost always takes longer to accomplish than is firstenvisaged. The process has to run through a number of phases successfully(1)

building a team to lead the change, (2) permitting resistance to surface, (3) securing

identification with the objectives of the change, and (4) evaluating the change and

building a learning capability for the future. (2005, 302-3)

This time seems to be a common factor for creation of VLE content:

7 Soft technology will hereafter refer to the activities that must be taken at all levels in an organisation to embed

that hard technology effectively. (Sloman, 2001, 111)8 causal ambiguity refers in part to how organizations generate and nurture, via their resources, sustainable

competitive advantage (Ambrosini and Bowman, 2005, 493)

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In a large study we finished in early 2003, we asked more than 9,000 e-learning

professionals what their single biggest challenge was. Their single most common

answer is shown below.

It takes too long to build coursestime is the critical missing ingredient.

(Bersin, 2004, 179)

As with any change, unless the resources are not put into place, such as time, it is less likely to

occur with success. This is where the consideration lies for whether the whole or only part of

the organisation is going to undertake the change. If only part of the organisation is

undertaking change, the total cost of the time, e.g. with the VLE above, is reduced. It is

unfortunate, however, that much technological change enforces the need to adopt an emergent

change perspective given the pace of change. This makes it more difficult to constantly pilot

changes on a smaller scale before rolling to the whole organisation.

With this question of how to approach technological intervention in education, Fahy describes

a key driver from Picard (1999)(who) sees the key contribution of media as their ability to

promote relationship building, and not merely information exchange, in work or learning.

(2005, 8) This assists learners to build on their previous learning and refers one back to the

mission of being a facilitator for learning, rather than one that delivers his / her knowledge as

the knowledge to be learned. More importantly, there are relationships to be built between the

learners and the facilitators whilst making learning connections on a course using ICT to

facilitate delivery:

The active participation in discussions was not an option but a necessary requirement

with comments being expected within fixed timescales and core readings, project

plans of peers etc. As a result the level of communication on the course was very

high (Hudson, et al., 2000, 6)

Fahy goes on to outline key purposes in the use of technology for a specific pedagogical

purpose

Instruction

Reinforcement, corrective feedback, and cues and explanations...

Participation, engagement, time-on-task...

Assessing and respecting diverse learning styles, preferences

(Fahy, 2005, 11)

This is a very helpful way in which to summarise the goals for technology in the educational

environment, especially when management teams are looking to use an alternative delivery

mode. It also gives an agenda for discussion on how educational establishments can set out

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their competitive advantage (Ambrosini and Bowman, 2005, 493), ensuring that a clear link

is made between the feature offered by technology and the success or otherwise delivered by

that feature.

For example, Instruction above covers a range of tasks from offering resources for

reading, review or study to a set of assessments that give the learner an opportunity to feed

back what they have learned. Many VLEs offer teaching staff the opportunity to upload

teaching materials and resources and the ability to review assessment pieces delivered back to

the VLE by the learner. Further to this, feedback can be set against that assessment piece

response. The management team can draw a link between the VLEs ability to carry out these

functions and make key decisions on how effectively this can be done by their staff and

students, before making a purchase and deployment decision for a particular VLE.

Without these types of links in the purchase of technologies, causal ambiguity (a counter-

productive feature for organisational learning) can overtake an organisation. This is especially

harmful, given the high costs associated with inefficient deployment of technology.

There are two parts to the high costs involved to implement the actual pieces of technology.

The first involves the purchase and implementation of the hardware and software. The second

is the soft technology, which primarily involves training both staff and students to highlight

the strong link between the pedagogy and the possibilities of the technology itself. (Weller,

2002, 78) Indeed, Sloman makes a series of propositions for e-learning to become most

effective:

Proposition 13: E-learning will be most effective as part of a systematic approach

involving classroom and experiential learning with appropriate support.

(Sloman, 2001, 86)

Sloman goes on to propose a generic model, which could be adapted to a variety of non-

technological proposal, and delivers a clear flowchart for action once the hardware and

software are implemented:

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Figure I: Slomans model for stages in implementing e-learning

This gives a clear set of questions as prompts for management teams on their educational

organisations most important aspect, its staff development tying with student learning.

Although the term customer is becoming outdated when referring to a student, the focus is

right with regard to all e-learning developments revolving around the people who give

education a purpose.

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Conclusion

Above, Ive outlined many areas that have influenced my thoughts on the implementation of

e-learning projects, which may at first appear disjointed. However, there are two threads that

run throughout two halves of the discussion.

The first relates to how individuals and teams might equip themselves in order to assist an

organisation to facilitate new learning strategies, specifically relating to the Protean contract

for individuals. When involving oneself, being assigned to a team, this contract remains

valid but a further attribute should be considered, that of CQ through mindful reflection of

ones own perceptions. Given that learning organisations are individualistic in nature, this

focus on the individual staff member is entirely appropriate, even though teamwork is a

necessity at times.

For management teams, the focus is on value for money deployment of new learning

strategies. There may be common sense issues for these teams, such as giving time to a

project. However, it is not always practical to do what is sensible. This gives rise to the

second thread, particularly related to how the team can maintain a learning organisation

function. A most helpful summary to facilitate this is as follows and is based around

Ambrosini and Bowmans work. For all purchasing and deployment decisions, management

teams might draft a cause map(a) graphic representation that consists of nodes, and arrows

that link the nodes (Huff, 1990; Weick and Bougon, 1986) (2005, 497) of their

requirements for new technology and how these might be met by what is available. Ambrosini

and Bowman go on to break down a causal map into its essential elements:

We asked each manager to individually code the map generated using the following

categories:

A. The factors that are well known to you.

B. The factors you did not know about.C. The factors you knew about but you did not realize mattered for performance.

D. The factors that you knew about but that are left alone because they are not

well understood.

E. Others. Please specify. (2005, 498)

Not only would such an approach begin a useful basis on which to take such important

decisions, given the costs of getting a strategy wrong. Later in the implementation process, it

would be possible to assess the success of any such project, even looking at the value for

money in an objective fashion.

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Chapter 3 A Personal Protean Career

Introduction

On qualification to teach Business Studies and ICT, the concentration was entirely on getting a

job to teach. The key factor to beginning my own Protean career was responding to an

advertisement for a part-time ICT teacher post at School A. It took three interview days, with

the ultimate day seeing a meeting with the chair of governors. A primary question during the

interview centred on why, with the qualifications I had and the ICT skills Id developed, I

wished to take a part-time teaching post. Given the early stages of development for the

proliferation of ICT equipment and its usage at the College, there was a great deal to discuss

about the opportunities, both for the students and staff and for myself.

The school was about to commence writing a bid to become a Specialist School in

Technology (TC status), which placed ICT at the centre of the bid. This drew on my previous

business experience, as sponsorship needed to be raised9. Also taking up the time in which I

wasnt teaching was assisting the process in writing the bid, helping to facilitate the school

departments contributions and targets. Taken so much into the centre of a strategic

development meant that I worked closely with the principal (equivalent to the position of

headteacher), vice principal (equivalent to the position of deputy headteacher), and chair of

governors. As a newly-qualified teacher, I was in a position to face challenges typically given

to those with many years experience in education to date in September 1999, I had none.

Year 1

A feature of the Protean career indicates that the employee takes decisions as to how the

career will develop, after identification of the skills base that is needed. It was beyond doubt

as to whether the opportunities arising offered a chance to develop a variety of skills.

However, there was initially little intent on my part to do this, aside from wishing to immerse

myself in the activities required for a successful bid. At times during my first year in teaching,

I was undertaking tasks, such as approaching private companies for sponsorship, usually

reserved for senior management teams. In addition to this, I quickly built up a portfolio of

literature advertising the bid, the school and how a relationship might be established between

the school and the business.

9

For the bid, 50000 needed to be raised from public and private sponsorship in order to obtain funding of100000 from the DfEE (Department for Education and Employment), now the DfES (Department for Education

and Skills).

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Exciting though these tasks were, however, the more important were the decisions in targets

for the ICT department, ICT across the school and the activities that would be judged when

the success of the bid was reviewed by the DfEE during the four year cycle of funding. There

were key elements to taking both students forward and the use of ICT generally. These

included:

a new vocational course in the use of ICT

creation of a new school website

creation and implementation of a virtual learning environment

PCs connected by a school

the use of video-conferencing

There was much to be done, with myself being the ICT person in the school, which includedthe head of ICT, who was also head of design technology and more an enthusiastic amateur

than expert. Although I was an NQT, I was already driving policy at a strategic level. The

trust awarded to me was entirely consistent with my reasoning for going into education, i.e. to

help others understand better the use of ICT, and the self-fulfilment mentioned by Hall and

Moss as an indicator for the Protean contract. (1998, 157) The school was awarded TC status

and now had a mandate to develop itself, its staff, and most importantly its students.

Outside of the school environment, I was equally busy, expanding my portfolio within the

university sector. Prior to my experience as a student on this course, I was retained by

Sheffield Hallam University to assist the key person in two areas: the Euroland CD-ROM

project and the Triple M10project. These tasks led me to develop both the teaching skills of

reviewing tasks (via Euroland) for their educational values and to interact with the people

with a vested interest in getting the MSc into an acceptable framework and format.

Year 2

Key moments arose out of my success at meeting targets, especially with my first area of

formally paid responsibility in my second year of teaching. This was responsibility for

vocational education at the school. Whilst six years in industry were helpful in my

understanding on a practical level, it was difficult to establish quickly the educational links

10http://www.pa-linz.ac.at/international/Triple-M/default.htm

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with my business experience. It was more straightforward in applying business acumen to

discussions with managing directors in the search for sponsorship.

In addition to the attraction to the school of money for the bid, my classes were benefiting

from my business experience, particularly the Key Skills in ICT and GNVQ in ICT, both at

level two. Here, given that I was living the use of ICT for the bid, I was able to apply the

considerations on a professional level and bring my students beyond the basic curriculum,

using real applications of IT, experimenting on a whole school level at Key Stage 4. The

allowance by the headteacher to experiment sits well with Aspinwalls learning style of the

same name11.

Building on my experiences was the ability to undertake the MSc, using the school as a

context. Often, what occurs is that a school requires a certain task or project undertaken which

is then staffed appropriately. This was reversed, with my studies driving new projects being

applied to the bid targets. The pattern was often one of: MSc studies MSc project

partial/full implementation review for impact in school write up MSc paper. This

synthesis was a condensed version of Hall and Moss psychological success: my varied

experiences in education, training, work in several organizations (1998, 157)

One valuable aspect of the relationship between myself and the university was the ability to

access learning opportunities for the schools students outside usual networks, e.g. the

Specialist Schools Trust12. This resulted in sewing the seeds for my first project for the MSc,

the use of video-conferencing as an open-learning tool. This expertise eased the purchase and

use of equipment within the school and the wider community, furthering my contact with

other educationalists, particularly primary headteachers. Because of this contact with a

variety of people, my Protean career, considering my CQ development, was furthered beyond

the business context. The greater technical developments arose during the following year.

11 As it happened, the experimentation led to excellent results from both new courses.12 Previously known as the Technology College Trust, this organisation sponsored the school to 25000, or half

of its sponsorship requirement, validated the schools claim for consideration as a candidate to become aspecialist school, and provided support, such as sending a senior person when we interviewed a network

manager, when we became a Technology College. (http://www.specialistschoolstrust.org.uk)

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Year 3

Rewards at this early stage in my career came in the form of promotion to head of ICT at the

school. But there was much work remaining to be done. Particularly of importance was the

transition of the school website to a more informative, up-to-date forum and the development

of a virtual learning environment.13 This again allowed my skills to be directly correlated from

my studies toward the Digital Media Applications unit (DMA) for the benefit of the students

and school. Having developed the skills in programming for a context in database-driven

websites, I later applied this to the needs generated by the bid, undertaking much of the

development outside of school hours. This commitment meant that my teaching practice was

unaffected by these wider school advancements.

Of concern was that the local education authority (LEA) was not in a position to support the

application. As a result, I required the fortitude to drive ahead in spite of the LEA stating

longer term intentions to develop similar technologies. What I didnt want to do was to spend

a great deal of time and effort programming, if the LEA was either going to develop the VLE

or data-driven or host such programs in the near future. It was important that, where possible,

I worked in harmony with the LEA, as a key source of advice and assistance to the school. I

acknowledged my prejudice regarding the LEAs ability to accommodate progress using ICT

in the near future, but ultimately made the decision to move beyond their scope. Doing

otherwise carried the risk of homogenizing our differences in favor [sic] of expediency,

suppressing (my) creativity and (my) learning.(US Agency for International Development,

2002) Any concerns I had about interference once I began programming were allayed, as

there were no individuals at the LEA level who actually understood the developments.

Another great success factor was the way in which I applied many of the skills directly to the

classroom experience for my GNVQ students. Project planning, ICT product reviews, and

even directly from the DMA website creation all played their part in 17 of 18 students in the

first cohort of the qualification attaining an A*-C GCSE equivalent. Again this is consistent

with the PLP Leadership framework from the US Agency for International Development,

whereby my improvement led to enabling others. (2002)

Year 413 See my paper for the Project Studies unit at http://ic-t.net/uni/ps_portfolio/ps_report_eak.docfor details.

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The progress above meant that my, student, and school success were becoming inextricably

linked. In order to build on the latter, I needed to work further on how I would fully integrate

developments appropriate to the school. This came down to working closely with colleagues

in order to share objectives, the new technology and the success factors should they wish to

undertake change. I was encouraged to do just this by several tiers within the school from

administrative staff to teaching staff to the senior management team to governors. Not only

was this encouragement motivational, it allowed me to work in diverse groups to achieve

our goals for healthy communities (US Agency for International Development, 2002) within

and across those groups.

I recognised that whilst I had the necessary technological capabilities, these would mean little

without spreading the practices beyond my classroom. Both the Communications,

Consultancy and Change (CCC) and Project Studies (PS) units underpinned these soft

technology (Weller, 2002, 78) considerations. Personally, I concentrated on honing the skills

to deliver such training and give support.

Two products for the build-up to and from the implementation of the website and intranet

were appendices B (Intranet User Guide) and C (the same for Admin Users). These often

became discussion documents during training sessions, especially the dialogue at the

beginning of appendix B, where I set the agenda for why the school facilitated the

development:

I interpreted the VLC14 as requiring two key facilities:

1. Website and resource links for all subject areas to be built up

over time by departments

2. The ability for staff to post work virtually, to be completed by

the student online, to be marked online, and the marking to be reviewed

by the students online. This essentially means no paper and no my

disk ate it or my print cartridge ran out. (appendix B, 2)

This very useful documentation meant that I could concentrate on the more global issues,

rather than having to repeat the detailed parts to the system. I could show staff once or twice

how to do so and then build in examples of when they might need to use that aspect of the

system. This approach certainly addressed Petersons desire that training looked to address

the needs of librarians15as they learn new skills (and) in the larger contextthe needs of

the organization. (2004, 1)

14 V(irtual) L(earning) C(entre) this was a description for learning via school facilities 24/7 given in the bid.15 This is as per the discussion carried out in Peterson, 2004. In this case I mean the staff at School A.

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Years 5 and 6

This period was marked by the greatest change in career, as I was looking to expand my

portfolio of schools and to heighten my position in order to have a more immediate impact on

decision making. Although I had already been involved on an informal, junior basis in high-

level decisions, the experiences to date equipped me to build on technological innovation and

renovation in a directly responsible way. Until now, many of the projects were not directly

tied to my formal job description. This, of course, had little impact on the effectiveness or my

motivation to carry them out. It also highlights how traditional, formal career development is

very different from a Protean career. I was carrying out projects for my development and for

the betterment of the school.

Although the latter was still true in taking promotion to assistant headship, formalisation of

my position to effect change was a welcome development. Simultaneous with this sentiment

was the ability to take the facilitation of ICT project work through teaching to A-level (level

3), GNVQ having been a level 2 course. Much was put into my path to prevent the

enthusiasm being carried across immediately, ranging from the passing away of the head of

ICT to disastrous results in all the ICT courses taught prior to my arrival.

The first event was the prime mover I gained the opportunity to hone my head of

department skills and thus people management. This essentially put any development work on

hold, aside from consolidating where the department and the school were at for equipment

and software and thus the delivery of ICT. This was my time to develop the CQ elements

further, in a more formal setting.

This concentration allowed me to lay the foundations for establishing what the cultures and

sub-cultures were within my new school. Overall the school of nearly 2000 (the previous one

was a mere 530), faced me with a multitude of cultures. I learned about how to diversify

myself into the numerous dyadic relationships (Triandis, 2006, 20), which takes a great deal

of time, especially with the time that it takes to build trust in an individualistic organisation,

particularly with the teaching staff.

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This done, I went on to begin development of the facilities I took for granted after the projects

at the previous school, a data-driven website, intranet and the purchase of an advanced virtual

learning environment. Through development of positive working relations with my new board

of governors, I released funding of over six times any previous year for this period. The key

relationship in the deployment of equipment was that with the network manager. Prior to my

arrival, the headteacher and the governors were rarely convinced of the curriculum needs that

were driving the purchase of equipment. My intervention and the translation into curriculum

terms of equipment purchases brought the school into the modern age for a school of its size.

Although the network manager and I established a positive working relationship, an

uncontrollable element to my strategic intervention was the LEA. A prime mover behind the

staff intranet project for the benefit of staff was this, in that the school had previously had its

network split into two, administrative and curriculum. This meant that there was no way of

sharing document to run the administrative aspects for teachers, admin staff and managers.

Whilst this is discussed in further detail in chapter 5, for the Protean career it meant creation

of a website-based arena in which to share communications, and thus work with a variety of

staff in order to assist their work. I quickly established in year 5 the personal networks (Hall

and Moss, 1995, 168) that currently underpin my work.

The final consideration for this period was that, through my teaching I was able to experiment

with my teaching groups, particularly A-level, in order to entrench project-based ways of

working. If one works from the premise that material is much easier to learn through teaching,

I had a deep motivation for filtering down and passing on my experiences to my students,

many of the A-level students whom had struggled with inadequate and inappropriate delivery

of ICT throughout their time at School B. My personal learning about the new teaching

syllabi across the range of ICT studies was highly motivational, involving mind, values,

body, emotions (Armstrong, 2003, 561) I was made to wait until the end of year 6 for

success, when my A-level teaching group amassed six A-C grades of seven for their project

work and 13 of 16 GCSE students gained the full course GCSE at A*-C grade. These were

the rewards for patience and understanding of where the ICT department was at my arrival,

what the issues were that impacted negatively on the grades in previous years and how to take

forward a department of inexperienced staff.

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Year 7

This time frame marked the beginning my being able to formalise developments and

improvements to our ICT facilities. A permanent appointment was made for the second time

of a head of ICT. A previous co-ordinator of e-learning, he made a useful ally and addition,

allowing me to have meaningful discussions with a kindred spirit. More importantly, he and I

established high-quality interpersonal relations and developed a sense of collective

responsibility for performance outcomes. (Wageman and Gordon, 2006, 689) Our joint

conscientiousness for ICT developments became unwavering since his joining the school. His

commitment was invaluable when it came to adding to the champions for the VLE, the

administrative tools that I was creating and the use of the school website as a communication

tool. In return, I was able to provide the previous two years experience within the school and,

more importantly, the ICT department and all the previous performance issues associated with

the department.

Wageman and Gordons outline for orchestration entirely applied to this one, new

relationship:

how the task is defined to a group

the rules that managers establish about process (e.g. working alone or not)

physical technology of the task allocation of resources (skills, information, and materials) (2006, adapted 688)

On every account, we collectively moved forward on issues that I found impossible to face

alone, given being mired in the day-to-day departmental affairs during the previous two years.

We began to write the way in which we would engage with the issues, sometimes needing to

put forward difficult viewpoints for consideration by my colleagues in senior management or

to the schools governing body. Overall, we established a mutual understanding, secure dyad

and virtuous cycle of mindful awareness for each others needs.

Better equipped to handle relations, after feeling isolated in my sphere of expertise, I moved

on with other colleagues and thus the VLE agenda. This culminated in a high volume and

limited time frame training programme for nearly half the teaching staff. I managed to work

with these staff with mindfulness not previously apparent and developed a high volume of

teaching resources at the end of the school year. This application of CQ was primarily

instinctive, indicating my development in this area.

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Summary

Years 5 7, although representative of the rewards from project work at School A, both in

terms of salary and position, were characterised by personal development. Not being able to

immediately take the less organic approach to implement systems was de-motivating. On

reflection, the development of my personal skills, particularly the multitude of dyads possible

in such a large school, was necessary in the light of Protean career progression. My intention

is to progress in this way further. This has highlighted how personal progression is more

important than technological progression, both for the organisation and for the change agent. I

had arrived with a strong portfolio of the latter and believed that to be the necessity for

satisfaction. Being prevented from undertaking this immediately, I was forced to look for

different avenues of development.

There now follows a description for a series of projects crucial to my regular practice of

triangulating technology with culture with people (see Figure G above). The balance of the

three aspects varies with each project and context, although all are key in implementing

appropriate change where technology is concerned.

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Chapter 4 Technology College Status, execution of targets

Experiences

School A provided a great many opportunities for professional development and there was no

time to think about whether I had work to do beyond my duties as a classroom teacher.

Included in this menu of activities were:

a new vocational course in the use of ICT

creation of a new school website

creation and implementation of a virtual learning environment

implementation of a network for the first time in the schools history

the use of video-conferencing

Whilst fully documented elsewhere16, it will be useful to reconsider in the context of this

dissertation the two projects that were interlinked, the new website and the VLE. Aspects

surrounding the staff intranet component at School A are discussed in the next section.Concentration on these projects is not to take away from the others, but these give the best

indication of how my skills and working practices began to develop.

The VLE was as a result of the bid target for 24/7 learning at the school. There was little more

written about the target than this and it was left to my interpretation as to what it meant. So,

with my developing skills in Macromedia ColdFusion17 through the MSc course component

DMA, I set to work linking the project for teachers to set and mark work online with the

schools management teams blessing. Inextricably linked with this work was the school

website, given that both staff and students required a portal. Below is an illustration of how

the two intersected:

Figure J: Venn diagram intersecting Intranet and Website aspects18

16

http://ic-t.net/uni/ps_portfolio/ps_report_eak.doc17http://www.macromedia.com/coldfusion18 MSc Project Studies report,http://ic-t.net/uni/ps_portfolio/ps_report_eak.doc, page 1

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Knowledge gained from the school culture and requirements of the VLE

This primary source quickly allowed me to surmise the notion that it was easier for a change

agent to amass the technical skills and create a VLE with a focus on the learners than to bring

in a technical expert, who would need to learn the culture of the school. It is a challenge to

begin work in a new environment and understand the new culture. It can be especially

difficult to break into established dyadic relationships in a school, particularly in curriculum

areas. Bersin highlights the difficulty in bringing in the technical expert: the second most

common problem statedwas difficulty in working with subject-matter experts. You should

expect this to be a challenge. Having had a couple of years experience working in School A,

I had only to apply the technical skills to the culture, which I found to be a very positive,

forward-looking environment, hungry for technological changes to be brought about. This

was an easier environment, when I could provide the evidence that it would save individual

teachers an amount of time or move their working practices forward.

Skills approach taken to the project

Having already taken students through project work via the GNVQ course, I was ready to

move them onto working via a VLE, particularly with my having been a student using similar

technology. Through the MSc Open and Flexible Learning Environments unit, I had a good

idea of what was needed for a VLE to succeed. I kept the model simple, with students being

able to log on, see the work set by their individual teachers, submit a response to the work,

and to have a response set by the teacher with a mark. This was a real innovation on teachers

previous working practices and I found it straightforward to sell it to both staff and the

management team.

In my work during the MSc Communication, Consultancy and Change unit (CCC), I

considered the work reflected by the Accel Team website:

Figure K: Vector diagram, indicating the extent to which organisations can meet goals (2002)

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What this meant for me and my work in meeting the bid target of a VLE was an attempt to

negotiate the needs of the bid (and thus the management team goal for a VLC) with those of

the staff and students. I realised that my eventual success in implementing change lay on the

middle vector as the degree of attainment. Much time was spent in discussion with both

heads of department and with subject teachers in order to assess what capabilities they might

expect from new technologies in their classroom.

Skills the technology

The project incorporating the use of Macromedia ColdFusion prior to the VLE and school

website covered a community of schools project for the benefit of the primary feeder schools

for School A. The intention here was to allow, through a database-driven web interface,

teaching staff to share ideas on issues such as literacy, numeracy, use of ICT, any of the

subjects taught and assembly ideas at primary level. The staff in these schools never met as a

collective to share ideas physically and the headteachers met three times a year, so rare were

the opportunities to exchange any views face to face. My core premise19 was that staff should

be concerned with sharing their ideas rather than figuring out how to write a web page.

I married my already developed skills in Microsoft Access , to create the database

underlying the new website, with developing skills in the predecessor to Macromedia

Dreamweaver MX20, the current range offered by Macromedia, to write the web pages and

connect to the database. Through the auspices of a contact in the Learning and Teaching

Institute at Sheffield Hallam University, I worked closely with the staff there and overcame

any minor technical issues, never losing sight of what I was trying to achieve for the end user.

The key to learning the skills of data-driven web technology was that all developments came

as a result of resolving a need for the teaching staff in the primary school community. It was

not a case of trying to apply new skills to the situation for technologys sake, although when I

read more widely on the topic and developed my skills base I did experiment to understand

the mark-up language more thoroughly.

19 This remains a core belief when applying any technology, not just web pages, to a context.20 I learned CFML (ColdFusion mark-up language) through the program Macromedia UltraDev .

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Ways of working

As it happened, I was working with a group of primary staff through the New Opportunities

Fund ICT training21 for primary schools and had direct contact with staff to test the websites

functions. At these weekly courses, I liaised closely with two headteachers particularly who

were interested in taking the technology forward and who felt that the community might

benefit from the website for sharing ideas.

This small-scale approach is how I began with School As website and VLE, engaging in

conversation the lead departments for the bid22 and others who were interested in the

developments. Most vocal and helpful was the head of languages. Through the VLE, he

managed to place his resources, licensed for school use, onto a virtual platform with password

protection from cassette tapes. This also led him to consider how he might develop his

teaching practice through further use of software such as Microsoft PowerPoint,

incorporating this bank of resources available to students. It was left to the languages and,

through me, the ICT departments to make more complete use of the VLE by setting work,

students completing and marking online23.

The lead departments made some use of the website keywords and resources aspects of the

project, with the design technology department having over 300 keywords placed for the

benefit of its students.

Although the full use of the VLE was in its infancy, I was in a position (as a teaching

colleague with a full-time teaching commitment) to collaborate with staff, not in a supervisory

capacity, and strongly sell the benefits of using the VLE. Although it was disappointing not to

have the full extent explored by all the lead departments, there was a great deal of change

taking place through the use of data-driven technology. The user interface was being

primarily used by the administrative staff with reported ease on behalf of those departments,

which indicated that I had successfully implemented an appropriate technology for the

context.

21 This was underwritten by the TC Trust and validated by the Teacher Training Agency at the time, although the

year after the initial cohort completed their training, the TC Trust pulled the primary training from their offering

of courses.22

For a Technology College at the time, the lead departments were design technology, ICT, maths and science.23 By the time that the initial training was completed and staff members were making use of the VLE and

website, I was nearing the end of my time at School A.

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This disappointment wasnt felt at the time, given the success of the interface with staff who

took the time to engage in it.

What was more difficult was the incorporation of teachers using the technology for placing

online activities. The project combined several aspects of Childs Planned and Emergent

developments, including a radical, emergent change by a self-selecting group in the school

and a incremental, planned change by the entire school via the nebulous in nature, bid target

represented by the 24/7 VLC. I turned it into reality through negotiation with key staff.

When I left School A, I trained and thus empowered the network manager with the ability to

update and archive the existing school website and VLE, having re-written the administrative

interface after thorough consultation with the network manager. Although I wasnt paid for

doing this, I used the information in the Project Studies report and benefited from the

experience by needing to make the admin functionality more user-friendly.

Application of work components

To summarise, I used the MSc DMA, CCC and Project Studies units to create, drive and

document the work undertaken respectively. These were useful in their own spheres, giving

me intrinsic motivation to succeed, although I was answerable to the management team at

School A. This intrinsic motivation was rewarded by consultancy work for the school,

remunerated over and above my teaching contract for the creation of the website and intranet.

The result was a real discount monetarily on bringing a technical expert in to achieve the

same end for the 100 hours I billed to the school. Apart from this, this expert had an insight

to the staff and had already made inroads to working dyadic relationships apart from technical

innovations.

I drifted from my initial focus on the technological aspects through reflection on how best to

implement the change. Working against the full integration of the new technology was my

being promoted to assistant headship at School B24.

24 With my input being vacated because of my departure, School A replaced my head of ICT post with a head of

ICT teaching post and the separate, new post of website and database administrator. The latter was a technically-facing post. Since my departure, the person who filled the latter post has re-written the website with active server

pages (asp) mark-up language and the VLC project has yet to be replaced.

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Chapter 5 Development of school administrative capability

Experiences

Part of the website development work at School A involved my identifying the need to better

co-ordinate a paper-driven administrative function. This revolved around staff reporting

absences and requesting absence from school due to attending a course. There seemed to be a

great deal of time wasted on the data-processing of both types of form and, occasionally, the

loss of a form caused consternation for the running of the school25.

The drive to save administrative time and perceived difficulties has continuously been a

motivating force in writing data-driven web interfaces. Limited at School A to courses and

absences reporting, I expanded the staff intranet to include supervision room sendings26, room

and IT facility booking, posting vacancies and educational visits information. Over and above

these, I realised that there was a straightforward way of allowing school staff the ability to

alter web pages for which they wished to take responsibility through the staff intranet. This is

without the necessity to learn any web programming language, although the formatting of text

through basic hypertext mark-up language (html) is useful, hence my inclusion of the help

sheet at the end of Appendix E, after Page 10 (see screenshot below).

Figure L: Part of the html Text Help Sheet, included in Appendix E

The connection between the website and an intranet built upon my previous experience of

connecting the VLE and intranet. I had little desire to re-write a VLE for School B, given the

25 School A, although jettisoning previous development work, has retained the use of the system I put into place

for tracking courses and absences.26 The supervision room is manned by a member of the management team, head of year group or head of

curriculum subject, as part of that staff members teaching timetable. When a student gets to three warnings for

behaviour, a teacher is within his or her rights to send the student from the classroom to restore a calm

classroom. The order of events for tracking a student prior to the staff intranet sent is: the student arrives and

informs the member of staff of his/her name, subject sent from, year group, tutor group; the staff member logs

this on an A3 landscape sheet; the sheet (with all sendings from every subject and year group) at the end of each

day is photocopied for every HOD and HOY and for most of the SMT. This is then entered onto a mail merge

system for sending letters to parents and onto the MIS for student record purposes. For summaries, the

information then needs entering onto a spreadsheet. The time delays inherent in all parties receiving the rightinformation at the right time are outside the scope of this research, but do underline the importance of the staff

intranet project.

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Chapter 5 Development of school administrative capability

organisational difficulties for me, running the ICT department and yet saw value in giving

staff the same capability as I had in altering the pages of a website.

Knowledge gained from learning school culture and requirements of administration

Creation of the intranet was a good way of gaining insights to the non-teaching functions of

both schools. As it happened, the head of languages at School A, who was so helpful in taking

forward the VLE project, was also the staff development co-ordinator and he found it difficult

to overcome some of the issues over staff absences, including:

an overview of staff absence for non-academic reasons.

tracking of staff courses for the purposes of performance management

reviewing the spread of expertise across staff through expanding the numbers of staff

attending courses

checking the budgets paying for courses and that the school as a whole was in budget

For School B, my initial work involved me in getting to know the simple mechanics of

informing parents that their child had been sent to the supervision room. This meant speaking

to the deputy headteacher, heads of year and curriculum areas who monitored behaviour

issues generally and administrative staff who supported the latter in their monitoring role. The

key issues included:

two weeks time delay in the sending of a student to the receipt home of a letter

double entry of the sending, one for the management information system and another

for the mail-merge software to generate the letter27

variability in the comments being logged to reflect the behaviour, which led to

difficulties in standardising a response to student and parents

To restore trust in the system, both for staff and students who were subject to it, and to allow

all staff, independent of which network they were members of, to access, enter and alter

information easily and neatly, I called again on a data-driven web interface.

27 This, already a waste of time during the double-entry, did not include the initial documenting of the sending by

the staff member manning the

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