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