Organisational policies, governance & processes as barriers to using social media

Professor Mark Stiles

Staffordshire University

SVEA – November 2011

What, why and who?

“Social media” covers a wide range of (possibly) in-house and “web 2.0”/”Cloud” tools

The prime purpose of “social media” in personal, business and educational contexts is about the “5 Cs” (Friedman and Friedman 2008):• Communication• Collaboration • Community • Creativity • Convergence

In Lifelong Learning its use concerns, institutions, other organisations, employers and individuals

SVEA November 2011

My messages…

• “Social media use” in education is an INNOVATION

• Many organisations – especially educational ones – struggle to maintain innovations

• “Social media use” challenges organisational structures and cultures

• Learners and practitioners will lose heart if things are made difficult and fail to meet their expectations

SVEA November 2011

The Challenges…

   The world of education is

changing in national/organisational/individual/educational ways and both institutions and practitioners have embedded cultural and behavioural practices that are limiting their ability to respond – so do many partners organisations!

SVEA November 2011

The “Landscapes”…

What "landscapes" confront the educational innovator? National & Political landscape – a new political climate and rapidly changing funding models Organizational landscape - where institutions struggle to innovate and respond to change Individual landscape- where a new generation, including work-based learners, have very different

requirements, expectations and personal constraints.   Educational landscape - can no longer be concerned solely with enhancement but must "deliver to

budget” and to the expectations of the other three landscapes.

SVEA November 2011

National/Political Landscape:

 Current political and economic climates and resulting changes

in funding models have the potential to transform Further & Higher Education into a truly commodity-driven market where even the learner is a commodity.  

SVEA November 2011

“Big HE”

SVEA November 2011

National/Political Landscape:

Such a market driven approach to HE using “pay-as-you-consume” methods could:

•record all the learning activities purchased and undertaken by the individual learner

•this could be incorporated into a portfolio along with evidence and reflection

•BUT this information could be also used to assess the “cost-effectiveness” of the individual

•and along with sophisticated job profiling be used in selection processes

•this could be regarded as “commodification of the workforce” (just one example).

SVEA November 2011

Organisational Landscape:

Where institutions struggle to innovate and respond to change, laden as they are with policy, governance and organisational cultures, which are solution rather than problem focused, and customer centric in name only.

SVEA November 2011

Your Institution?

• excessive hierarchy and over-heavy bureaucracy, the comfort of ingrained routines, strong vertical command structures and weak lateral and bottom-up communication, unbalanced and non-integrated authority across professional domains, conservatism and risk aversion, territoriality, defensiveness and insecurity as well as wilfulness (Middlehurst, 1998)

• The individual experts may be highly innovative within a specialist domain, but the difficulties of coordination across functions and disciplines impose severe limits on the innovative capability of the organization as a whole. (Lam, 2005)

SVEA November 2011

Technology and Innovation

Traditionally:

• technology has allowed adoption of TL&A approaches previously difficult to deliver/resource

• interoperability has improved management and development

• development and adoption has followed traditional IT paths

SVEA November 2011

Technology and Innovation

But now:

• Social media, web apps, mobile devices, cloud, BYOT

• technologies stand/fall in a “mass-market” way.

• adoption by take-up and “critical mass”

• at the individual user level

• in multiple contexts - private, social and commercial.

• once spread into the mass market - become almost unstoppable

SVEA November 2011

Adoption of New Technologies 1:

Private Use

Informal Learning

Own Formal Learning

Practitioner Independent

Initiatives

Demands for integration

Critical Level of

Use

Challenges to: support, resources, processes,

policies, regulations and governance

A perception of “the institution getting in the way” can result in an effective block on innovation

Spread

“Viral Innovation”

SVEA November 2011

Adoption of New Technologies 2:

Local Problem

Local Investigation

SolutionPractitioner

Adoption

Demands for integration

Critical Level of Use

Challenges to: support, resources, processes,

policies, regulations and governance

what differs here is change is based on a specific process

change or education model

“vetting” proposed trials/pilots can result in practitioners “going native”

Spread

“Local Initiative”

SVEA November 2011

Adoption of New Technologies 3:

Team Problem

Centrally Aided Investigation Solution Pilot

Consideration of Impact

Planned changes to: support, resources, processes, policies,

regulations and governance

Mainstreaming

Successful pilots not easy to “turn off” and can result in “fait accompli”

“Vetting” proposed trails/pilots can result in practitioners “going native”

Pilot a success

Mainstreaming of local pilots very difficult and even if successful often results in silos

“Innovation Pilot”

SVEA November 2011

Adoption of New Technologies 4:

PositioningInformation gathering

and analysisFeasibility

study

Business case

Statement of requirements

ProcurementImplementation

“Strategically driven” but often solution focused

Lack of big picture can result in silos

Poor governance often results in inadequate stakeholder engagement

“Strategic Initiative”

SVEA November 2011

Organisational Barriers(Not just educational organisations – this is Lifelong Learning)

Fear:

• Accessibility

• Privacy and safety

• IPR and Copyright

• Reputation loss

• Loss of control

• New pedagogies/ways of working

• Pace of change

SVEA November 2011

Organisational Barriers(Not just educational organisations – this is Lifelong Learning)

Governance:

• Quality assurance/enhancement

• Marketing

• Assessment regulations

• “Product” development

• IT Regulations and Governance

• Bureaucracy in general!

SVEA November 2011

Organisational Barriers(Not just educational organisations – this is Lifelong Learning)

IT Barriers:

• Linking externally hosted applications to internal ones

• Blocking and filtering

• Support and expertise

• Loss of control (again)

• Loss of existing investment

• Open vs. closed

SVEA November 2011

Organisational Barriers(Not just educational organisations – this is Lifelong Learning)

Organisational and Management Culture - Social media use:

• threatens hierarchical structures

• erodes traditional roles

• removes “gatekeepers”

• changes power dynamics

• needs changed views of “risk”

SVEA November 2011

A “thought” on policy…

Bureaucracy can be a very real barrier to innovation, and much bureaucracy is founded on satisfying “sectional” needs or “regulatory” requirements

I’d like to suggest part of our salvation lies in policy, but using policies which enable and facilitate and not control and regulate unnecessarily…

SVEA November 2011

Individual Landscape:

Our “customers” will:• expect to be treated as a paying client• expect more individualised “product”• increasingly want work-based and focused “product”• want flexibility

Tutors and learners will build their own toolsets from: • what is provided by the institution • what they have on their own (personal) computer• what is available on the Web.

Learners will• “opt out” of systems institutions and tutors might prefer them to

use for formal learning activities• initiate “sharing” and “community” activities outside of formal

learning using tools they have chosen.• engage with wider and more diverse communities.• build their own learning environments

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Possible loci of activityControl level

Institution Initiated

Tutor Initiated Learner Initiated

Control EnrolmentProgression

Summative assessmentCourse structure

Submission of work for assessment

Manage Tutor led discussionLectureCourse Resources

Facilitate Group Project Course/Group Discussion

Enable Formal Peer discussionBlog of learning experience

Recognise Informal peer discussionPersonal Blog

SVEA November 2011

Educational Landscape:

My own view is that despite all the pressures the quality of learning experience being provided is high and continues to improve…

But – we are increasingly expected to “deliver to – decreasing - budget”

We have reached a point where something being “better” or “more educationally effective” is not enough…

 

SVEA November 2011

Educational Landscape:

What I see in Lifelong Learning and Vocational Education:

• Greater influence by employers• Reduced ranges of courses offered• More individualised courses• More APEL• Reduced staffing• Alternative providers• OER• Learners studying “cross” institution• More self-learn• More work-based learning

A BIG role for Social Media

SVEA November 2011

What’s to be done?

I hope you know better than I do! There is real expertise on using social media as a rich educational tool here today!

But from my “boring” perspective”:

• Fight to get your institution to take an organisation-wide view of ALL its information – not just the “admin”

• Finds ways of presenting social media as “good value”, “employer and customer” centric, and above all “cost effective”

• Fight to get policy and governance that liberates rather than binds

Above all – show innovation works!

SVEA November 2011

Thank you for

your patience

m.j.stiles@staffs.ac.uk

Tensions between Innovation and Control:http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6572643972

Big HE:http://learning.staffs.ac.uk/ldiwebsite/reports.html

SVEA November 2011