Collaboration in the age of personalised mass(ive) education

In the paper we explore a number of issues we believe challenge some current notions of collaboration. We explore tensions arising from the increased interest in personalised open learning, and how this challenges, but also offers new ways of conceptualising collaboration towards group-organisations that are more nomadic entanglements of shifting participation

Can Networked Learning be defined - and should it be?

A recurrent question in the context of the Networked Learning Conference (NLC) is “what do we mean by ‘networked learning’?” This question is raised not only before the conference, by potential submitters of papers to it, but is often discussed during the conferences, too. Several answers have been provided in the literature, and though they do not exactly collide, they do seem to vary somewhat on what they emphasize. A common outset is the early, often-quoted definition of Networked Learning by Goodyear, Banks, Hodgson, and McConnell (2004, p. 1) which stresses connections - between people, and between people and resources - as the defining characteristic of Networked Learning, and ICT as the medium that provides these connections. In later years, however, some researchers have focused more on persons and less on ICT as the loci of connections, understanding a person as networked to others, e.g. in the workplace (De Laat, 2012). Others have viewed the defining point of networked learning as the sociomaterial entanglement of physical, virtual, human, organizational “actants” (Fox, 2005; Wright & Parchoma, 2014), in effect arguing that all learning is networked learning and placing no priority on ICT-mediation

A practical action perspective and understanding on becoming a networked learning educator

In the paper we examine one of the enduring issues in networked learning of the reticence of academics to work with and/or run networked learning courses mediated by technology. The paper is based on an analysis of the situated practice of members of an academic department and the work done in becoming a networked learning educator. It builds on the recent interest in practice based studies (PBS) that has led to an increase in looking at learning and knowing through the doing of practice. Following Schatzki, (2001) we see practice as an embodied and materially mediated activity around practical understanding. The research approach we have chosen to look at this is that associated with ethnomethodology; which has a long-standing interest in the understanding of practical action. In the paper we offer an account of the social fact of the competent university teacher as constructed in what Garfinkel (1967) refers to as ‘common understanding’ exhibited in the methods used and descriptions of practice-in-action of members of the department. We go on to examine an account of designing an online module and the practice-in-action exhibited by Emma in becoming a networked learning educator. We conclude with the suggestion that the pattern and rhythm of said module could be used as a starting point for a pedagogical framework that can accommodate and/or exhibit the practical understanding of pedagogy for members of the department

Developing a model of conflict in virtual learning communities in the context of a democratic pedagogy

In this paper, we argue that in order to get a fuller understanding of the complexity of conflict in democratic pedagogies in online and blended learning settings, it is important to know not only how to manage or resolve it, but also how it is triggered and can be avoided. The emancipatory nature of democratic pedagogies fosters differences, and differences provide the basis for the emergence of conflict among learning community members. Much has been written on certain aspects of conflict, such as conflict management or effects of conflict; however, these studies are frequently disparate and fragmented. Conflict has a cyclical dynamic and the main purpose of this study has been to experimentally build an analytical model of this cyclical dynamic of conflict, drawing on both literature and research data.We believe that such a model might empower practitioners and designers of democratic pedagogies to embrace and work with the differences that lead to conflict, as a way to support collaborative learning and action. The model of conflict which emerged at the end of the study is supported by illustrative qualitative evidence and constituted in a diagrammatic depiction of analytic themes that illustrate the connections between these themes, and the values ascribed to them. The outcomes of this study have implications for developing learning strategies for distance and blended learnin

The Epistemic Practice of Networked Learning

This paper has two aims; first to understand how networked learning has developed as a field and educational approach in the last 20 years; and second to consider the contribution the Networked Learning Conference has had to the development of the field. To achieve this we conducted a survey of people who have regularly presented or published papers from the Networked Learning Conference (NLC) since its inception in 1998. The purpose of the survey was to understand the role the conference has played for them in the development of their thinking and ideas over time, and what this means for the theory, pedagogy and practice of networked learning. In order to provide a context in which to examine respondents’ experiences of networked learning, we situate the paper in the current definition of the term. Since the first conference in 1998, the definition of networked learning has come to be defined as involving the key characteristics of learning community; connections; reflexivity; criticality; collaboration; and relational dialogue. Our survey involved sending an email to 30 NLC participants in which we asked them to respond to five questions about their experience of the conference. 21 responses were returned. In general, many people felt that networked learning gives a frame of reference where the conference enacts the values of networked learning as a research community. We thus argue in the paper that a closer examination of the NLC offers an interesting opportunity to re-evaluate key characteristics and values associated with networked learning, which informs us of networked learning as a social practice. To achieve this, we focus in depth on four areas that figured particularly strongly in the analysis and which we believe are worthy of further discussion. They are critical space, community, scholarship, and developing practice. We found there was a degree of overlap and interaction between these areas, and that together these four areas constitute key aspects to the way way the networked learning conference 'institutionalises' networked learning as a practical accomplishment

Cultural politics in critical action learning : A Bourdieusian analysis of a management development program in Tanzania

Critical action learning (CAL) is a collaborative approach to management learning that uses sets of managers and a cyclical process of action and reflection on real-life managerial problems to create learning that has the potential to transform managerial practice. What distinguishes CAL from conventional approaches to action learning is its explicit focus on critical reflection and the exploration of the political and emotional dynamics that are mobilised in the sets as a source for learning. Studies have shown that the broader local context in which CAL participants are embedded has the potential to mobilise political dynamics in the sets that promote or constrain learning from critical reflection. In this research, I investigate the impact of participants’ local cultural context on CAL in an organisational program in Tanzania. To date this is a neglected phenomenon in academic research, where studies exploring such dynamics have been almost exclusively conducted in Western settings. I argue that to understand the potential and limitations of CAL in non-Western contexts, it is important to gain insight into the cultural politics that are mobilised in the participants’ experience with a CAL design and the ways in which they constrain or promote learning. The research has originated from my own professional experience as a Learning and Development Consultant working across the globe, and I use my own work as a vehicle for the study. Using an ethnographic approach, I examine the introduction of a CALbased leadership development program (LDP) for middle managers in a microfinance institution (MFI) in Tanzania, in which I had a leading role in designing and facilitating. To explore the cultural dynamics in the LDP in some depth and a systematic manner, I draw on a Bourdieu’s theory of practice (1992) to analyse the assumptions about learning and managing that underpin the LDP (field), the participants’ local culture (habitus), and the participants’ tendencies to act in the CAL sets (practice). The analysis surfaced three cultural dynamics that have limited learning. These were rooted in the participants’ experience of the CAL design as threat to their positioning in both the organisation and their communities and manifested themselves in their strategies to protect the recognition of their managerial authority, the harmony in their peer relationships, and their financial income. These strategies significantly limited critical reflection in the LDP and were sustained by my own facilitation practice. This study contributes to knowledge in several ways: First, it surfaces how in Tanzanian organisations, set members meet as ‘experts and apprentices with commonalities’ rather than as ‘comrades-in-adversity’ (Revans, 1982b) or ‘adversaries with commonality’ (Vince, 2004). Second, it highlights the value of a socioeconomic lens to make sense of CAL practices in Tanzanian organisations, which so far has been unexplored. Third, it sheds light on an underdeveloped area of Bourdieu’s (1992) concept of illusio by surfacing the embeddedness of a field illusio in a hierarchical system of several illusio, which shapes how it is enacted. Fourth, it deepens our understanding of the emotional and political dynamics of CAL facilitation, by foregrounding how diverse roles and positionings have shaped my facilitation practice

A phenomenographic study of lecturers’ conceptions of using learning technology in a Pakistani context

While there are many studies exploring the phenomenon of lecturers’ use of learning technology within teaching practices in western higher education contexts, currently we know little about this phenomenon within less developed countries. In the paper, we discuss the findings from a phenomenographic study of lecturers’ conceptions of using learning technology in a Pakistani university context. We describe how lecturers’ use of learning technology is underpinned by their pedagogical understanding. Furthermore, we show that prevailing contextual socio-economic and technological limitations affect lecturers’ daily pedagogical practices and use of learning technology. The results of the study demonstrate the importance and influence of lecturers’ pedagogical understandings and of contextual limitations within daily teaching practices on their experiences of using learning technology. The findings have wider implications for our understanding of the variation in ways learning technology is understood and used within pedagogical practice in other developing and more developed contexts

Socio-digital disadvantage within management education : a study of MBA students’ experiences of digital technologies

Assumptions regarding digital technologies in business schools have become part of the hidden curriculum. It is generally assumed that students have the same levels of access and prior exposure to digital technologies as well as information and digital literacies (IDL) skills. Little attention has been given to the issues of social-digital inequalities and the impact of this hidden curriculum on students from disadvantaged backgrounds. In this study, using a phenomenographic approach, we examine how students from rural, socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds in Pakistan, experienced digital technologies in the context of a full-time, in-person MBA program. The findings reveal the students initially had an alienating experience of digital technologies which for most transitions to either an engaged or instrumental experience. While the students exercised agency in transitioning from an alienation experience this was as a result of their own effort, time and labor. We conclude that without additional support offered to students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds, the hidden curriculum associated with digital technologies potentially perpetuates, or maintains socio-digital inequalities within management education