Educational Technology: An Ecumenical Stance

"Get up, stand up" - Bob Marley

Here is the paper Educational Technology: An Ecumenical Stance, which I wrote with Sue Greener and Asher Rospigliosi for ICICTE 2008. (The picture is of Urulua LeGuin, who wrote The Ecumen books).

We examine media & technological determinism in the context of educational technology. We argue that educational technologists cannot take a ‘deterministic stance’ & should practice ethics founded on an ecumenical view of theory & technology. Taking a cue from social cognitive theory, senior educational technologists should also visibly engage in reflective practice leading to ethical outcomes to motivate less senior members of the profession to do likewise. We note the problem that many senior educational technologists are aligned with a particular theory and/or technology, which has helped them to secure their position. They will need to change their outlook in order to address these goals & this is very hard for senior practioners to do. We suggest that action learning might offer a supportive route to personal transformation.

Shurville, S., Greener, S. and Rospiglosi, A. (2008). Educational Technology: An Ecumenical Stance. In the proceedings of the 8th International Conference of Information and Communications Technologies in Education, Corfu, Greece.

ICICTE 2008

"These miss you nights ... are the long nights" - Cliff Richard

Sadly we could not attend ICICTE this year as it was impossible to get plane tickets from Australia to Greece due to the Olympics. However, we were pleased to be woken up in the middle of the night by a phone call from Henk, Ken, Nancy and Nicole from the conference dinner. Even though you were eating Greek lamb on a balmy summer evening and we were huddled in a South Australia winter without central heating, we missed you guys.

I also missed my spars Asher and Mitch at ICICTE. However, I was unsuprised to learn that Asher has burned down his house in the country in order to move into a Tipee. Anyway, I hear he did a great job of presenting the paper by Shurville, Greener and Rospigliosi.

This year the ICICTE special issue of Campus Wide Information Systems will be edited by Dr Michael Henderson. Mike is already doing a superb job and I predict he will edit his own journal before we know it.

Some recent papers

"Now I believe this, and it's been proven by research ..." - Joe Strummer

Here are some recent publications and presentations:

• Shurville, S. and Owens, A. (in press). Always Coming Home: Applying Force Field Analysis as a Structured Approach to Eliciting Ongoing Organizational Contexts and Requirements for Flexible Learning. UCFV Research Review.
• Shurville, S., O’Grady, T., and Mayall, P. (2008). Educational and institutional Flexibility of Australian Educational Software. Campus-Wide Information Systems,Volume 25, Issue 2, pp 74-84.
• Scott, B., Shurville, S., Maclean, P. and Cong, C. (2007). Cybernetic Principles for Learning Design. Kybernetes, Volume 36, Issue 9/10, pp 1497 - 1514.
• Browne, T. and Shurville, S. (2007) Educating Minds for the Knowledge Economy. Journal of Organisational Transformation and Social Change, Volume 4, Issue 1, pp 3-12.
• Greener, S., Rospiglosi, A. and Shurville, S. (2007). Engaging from the Inside: Reflections on the Value of Social Cognitive Theory for Learning in Online Discussion. In the proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on e-Learning, Columbia University, New York, USA.
• Greener, S., Shurville, S. and Rospiglosi, A. (2007). The Value of Social Cognitive Theory in Online Discussion: Reflection via a Critical Incident repertory Grid. In the proceedings of the 7th International Conference of Information and Communications Technologies in Education, Crete, Greece.
• Shurville, S. and Browne, T. (eds.) (2007). A special double issue of the Journal of Organizational Transformation and Social Change on ICT-Driven Change in Higher Education (Part Two). Journal of Organisational Transformation and Social Change, Volume 4, Issue 1.
• Shurville, S. and Fernstrom, K. (eds.) (2007a). Special Issue of Campus Wide Information Systems on Global Educational Networks for the Common Good. Campus Wide Information Systems, Volume 24, Issue 3.
• Shurville, S. and Fernstrom, K. (2007b). From Rhodes to Global Educational Networks for the Common Good. Campus Wide Information Systems, Volume 24, Issue 3.
• Shurville, S. and Owens, A. (2007). Engaging Colleagues in Personal and Organizational Change via Force Field Analysis. In the proceedings of the 7th International Conference of Information and Communications Technologies in Education, Crete, Greece.
• Shurville, S. (2007) Successful ICT-Driven Change in Higher Education. Presented at International Hive User Group 3rd Annual Conference, Perth Western Australia.
• Browne, T. and Shurville, S. (2006). Initiating E-learning by Stealth at a Late Majority Institution. In Fernstrom, K. and Tsolakidis, K. (eds.) Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Information Technologies in Education pp 101-106.
• Luckin, R., Shurville, S. and Browne, T. (2006). Initiating E-Learning by Stealth, Participation and Consultation in a Late Majority Institution. Journal of Organisational Transformation and Social Change, Volume 3, Issue 3, pp 317-332.
• Shurville, S. and Browne, T. (eds.) (2006a). A special double issue of the Journal of Organizational Transformation and Social Change on ICT-Driven Change in Higher Education (Part One). Journal of Organisational Transformation and Social Change, Volume 3, Issue 3.
• Shurville, S. and Browne, T. (2006b). Introduction: ICT-Driven Change in Higher Education: Learning from E-Learning. Journal of Organisational Transformation and Social Change, Volume 3, Issue 1, pp 245-250.
• Shurville, S., Simpson-Horn, G., Scott, B., Lee, M. P. and Harrison, A. (2006) Outcomes of the Periodic Review of an MSc in Knowledge Management Systems Taught via Flexible Learning. In Fernstrom, K. and Tsolakidis, K. (eds.) Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Information Technologies in Education, pp 348-352.
• Scott, B. and Shurville, S. (2005). Epistemological Unification of the Disciplines: The Contributions of Socio- Cybernetics. In the proceedings of the Sixth European Congress on Systems Science Paris, France, September 19-22, 2005 (CD-ROM only).
• Shurville, S., Rospigliosi, A. and Scott, B. (2005). Innovative courses in E-Business Information Systems for SMEs. In Méndez-Vilas, A. , González-Pereira, B., J. Mesa González, J., and Mesa González, J.A. (eds.) Recent Research Developments in Learning Technologies. Published by FORMATEX, Badajoz, Spain, pp 160-164.
• Shurville, S. Lee, M., Scott, B. and Harrison, A. (2005). Design, Development and Delivery of an Innovative Blended MSc in Knowledge Management. In Hawamdeh, S. (ed.) Knowledge Management: Nurturing Culture, Innovation and Technology, Hackensack, NJ: World Scientific, pp 537-550.
• Shurville, S. and Williams, J. (2005). Managing In-House Development of a Campus-Wide Information System. Campus-Wide Information Systems, 22, 1, pp 15-27.

Where the copyright is kosher, these can be requested from me.

I have three papers accepted by ICICTE 2008

"We three ..." - Patti Smith*

I have three papers accepted for ICICTE 2008 this year:

• Building a Variety of Educational Technology Worth Wanting by Dr Simon Shurville, Dr Sue Greener and Pericles ‘Asher’ Rospigliosi.



• Embedding Educational Technologists within University Structures by Dr Tom Browne, Dr Marian Whitaker and Dr Simon Shurville.



• The Extended Mind and Learner Generated Contexts by Dr Simon Shurville.
  

Henk Eijkman and I are also running a symposium at the conference on the philosophy of educational technology. I hope to see lots of regulars at the conference and look forward to co-editing the Campus-Wide Information Systems special issue based upon it.

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* "Every night on sep'rate stars, before we go to sleep, we pray so breathlessly. Baby, please, don't take my hope away from me."

If you have not heard We Three sung by Patti Smith (or Bob Dylan), then do yourself a very big favour and buy Patti's Easter album then take out an hour or three to engage with a Rock N Roll poet at the top of her game. Finding the Dylan version takes a bit longer with a torrent search engine but as Stan Lee would say "it qualifies you as a true beliver".

Reflecting on reflection

"have you any dreams you'd like to sell?" - Fleetwood Mac

"The mirror stares you in the face and says baby, uh uh it don't work" - Earth, Wind and Fire

I love reflective practice. The paragraph below is from 'Engaging from the Inside: Reflections on the Value of Social Cognitive Theory for Learning in Online Discussions' by Susan Greener, Asher Rospigliosi and Simon Shurville. We have been invited to upsize the presentation into a journal article.

Why should we reflect? We reflect as part of our natural thinking behaviours (Hall’s “everyday reflective practice” (1997)) as part of what makes us human. From a pedagogical perspective, Schon (1987) emphasizes the ideas of “reflection in action” and “reflection on action”, distinguishing between that which is done in the midst of action and can alter our responses and behaviours in real time, and that which takes place after an action is completed, where new views of reality can be made, producing post facto learning. Here reflection takes on a purposive flavour, a tradition, which includes Dewey and Habermas advocating a deliberate and systematic approach to reflection (Dewey 1997; Morrison 1995). It is this purposive approach to reflection, which can underpin transformational learning (Mezirow 1978; Moon 2000) and develop knowledge (Dewey 1997).

I think reflection is a really important part of 'Critical Technical Practice', which is my prefered mode of work. I was introduced to this concept through Agre (1997a, 1997b) who writes extensively on establishing a critical-technical practice in computing.

Critical-technical practice has four parts:

1. Once a problem presents itself, the practitioner searches the literature—formal, informal, printed, e-published, blogs etc—for insights
2. The practitioner applies insights to the problem in a practical setting
3. The practitioner evaluates and reflects upon the solution and any changes in methodology
4. The practitioner may share the results with their community of practice in the literature.

There are some potential pitfalls for this approach:

Since the literature in question might originate from an associated or foreign discipline, colleagues in one’s own discipline might not take it seriously or feel offended and threatened by its introduction.

Some practical colleagues do not see any advantage to bringing ‘book learning’ to the work place
Public reporting on failure or success can be seen as damaging to an organisation or wasteful of the manager’s time.

Somehow, then, the practitioner either needs to ensure that this method is applied in a way that is non-threatening to their colleagues and their own career or to plan a career change in the immediate post critical-technical practice future.

References

• Agre, P. (1997a) Toward a Critical-technical Practice: Lessons Learned in Trying to Reform AI. In Bowker et al (1997).
• Agre, P. (1997b) Computation and Human Experience. University of Oxford Press.
  Also available at http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/pagre/critical.html.
• Bowker, G., Les Gasser, B., Leigh Star, S. and Turner, R., (1997) (eds.), Bridging the Great Divide: Social Science, Technical Systems, and Cooperative Work. Lawrence Erlbaum.
• Dewey, J. (1997). How We Think.Dover edition reprint of 1910 edition. New York, Dover Publications Inc.
• Greener, S., Rospiglosi, A. and Shurville, S. (2007). Engaging from the Inside: Reflections on the Value of Social Cognitive Theory for Learning in Online Discussion. In the proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on e-Learning, Columbia University, New York, USA.
• Hall, S. (1997). Forms of reflective teaching practice in higher education. in R. Pospisil and L. Willcoxson's Learning Through Teaching. Proceedings of the 6th Annual Teaching Learning Forum, Murdoch University, Perth, Murdoch University.
• Mezirow, J. (1978). "Perspective Transformation." adult education 28(2): 100-109.
• Moon, J. (2000). "Reflection in Learning & Professional Development ".
• Morrison, K. (1995). "Dewey, Habermas and reflective practice." Curriculum 16(2): 82-94.
• Schon, D. (1987). Teaching artistry through reflection-in-action. Educating the reflective practitioner. Translated by D. Schon. San Francisco, CA, Jossey-Bass Publishers.