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UCT

"ACADEMIC GREYBEARDS AND THE NET GENERATION"

Derek Smith

TraditionalTeaching

SpaceThe “Wise Guru”transfersInformationandKnowledgeandWisdom

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The Great Unwashed

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The Net Generation (born after 1982) likes……

Digital, Connected, Experiential, Immediate, Social

Teams, peer-to-peer Engagement & experience Visual Things that matter

(Oblinger,2005)

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Is anybody actually listening (apart from the guy in the orange t-shirt?

Learning SpaceInformation

Knowledgewisdom

?

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The Net Generation

Academic 1.0

Grey-beards aka Baby Boomers- Boomers retiring soon-Taking their knowledge with them?

WEB 2.0

Learning Space

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Web 2.0

New competencies:Advisor,Facilitator,Mentor,Knowledge manager,Administrator

Academic 2.0

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Web 2.0

MyLearning Space?

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it is a community I belong to, not an e-mail list

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I am learning about a bleeding edge topic (Radical management)

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Discussing the subtleties of an exciting topic.

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Connectingwithalumni andprofessionalcolleagues

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BroadeningmyKnowledge.

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Sub-communities

My Current CoP Initiatives15

CoPs

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My Proposal to the SACLA conference

Build a Community of Practice for IT academics in Southern

Africa where: courseware and research is

shared, reusable and online and

where experts can give advice on problems

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Developing IT Project Managers

~1500 “PM graduates” over 20 years for commerce and industry

Ongoing shortage of PM expertise in South Africa

How to fast track to a mastery level?

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My Proposal.......Build a common portal for an

IT project manager Community of Practice which

provides connectivity, problem-solving, knowledge

sharing, resources and research output

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Communities of Practice...........are “groups of people who share a

concern, a set of problems, or passion for a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis”.

(Wenger et al, 2002)

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Connect peopleProvide a shared contextEnable dialogueStimulate learningCapture knowledgeProvide an information exchange

processHelp in problem-solvingGenerate new knowledge and change

(Cambridge et al, 2005)

A CoP can....

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A CoP fails because.... Low facilitator involvement Irrelevant topics for users No organisational support

(Dube et al, 2005)

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What motivates CoP members?

(Zboralski, 2009)

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CoPs Lifecycle

Wenger et al, 2002

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So we can all belong to many CoPs but they all require a .........

Technical architecture that provides a platform for communication and collaboration

Social architecture of the community to enliven it.

Wenger et al, 2002

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PURPOSE of the CoP Every community is unique Each has distinct goals, member

characteristics/needs and purpose The Purpose can be a mixture of:

Develop relationshipsLearn and develop practiceCarry out projectsCreate new knowledge

28UCT Academic Retirees over 10 years

Year of retirement Female Male Total2009 1 13 142010 6 10 162011 8 17 252012 4 15 192013 5 20 252014 2 30 322015 10 11 212016 10 12 222017 11 19 302018 11 27 38Total 68 174 242

Academic staff as at October 2009PE and T3 onlyincludes GOB and non-GOB fundedincludes clinical academicsFrom Judith du Toit

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UCT Strategic Plan 2010-2014 How can UCT augment its activities

to better answer the pressing social, economic and developmental problems facing South Africa and the rest of Africa?

Goal 6: Expanding and Enhancing UCT’s Contribution to South Africa’s Development challenges

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An Exciting Opportunity for UCT?

Offer a “community” service to provide a broad CoP technical architecture for communication and collaboration

Use retirees (greybeards) and alumni (net generation) to build the social architectures

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CoPshosted by UCT?

technical architecture

social architectures

Greybeards supporting the net generation

Possible Way Forward?32

Feasibility Study and Business Case for a CoP pilot

My commitment to SACLA and “project managers in Western

Cape”.

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ReadingsCambridge, D., Kaplan, S. & Suter, V. (2005). Community of Practice Guide: A Step-by-

Step Guide for Designing & Cultivating Communities of Practice in Higher Education. Accessed www.educause.edu on 8 November 2009.

Debe, L., Bourhis, A. & Real, J. (2005). The Impact of Structuring Characteristics on the Launching of Virtual Communities of Practice, Journal of Organizational Change Management, 18 (2): 145-168.

Oblinger, D.G. (2005) Educating the Net Gen, Accessed www.educause.edu/section_params/conf/aascu05/AASCU on 7 May 2009.

Smith, D.C., Brokenshire, R., Maine, R. & Maphai, K. (2006). Using Storytelling to Assess the Competencies of a Master Project Manager, in Proceedings of PMSA Conference 2006, 30 May-1 June, Gallagher Estate, Midrand.

Wenger, E. McDermott, R. & Snyder, W. (2002). Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge, Harvard Business School Press: Boston MA.

Zboralski, Katja. (2009). Antecedents of knowledge sharing in communities of practice. Journal of Knowledge Management, 13(3): 90-101.