It’s Third Space, Jim, but not as we know it:

universities, community and digital practice

Professor Keith Smyth Inaugural Lecture

#thirdspacejim @smythkrs

To boldly go…

• Exploring idea of ‘third space’ as it applies to education

• What’s happening in our schools? Why is it important?

• Encouraging more effective use of digital spaces and tools

• Exploring the broader possibilities for engaging learners

• Harnessing digital third space in our own scholarship

• Exploring the wider implications for universities and UHI

Two framing propositions

The most effective uses of

technology in education are

about providing spaces to create

and engage

Online technology is key

to inclusive education, but

we need to refocus the open education debate

on physical spaces and locations

The concept of ‘third space’

Key characteristics of ‘third spaces’

Not work and not home

Neutral ground where difference embraced

Social status is irrelevant

Bringing together those who may not meet

Amplifying issues beyond the ‘third space’

Sharing of knowledge for a collective good

And a definition for tonight

‘Third spaces’ are spaces – or annexes – that extend our opportunities for engaging with learners in and beyond the university. They can be digital or physical.They are spaces that allow us to make connections between different groups of learners, allow our students to connect with the wider communities they belong to, and allow universities to better connect with the communities within which they are based.

What’s happening in our schools, and why is it so

important to Higher Education?

Curriculum for Excellence…

http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2008/06/06104407/5

…and Sawney Bean

(Thankfully not a teacher!)

How can we encourage more of our teaching colleagues to make

effective and creative use of digital spaces and

tools?

The TESEP project

The 3E Approach

3E Framework

Benchmarking good practice

3E Framework in curriculum design

Pg Cert Blended and Online Education (Edinburgh Napier)

Enhance – Collaborative content creation

Extend – Student led seminars

Empower – Joining professional communities

A few applications of the 3E Framework

Design Develop Implement @ Macquarie

http://teche.ltc.mq.edu.au/design-develop-implement-team-based-approach/

‘Be a digital maker!’

Image source: flickr. “Cartoon angry army drill sergeant shouting” (c) 2011 KoiQuestion

What are the broader possibilities for engaging

our learners digitally?

Students driving knowledge development

http://studentasproducer.lincoln.ac.uk/

‘Vertical’ and ‘horizontal’ projects

http://www.strath.ac.uk/viprojects/

Negotiated open online learning

http://www.getconnectedandlead.org.uk/show.php?contentid=160

What are the implications for how we

develop our universities?

Taking a critical view

http://dailyimprovisation.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.richard-hall.org/

Education and social wellbeing

http://www.scholarsstrategynetwork.org/sites/default/files/ssn-key-findings-blessinger-on-universal-higher-education_0.pdf

Lelsey Riddoch, 12th Feb 2015

http://www.lesleyriddoch.co.uk/2015/02/peoples-university-of-scotland-.html

‘Third space’ higher education

Conceptual matrix for the Digital University

MacNeill and Johnston (2012)

The digitally distributed curriculum?

DFWG (Digital Futures Working Group) (2014). Digital Futures Working Group: Recommendations: April 2014 (Final Revision) Edinburgh Napier University.

How can we develop educational practice and

scholarship through using digital ‘third’ and

‘alternative’ spaces?

Role modelling what is possible

Open sharing of good practice

Creating new opportunities to connect

Supportive open scholarship

What might the broader implications for UHI be?

The ‘natural laboratory’of UHI *

* © Dr Gary Campbell

Our ‘as yet unbuilt’ education lab

Reframing what open education means?

Open UHI?

A Policy for Public Pedagogy?

Lelsey Riddoch, 12th Feb 2015

http://www.lesleyriddoch.co.uk/2015/02/peoples-university-of-scotland-.html

The ‘natural laboratory' of UHI

The digitally distributed curriculum?

DFWG (Digital Futures Working Group) (2014). Digital Futures Working Group: Recommendations: April 2014 (Final Revision) Edinburgh Napier University.

Why is this important?

Because when we look to extend what we do by harnessing ‘third spaces’ for engaging our learners, wherever they may be, we increase our capacity to create ‘pivotal moments’ in their learning and development, and to enrich and expand the educational experience for everyone who should benefit from it.

However…

One important proviso…

• In thinking about the wider implications of open and inclusive educational practice, this talk is not to suggest that universities seek to be all things to all learners. However it is suggesting that universities can and should be doing much more to contribute to the wider social mission of education, and to have a broader and richer impact within their communities.

…and three key conclusions

• If HE is a public good, then we have to be good at using our digital and physical spaces as public spaces

• We can better support our teachers to harness digital spaces and tools more effectively and creatively if we allow them to experience ‘being a digital learner’

• We should not conflate ‘digital literacy’ with ‘digital learning literacy’. Many students need support to ‘learn how to learn’ in the ways explored tonight

Where is your ‘Third Space',

and what will you do there?

Key references• Blessinger, P. (2015) Why universal and life-long learning higher

education is the next step in advancing the social contract. Scholars Strategy Network, April 2015. http://www.scholarsstrategynetwork.org/sites/default/files/ssn-key-findings-blessinger-on-universal-higher-education_0.pdf [Accessed: 11th May 2015]

• DFWG (Digital Futures Working Group) (2014). Digital Futures Working Group: Recommendations: April 2014 (Final Revision) Edinburgh Napier University. http://staff.napier.ac.uk/services/vice-principal-academic/academic/strategyactivity/DigitalFutures/Documents/Paper%20ENU-DFWG-25%20Recommendations%20Final.pdf [Accessed: 12 January 2015]

• Gutierrez, K.D. (2008) Developing a sociocritical literacy in the third space. Reading Research Quarterly, Vol. 43, No.2, pp. 148-164.

• Johnson, M. and Smyth, K. (Eds) (2011) Learning technology and institutional strategy. Special issue of Campus-Wide Information Systems on Learning Technology and Institutional Strategy, Vol. 28, No. 4. This features the paper Johnson, M. and Smyth, K. (2011) Diversity, value and technology: exposing value pluralism in institutional strategy, pp. 211-220.

• Memarovic, N., Fels, S., Anacleto, J., Calderon, R., Gobbo, F, and Caroll, J.M. (2014) Rethinking third places: contemporary design with technology. The Journal of Community Informatics, Vol. 10, No. 3. http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/1048/1116

• MacNeill, S. and Johnston, B. (2012). A conversation around what it means to be a Digital University (Parts 1 to 5). http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/sheilamacneill/2012/01/26/a-converstaion-around-what-it-means-to-be-a-digital-university/ [Accessed: 12 January 2015]

• Oldenburg, R. (1989). The great good place: Cafes, coffee shops, bookstores, bars, hair salons, and other hangouts at the heart of a community. New York: Marlowe and Company.

• Smyth, K. (2009) Transformative online education for educators: cascading progressive practice in teaching, learning and technology. In D.Remenyi (Ed), Proceedings from the 8th European conference on e-learning, University of Bari, Italy, 29th-30th October. Academic Conferences International, pp. 549-557.

• Smyth, K. (2013) Sharing and shaping effective institutional practice in TEL through the 3E Framework. In S. Greener (Ed) Case studies in e-learning. Reading: Academic Publishing International, pp.141-159.

• Smyth, K., Vlachopoulos, P., Walker, D. and Wheeler, A. (2013) Cross-institutional development of an online open course for educators: confronting current challenges and imagining future possibilities. In M. Gosper, J. Hedberg, and H. Carter (Eds.) Electric Dreams. Proceedings of ascilite Sydney 2013, pp.826-829. http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/sydney13/program/papers/Smyth,%20Keith.php [Accessed: 12 January 2015]. This paper won the Ascilite 2013 Best Paper Award in the category ‘Imagining the Future’.

8pm onwardsNico’s Bar and Bistro

Glen Mhor HotelOther side of river