The role of human actors in legitimising informal networked learning of academic digital

practice

Lecturer: Information Management & TeachingSchool of Healthcare Sciences

Mike JohnsonPhD Candidate

Department of Educational Research

Plan• The Digital Scholar• Methodology & Method - Phenomenographic • The ‘tech’ – shared records• Participants – 4 staff• Outcomes – a table• Discussion- Wenger• Conclusion

The digital scholar?• Digital ‘transformations’• Knowledge work

That’s just tweaking

Methodology and methods• Phenomenographic• differences and their relations• 2nd order perspectives • ‘vivid contextualising’

• Narrative analysis and reporting• ‘Dual channel’ method

Working memory

Soundsselecting

Words

ImagesPicturesselecting

Visual mental model

Verbal mental model

organising

organising

Long-termmemory

Priorknowledge

Academic Supervision Record Keeping (ASRK)

• Paper on multiple sites, and email records• 2008: Share

supervision securely internationally

By Manny Wilson from http://www.wikinomics.com

Staff viewStudent view

ParticipantsEstablished staff

Ash – Lecturer for 20+ years. Technologically positive.Daryl – Lecturer for 10+ years. ‘Technologically reluctant’, keen educationalist.

New staffCameron – Years of clinical experience; lecturer for under a year. Doctoral student. Twitter fan. Jamie - Many years of clinical experience. Less than a year as a lecturer. Taught digital record-keeping to nurses.

Outcomes

Ash Daryl Cameron JamieAdoption Enthusiastic

opportunistic independent

‘Head in the sand’ – student invoked

Clinical expectation

Clinical scruples

Support in exploitation for learning 'supervision'

Valued 'Human' resources (infrastructure)

PDF guide over-whelmed'Just try it for 15'

Peers helped with basics, but more at interview!

Peer mentor, but wanted explicit student permission too

Organisational positioning

Ambassador Reluctance fed off rumour but became advocate

Instant advocate

Uptake lagged: terror of the unfamiliar

Access analogies

‘Safe’ – no alternatives

‘Safe’… to ignore

‘not the knickers drawer’

Voyerism

Discussion pointsLegitimate peripheral participation?• ‘New’ staff brought professional values/practices• New and old varied in requiring ‘legitimation’• Supervision a core role, no space for the ‘peripheral’

Promoting connections?• But not without participation

by humans vital to learning• Tension: Surveillance vs.

management & learning

Wenger et al. 2002 p.57

ConclusionThe study sought to be phenomenographicThe digital scholar sent her first email >20 years ago- with the help of other humans.

Post Script• ‘more attention should be “paid to textual practice around

learning and less upon the technologies and their applications” (Lea & Jones, 2011, p. 377).’ ah… yes.• Contradictions between political-ethical vs. economic-

pragmatic (Levinsen and Nielsen, 2012, p. 239)• Networked learning assumes

‘promoting connections’, and weak vs. strong links but Networked learning relies upon a ‘chain of weak links’ or synapses.

Thank you!