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Findings

Page history last edited by Lou McGill 9 years, 6 months ago

Gathering the evidence

 

Overarching questions

Specific questions

 

What led to this model being introduced and adopted?

Were these conditions special to the field of photography due to a change in the profession, or to the arts as a broader subject discipline (cf other arts projects in UKOER) or special to this particular education institution?

 

Phonar course has been running as a 10-week course within the BA photography degree. photographer Jonathan Shaw is associate head of the media & communication department within the school of art & design at Coventry University. He had seen my work and wanted to develop a course which had, at its heart, the development of a sustainable practice. He didn’t want it to be a fashion or a documentary course, nor did he want it to be based purely in the arts or 100% commerce-oriented. The idea was to develop a photography course that would resolve the contradiction between art and commerce. That’s how we got started and every class I have written and taught for the past two years has tried to deal with the question, ‘What is a sustainable practice?’ in a different way. (photography practice not teaching)

http://www.professionalphotographer.co.uk/Magazine/The-Business/Turn-on-tune-in-drop-in-to-Phonar  Jan 2011

 

Jisc funding from phase 3 of the UKOER Programme in 2011/12

 

Now receiving widespread interest and accalim

The ethos of the course, which can be accessed online by non-attending students and observers, has drawn widespread attention and even been discussed in the European Parliament.

 

Is this an appropriate model of open education (one of them) for Cov Uni to adopt at larger scale? (transferable/sustainable)

 

Why this approach works with Media courses - how far is it transferable to other subjects...

Links in to the fact that photography practice is also changing so the model responds to those changes and the need for a different kind of educational focus. How can photgraphy education support changing professional practice? 

 

 

What is the return on investment (ROI) (benefits)  

"Four years ago when I first opened my photography classes online the big issue was 'free' - if you 'give your classes away for free then no one will pay for them'. My answer to those people was that the classes weren't what people paid for - they paid for the learning experience, of being in the room - this online version - this open and connected version just meant that the room they paid to be in now sat at the middle of a network. And that network is now significant. Yesterday it trended on Twitter - I don't know many classes that do that." Jonathan Worth (2013) http://boingboing.net/2013/11/14/phonar-a-massive-free-photog.html

 

  • This will be covered by some of the questions in Institutional contex, Tools (particularly around sustainability) and Community - impact on stakeholders

 

How far can the model work without a charismatic leader? (Evidence from UKOER that use of champions as enabler)

When asked to explain his attitude toward arts education, British photographerJonathan Worth describes what he is teaching as “storytelling” that should be an integral part of everyone’s “digital literacy and digital citizenship” rather than a rarified artistic skill for niche training of a cadre of aesthetic elites.  Worth is currently the instructor ofPhonar, the sprawling massive, free, and open undergraduate photography course that he teaches to as many as 30,000 participants at one time.

 

Worth’s initiative was one of five recognized recently for outstanding innovation in the international Reclaim Open Learning Challenge and Symposium. Howard Rheingold and I have so far profiled two of the award-winning projects on this blog –Jim Groom’s Digital Storytelling 106 class and the Jaaga community learning space in Bangalore. http://dmlcentral.net/blog/liz-losh/phonar-massive-free-open-photography-class Jan 2104

 

How far the wider community buys into the open philosophy? - (cultural and traditional barriers)

 

The rising tide – there is a series of very large organisations e.g. News Corp – via  Amplify; Coursera; Kahn Academy etc etc - often funded by the largest player in the web (e.g. Google) which are moving quickly into the field of education – often using Open Resources as a lever. This change will profoundly affect the nature of the voluntary educational landscape – which in turn will significantly impact universities. There is an approaching transformation of the higher educational landscape – either directly through approaches like ours, or indirectly by virtue of the profound transformation of the expectations and assumption of participants in (higher) education. Given the direction from which this tide is coming and the strength of those driving it a simple response would be that we must ‘learn to swim /surf’, rather than running. Put otherwise, we can indeed must acknowledge and anticipate this large-scale trend and actively manage our position with reference to it.    (COMC Final Report) 2013


There is relatively little sense of wider awareness of the emerging issues posed by Open Education in the HE sector – by which we mean the broader implications indicated above - as well as the specific ones raised by Open classes. The new economic/cost Models are not at all developed within the HE sector. There is very little discussion of this, or of the potential impact on HE of the proliferation of new, distributed educational resources and their largely ‘non-educational’ sources. This constitutes a significant risk, both to the near-term development of OER/OEP and to the medium term development of HE.    (COMC Final Report) 2013

 

  • This will be covered by some of the questions in Community

 

What is the impact on various stakeholders? (benefits and challenges)

The ethos of the course, which can be accessed online by non-attending students and observers, has drawn widespread attention and even been discussed in the European Parliament.

Eleanor: You have an impressive list of contributors from the world of professional photography. How did you get them involved in the course?

Jonathan: I had a hit list of people who are changing the world of photography and I rang them up and went to see them. They were interested because of the nature of the project, because of the other people in the group, and got very excited. Again I was putting a community together, one of passionate and committed people.

Eleanor: You’re seeing it from both sides, as you’re still working as a commercial photographer. Are you enjoying the experience?

Jonathan: Yes, this is only a visit to academia but I’ve been given a really long leash. My remit is provide an answer to the question, ‘what course would I want to do?’ I’m at the point in my career where I feel quite comfortable ringing up Simon Roberts or Steve Pyke and asking them to get involved in the course. These photographers come on their own terms and each class is the type of thing I’d love to do if I were the age of my students.      

http://www.professionalphotographer.co.uk/Magazine/The-Business/Turn-on-tune-in-drop-in-to-Phonar  Jan 2011

 

  • This will be covered by the questions in Community - impact on stakeholders

 

How does it change pedagogy and curriculum design?

What are some of the challenges you think PHONAR or Photobook have faced, either from a curriculum or a logistics standpoint?

big institutions inhibit innovation - big systems that are efficient and not being questioned. in photography and teaching the systems need to change as the problems have changed. innovation is expensive - have to go in with your eyes open. not going to be easy.however institutions fail - my advice - unpick everything we’ve done and don’t make our mistakes twice…  
matt - problems with picbod - at times dealing with personal stories - intimate in class sessions - not shared online - comfortable and supportive, these then go online and innappropriate comments had been made - not intended to be hurtful so group had to meet to discuss their concern and ended up removing this person from the group.
dealing with smaller class - encouraging personal connection and authorship. don’t always go the same way - each class takes their own pathways - need to recognise that each time will be different - that if students are creating the content and directing which way the class goes then you need to engage with different people and different content - so staff need to be flexible and adaptable - not always the same. can’t churn out the same old stuff
another problem this leads to is in terms of assessment. what is the question, or answer - but formal accreditation mechanisms can be inflexible….
http://connectedlearning.tv/phonar-massive-free-open-undergraduate-class-hybrid webinar March 2014

 

 

What are the future paths/directions for the institution, l&t generally and the institutions

big thing - explore more non traditional ways - on the edges (classroom where people buy the premium product and what happens on the edge. links with industry….exciting opportunities to try different dynamics AND NETWORKS

 

keen to discuss how bookclub can be expanded to mobilise communities and connect physically as well as online.

interesting physical artefact is central.

 

future - what does phonar look like?

started with 9 people

within 30 weeks (3 iterations - three years) got to 35 thousand people 2009/12

 

what if you start with a bigger number

worlpress photo award - in amsterdam have a network of 11 million people - 2m on foot. working with them for six months and now their education programme is open. anyone can do the classes…. exciting

phonar running in north africa now - (the model)

biggest photoclass in history

10thousand kids in US phonarnation starts in June……

dreaing in industry - working on outskirts of institutions

 

(39:40) For Photobook, I used an analogy recently about the Photobook Club being a bus and I don't really know exactly where it's going; I know it's going somewhere interesting because it's led by interesting people...The focus of this global community and my efforts is increasing actions and conversations.

 

http://connectedlearning.tv/phonar-massive-free-open-undergraduate-class-hybrid webinar March 2014

 

 

Roles and skills

How do roles of academic and support staff change?

What factors enable staff to change roles?

What are the barriers to this approach?

How does the student role change?

What new roles in learning and teaching emerge for open professionals

What kind of support structures are needed for staff, registered and open students, open professionals?

 

Institutional context (Conventions, guidelines and rules regulating activities in the system)

What are the resource implications?

How does this model relate to existing institutional strategies and policies? Are adaptations required or new ones needed?

What are the issues around ownership?

Do existing course validation and quality mechanisms need to be changed?

How do we brand and market the course?

Are new operational or organisational structures needed to support this model?

 

Tools: the artifacts (or concepts) used by actors in the system (model/approach)

Which technologies are most appropriate for this approach?

Is the model sustainable?

Is the model sustainable?

How are the outputs managed/maintained?

 

Community: social context; all actors involved in the activity system

How do we engage stakeholders in this open approach?

What is the impact on different stakeholders?

What new relationships have emerged? How have existing relationships changed?

 

 

 

 


Forward to Evidence | Discussion | Back to Evaluation questions

   

     

 

 

 

 

 

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