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Roles and skills

Page history last edited by Lou McGill 10 years, 1 month ago

Roles and skills

 

Questions
Additional questions
evidence
comments
 How do roles of academic and support staff change?  

 

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. 

http://dmlcentral.net/blog/liz-losh/phonar-massive-free-open-photography-class Jan 2104

 

 

 

The ‘digital noise wall’: making large amounts of content freely available online and within a open-access frameworks (which can be largely ‘passive’), can in itself be intimidating to those outside the OER world. We see this, in part, as a symptom of our own transition from a ‘broadcast’ (‘sage on the stage’) culture, to a collaborative (actively Open) one.  (COMC Final Report)

 

There were differing levels of staff engagement with the Open Classes. All were engaged, but this ranged from a profound and sophisticated engagement, to a tentative and testing approach. This was mostly evident in terms of their attachment to different mixes of media /platforms and therefore, how, and how intensely, they were ‘Open, and ‘Actively Open’ (our  distinction between simply making resources available online and making it possible to engage with the class through activities and/or dialogue or interaction). Further, staff engagement was predictably affected by the depth of experience they had with this approach.

(COMC Final Report)

How far have the curriculum changes - ie change in focus to digital storytelling has an impact. Are all staff on board and skilled up to do this?

 

Are staff ready for this?

 

where are we now?

 What factors enable staff to change roles?  
one of five recognized recently for outstanding innovation in the international Reclaim Open Learning Challenge and Symposium
Reward and Recognition.
 What are the barriers to this approach?    
 
 How does the student role change?

 

 

 

 

There are also many issues around engagement of students with the open platform approach not just in terms of their digital literacy skills (fluency) - when digital literacy was not the focus of the class’ activities – but also their awareness of the changing Media and HE landscape, their attachment to old models of both, their resistance to collaborative learning, etc. etc.  (COMC Final Report)

 

 

Getting student groups to present their archives professionally (in terms of layout, design, organisation and visuals) from the outset – this is not a technical but a communications issue – if “you are visible” you need to communicate professionally consistently.  (COMC Final Report)

 

Students are now treated as digitally literate but frequently aren’t (they are autodidacts and are specifically and highly capable) but they are not fluent in the professional use of digital media. This raises issues for the open platform approach in terms of their literacy skills- when digital literacy was not the focus of the class’ activities. (COMC Final Report)
 
 
 What new roles in learning and teaching emerge for open professionals  

 

 

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.

http://www.professionalphotographer.co.uk/Magazine/The-Business/Turn-on-tune-in-drop-in-to-Phonar  Jan 2011
Responding to the wider landscape and changes in the nature of education.
 What kind of support structures are needed for staff, registered and open students, open professionals?  

 The adoption curve / the unevenly distributed future  -  there are specific challenges and difficulties engendered by the fact that even within one department there are large variations in the awareness, acknowledgement and engagement with the ‘Open’ agenda. Therefore, as each individual/group is at a different point on the adoption curve it is actually quite difficult for colleagues to easily share information and mentor/support each other.       (COMC Final Report)

 

Eleanor: Twitter has become a major part of building your community.

Jonathan: Twitter is a brilliant research tool. It’s about tuning the network so you gradually flush out the people who are only tweeting about what they’ve had for breakfast. And that’s at the heart of Phonar, how do you become the reliable source?

Eleanor: Why is it vital to be the reliable source?

Jonathan: Because this is our currency, if you’re not a reliable witness, someone ultimately worth listening to, then how can you expect to command authority? How can you expect someone to believe your stuff is worth buying ?

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

 Adoption curve -  support implications

 

 

 

about building communities and developing trust and authority

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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