Pass the SoLT

The standout theme over the last week has been the importance of communication. This topic has come up in several different contexts from questions about 'why do I blog?' to 'how come students don't seem to know important stuff?,' including how to access their online learning environment.

In a posting a few weeks ago, I mentioned how I regard communication as one of the most important components of good leadership and effective change management. This view is solidly backed up by the academic literature. Unfortunately, it's much harder to apply the principles and practices written about change and communication in large organizations when there are so many stakeholders and competing demands on our time. At best in my own work the art of effective communication remains a work in progress.

I'm certainly no expert on the topic but at a basic level there are two considerations that need to be taken in to account when thinking about developing a communication strategy: (i) the message and (ii) the mechanism. Alignment between the two 'm and ms' of communication (along with identifying the audience) is crucial as too often this is left to chance.

It may seem a bit over the top but in my own case I actually have a Communication Plan for this blog as when I first started 'Pass the SoLT' it was important for me to define what I was wanting to achieve, who was the audience, what was the message, etc. If I was going to devote valuable time to maintaining a blog then I needed to be understand 'why', especially if the initiative was going to be sustainable.

After all, we know the history of innovations in using new technology in education is littered with startup initiatives that people and institutions fail to sustain. In many respects, such initiatives do more harm than good as they reinforce the technology expectation cycle (Cuban, 1986). Put another way, they do nothing to break the cycle of hope and hype and send the message that teaching with technology is a fringe activity for those on the edges.

Importantly, for the record, one of the reasons I continue to blog is that I firmly believe we send mixed or even quite contradictory messages to our staff/students by expecting them to teach/learn in new ways with new technologies when we don't practice what we preach by using the same technologies. Moreover, it's not until you actually use a technology that you begin to better understand how the innovation can be used (or should not be used) for educational purposes.

My experience over the last year in using Twitter has certainly reinforced this point. In a similar vein, knowing how to use a new technology and modeling its use was why we felt it was important to use video to directly talk to potential participants for a research project that I'm currently leading on the experiences of first-time distance learners. This project involves distance students recording video diaries of their stories and experiences using Sony Bloggie cameras; and the following example was my crude effort a few months ago to introduce the project using the same technology.

Stepping down from my soapbox, but extending this theme, this week I came across the following two videos which underscore the value of effective communication and engaging directly with your key stakeholders. The first video is the latest edition of the Vice Chancellor's Youtube series targeted at Massey University students. Note how the message about the digitalization of the learning experience is positive, set in the context and language of students, and the video helps to maintain forward momentum, which is an important factor in John Kotter's principles and eight steps of successful change.

The second video comes from the Open University in the United Kingdom. The point I take from this video is the importance of proactive communication with your stakeholders and building a sense of anticipation around a proposed change or innovation. In my experience the 'no surprise policy' is always a good strategy along with keeping your 'customers' informed and 'on board'. Of course, the challenge is to deliver on any raised expectations as a result of this type of communication but I'm reliably told that institutional branding is more about image than substance.

Click here to view the video...

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/11363089/peepz-movie

Finally, on a personal note, the reflective lesson or takeaway from this week is a pledge to think in more creative and innovative ways about how to communicate key information and the meta-level messages we want to convey to staff, students and the wider university community. To borrow an overused quote from Gandhi:

'You must be the change you wish to see in the world'

The Los Angeles Times has an interesting series of articles on the future of reading which more specifically explore the way electronic devices are transforming the book.

Since Xmas several of my friends and work colleagues have purchased iPads or Kindles (or both) and 2011 appears to be shaping up a crucial year in the history of the traditional book. According to the most recent story in the LA Times, Amazon has sold more than 7 million Kindle devices, which equates roughly to 1 in 10 people who shop on Amazon's online store.

I was recently pleased to hear that Amazon is now allowing people to share their electronic purchases with other readers for a limited period (2 weeks). This appears to be major issue in the future growth of electronic books as usually in our household they are shared between family members before eventually finding their way to a local charity auction. So far the only problem is that none of the books I've purchased from Amazon allow me to share them as this service depends on the publisher.

At Massey University we recently approved a pilot using iPads in the College of Creative Arts and I will be keeping a keen eye on this development. Another development that I will be watching from afar is the Open University's annotation project which appears to be similar to the pilot initiative we undertook last year at Massey using A.nnotate. In our case there was insufficient evidence from the student evaluation of this project to expand the current pilot. Most students involved in the pilot did not use the online annotation service, although paradoxically, when asked, they still wanted the tool to be available to them. By the end of the year I expect we will see a lot more clarity around the future of such cloud applications and whether they have a future in higher education.

The following keynote presentation by Martin Bean makes interesting viewing. It comes from last year's Association for Learning Technology Conference (ALT-C) in the UK. At the time of the presentation Martin Bean was the Vice-Chancellor Designate of the Open University. He has since taken up this position. A great one liner in Mr Bean's keynote is the quote that 'School is like being on an airplane' as you have to sit in the back and put your trust in someone you don't really know. And of course you have to turn off all your electronic devices!

Apart from being highly engaging the keynote presentation argues that higher education is in danger of suffering from a 'crisis of relevance'. Rather than unplugging higher learning, according to Mr Bean, the future depends on blending digital lifestyles with digital work styles. The video contains some powerful ideas about the future of higher education and the importance of extending access to life-long learning through new technologies.

His comments on the importance of multiple platform and delivery channels and the need to be in the learner's space rather than thinking they'll come to our space (i.e., Stream) have immediate implications for Massey. Equally, the value of investing in new branding propositions such as iTunesU should not be overlooked along with the learning and marketing potential of Open Educational Resources.

This is a brief entry to flag a recent BBC podcast on the future of distance learning and the use of new technologies in education. The broadcast reminds us that distance learning is not new and has a long history dating back to the 17th Century.

Notably, the work Antony Pelosi from Massey University is doing gets a mention as Martin Bean, Vice Chancellor of the Open University, UK, is interviewed. Later on in the broadcast the role of m-learning is explored in the developing world with an example of an English in action programme. An example of the use of the so-called $100 laptop is also provided from Brazil. As a born sceptic I still wonder whether these technology lighthouse projects will ultimately address the deep structural problems between the developed and developing world. That said, the first principle of technology-enhanced learning is that you can't explicit the potential if you don't have access to the technology. In many ways, the show doesn't offer anything new but it reminds us that the new learning spaces operate on a global level.