From conundrum to collaboration, conversation to connection

Editor's Notes

• #2: Workshop proposal Session Learning Outcomes By the end of this session, delegates will be able to: Identify conundrums that can be solved by the power of networking Identify what networks (internal & external to the institution) they have that could help with their own conundrums Evaluate the impact of networks on their own practice Create an action plan / strategy to address one of their conundrums   Session Outline (no more than 300 words) Key issues / themes to be addressed are:   Multi-disciplinary and multi-professional collaboration; Collaboration between institutions as well as within institutions   We know that networks play an important role in academic life (Moron-Garcia, 2013) especially when dealing with the “unhomeliness” (Manathunga, 2007) of life as an academic developer, working across disciplinary and professional borders. This workshop will showcase an ongoing learning space collaboration that started over a casual conversation at a network meeting sharing conundrums and developed into a wider conversation across two institutions at different stages of learning space development. Between us, we will reflect on the power of conversation (Barrett et al., 2004), practices learnt and shared and highlight the importance of building inter-professional networks within and across institutions in order to inform and guide change (Pennington, 2003). As leaders in the academy academic developers are often given the tricky institutional conundrums to solve, however the delights of our role are the opportunities to build those networks, drawing on the generosity of our various communities enabling us to ask the awkward questions (Cousin, 2013) and answer them together working as a “critical friend in the academy” (Handal, 2008).   The activity will allow us to draw on our experiences of engaging in conversations for innovation. We will reflect how our motivations and purposes are different and will change throughout a collaboration, and how we sustain or conclude our work. A number of questions will be addressed with the aim of developing further collaborations among participants, sharing knowledge and establishing that you don’t need to know what you need to know before starting the conversation: How do you ask for help? Who do you ask for help? How do you build networks within and between institutions?    
• #3: Locating this in the context of this conference: how do we as educational developers survive and thrive? we often find ourselves juggling multiple areas of work; we use evidence from research, scholarship and experience to inform development, acting a critical friend (Handal 2008) and with a ludic function (Land, 2004), speaking truth to power. However it can feel like a Sisyphean task and leave us with conundrums that are difficult to resolve with the resources or knowledge we have / that are available. We look to our networks to help us with these, either intentionally or as happenstance, revelations through conversation. As an aside, it is important to acknowledge the difficult / discomforting nature of academic development and offer others a narrative about the power of generosity, the need to be brave, the importance of trust and openness and suggest where we might draw strength from. N.B. Peseta observed that academic developers ‘have tended to report victory narratives that defend and extend our relevance as a community, rather than making public the intense difficulty of our work’ (2007, p. 17) We want to discuss with you the importance of networks in sustaining us in this context and encourage you to identify and make use of those networks.
• #4: But first we need to consider what we mean by networks and locate this in the literature: We hear frequent talk and claims about the existence or creation of communities of practice, however this term is often incorrectly applied to what are really networks and/or learning communities (loose epistemic groups or those coming together to investigate a particular issue), moreover we know communities of practice come about / are not created, that they have reified practices and rules that come about from a shared domain of practice. This suggests that this relationship has been in existence for some time or, at a minimum, that the practices are established. Networks may be associated with individuals or organisations, but they seem to denote a loser more fluid association. Another way of looking at it is that networks and learning communities might be stages on the road to communities of practice (though not all will make it and communities of practice may exist within networks). Network??? A distributed community of practice (lave & wenger, 1991)? loose epistemic groups, not everyone will know or come across each other, networks within networks …. (Brown & Duguid, 2001) No shared understanding or wider purpose other than a common interest “No agreement exists on the definition and types of networks” re Horelli (2009) 1. “wholeness of communication i.e. system of independent nodes and links”, 2. “contains dynamic elements and processes that reject any uniformity” p. 207 Re Wenger (1998) networks are about relationships and flows of information p.287 c of p about practice that comes out of this, networks less cohesive Do learning communities sit somewhere in between? Learning communities (collaborative communities, critical friends groups): “a group of educators that meets regularly, shares expertise, and works collaboratively to improve teaching skills and the academic performance of students.” http://edglossary.org/professional-learning-community/ We know CoPs have reified practices and rules, networks? Is it about location / close proximity? Size, function? Not sure …. But if we start to think about our networks this may help us. Tweet chat Q1: what do we mean by networks?
• #5: So bearing all this in mind think about your work networks (we’re bounding this discussion). Think about these questions individually and then discuss in pairs / small groups. The idea is to think about where we get strength / how we can support each other. Help you make a case for involvement in networks & their importance in developing our practice and advancing our learning. Once the general discussion is done concentrate on What motivates your involvement? why did you connect to this network, group, association, community? Let’s also consider what we as members do to manage and set expectations in terms of others motivations, what responsibilities do we have to ourselves, our colleagues, our institutions, the networks we use / join? Tweet chat Q2: what motivates and sustains your network engagement?
• #6: Setting the scene for our collaboration How ours came about – meeting at HEDG, discussion of approaches to tech use and development of learning spaces in HEIs, shared conundrum Set up discussion visit, to view progress and share ideas, expertise. What made this happen? Shared challenges, even though at different stages Two heads of centre wanted it to happen Colleagues interested in finding out what was going on in another institution Similar Uni context Rhetorical question leading to next slide: How important is like-mindedness, comparable situations, similar or dissimilar knowledge sets to an effective collaboration? Do you need to know exactly what you have to offer before starting a collaboration? How can one network grow another? Inter-relationships
• #7: Group discussion Think about your experiences of working in networks – internal or external to your institutions Are there essential factors that need to be in place or help a network to be effective? What are the Strengths and Opportunities that lead to an effective network? What hinders their development? How can you make time / gain support? Tweet chat Q3: what factors are important in effective networks?
• #8: We set out to discuss how networks can aid innovation, so now we want to discuss the innovation process and the role of networks within this. Innovators are great but often these innovations stay with the innovators and don’t get out of that context / application / instantiation. What is the relationship between the networks we value and academic innovation? Deviant developers! - Innovation conjures up images of lone mavericks – to what extent are networks the innovators and the mavericks? To what extent can the educational developer be provocative, social artist, maverick or deviant?! Or is our network role to be compliant and grounded? Is there a conflict of interests for us as networked educational developers? We learn from failure and rethinking approaches after failure can be a really rich experience, however, how often can we fail? How do we ensure that ideas and activities take flight? How can we support those innovators and …. Also what supports and sustains those pathfinders? Or are we the innovators in this context? Tweet chat Q4: How do we ensure networks make a difference?
• #9: Wise ground rules for innovation – how useful are these for dispersed networks? Risk and failure We know failure can lead to innovation – and may even be necessary for innovation. How often in our institutional role can we fail? Rhetorical: How can cross-institutional networking and collaboration protect us and protect innovation? How can we share our failures and move forward? (safe spaces, trust, courage …)
• #10: Now there’s a chance to discuss how you might use networks to solve your own conundrums.: Example networking scenarios The co-development of CPD offers and session plans The University has made a strategic commitment to developing Future Learning Spaces. This discourse creates an opportunity to engage our academic staff in developing more student-centred active learning pedagogies – something that our current classroom stock inhibits. To challenge our academic community it would help me to collaborate with other universities to validate strategic direction, co-develop CPD and provide mutual support. Mini-MOOC Swap Shop Following this year’s NSS it is evident that my University needs to develop its approach to supporting tutoring and academic advising. My PVC is keen that the tutoring role is valued by all academics and has suggested we develop a mini-MOOC. I know about tutoring but I have little experience of MOOCs. Responding to changes in Disabled Student Allowance funding The change to Government funding of DSA require my team to develop an alternative strategy to replace note takers. This is an important and sensitive issue. The obvious direction would seem to involve technology. I need to work with others in the University and externally to quickly mange the risk and come up with suitable alternatives. Understanding our role in the TEF What is my institutional role in responding to the TEF? The risk of not responding to this effectively is immense. A mentoring relationship would be really helpful. Re-imagining the design of University PC Labs The University PC Lab has had its day. Technology is changing and students are distracted by social media leading to loss of engagement in class. I need to conduct research involving the wide range of academic users and their students and then I need to generate more effective, sustainable designs for learning space designs in which the use of technology is key. I can’t be alone… In your pair/small group: Select a scenario or agree your own Draw upon your own conundrums, experiences, perceptions Design and defend a model for effective collaboration or networking We will ask each group one or two points about how an effective collaboration or network can be formed What strategies do you have for ensuring your collaboration or network is effective?
• #11: Tweet chat Q5: tips for effective collaboration or networking References BALI, M. et al. 2015. ‘A herd of freely associating, autonomous cats: how a Facebook group helped turn a bunch of cMOOC participants into a learning community.’ Proceedings of ALT-C 2015, Manchester University, 8-10th September 2015 BARRETT, T., BOTHA, J., CHAN, S., MASON, C. & TISDALL, C. 2004. The power of language and conversation in fostering engagment in academic development. In: BROWN, J. S. & DUGUID, P. 2001. Knowledge and Organization: A Social Practice Perspective. Organizational Science, 12, 198-213 ELVIDGE, L., FRASER, K., LAND, R., MASON, C. & MATTHEW, B. (eds.) Exploring academic development in higher education. Cambridge: Jill Rogers Associates Limited. COUSIN, G. 2013. Evidencing the value of educational development by asking awkward questions. In: BAMBER, V. (ed.) Evidencing the Value of Educational Development. London: Staff and Educational Development Association. HANDAL, G. 2008. Identities of academic developers: Critical friends in the academy. In: BARNETT, R. & NAPOLI, R. D. (eds.) Changing identities in higher education: Voicing perspectives. London and New York: Routledge. HORELLI, L. 2009. Network Evaluation for the Everyday Life Perspective: A Tool for Capacity-Building and Voice. Evaluation, 15, 205-223. LAND, R. 2004. Educational Development: Discourse, Identity and Practice, Maidenhead:, Open University Press / SRHE. LAVE, J. & WENGER, E. 1991. Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. MANATHUNGA, C. 2007. Supervision as mentoring: the role of power and boundary crossing. Studies in Continuing Education, 29, 207-221. MORON-GARCIA, S. 2013. Investigating the impact of networks in academic life. In: DEEPWELL, F. & BUCKLEY, C. (eds.) SEDA @ 20 small grants retrospective. London: SEDA. PENNINGTON, G. 2003. Guidelines for Promoting & Facilitating Change. York: Learning and Teaching Support Network. PESETA, T. 2007. Troubling our Desires for Research and Writing within the Academic Development Project. International Journal for Academic Development, 12, 15-23. ROGERS, E. 2003. Diffusions of innovation, 5th edition. New York: Free Press. WAGNER, T. 2012. Creating innovators: the making of younbg people who will change the world. New York: Schribner. WENGER, E. 1998. Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning and Identity, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.