1. Open scholarship in the age
of digital competition
Gráinne Conole,
Seminar
Brisbane, 21st February 2011

2. Key questions
 How are new open, social
and participatory media
changing educational
practice?
 What are the implications
for research?
 How are researcher roles
changing?
 What new digital literacies
are needed?
 How can we effectively
harness the power of these
new media?

3. Outline
 Today’s digital landscape
 Examples of using social media for research
 Tips and hints
 The OU’s approach to openness
 The change nature of ‘community’
 Recommendations
 Reflections
 Questions for personal reflections

4. New media
 Key characteristics
 Peer critiquing
 Aggregation of resources
 Collaboration
 Personalisation
 Networking
 Open practices
Web 2.0 - the machine is Us/ing Us

5. Evidence
• Horizon report, 2011
• NSF Cyber-infrastructure
report, 2008
• IPTS e-learning 2.0
report, 2008
• Review of Web 2.0 tools
& practices, 2010

6. Horizon report 2011
• Abundance of resources challenging
traditional educational roles
• People expect to be able to work &
learn anywhere, anytime
• World of work increasingly
collaborative
• Technologies increasingly cloud based
• Importance of digital literacies
• New evaluation metrics for new
scholarship and publishing

7. Technologies to watch
• E-books
• Mobiles
• Augmented learning
• Game-based learning
• Gesture-based learning
• Learning analytics

8. Conole and Alevizou, 2010
Effective use of new technologies requires a
radical rethink of the core learning and teaching
processes; a shift from design as an internalised,
implicit and individually crafted process to one
that is externalised and shareable with others.
Change in practice may indeed involve the use of
revised materials, new teaching strategies and
beliefs - all in relation to educational innovation.
Gill Clough
Giota Alevizou

9. Research processes
Conole and Alevizou, 2010
Effective use of new technologies requires a
radical rethink of the core learning and teaching
processes; a shift from design as an internalised,
implicit and individually crafted process to one
that is externalised and shareable with others.
Change in practice may indeed involve the use of
revised materials, new teaching strategies and
beliefs - all in relation to educational innovation.
Gill Clough
Giota Alevizou

10. Research processes
Conole and Alevizou, 2010
Effective use of new technologies requires a
radical rethink of the core learning and teaching
processes; a shift from design as an internalised,
implicit and individually crafted process to one
that is externalised and shareable with others.
Change in practice may indeed involve the use of
revised materials, new teaching strategies and
beliefs - all in relation to educational innovation.
Gill Clough
Giota Alevizou
Research strategies

11. Change +ve impact -ve impact
Access,
Free tools, resources Role of institutions,
personalisation,
& services lack of control
supports the long tail
Technology as core Narrower, but
Ubiquitous access
tool deeper digital divide
Multiple
Increased peer, tutor Fragmentation, no
communication &
and expert dialogue central repository
distribution channels
Rich media New forms of sense- Lack of new digital
representation making literacies
Increased variety of
User-generated
knowledge, learner Quality assurance
content
control

13. A typology of new technologies
Technology Examples
Media sharing Flckr,YouTube, Slideshare, Sketchfu
Media manipulation and mash ups Geotagged photos on maps,Voicethread
Instant messaging, chat, web 2.0 forums MSN, Paltalk, Arguementum
Online games and virtual worlds WorldofWarcraft, SecondLife
Social networking Facebook, Myspace, Linkedin, Elgg, Ning
Blogging Wordpress, Edublog, Twitter
Social bookmarking Del.icio.us, Citeulike, Zotero
Recommender systems Digg, LastFm, Stumbleupon
Wikis and collaborative editing tools Wikipedia, GoogleDocs, Bubbl.us
Syndication/RSS feeds Bloglines, Podcast, GoogleReader
(Conole and Alevizou, 2010), Review of Web 2.0 tools in Higher Education
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/EvidenceNet/Conole_Alevizou_2010.pdf

14. Digital identity
Finding your digital voice Working across tools
Degree of openness Personal/professional

15. New digital literacies
Participatory culture shifts the
focus of literacy from one of
individual expression to
community involvement. The
new literacies almost all
involve social skills developed
through collaboration and
networking
Jenkins et al., 2006

16. New digital literacies
Play Collective intelligence
Performance Judgement
Participatory culture shifts the
focus of literacy from one of
individual expression to
Simulation community involvement. The Transmedia
new literacies almost all navigation
involve social skills developed
through collaboration and
Appropriation networking Networking
Multitasking Negotiation
Distributed cognition
Jenkins et al., 2006

17. Using new media for research 14
 Blogs
 facebook
 Twitter
 Working across social media
 Courses and conferences
 Publishing as you go

18. So why use blogs?
 Of the moment reflections
 Digital archive
 The power of peer review
 Record of events and reviews
 Wider audience reach and hence profile
 Link into fb and Twitter
 Complements traditional publication routes

19. Prominent bloggers in e-learning

20. Using facebook

21. Ideas for harnessing Web 2.0?

22. Working across social media
http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/2266

23. Working across social media
Matt Lindgard set up a
quick survey to ask
people how using
twitter impacted on
how much they blog
http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/2266

24. Working across social media
Matt Lindgard set up a 49 comments
quick survey to ask 1027 views
people how using  summaries & additional co
twitter impacted on 19 links
how much they blog  6 references
http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/2266

25. Working across social media
Matt Lindgard set up a 49 comments
quick survey to ask 1027 views
people how using  summaries & additional co
twitter impacted on 19 links
how much they blog  6 references
http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/2266

26. Working across social media
Matt Lindgard set up a 49 comments
quick survey to ask 1027 views
people how using  summaries & additional co
twitter impacted on 19 links
how much they blog  6 references
http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/2266

27. Working across social media
Matt Lindgard set up a 49 comments
quick survey to ask 1027 views
people how using  summaries & additional co
twitter impacted on 19 links
how much they blog  6 references
http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/2266

28. Working across social media
Matt Lindgard set up a 49 comments
quick survey to ask 1027 views
people how using  summaries & additional co
twitter impacted on 19 links
how much they blog  6 references
http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/2266

29. Twitter and facebook

30. Combine effect and impact
 Active blog posting
 Use of Twitter
 Participation in online conferences
 Webinars
 Podcasts
 Use of social media sites like facebook
 Publishing online draft publications
 The role of institutional research repositories

31. Open courses: CCK10 and discourse

32. Open courses: CCK10 and discourse

33. Open courses: CCK10 and discourse

34. Open courses: CCK10 and discourse

35. Open courses: CCK10 and discourse
ltc.umanitoba.ca/blogs/futurecourse/

36. OU L&T conference
 Went virtual in 2010
 Useof Elluminate and
Cloudworks
 Ca. 3500 unique views
 Significant
discussions
and resource
aggregation
 International
participation

37. OU L&T conference
 Went virtual in 2010
 Useof Elluminate and
Cloudworks
 Ca. 3500 unique views
 Significant
discussions
and resource
aggregation
 International
participation
Works just as well for research events - virtual
or blended

38. Open publishing as you go...

39. Tips and hints 25
 Think about strategies to make the most of each of the
following and then think about how you can do this both
in a face-to-face and virtual context
 Conferences
 Networking
 Publishing

40. Conferences
Purpose: presentation and feedback
Network, network, network!
Potential collaborators & bid partners
Put in symposium of experts or
symposium with researchers
Expert validation workshops
Put up paper & presentation
Follow up links afterwards
Work up into a research paper
Work the hashtag
Live blog or follow conference-related
blogs

41. Conferences A personal example
Purpose: presentation and feedback
Network, network, network!
Potential collaborators & bid partners
Put in symposium of experts or
symposium with researchers
Expert validation workshops
Put up paper & presentation
Follow up links afterwards
Work up into a research paper
Work the hashtag
Live blog or follow conference-related
blogs

42. Networking
 Built link with international
colleagues
 Get on national level
committees
 Invite key researchers in your
field to be involved in a joint
research activity
 Invite people to give seminars
at your institution
 Build links online via Twitter,
facebook, etc.
 Participate in online events
 Leave comments on blogs

43. Publishing
 Post up drafts for comment
 Become a editor for a special issue of a journal
 Write a book! Edited or single author
 Target high impact journals
 Keeppublication list up to date in your research
repository
 Set up a writing group or workshop
 Co-write with lots of different people
 Tweet, fb etc when publications come out

44. Publishing
 Be provocative – sometimes
 Try to have a catchy title
 Make a mark, be influential
 Based on solid empirical evidence
 Something to generate discussions
 Reviews of the field and summaries of state of the art
 Draw on different theoretical frameworks
 A new set of ideas, changing the direction of the field
 Post drafts on a blog

45. Learning in an Open World
Open

46. Learning in an Open World
Design
Courses design &
shared openly
Open

47. Learning in an Open World
Design Delivery
Courses design & Use of free tools &
shared openly resources
Open

48. Learning in an Open World
Design Delivery
Courses design & Use of free tools &
shared openly resources
Open
Research
Sharing of research
data

49. Learning in an Open World
Design Delivery
Courses design & Use of free tools &
shared openly resources
Open
Research Evaluation
Sharing of research
Critical reflection
data

51. Open Design

52. Open Design
Open Delivery

53. Open Design
Open Research
Open Delivery

54. Open Design
Open Research
Open Delivery
X-Delia
Open Evaluation

55. A focus on community
 New open, social and participatory
media enable new means of
communication, collaboration,
sharing and co-construction of
knowledge
 What does ‘community’ mean in
these new online spaces?
 How can it be fostered, supported?
 A Community Indicators framework
to guide the design and evaluation
of communities

56. The nature of community
 Complex, distributed, loose
communities are emerging
 Facilitated through different but
connected social networking tools
such as facebook, Twitter, Ning
 Users create their own Personal Digital
Environment
 Mix of synchronous and asynchronous
tools
 Boundary crossing via the power of
retweeting

57. So what is a community?
[Community does not] imply necessarily co-presence, a well-
defined identifiable group, or socially visible boundaries. It does
imply participation in an activity system about which
participants share understandings concerning what they are
doing and what that means in their lives and for their
communities
Lave and Wenger, 1991
Virtual communities are social aggregations that emerge from
the Net when enough people carry on those public discussions
long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of
personal relationships in cyberspace.
Rheingold, 1993

58. Community as a process
 Constantly evolving and
changing
 Shifting groups and depths
of relationships
 Dynamic, evolving and
potentially transformative
 Both directed and
serendipitous interactions

59. Community indicators
Participation Cohesion
Sustained over time Support & tolerance
Commitment from core group Turn taking & response
Emerging roles & hierarchy Humour and playfulness
Identity Creative capability
Group self-awareness Igniting sense of purpose
Shared language & vocab Multiple points of view
Sense of community expressed, contradicted or
challenged
Creation of knowledge links
& patterns
Galley et al., 2010

60. Participation
 Three types of hierarchical
roles
 Veterans: support and
encourage groups and
newbies
 Trendsetters: make a
difference
 Posters: need to be
incentivised to turn from
lurkers to active
contributors

61. Cohesion
 Through support,
tolerance, reciprocity and
trust
 Language and tone are
critical factors in the
development of an online
community
 Emotional and peer
support

62. Identity
Central to the notion of
community are issues of
membership and exclusion. Some
people are in, others are out.
Communities range from being
open to anyone who shares
particular ideas or interests to
communities accessible only to
those who meet certain criteria of
geography, ethnicity, gender, etc
Erickson (1997)

63. Creative capability
 Importance of conflict,
disagreement and
negotiation in the process
of collaborative
knowledge creation and
developing understanding
 Social discord as a
catalyst for knowledge
construction and
expansive learning

64. Framework for sociality
 System needs to accommodate both evolution of
practices and inclusion of newcomers
 Both individual and group identity are important
 People more likely to use systems that resemble their
daily routines, languages and practices
 Metaphors that mimic real life practices are likely to be
more successful
Bouman et al., 2007

65. Can Web 2.0 change academic discourse?

66. Can Web 2.0 change academic discourse?
Rich multimedia representation of content
Multiple communication channels
Accessible anywhere, anytime
Abundance of free tools and resources
Higher impact to wider audience
Great peer critiquing

67. Can Web 2.0 change academic discourse?
Rich multimedia representation of content
Multiple communication channels
Accessible anywhere, anytime
Abundance of free tools and resources
Higher impact to wider audience
Great peer critiquing
Digital divide narrower but deeper
Increasingly complex landscape
New digital literacy skills needed
Access issues
Balanced portfolio from traditional publishing routes to more
‘open’ ones

68. Recommendations
 For learners
 Provide support to development of new digital literacies
 Facilitate more learner-centred approaches
 Encourage communication and collaboration
 Shift from a focus on content to activities
 For academic staff
 New approaches to teaching and research
 Adopting more explicit and reflexive practices
 Technology immersion – learning through the technologies
 Encourage a networked community of academic staff

69. Recommendations
 For institutions
 Strategies/policies that reflect the changing context of learning
 Resources and support to facilitate the shift in practice needed
 Strong leadership with an understanding of the issues
 Re-visioning structures and infrastructures
 PD/incentives for teaching staff to implement
 Nationally
 Free educational resources - Open Educational Resources
 Promote case studies of good practice
 Appropriate strategies and policies and funding
 Professional networks and communities
 Ongoing horizon scanning of technology trajectories

70. Reflections
 Open, participatory and social media enable new forms
of communication and collaboration
 Communities in these spaces are complex and
distributed
 We as researcher need to develop new digital literacy
skills to harness their potential
 We need to rethink how we carry out and disseminate
research
 Open, participatory and social media can provide
mechanisms for us to share and discuss research ideas
 We are seeing a blurring of boundaries: teachers/
research, teaching/research, real/virtual spaces, formal/
informal modes of communication and publication

71.  How has your use of technology for research purposes
changed in the last five years?
 What are the pros and cons of these changes
 Can you think of some good examples of effective use of
technologies?
 Map out your digital environment
 How might you use technologies more effectively in carrying
out your research, communicating with other researchers and
disseminating results?
 How effective is your networking?
 How have you used technologies to network in recent years?
 What are your strategies for publishing?
 How are you using technologies to publish?

72. References
 Galley, R., Conole, G. and Alevizou, P. (submitted), Community Indicators: A
framework for building and evaluating community activity on Cloudworks,
Interactive Learning Environments. Conole, G, and Alevizou, P. (2010), A
literature review of the use of Web 2.0 tools in Higher Education, HE
Academy commissioned report, http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/
EvidenceNet/Conole_Alevizou_2010.pdf
 Galley, R., Conole, G. and Alevizou, P. (2010), Case study: Using Cloudworks
for an Open Literature Review, An HE Academy commissioned report.
 Alevizou, P., Conole, G. and Galley, R. (2010), Using Cloudworks to support
OER activities, An HE Academy commissioned report.
 Conole, G., Galley, R. and Culver, J. (2010), Frameworks for understanding
the nature of interactions, networking and community in a social
networking site for academic practice, The International Review of Research
in Open and Distance Learning.
 Conole, G. and Culver, J. (2010) 'The design of Cloudworks: applying social
networking practice to foster the exchange of learning and teaching ideas
and designs' Computers and Education, 54(3): 679 - 692.
 Conole and Culver (2009), Cloudworks: social networking for learning
design, Australian Journal of Educational Technology, 25(5), pp. 763–782,
http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet25/conole.html.