Getting education out in the open

Open sign — Open for education - picture by Kittyz202

I was asked to co-host a debate on learning in public vs learning within the walled garden at Cardiff University’s Technology Enhanced Education conference recently. You might be able to pick up which side of the argument I’m on from the picture at the top.

Since then I’ve been having a few thoughts about what I said, and what I was trying to get at (I’ll post my slides for it later).

One of the key points for learners – to my mind – is an understanding of digital literacy (a horrible phrase but I’ll leave it as I’ll be playing bullshit bingo in this post).

Now it could be that I teach and facilitate students to find their way around an industry that is being disrupted by new technologies and it isn’t appropriate for everyone else – but to my way of thinking if we are preparing people for the world of work they need to understand some simple points:

Networks - where people are, how they communicate, what that means in the world of work and how to get involved
Customers/readers/audience/community – who are these people that relate to a brand or organisation and what is the difference between these labels in terms of the engagement they will have with your employer or you as a representative of that organisation?
Brand/the cult of me – or whatever the next term is for a very simple thing, understanding what you have to offer and how to best build a portfolio that represents that. So if you are a musician, where’s your social network profiles, free demos and live gigs? If you are someone who wants to get into comms-based jobs you’ll need to show you get how people use tools to talk and share and have a presence that shows you can do that? If you want a job, how do you make it easy for an employer to find you and suss you out?

Not all of that has to be online though, there are some interesting groups around Cardiff where people interested in a subject network – two of the top of my head are the Philosophy Cafe and the Science Cafe. And these are the kind of groups where putting yourself into spaces (physical or virtual) can lead you to new people, ideas or ways of thinking about what you do.

In some ways I tend to think of this a bit like showing your working out in maths, you may not get it right all the time – but you can easily be shown where you are going wrong or where there is a different opinion to your own and be challenged to deal with it.

So, here are a few thoughts about what universities should do to help our students more – which in turn means our organisations supporting us:

Social networking

Yes everyone (almost – I still occasionally find students who don’t) has a Facebook account, but social networking as a researcher or as an industry professional is something different. I set up my students with a Twitter starter pack of interesting, informative and useful people (in the past I’ve used tools like tweepml to create a mass follow tool – I want these people in young journalists’ starter networks, not in a list). Think a starter culture for youghurt making and you will not be far wrong.

And it has to be about them learning the value of these networks and adding new people (nodes) over a period of time.

Social sharing

If we expect people to work in teams during the assessment process and in industry, let’s get them to understand the importance of brand, and the role that things like social capital and ROI play in these areas. Some of that can be done in real space, some in closed virtual spaces and others in public spaces. I love the kind of projects that get teams of students working with communities to do things – there is no sustainability there though which is a key problem that most of us need to tackle.

Social researcher

I’m a technophile and a bibliophile – I’m not sure I could ever get away from books entirely, but there’s a wealth of information that we need to get to grips with to do our jobs better. Librarians are great for this – they’re experts at knowing where to find things. But on the web we can amplify this with our own networks – #lazyweb being a great Twitter example of people asking a question and hoping the network effect will kick in. And sometimes, it does but you need a decent sized network to do it – a few of your mates will not go beyond your usual source of answers.

Social bookmarking, blogging, social news like Reddit etc are great ways of storing what you want to keep for yourself but making accessible to others who might be interested in what you are doing – and that definitely has a return on investment. To be honest this is one of my key points that students and researchers need to get their heads around – this isn’t about harvesting but engaging and building networks of trust. Do that and instead of going to someone’s delicious account to see what they have stored they’ll send it to you.

I’d also love to see a lot more working out in public, with people using Facebook pages/groups or blogs to show they are working out – and if you don’t think that is happening in industry you might want to have a look at Wales on Sunday and Wales Online editor Alison Gow is trying. What I love about this experiment is that by showing the working out, but inviting the customer/community into the build process we have the potential to iron out some of the inherent problems that come with being institutionalised – our way is the only way. Adaptation, flexibility and a brain are vital in business – and this is something I think this project demonstrates in droves.

What next?

That depends on us as lecturers and institutions – and our industry partners. Do we just leave our students to it and expect them to “get Facebook” on their own – yes of course they use it well for the purposes they’ve needed to, yes they may use Twitter to #omg but can we help them be more targetted, focussed and add a touch of the professional (it’s rare that I post things I wouldn’t want my late grandmothers to have seen – after all it is pretty evident who I work for and represent, something which can cause problems even on a private account). Now that’s the extreme view, obviously, but support and guidance on some of these areas is vital – as a journalism trainer and educator I’ve had to sit down with people who can use a telephone and get them to improve their technique or overcome phobias related to it.

We could do this in private, we could do a lot of it in the lecture hall – or we could step outside the constraints of the physical space.

But what happens if you are a lecturer who has never done this? Set up a blog, post something short about your research, an author, your topic and then tell your students (or even setup a Facebook page for your lecture series and let them know). Get a Twitter account and use the search term to find other lecturers or industry professionals in your field and then say hello, ask a question or just chat – it works wonders.

Yes, this all takes time, a different way of thinking and working and can have issues – but the payoff for students and staff is massive.

So to quote Neil Selwyn Screw Blackboard, Let’s Do It On Facebook – or anywhere else social!