Rafi Santo, Dixie Ching, Kylie Peppler and Christopher Hoadley
This article makes the case that the education community can learn from professional learning and innovation practices, collectively called “Working in the Open” (or “Working…
Abstract
Purpose
This article makes the case that the education community can learn from professional learning and innovation practices, collectively called “Working in the Open” (or “Working Open”), that have roots in the free/open source software (F/OSS) movement. These practices focus on values of transparency, collaboration and sharing within communities of experimentation. This paper aims to argues that Working Open offers a compelling approach to fostering distributed educational professional networks that focus on co-constructing new projects and best practices.
Design/methodology/approach
Insights presented here are based on three sources: expert perspectives on open source work practices gleaned through interviews and blog posts, a qualitative case analysis of a collaborative project enacted by a group of informal learning organizations within the Hive NYC Learning Network, a community of over 70 youth-facing organizations in New York City, as well as an overview of that network’s participation structures, and, finally, knowledge-building activities and discussions held within the Hive NYC community about the topic in situ. From these sources, the authors derived general principles to guide open work approaches.
Findings
The authors identify five practices deemed as central to Working Open: public storytelling and context setting, enabling community contribution, rapid prototyping “in the wild”, public reflection and documentation and, lastly, creating remixable work products. The authors describe these practices, show how they are enacted in situ, outline ways that Hive NYC stewards promote a Working Open organizational ecosystem and conclude with recommendations for utilizing a Working Open approach.
Originality/value
Drawing from the F/OSS movement, this article builds on standard practices of professional learning communities to provide an approach that focuses on pushing forward innovation and changes in practice as opposed to solely sharing reflections or observing practices.
Details
Keywords
Dixie Ching, Rafi Santo, Christopher Hoadley and Kylie Peppler
This article makes a case for the importance of brokering future learning opportunities to youth as a programmatic goal for informal learning organizations. Such brokering entails…
Abstract
Purpose
This article makes a case for the importance of brokering future learning opportunities to youth as a programmatic goal for informal learning organizations. Such brokering entails engaging in practices that connect youth to events, programs, internships, individuals and institutions related to their interests to support them beyond the window of a specific program or event. Brokering is especially critical for youth who are new to an area of interest: it helps them develop both a baseline understanding of the information landscape and a social network that will respond to their needs as they pursue various goals. The paper aims to describe three critical levers for brokering well in informal settings: creating learning environments that allow trust to form between youth and educators and enable educators to develop an understanding of a young person’s interests, needs and goals; attending to a young person’s tendency (or not) to reach out to educators after a program is over to solicit assistance; and enabling potential brokers to efficiently locate appropriate future learning opportunities for each young person who approaches them. The authors also include a set of program practices for providers who wish to increase their brokering impact, as well as recommendations geared primarily toward organization leaders. The authors hope that this paper brings clarity and enhanced significance to the practice of brokering as a strategy to support youth pathways toward meaningful futures.
Design/methodology/approach
Insights presented here are the result of a participatory knowledge building and sharing process with a community of after-school providers known as the Mozilla Hive NYC Learning Network. The topic of discussion was how these providers might continue to support young people in their intensive project-based programs after the program was over. The authors of this article, acting as embedded research partners to Hive NYC, contributed insights to these discussions based on ethnographic fieldwork and case studies of high-school-age youth in the Hive NYC context.
Findings
The authors articulate a set of brokering practices and a conceptual model that communicates how brokering might lead to valued long-term outcomes for youth, including increased social capital.
Originality/value
The intent is that information and perspectives from this article will inform youth-serving practice and serve as a catalyst for further conversations and activities geared toward promoting youth pathways of learning and identity development.
Details
Keywords
Sharon Ince, Christopher Hoadley and Paul A. Kirschner
This paper is a qualitative study of how social sciences faculty construct their research workflows with the help of technological tools. The purpose of this study is to examine…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper is a qualitative study of how social sciences faculty construct their research workflows with the help of technological tools. The purpose of this study is to examine faculty scholarly workflows and how both tools and practices support the research process. This paper could inform academic libraries on how to support scholars throughout the research process.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a qualitative study case study of ten faculty members from six research universities from the United States and Canada. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and recorded. Atlas.ti was used to code and analyze the transcripts; each participant was a separate case. Descriptive coding was used to identify digital tools used for collaboration; process and descriptive coding was utilized to examine practices in scholarly workflows.
Findings
Through case study analysis the results of this study include the role of technology in faculty research workflows. Each workflow was grouped into four categories: information literacy, information management, knowledge management, and scholarly communication. The findings included scholars creating simple workflows for efficiency and collaboration and utilizing workarounds.
Research limitations/implications
The study did not observe faculty in the process of doing research and, thus, only reports on what the researchers say that they do.
Originality/value
The research is unique in that there is almost no research on how social scientists conduct their research workflows and the affordances/impasses of this process.
Details
Keywords
Sharon Ince, Christopher Hoadley and Paul A. Kirschner
This paper aims to review current literature pertaining to information literacy and digital literacy skills and practices within the research workflow for doctoral students and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to review current literature pertaining to information literacy and digital literacy skills and practices within the research workflow for doctoral students and makes recommendations for how libraries (and others) can foster skill-sets for graduate student research workflows for the twenty-first century scholarly researcher.
Design/methodology/approach
A review of existing information literacy practices for doctoral students was conducted, and four key areas of knowledge were identified and discussed.
Findings
The findings validate the need for graduate students to have training in information literacy, information management, knowledge management and scholarly communication. It recommends empirical studies to be conducted to inform future practices for doctoral students.
Practical implications
This paper offers four areas of training to be considered by librarians and faculty advisers to better prepare scholars for their future.
Originality/value
This paper presents a distinctive synthesis of the types of information literacy and digital literacy skills needed by graduate students.
Details
Keywords
The aim of this paper is to give a critical assessment of a study designed to investigate the potential of a new method for teaching HRD students about performance appraisal. It…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to give a critical assessment of a study designed to investigate the potential of a new method for teaching HRD students about performance appraisal. It is argued that this approach is in the vanguard of developments in IT and learning.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper takes the form of an explorative study which is undertaken in the context of a virtual world setting.
Findings
There is potential value added for HRD teaching and learning using virtual world technology. Subjects identified strengths and weaknesses in their use of Second Life© for performance appraisal skills training. Importantly, there was some evidence that subjects emotionally identified with their online characters, with potential implications for the impact of training. Necessary adjustments to research methods are identified.
Research limitations/implications
This was a small scale study. Initial enquiry will inform larger scale research.
Practical implications
The model gives HRD students scope to practice different roles in performance appraisal and, in the longer term, to experiment with “ways of being”. Subjects could be mentored during their engagement in the appraisal process, enabling active tutoring for skill development. Also, a variety of teaching strategies could be employed such as exploring cultural aspects and engaging students in peer‐to‐peer teaching.
Originality/value
The paper presents an innovative method, blending IT with a more conventional training concept, role‐play.
Details
Keywords
The implementation of collaborative systems in learning situations frequently suffers from an emphasis on technical issues, which often leads to a neglect of the problems…
Abstract
The implementation of collaborative systems in learning situations frequently suffers from an emphasis on technical issues, which often leads to a neglect of the problems encountered when learners have to solve tasks jointly. This paper describes how a Simulated Student may be used in synchronous collaborative applications with the goal of monitoring students’ actions in order to detect and correct specific types of disfunctioning in collaboration. Several experiments were carried out with the intention of testing whether the Simulated Student was useful. Data showed that in the majority of the cases the Simulated Student detected and avoided “negative situations” and, what is more, it also improved students’ learning.
Details
Keywords
Susan Hoadley, Leigh N Wood, Leonie Tickle and Tim Kyng
– The purpose of this paper is to investigate and identify threshold concepts that are the essential conceptual content of finance programmes.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate and identify threshold concepts that are the essential conceptual content of finance programmes.
Design/methodology/approach
Conducted in three stages with finance academics and students, the study uses threshold concepts as both a theoretical framework and a research methodology.
Findings
The study identifies ten threshold concepts in finance that are clearly endorsed by finance academics. However, the extent to which students are explicitly aware of the threshold concepts in finance is limited.
Research limitations/implications
As well as informing further research into the design and delivery of finance programmes, the findings of the study inform the use of threshold concepts as a theoretical framework and a research methodology. The study does not explore the bounded, discursive, reconstitutive and liminal aspects of threshold concepts. Implications include the lack of recognition of more modern concepts in finance, and the need for input from industry and related disciplines.
Practical implications
The threshold concepts in finance provide the starting point for finance educators in the design and delivery of finance programmes. In particular, the threshold concepts in finance need to be made more explicit to students.
Social implications
Using the threshold concepts in finance as well as the other findings of this study to inform to finance curriculum design and delivery is likely to achieve better quality educational outcomes for finance students as well as better prepare them for professional finance roles.
Originality/value
The finance curriculum is under researched and for the first time this study identifies the threshold concepts in finance to inform the design of finance programmes.
Details
Keywords
The U.S. has a deficit problem. Both political parties agree that the debt and the deficit must be addressed, but are at odds about how to do so. Worse still, there are members of…
Abstract
The U.S. has a deficit problem. Both political parties agree that the debt and the deficit must be addressed, but are at odds about how to do so. Worse still, there are members of both parties who make finding solutions difficult because of entrenched ideology. As we approach the second year of Congressional impasse, it appears that this crisis is far from over. It is little wonder that teaching students about this issue is difficult. There are myriad nuances and complexities that are challenging to get across to students through traditional means. Simulations are one way to introduce students to complex phenomena by allowing them to experience them. Simulations have proven to be effective teaching tools for addressing subjective experiences and fostering inquiry. Shifts in student dispositions also may occur with simulations. This paper walks the reader through an adaptation of the board game Monopoly to demonstrate how this simulation game can be used to teach students about the deficit crisis and debate from multiple perspectives across the socioeconomic spectrum.
Details
Keywords
Amy Beardmore, Penny Beynon, Christine Crabbe, Carol Fry, Jan Fullforth, Jeremy Groome, Eddy Knasel, Jill Turner, Christopher Orlik, Matthew Jones and Jo White
International attention is increasingly turning to the challenge of creating age-friendly environments. This study aims to examine the application of asset-based approaches in…
Abstract
Purpose
International attention is increasingly turning to the challenge of creating age-friendly environments. This study aims to examine the application of asset-based approaches in undertaking community development projects with older people. The paper intends to share the learning that may be useful when designing community development projects for older people in the future.
Design/methodology/approach
This study followed a multiple project case study design, with a focus on project delivery practices. It was undertaken as a co-production exercise involving university researchers and trained older volunteer community researchers (CRs). Over 18–24 months of qualitative research was conducted in relation to six area-based urban projects between 2018 and 2020.
Findings
There were five leading themes as follows: mapping and building on assets in highly localised settings; creating governance and direction through steering groups; developing activities with diverse groups of older people; reaching isolated and lonely older people; building local capacity to embed sustainability.
Practical implications
The effectiveness of assets-based approaches in promoting age-friendly agendas appears to be contingent on the values, skills, capacity and resourcing of delivery agencies, alongside wider public sector investment in communities. Diversity and inequalities amongst older people need to be taken into account and community development that specifically focuses on older people needs to be balanced with the whole population and intergenerational practice.
Originality/value
This paper provides an empirical account of the practical application of assets practices specifically in the context of the age-friendly community agenda. The co-production method brings together insights from academic and volunteer older CRs.