A Dollar...and change

I am thinking today about the nature of change in institutions like a University or Community College and the challenges that "change champions", and change agents face in organizations that seem sometimes hard-wired to resist change at all costs. So much of my work and my life seems to be about facilitating change and working through the resistance that change might present. A few chestnuts to start with:

Q: How many academics does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: CH-CH-CH-CHANGE? What do you mean change!!?

"Why is it that faced with the option of either making change or proving why it isn't needed, so many academics will get busy with the proof?"

Sorry I can't provide reference for either of these - they aren't mine, but I don't have the originating source at hand. However, I just finished reading a novel (State of Fear) by Michael Chrichton presenting an alternate view of the current take on climate change. In the epilog at the end of the book, Chrichton pontificates on a lot of issues relating to the current state of science research and politics. Some of it is pretty controversial, but I particularly liked one comment relating to the inability to change the model of science research. "The world changes; idealogues and zealots don't". He also states "I am certain there is too much certainty in this world."

It has been a point of interest for me for some time to explore why some decision-makers in academic areas are resistant to change (see related articles on my ePortfolio research site or my Class in the Cloud podcast with Stephen Downes). In my discussion with Steven Downes, he cautions that I should not use terms like "technophobia" or "fear of innovation", suggesting that such folks have no reason to fear change - rather that there are valid (and often economic) reasons for resistance in many cases. Agreed that there are great reasons not to simply change for change itself, but it seems to me there is also plenty of inertia when it comes to change that would be very obviously beneficial and that is where the notion of responsible technology conservatism does not help explain the reluctance to embrace change.

King Whitney Junior presents an interesting take on change and the emotions that accompany it: Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful it is threatening because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful it is encouraging because things may get better. To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better.

I'm the confident kind, I guess.

Halifax Podcamp 2009

7:00am is an early start for a Sunday morning at Halifax Podcamp 2009, but I think that it was time well spent. For a free event, I feel I got a lot of value. I started out "camping" with Hal Richman on Convergence of Business and Social Media. The message? Unsure, but it seems that some folks have had some success utilizing social media tools to accomplish business objectives, but many find it difficult to get past the hype and make a real connection to do more than a marketing exercise (that might be done better in other formats). Said Hi to Steven Downes who seemed to make pretty well the same rounds as me for the session choices.

Session II: MediaBadger - The State of Social Media in Atlantic Canada. As the barriers to entry to publication (editors, publishing houses, costs to publish) gets ripped down by social media tools, marketers are finding new ways to get to the 18-34 demographic that heretofore has been difficult to reach - but will become highly political and important over the next decade. Meantime a gap is clear between internet users in the lowest wage groups (47% actively using internet) and the highest wage groups (91% usage). Interesting stat - 67% of Canadians watch TV and are online at the same time. I thought it was just me??

Session III: I decided to go with Chris Campbell's "Small, Specific, Real: Storytelling" presentation. I note that he lost a bunch of folks right off the draw when he exposed his technology for the presentation - sticky notes and the audience. Too bad for them - although Chris' style may be a little disjointed for some, he had some great notions about how to tell a story in a medium like blogs or tweets. Keep the storyline tight (small), the delight is in the details (specific), and genuine things that mean something to you (real) will always make for compelling stories. A couple of other good notes in the margins - like understanding that you don't have to tell people the meaning of every story and that entertainment is still a social construct - good stuff. I will try to find his podcast (Bad Metaphor) and give it a listen.

After lunch I took in the keynote with Andrew Baron (RocketBoom) - a bit of a waste of an hour and a half, but a couple of good (albeit altruistic) takeaways: If you find yourself explaining the notion of Web 2.0, you are probably talking with the wrong audience. Also - and this really resonates with me - aggregation is the true promise of the semantic web. His final notes were no real news: To be a success in social media marketplace you will need to capture two of the following characteristics: be the first; be the best; be the most unique. Good thing this wasn't the only draw for the event.

Last session of the day was a chat with Craig Moore (Spidervideo.tv) and was chock full of great production and post production notes for adding video to web presence. Having a long drive out to the countryside I didn't stay aaround for the final framing - hoping it was taped and will be available/ linked on the podcamp wiki.

ePortfolio - Mash-up or Proprietary System?

Whistle Stops: Those who have been following my research know that I have deliberately focused on ePortfolio systems, eschewing any consideration of fully decentralized approaches such as Helen Barrett's Google mash-up and similar solutions having no central portal for cohesion.

Barrett has been a champion of the "learner as central character" in all aspects of portfolio learning and in that respect and in the great work she has done to help focus institutions on strategic approaches (that start with understanding the purpose of portfolio before implementing technology) she'll find only admiration from me. Barrett's ideas are driven by a dedication to digital story-telling and to the notions of writers like Thomas Friedman (The World is Flat) - "small pieces loosely joined". Again, I'm a fan of both of those directions. My opposition to the decentralized approach parallels the fundamental argument between applied research and theoretic research - and perhaps between the community college and the university - that puts such idealistic approaches in isolation of the reality of learner motivation and institutional accountability. In other words, in theory mash-ups sound like the perfect portfolio technology. In practice, they may simply de-rail the opportunity for ePortfolio to plug into the semantic web to bring critical value to the learner, institutions and society generally.

Academic ePortfolio research is often (and necessarily) conducted hypothetically. Ms. Barrett has certainly been more "hands-on" than many - having populated dozens of Portfolio tools to present experiential evidence of their efficacy. It is in the fact that most learners have no interest in populating numerous portfolios, that my first argument is grounded: collecting and populating ePortfolios is hard work if done comprehensively. ePortfolio systems - backed by industry standards - promise the opportunity to transport robust, complex portfolio data from application to application without having to ask learners to re-submit and validate entire repositories of evidence of - and reflection on - learning.

Secondly, academics do not usually concern themselves with issues like the total cost of ePortfolio implementation and the level of accountability Senates and Boards of Governors require to rationalize such investment. Open, uncoordinated systems leave no aggregate data to track accountability and therefore may be unattractive, if not unsustainable, to governance bodies. In the long-term, open decentralized approaches may be able to stitch together disparate data to create portable portfolios but in the short run, the successful business model to grow ePortfolio will require that standardized, aggregate systems return consistently comparable results from institutional investment in ePortfolio.

So how does one support digital storytelling theory and decentralized web 2.0 applications while arguing for institutionally hosted, centralized ePortfolios? As a technologist, I don't assume that they are mutually exclusive. Barrett's ePortfolios 1.o vs 2.0 argument in 2006 presents an apparent dichotomy of the monolithic ePortfolio (1.0) and the decentralized one (2.0). However, it suggests that parameters like competencies and standards can't accommodate learner creativity; that "authority figures" are outside the community of learners; that blogs and wikis are unstructured (unlike forms); that accountability somehow is not about learning; and that proprietary systems cannot leverage open architectures. Trent Batson's recent Campus Technology article outlines a more pragmatic notion: to maintain artifacts wherever learners choose (MySpace, YouTube, Google Apps, Facebook, etc.) while the centralized ePortfolio portal provides cohesive tracking for assessment and evaluation.

Reflections: The digital divide for eportfolio will not be between the technology have and have-nots but may be found in strategic gaps in solutions designed rather than inspired by idealists. If we are to follow the best practices of eBusiness consulting in defining ePortfolio, we should let the academics provide the vision and functional specification and then get them out of the way as technologists work to make it so.

Start Spreading the News...

Whistle Stops:
Yup - just back from New York, as you might guess from this post's title. The conference on ePortfolios for Integrative Learning and Assessment was even more than it promised. The heavy hitters of the ePortfolio world were all there (Helen Barrett, Darren Cambridge, Trent Batson, etc.) in fine form. LaGuardia Community College anticipated between 100-200 people but drew over 500 before they had to close registration. Why the interest? This is taken up by Trent Batson in his followup article on Campus Technology. My take is that we are finally beginning to see academics and institutions realizing that ePortfolio is more than the electronic page-turner that many e-Learning programs have become. As an integrative educational support it accompanies experiential, discovery, and learner-centred education while embracing the participative web 2.0 opportunities as no Learning Management System has yet to do. The conference also demonstrated that ePortfolio is a great deal more than just one more modality of the portfolio learning pedagogy. It can be used as a virtual learning environment, for the assessment of and for learning, to evaluate institutional effectiveness and to connect learners with 21st century literacies in a powerful way. If not there already, the conference proceedings (including an amazing fishbowl debate on Thursday night) should soon be available at http://www.eportfolio.lagcc.cuny.edu/conference/.

As usual, key aspects of the conference will be posted on my research site at http://24.222.53.223/ including a great Saturday morning interview I had with Darren Cambridge (George Mason U.) and Tracy Penny-Light (U. Waterloo). Video to follow.

Deus eP Machina

Whistle stops: In an earlier post, I presented a discussion referring to Neil Postman's Deus Machina and my concerns about education's institutional technophobia. This has led to some side tracks; not particularly productive but interesting diversions all the same. The ePortfolio in the National Calibre College website has certainly been fleshed out with much more material, research and recommendations this past couple of weeks. One area I concentrated on is my theories of Hype vs Adoption which can be found in the Alignment (Technical Aspects) part of the site. Basically, I suggest that the tech/innovation profile of an institution may be evident in the speed by which they adopt new innovations (genius, hey?). Mapping Gartner's Hype Cycle against Everett Rogers' Tech adoption curve, I propose a hypothesis that suggests some realtionship between hype/visibility and innovative culture. It doesn't help to get institutions off their (uh, hands) but it helps to see where the problem lies, and suggests ways to measure it in your institution.

I also suggested in that earlier blog post that in order to overcome the inertia and resistance to tech change I will need to make a convincing argument of why ePortfolio is any better than regular (low fat, high fibre) portfolio. Under ePortfolio, Benefits and Features, I present some arguments that include the inclusion of necessary new literacies in its completion, better metacognitive outcomes, agility of the data, and benefits for the institution that are just not available in an overloaded scrapbook that walks out the door (with the student) on graduation.

This past few weeks I have really focused on analysis and writing to get the most cogent stuff from the literature review into the site. Along the way I have been conducting videotaped interviews and, oh boy! have they given me some great stuff. I'll be editing those videos and putting content on the site very soon.

Next Stops: Look for vid clips as early as next week. I am booked to go to LaGuardia Community College Apr. 10-13 for their "Making Connections" Conference and exposition of student ePortfolios. Next blog post will be on the imperative of institutionally hosted eP systems.

Week IV: Land Survey

I seem to be picking up momentum and this week I was delighted to find out that learning resources specialist Debbie Costelo of NSCC Library Services can provide secondary literature research support - and boy has that paid off already! It's like having a personal research assistant, and the quality of references she has sent along already is exceptional. Some of this will be finding its way on the site shortly, it's just up to me to catch up on the reading. For anyone considering this kind of research (that begins with a broad literature review) I'd highly recommend you connect with a Library at the outset. I could have made a lot of progress if I had made this connection in week one and these folks are eager and eminently qualified to add this support. In any event, I have started to develop a bit of a framework for the eP landscape, although obviously lots of work to do yet.

Whistle stops: Had a bit of a head-to-head with our formal research folks this week, who wanted me to put my interview processes and release forms through the Research Ethics Board stating that any research done on humans needs to be vetted by the REB. Luckily I was able to connect with Sue Drapeau (NSCC Manager for Institutional Research), who advised me that if the research output is predominantly for the college and is an extension of program or delivery development, then it should be considered institutional research and not subject to REB review - whew, I really thought I'd be coming off the rails this time!

Our Second Life Special Interest Group has confirmed we will be able to buy an island in SL and we have started to develop user stories - I have suggested we consider what an ePortfolio might look like in a virtual environment.

Reflections: I have been blessed to have made the company of a very generous group of colleagues in the college and beyond who demonstrate great intelligence, verisimilitude, and diplomacy in supporting my work. One of my favorites in our Google group suggested I consider Twitter, and I appreciate the advice. Twain, wasn't it, who said "If I'd have had more time, I would have written less"? I'll try to bring bigger value in smaller posts for the future - thanks! Next week, I'll have some early considerations/ recommendations from the research and the first of the interviews will be posted - exciting progress!

Week III: Binge & Purge

Immersion is fine, but the tricky part is determining what to keep and what to disregard. Focus...that's the trick. The model I developed still seems valid - dividing the body of eportfolio literature into "e" (educational technology) and "portfolio" (the pedagogy and methodology), and to divide the consultative aspect into alignment (institutional culture, vision and values) and implementation (technical and logistical impact). But in a 4-month research project, the literature review will only scan the field for future researchers. This week's work has been about paring down to essential and relevant material. But what stays, and what goes?

The focus must be on developing a set of recommendations for implementation of ePortfolio at NSCC. The literature review must support those decisions, but therein lies the rub. A scan that does not dive deeply enough to uncover critical influence may result in a compromised result. I am always conscious of the potential for what Bruce Tawse (NSCC Dean, School of Applied Arts & New Media) calls "decision-based evidence-making". My experience in following ePortfolio for the past 6+ years has led me to believe that it is a tremendously beneficial educational technology. But I need to be sure that in my haste I do not bring forward recommendations that are based on my bias for technology and ePortfolio, and rather are about the alignment of this technology with the values, priorities, and culture at NSCC.

Whistle Stops: Good news - the website is launched, currently only as an IP address (http://24.222.53.223/) since I have not decided whether to maintain this as a public resource or to pull it into the Institutional Intranet at NSCC. The content is still sparse, but the site is there and every day I load more documents, discussions, references and lists to the site - so this is an exciting bit of progress.

I spoke with Darren Cambridge this week after an Elluminate presentation he did on ePortfolio, Integrative Learning for the Network Self and the Symphonic Self. The work presents a duality of purpose and presence that is noted in the process of ePortfolio development, one outward facing based on the learners intentional making of connections, and one inward facing based on bringing those things into a cohesive concept of self. There is some very good work being done on integrative learning (over time, across courses, and between academic, personal, and community life) in various places and one that stands out is the Carnegie Foundation's Integrative Learning Project. It seems that many, like Darren, believe that eP can be a substantial tool for integrative learning and so this will certainly be an area of focus for me as I begin to present recommendations. Darren has consented to an interview during the LeGuardia ePortfolio conference in April. It will be good to see him again and catch up on his work with The Inter/National Coaliton for Electronic Portfolio Research (I/NCEPR).

I have identified three of the four institutions that I will visit - that present opportunities to see good eP implementations in progress: LeGuardia College in New York City is being cited for some very good innovation and implementation of eP. They will be hosting a major national conference - Making Connections:ePortfolios, Integrative Learning & Assessment - in April and I will be there to look at what they have achieved and to meet with some key players in the American eP moevement.

Virginia Tech caught my eye some time ago when I noted they were recruiting for several ePortfolio-based positions at the college. Clearly, they have seen the value in investing in the technology and the pedagogy and I'd like to hear from them how those decisions were made and how the Open Source Portfolio is working out there. I don't have a contact yet, but have a colleague in D.C. with connections to VT who I'll ask for an introduction.

Tracy Penny-Light at U. Waterloo is someone who came to my attention a couple of times - in part because of her activities with I/NCEPR and also from presentations she made at LIfIA conferences in Vancouver and Montreal. I understand they have had some great success at UW and I have sent a note to ask her if she'd be willing to discuss this and demonstrate the impact at her institution.

I am still thinking about one more site visit - I am inclined to consider Simon Fraser or UBC on the West Coast, but also considering a discussion with Renate Krakauer at Michener Institute to see if they have anything to report.

I've also set up a few internal meetings and will post up some video as they are captured. I hope I won't have to purge my own site before I get finished taking stock!

Reflection: Quite a week of deep focus this week and I do realize I tend to take on big projects with insane timelines. I actually sense that when pressed for time I make some of my best work happen. Reflection is something I do after the fact, though and I know that I will make mistakes if I don't take time to plan. Learning does mean that you have to take time to reflect, but it also needs room and the courage to make mistakes. If are not willing to make them, there will be little opportunity to learn.