Networked Learning in management and professional development

Vivien HodgsonApril 6th 2017

Networked Learning – some characteristics and principles • Promote connections: between learners and

other learners, between learners and tutors; between a learning community and its learning resources

• NL aspires to be a learning approach that provides learning spaces for critical inquiry, analysis and reflexivity

• Collaboration/Participation; dialogue; taking responsibility; having a critical awareness of how one is in the world and the impact you have on the world

• Increasingly it is characterised by the adoption and use of both face to face as well as virtual interaction and discussion within groups and social networks

MAMLL MA in Management Learning & Leadership (MAMLL) Workshop Timetable Year 1 Year 2

20-24 October 2014 Introduction to Management

Learning & Leadership

January 2015 Paper 1 Marking

Research, Inquiry and Consulting Processes

June 2015 Project Marking

Leading and Working in Globalised and Intercultural

Organisation

November 2015 Paper 2 Marking

Learning and Capability in a Complex World

Plus dissertation sets

February & March 2016 ONLINE

Research and Inquiry Clinic

September 2016 Dissertation marking

and Final Review

Action Learning Sets Paper 1

Action Learning Sets

Project

Action Learning Sets Dissertation

Action Learning Sets Dissertation Proposals and Reflective essay

Action Learning

Sets Paper 2

MA in Management Learning & Leadership (MAMLL)

Workshop Timetable

Year 1

Year 2

November 2015

Paper 2 Marking

Learning and Capability in a Complex World

Plus dissertation sets

20-24 October 2014

Introduction to Management Learning & Leadership

February & March 2016 ONLINE

Research and Inquiry Clinic

Action Learning Sets

Dissertation

June 2015

Project Marking

Leading and Working in Globalised and Intercultural Organisation

Action Learning Sets

Paper 1

January 2015

Paper 1 Marking

Research, Inquiry and Consulting Processes

Action Learning Sets

Project

Action Learning �Sets

Paper 2

September 2016

Dissertation marking and Final Review

Action Learning Sets

Dissertation Proposals and Reflective essay

MAMLL Structures and Processes

• Learning Community• Open structure and

curriculum• Action Learning sets• Free choice of topics for all

course work• Peer involvement in

feedback and assessment of assignments

‘

UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES• Value attached to relevance• Belief in choice of the direction and content of one’s

own learningand therefore

• An opportunity to share in planning and decision-making

and therefore• attention to social and organizational processes

Learning and experience of Networked Learning • Is based within a social

constructionist view or theory of learning that assumes learning and understanding of the world emerges from relational dialogue

• Strong interactional and emotional dimension to networked learning

• Uncertainty, emotions and acceptance of complexity and diversity is normal in such kinds of approaches

The current pattern and rhythmof the MSc LPR modules(Leadership Practice and Responsiblity)

5 x 1 week of activities that includes student presentations of their analysis of both self-selected and allocated example case studies; weekly 1 hour video conferences (Fri 11.00 GMT) – that include two half hour guest speakers Q & A session . Discussions in online forums and scheduled Action Learning set at the end of the 5 weeks.

pre-reading

Action Learning

Set

Action Learning

Set

5 weeks - Working on AssignmentsEND

PG LUMSNET Taskforce• LUMSNET has involved staff from all LUMS departments • It has been a capacity building activity to support staff to utilise and bring

digital resources and practices into their learning designs and pedagogy –with a focus on pedagogy rather than technology per se.

Word Cloud of Lumsnet task forceteaching and learning values

Researching Networked Learning in management and professional development

• Self-Development – or reflectivity• The Social Construction of identity• Shadow side of participation• Heterotopia learning spaces• Digital literacy and scholarship

Self-Development – or reflectivity• Embedded in humanistic learning and

education – with a stronger notion of self and self-concept of actualisation and fulfilment even.

• The idea of self is now a more fuzzy less individual concept - a more performative one that is closer to the ‘affective turn’.

• A move away of thinking of ‘bodies’ only in terms of human organisms and rethinking the relationship of life, information and technology

• Affect as that which augments or diminishes the bodies capacity to act, to engage, and to connect (Clough 2007)

Self-Development – or reflectivity• An important pedagogical principle that

underpins the design of MAMLL is the one of taking responsibility for one’s own learning and that of other members of the learning community - to achieve both professional and personal development through doing the programme

• Recurring issues related to this principle are ones of developing trust, acquiring a voice and social presence, experiences of self and of taking responsibility – which all contribute to the construction of identity as a learner and member of the learning community

The Social Construction of identity• Identities get constructed in the

relational dialogue that underpins NL programmes and the learning within them

• Through discourse analysis of both face to face and online discussions it has been possible to see;

- The ways in which gendered identities are constructed- Discourses of inclusion and exclusion -imperceptible and unnoticed- And the construction of the identity of being a learner and of the learning community itself

Heterotopia learning spaces • The learning community is a learning

space within which norms of how to be and ways to behave in the learning community are equally socially constructed – it can offer a context in which learners can experiment with identity and language to explore ways of being that can influence future activity beyond the learning context and into other social contexts.

• The spaces constructed can be experienced as both supportive or liberating but also constraining at different times and for different people

‘

Heterotopia learning spaces• Learning (educational) spaces can be

experienced as spaces of enclosure where what is required of you and how you are expected to behave is very clear

• NL programmes not necessarily any different and the boundaries can be very clear

• Heterotopia (after Foucault) explores the idea of ‘other’ spaces that are much more transient and temporary to those of everyday social spaces/institutions

• As Foucault also suggests heterotopia provide a space to imagine and to desire and to act differently.

Digital literacy and scholarship• Do staff or learners in HE have the

necessary understandings, digital skills or digital scholarship to meet the demands and requirements of networked learning designs and pedagogy?

• Do we really understand the constraints and benefits experienced by users and do we have the necessary understanding of the nature of digital scholarship required for effective networked learning and collaboration?

Final Thought!

• Haraway (1991) made the point: ‘The machine is not an it to be animated, worshipped, and dominated. The machine is us, our processes, an aspect of our embodiment. We can be responsible for machines: they do not dominate or threaten us. We are responsible for boundaries; we are they’

Haraway, D.J. (1991) Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. London: Free Association Books

References that work is based on

• Carvalho, L. Goodyear, P. Hodgson, V. and deLaat, M. (2016) ‘Conclusion—place-based spaces for networked learning: emerging themes and issues’ pp 242-260.

• Dirckinck-Holmfeld L, Hodgson V. and McConnell D. (eds) , 2012, Exploring the Theory, Pedagogy and Practice of Networked Learning, Springer, New York

• Ferreday D J and Hodgson Vivien, 2010, 'Heterotopia in Networked Learning: Beyond the Shadow Side of Participation in Learning Communities', Management Learning and Leadership Working Paper Series

• Hodgson V.E. (2008) Learning spaces, context and auto/biography in Online Learning Communities, International Journal of Web Based Communities, Vol. 4 (2), pp 159-172

• Ferreday DJ and Hodgson, V. (2007) Role of emotion in online learning and knowledge production, Ideas, Cyberspace and Education Symposium (Lock Lomond, Scotland)

Continued• Ferreday, D., Hodgson V. and Jones, C. (2006) Dialogue, language and

identity: critical issues for networked management learning, Studies in Continuing Education Vol 28 (3) 223 – 239

• Hodgson, V. and Zenios, M (2003) ‘Designing Networked environments to support dialogical learning’ in B. Wasson , S.Ludvigsen & U. Hoppe (eds) Designing for Change in Networked Learning Environments, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht.

• Hodgson, V. (2002), 'Issues for democracy and social identity in CMC and Networked Learning', in Steeples, C and Jones, C (eds.) Networked Learning; Perspectives and Issues (Springer Verlag,).

• Hardy, V., Hodgson, V.E. and McConnell, D. (1994) 'Computer conferencing: A New Medium for Investigating Issues in Gender and Learning'. Higher Education 28: pp 403-418

• Hodgson, V.E. and Reynolds, M. (1987) ‘The Dynamics of the Learning Experience’ in Boud, D. and Griffen, V. (eds.), Understanding Adult Learning from the Learner’s Perspective, London: Kogan Page.

Networked Learning in management and professional development��Vivien Hodgson� April 6th 2017Networked Learning – some characteristics and principles MAMLLMAMLL Structures and Processes�UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES�Learning and experience of Networked Learning The current pattern and rhythm�of the MSc LPR modules�(Leadership Practice and Responsiblity)���PG LUMSNET Taskforce�Researching Networked Learning in management and professional developmentSelf-Development – or reflectivitySelf-Development – or reflectivityThe Social Construction of identity�Heterotopia learning spaces ��Heterotopia learning spaces��Digital literacy and scholarshipFinal Thought!References that work is based on Continued