Academic culture

For this module (2) I'm going to focus on the current theory around cost/ benefit analysis of implementing e-leanring into HE. The research will focus on the cultural differences within academic departments and how this may effect the design of any cost benefit evaluation. A number of questions:

Even if you can develop a more meaniful representation of the costs and benefits for e-learning within a given academic context, will other cultural and social factors etc. still limit the uptake?

How does this research idea relate to general change management strategies?

Is academic culture that well researched to make this research valid?

Are there any philosophical or epistomological objections to using a cost benefit approach in the literature - is the term itself difficult in some academic contexts?

Module 2: university culture

Interesting dy running an e-learning network meeting. The group is proably a continuation of the formal network as part of the e-learning sub committee - gone from an informal network to a fomalised role within each academic department, back to a more structured but informal network in 7 years!!

Why does this organisation fidn it so difficult to understand and manage technology effectivly? Are we typical of many similar insitutiosn or are do we have a management team that has other priorities?

Is this institution too fragmented and diverse organisation to hav a single culture? Is the managment a different entity and culture within the organisation? Is there a clash of objectives and identities because of these different cultures?

Model 2: reflections on professionalisim

Just completed tasks 1 and 2 on Communities of Prcatice and epistomologies of practice (tacit & explicit knowledge etc.). Both discussions have got me thinking about the nature of being a 'professional' within an HE context. Certainly there is tensions between the different CoP's that I work with - staff within the University, learning technologists, staff developers etc. - how complex and to a degree fragmented series of profesional networks. My sense of professional identity is certainly not as strong as being a landscape architect - does this relflect the chartered 'right of passage' that this profession had compared the 'profession by default' of my current professional development?

Start of module 2

Module 2 starts today! Hoping that I will manage my time bettre for this one! Still lot going on at work with the impending curriculum reviews and at home with the new extension. This time I will aim to stay focused on the topic for each section of the module, and to add references etc. as I go along. Very happy wih the way I am managing my learning using RefWorks and VUE. I'm using VUE to help organise my conceptual thinking - ask questions for further reading as much as getting everything neat and tidy. This is working well for me - I'm able to change and re-organise things according to how I am visualising my understanding.

I will spend some time thinking through and planning the required input to the module for the summer - its' going to be difficult to get a long break this year.