Adtech was really interesting, in particular the Google University.

An article for OhmyNews was accepted and has had more response than most of my other articles.I think this is a good way forward. Journalism seems to work better than academic writing.

I got over some ideas about quality and how learning could fit in with this. Since writing the article I have found some more about a theory of learning Google might connect with. They are supporting the project for cheap computers promoted by the Media Lab at MIT.

"
Negroponte explained “This is not teaching as we know it; only part of our learning comes from teaching. Much of it comes from curiosity. These are tools that can help cultivate that learning process.”
"

Other links to explore later

http://www.connectedfamily.com/main_alt.html

Seymour Papert has a lead role on education ideas

http://laptop.media.mit.edu/
base for the laptop

Second cut and paste from the Equel site. My probings have been there some time with no reply .

-----------------http://equel.net/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=74

Not sure if this links without you logging in. You need to find the 'hints and tips' then the social forum. Not too easy to navigate, like much of the site.

Is anything still happening?by Will Pollard - Friday, 2 September 2005, 04:03 PM Hello again
Is this still a live project?
I am wondering why nothing seems to be happening. The previous web site was fairly flat for messages also.
Is it because actual use of the web is not really a prority? Sorry if I'm being rude but I have been thinking since a recent conference on Leadership and FE about how theory might be implemented, rendered useful for people in practice.
I'm not sure this is actually the aim of the Equel project. Papers exist as outputs. So that's ok. This site remains more or less moribund though.
Have you had a look at Prolearn? http://www.prolearn-project.org/
It seems to me that the scope here includes quality and organisation. I think this is positive.
I will write more at the website http://www.learn9.net
also on the Guardian talk / education
Any comment welcome
Will Pollard
will.pollard@gmail.com



Re: is anything still happening?by Will Pollard - Wednesday, 7 September 2005, 12:07 PM Copy message from Guardian Talk
Polly Toynbee is still wrong about Iraq in my opinion but she makes some interesting points about UK universities- http://mediatalk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?12@pollyt@.774809ad/5
"No government relishes the academic backlash that would follow any suggestion that perhaps some of what is taught at university is not useful, enjoyable or intellectually elevating for most students. The interesting is often made deliberately obscure and the simple embellished with academic obfuscation, while students are taught to write in dense academic style. It is not philistine to suggest that most humanities students might have their minds stimulated by a more general curriculum across a range of disciplines, opening wider windows instead of treating them all like trainee academics. As for the value of some research, no politician dare touch that domain."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,1564212,00.html
One benefit of publishing academic research on the web could be a crossover of styles. Maybe this could assist understanding.



http://mediatalk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?50@pollyetc@.774809ad

to continue talk at Guardian

I am getting a bit desperate with academics. Their ideas on 'learning' seem a bit restricted, maybe to protect the idea of learning as in universities. The next couple of posts show some attempts to get more discussion going.

This one from Open Congress website. At Tate Modern sometime soon, invitation only but the website is open enough. I have added a request for more on learning to the intro for texts. This seems the closest to a statement of intent available for the people involved.

My impression is that there is a theory of learning, but it is not explicit.

http://opencongress.omweb.org/modules/wakka/Introduction

OhmyNews has now published my article on print as used by themselves and WikiNews as a spin-off from their web sites. News organisations will use a combination of web and hard copy. Both OhmyNess and WikiNews have a free PDF for download.

I have expanded in my blog on IPEX 2002 the last paragraph on Jonathan Levy's editorial in Print Media Management. 'Vision in print media' clearly means something more than the print industry has been offering. What it is though is not yet all that clear. Maybe there is a form of 'morphosis' involved. 'Mediamorphosis' has some history as a term. I will try to come back to this later.

If 'quality morphosis' had a bit more meaning it could be an entry on the Wikipedia.

There seems to be a readiness to share and create knowledge.

It has to go a bit further first though, I think.

'Quality Morphosis' now has a page on the learn9 site.
http://www.learn9.net/morphosis.html

Earlier this week I decided to switch to blog mode but I soon wanted to switch back to a web page. Things may change again. 'Quality Morphosis' seems ok as an idea. Using the same terms all the time seems not to work after a while. They are into something in Korea. At OhmyNews there is some method of working emerging that also involves English language citizen reporters. There is an implicit quality system so I can observe how this develops.

On the 'In Business' program on Radio 4 about Deming it stated that many companies see quality as something that has been 'done'. Actually I don't think it has started.

Now back from OhmyNews Forum and also the 'Rethinking Leadership' conference. I am still taking stock of the impression from Korea. I think they really have got the web integrated with other things they do. The UK academic conference seemed a bit out of it by comparison. Of course there are other issues than the web but I am now fairly certain that 'e-learning' is central to education debates, especially anything 'vocationa'' or relating to community or what people do anyway.

My outlook is influenced by the rejection of my workshop proposal. I now think that it is almost impossible for the 'management learning' academics to consider a positive view of quality. The 'critique' set of arguments is very well established. There is a paper by Chris Grey (PDF, requires Adobe Reader) for the current conference on critial management studies (CMS). This dates CMS to around 1992 so the collection 'Making Quality Critical' (1995) was quite early.

One of the speakers at the conference, Wendy Briner from Ashridge Management College, suggested that in appreciative enquiry people organise towards the positive image of themselves. Maybe something similar happens with 'deficit' thinking, if that is the right term. The aim of 'Making Quality Critical' seems to me to be to write off quality theory entirely so it is not surprising there seems to be no engagement with quality practice on this scene.

Some of the speakers were actually quite flexible. Professor Dennis Gleason spoke of 'dominant and intrusuve inspection' and stated that currently 'accountability in FE works more in favour of audit and funding regimes than for the community. He was not against accountability as such but there was not much of a description of what a suitable quality approach would be like.

Michael Hammond from Dudley College argued that current quality systems such as ISO 9000 were constraning FE leadership to a 'transactional' role while the 'transformational' style of leadership was called for in other contexts. This was one of the few occasions a set of categories on leadership made some sense for me. He was prepared to discuss the changes in ISO 9000 around 2000 but believed they had not been used at all in FE. He could well be right, my argument is just that this possibility should be considered.

e-learning was fairly marginal to the discussion. Network Learning is still seen as about dialogue but there is now an awareness of possible conflicts around difference as well as communities of practice. I couldn't see how anyone in FE would find much in this discussion that would be useful for them in making a case for e-learning.

In Korea we were given a book - 'Media Big Bang' by Tackwhan Kim and Sangbok Lee, translated by Youngeum Lee. This is based on newspaper articles from Joongang Ilbo in January 2005. I have started to read this and realise it is a thorough and wideranging book. There are many references to research and websites I have yet to follow up. The scope includes print media and academic journals. It is fairly clear that the speed of change is faster than most people in the UK are expecting.

One term in the book is 'morphosis' - 'the readiness to boldly abandon practices that are no longer useful and actively accept new changes'. More on this in the next post.

I have been invited to a forum for Citizen Reporters organised by OhmyNews in Seoul.

This blog may be updated over the next few days but more likely will be a short report at Guardian talk

http://mediatalk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?50@ohmynews@.7747ecc2

My hope is that the Guardian reports this event and makes some connections.

Later this month I will be at a conference on Leadership for Further Education at Lancaster. This relates to the Department for Management Learning. Previously there have been conferences on Management Theory at Work where I contributed papers on quality. There won't be another of these so the FE context is an opportunity to look at a 'practitioner'point of view. I did have a draft proposal for a paper for this conference but it was not accepted. See version on website.

I started looking at quality from a print company situation. Now working with websites and internet access I think there are comparisons with educational organisations. Not sure how this will fit. At the first Management Theory at Work conference there was a keynote from John Burgoyne on "The Virtual, Knowledge-managing, Learning Organisation?" . I don't think there were any conclusions on this. The discussion got lost in 'critique' as fas as I could make it out. However I think the ssues relate to education and companies.

The sessions of interest include-

Quality Management or Quality Confusion? Are Quality Management Techniques in FE Actually Preventing the Development of Transactional Leadership? - Michael Hammond, Dudley College, UK

Will there be any positive approach to quality?

Networking For Learning and Leading - Debra Ferreday, Vivien Hodgson & Chris Jones Centre for Excellence in Leadership, UK

Reading Management Learning I have come across 'anti-performativity' which seems to explain some of the approach. I'm not sure what interest there is in forms of e-learning that can be applied.

Action Learning – Learners’ Perceptions of a Networked Management Learning Activity - Karen Kerr & Lesley Whelan, Scottish Further Education Unit, UK

Developing Leadership Skills: The Appropriateness of Online and Face-to-Face Methods for Different Groups of Learner - David Silbergh & Kate Lennon, Glasgow Caledonian University, UK

My guess is that these will be presented as if there was an intention to offer learners something close to what they were looking for.

I'm at HESFES - home education at the seaside festival

It is at Charmouth, not too far from Exeter. The internet marquee is organised by Bristol Wireless and Psand (links from //psand.net

So far I have studied Psand from a distance. They are sometimes in the West Country, Glastonbury and the Big Green but I have failed to get a ticket. The Big Green sells out so book early if you are interested this year.

Hyperactive loaned a couple of dated pcs for Glastonbury a couple of years ago. Now Bristol Wireless have a large number of Toshiba Satellite portables. There may be 50 of them apparently. At least 20 are here and in working order. There is a large server somewhere in the van. They are all cabled up and there is mains electricity from the toilet block. There is wi-fi as well for people who turn up.

The web access is from satellite so this bit is as before. From what I remember about the Big Green, electricity came from sunpower or a bicycle and all networking was wireless. Still, once you know wireless works it can be just an option.

It will be interesting to see what use people make of this. There are talks and meetings throughout the week and a lot of learning activity. There is no library but this could be a campus. There is a priority for web access and no doubt about the web. So this is different ot a lot of places where there are still reasons apparently not to move in this direction.

I realise that I have done nothing on this or other blogs since CeBIT. Time to try to work things through. I did find it inspiring as a space where things appeared real that previously I had only heard about through the web. Hannover is not that far from the UK so I can project into normal life in the near future.

Since then I have been working on a meeting in Exeter about what to do about public web access. Not sure what to make of this either but some things may fit together soon.

The BBC have announced some detail about their creative archive. Not much stuff, but the idea is interesting. I have done some PDF www.acrobat-services.co.uk/creative

I'm on the way to CeBIT

looking forward to Prolearn presentations

PROLEARN will present first results at the CeBIT fair 2005, the largest computer fair in the world. Presentations include hands-on experiments as well as guidelines and surveys. ProLearn will be represented by five core partner (INT, IAO, HEC, JSI, CSI) in the eWorld stand (Hall 6, stand 29) and will present several topics during the fair:
IQ - Innovation durch Qualifikation - Thursday 14.00 (Dr.-Ing. Bullinger, Fraunhofer Institute)
A Community of practice in the area of professional training - Friday 11.30 and Wednesday 11.00 (Alexander Karapidis, Fraunhofer Institute)
Corporate training, briding the gap between universities & companies - Friday 14.00 (HEC)
Fostering cross border e-business cooperative environment through usage of web based education - Friday 14.30 and Wednesday 11.30 (Jozef Stefan Institute)
Wenn Lern-und Arbeitswelt verschmelzen. Arbeitesplatznahes Lernen - lernnahes Arbeiten - Friday 14.00 (Dr.-Ing. Spath, Fraunhofer Institute)
Multimedia courses: implementation methods - Wednesday 10.30 (Melanie Blanchard, INT)

test 

I'm at the BETT show, a really good start to the year. Olympia is full, something that only happened with computers a very long time ago. Adobe have turned up for example. They didn't bother with Online Information. Maybe the schools are seen as a better longterm investment.

Apparently Acrobat Standard will be packaged with sample lesson plans etc. around February.

Meanwhile Scansoft are showing some PDF products that seem to work. Limited functionality but they create PDF ok and get the content back into Word. Very useful in most situations.

I am thinking about how commenting helps learning. Later there will be a demo on Contribute.

More tomorrow.

For some reason I can't update learn9.net at the moment.

There may be recent stuff at Internet Express. This was an internet cafe in Exeter, now just a website. I think of it as a place for discussion and learning . Look on the training page.

Meanwhile changes will be on this blog. Also I am updating the personal homepage headed 'Hello Spiders'. http://www.willpollard.eurobell.co.uk/
Still needs more work but the structure is there.

Not sure how this happened. Must have pressed a strange key 

I have updated the website at www.learn9.net

On the first page there are now links to my two articles on ISO 9000 at OhmyNews. The stats from ISO show that ISO 9000 still has growth, but not in the UK. Why this is is open to discussion. Maybe the UK has moved on and Asian firms have been coerced into it. Alternatively, the revised standard has some benefits and Asian companies can make this work. For the IQA to publish an article by John Seddon, there must be some debate going on. My guess is that there must be some Asian companies able to work with ISO9000 and quality as well. I expect some case studies or new books soon. My second article is looking for information from others.

Discussions with the Deming SIG at the IQA have not got far with the idea that Deming in Japan had something to do with local values. I think this will come up again. Not that I understand any depth on this, but clearly quality is a global issue ands Asian values are part of this. John Seddon has not shown any evidence that UK management moved to some other form of quality policy, just that they gave up on ISO 9000.

I have also included a link to the Lancaster Leadership conference next year. Having looked at the material on leadership and excellence I don't think the 'critique' aspect will block too much discussion. So I might work out something for a workshop contribution. I think IT and web issues will be disruptive for institutions working on learning and skills so there is a fit somewhere.

I have had a look at some sites about 'Success for All' and also the leadership centre in Exeter. Quality seems better accepted as a topic than I remember from previous events.

More links and detail follows later.

What I hope to do is support some dialogue. The IQA people I know are interested in dialogue as a method so this may link up with 'learning and leadership'.

There is to be a conference on Learning at Lancaster next June. Details below.

I think this means there will not be another conference on 'Management Theory at Work'. The last one was mostly about leadership so the new idea follows this.

I might try to contribute something. A workshop would be most useful as I could put some content on the web previously. My main problem is with the way the first 'Management Theory at Work' lost track of some issues to conclude with 'critique'. I'm still not sure where 'critique' is going. Stuff about organisations as a context for learning and leadership seemed to get lost.

I am still interested in 'learning organisations' and connections with quality and I think this could still link with 'management learning'. I will try some ideas out online and see if anything fits together.

------------------

http://www.mgttheoryatwork.co.uk/

--------------------

Research Conference
Centre for Excellence in Leadership

Re-thinking Leadership:
New Directions in the Learning and Skills Sector?

Monday, 27th – Wednesday, 29th June 2005
Lancaster University, George Fox Complex

Call for papers/presentations/other contributions

Leadership in the learning and skills sector has moved up the agenda following the publication of Success for All. What effect is this new emphasis on leadership having on relationships between stakeholders in the learning and skills sector, such as learning and skills provider organizations, leaders, managers, lecturers and teachers, students, and other relevant organizations?
There is a need for a broad-based and critical revisiting, review, and re-thinking of leadership, leadership research, leadership development, the themes apparent within the policy framework and the practices these aim to constrain and promote. This conference is intended for those directly engaged with or otherwise interested in leadership related research and practice. The objective is to provide an open, convivial, responsive and respectful forum where practitioners / researchers / those engaged in both, can pool insights drawn from their analyses of concepts and practices associated with leadership in the sector.
In addition, to the presentation of papers we would welcome contributions that will be delivered in ways that promote interaction and dialogue between delegates, for example that promote discussion, debate, group work, or that take a workshop, or other format. We also welcome contributions that deal reflexively or self-critically with our roles as researchers, practitioner researchers, teachers, leaders and leadership developers.
The following questions give a non-exhaustive indication of the types of issues we would like contributors to address:
What does/should ‘leadership’ mean?
What tools, technologies, practices are available for supporting leadership and how are they being used?
In what ways do the dynamics of and between organizations, organizational development and evaluation, support or constrain the development of leadership practices?
What assumptions do we have about leadership? How do they affect the learning and skills sector?
Is the emphasis on ‘leadership’ a help or hindrance within the learning and skills sector?
How do practitioners ‘manage’ leadership? Where have all the managers gone?
Is the promotion of leadership, as we currently understand it, compatible with that of ‘difference’ or ‘inclusivity’?
How are competing values / ethics / interests catered for through the promotion of leadership, within policy and the dominant expectations of practice?
We envisage that contributions will fall within one of several streams:
Current Leadership Research – this might include contributions drawn from research into leadership related issues in other educational sectors, or other public or private sector contexts, but certainly will include contributions from a range of researchers and research groups concerned with education and skills, as well as updates on CEL based projects.
Practitioner Research – we also welcome contributions from practitioners engaged in leadership related research within the sector as well as updates from projects funded by CEL.
The Policy Framework and Dominant Expectations of Practice: Influences on the Role of Leadership in the Learning and Skills Sector - we invite contributions that illuminate the problems and possibilities of meeting the objectives these themes mark out, and / or that take a ‘longer’ or ‘broader’ view of the role of the learning and skills sector and leadership within it, both in the UK and elsewhere.
Other Relevant Perspectives - we are aware of the long and respected traditions associated with forms of access to learning and skills acquisition other than those provided, funded or otherwise supported through the state. We are also aware that the very concept of ‘leadership’ is not unproblematic in a number of respects and that alternative less hierarchical modes of learning provision do exist. We want to set aside some time and space for ideas and research centered on these and related issues, and to encourage a reflexive approach to our understanding of each of our own works and positions within ‘the learning and skills sector’. For all these reasons and more, we also welcome contributions that problematise each of our endeavors in constructive ways that present alternative views, or that deal with the conflicts of interest apparent to most research, not least our own.
Submission of Proposals - Send an e-mail attachment with filename [RC1–Surname, First Name] to the research co-ordinator, Teresa Wisniewska ( t.wisniewska@lancaster.ac.uk ) by Thursday, 6th January 2005. Max length, 500 words. Please indicate which theme you would like to contribute to and whether you are submitting a proposal for a paper, workshop or contribution of another format. Acceptance decisions will be communicated by Monday 14th February 2005; and completed papers will be required by Tuesday, 31st May 2005.
Conference Committee:- Neil Clarke, Steve Fox, Marian Iszatt White, Ron Kerr, Tara Leach, Kim McGuire, Anjoom Mukadam, Annette Smith, Phil Watland.
Conference Administration:- Teresa Wisniewska and Ann Marie Mount Any other queries can be directed to Teresa Wisniewska by email or telephone 01524 594211. <>
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Teresa B Wisniewska Research Co-ordinator Centre for Excellence in Leadership (CEL) Gillow Avenue LANCASTER LA1 4YX
Email - t.wisniewska@lancaster.ac.uk Telephone - +44 (0)1524 594211 Fax - +44 (0)1524 592764 http://www.lums.lancs.ac.uk http://www.centreforexcellence.org.uk

Next week is Alt-C in Exeter. I am planning to update the website at learn9.net. This week during the Science Festival there is an effort ot check out 'wi-fi Exeter'. So far I think this is showing some basis in reality. PC World has a BT openzone that works ok. The Southgate Hotel has a Freespot but is not really promoting it. During Alt-C there will be a Freespot at the Peter Chalk centre. It will be interesting to see if people use it. Maybe some will visit Life Bytes and use a desktop near to coffee.

I will also load various bits that may not hang together. Since Networked Learning I have tried to look at 'modes 1 and 2 knowledge' and 'knowledge creating company'. I am fairly sure that e-learning is not a mode 1 subject. Also quality fits in there somewhere. I have tried to get some discussion going on the Guardian talkboard. The recent ISO survey on ISO 9000 certificates shows growth in China but decline in UK. I think there is some connection with attitudes to quality in the UK, partly caused by attitudes in education. Also the business talk topics tend to get deleted. So i am relying on the education page to keep something about Deming and quality.

http://educationtalk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?50@deming@.685ecf36

Next week I will try to clarify some things on the site. Alt-C will be a good background.