Dream On slow progress in developing digital media infrastructures Susannah Diamond and Andrew Middleton Educational developers Learning and Teaching Institute SHARPENS YOUR THINKING

This paper is about A local view from SHU An holistic approach to pedagogic transformation – pedagogy, technology, organisation Report on a sector-wide study

A local view from SHU

An holistic approach to pedagogic transformation – pedagogy, technology, organisation

Report on a sector-wide study

Enabling academic innovation Detail: developing an accessible, user-friendly digital media infrastructure for staff and students Context: developing a rich, technology enhanced learner-centred landscape

Detail: developing an accessible, user-friendly digital media infrastructure for staff and students

Context: developing a rich, technology enhanced learner-centred landscape

A Picture of Educational Digital Media Fluency Growing Awareness sectoral view *affordable and easy to use Glue? Platform Basis Infrastructure Alignment Transparency Do we have..? Design-BL Project-BL Case-BL Problem-BL Enquiry-BL Learner-centred Active L Authentic L We have pedagogy Red button accessibility* Flip video cameras Large capacity flash drives Audacity Flip video cameras YouTube Facebook apps Windows Movie Maker iTunes iMovie Garageband We have technology

Our belief statement We believe that the institutional infrastructure should allow staff and students to easily create and share media. institutional view

User-Generated Digital Media Learning Landscape institutional view

A user-generated TV channel Plasma Screens in Nuffield Learning Suite, University of Birmingham, Photo: JISC infoNet Student publishing institutional view

"I did get a bit of a run-around on uploading video. I contacted [x], who directed me at someone else [y], who directed me at [z], who directed me back to the someone else, and I now think I'm going to be able to put the material on the streaming media server. But it wasn't an easy route... " email from Senior Lecturer The reality is different institutional view

"...this [getting material onto a university server] is the major stumbling block (or one of them) along the route to 'Digital Fluency' …. it's often quite tricky for the ordinary bod to achieve digital things here!" email from Senior Lecturer continued institutional view

An aligned infrastructure for digital media production? What do we mean by infrastructure for digital media production? Technical Human Organisational factors ? ?

Digital media infrastructures the physical and organisational structures needed for the effective and innovative use of digital audio and video within HEIs

the physical and organisational structures needed for the effective and innovative use of digital audio and video within HEIs

Alignment: Who needs to be invited to the media infrastructure table? ...are our belief statements aligned?

Information Services IT Services Learning and Teaching Institute Media Technician Specialist: Portfolios and Repositories Specialist: Media in LTA Head of e-learning Blackboard System Admin Copyright Services IT Training Team AV Services Who did we forget? Who didn't turn up? Who's driving?

Small national study Survey responses from 10 UK HEIs – how does your infrastructure enable user-generated digital media? Focus group (n.22) – where are 'the holes' in your infrastructure? (Broad range of participants including management)

Survey responses from 10 UK HEIs – how does your infrastructure enable user-generated digital media?

Focus group (n.22) – where are 'the holes' in your infrastructure? (Broad range of participants including management)

Summary of survey Lack of cohesion and strategic investment in UGC Legacy systems Piecemeal availability of equipment Free software generally available Helpful, but ad hoc support Fragmentation and gatekeepers UGC is regarded as exceptional A lack of transparency – multiple sources of information and ways to access services

Lack of cohesion and strategic investment in UGC

Legacy systems

Piecemeal availability of equipment

Free software generally available

Helpful, but ad hoc support

Fragmentation and gatekeepers

UGC is regarded as exceptional

A lack of transparency – multiple sources of information and ways to access services

Summary of focus group Inadequate harnessing of institutional drivers Lack of infrastructural co-ordination Infrastructures were "designed for a different era" One senior manager said, "senior managers know absolutely nothing about technology enhanced learning… they simply don’t know what to do with e-learning or technology…"

Inadequate harnessing of institutional drivers

Lack of infrastructural co-ordination

Infrastructures were "designed for a different era"

One senior manager said,

"senior managers know absolutely nothing about technology enhanced learning… they simply don’t know what to do with e-learning or technology…"

Current barriers to effective media infrastructures Practical barriers Difficulties uploading and storing large files Growing and maintaining hardware Organisational barriers Lack of leadership and coordination Different drivers, priorities and line management Non-alignment of faculty and departmental teams

Practical barriers

Difficulties uploading and storing large files

Growing and maintaining hardware

Organisational barriers

Lack of leadership and coordination

Different drivers, priorities and line management

Non-alignment of faculty and departmental teams

Current barriers to effective media infrastructures Pedagogic barriers (in general) No transparent, reliable infrastructure! Assumptions around teacher-centredness in support staff Access to/from educational development limited People don't read web pages or briefing documents Diversity in confidence levels, and confident people often techno-centric Media literacy not yet sufficiently or effectively addressed Students aren't encouraged to create and share media

Pedagogic barriers (in general)

No transparent, reliable infrastructure!

Assumptions around teacher-centredness in support staff

Access to/from educational development limited

People don't read web pages or briefing documents

Diversity in confidence levels, and confident people often techno-centric

Media literacy not yet sufficiently or effectively addressed

Students aren't encouraged to create and share media

Sector collaboration Jorum Merlot Institutional outsourcing ITunesU YouTubeEdu GoogleApps Institutional hosting Individuals use external tools Streaming servers Repositories Flickr YouTube Individual responsibility Institutional responsibility

Conclusions We have the ideas We have technology We have a growing awareness amongst staff and students We are developing critical digital fluency We don't have the glue to transform mainstream LTA

We have the ideas

We have technology

We have a growing awareness amongst staff and students

We are developing critical digital fluency

We don't have the glue to transform mainstream LTA

Andrew Middleton and Susannah Diamond Learning and Teaching Institute [email_address] and [email_address] SHARPENS YOUR THINKING