Thoughts on Digital Scholarship

Thinking about Digital Scholarship Martin Weller

Current characteristics What is scholarship? Doing different things or doing things differently What are the drivers for change? What can we learn from elsewhere? Our relationship with content Identity Online environments

Clay Shirky: Cognitive surplus http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyoNHIl-QLQ

If true, then society is changing & the same tools impact upon all aspects of scholarship

The Boyer view of scholarship
Discovery
Integration
Application
Teaching

Main question – will the Boyer view be applicable for digital scholarship

3 characteristics of a digital scholar

Digital

Network

If true what does it mean for scholarly practice

No change

We do what we did before but in slightly different ways

We do different things

Are these new or just different ways?
Michael Wesch – database of article summaries
Students organising on Facebook prior to starting
Students organising OU Tesco protest on Facebook
Teaching culturally specific music via Skype
Crowdsourcing research iSpot/DarwinTunes/InnoCentive
Open courses/conferences

What about…

Heppell (2001) “we continually make the error of subjugating technology to our present practice rather than allowing it to free us from the tyranny of past mistakes.”

Lanier “Software sedimentation is a process whereby not only protocols, but the ideas embedded in them become mandatory. An example is the idea of the file.”

Drivers for change

Not net gen

Not some perfect storm

Possibilities for improving what we do

But don’t ignore network weather

Lessons from other sectors

Can’t control digital content
People like to share
New filters emerge
Models based on filters break down
Disintermediation
http://www.flickr.com/photos/helloeno/530649757/

We are only at the beginning Don’t confuse form with function Unbundling of services Explore different models Alternatives are the killer

Content

When it is as easy to download an entire catalogue as it is one track, our relationship to content undergoes a fundamental change

Research papers Lectures/Teaching content Conferences Data Code Ideas Debate Higher education as long tail production engine

Embrace unpredictability [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--viB3zTznA]

Identity

Identity Academic identity Distributed Personal/Professional Messier

Learning/research environments

Complexity comes from the network not the app

Your task:
Design the scholar of 2030

What will they do on a daily basis?
How will they conduct research?
How and what will the teach?
What will be the key skills they need?

http://www.edgex.in	538
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http://blog.ouseful.info	164
http://nogoodreason.typepad.co.uk	116
http://edgex.in	63
http://suifaijohnmak.wordpress.com	40
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Thoughts on Digital Scholarship

by Martin Weller on Jul 06, 2010

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