Presentation for JISC Experts Group updating The Digital Practitioner Survey Work (2011-2012) with data from 2013 survey. Reviews and recommendations included. Complemented by blog post http://digitalpractitioneruk.wordpress.com/

1. Nigel Ecclesfield
Fred Garnett
Geoff Rebbeck
The Digital in Further
Education
2014

2. Digital Practitioner; Background
❖Emerged indirectly from EMFFE project (E-Maturity
For Further Education)
❖A instiutional level-project looking to transform
Further Education rather than to e-enable it
❖Gives primacy to qualitative data not quantitative
❖Based on Geoff Rebbeck’s human resources staff
development work at Thanet College
❖Use’s critical thinking Matrix as key determinant of
technology-in-use not technical competence.

3. The Big Issue
confidence emerges from experience
developed through learning &
reflection
finding out how teachers work, insight
developed from knowledge and
experience - teaching as a craft that
involves emotion and commitment.
referring to technology-in-action, not
just technology
0
25
50
75
100
125
1990 2000 2010 2013 Horizon
Kit count Process & System Behaviour
User behaviour
now important

4. The research process & numbers

5. 19 Technology in actions activities
1. I have access to a VLE/Learning Platform in my work for teaching and assessment
2. I use texting in my practice
3. I meet colleagues on-line
4. I meet students on-line as part of my work
5. I produce learning resources using technology
6. I use sound files in my work
7. I use still images in my work
8. I use videos in my work
9. I use Blogging in my work
10.I use social media/networking
11.I use personal devices in my role at work
12.I use personal applications (apps) in my role at work
13.I reflect on my work and personal development
14.I see using technology for teaching and learning as a joint enterprise for staff and students
15.I contribute to learning communities
16.I collaborate with others in College and beyond
17.I share resources and ideas
18.I have access to technology support from someone who understands the context of my work
19.I work with colleagues who are outside my college

6. The Critical Thinking
Matrix
The Survey is at tinyurl.com/FEteaching13

7. Critical Thinking
Matrix revisited
The Survey is at tinyurl.com/FEteaching13

8. A first Study
❖ Technology intervention in learning is fragmenting and is supporting highly
individualised patterns of use.
❖ The common factor that holds it together is good teaching and learning and not
uniform use of large centralised technology hosted by the employer.
❖ Practitioner use of technology is increasingly driven by their use of and experience of
personal technologies
❖ Curiosity about the application of technology to the circumstances of their learners
and subjects taught is a key driver in an individual’s exploration of the potential uses of
technology. This includes their feelings for their work, learners and the technology
and the contexts they come together in.
❖ A level of confidence in confronting technology to use in teaching is more important
than the level of knowledge about individual products to the practitioners responding.
(In reality, very few users ever approach the limits of any specific instance of
technology, but they do use those features relevant to context).

9. Digital Practitioner; Narratives
❖The Survey Methodology developed by Nigel
Ecclesfield allowed for some useful innovations
which have been further developed
❖Structured Questions around the Critical Thinking
framework
❖Free text optional additions, providing 140k words
❖Allowed for individual practitioner narratives
❖Also processed allowing key themes to emerge
❖Tagged to allow comparisons across, subject,
college, region, etc

10. The Story so
far…

11. The language of e-learning; 2 views from
SpeedReader

12. What we
concluded
❖ The new data indicates that
there is a growing degree of
collaboration between
practitioners with their
colleagues and learners, but
❖ This collaboration is mainly
confined to collaboration
inside their organisations
❖ Practitioners increasingly
regard themselves as
independent professionals in
exploring and reviewing their
uses of technology, with fewer
indicating that they are relying
on guidance or direction from
others
❖ Practitioners are more curious
than fearful of technology and
❖ Are using a huge range of
products and digital
technologies in their practices

13. Digital Practitioner; 2nd Phase - 2013
❖Re-inforced most survey findings;
❖Personal development of technology capability
❖Designing learning experiences
❖Fragmented and individualised use of tech that is
learner-centric
❖ISSUES; now more ethical & management…

14. What was different in the
second
❖ Practitioners have strong views about using their own personal
technologies in their work settings:
❖ There is concern about the boundaries between themselves, their
organisation and learners in the use of personal technologies and
apps. and the full range of the associated capabilities available to users

15. ❖Blue line is 2013 (870 teachers)
❖Red line is 2014 (417 teachers)
❖Categorised by choice of reactions ❖Categorised by personal choice

16. The role of
managers
I need to find
a ladder

17. The Manager’s dilemma
Oh Lord make
me radical, but only if
it’s safe
Lack of Funding
Lack of Direction
Lack of Headroom to ‘take a punt’
Lack of Credit
Focus on safety not risk management
Focus on campus not cloud
Focus on audit and error (OfSTED)
Funding by Guided Learning Hours
Reliance on exploiting enthusiasts
The speed of change is disruptive
said 53 managers of which 43 are in colleges - November 2013
This may change as a result of FELTAG with
the idea of "learning presence". the issue,
characterised by SFA, is that providers are
not using current possibilities and could do
more already!

18. So….
❖ Teachers need to talk to each other, beyond the staff room
about their practice and be encouraged to initiate personal
reflection for their inner dialogue.
❖ Managers need to have an incentive to re-balance risk
management
❖ We are reminded that great e-learning is limited by imagination -
and the commitment to context - not technology.
❖ Fragmentation of activity is ‘held together’ by enduring values of
good teaching and learning. Perhaps seeing teaching and
learning as synthesis (obuchenie)?
❖ e-learning strategy should focus on behaviour changes and
experiences and not infrastructure.
❖ Agility is a critical skill, developed out of experience. Insight rather
than foresight is essential to this agility.

19. Fred’s 5 points Real-Time Practice
❖ 1. Methodology shows a kind of Wisdom of Crowds / Architecture of Participation
model is possible in "big data" / “Learner Analytics” (or Learning Analytics)
❖ 2. The Real-Time Analytics/Narrative feedback now available means reflective
practice & professional development can go together. We need to TRUST digital
practitioners & refresh our understanding of what personal / staff / professional
development means for teaching and learning
❖ 3. DigiMeets need to replace TeachMeets as an intentional community of practice
professional development model. Supported by shared data/reflective
narratives/Analytics that the methodology allows IF WE DESIGN for it. FERL 2.0?
❖ 4. It is higher-level critical thinking rather than user competences that will advance
FE Lecturer skills! Still learner-centric but now about learning experiences & co-
creation... Professional confidence can now meet learner curiosity AND embrace it.
❖ 5. The e-mature institution is the one that frees up its practitioners to design "artfully-
crafted, student-centred, learning experiences" using good tech infrastructure as the
learning platform (e.g. wifi-enabled Havering 6th College) and helps address the
ethical & boundary issues that personally-driven professional practice throws up.

20. Digital Practitioner Resources
❖ JISC Workshop e-maturity capability
❖ ALT-C Presentation Digital Practitioner
❖ Architecture of Participation Digital Practitioner Blog Post
❖ Stand Alone OER #nefg2 I Am Curious Digital
❖ CAVTL evidence submission Enabling Digital Practice blog post
❖ xtlearn.net resource page CAVTL / Digital Practitioner
❖ Survey Monkey Resource (to be added by Nigel Ecclesfield)
❖ Digital Practitioner UK 2014 Blog
❖ Geoff Rebbeck grebbeck@me.com
❖ Nigel Ecclesfield JISC
❖ @FredGarnett

21. The Digital inFurther
Education
http://tinyurl.com/Compassarticle2
Nigel Ecclesfield
Fred Garnett
Geoff Rebbeck