Subject: RE: [IFETS-Discuss] Digest for ifets-discuss@topica.com, issue 12
a.holzl@mailbox.uq.edu.au
Date: Fri 09 Jun 2000 - 01:08:33 MEST
From: a.holzl@mailbox.uq.edu.au Subject: RE: [IFETS-Discuss] Digest for ifets-discuss@topica.com, issue 12 Date: Thu, 08 Jun 2000 16:08:33 -0700
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I believe the current discussion ends today so maybe I can just sneak in.
I have a systems model for a holistic approach to the implementation of
virtual learning environments into any organisation but I shall restrict
myself to universities. My model draws on the metaphor of the "fire
triangle" which some of you would recognise if you ever undertook any
training on how to use fire extinguishers. The fire triangle is made up of
three sides, or elements. They are fuel, oxygen and a heat source.
Without any one of these elements the fire cannot start nor continue. My
triangle for implementing virtual learning environments (or any new
learning technologies for that matter) consists of 1.infrastructure,
2.training and development and 3.organisational culture. In the case of
the VLE, the infrastructure is the IT hardware and software which provides
access to the staff and students which have to create/access the
environments. The training and development also includes staff and
students to ensure they have the appropriate levels of information
literacy. The final and most important and the one always ignored is the
organisational culture which includes the policies, attitudes and personal
models of learning, organisational climate, staff rewards , assessment and
grading systems etc, etc. All those elements which either reward and
encourage staff and students for implementing/using VLEs or create barriers
and punish them for participating. Many Australian universities invest
heavily in the first two while doing nothing about the last one. In fact
they often invest heavily in creating barriers and punishing the
participants through outdated and repressive policies which foster research
over teaching. Some of these approaches have already been alluded to
earlier and below by Paul Cohen.
Like the fire triangle, the implementation of VLEs will not succeed without
an equal, integrated and coordinated investment in all three of the
elements of my model. This is an OD or organisational development approach
and although all universities have a staff development department how many
have an OD department or even recognise that the need for such a function
exists or is required? The irony is that OD is defined as the function
which assists organisations to cope with change and universities in
Australia and around the world are undergoing the most dramatic changes
since the concept of the traditional bricks and mortar university was first
born.
Alan Holzl
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