Learning networks and communication skills

Abstract

The project work presented in this paper is funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) January-December 1999. Our task has been to identify effective communicative practices for different technologies, in relation to the contexts in which they occur, and to feed back information about such practices to the educational community in a context-sensitive way. The technologies at issue are: video conferencing (one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-many); text-based communication (email, bulletin boards, conferencing,) and audio conferencing (telephone tutoring, shared workspace plus audio link). The teaching and learning sites that agreed to take part in this research project provide courses to a variety of learners-undergraduate, postgraduate, professional, full-and part-time-in a spread of subject disciplines. The breadth and range of learning environments represented should maximize the chances of teachers in further and higher education recognizing issues and circumstances that are similar to their own and provide a rich comparative framework. The lecturers from the various teaching sites are regarded as collaborators in this research, identifying their own issues and learning needs, and providing feedback to authenticate the interpretative process. This study approach bridges the practice-theory gap. We have completed the field work and are midway through analysing and interpreting the data in collaboration with teachers and students involved in the study. This will lead to the production of a flexible resource for individual lecturing staff which can also underpin staff development courses in good practice within networked learning environments. Further details and progress updates can be gleaned from our project web site at http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/tls/ JISC/index.html.

Branded Spaces

“…These 'stunts' (or mini events) included actors dressed as 'escaped convicts' distributing microfilm details of the festival in major cities and towns, the chalking of graffiti on pavements and cordoning off areas of town centres with Witnness tape. According to one of the project managers, it was hoped that 'because they [consumers] found out something about the plans in their own environment', they would perceive the event as 'relevant to them' (Musselbrook, 2000). Thus Witnness staff (partially recruited from student unions in Ireland) were encouraged to spread rumours and ask questions about Witnness in internet chat rooms, and to talk about Witnness ('loudly so people overhear', 'let something slip into conversation') in bars and clubs where it was hoped that 'credible consumers' (a term loaded with connotations of cultural capital) would congregate.…”

“…Videos of the warm-up events for the festival 6 show DJs wearing Witnness key chains around their necks and a large Guinness umbrella in the dancing crowd, moving around as it is incorporated into someone's dance routine. Given that the producers of Witnness were keen to avoid too much 'obvious' on-site branding (Musselbrook, 2000) in order to distinguish their event from already existing forms of commercial sponsorship, this visual documentation may be taken to indicate that a bodily and tactile engagement with the Witnness brand is consideredalbeit in an untheorized, intuitive way -to be a commercially useful outcome of Witnness events. Again, this would be consistent with contemporary marketing's emphasis on getting 'up close and personal' (see earlier).Writing about Gap Khakis advertising, John Grant (1999) says: Communication is not through words and famous people, but through the exuberance of music, movement and dance.…”

“…However, it is not at all clear that they knew exactly how they could achieve this before the event. What I want to suggest here is that it is in the interplay between branded objects and consumer bodies (both of which have a relatively open-ended relationship with the 'outside') that the Witnness 'space' may be embodied and made portable, perhaps inadvertently fulfilling one of the key marketing aims: 'to ensure that the Witnness concept spreads much further than those who attend the festival' (Musselbrook, 2000). This can be understood better if the branded artefacts 7 are considered as a form of memorabilia.…”