One consideration. Change how we think about organisational communications.

The traditional approach to organizational communications in most organisations, especially large ones such as universities, is grounded in a mindset of the private face of an organisation (i.e., internal communications and activities) controlled by the few (i.e., external and public relations) in the conduct and delivery of external facing activities (i.e., press releases, events, spoke people, corporate web communications). The aim: To build a corporate professional brand image of the organisation. This approach assumes we have an inside [internal] and an outside [external] face of an organization. However the fact of the matter is, we live and work in invisible social networks, not just the buildings used to house us and our belongings. I often wonder if the ‘internal’ and ‘external’ perspectives of organisational communications is more a factor of the space we reside in than the social networks we live in.

The lived experience of an organisation is experienced and shared by many. And today it is being experienced, recorded, mashed-up and shared on a public stage by anyone and potentially everyone throughout our digital social graph. Developments in social technologies are enabling our lived working and learning experiences to be co-created and shared by those who experience it, not just by those who use to control the media or technology channels (“the few”). Those who have experience of an organisation, be it the people, the activities that define the workplace or the artefacts these activities produce, these people are its member communities. The community who work and live associated with it or have some vested interest in it. The activity: To cocreate and share the lived experience of working within the organisation and the social networks through which we become connected.

This social way of working (and living) is often distanced and independent of the traditional personnel roles that traditionally have managed the organizations brand image and corporate message [external communications and public relations]. Today, what is increasingly important is not just the organisations brand image, but an organizations digital social capital. Digital social capital is the lived identities of its people, their practices, connections and their ways of working, captured and shared through and with social technologies. It is this digital social capital that shows not only the heart of the organisation (it’s people), but also it’s ways of working, be they open or closed, innovative or conservative, traditional or contemporary.

So how do we manage and control all this? How does one charged with the role of communications director, marketing manager or senior executive on the board, especially of a large organization, take charge and manage all of this digital social activity. The simple answer is, we don’t! We can’t! So why try?

A second consideration. Inform and inspire social ways of working across the organisation!

We need to support and grow it by being part of it not master of it. To inform the digital social activities in our organizations through learning and communication initiatives outlined by a social way of working strategy that is championed by individuals and groups in our departments, schools, and across our universities. Championed bottom-up by change agents or innovators who get it and top-down by budget holders and connectors who value it. We don’t all have to do it, but we do all have to value it.

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Collaborative learning has a diverse meaning, from group or team-based working, to peer-to-peer interaction on shared tasks. With the rise in dynamic ubiquitous digital technologies has provided another rich layer to collaborative learning as the need to learn how to collaborate now coexists with the need to learn how to use digital technologies.

Digital Mediated Collaborative Learning

Given the growth in digital media and its functionality to support and mediate team-based activities, we are seeing a rise in the interest in the use of digital tools to support and mediate collaborative learning, called digital mediated collaborative learning (hereafter DMCL). This study explores the use of Wiki technology for DMCL.

Commonly termed a Wiki, like Blogs and RSS, Wiki’s have been dubbed ‘social software’ because they facilitate social connections allowing users to develop digital content, collaboratively and open to a public. The term became synonymous with collaborative website design after programmer Ward Cunningham pioneered it in 1995 to discuss software design that enabled community content co-creation. However, wiki use for/in collaborative learning is no easy task. It requires the unlearning of old models socialized in a mindset of ‘I learn’ to the learning of new norms, processes and mindsets of ‘we learn’. Couple this with complex digital tools and the landscape for learning becomes quite complicated for the even the most digitally literate.

Limited past research exists on the use of Wiki’s in the contexts of management higher education or management learning and professional development. In this study we therefore reviewed the literature of two relevant situated contexts for the use of Wiki’s to our research study, the use of Wiki’s in management practice and the use of Wiki’s education.

The dominant discourse in management practice is the use of Wiki technology for productivity gains in the achievement of organizational goals (e.g., reduce cost, time, increase security, access) in project management and information sharing. In contrast in education, the focus is on the people and group learning. In this, the evolving paradigm around Wiki’s in education is focused on ‘learning to write and/or collaborate’, on text and interaction and the promotion of deep learning experiences, both in and outside the classroom, not just on technology and/or productivity’.

Drawing from these studies, we devised A Wiki Way of Learning to curricular design and trialed it’s use in two cohorts of postgraduate management education students.

A Wiki Way of Learning Trial

In the academic year 2008/2009 I introduced Wiki’s into my 8-week MBA Marketing Research class of 52 students to trial their use as the students worked on research projects in groups of 8-10. I designed the entire learning experience to work with the Wiki’s, from the class room activities, the group project, my involvement as module coordinator and the Wiki’s functional design in coexistence. I didn’t just tack on Wiki’s to a group project and tell the students to go off and use it, I designed the learning objectives and the project around weekly Wiki tasks, monitored student progress each week, provided weekly feedback and offered incentives. The Wiki was not just part of the group project, it was part of every class lecture and discussion.

The feedback from the students was very positive receiving the highest student ratings across all modules on the MBA (i.e., 4.7/5), and qualitative student insights into how it contributed to their learning experience. However, what I couldn’t report was insight to two very important questions:

1. Did the use of Wiki’s have a positive or negative impact on their learning of the module content?
2. What role did student levels of digital literacy play in their learning and Wiki experience?

With this first years learning of how to design and integrate Wiki’s into a management class environment, in the 2nd year I empirically explored these questions.

A Wiki Way of Learning Study

In the academic year 2009/2010 I continued the use of Wiki’s in my 8-week MBA Marketing Research class of 62 students, but this year I explored the interplay of student digital literacy, knowledge and Wiki use on domain learning and the quality of the student learning experience.

Findings from this study indicate a significant positive relationship between Wiki use and student domain learning as evidence by student performance in a multiple choice revision quiz (in class) and essay examination. The more pages and lines students edited, the higher their overall performance during revision and examination.

Consistent with the literature on digital literacy and knowledge, the study also revealled significant differences in student digital literacy, knowledge and Wiki use between male and female students. Female MBA students self-reported lower levels of digital literacy and knowledge than their male peers, however from log-file data female report significantly higher levels of Wiki use during the project. So even though the female students might under report or have less confidence in their perception of their skills and knowledge with digital technology, doesn’t necessarily mean they will use them any less than their male peers. This poses an interesting question for how we measure and evaluate digital literacy.

My Final Thoughts …

This was a great study to conduct with my students, one of great learning for them about using Wiki’s to collaborate to cocreate a project, and for me on how we integrate technology into learning contexts. I think this is important to inspire not just the learning of a domain or module content, but the learning of and about digital technology through the situated practice of ‘doing’, as opposed to telling.

Digital literacy, knowledge and learning is increasingly critical for management students and professionals of today and tomorrow. As management educators in higher education, it is imperative that we explore, study and adopt new and differing methods for digital mediated learning in our curricular, designing the learning experience with digital media as part of it, not separate to it or an add on, to ensure our students have the neccessary knowledge and skills to participate effectively in a world of dynamic ubiquitous digital mediation.

Thanks

Many thanks to Shashank Garg and Jennifer Smith, postgraduate students at Cardiff University for their research assistance in data collection; and the MBA Marketing Research Classes of 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 at Cardiff Business School for their participation. We’d also like to thank Professor Emmanuel Ogbonna, Lisa L’Homme and Neil Wellard who direct and manage the Cardiff MBA for their ongoing support and assistance during these studies.

Smiles

Kelly

p.s. for a copy of the draft manuscript currently under review, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

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Considering the Social Context!

Think about how and where you learn about digital technology, say the Web/Internet. Where usually are you – in work, at home? Why were you learning or using it – for work, personal reasons? Where you expected to use the technology by your employer, school or friends? What influence do you think the social context, such as work has on you, your view of the world, and of digital technology?

The evolution in digital technology is not only altering user/consumer expectations of their interaction with the technology in general, but also placing extra demands on our confidence – ‘what we think we know about technology’ – and it’s value to us for effective participation. One thing that requires more exploration is on knowledge of digital technology, is the moderating effect of the social context within which we ‘learn about’ and ‘use’ [are socialised] about a given digital technology.

In a paper under review, my co-authors and I profile the moderating effect of the social context of ‘learning’ and biological context of the ‘user’ on the knowledge-value relationship with digital media. As such, does my confidence in my knowledge of technology X, influence the value I place on using technology X, any differently based on a) the social context within which I learn’t about/user technology X (professional/work vs. personal/non-work) and b) my biological context of being male or female.

The Professional-Personal Social Context

Our interest here, is especially the professional-personal context in how we are socialised to think, feel and use technology. Often in mass survey research about technology usage and literacy this social context is ignored or in the least not captured. But the social context of learning is very important. For example, the difference between mandated [where usage is explicitly expected] and non-mandated [where usage is more about free choice] usage contexts such as education, professional [work] and personal contexts.

Education Context: In educational institutions we often ‘expect’ students to use email, the universities intranet system (or virtual learning environment), the library catalogue, or access journal articles through electronic databases. So if one then conducts a study on knowledge, perceptions and usage of these systems, well the data is inherently biased by this being a mandated context for usage.

Professional Context: Similarly in a work-context, the profession you have and do, might have more or less expectations with technology usage and the types of technology. For example, a web designer has a very different social context of learning and technology usage than say a creative director of an arts organisation or a plumber, school teacher or university professor in Chemistry science.

These social contexts of ‘learning about’ and ‘using’ technology, in my belief are important considerations in our study of technology knowledge, perceptions and usage, and our expectations of them. In short, “I am a factor of the environment within which I live, work and play, as is my environment of me!” … Interdependent, co-evolving and emergent in how we see and are in the world. So we decided to consider it.

The Professional Context of Technical Web Design

For sample of 2077 web users we survey and profile three core things:

1. How confident the users are in their knowledge about how to use the technology and how easy or valuable they find it for specific tasks;
2. The technical/mandated social learning context within which they use or have learn’t to use the technology. We use a ‘web design’ or ‘no web design’ proxy here; and
3. Their biological context, given our belief that men and women are socially conditioned differently from a very young age and throughout their working lives when it comes to digital technology.

The results highlight the importance of the social context of learning and sex in explaining why some knowledgeable users find the web more (or less) easy or useful to use. The results suggest that this ‘professional’ and ‘technical design’ social context within which web usage occurs, be it work-related [mandated] or personal [non-mandated], and how men and women are socialized towards technology over the course of their life has implications for the development of their beliefs about how much they think they know about the web and how this knowledge influences their perceptions of the web’s usefulness. To summarise:

• Confidence in ones knowledge of the technology has a positive impact on perceptions of usability;
• Users with design experience have more self-belief in their knowledge of technology; and their perceptions of usability become more focused on the web’s utility for achieving their goals—how effective it is for the task at hand—and less on how easy it is to use. i.e., how a web designer sees the digital world, is much different to a non-designer of the same channel – this gives increased focus on the importance of talking to non-technical users of a system in digital channel design, especially if designing for less experienced users].
• Past Research has identified that women use the web less, are more focused on social (not instrumental) cues, and report lower levels of confidence and knowledge and take less risks on the web, than male consumers (Garbarino & Strahilevitz, 2004; Rodgers & Harris, 2003). However when they have design experience, this profile is altered with rising levels of technical web knowledge confidence than the average female web consumer. In fact, the effect of confidence on technology perceptions was stronger for female web designers than male designers.

Situated Digital Technology Knowledge & Learning

Our results reveal the importance of the social context within which men and women learn about and use web technology in professional contexts and what we expect of them. Often the rationalization of conflicting male/female technology usage results focuses on the ‘length of usage experience’ each group has, as opposed to the social context within which their ‘learning’ and ‘usage’ takes place. So lets avoid stereotypes about men and women and digital media – it depends!

Furthermore, when coming from a digital technical design perspective, be it male or female, we need to recognise that we [designers-more technical users] do see the world differently to many other users of technology. As a result, we will learn about and use the technology differently, but we will also design, talk and expect different things of the technology and ourselves [and potentially others].

This study gave rise to my interest in understanding more the ‘situated’ or ‘social contexts’ within which we learn about and use technologies, and the perspective of knowledge and learning about digital technologies, being situated within practices, processes and people … the ‘doing & using’ of digital technology, as opposed to just confidence and technical competencies.

Smiles
Kelly

p.s. This paper entitled: The Social Context of User Web Knowledge and Web Usability, is under review, but am happy to share copies of the draft manuscript, so just DM me on twitter with your email address: @drkellypage

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So today, I’ve  just arrived through Chicago O’hare airport, on route for a family-run B&B in Evanston, a couple of blocks from Northwestern University. This will be my residence for the next 4 and a half weeks. The first city in a 6 week learning journey wherein my hope is to meet, observe, listen to, work and collaborate with a number of very interesting, and intelligent minds in the fields of Digital Media and Communications, Education and Learning. So how did I get here and what inspired this learning journey? What inspired it was DML2010 and what has funded it is an alot of hard work and an ICA?

International Collaboration Award (ICA)

This SLJ came out of a conversation and emails with Associate Professor Eszter Hargittai, founder of the Web use Project in the Department of Communication Studies in the School of Communication, Northwestern University. Well renowned for her research into digital media participation, access, literacy and social issues, we met and spoke in February at the DML2010 in San Diego. Despite being from differing faculties (Communications versus Management) and drawing from similar but also different theoretical disciplines, we observed that our research journey’s had certain synergies.

So in the summer this year I applied and was awarded with an International Collaboration Award (ICA) from Cardiff University to fund a 4 week research visit to visit Prof. Hargittai and work with her and her colleagues in Web Use Project. With other research monies generated from industry talks and seminars, I generated funds to extend the journey by a further two weeks to make my way to Columbia in New York and then on to Simon Fraser University (SFU) in Vancouver. The schedule of the SLJ2010 include:

• Northwestern in Chicago (17th October-20th November)
• Columbia in New York (20-24th November)
• Simon Fraser in Vancouver (24th-29th November)

Swimming Outside the Goldfish Bowl

Experiencing a world outside the goldfish bowl is an activity that is critically important to our craft as academics. By this I don’t just mean through reading outside your discipline, but through conversing with other knowledge critical souls at other institutions, especially overseas and in divergent fields. To critically develop our craft, we academics rely heavily on collaboration and modern technologies like email, relational databases, and community networks help mediate it. However the power and presence of face-to-face conversation is especially important for forging new networks, dialogue and evolving mindsets.

Occasionally we might get a stolen hour or two at a 3-day conference jam-packed with presentations, papers, exhibits, new faces, old faces and social events, to chat or share ideas, but these are highly reliant both on funding and time to attend. Two things the modern day academic has very little of. Even in such a connected digital space, face-to-face conversations still play a critical role in developing social bonds and deep rich learning for academic researchers, especially those from differing fields (e.g., Business Management, Communications, Education, Political Social Policy). As such, a bag I did pack and a wandering I have gone. Actually being from Australia, I should have termed this a ‘Walk-about!’

From a UK Business Management school ranked 4* in the UK (CARBS), with doctoral training from a leading Business Faculty in Australia (UNSW), these training and faculty contexts have formed the institution boundaries of my early academic career. However, not my world view or the critical focus of my research in digital participation, learning and literacy, which I research in the context of Marketing Management Practice and Higher Education.

As such, to learn further from outside the goldfish bowl, my journey includes faculties in Communications, Media and Education studies.

Aim of this Learning Journey

Ultimately, the aim of the journey is to learn from, explore and collaborate with scholars in Digital Media and Communications, Education and Learning to develop knowledge and deeper understanding in the following areas from each my research is grounded:

• The substantive area that defines my research, i.e., Digital media Participation, Learning and & Literacy esp. in management/marketing practice and education;
• The methodological considerations in it’s undertaking, i.e., Inspired by the work of Lave and Wegner (1991); and Wegner (1998) on Communities of Practice and Situated Knowledge; and Kozinets, (2002) on Netnography;
• The contextual considerations, which condition and set boundaries for case informed research such as the research I’m/we are engaged with.

Be part of this Learning Journey!

This time away is more than what most academic researchers, practitioners or educationalists in non-research-led institutions ever get to do, so I feel both fortunate and excited by the prospect of  this journey. But I also want to share it if I can! As such, I’ll do my very best to blog, tweet about it in order to share the experience and thoughts with other interested academics and those outside the halls of academe who are interested in reading about it.

So do please comment on, re-tweet and share these entries, and pose any questions or comments for me along this time.

• Twitter Follow: @drkellypage
• Twitter Hashtag: #SLJ2010
• Twitter Search: https://twitter.com/#!/saved-search/%23SLJ2010
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/drkellypage

Smiles
Kelly

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For those that don’t know, the Academy of Marketing (AM) is our national body of marketing academics and it’s core purpose is the advancement in marketing knowledge through research, education and scholarly activities. It tries to foster links with practitioners, research councils, funding bodies, professional associations and offer guidance to marketing academe in the pursuit of our activities. For example, the AM has a research committee, shared by Dr. Nina Reynolds, with the mission to inform and be part of the debate of developing professional research practice in marketing academe. This is becoming incredibly more difficult in current times. As an academic, your life is often torn in many differing directions, undertaking many numerous, complicated and sometimes very mundane tasks – in education, research and administration. Would I say that the AM Conference is our annual highlight? Well, it’s not like a Christmas or birthday party or your annual holiday (Yes, academics in HE only get 3-4 weeks a year). But it is most certainly a time when marketing academics come together to present their work to each other, catch up and network.

So each year we meet somewhere across the country to exchange ideas, present work we are currently working on and network with fellow academics in our respective fields. I’d like to say that we get into heated debates about the work we are presenting and end up drawing numerous equations or thematic maps on a white board. However, like most areas of modern life, we too are heavily scheduled and squeezed into short time silos with usually only 15 minutes allocated to each presentation, with probably enough time afterward for 1 or 2 questions. Most discussion about research occurs during the coffee breaks, in the evenings at social events and in the taxi on the way back to the conference hotel. So, in essence this is more of a networking event for the young and eager early career researcher (what we call a ECR); a time to catch-up with old friends (for those more established who are vying for promotion); and a chance to offer advice or mentor others coming through (for those well known names who grace the inside covers of some of our leading journals).

A number of things to note about marketing academics, we are many and varied. Some come from practitioner backgrounds, others from academic and education. Some are good, some are great and some are like most industries, still trying to figure it all out. One thing that does define us, we have diverse research interests – no two are ever the same! The conference this year had over 400 delegates presenting in the fields of consumer behaviour, business to business, marketing education, electronic and interactive marketing, sales and key account management, retailing and channel management to name a few. Reflective of not just the scope of our marketing field, but also how marketing has increasingly fragmented so incredibly over the last 20-30 years.

As in most years the papers and presentations are of varying quality, with some of more interest than others. Two in particular I paid attention too was the work of Dr. Paul Harrigan and James Seligman from Southhampton Management School, on the new DNA of Marketing Education; and Dr. Bev Hulbert from the same institution on the Evolution of Technology and Marketing. In brief, I was fortunate to listen to and meet this group of colleagues, who like myself, think marketing education in the HE sector needs to evolve beyond the current education curriculum focused on tired and out-dated frameworks and models of the 60′s, 70′s and 80′s … curriculum that doesn’t take into account the the impact Digital and Electronic resources have had on not just marketing practice over the past 20 or so years, but also on markets and the individuals who make up these markets.

This means what we educate and how we deliver it in HE requires not just to evolve … but a total new way of thinking about higher education in management and business disciplines like Marketing.

So after 4 days of networking, attendance at the AM research committee meeting, sitting in on fellow colleagues presentations, drinks at the Herbert Art gallery, a visit to Warwick Castle and a black-tie dinner in a motor muesum … the Academy of Marketing conference for 2010 came to an end and I made my way back to Cardiff Business School. A little tired, but also a little more inspired by my fellow colleagues at Southhampton whom recognise the impact digital media has had on not just marketing or marketing education, but individuals and their everyday lives.

Developing our understanding of Digital Media Literacy in marketing through critical research embedded in methods such as observation of the development of digital media strategies, community participation and netnography, discourse analysis of what our professional bodies (e.g., CIM, IDM, FEDMA, WAA) are certifying as digital professional practices is critical to understanding this New DNA of Marketing that Southhamptom presented.

Just like Darwin observing the species was critical to mapping his evolutionary theory … so too is it critical for marketing academe to observe and record marketing’s digital evolution.

Smiles

Kelly

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The afternoon inspired me to reflect on the very same questions for what I do, the reason I started CASE Insights and found myself leaving the commercial marketing research sector for academic research and teaching. Reflection I haven’t done for a couple of years and given how difficult it can be juggling teaching, research, administration, marking, supervision and life … I thought it was increasingly important to revisit these questions!

The Beginning …

When I get asked what I do, I usually say I teach Digital Media Marketing at Cardiff Business School. If I get asked what I research and why, a few years ago I would have told you the following:

“Since the inception of my PhD, I have been reading about and researching the psychology behind technology usage and exploring the role of human knowledge. Namely the differences in perceptions, behaviours and contexts of usage of differing users of technologies: from the expert to the less expert, from the web desginer to the non-designer; from the highly engaged to those that see digital technologies as not that relevant to their lives.”

However, over the last few years this has evolved (as all things evolve) as I’ve been witnessing the evolution in marketing theory, media practice and marketing philosophy because of digital media and electronic technologies. And in all honesty, it’s really hard trying to keep up!

The initial aim of this earlier commercial and academic research was to develop our understanding in how and why people adopt and use digital technologies and inform how and why we use digital media in business management, media/communications and marketing. I’m still interested in this, but increasingly as I tranverse along this academic, research and philosophical journey about digital media in business and society, and how marketing is evolving, it is the conception of ‘knowledge’, ‘learning’ and ‘literacy’ about and with digital media in business that is resonating in my work most.

“As our environment evolves, so too do we: our knowledge, our skills, our learning and like it or not, business, media/communications and marketing management are evolving.”

Knowledge, Learning & Literacy …

The interesting thing, is if we use the words ‘digital media learning’ or ‘digital media literacy’ business and management schools and the communications or marketing profession don’t appear to have a deep rich investment in the discourse. The discourse on learning and literacy of digital media is heavily focused on the social context of high school education, and university departments in the disciplines of education, the arts, anthropology or media/digital media (amongst others) with specific focus on researching (or teaching) learning and literacy. Coupled with this is the support of industry and government partners interested in the policy debate about digital media literacy – in youth, in schools and in certain areas of higher education, esp. as it pertains to equality and access.

Don’t get me wrong, these approaches to digital literacy is very important and business schools are interested in education. They are higher education providers after all and education is a core part of their product offering with student fees from undergraduate and postgraduate programs the main revenue source of their business models.

However, much management research on digital marketing (and some of mine can be included in this) is focused on how we use digital technologies to improve firm performance, increase marketing efficiency and effectiveness and most significantly improve click through, satisfaction or sales (e.g., website design), increase loyalty (e.g., loyalty cards and scanner technologies); or improve data acquisition for competitive advantage (e.g., RFID).

Although interesting and relevant, these inherently focus on outputs from the use of digital media and technologies – the effect they have. But not on as much as the knowledge, skills, and learning contexts required in business and management (esp. media & marketing management). This would facilitate their usage or design OR more importantly to ensure that actors/agents in the process can not just use them effectively, but also responsibly, ethically and in tune with their socio-cultural evolution. In short:

• If ever there was a field who’s activities and processes have been fundamentally changed by digital media – it would be business, media/communication and/or marketing management.
• If ever there was a field undergoing dramatic change in skills, language and philosophy – it would be business, media/communication and/or marketing management.
• If ever there was a field who’s impact is so great (good and bad) on society, youth, education and culture – it would be business, media/communication and/or marketing management.

And NO – it’s not just about selling more stuff through digital media or building a better website. It’s about education, ongoing professional development and instilling tomorrow’s [and today’s] business, media/communications and marketing professionals with the knowledge, skills and key insights so they can participate, engage, be informed and most importantly act responsibly in the digital media space. Long gone is the focus on the model T-Ford through mass production or a business case about a Fortune 100 company or PR/Communicatiosn through printed press release. It’s about digital learning, literacy, participation and engagement.

Why is it important?

Digital media literacy for marketers and media/communications management professionals and education is increasingly important:

• For Community Participation: Media management and marketing professions are increasingly expected to adopt and use digital media technologies to reach, communicate and interact with the communities within which they coexist [Mandated by society and organisations].

• For Digital Community Engagement: Business management and marketing professions have to actively engage – “be involved, interested, interact, converse with and share information with” those more socially and technically digitally literate than themselves on a daily, weekly and monthly basis – from web designers, social media [web] consultants, programmers, engineers and expert users – as they adopt and use digital media technologies in their marketing and business activities?

• Because of Community Impact: It is the marketing and related business professions who develop, design, produce and make the decisions on the use of digital media in marketing, customer service, PR, promotional, product development and community engagement activities. And it is these that can (and do!) have a profound impact on society, youth, culture, and education. Be it for the marketing of a charity like Oxfam, an arts organization like NTW, a government initiative like Safe Sex, a new music or literary star like J. K. Rowling, or a product offering like Skittles, Cadbury, Orange or the Toyota Lexus. Marketing has an impact! Good and bad!

Digital Media Literacy in Business, Media Management and Marketing is about exploring the digital knowledge and skills that are evolving in business, management and the marketing profession.

The aim is contribute to the discourse about the core digital knowledge, learning and literacy  ‘learners’ in Business, Media Management and Marketing require so they can participate not just effectively, but also appropriately and responsibly.

So! Now when people ask me:

• What: “I research & teach Digital Media [Literacy] & Marketing at Cardiff Business School“.
  How: “Through practice-led and research led teaching [situated]: I work with practitioners and researchers to develop insights from cases and research projects, to inform theory, practice and education about how and what we do in digital media management & marketing”
  Why: “Because I want to help students, business, academe and the community develop the skills to learn, participate and engage in the digital space – effectively, appropriately and responsibly”… and to write about the journey
  

To learn more, here is a talk I gave at Chapter Arts Centre (UK) in March 2010 entitled: Marketing’s Digital Media Evolution: Do you see what I see?.

Smiles
Kelly

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1. Do we know what we mean by Digital Media learning and participation and do we agree?

No, we don’t, and probably given the many number of disciplines from which DML is informed (be it education, literacy, languages, arts, digital communications, political science, psychology, anthropology etc), we probably never will.

• There are many sides to digital media and specifically, digital media learning in that we can learn a) about digital media (as in skills and knowledge of the technologies); b) from digital media (as in its impact on society); c) through digital media (in that it is a channel to share information); and/or d) with digital media in that it is participatory learning we do everyday as we use digital media and as through emersion in simulations of real-world situations.

• Digital media participation is another concept for interpretation. At DML 2010 we referred to participation with others and participation with digital media and in this raises the differentiation – is it just about behaviour and usage  OR a bigger idea of being ‘part’ of something, part of the digital media space. OR as raised by Sonia Livingstone, is it actually not about participation at all – but engagement with digital media?

In this can we actually have a concise definition or really should we define participation, engagement and learning … for fear it might constrain us?

2. What do youth struggle with, with respect to Digital Media?

I’d say a lot more than we actually know or can dream of ever knowing.

A number of issues were raised relative to race, access and resources – such as time and money accessibility and availability. But this was only on the surface of the issues of what youth struggles. What about their feelings as to what is expected of them in this space, to be more responsible and mature, to have the skills of what as been labeled a ‘digital native’. Rising societal concerns about digital access, digital divide, digital literacy, time, money and resources all paint an all but dark and confusing space of youth digital media participation.

Yet more often than not we see reports of how a great many youth are online? How their skills are more advanced than other cohorts given their emersion in digital media based on year of birth. And in this we ignore the socio-cultural conditions within which youth learn, use, talk about and engage with digital media.

I wonder, can we really look through their eyes, and paint a picture of how they see the world … or are we forever misinterpreting it with labels, themes, and our interpretation of their words and behaviour in talks and presentations based on our world view … and in this where is the child’s voice! Why are they not part of this discourse …

That actually was another notable omission from the conference – youth, as where teachers, parents … perhaps by being more inclusive next year we can see more of the picture as others paint it … through MORE video, audio, and their active participation in the DML2011!

3. What does the Internet add to everything in a childs life?

In this I think is an important question not just relative to traditional learning or educational formats, but what does it add in all facets of a childs life – be it socially, emotionally, education, fun and creativity, learning and social bonds …. It is possible it can add so much but in as much as it adds, it also detracts … but in this I don’t just think of children or youth. I think we should think of the many members in our communities … parents, teachers, researchers … for they too play a critical role in youth education, learning and digital media engagement.

But like the wide adoption of the many innovations, be it technological or not, often the benefits and negatives of innovation are often only realized in hindsight, through adoption, usage and reflection of societal, community and system evolution because of these technologies.

4. What does youth digital engagement [not participation] look like?

One view. In psychology the notion of involvement is discussed, wherein individuals have a differing propensity to being interested (or engaged) with a domain (e.g., football). With this individuals may be more or less enduring or situationally involved.

• Enduring: In that they love an area and thus talk about it, read about it, and participate in it often and with great intensity and attention. A professional football player or avid gamer might be an example.

• Situational: Where as others are influenced by a situation or context that may not be ongoing, but in arising influences the level of attention, interest and activity of that individual toward the domain. For example, a college student who only occasionally plays football when the summer tournament arises or the father who takes his son to football every Saturday not because he ‘loves’ football but his son does, or the friend who doesn’t really like a video game but plays it because his/her friend wants to.

In this the motives for interaction and participation differ with intensity and duration, but stem beyond  simple considerations of behaviour e.g., ‘how frequently they play football’ or ‘play a game’ to include a more wholestic view of an individuals involvement, feelings, perceptions, view and use of the domain – such as digital media.

In essence though this is but one view. Engagement is a much deeper and richer and in that more complex than participation, and in that more important to learning and the exploration as to what fosters digital media engagement in youth.

5. What is it we want youth to learn?

In this it is dependent on the perspective taken, the world view adopted and the domain of specific interest. In brief:

• Perspective: How is digital media positioned within the notion of learning? In this, they can learn from many differing perspectives – such as learning from, through, with or about digital media.

• Discipline/Field: From which disciplines could their learning be situated in (be it one or many): sociology, education, learning, literacy, psychology, arts, literacy, communications, anthropology, digital media, information technology … and I’m sure I’ve missed many more

• Domain: What is it we want them to learn about – privacy, security, social networks and social intelligence, emotional intelligence, behavioural skills, technical design, communication skills, creativity and innovation etc ….

6. Are we overestimating a child’s digital skills?

Perhaps we are overestimating a child’s digital skills and in many spaces not even considering the digital skills (as much) for other members of our community – such as young adults, teachers, parents, lecturers, researchers, business and wider community … we all being influenced and expected to use/interact or learn about digital media and therefore we all have digital media literacy needs and we are all connected …

7. Are we as academics in this space and digital media professionals advocate DM too much? Do we not have a responsibility and a need to be more critical?

Perhaps in this (similar to the doc com crash of the 90’s) we are focusing too much on the hype and promised opportunity of a technological innovation; our access to the plethora of data and subjects; and driven by the endless need to publish – due to institutional expectations – and stay informed and up-to-date.

With this comes normative behaviour to conform and to agree in order to survive and NOT to be left behind. These questions above and more critical questions we most certainly should be asking, not just of ourselves, but of the designers and engineers of the digital media space, and the markets/communities that adopt, use and ESPECIALLY promote them (i.e., the marketing and business profession), not just us that research and study them.

It is with this that the next post refers to why as a marketing academic in a business school I made the trek to DML 2010, to explore differing approaches and meet like mind colleagues, who although see the world through a different lense, can afford me the questions to help explore further why Digital Media Learning – and specifically knowledge, skills and literacy is critical for not just youth, but also for the business and marketing community of the 21st century!

Smiles
Kelly

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The conference itself opened my eyes to a number of things, one important thing is that we need to always remember the interdisciplinary nature of this field. Without an open mind and participation in conversation and sharing, often the perspective from which we approach digital media learning can cloud and sometimes blind us from anothers view of this space. As adults researching this space, our view of the world is very different from those we research and observe – be it child, young adult in HE or those engaged in lifelong learning. But from each other we can certainly share and learn.

Prof. Sonia Livingstone provided one of the best talks I’ve been fortunate to listen to in this space, and like Henry Jenkins and S.Craig Watkins, made me think. From her talk, it was evident Prof. Livingstone was unafraid or blinded by the opportunities digital technologies can provide us, opportunities and benefit we often talk about, but asked some of the more difficult but incredibly important questions, esp. when it comes to digital media learning and literacy.

It is with this notion, that I don’t feel I could justly summarise her talk, as I have and as such, I’ve provided the list of tweets and retweets I posted during her talk. Note, it was only 12 tweet, as I found myself listening to her words and for the first time in a long time … not wanting to tweet too much unless really important for the world not in that room … so I could listen.

Sonia Livingstone on “Youthful Participation in Digital Media”

1. 2010-02-21 01:28:02 drkellypage: Sonia Livingstone starting her talk on ‘youthful participation’ in digital media … all the way from LSE in UK! #Dml2010
2. 2010-02-21 01:33:15 drkellypage: Sonia Livingstone: “Life without digital media would not be life as we know it” #Dml2010
3. 2010-02-21 01:34:42 drkellypage: Sonia Livingstone: “Do we know what we mean by learning and participation and do we agree?” #Dml2010
4. 2010-02-21 01:36:02 drkellypage: Sonia Livingstone: “Struggles with what youth find with technology and not heard as much as what is exciting?” #Dml2010
5. 2010-02-21 01:38:40 drkellypage: Sonia Livingstone: “2 in 3 teenagers check the reliability of what is on the Internet“ leave a large majority who don’t check” #Dml2010
6. 2010-02-21 01:44:58 drkellypage: Sonia Livingstone: “What does the Internet add to everything in a childs life … the Internet can detract from creativity” #Dml2010
7. 2010-02-21 01:57:37 drkellypage: Sonia Livingstone: “Digital we adults have given kids the space to play in and in this also comes playing with fire? #Dml2010
8. 2010-02-21 02:04:57 drkellypage: Sonia Livingstone: “Digital participation is not the same as engagement” -KP like connections not same as connectedness #Dml2010
9. 2010-02-21 02:10:09 drkellypage: Sonia Livingstone: “what is it we want youth to learn? Not what is it we want them to participate in? #Dml2010
10. 2010-02-21 02:15:54 drkellypage: Sonia Livingstone: “Ofcom (2004) def. of media literacy is not about creativity & learning is about protection” #Dml2010
11. 2010-02-21 02:17:56 drkellypage: RT @triches: Livingstone – overestimating child’s digital skills leads to underestimate their need for digital literacy education #Dml2010
12. 2010-02-21 02:23:22 drkellypage: Sonia Livingstone: “We [academe] must be tougher on ourselves in our projects, more critical stop being nice to each other” #Dml2010

Best blog I’ve seen of Prof. Livingstone’s talk by Sheryl Grant
All @drkellypage conference tweets: drkellypage #DML2010
All conference tweets: #DML2010

Smiles

Kelly

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Tonight in the Chair’s introduction to the DML 2010 conference, Dr. Henry Jenkins posed some interesting insights into what is emerging and what we are facing when it comes to Digital Media Learning …asking the delegates to consider more widely diversifying participation in learning communities …

From this introduction I tried to capture a number of key insights … a colleague and friend of mine, DK from MediaSnackers, a social media organisation specialising in engaging youth-based organisations, once spoke that he endeavours to make people either ‘think’ or ‘smile’ from his talks, meetings or conversations. Well tonight Henry Jenkins … most certainly made me think …

Below are a number of the key insights I took out of Henry Jenkins talk …

• HJ Insight: John Fiske noted in the 80’s and 90’s that we don’t control the cultural foundations of civilisation, we participate in them, but we don’t control them.

John Fiske published Media Matters, one of his most important work, were he examined a series of political/media events to show how America was struggling with –- and against — becoming a multiracial and multicultural society.

• HJ Insight: We are participating today more than ever! Enabling people to grow and learn in many distinctive ways.

• HJ Insight: Participatory culture – Jenkins notes that a participatory culture and web 2.0 are often terms used interchangeably but that they are not one in the same. Web 2.0 is important but it ignores a culture older than the Internet

Particpatory culture is defined by Jenkins, et al, (2006) as:

1. With relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement
2. With strong support for creating and sharing one’s creations with others
3. With some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced is passed along to novices
4. Where members believe that their contributions matter
5. Where members feel some degree of social connection with one another (at the least they care what other people think about what they have created).

Jenkins, et al, (2006) notes, that not every member must contribute, but all must believe they are free to contribute when ready and that what they contribute will be appropriately valued. A great quote: “Participatory culture shifts the focus of literacy from one of individual expression to community involvement.” (Jenkins, et al, 2006)

• HJ Insight: Digital divide is not just about access, it is about social and cultural skills in human networks to enable proper participation …

Jenkins quotes Fiske who observed that ‘we now have new opportunities to struggle’ … noting that struggle has gone on for centuries … but with evolution in society and culture comes new opportunities to struggle …

• HJ Insight: Henry Jenkins concludes by calling the DML 2010 conference to be about .. asking questions, challenging approaches and viewpoints and in that the conference is inclusive .. including people not included before … from diverse cultures to challenge together … where digital media can go … and the future landscape of digital media learning ….

This last comment I welcome. I don’t come from specifically a media or education background, I’m based within a business school … but I research knowledge and perceptions (psychology) of digital media relative to adult users. The remit to explore how the knowledge and learning between more technically knowledgeable users/creators (e.g., designers) differs/informs a wider (and perhaps less technical) community of users in which they both co-exist with each other …

This last insight made me both think and smile:

• HJ Insight: The origin of LOL!?! Henry Jenkins also informed the delegates of the true origin of LOL – espousing it’s origin lies not in the Internet-based technologies … but in the evolution of a country-wide social network in the late 1860′s that became known as the Amateur Press Association … Food for thought!

In summary, an engaging introduction to what poses to be an interesting conference …

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Dr David Theo Goldberg & Dr Heather Horst from UCHRI opened the conference outlining the digital media and learning initiative Digital Media and Learning Research Hub that was launched over 4 years ago with the idea to bring together scholars, practioners and society with a focus on ‘education and learning’ through, with and about digital media technologies.

With this they pose a number of questions for consideration over the new few days:

1. Are young people learning differently because of digital media?
2. What does learning or what will it look like over the next 5, 10 15, years?
3. How will/does education  prepare our children for the 21^st century?

Interesting questions to reflect on, which I’ll no doubt revisit on Sunday, when the conference has come to a close, but the conversation will surely continue. But here I raise perhaps another question to ponder about when thinking of participation and inclusivity in learning communities to include ‘ALL’ learners:

4. How will/does education (about, with and through digital media) prepare us (adults, teachers, educators, parents) for the 21st century and esp. for (youth) community engagement and learning?

Learning and education does not stop when we move beyond a youth classification. I’m excited by this focus of the conference, but also will reflect in the context of all communities – youth, younger adults, formal, informal for ‘life-long’ learning. Developing skills, knowledge and dare I say it ‘expertise’ for participation in these diverse learning communities about, through and with digital media.

Why? So we can ALL participate in this emerging socio-technical culture that is influencing learning and education, esp. with youth and younger adults who are more deeply emersed and participating.

Be it from an education, government, public policy or business community – developing skills and understanding learning and knowledge of digital media in ‘adult education’ (e.g., higher education, ongoing professional development), also calls for consideration. For can these communities of learning practice be separated? Should they? Or in effect … what can we learn from each other?

This is the very nature of participation in learning communities … we are all learning and educating …  and sometimes we (adults) are the student, sometimes the teacher … esp. when it comes to digital media!

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