This blog post includes a narrative of key points made by Professor Costas Andriopoulos during his talk at the Cardiff University Innovation Network seminar on 25th January 2012.

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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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Last night Cardiff Business School hosted, Mr David Roche, President of Hotels.com for an evening lecture about the Internet: Business, not as you know it! David introduced the audience to the data-informed and analytics led business model of Hotels.com.

It was an interesting talk that took us from the business model origins of Yahoo!, Google and Goto.com to the power of digital analytics and the loss of the high street travel retailer. In 1998 Yahoo! dominated the search business. However, by 2001/2002, who would have thought that it was the combination of a citation ranking algorithm, coupled with a pay-per-click business model and data informed decision making that would see Google evolve to who they are today, one of the most powerful multinationals and Internet businesses today.

David, reviewed the power of digital analytics for Hotels.com, wherein the value of the footprint through their and partner sites (e.g., tripadvisor.com) and advancements in industry back end systems (e.g., Sabre), has provided for advanced empirical evidence in managerial decision making in site design, pricing and service offering. Data-informed and analytic led Internet business is the business of the Internet today, and not as many people really know it.

When asked about the impact of the financial crisis for Hotels.com, he revealed that the traffic data at Hotels.com shows evidence of CFO’s cutting corporate travel budgets resulting in less traffic from these segments and a squeeze on hotel ‘price per night’. However such economic conditions are in contrast driving individual consumers online for hotel bookings due to increased choice wherein the average consumer scans a minimum of 3 sites for options at any one time, lower geographic barriers for information access and advanced price competitiveness. All resulting in increased consumer choice.

However one thing that David did touch on during the Q&A, was that, in contrast to the more traditional offline travel agent or the smaller online business, large Internet businesses, such as Hotels.com and Google do have an advantage. Something that is referred to in academic circles as ‘double jeopardy’ when talking about the power of large brands, is they have large data sets of traffic data from which to draw and teams of analysts with whom to work with. For the high street travel retailer or smaller internet business site usage and traffic data is not as reliable or large enough for any advanced statistical analysis, resulting in differing approaches in methods for research insight (e.g., focus groups), and the use of free service tools such as Google Analytics.

During his talk David raised a number of interesting points about data-informed and analytic led managerial decision making for the Internet business, but more importantly he raised a questions about skills and knowledge in digital analytics. How and what are universities and educational providers delivering in terms of skills and knowledge to ensure graduates and wider society have the necessary skills to participate in a data-informed and analytics led model of Internet business?

An enjoyable and very informative talk.

Smiles Kelly

P.S. For tweets from the event, see: #cbslecture

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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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Have you ever wondered the educational value of academic publishing? Wondered how the research we do filters into the classroom? Maybe not! This is not something often discussed and debated in business academia, where the ethos and culture is driven to publish in top-tier academic peer-review (?) journals. However, for some of us, behind closed doors, in secret we are also engage in another publishing activity. An activity not often discussed with high esteem or value by research-driven colleagues, where the words “I’m writing a textbook” seem like sinister words. However, if we really think about the educational value of academic publishing, it is textbooks and the educational resources we develop where a real contribution to knowledge and wider value in education is most certainly felt, not just through journal articles. Here in this blog post I share part of my experience and the view that “writing of good textbooks should be central – not marginal to our HE mission as researchers and teachers”.

OUP Sales Conference 2010

This week on Wednesday, 25th August 2010, I attended the Sales Conference for my textbook publisher – Oxford University Press (OUP) in Warwick (UK). Not a sales representative, nor a member of the publishing industry, I’m an author and an academic so I attended to reconnect with the sales team I met 2 years ago who are responsible for a book title I’ve coauthored titled, Marketing. In this I participated in a session about how our 1st edition has gone and to discuss the launch of the 2nd edition due out in December 2010.

This experience was invaluable. Sat in the room was the hearts and minds of over 30 people who are in direct contact with lecturers, universities and book stores from across the UK and Europe. They are deeply embedded in the publishing industry and the dynamics with which it is changing, both due to economic constraints, changes in technology and market preferences. In brief, students are not using books like they used to, it’s about differing formats, differing resources from a variety of locations! And these people know their business and are some of the most humble about their value in the publishing process. In awe of their knowledge and commitment to distributing good educational resources and how they could help educators, I most certainly was. One thing I love about Oxford University Press (OUP) as a publisher, and their team … is they also have heart! They care about the books/resources they develop, the people they work with and the people who they are developing for. Yes they have to generate revenue, but maybe this cultural ethos is because they have a charity status and so are not as commercially driven like most publishing houses.

Why Write a Textbook on Marketing

The above is why I really engaged with this project over 2 years ago in 2008, not just because I wanted to write a book, actually at the time I didn’t want to as academic textbooks are not as valued by business academia like a journal article is (a view I am opposed to!). But with OUP’s ethos, and our coauthor and editorial team, not only did we have a vision for what students in marketing today should be learning in and out of the class room, but the team also saw the importance in not just writing a book, but in developing an overall suite of resources for all in marketing education – lecturer and student alike.

So myself and two colleagues, Paul Baines from Cranfield and Chris Fill from Portmouth, came together on this project through differing routes and bringing differing skills, knowledge and experience to the table. I was the publishing novice, and in some ways still am, still trying to juggle personal and professional deadlines with publishing ones. But one thing connects us, our vision on the value of coupling a deep knowledge of learning and education with marketing theory and practice in business management academia. Our focus has been on developing a resource – not just a book – that helps both students and lecturers in learning and educating about marketing in the many differing spaces it occupies, in the many differing formats it comes, in how it is evolving and the differing ways in which we can learn and experience it. Essentially we spent three years prior to 2008, creating an ‘educational resource’ that brings practice into the classroom, brings not just theory, but also critical debate around marketing theory into the class room and most importantly, engages with the many differing ways and styles with which we both learn and can educate about marketing – online, offline and through experience. Marketing is going through not just an evolution given changes in society, but also a digital revolution.

The Value of Textbooks in Academic Publishing

However, along this journey I must say I’ve been saddened by the lack of value academia, especially business academia appears to place on the value of textbooks in academic publishing, an ethos which has filtered throughout our institutions, governance structures and our education system. Spurned by a ‘publish or perish’ ethos around peer-review (?) journal articles and a governance system – the Research Assessment Exercise or Framework (RAE 2008, REF ?), that propagates this view. I’m not saying these are not important, they are, we couldn’t write books, develop educational resources or educate without them. But our myopic focus on the importance of a journal article above everything else and thus their production at cost to everything else (e.g., teaching quality, educational innovation, staff morale) is harming the inherent basis on which university and business academia exist – “to contribute to knowledge through research, education and community engagement” (this is what I signed up for when I joined academia at the completion of my PhD in 2003). I didn’t sign up to an ethos of “to write just journal articles”.

Yesterday I sat and listened. I knew how well our book at done in its first edition,  but I didn’t realise just how well. Our book – Marketing, the first edition released in 2008, is 2nd in the UK academic market for 1st year marketing textbooks with 30% marketshare, 2% behind the leading textbook, and beating Kotler … “the god of marketing” … who is third. Whoop! Whoop! Our title is apparently OUP most successful business title and purchased by thousands of students across the UK and Europe. This was well above our expectations, in the begining we just wanted to challenge the status quo in 1st year marketing education. Challenge what we were teaching and how! So, a celebration yes! But a personal one! We don’t get huge royalty cheques, and these books don’t really count towards promotion as they are not as valued as much as a journal articles (REF/RAE), despite how much time, work and resources goes into their creation and how well regarded they are outside the academy (e.g., in business). So it’s not about the money and nor drive for a tenured track Professoriate position.

Its about an educational ethos, and contributing to the knowledge of tomorrows marketing industry. In this, for our title, we have reached the minds of 100′s of lecturers and thousands of 1st year marketing students in the UK and Europe and contributed to their knowledge of marketing theory, marketing practice and importantly challenged the status quo in marketing education. That is worth more than any promotion or 4* journal article.

A Manifesto for Textbook Writing

But this journey over the last 4-5 years has made me really question how business academia, across the UK, Europe and in wider international communities really value the academic textbooks and educational resources in business academia and their contribution to business knowledge, theory and practice. I cam across this great blog post on “The Higher Education Academy” websites about “Writing Textbooks in a Cold But Changing? Climate. This post has some interesting insights about “To Write or Not to Write a Textbook?” In short the author Rob Pop concludes with a Manifesto for Textbook Writing, for all educators, researchers and authors.

A Manifesto for Textbook Writing (Rob Pope, 2003)

• Textbook writing is a central, sensitive and symptomatic indicator of all that we do.
• Textbooks come into being and operate precisely on the cusp of teaching with research, of education with economics, and of a vision of knowledge as personal empowerment and satisfaction with one of knowledge as public commodity and techno-political power.
• Textbooks are the main interface where the notion of the subject in general is embodied in the particular heterogeneity of all the subjects who study it; it is therefore the major tool whereby subjects in every sense have lasting effects.
• Textbooks are also the main site where the fundamental structure and significance of the discipline is communicated and debated. It is therefore not only the place where the existing territories are consolidated and boundaries reinforced; but where the work of inter- and cross-disciplinary re-definition and re-negotiation goes on — publicly and accountably, amongst ones peers as well as students and, sometimes, a more general public.
• Textbooks are thus where specialist knowledge and skills are accumulated and made generally accountable as well as accessible. Thats why a good textbook is precious — and a bad one pernicious.
• In sum, the writing of good textbooks should be central — not marginal — to our higher educational mission as teachers and researchers.

So with this Manifesto in mind, I have continued with my co-author team to develop our title, Marketing, with the launch of our 2nd edition in December, 2010. Why? Because like Pope (2003), I too believe that writing good textbooks and developing good educational resources should be central, not marginal to our HE mission as teachers and researchers, and our governance structures.

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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Inclusive, international and participatory is the promise of the first ever digital media learning conference, here in San Diego over the next three days. The 2010 Digital Media Learning Conference (San Diego, USA).

Today finds me at the start of the conference hosted University of California Humanities Research Institute at the UC Irvine campus in San Diego. The next 3 days over 500 digital media delegates form around the world are coming together to deliver, attend and discuss at over 60 panel session about digital media learning and literacy in society, education, and policy. As noted in the conference press release as to why this is so important:

“Global digital media are rapidly becoming a driving force in globalization, scientific advances, and the intersection—and sometimes clash—of cultures,” said David Theo Goldberg, director of the systemwide University of California Humanities Research Institute and co-director of the Digital Media and Learning Research Hub, which designed and organized the conference. “Every day new questions arise about the ability of traditional systems and institutions to prepare both young people and life-long learners for the social, economic, and political demands of a complex and networked new century.” (Quote: Jeff Brazil)

What makes this conference something I’m excited about is that at the outset, the program was about collaboration and conversation within and across the digital media learning community. To participate delegates contributed to a DML Conference Wiki in 2009, collaborating on ideas and areas of research interest. Session proposals were then submitted for peer review, with each session requiring participants originating from differing institutions and/or organisations.

I first came across the conference on twitter. Connecting through the conference Wiki with two Assistant Professors from University of Central Florida, Dr. Robb Lindgren and Dr. Rudy McDaniel about our similar areas of research interest: researching digital media expertise and knowledge, albeit from three differing approaches. After a number of emails and a Skype hook-up we submitted a proposal on Digital Media Expertise: Three Differing Approaches. Where we propose to discuss “Expertise about digital media. Expertise with digital. Expertise through digital media”.

The conference kicks off this afternoon with a conference introduction from the chair, Henry Jenkins from the University of Southern California, and Opening key note from S. Craig Watkins, who has been researching young peopleʼs media behaviors for more than a decade.

Inclusive, international and participatory – like the digital media we research, use and promote. I hope so, this conference is this and more.

For more information:

Press release by Jeff Brazil

DML 2010 Conference

DML Research Hub

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Increasingly we are seeing hundreds of uses of the term ‘Social Media Expert’ or ‘Web Expert’ on websites, titles, business cards, job descriptions and blog posts about “10 signs of a social media expert’. This is not a new phenomena, we have been interested in expertise and knowledge for generations, who has it, how do you recognise it, how do you measure it, how do you store or capture it?

This is especially evident as it pertains to technology. From computer expertise, to database expertise, system expertise, web expertise, social web (media) expertise. However technology is changing so rapidly, and our ability to keep up and keep abreast of the increasing tide of information starts to beg the question – can anyone really be a technology expert?

From this talk, my intention was to pose to the audience to consider that:

• expetise is about knowledge (type, scope, how acquired) not just usage behaviour, something we often use as a proxy for knowledge.
• different knowledge is acquired in differing contexts so although two things might be similar or related, doesn’t mean you have same knowledge in both.
• think about the terms you use to describe your knowledge, experience and understanding of technology, for what we think we know, doesn’t correlate to what we actually know and terms/labels can be misleading.
• If someone calls themselves a social web (media) expert, chances are they are still learning (and that’s ok!) – its a new young and rapdily changing field. We are all learning. But many of us are not experts.

You can watch my talk below at Ignite Cardiff:

You can also view and download the slides from slideshare or through Issuu:

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Imagine that you’re on stage in front of an audience of hundreds of people, doing a five-minute presentation using slides that automatically rotate every 15 seconds, whether you’re ready or not. What would you do? What would you say? The entry on Wikipedia provides a more detailed overview of Ignite events around the world.

Well having thought about this scary prospect and being an academic who makes a living out of lecturing and talking, I thought I might just be up for the challenge. Can an academic really only talk for 5 minutes?

So tonight at Wales Millennium Centre, I’ll be joining a list of 15 other speakers to talk for 5 minutes on a topic of my choice. My presentation is entitled: “If I can drive does that make me a mechanic!” and stems from two earlier posts on this blog about “the mechanics of social web expertise” and “measuring social web expertise.” Most importantly though this presentation is about my dad!

This Ignite Cardiff event is being hosted in partnership with Cardiff Design Festival and organised by Cardiff Web Scene and sponsored by Box UK.

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