1. ‘ACADEMIC’ LEARNING SPACES IN
A DISTRIBUTED LEARNING AND
TEACHING ENVIRONMENT
Professor Mike Keppell
Director, The Flexible Learning Institute &
Professor of Higher Education
Charles Sturt University
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2. OVERVIEW
What type of university does an academic wish
to work in?
What is an academic learning space?
What types of spaces do academics inhabit?
Personal learning environments
Professional learning networks
Implications for ‘new generation learning
spaces’
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3. BEING A UNIVERSITY
RESEARCH - TEACHING -
COMMUNITY
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4. ‘BEING A UNIVERSITY’
Scientific University (research)
Entrepreneurial University (unpredictable future)
Bureaucratic University (means of organisng the
complex entity)
Corporate (objectives and policies are developed
centrally)
Liquid Universities (involved in wide range of intellectual
and business opportunities)
Ecological University (Barnett, 2011)
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5. ECOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
Global connectedness and dependence on
world around them
Instead of ‘having an impact’ on the world
which can be both positive and negative
ecological universities seek sustainability
They are self-sustainable in their multiple
levels of interactions.
They adopt a ‘care for the world’ as opposed
to an ‘impact on the world’ approach
(Barnett, 2011).
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6. ECOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
Networked university
Values and fosters its
networks and their
interconnectedness
Feels a responsibility to the
well-being of these
networks (Barnett, 2011).
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8. ACADEMIC LEARNING SPACES
Physical, blended or virtual ‘areas’ that:
enhance academic ‘work’
that motivate academic ‘work’
enable networking
Spaces where academics optimize the
perceived and actual affordances of
the space.
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9. Distributed Learning
Spaces
Physical Blended Virtual
Formal Informal Formal Informal
Mobile Personal Academic
Professional
Outdoor
Practice
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10. ACADEMIC SPACES
Barnett (2011) suggests that “today’s university
lives amid multiple time-spans, and time-
speeds” (p. 74).
Constant email...
Committee meetings......
Historians who focus on the past
Researchers who may focus on the future
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11. ACADEMIC SPACES
Universities may need to
be conscious of the 24/7
existence of their
students across the
globe, each in their own
unique time-span.
Virtual spaces
Residential students
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12. ACADEMIC SPACES
Barnett (2011) suggests that academics may be
active in university spaces that may include:
Intellectual and discursive space which focus
on the contribution to the wider public sphere.
e.g. presentations, media, advising, translating
research into practical benefits, community
involvement, etc
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13. ACADEMIC SPACES
Epistemological space which focuses on the
“space available for academics to pursue their
own research interests” (p. 76).
e.g. labs, libraries, with colleagues at other
universities, schools, etc
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14. ACADEMIC SPACES
Pedagogical and curricular space focuses
on the spaces available to trial new
pedagogical approaches and new curricular
initiatives.
e.g. physical and virtual sandpits, working
groups, meetings, etc
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15. ACADEMIC SPACES
Ontological space which focuses on ‘academic
being’ which is becoming increasingly multi-faceted
beyond the research, teaching and community
commitments. In fact “the widening of universities’
ontological spaces may bring both peril and
liberation” (p. 77).
e.g. diverse roles may include: instructional designer,
educational technologist, academic staff developer,
professional developer, manager, administrator,
facilitator, teacher, researcher, evaluator, presenter,
writer, editor, consultant, project manager, change
agent and innovator.
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16. PERSONAL LEARNING
SPACES
Personal learning environments (PLE) integrate
formal and informal learning spaces
Customised by the individual to suit their needs
and allow them to create their own identities.
A PLE recognises ongoing learning and the
need for tools to support life-long and life-wide
learning.
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17. CONNECTIVISM
PLE may also require new ways of learning as
knowledge has changed to networks and
ecologies (Siemens, 2006).
The implications of this change is that improved
lines of communication need to occur.
“Connectivism is the assertion that learning is
primarily a network-forming process” (p. 15).
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21. PRESENT OR FUTURE WEB 2.0
SPACES?
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22. Professional Virtual
Learning Spaces
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25. MOBILE LEARNING SPACES
“Learning when mobile means that context
becomes all-important since even a simple
change of location is an invitation to revisit
learning” (ALT-J Vol 17, No.3 p.159)
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26. MOBILE LEARNING
SPACES
“With its strong emphasis on learning rather than
teaching, mobile learning challenges educators
to try to understand learners’ needs,
circumstances and abilities even better than
before. This extends to understanding how
learning takes place beyond the classroom, in
the course of daily routines, commuting and
travel, and in the intersection of education, life,
work and leisure” (Kukulska-Hulme, 2010, p.
181).
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27. ‘NEW GENERATION
LEARNING SPACES’
Connectivism
Networked academics
Mobile academics
Academics working in more
distributive spaces
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