One academic who personally springs to mind when we talk about creative innovation is Salford University's Helen Keegan. I first met her at a conference in Italy several years ago, and we have been friends ever since. Every time I meet up with her I'm impressed by her energy and drive, and her ability to come up with new and exciting ideas on how to engage learners. In today's 10Q interview, Helen answers questions about her philosophy on learning, social media and her current projects in higher education, including alternate reality games:
Who are you?
I’m Helen Keegan a.k.a. heloukee (online), Senior Lecturer in Interactive Media and Social Technologies at the University of Salford. I’m based in Computing, Science and Engineering, so it’s a great place to be as I get to work with techie students, but nowadays I focus on the social and cultural aspects of technology. I’ve always worked across the University, and am now based at MediaCityUK, which is ideal as it’s a multidisciplinary campus. I like to work across disciplines as I think it’s important for learners to understand different paradigms/disciplinary perspectives/assumptions. My approach to learning and teaching starts from digital identity development – I encourage learners to position themselves in their chosen field while still in education, in preparation for their professional careers.
What inspires you most about learning?
Transformation, empowerment and the unexpected: although learning what we’re ‘supposed’ to learn (I’m talking formal education here) can be empowering, the things that really excite me are often unexpected or accidental – I’m inspired by learners developing new ideas and understandings through making connections between seemingly disparate concepts and fields, and moving beyond their (disciplinary) comfort zone. While this is challenging it often leads to genuinely transformative experiences. Because I work with learners across a myriad of social platforms, I’m able to see them develop their ideas and their identities – both individual and collective - through time. This then drives the curriculum, which is ultimately inspiring: learners being able to confidently negotiate their own curriculum in collaboration with others. In terms of my own practice, students are my primary source of inspiration as reflecting on our learning journey and experiences pushes me to keep innovating. I’m also inspired on a daily basis by people I work with (especially Frances Bell, Ben Shirley and Cristina Costa) and of course my PLN (thanks to social media!).
What/who has been your biggest influence when it comes to learning?
I studied at the Royal Northern College of Music before going on to a degree in Linguistics, specialising in phonetics, speech synthesis and spectrographic analysis. During my time at the RNCM (1993-1995) I was involved in a Manchester-based multimedia collective. With a loan from the Princes Trust, we set up a studio with a 2-tonne acoustic dry room. We had a band (inc. 2 drummers – hence the dry room ;) and an orchestra. My visionary friend Carl Russell led the whole thing, although there were about 15 of us involved on a day-to-day basis. We did all sorts of live multimedia gigs with dancers, animation, video, poetry, classical music, dance music… it’s also how I got into building websites and programming (which led me through the study of Lingustics into Acoustics). It was completely informal, un-assessed, and gave me the opportunity to explore a range of disciplines (music, computing, writing, performing) and learn with a group of friends. It was a major influence on my beliefs with regards to interdisciplinarity, grassroots education and informal learning.
What does social media mean to you?
Connections and networks, serendipity and opportunity, creativity and a rapid flow/spread of ideas – energising and occasionally exhausting! In terms of my practice as an educator, I love the fact that learners can simultaneously be developing their knowledge and understanding alongside their personal portfolio and ‘professional’ online identities. They are able to make meaningful connections with others through expressing themselves as individuals and letting their personalities shine through; their opinions, interests, and activities outside of formal education. I get a real thrill seeing learners develop their digital identities and personal networks over time – I love the fact that the boundaries blur between education/industry, tutors/students, as they build their own networks and gain confidence in connecting with others online.
What is an Alternate Reality Game (ARG)?
An Alternate Reality Game uses the real world as a platform for a transmedia, interactive narrative, which unfolds according to player’s actions. Unlike video games, players don’t play as characters but generally play as themselves, interacting with the ARG designers as opposed to artificial intelligence. ARGs blur the lines between fantasy and reality, requiring collaboration and group problem solving in order to play the game. The overriding mantra for an ARG is This Is Not A Game, so it necessarily involves an element of deception.
How have ARGs featured in your work recently?
I recently ran a module as an ARG, as I wanted see if I could pique learners’ curiosity through introducing mystery and intrigue into their course. I worked with Hugh Garry (BBC) who had been involved with a few ARGs in the past, so his experience was invaluable. The students were fed clues in the physical world (within their scheduled classes) and also online, through blogs, Twitter, YouTube and Tumblr. It was quite intense, as we couldn’t control how students would react during the game, so there were a few tricky moments! The culmination of the ARG was the surprise public broadcast of their mobile phone films on the BBC Big Screen in the centre of Manchester – they were led to the Big Screen by a series of clues and puzzles that unfolded during the semester. It was an amazing experience! However, the jury is still out on ARGs – involvement and immersion bring the biggest rewards so there’s a risk of losing or excluding those who choose not to engage, and this was one of the biggest difficulties that we faced.
What other innovative technology supported projects have you been involved in?
The first project I worked on as a researcher/developer still sticks in my mind. My brief was to develop a multimedia CAL package (yes, back in the olden days ;) to ‘teach’ principles of acoustics. I spent a lot of time talking to undergraduate students who were struggling with certain concepts/formulas, and decided to develop a series of simulations that allowed learners to play around with waveforms using sliders, getting instant audio-visual feedback – leaving out the maths (gasp!) until they developed a more kinaesthetic sense of what was actually going on. Learners were able to get a strong feel for things like additive and subtractive synthesis, before moving on to the actual formulas. Once they had a feel for waveforms – both visually and aurally – then the formulas made a lot more sense. Very simple really, but certainly helped learners overcome the mental blocks they had developed as a result of not getting to grips with the maths in the book and on the board.
Another ‘innovative’ project would have been ESMOS – a European project that I directed/coordinated from 2004-2007. The original bid focused on the use of VLEs to support international mobility students (work placements and study exchanges) and I was brought it to run the project once the bid had been successful. I changed the focus from VLEs to open blogs, wikis etc. – might not sound like much now, but it was pretty innovative at the time (2004), and also risky in terms of it being a European funded project as it meant a significant shift away from the original proposal. However, we pulled it off and made a real contribution to international student mobility support (social, pedagogical and cultural), which was recognised by the European commission and had considerable influence on many other projects.
Another ‘innovative’ project would have been ESMOS – a European project that I directed/coordinated from 2004-2007. The original bid focused on the use of VLEs to support international mobility students (work placements and study exchanges) and I was brought it to run the project once the bid had been successful. I changed the focus from VLEs to open blogs, wikis etc. – might not sound like much now, but it was pretty innovative at the time (2004), and also risky in terms of it being a European funded project as it meant a significant shift away from the original proposal. However, we pulled it off and made a real contribution to international student mobility support (social, pedagogical and cultural), which was recognised by the European commission and had considerable influence on many other projects.
More recent ‘innovative’ projects have included introducing reflective practice and digital identity development through social media into science/engineering in 2006, and getting video technology students in a science faculty to make short films using their mobile phones in order to open their minds to new aesthetics and challenge their rule-governed disciplinary assumptions.
What is your recipe for good learning?
From the content perspective: relevance, personal interest and meaning (also important to understanding learner motivations). I do think emotion is important. A relaxed, happy atmosphere helps people to feel at ease, although that’s not so say that we have to be happy in order to learn - but it does help if learners are enjoying the experience. Open and honest dialogue - admitting that we all mess up sometimes, we all have valuable experiences and thoughts to share, and can all learn from one another. An environment where people aren’t afraid to make mistakes - no fear of saying the wrong thing or ‘sounding stupid’. And last but perhaps the most important ingredients – curiosity, and asking questions!
If you could change anything in higher education, what would it be?
Two things: large class sizes and assessment regimes. This is a personal perspective and not always practical in a mass HE system, but the relationships I have with my students are incredibly important in terms of our learning (I’m including myself as a learner here, because I do expect to be challenged by, and learn from, my students). Sadly, the larger the group, the less likely we are to be able to get to know one another and for me this is one of the most valuable and rewarding aspects of learning and teaching.
My second bugbear is the modularised assessment-driven culture, as this does tend to stifle curiosity. So many learners are focused on what needs to be done to pass a module with a certain mark. It’s a strategic approach to getting a degree, but I’m not a fan of the industrial model of education and sometimes it does feel more like a production plant than a place for imagination and intellectual growth. I don’t believe we should abolish Universities. Universities and academic networks play a vital role in development through research, and linking research to teaching. However, I’m not a fan of corporatisation and get frustrated with the shift towards a consumer culture.
My second bugbear is the modularised assessment-driven culture, as this does tend to stifle curiosity. So many learners are focused on what needs to be done to pass a module with a certain mark. It’s a strategic approach to getting a degree, but I’m not a fan of the industrial model of education and sometimes it does feel more like a production plant than a place for imagination and intellectual growth. I don’t believe we should abolish Universities. Universities and academic networks play a vital role in development through research, and linking research to teaching. However, I’m not a fan of corporatisation and get frustrated with the shift towards a consumer culture.
What is your vision for the future of learning?
Greater flexibility in terms of what, where and how we learn; access to information for all; a move away from assessment culture – greater emphasis on curiosity and enjoying learning for its own sake. Alternative forms of assessment and accreditation that allow learners to define their own pathways and form communities of interest/inquiry away from modules and levels. Finally, I’d like to see greater emphasis on critical media literacy, interdisciplinarity and epistemological awareness alongside disciplinary-specific knowledge and skills. Having an open and flexible mindset is becoming increasingly important when we’re living in a rapidly changing world.
Helen Keegan is an invited Spotlight Speaker at this year's Plymouth Enhanced Learning Conference.
Helen Keegan is an invited Spotlight Speaker at this year's Plymouth Enhanced Learning Conference.
10Q Helen Keegan by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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