Effective business models for implementing educational technology
John MitchellJohn Mitchell & Associates
Effective business models for implementing educational technologyJohn MitchellJohn Mitchell & Associates | |
The paper begins with a personal account of how I learnt about innovation, educational technology and organisational change during the 1980s, and how I came to understand the value of incorporating business principles into the innovations, if the innovations are to be sustained. I deliberately refer to idiosyncratic case studies to demonstrate that there are no 'off the shelf' business models available to suit every instance of implementing educational technology. The case studies demonstrate the variety of initiatives in the education sector where business strategies are needed.The paper identifies a number of high profile initiatives in educational technology, such as the Open Learning Technology Corporation and Open Net, that struggled to balance educational and business demands. References to the OTFE report, 'A Planning Model for Innovation', highlight the multitude of challenges facing any educational body intending to implement new educational technology. The paper also refers to exemplary activities such as TAFE Queensland's Videolinq, to demonstrate some of the new business management trends in the field of educational technology.
The paper emphasises the fast changing nature of educational technology and the resultant need for flexible planning and management models to suit the wide array of new opportunities.
In this paper, I invite the reader to follow my professional journey to find new and improved ways to initiate and implement information and communication technologies in the education sector. Hopefully, insights into the title for this paper, Effective business models for implementing educational technology, will emerge as you follow the story.
I am uncomfortable with the label of 'consultant', because of the connotations it acquired in the 1980s due to shallow characters who stole the client's watch to tell him or her the time. I also have a problem with consultants who only like to be involved in developing the initial 'big picture' or vision for the future. I agree with Mintzberg (The Rise and Fall of Strategic Management) that effective strategists
are not people who abstract themselves from daily detail but quite the opposite: they are the ones who immerse themselves in it, while being able to abstract the strategic messages from it. Perceiving the forest from the trees is not the right metaphor at all, therefore, because opportunities tend to be hidden under the leaves. (1994, pp.256-257)Balancing vision and rigour and strategic and micro perspectives is a key, I find, to effective business approaches in educational technology.
I am motivated by the desire to see flexible learning systems implemented effectively, so that student learning is enhanced and teachers' work is enriched and I am inspired by learners who adopt new and flexible ways of accessing learning resources and by teachers who embrace and own new ways of providing learning opportunities.
My background includes a range of instances when I pursued such dreams for extended periods. For instance, after an infatuation with the 'deschoolers', I took a job at an 'alternative school' in Adelaide for four years from 1981-84, to learn more about alternative approaches to education. When I returned to TAFE in 1985, I embarked on a three year program to introduce open learning to Naracoorte, 330km from Adelaide, where I introduced learning centres in five local towns, audioconferencing tutorials and study by videotape. I then moved to Clare in 1987, 145km from Adelaide, where I introduced open learning at the Light College, whose catchment area stretched from Gawler and Barossa Valley to the Clare Valley. During this period I discovered compressed digital video conferencing technology and this led to my move back to Adelaide in 1989, to plan for the implementation of the South Australian TAFE video conferencing network, which I managed until I departed in 1992.
I don't have time here to tell the colourful stories behind these innovations: the joys and disasters; the dilemmas, the successes and the disappointments. During this period I found that being a change agent is exciting, but there are down sides: it threatens established players in the educational technology world; some staff will always try to sabotage innovations; and with any innovation, some problems can never be anticipated. I also learnt from these experiences that if the innovation was to be sustained, a great depth of planning and ongoing management is required.
The report contains many startling findings. For example, we found that there is almost no research in Australia that proves that learning outcomes are improved through the use of technology. Further, we found that even among the eight leading edge projects we investigated, only one had involved any measurement of learning outcomes. Regarding students, we found that staff were more excited about learning technologies than students. A major concern was that many staff were found to be interested in the Internet, to a degree perhaps never seen before with the introduction of new learning technologies, but there are still many issues to be resolved before the Internet becomes a ubiquitous learning tool. I am pleased to see that more and more articles are now challenging the often blind fixation with the Web, such as "Today's WWW-Tomorrow's MMM" (MMM stands for mediocre multimedia), in Educom Review, May/June 1997, pp.236.
As a consultant with a great interest in business education (I have completed part of the requirements for an MBA at Charles Sturt University) and with an ongoing interest in educational research (I am currently undertaking a doctorate in education at Deakin University), I am very interested in incorporating useful business models into education. I believe that the two sets of knowledge can be combined particularly well in the area of the diffusion of innovation : a core area for my business. My ongoing interest is in developing new, hybrid but appropriate models for diffusing innovations, with the models firmly grounded on both business and education research.
Some of this interest in stringent planning springs from the anguish I have felt for a number of bodies I prepared reports for in the 1990s. In 1991, I managed the preparation of the feasibility study for what became known as the Open Learning Technology Company, only to watch its travails through the mid-1990s, as it juggled business and educational demands. In 1993, I managed the winning submission to set up what became Open Net, again to watch it become increasingly less prominent. Both these cases are salutary reminders that even with significant amounts of Government funding, some organisations will always struggle with complex business and educational demands.
In the following sections I will discuss a number of projects for which we have provided our combination of business and educational models, in response to the above lessons we have learnt.
For this consultancy assignment, we incorporate business concepts drawn from strategic planning and marketing management, to facilitate the further diffusion of educational video conferencing. This multi-dimensional and flexible framework is particularly relevant, given the fluid nature of TAFE Queensland's Videolinq. Video conferencing is inevitably being drawn into the convergence of technologies, and this is evident in the TAFE Queensland video conferencing network, where there is a move away from solely using video conferencing to using an appropriate mixture of technologies. Currently about 15 staff are developing a web learning centre to complement the video conferencing sessions they deliver.
Videolinq's Executive Taskforce is a practical example of the new style of educational management of new technologies: it discusses questions about student learning alongside questions of business benefits. Rigorous management is all the more necessary given the spectacular growth in usage of Videolinq: a rise in annual hours of usage of over 250% in the last eighteen months. To manage this growth, Videolinq is focusing on a cluster of educational and business issues such as improving quality systems, improving teaching styles, developing support systems, outsourcing technical services, monitoring best practice and conducting cost benefit analyses.
I find in my work that many public service operations are either being made self-funding or are being divested. There is a point of view that the public service should not be involved with developing commercial enterprises. An alternative point of view suggests that it is useful for public service units to operate in the commercial world, so that the public service is aware of the pace and tribulations of the wider world. Another argument suggesting public servants should be self funding is that these staff will bring new insights and skills into their Department. All these points of view were raised in developing the business plan for a small, innovative flexible learning unit.
In this paper, I deliberately refer to idiosyncratic case studies to demonstrate that there are no 'off the shelf' business models available to suit every instance of implementing educational technology. The case studies demonstrate the variety of initiatives in the education sector where business strategies are needed.
The paper identifies a number of high profile initiatives in educational technology, such as the Open Learning Technology Corporation and Open Net, that struggled to balance educational and business demands. References to the OTFE report, 'A Planning Model for Innovation', highlight the multitude of challenges facing any educational body intending to implement new educational technology. The paper also refers to exemplary activities such as TAFE Queensland's Videolinq, to demonstrate some of the new business management trends in the field of educational technology.
The account emphasises the fast changing nature of educational technology and the resultant need for flexible planning and management models to suit the wide array of opportunities.
| John Mitchell BA Hons, Dip Ed, M Ed Admin, AFAIM is the Managing Director of John Mitchell & Associates, a consultancy company specialising in the areas of open learning, telemedicine and video conferencing. Services include feasibility studies, business cases, market analyses, planning reports, project management, methodology training, evaluation, research and information services. JMA has provided consultancies to 15 universities and many TAFE departments, school systems and private providers. John is co-author of a number of recent reports on open learning in Australia, including A planning model for innovation: New learning technologies, produced for Victoria's Office of Training and Further Education, and Educational and technology convergence, produced for NBEET.
John Mitchell & Associates, Level 1, 169 Unley Rd, Unley SA 5061 Please cite as: Mitchell, J. (1998). Effective business models for implementing educational technology. In C. McBeath and R. Atkinson (Eds), Planning for Progress, Partnership and Profit. Proceedings EdTech'98. Perth: Australian Society for Educational Technology. http://www.aset.org.au/confs/edtech98/pubs/articles/mitchell.html |