Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Learning Reflection 3

The E Learning Maturity Model has been the focus of my most recent reading for this course.  This model looks at a structured and systematic approach to analyzing the ability of an institution to sustain technology development within a school.  The idea of structure and systems is one that I find appealing, as it provides a foundation from where an organisation can look at and prepare for scenario planning.  This is particularly relevant to me, as I have been involved in new technology implementations in the past for which there has been, at best, limited sustainability after a key person in the process has left the school, or moved on to other things.  One such example of this has been class blogging through Twitter in my previous school.  After I left and was no longer driving the programme, the number and regularity of posts reduced dramatically.  This tells me that I should have put in place process to ensure that the programme had long term viability and sustainability.

In regards to the E Learning Maturity Model, I believe that there is almost too much to focus on in the analysis.  I have recently read the book Insanely Simple, which is based on the success of the Apple Company after the 'second coming' of Steve Jobs in 1997.  The book highlights many examples of the success of Apple being the direct result of Job's aversion to an over focus on detail, preferring to focus on a few simple things, both in the overall structure of the company, and in the finer details of particular products.  In the case of the overall structure of the company (Segal, 2012), Jobs removed many items from the product line; in the case of a specific products, Jobs wanted the operation of an iPod Touch to have just the one button.

From my own perspective, in the school that I am working in, I would like to focus on a few questions in any strategic analysis.  I believe that too many areas of focus, such as in the E Learning Maturity Model, will lead to the analysis being done in a way in which, ironically, the finer detail could be missed, as areas are paid scant attention to.  Conversely, when the focus is on fewer areas, there is more likely to be more attention paid to each of these areas; analysis by depth, as opposed to breadth.

Having stated the above, a way that I would work around it would be to look at only one of the seven areas of the E Learning Maturity Model at a time, as was the case in my previous post when the Learning process category was used to analyse a tertiary course that I participated in some time ago.  In the case of the research / case study that I am doing for EDEM630, this could be around the Support process, looking at the level of support that I, as manager, provides to the organisation in regards to using Twitter as a means of engaging with students with their learning, and families to involve them in the learning of children.

References

Segal, K. (2012) Insanely Simple, The Obsession that Drives Apple. New York: Penguin Group.





No comments:

Post a Comment