IEEP; Twitter and Teaching Enterprise

Yesterday (yeah okay I know I haven't blogged for ages, anyway...) I was presenting to this year's IEEP (International Enterprise Educators Programme) cohort with colleagues from two other universities; Dr Kelly SMith (Huddersfiled, @kellyjs) and Tom Williamson (Coventry @floppyarms). Not really sure how we were billed but I went along to talk about how I have used Twitter in my teaching.

Above is a screen shot of a slide. The table highlights how I think twitter is useful for the different courses I teach on.


I was trying to talk about why I use Twitter? Mainly it's because I teach interactive or digital marketing. So obviously Twitter, along with many other things, is covered. I use it for a number of practical things too. Students can interact with my networks (an area that with colleagues I have discussed elsewhere), develop their own, get an insight into appropriate ways of using Twitter on behalf of their future clients and for developing their own businesses and personal online presence. Twitter is not explored in isolation it is one of many tools (just currently particularly useful). As well as this students are encouraged to use it to annotate the session under a common #hashtag, making for group note taking and an ensuing conversation which, potentially, extends beyond the class room.


At the IEEP event a number of concerns were voiced. One of the issues that arose was anxiety about referring students to documents which held no academic rigour. Along with this was anxiety about the level of academic evaluation as to the value of services like twitter.

My initial response to these two points. Firstly the speed with which technology changes and the ways in which folks use the Internet and apply the various tools available is constantly evolving. In contrast an academic paper can literally take years to go through the review process and be published. This making research relating to use of twitter (at least peer reviewed academic research) rather thin on the ground. Twitter only started in 2006 after all.

A second aspect is a tension which I perceive within enterprise/entrepreneurship education and which has been borne out in various evaluations of enterprise provision I've been involved in. This being the balance between academic/theoretical pursuit and the need to provide students with insight into new and emerging business models as well as timely and appropriate marketing approaches (and that's scratching the surface). I am talking about theory vs practice.

The ensuing talk offered much healthy scepticism and tough questioning.

However anyone would think that we were pushy sales folk trying to flog our wares, rather than a couple of academics discussing how we are embracing new technologies, trying to conceptualise their implications and seeking opportunities from them for ourselves and our students.

Hmm as a final note I must thank the IEEPers as one way or another the debate has ended a long drought period within this blog (been tweeting too much....:-) Thank you and perhaps see you on twitter @charlottecarey

Fear and loathing in doctoral studies...

Dear blogger forgive me it has been sometime since I last posted. 

Dear reader 

This blog has lost its way. Or rather this blogger has lost her way. Sometime ago I thought this was a twitter related thing but barely tweet anything worth reading there at the moment either...

Tomorrow I am due to present my PhD research so far.... this goes on and on. I have been delayed somewhat of late. Partly due to what I realise is pure fear! Fear of not completing (I know go figure, pull your finger out and bloody well get on with it), fear of my intended sample group not playing ball. Okay what else? oh yes fear of the whole scale of the thing.

This will not be news for anyone else who has embarked on this particular journey. It is a slog and as I've mentioned here before with all the other family and work things going on there is little time, at least not the right sort of concentrated time I could do with to fully engage with the process. Anyway these may all be excuses. Think I need to figure out a solution here. 

Okay I have a much more positive post to write about some other new, interesting and thoroughly distracting pieces of research I've been working on. 

Incidentally I might give this blog another chance. If I get a chance I'll update on tomorrow's event.

Kreative Oslo

This week I am in Oslo. I am attending the launch meeting of Creative Metropoles, a new project where I am working with a couple of colleagues from across the university and researchers from 12 other EU cities. I'll talk about this in more depth as it develops but my colleague Jon Hickman has made a start by developing some of the conversation we've been having here about creative industries definitions. 

Glamorgan Enterprise Education event

Just a brief round up of the day back in December where, amongst others,  my colleague Harry Matlay and I spoke at Glamorgan University on Enterprise Education. Includes a gym motivating pic!

Enterprise education and web 2.0

Okay so there's no new years list. No resolutions (of the blogging variety).  Last year was pretty intense but in a good way. I am now more a lecturer than a researcher - although I have a couple of research projects about to get underway and so the balancing act will continue for the forseeable and PhD rumbles on (desperate to get some of my work time devoted to this - that's a little something to work towards). 

So my research interests are evolving but still focussed on the following broad topics:

• Gender and entrepreneurship in the creative industries
  
• Enterprise education 
  

The former of these is my PhD topic and pretty much under wraps for the time being - it is a long slog with moments or real joy when I can literally feel my brain absorbing new ideas and stuff, but otherwise hard.

The latter, which has emerged from my funded research, has developed into various strands: 

1.  Contextualised enterprise education (i.e. enterprise taught within the context of a discipline e.g. sport or art and design)
   
2. What can generic business school enterprise education learn from how existing curriculum is taught within art and design?
   
3. Enterprise pedagogies and web 2.0  - this is an interesting area and one which seems to have a growing interest. Mainly it's about how education can respond to students increasingly immersed in the online world? how does that make them different sorts of learners? and what fantastic opportunities exist with in social media etc to engage with our students?
   

Based on the latter I am presenting next Friday (23rd Jan 09) at Birmingham City University for an event run by the Higher Education Academy for English.

HEA/BMAF Enterprise Education Event brief Feedback

I am going through an insomniac phase at the moment so at 7.45 a.m on a Saturday morning I've already been up for 2 hours already!

Thought I'd give a little feedback from the HEA/BMAF event I was presenting at on Thursday. I'll frame this around my tweets from the day (I use twitter - micro blogging). Here are the three tweets, the latter 2 are in response to my twitter pal and enterprise education colleague Dr Kelly Smith (from Huddersfield University).

1. A very interesting day. With some tough love re:responsibilities of business schools in relation economic crisis

2. @KellyJS on this basis, what responsibility do we take/have?Could new enterprise/entrepreneurship pedagogy's be more appropriate? about 19 hours ago from web in reply to KellyJS

3. @KellyJS long story short:Business schools continue to teach Fordist models, these clearly don't work in 2008. i.e. credit crisis (David Rae,2008)

The day was set in the dramatic, wintery valley scenery of Pontypridd at the University of Glamorgan. First up was Prof David Rae who gave a timely insight into where we sit as business schools in terms of our delivery of business management pedagogy's.  According to David our continued Fordist approach is out-moded and unsustainable. The current economic crisis clearly shows this.  This gave a lot of food-for-thought for myself and the other delegates.

As my colleague Prof Harry Matlay and I were immediatly following David we had to think on our feet somewhat to respond to this message. I think, however, that our own presentation complemented his in so much as we were focussing very much on the who, when, why, how and when entrepreneurship/enterprise should be taught? We also considered what Business Schools could learn from how other disciplines deliver their generic pedagogy. Here I used creative disciplines as an example (see this earlier paper which explores this idea). Briefly,  we suggest that generic training within, for example, art and design potentially leads to more enterprising behaviour, for example: experiential, project based curricula, peer review (crits), lecturers who are practitioners and exhibiting work.

Speaking with  Dr Andy Penaluna (the organiser) yesterday I was expressing my sense of seeing the world and future a little bit differently as a result of this day. From my perspective this was one of those occasions where you come away recognising that your thinking has altered, in other ways a thoroughly stimulating day. 

The presentations and a podcast from the day, I believe, will be made available soon and I'll point to them once they're online.

Off to Glamorgan

Today I am off to an event organised by Andy and Kath Penaluna on behalf of the HEA/BMAF (Higher Education acadamy for Business, Management, Accountancy and Finance) and ISBE (Institure of Small Business and Entrepreneurship). My colleague Harry Matlay and I are speakers at an event and looking at Enterprise education (there is a brief outline of the day here).

We will be discussing the key questions 'The Current state of Entrepreneurship education: the Key questions'. I will, with the permission of my co-presnter give some more detail related to this when we're done and what we think those questions are. But as always any thoughts welcome?

Hello BCU

Today I am due to present to some colleagues about why I blog. So thought I'd I've myself literally 5 minutes to put down as many reasons as possible:
feedback
rehearse
write down ideas
brainstorm
brain dump
practise articulating
collaborate
raise profile
manage profile
have profile
have online presence
be myself
be me
write
write some more
have ideas
exorcise ideas that won't develop
have ideas that might develop
come back to things
a repository of ideas and thoughts
figure stuff out
things to go back to when ideas dry up
reflect
think
think about multiple perspectives
avoid mentioning names
ethics
research ethics
plan
note to self
link
link to people
link to events
link to research
link me to literature
connect me to people
association with events and people and places
tell my story..........

I think I could go on and on. Blimey the endless benefits. Others might mention the 'conversation' being part of, and contributing to, the conversation around my research area.

Okay my blog has also just proved useful to thinking about what I might say this afternoon! Happy day.

a mini catch-up

Since I last posted I've been very very busy. This is me in my first full year as a lecturer and still a researcher - trying to find the balance, afraid my blog has gone a bit on the back burner. I've had a couple of conferences in the last couple of months. Most recently ISBE -this is the 5th time I've attended this conference and I enjoy it more and more each year. Perhaps because I get more and more immersed in the networks there and they increasingly provide a rich source of knowledge, friendship and opportunity.

Note to self
A couple of issues that arose which I will blog about at some point:

1. the entrepreneurial university -
- is it lead by an entrepreneur?
- is it made up by entrepreneurial individuals?
- are academics entrepreneurial but just haven't recognised it yet?

2. Are those that are creative industry individuals running a business entrepreneurs?
I was reminded of a definition of 'entrepreneur' which clearly suggests that they are - I need to dig this out - But any thoughts in the meantime are welcome

My blog is 3

A rather auspicious occasion came and went and I forgot to mark it. You see this little old blog had a birthday. Started on 23rd October 2005 it is now 3 years old. I'm afraid as children go this is a bit of a neglected one at the moment. My life in the last three years has changed hugely both personally and professionally - whether or not this blog has changed I'm not sure. Anyhow thought I ought to take the opportunity to reflect, look back at this blog and possibly to reflect upon its usefulness.

So as a starter for ten here is my second posting October 24th 2005 - 'Creative what?'

I've been in them one way or another since I was born. My mother an artist and art teacher, my father a graphic designer, my brother, aunts and uncles, grandparents, cousins all artists, architects, computer designers, engineers, map makers, actors, illustrators, jazz musicians or stain glass window painters.....what chance did I stand? ............


Seems odd reading it - especially based on how much I've subsequently read, digested and written about the definitions of the Creative Industries. Moving rapidly on - a year later saw a rather proud moment. My first paper to actually get published in a peer -reviewed academic journal, not many people probably will read or have it (probably) but in the world of academia this is where it's at. Here is my thoughts on it at the time. Pleased to say that this has been followed by several more.

A year later October 2007 saw me at the Plus festival. I really like this posting. I went to see Michael Wolff speak and his words really stuck with me, not only that but I have repeated them - especially the bits about 'creatives needing to be able to articulate their value'.

And now a fourth October 25th as a blogger. I haven't been as good at keeping my blog up-to-date of late. My life seems to be unbelievably busy. I am now a lecturer, researcher, PhD candidate and more recently a PG cert in HE student, not to mention a mummy. But the blog has been and i hope will continue to be a fantastic place for me to get my head around ideas and occasionally when I'm lucky some feedback. It offers me the opportunity to reflect. Ironic that this blog is arguably more heavily read and way more public than any academic journal article I am likely to write, yet allows me to write with far greater ease and informality.

Anyway that is my brief blog birthday post. A lot more has happened I've travelled a lot, met some fantastic people, been involved in some truly fascinating research and listened to wonderful stories in that time - a lot of which have been reported upon here.

So a final word for the next year I must try to blog more often as it really does help me!

Blog Action Day: What can enterprise do?

Today is blog action day . A day where bloggers are encouraged to raise awareness of a global issue through their combined weight. The issue this year is poverty. So I was thinking: what would be appropriate to this blog to talk about?

I figured I could talk at length about what creative enterprise could do for poverty and possibly link to some examples. And hey I might do that. But thought I would just briefly draw attention to the work some local small creative enterprises are doing to respond to blog action day.

An idea initiated, I think by Nick Booth of Podnosh a small podcasting company, in response to BAD08; he rallied a bunch of other local media companies, individuals and experts to spread their blog/social media related expertise amongst charities working with poverty in our region.

I liked this idea. I liked that a group of small creative companies organised themselves into a critical mass, to provide some practical and useful support - in what appeared to be a very short time. Leveraging the networks that these sectors are characterised by, not to mention the social media platforms they were advising on.

Unfortunately I was unable to attend but I saw this picture from Chris Unitt, taken a couple of hours ago - looks like they had a full house.

Trying to blog...

Wow can not believe I've not posted since July- I think perhaps my twitter addiction is to blame. That and what has proved to be a very busy summer. Not holidaying you understand but writing. And then writing some more. I've already mentioned this is not something that comes particularly easily to me. But hey.

Thought I would do a little recent news for those who might be interested and for me to remember what I've been up to.

Well term starts soon so I am in the process of writing some course materials for an interactive marketing module I'll be teaching. But as well as this I am developing my current research portfolio and developing some interesting areas with colleagues from all over the place - more news as these emerge. I've also been writing a chapter for the Diana Symposium over in Belfast later this year -this is related to my PhD research so it is taking priority somewhat. I feel a bit sort of too close to this one to talk about it too much so I'll see how it goes before saying anymore.

While in Belfast I will also attend this years ISBE conference, building on some of my project work my paper there develops some of the ideas I've been having around the role of the practitioner as educator and looking to creative disciplines to see how it works there - this paper focuses, specifically on assessment and assessment of ideas (please still do the survey if you do teach in a creative discipline - see last post).

In other news earlier this month I was at BAM in Harrogate. I really enjoyed this conference for the most part. It was in the Majestic hotel which was fabulous - sort of faded glory, I loved it. The conference had a 'Creative and Cultural Industries' track which was great for me. There was a good set of strong papers presented, mainly in a 'round-table' format, which was good for a less formal discussion around the various topics. I've still got to go through all of the various bits of paper I collected, but when I have done I'll try and comment more on some of the themes which emerged.

Creative educators; ideas assessment survey

I am involved in a small research project which is looking interesting, part of it requires gathering the perspective of educators from creative discsiplines. Can you help?

'Creative disciplines education is characterized by an experiential, project based learning environment, regular peer review and frequently led by lecturers who are also practitioners. In contrast, teaching entrepreneurship in business schools has been criticised for its traditional lecture and text book based delivery, as well as issues on the assessment of ideas within an academic framework. The aim of this research is to explore how creative disciplines education is taught, delivered and assessed, and how this might inform the development of enterprise education UK.'

Are you an educator in *any* creative discipline? If so I would be very grateful if you could complete this survey on how you assess ideas:

Creative Educators Assessment Survey!

It should only take about 5 to 10 mins and would contribute significantly to this emmerging field.

Following the development of the exercise, academic papers may be prepared for presentation at an academic conference (or for publication in an academic journal which uses this survey data as material). Institution details and names of individuals will be kept confidential. If the results are used for other purposes you will be consulted.

Many Thanks

Charlotte

Community managers for start-ups

Following today's TE3 Open day and discussion around how, as enterprise educators, we can help students consider their marketing strategies. I came across this link courtesy of local journalist Joanna Geary about whether or not start-up owners can manage their own online communities.

Great to meet everyone who came today - I'll try and blog in more detail about the event in the next few days.

Digital divide - first thoughts

I got a bit annoyed yesterday evening when I noticed a question I'd raised on the 'live blog' for Birmingham's Big debate had been used in the context of a blog posting about some folks (especially older folks) not having mobile phones, in the context of the digital divide. Anyway once I got over my annoyance it was actually quite useful for me to get to grips with trying to articulate something about the digital divide. Here was my response to the posting:

I must have missed this one but as Technorati picked up your link to my blog and your quoting me I feel obliged to respond. The question I raised was in the context of the debate. Like you, my question was based on anecdotal evidence and intended to stimulate the debate a bit. Perhaps with all of this we each bring with us different ideas and perceptions about who we mean when we talk about the digital divide.

For me I guess it is born out of research work I've been involved in, looking at social inclusion in the creative industries - the digital divide often being cited as an issue or major contributor to exclusion. So perhaps I am/was thinking of a younger demographic than you or at least those of working age.

My point I suppose was that as mobile technologies become more sophisticated, more accessible and the various media converge, then the digital divide might not be as vast as we perceive. I think I was responding to an assumption often made that folks need to be sat at an expensive PC to get internet access, when in fact most mobile phones and increasingly TV's can get internet or digital services. My understanding is that approx 45 million mobile phones are in use in the UK belonging to something like 85% of UK households (not my stats from various online sources).

I think there are issues for example: if a job application form is only made available online, as I believe some local authority cleaning jobs are, then this is an obvious issue as a regular mobile phone would not be too handy in this situation. I guess my point is that a lot of assumptions are made about the digital divide and perhaps we need to be a little clearer about who we mean. Although I have worked with a lot of folks who would identify themselves as non-techy or not computer literate I also see them doing all sorts of sophisticated things with their mobile phones and accessing all sorts of digital services.
Incidentally both my parents and even my 91 year old Grandmother are or have been mobile phone owners.


Having slept on it I think what I was trying to say is a lot of this stuff is about individual perception and confidence, not necessarily about availability and as media converges, mobile phones and TV's become more sophisticated (and with them users) then the divide narrows. Of course this is not my specific area of expertise but certainly I think it is an area which will effect my own research - so thought on this all very welcome.

I should say that there is a disclaimer here: most of my experience related here is from a UK and urban perspective.