The imagination of Ada Lovelace in Canberra, 10 October

David De Roure, Professor of e-Research at University of Oxford will speak on The imagination of Ada Lovelace: an Experimental Humanities approach, at the Australian National University in Canberra, 10 October.

"In over 200 years since Ada Lovelace's birth, she has been celebrated, neglected, and taken up as a symbol for any number of causes and ideas. This talk traces some paths the idea of Lovelace and her imagination of Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine has taken. In particular, we focus on music and creativity, after Lovelace's idea that 'the engine might compose elaborate and scientific pieces of music of any degree of complexity or extent'. ..." 

I first came across Ada Lovelace in the 1980s, when the Ada programming language was named in her honor. I get a mention in the "IEEE Recommended Practice for Ada as a Program Design Language" (1987). In 1994 I attended the play "Arcadia" by Tom Stoppard, at the Sydney Opera House. The main character, Thomasina Coverty, is based on Ada. Also referenced in the play (by name) is the landscape architect ‘Capability’ Brown. A week later I was a few kilometers outside Oxford looking at Blenheim Palace across the lake and grounds designed by Capability Brown. This reminded me of Canberra. Two years later I used "Building Arcadia" as the title for an innovation strategy for Canberra (now implemented).

Green Services Export Opportunities for Australia

Greetings from the Australian National University in Canberra, where Alex Teytelboym from the University of Oxford is speaking on "Climate and Innovation". He started by pointing out that the commitments to emissions reductions made at the COP 21 Paris Agreement were not sufficient to limit global warming to 2 degrees. He suggested that most coal will have to be left in the ground and changes to development needed by next year to avert global disaster.

Dr. Teytelboym has carried out a detailed analysis of the development of green products, to see how new industries emerge (a "Green Complexity Ranking"). He found, not surprisingly, that Germany makes complex green products, whereas South Africa makes simpler ones. Surprisingly Australia ranks very poorly in production of both simple and complex green products, near the bottom of the list at 116 out of 117, between Trinidad and Panama. However, Dr. Teytelboym points out that Australia ranks well in the export of services, such as higher education.

Dr. Teytelboym has published papers on climate change. Interestingly, he has also published papers on Social Networks, but none on climate change and social networks. I suggest that just as major changes in emissions from vehicles with conventional internal combustion engines has been made possible by the addition of computer controls, ICT can be used more generally to reduce emissions. An example is a social networking applicaiton which introduces people so they feel confortable to share local co-working office or a ride-share vehicle. I discuss this in my course "ICT Sustainability: Assessment and Strategies for a Low Carbon Future".

Tony Abbott Address to Universities Australia Higher Education Conference

The leader of the federal opposition, Tony Abbott, made an Address to Universities Australia Higher Education Conference in Canberra, 28 February 2013.  He started by referring to his studies at Oxford University and his time boxing there (but did not mention Oxford has been offering on-line courses since at least 2009).  at He pointed to education as Australia's biggest export, after minerals. He proposed a "... new, two-way street version of the Colombo Plan building on the original one that brought tens of thousands of students from around our region to study in Australia", with the the Menzies Research Centre hosting a policy development roundtable to work on a "... Rhodes Scholarship for our region".

Mr Abbott also expressed a wish for Australian universities to take advantage of online learning and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), however no funding or other support was proposed for this. A Coalition Online Higher Education Working Group, looking at how "... online technology improve existing campus-based teaching with all the benefits of interaction, in the classroom and beyond..." (chaired by Alan Tudge, with Karen Andrews, Senator Fiona Nash, Senator Stephen Parry, Nola Marino, and Rowan Ramsey). These are very timely questions to be asked, as on-line courses are transforming education, including university education.

It is not clear if MOOCs will be more than a 21st Century version of the DOT.COM bubble, with no cl;ear business case. But it is clear that e-learning is an effective form of education. The question is how to implement it while maintaining the cultural and economic benefits of the Australian education system. For my own take on this, see: "On-line Professional Education For Australian Research-Intensive Universities in the Asian Century" and "Proposal for Teaching ICT Masters Students How to Teach On-line".

THE COALITION’S ONLINE HIGHER EDUCATION WORKING GROUP

Terms of Reference

Overview

Australia enjoys an enviable international reputation for delivering world class higher education.

International education is Australia’s fourth biggest export and our largest services export industry.

Like so many other parts of our society and economy, the Australian higher education sector can rightly stand proud of its achievements and international reputation. But resting on past achievements is never as important as looking toward the challenges of the future.

Perhaps the greatest challenge is the digital revolution and the global trend toward increased reliance on technology and online resourcing. Just as the digital revolution is transforming printed media and retail, it will almost certainly transform higher education.

The Coalition understands that the possibilities and benefits of online learning opportunities are enormous for all involved in higher education. We firmly believe that Australian higher education institutions are uniquely placed to take advantage of future online learning opportunities.

Our history, current international standing and world class reputation for excellence are all factors that potentially give Australia a competitive advantage when it comes to online education opportunities.
The biggest danger is for Australia to be left behind.

The Coalition knows that higher education institutions are best placed to deal with future challenges and opportunities.

The task for government is to ensure public policy provides the capabilities and incentives so that our students can tap the opportunities that online higher education can deliver. Most importantly, the Coalition believes it is crucial that government does whatever it can to ensure higher education providers are able to embrace online opportunities.

Traditional higher education models are vitally important and while they remain a central focus of government policy, we must also have an eye on the future.

We believe online learning has great potential to increase access and choice for students, enabling greater customisation and a better balance with work and family demands.

The online trend cannot be ignored The potential benefits of online learning for Australian students, higher education institutions and the economy are enormous.

Online education can allow students to access more customised, effective and efficiently delivered education at the time of their choice. For students living in remote areas, or possessing disabilities or juggling work or family responsibilities, greater online education will make access to higher education easier.

It also has the potential to speed up learning, allowing students to save money and enter the workforce more rapidly. The traditional university model is built around lecture-theatre and academic availability during a 26 week per annum schedule. People increasingly expect to be able to work, learn and study whenever and wherever they want.

Other countries are moving rapidly The most important evidence of how online education is transforming higher education can be found by looking at the growing involvement of some of the world’s most prestigious universities, including Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford. These institutions have begun to offer premium learning content in the form of “massive open online courses” (MOOCs).

MOOCs are offered by these universities through online providers such as Coursera and edX. Over two million people have registered for these courses. Within six months of joining Coursera, Melbourne University had more students online than on campus.

Currently, the vast majority of MOOCs are free of charge, are not assessed or graded and do not provide students with credit toward the completion of their university degrees. The next stage in the global development of online higher education is for online courses to be accredited and incorporated within the existing programs offered by universities.

Online challenges must be faced The increased choice, flexibility and lower cost will be beneficial to Australian students and our economic productivity, but it will be immensely challenging to existing Australian institutions. Our biggest danger is to simply ignore the overseas trends which, according to some forecasts, could have negative ramifications for current university models.
As well as producing the skilled graduates needed to drive productivity and long-term growth, Australia’s universities also educate hundreds of thousands of international students and in doing so generate $15 billion in export income each year (our leading services export industry).

There is potential to expand this greatly through online offerings. Over the next forty years, the demand for education from our region will be enormous. The OECD predicts the middle class in the Asia Pacific to grow six-fold in the next 20 years to 3.2 billion people. In India alone, the working age population will grow by 240 million over the next 20 years. There is insufficient capacity in their education system to cope, as McKinsey & Company have identified.
India’s online education market will be worth $40 billion by 2017, presenting huge opportunities for Australian institutions.

The opportunities from the online education trend are enormous, but so are the challenges.

Better approaches for Australia Labor has not capitalised on the opportunities that the online trend presents.

Labor has rigidly held onto the traditional learning model founded in “bricks and mortar” teaching and has neglected addressing the challenges facing higher education. Labor’s base-funding review of higher education ignored online opportunities and the potential for more effective and efficient learning methods.

For the past five years, the Government has focused on funding formulae, visas and regulations while Australia has declined in education export revenues. This has been particularly noticeable over the last two years despite other competitor countries continuing to grow their share.
This highlights the need to consider better approaches to ensure Australia is not be left behind.

Traditional higher education environments are important, but the challenges and opportunities of the future must also be considered.

Objectives and scope of the Working Group As part of the Coalition’s commitment to implementing innovative, forward-looking higher education initiatives that will drive increased productivity and economic growth, the Leader of the Opposition, the Hon Tony Abbott MHR, has established the Coalition’s Online Higher Education Working Group to examine the potential for greater online delivery to be incorporated within Australia’s existing higher education framework.

The Working Group will be chaired by Mr Alan Tudge MP and its other members will be Senator Fiona Nash, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Education, Karen Andrews MP, Senator Stephen Parry, Ms Nola Marino MP and Mr Rowan Ramsey MP.

The Working Group will liaise closely with Shadow Minister for Universities and Research, Senator the Hon Brett Mason and Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training, the Hon Christopher Pyne MP.

The Working Group will examine the key issues and challenges related to the development of online higher education in Australia. The Working Group will consult widely with all relevant stakeholders, including tertiary providers, employer groups and the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency, to inform its response to these issues and challenges.

Specifically, the Working Group will:

1. Assess the trends in online learning both in Australia and internationally and how this might unfold over the next decade.
2. Assess the benefits of online learning for Australian students and the Australian economy, including the potential:

a. Impact on cost, flexibility, customisation and quality.

b. Benefits of enhanced choice, including from global players.

c. Impact on workforce participation and democratisation of learning.

3. Assess the challenges of online learning and how they could be overcome, including:

a. The challenges to existing institutions and their preparedness to face them.

b. The maintenance of quality and standards.

c. The technological and infrastructure requirements of online courses.

4. Assess what policy measures are required to capture the benefits for Australian students and the economy, including:

a. How do deal with accreditation

b. How to best assist Australian providers.

c. How to capture the opportunities that international institutions provide while fostering Australian ones.

d. What other regulatory changes are required to capture the benefits of the emerging environment.

5. Determine how Australia’s tertiary institutions can best capture the growing online international market, particularly in Asia. This would include:

a. Assessing the size of the opportunity.

b. Determining how Australia can grow an online international market without compromising our on-shore market.

c. Determining what measures should be put in place to help capture the opportunities.

d. Identifying regulatory barriers that need to be addressed.

The Working Group will provide a report on these matters to the Leader of the Opposition by 15 June, 2013.

Contributing to the Working Group Written submissions to the Working Group are invited by 30 March, 2013 and should be addressed to:

The Office of Mr Alan Tudge MP
Suite 4, Level 1, 420 Burwood Highway Wantirna South, VIC 3152

Or sent electronically ...

To arrange a private meeting with the Working Group or to obtain further information about the Working Group, please contact ... the office of Mr Alan Tudge MP ...

From: THE COALITION’S ONLINE HIGHER EDUCATION WORKING GROU: Terms of Reference, Alan Tudge, 28 February 2013

Concepts of Research

The sixth, and last, fortnightly topic for the research supervision course I am undertaking is the conceptions of research which students and their supervisors have. Somehow half way through I strayed from the topic, into the area of student diversity:

What The Candidates Think

As part of the ANU Information & Human Centred Computing group, I attend fortnightly research presentations (this week: “Computer games for rehabilitation”). In this area "research" is synonymous with "experimentation" using the scientific method. Students do literature searches and build hardware, but only as a precursor to experiments, where they carry out repeated tests under controlled conditions using human subjects. Students are expected to have already conducted such research as an undergraduate, typically in Honours. Some are doing research into policy, but only after proving themselves in experimental work.

Readings

Course Notes

"HDR candidates" divides the topic into four:

1. Student Motivation

The notes distinguish between those interested in research and those interested in a qualification for career advancement. International candidates are singled out as being typically motived by career advancement. But this analysis of student motivations is not then linked to practical outcomes.
The research presented suggests that about half of doctoral graduates go on to work in higher education, but no split between administrative, teaching and research positions is provided. The notes appear to be trying to obscure the fact that most research graduates do not go on to a career in research.

2. Conceptions of research

The notes discuss common student misconceptions as to what research is, such as only gathering data to support preconceived ideas and suggests it is critical for a supervisor to discover if students hold such misconceptions. But if such misconceptions are as common as indicated, then I suggest the appropriate action is to have a formal test for all students and then set work to correct the misconceptions. This should not be left to some informal fireside chat between supervisor and student.

3. Student experience

The notes suggest that as well as supervisors, others will be important to the student, such as librarians, technical support and lab staff, family, friends and peers. The importance of written and oral communication skills is emphasised.

The "Ideas & tools" section of the notes references "Life as a doctoral student - more than research" (Oxford Learning Institute, 2011), which shows a page out of a student diary to emphasise that university is about social as well as study activities. It suggests these steps:

1. Building relationships
2. Learning to be proactive
3. Developing new skills and identities
4. Communicating one's research
5. Imagining a future beyond the doctorate
   

Perhaps the university could update this approach by making the student's e-journal part of the assessment.

4. Diversity

The notes point out that about 14% of Australian doctoral candidates are international students. The top three countries for international PHDs in 2008 were: Malaysia, China and Indonesia. Also 36% of students were part time for at least part of their program, with the proportion of part time students increasing over time. The notes point out that full-time candidates are more likely to complete, but the part-time candidates who do complete do so in less time.

Oxford's "Student diversity" points out that UK Higher education institutions are subject to legislation protecting against discrimination by age, race, sexual orientation, religion and gender. Australian universities are subject to similar legislation, including the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and are required to anticipate the requirements of their students. It is not lawful to wait for a student to ask for special access. This principle was confirmed in the case of "Maguire v SOCOG 2000" (for which I was one of the expert witnesses).

As a part-time coursework student I have faced considerable impediments to study, where courses and administrative procedures have been designed on the assumption that the typical student is on-campus, full time, young, nimble and has good eyesight. It must be much more difficult for a student from a remote part of Australia, or overseas, who has work, family, religious or cultural commitments, which prevent them studying to a fixed timetable and location. This contrasts with studies at an online university, which I found set up for a diverse student population.

Other Readings

Åkerlind  (2008) point out that there is much less literature on academics' experience of research, than of teaching. They point out that the increasing emphasis on measurement and accountability of academic research activity, in‐depth exploration of the ways in which academics experience research, and of their underlying intentions in being a researcher and undertaking research, become important.

Åkerlind  (2008) examines ten phenomenographic studies using interviews of students and supervisors, mostly in technology disciplines. Studies looked at the extent to which academic value research in terms of contributing to goals of individual researchers and the research team. In addition they looked at the quality of the research, how it contributes to knowledge and is of general benefit and solves practical problems.
The authors note a difference in outlook of those conducting research into research, in terms of outcomes,  process, or intentions. They then conducted their own research of of 28 academics at an "research‐intensive university in Australia" (most likely ANU). The results were summarised as "Being a researcher as ...":

1. fulfilling academic requirements
   
2. establishing oneself in the field
   
3. developing oneself personally
   
4. enabling broader change
   

Bills (2007) investigated the questions: what is research, what is good research and what qualities make a good researcher, what makes a good research student and why do research? Rather than interviews or surveys an ethnomethodology, with analysis of focus group discussion was applied. The major finding of Bills (2007) was that it is the supervisor's own concepts of how research is conducted (and in particular who is in charge), which can cause problems for students, as much as the student's perceptions. Also it is suggested that undertaking a research degree is largely a process of socialisation into a discipline.

References

Bills, D. (2007). Supervisors' conceptions of research and the implications for supervisor development. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1360144042000296099. doi: International Journal for Academic Development, Vol. 9, No. 1, May 2004, pp. 85–97 Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1360144042000296099

Åkerlind, G. S. (2008). An academic perspective on research and being a researcher: an integration of the literature. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03075070701794775. doi: Studies in Higher Education, Vol. 33, No. 1, February 2008, pp. 17-31. Retrieved rom:http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03075070701794775

TED: Technology, Entertainment, Design

For years people have been mentioning TED to me. But it was only after hearing about it on radio that I signed up (thus the power of old media). TED standards for "Technology, Entertainment, Design" and is a not for profit organisation which has been running conferences since 1984. They now have a web site where anyone can watch videos or inspiring speakers and enter discussions. There are also two annual conferences, in California and Oxford and some in Asia.

TED is not perfect. It has a bit too much of that USA East Coast enthusiasm in it for my liking. Also I had some difficulty with the web site, which is a little too Web 2.0 to work well on my low bandwidth wireless set-up. I was not able to upload a photo for my profile.

While I was at it I ran some tested on the TED home page. It gets a poor score of 30/100 on the W3C Mobile test. The page has 48 errors on a W3C HTML test. It had 4 Priority One and 7 Priority Two problems on the TAW automated Accessibility test. These are things TED need to fix if they want to achieve their aims of speeding ideas more widely across the world.

Internet Transforming Politics and the Media

One example of a journalist who cannot be accused of not giving a topic the depth of analysis it deserves is the ABC's Eleanor Hall. She has just completed studies at Oxford University Internet Institute on the use of the Internet in politics. Her carefully researched 37 page Trinity Term Reuters Institute Fellowship Paper "Politics in the Youtube Age: Transforming the Political and Media Culture?", is available online. She argues that Obama's use of the Internet was not the grassroots campaign it was portrayed as, but had strong central coordination.

I concluded that the Obama campaign is less revolutionary than it at first appears and that there are a range of reasons why it is unlikely that British politicians will follow even some of the more riskfree elements of the Obama e-campaign.

The Obama campaign showed that online social networking can be a powerful political tool and the US President’s web supporters are justified in claiming this as the first election victory for YouTube politics. But it also showed that a web 2.0 community can be harnessed to a fairly traditional campaign hierarchy and could be open to manipulation by the very political gatekeepers it claims to
be challenging.

Obama’s is a story of how web 2.0 helped an outsider to get into the race for the White House but then how the candidate’s campaign used social networking to increase several important levers of its power. The campaign amassed a huge database of supporter contacts and information, it raised the biggest war chest of funds in US history and it used the web to marshal and direct its online supporters. It also used the internet to counter one of the other political power centres in the campaigning environment, the mainstream media. In doing all of this there were negotiations made and, sometimes uneasy, alliances formed.

The Obama team directed political activity but did not squash dissent, as campaign directors in a TV age campaign might have done. It broke away from the old “war room” approach to data that was characterised by secrecy and central control and gave supporters more autonomy in the way they involved themselves in the political campaign. The web 2.0 community showed it was powerful and Obama’s embrace of it meant many more citizens did engage in the political process. But this was still a political campaign with the goal of winning power and was strikingly similar in key respects to an old-style top down, command and control political operation.

As for British politicians emulating elements of the Obama e -campaign to re-engage citizens and reinvigorate the democratic process, most players agreed it appears unlikely to happen any time soon, despite the expenses crisis. While many MPs and citizens are increasingly using web 2.0 to engage in politics, institutional and cultural differences between the US and the UK make it unlikely Britain will ever see Obama-levels of enthusiasm for using web 2.0 in political campaigns. ...

From: Politics in the Youtube Age: Transforming the Political and Media Culture?, Eleanor Hall, Trinity Term, Reuters Institute Fellowship, University of Oxford, 2009

Oxford University Online Courses

Oxford University's Department for Continuing Education appears to provide the equivalent of the Cambridge University Online Courses. There are short introductory courses of 10-weeks for undergraduates, advanced diploma and postgraduate courses, as well as specalised professional development courses. An example of the undergaduate program is the one year Advanced Diploma in Data and Systems Analysis. One interesting professional development course offered is in Effective Online Tutoring (a problem with providing online edcuation is where to get trained tutors and one solution is to use the system itself to tran them).

Unlike Cambridge, Oxford provides an online demonstration of how their courses are presented. Oxford uses the same Australian developed Moodle Learning Management System, as I have used for developing courses at the Australian National University and the Australian Computer Society. They use the same structure of giving the student a summary of a topic, have them do some further reading and then report what they have found and discuss it in a forum online.

One limitation with the Oxford courses is that while the University of Oxford offers short undergraduate and postgraduate coruses, it does not offer undergraduate degrees or MBAs via distance or online learning. Perhaps this limitation will disappear over time, as the University gains experience and confidence in online education.

Oxford University five steps to Sustainable desktop computing

The Oxford University Computing Services have a simple five step process for "Sustainable desktop computing": Estimate, Research, Implement, Communicate, Share. There are then links to tools and techniques to help do these steps. I visited OUCS in 1994 and ave them a seminar in 2000.

Low Carbon ICT Project at Oxford University

The University of Oxford has started a Low Carbon ICT Project. The aim is for the University to show by example that energy, carbon emission and cost savings can be made in the use of computers and telecommunications. A Towards Low Carbon ICT conference was held in March 2008 (some slides and audio are available). There is a second conference planned for early 2009, which is to report results. Given the project had only 18 months, this is an ambitious goal.