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SOLSTICE 2007 Conference, Edge Hill University 1
Evaluating a model for citizen participation in elearningenvironments
Richard Hall
De Montfort University,rhall1@dmu.ac.uk 
Note: the author is grateful to the editors of e-Learning for their permission to reproduce publishedmaterial in this paper. (See: http://www.wwwords.co.uk/elea/content/pdfs/3/issue3_4.asp)
ABSTRACT
This paper focuses upon the individual learner’s integration of both institutional and non-institutional technologies in their personal learning spaces as they journey betweenlevels 1 and 2 of higher education. The author evaluates the ability that learners have toselect and make decisions about the types of technology that they deploy in their work,and how this frames participation in the curriculum.The context for participation is framed by two central issues and linked questions.1. HEIs have invested significant amounts of money to embed virtual learningenvironments as institutional standards. Are the models of learning that theyencourage relevant for e-communicators in a world of rich, user-focused Web 2.0technologies?2. The perceptions and expectations of academic staff about technologies impact uponthe learning environments experienced by learners. Does this strategic, academic-modelling of the curriculum empower or disempower the learner? How are sub-groups of learners widening the space in which they learn through Web 2.0technologies?These two issues pivot around the ability that learners have to select and makedecisions about the types of technology that they wish to deploy in their work. It is thecreation of a context in which decision-making can be highly personalised that promotesparticipation.
KEYWORDS
Participation; user-voice; free-ranging; action research; scoping.
INTRODUCTION
The issue of building environmental frameworks that are inclusive and participatory isthe central theme of this article. In particular it seeks to evaluate the concept of citizen
 
SOLSTICE 2007 Conference, Edge Hill University 2
participation in light of learner-expectations for the use of e-learning in UK tertiaryeducation. The argument structures a framework for evaluating the active participationof e-learners in the learning process, by addressing:
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civic inclusion through engagement with the service-user voice[s];
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the management of digital, information-literacy divides;
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the legitimacy of non-academic knowledge; and
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decision-making through negotiable freedom-of-action, or free-ranging;This emergent framework is tested with respect to one UK higher education institution(HEI), in order to highlight the specific academic interventions that can support citizenparticipation in e-environments.
ON-LINE TOOLS AND CIVIC INCLUSION
Social exclusion exists regardless of technology, where individuals feel that they haveno power within the society in which they exist, and have no decision-making role (CareServices Improvement Partnership, 2006; NotSchool.net, 2005). The key for inclusivityis to focus services, including on-line provision, around the individual, so that theyunderpin a personalized life experience. This is evidenced by the aspiration to renewUK public services through a multi-agency approach that is focused upon service-userinvolvement (The Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health, 2006;Department of Health, 2004). The desire is to scaffold an individual’s development ofthe personal skills that will enable her/him to take decisions about joining and actingwithin specific communities. This frames representation that is beyond mere tokeninvolvement: “Service users have a key role in explaining new policies to other serviceusers and in helping professionals to understand service users’ experiences and viewson new ways of working” (Care Services Inclusion Partnership, 2005).These associations and campaigns may have authority figures, for example careerprofessionals or civil servants, but they are accountable to their users and need to seekthe consent and co-operation of the latter. On-line environments are seen to be centralto this approach. This accords with Hirst’s (1994; 2002) associative democratic model,which argued that individuals can be empowered to decide upon and implement localsolutions to local problems, supported by a multi-agency structure that is democraticand transparent..Whilst technology frames a central element of this participatory structure, there are twoproblems that arise from it. Firstly, it pre-supposes a level of both access to technologyand information-literacy. Secondly, the attempt to create a personalised, participativecontext must take account of the wider needs of civic society and balance competingviews. Inevitably some decisions that citizen would like implementing are not going tobe feasible; this is a function of the diversity of communities. Enabling diversity toflourish demands meaningful communication that can support collaborative, criticaldecision-making.
 
SOLSTICE 2007 Conference, Edge Hill University 3
LEGITIMATE ACADEMIC PARTICIPATION: THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL NETWORKINGTECHNOLOGIES
 
The deployment of digital technologies that focus upon personalised content creationand distribution affects notions of legitimacy. The development of ‘Me Media’ (TheObserver, 2006) and the focus upon on-line social networking has activated new socialspaces. There has been a shift in the creative use of the internet through Web2.0, fromdigital media consumption to digital media publishing, as evinced by the growth ofwebsites like Flickr.com, MySpace.com, YouTube.com and video.google.co.uk. Thegrowth of these sites highlights advancing techno-literacy and a more interactive cultureof inventing and re-inventing knowledge.This move towards technologies that foster sharing and re-invention reinforces Barnett’snotion of ‘supercomplexity’; that is the existence within multiple media forms of anoverload of frameworks for analysing an overload of data (2000). He develops thisconcept within the view that academic knowledge has no greater currency than thatobtained from beyond the university context. Therefore, ‘supercomplexity’ is particularlyrelevant in an age where more open access to information leads to its re-conceptualisation, as attested by the growth in mashups (Wikipedia, 2006). One resultfor higher education is that social networking and its affordances for information-management demand innovation in learning and teaching, in order that learners canparticipate in knowledge-creation and decision-making.The types of innovation that frame empowered social networking need to encourage thegrowth of trust, emotional security and motivation. These outcomes are effective wherethey scaffold an emotional space that is engaging, secure and legitimate (Barnett andCoate, 2005, p. 139). Whilst such legitimacy supports participation, it also requires thecreation of a learning environment that values experiential learning. This has a highvalue in forging learning communities which can share expertise and experience, andwork towards the development of ‘the amenities of social intercourse, and… theresponsibilities of civic and political engagement’ (Grayling, 2002, p. 159). This type ofemotional and affective curriculum project is central to empowered decision-making.
Decision-making through battery-farming or free-ranging?
There is a risk of a tension developing within a community between the use ofprocedural and radical pedagogies. For instance, sections of a learning community maywant to use a virtual learning environment solely to present information, whereas othersmay wish to embed blogs or wikis as community-owned, reflective resources. Equally,there is a balance to be struck between the mechanics of ‘belonging’ to a communityand active participation. Enforced enrolment on a learning environment by dint of beingregistered on a specific curriculum unit may not have the same emotional cachet, andmay not lead to the same participation-level, as voluntary enrolment in a community thatexists on myspace.com.In building participation, Ip (2004a) argues that embedding radical pedagogies is a riskworth taking. He argues that ‘the real promise of e-learning is not [as] an online
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