PROWE personal repositories online wiki environment

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PROWE (personal repositories online wiki
environment)

• Amber Thomas, JISC
• On behalf of Anne Hewling, Open University

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PROWE what is it?

• a JISC-funded Digital Repositories Programme
  Project
• between Open University and University of
  Leicester
• Combines
• - new communications tools e.g. wikis and blogs
• - part-time distance tutors/associate lecturers
• - continuing professional development needs
• - communities of practice
• - repository theory and practice

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What drives it?

  "In what ways could wiki and wiki-type
environments be useful and useable as personal
and informal repositories to support professional
development within part-time tutor communities of
practice?"  
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P/T teaching staff

• Common characteristics (with exceptions!)
• they are perpetually in transit between different
  institutions and often do not have formal
  recognition anywhere
• they may not have access to corporate resources
  like email addresses/institutional repositories
  etc
• their research and personal development activity
  is less likely to be stored/captured in
  institutional file stores
• they don't always benefit from/input to
  institutional continued professional development
  initiatives

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blogs and wikis

• Institution-neutral, cyberspace-based, resources
  available "whenever, wherever" like wikis and
  blogs can develop (and help institutions
  capitalise upon) this transient but valuable
  human resource
• by enabling development of communities and thus
  CPD activity and, potentially, collaborative work
• because by being institution-neutral i.e.
  crossing institutions, they strengthen
  cross-sectoral ties and, potentially, facilitate
  and foster collaborative work
• by offering voices and choices to those presently
  disenfranchised by an institution-driven system

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but

• these tools rely on self-moderation by very busy
  people
• how would institutions react to what may be said
  about them?
• might these become parallel universes, increasing
  the divide between P/T and F/T teaching staff?
• theres no such thing as a typical tutor
• personal resource management strategies differ
  a lot!
• paradox of piloting tools designed for
  sustainable use

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What has happened so far?

- user needs assessment - tools assessment -
metadata and other complicated repositories
bits - elgg/Plone testing possible environments

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What happens next?

- bigger and better trials (more people, longer,
more directed activity) - development of
documentation and models - evaluation - reaching
some conclusions
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Contact the project

Webpage http//www.prowe.ac.uk Project email
info_at_prowe.ac.uk Project Officer email (OU)
a.hewling_at_open.ac.uk