Technology, innovation and how to avoid snake oil

 The deadline for submitting entries to our award for Innovation in Case Teaching is approaching fast and I know that many of the entries will focus on the adoption of new technologies.  There is no doubting that technology has the potential to transform education for the better when it is combined with effective teaching practices and many schools are dedicating considerable time and resources to the question of how best to respond to the opportunities it offers. 

So here are a couple of articles you may be interested in reading.  

The first is Decoding Learning a new report from Nesta - the UK's innovation foundation.  Nesta argues that too often technologies have been imported into classrooms without the necessary changes to teacher practice and school organisation to support them.   



From tablets to voting pods, whiteboards and games, individual technologies have been sold to schools in the promise of enhanced learning but with no real understanding of how to use them or their potential benefits. Millions of pounds is being spent on shiny new equipment that is only ever toyed before being left to gather dust in school cupboards with almost zero impact on student learning.



Geoff Mulgan, chief executive of Nesta, says "A tablet replacing an exercise book is not innovation - it's just a different way to make notes."  

Education technology should be designed around how students learn. Technology used to support existing teaching practices, rather than transforming teaching and learning, is an opportunity wasted.

  

So what strengths of digital education should teachers build on? 

Nesta identifies five: assessment tools; learning through making; techniques for practising; taking learning outside the classroom and social learning.  

The report demands evidence of what things work and calls for a move from 'plug and play' to 'think and link' - where tools are used with lots of other types of resources.

Another useful contribution to the debate can be found in the December edition of the Journal of Management Education  An Examination of the Effectiveness of Case Method teaching Online: Does the Technology Matter?  by Sharon Watson and Jann Marie Sutton

Watson and Sutton examine the effectiveness of the case method when teaching online and how it is affected by the choice of technology,  and particularly on how the decision to use either synchronous or asynchronous communication affects student learning and satisfaction. 

Their findings suggest that engagement and interaction with the instructor and fellow students is what most determines student satisfaction and perceived learning in online courses.

Both papers suggest that the best way to take full advantage of technology is to start by really understanding the characteristics of each technology and medium and asking how best to use them to deliver learning objectives.  Each technology, each medium, each approach will be stronger or weaker in one area or another.  Let's avoid being dazzled by technological bling.

I'm looking forward to reading those Innovation in Case Teaching Submissions. 

Is the case method passé?

Is the MBA Case Method Passé? asks the the current edition of Forbes.

The question is a good one and deserves more than the case proponent's (my) insolent defence that any identifiable weakness in the case method is actually, were the critic only insightful enough to realise, a strength.  Thus, judo-like, we overcome our opponents by using their own strength to unbalance them.

The pressure of too many cases results in naive and superficial analysis?  It's how the world works.  We all take decisions based on too little time and understanding.   


The data used for case analysis are limited to what is supplied? So? We're talking exercising technique and classic management skills here.  The facts may change but the fundamentals go on for ever.  We're not actually running the company, you know, it's a classroom. 


There is no 'right' answer.  Ain't that the truth.  
 

And so on until either the opponent or the defender grows to weary or bored to continue the argument, leaving the dojo, honour intact, to fight another day.

But I want to raise not a defence but a variation on the theme raised by Ronald Yeaple in the Forbes article.  Which is that the alternatives he proposes and illustrates in his own teaching practice are themselves developments, improvements, improvisations on the theme of the case method.  That what he is proposing is not that the case method is passé but that the prescriptive approach to how the method is captured and expressed (it must be written like this, taught like this, and so on) constrains innovation and restricts the full expression of its strengths in an age of universal, portable access to digital information and communication.

The question is, what do we talk about when we talk about cases?  Is the classic case format the only possible expression of the ideal?  If we don't draw a distinction between the method itself (the approach, the pedagogy) and the means by which the ideal is captured and expressed (the written case, the physical classroom) then I think there is a real threat that the method will become more easily dismissible by students coming to it for the first time, "- leaving them wondering what are the takeaways from the exercise."    

This is something that concerns us at ecch, which is why we've added to our Awards this year a competitive category recognising innovation in case teaching

I'm looking forward to writing another blog about how much innovative case teaching we've been able to uncover and share as a result.

Women entrepreneurs

The latest Sunday Time Rich List shows a record number of women - 108, up from 105 last year - which seems like some kind of progress, however limited, progress until one looks at the nature of their wealth in a little more detail.

The UK's richest woman is Kirsty Bertarelli, whose £7.4 billion comes from her husband's family's pharmaceuticals company, and the pattern of wealth acquired through birth, marriage or divorce is repeated until we reach Dame Mary Perkins, 8th woman and 84th in the overall list, sharing £870million with her husband with whom she co-founded Specsavers.

Karen Gill, of the Everywoman  network supporting women entrepreneurs says that while it is nice to see the list include women who have made their own money, there are still questions about why there aren't more women in the list, and why are they generally retracted to the creative (JK Rowling) or retail (Linda Bennett - shoes) industries?  The list is still dominated by men who have risen to the top of sectors where the really big money is found -  industry, oil, pharmaceuticals, property and construction.

Initiatives like Everywoman are obviously a wonderful thing but they face huge challenges.   Only 15% of UK businesses are started by women compared to roughly 50% in the US and the British generally are less likely to take the entrepreneurial plunge.

Here are two upcoming events that might help.

The Bettany Centre Venture Day for entrepreneurs on 10th May.

The ecch one day workshop on Cases and Entrepreneurship  on 28 June

Cases, research and teaching: what goes around...

Grandon Gill is a professor in the Information Systems Decision Sciences department at the University of South Florida.  He is also a keen proponent of the case method.

In his most recent blog Grandon outlines a very clear model of the relationship between research, classroom teaching and practice.  It's a view of the benefit of cases that I think is at the heart of the method something that ecch is committed to supporting.  Last year we published an article on our website featuring an interview with Cranfield professor Mark Jenkins www.ecch.com/researchvsteaching

Grandon's blog prompted me to write something again but in fact, as I agree entirely with what Grandon says, why not just go to his blog and read it for yourself?  http://grandon.com/blog/?p=187 

And take some time to explore his other postings about using cases.

Our Annual Case Awards

Case writers are often under recognised in comparison with colleagues of similar stature publishing in refereed journals.  So it's always a pleasure and a privilege for ecch to play some part in redressing that imbalance through our annual Case Awards.  We took the decision only two years ago that the Awards should reflect our global presence by being open to entries from around the world, so it's such a pleasure to see our winners this year represent thirteen schools, seven countries and four continents.

This year’s Awards demonstrate the widespread excellence in case writing and teaching taking place around the world and the relevance to the current economic climate of subjects being taught. The era of cases originating predominantly in only the historically most well known business schools is past. Relevant and effective cases are being demanded, used – and produced, worldwide.

Congratulations to all our winners and especially to James A Erskine, Michiel R Leenders and Louise A Mauffette-Leenders of the Richard Ivey School of Business who were awarded the Outstanding Contribution to the Case Method award in recognition of their work in bringing the case method to thousands of faculty worldwide through more than 400 case writing and case teaching workshops in more than 50 countries over the past 40 years.

Full details of the Awards may be found here: www.ecch.com/awards2012.

As the Olympics approach, the Hot Topic for next year’s awards is The Business of Sport.

What We Mean When We Talk About the Digital Classroom

The problem with new technology is that by the time most people know what they mean by 'new technology' it's no longer new.  New has moved on like someone you'd like to be friends with but they've upped and left for another school, another job, or sometimes just died.  And yet we all (sort of) know what we mean when we talk about new technology, or the digital classroom, or whatever else we call the business of transacting at a distance what we used to do face to face.  It would help if we could separate the long term relationships and values being expressed and the temporal technological developments we might use and which flit by too quickly for the non-obsessed to keep pace with.

In fact, I'm not bothered by this dislocation between retaining (not preserving - retaining) long-term values and keeping up with what's novel.  It seems to me it's a healthy place to be, that tug back against a too ready acceptance of the new.  Remember the craze for CB radio?

Today's FT carries a feature on an innovative use of technology by Boston University School of Management, where they are bringing live contributions from business leaders into classroom  project work and case discussion.  The article identifies how this radically alters the role of faculty from 'sage on the stage' to 'guide on the side'.  It certainly looks like the BU faculty and students benefit from this digitally enhanced learning and it reinforces my own sense that moving from sage to guide chimes precisely with the strengths of the case method so that case discussion is positioned strongly to take advantage of new technologies (whatever they might be), and in any event certainly better than other approaches to teaching and learning.

The article quotes Ellen Rubin, vice-president at Terremark, "No matter how well the case is written, to hear from someone who was in the trenches and had to make a decision, there's no comparison".   I take that as a call to take advantage of the opportunities technologies give us to develop the case method rather than replace it.  

Pears Business Schools Partnership case studies and lectures

The Pears Business Schools Partnership is a collaboration between Cranfield School of Management, London Business School, Said Business School and Pears Foundation to stimulate student engagement with the themes of sustainable and responsible business in society and to take into their leadership careers a desire, a willingness, to seek out and implement innovative models for change.

The Partnership has commissioned the development, publication and teaching of twenty seven case studies on the value that businesses and business leaders bring to society, and an annual lecture by a leading business figure who is using the power of business to make a positive difference.

Last night I attended the 2^nd annual Pears Business Schools Partnership lecture delivered by Sir Andrew Witty, CEO of GlaxoSmithKline, who delivered a compelling call for businesses to connect more strongly with fundamental social and ethical imperatives.

Sir Andrew sees this as an important time to consider the intersection of business with society. Why? Because trust in the private sector has eroded and corporations have become more de-humanised over the past twenty years. In order to redress the balance, businesses need to place the values of the individual at the heart of everything they do – staff, customers, suppliers and shareholders – and align themselves with lasting personal, social values. Those that do are more likely to be more successful and sustainable and to have a more authoritative voice on key issues. And the key player is the CEO, who must have the courage to "...stand in front of the mirror and ask ourselves – what’s the most we can do to make a positive difference, to do better, be responsible, to keep challenging and demanding better?"

At ecch we're delighted to be playing a small part in disseminating the cases produced under the partnership. Sir Andrew Likierman, Dean, London Business School, said last night: “It is inspiring to hear Sir Andrew Witty outline the important role businesses can play in contributing to our society, and emphasise the business benefits of doing so. At London Business School, we have always believed that good corporate responsibility and ethical business go hand-in-hand with successful business practice, and it has long been part of the core curriculum in our MBA programme. The Pears Business Schools Partnership, through the rich case studies it is producing, is helping that aspect of our work even further.”

Nine case studies are being written by each Business School and we will be assessing their impact in the classroom. The case studies feature companies such as Innocent, Proctor & Gamble and UBA Group, and examine the diverse and imaginative ways businesses contribute to society and generate positive value as a result of their work. All the case studies will be published online and in a summary brochure later this year.