A participatory action research investigation into an open, online
      Community Project exploring how teaching and learning occur in a
      non-institutional, non-specialist, technology enhanced learning
      environment
Creators: name: Shukie, Peter
Publisher: name: Lancaster University
Year: 2018

description: This Participatory Action Research (PAR) project begins by positing that
      online networks bring the possibility of meaning-making and knowledge
      creation developing outside institutions. The project has lasted for four
      years (and continues as a ‘live’ project) and this research covers the
      first 18 months of that period.
      
      This project considers what happens when online learning is made possible
      on a non-institutional platform with roles of teacher and student made
      open to anyone. The tag line of ‘anyone can teach, anyone can learn,
      anything at all, for free’ provides a platform for open access that will
      create opportunities at the heart of the action of this research. It seeks
      to explore not only ‘how’ learning takes place, but also ‘who’ is
      involved, ‘what’ in relation to how knowledge is defined and ‘why’ that
      questions common-sense assumptions of the purpose of education.
      
      Findings reveal complex identities of formal educators seeking space, free
      of institutional constraints. Community learning approaches reveal groups
      seeking spaces that avoid community gatekeepers and a desire for nuanced
      perspectives. Technology is encountered as a complex ecology in which
      institutional approaches suggest limited use as a deficit yet where
      project users define it in terms of privacy, ownership and
      appropriateness.
      
      My original contribution to knowledge is found in the revealing of
      outsider spaces that are at least as rigorous, reflective and powerful as
      those located within institutions. The findings reveal contested spaces
      and a willingness to develop ideas and networks that educate and inform.
      This is true of those with no links to institutional learning and makes
      clear the breadth of meaning-making that exists beyond the ‘usual spaces’.
      Findings also reveal that those working within educational institutions
      seek out spaces beyond often restrictive standardisation to create new
      thinking spaces, empower others and distribute opportunities to
      contribute. My original contribution comes also through the creation of an
      authentic learning space that proved an effective, if complex and often
      difficult to maintain, online space. Much of the value of the research
      comes through the originality of an online platform developed beyond
      institutional ownership. Participation rather than representation was a
      key component of this innovation. The alignment of theoretical positions
      that seek becoming, Deleuzo-Guattarian rhizomatic principles and Freirean
      popular education approaches, offer a strong foundation that challenges
      convention while providing a clear and coherent discourse.
      
      The location of the research is crucial in establishing originality of
      purpose. This research develops the discourse around MOOCS to include
      those voices beyond the institution. Here, they are not voices on the
      margins but voices from the centre.