Be bold for change in elearning: being culturally innovative

Emptech TV.McK cc by: nc-a-sa

Hopefully you will know that last Wednesday, 8th March was International Women's Day, the theme for this year is be bold for change. I am a member of the Stoke and North Staffs Women Network, and last weekend I was involved in the running of a celebratory event to mark International Women's Day. The event included workshops, lightning talks and a chaired session on local women inspired by education. As I write this post the Million Rise March is taking place in London, to end male violence against women. With the women's march in January, which I referred to in my blog, Digital Communication Contemporaneity and the Women's March, it has been a great start of the year for feeling solidarity with my active sisters across the globe. However, sadly it is not all good. Last week I attended an event focusing on digital transformation in HE, it was a very good programme on digital paper. Sadly when I arrived I was dismayed to see the dominance of older white male attendees. Increasingly as the day progressed I realised that this was also a feature of the programme speakers and the panel discussion. It is nearly 4 years since I left elearning management, although I have an active role in promoting digital and supporting staff development in this area within my current post, but it seemed as if little progress has been made to address the balance.  After the event I raised my concerns with female colleagues involved in elearning,  and it appears despite active female involvement in the management and leadership of elearning,  white male governance is still a dominant feature.

My dad was in the audience at the education discussion I chaired last week, and he said that this was the first time he had seen an all woman chaired panel. The panel composition was deliberate given we were celebrating IWD but my dad said how refreshing it was to see this, and questioned why you do not see this more in the media. It should be acknowledged, Channel 4 news had a mostly all female programme last Wednesday, with journalists, politicians, interviewees, I say mostly as Jon Snow was still the main anchor, so they lose a point on that detail and I fear it may be an annual one off.

I know there are excellent organisations supporting women in STEM such as:

• Women in STEM: UK
• STEM women net
• WISE campaign

The eLearning Guild has just produced a White Paper "Women in eLearning: Continuing the Conversation". This is sadly behind a pay wall (I could rant about open access but I'll save that for another time), however this article in the Learning Solutions magazine, Research Spotlight: Women in eLearning: Continuing the Conversation, gives a good overview, with some useful embedded links. With respect to organisations, it emphasises the importance of having diversity on your board, developing an inclusive culture, making gender equality a priority and building up a critical mass. I would also add that women should also have the opportunity to make a major contribution at large elearning public events, such as, conferences and symposiums, as presenters and panellists. Furthermore, this movement from exclusivity to inclusivity goes beyond gender, it also includes ethnicity, age, disability and social class, The activities identified in the eLearning Guild's paper, with respect to gender equality, can also be applied to these group too, and its not proverbial rocket science.  

So come on people, I know what a challenge it is arranging events and setting up committees for organisations, but rather than focusing purely on the task at hand, devote some of your time to diversity and inclusivity. I know you can do better, innovation is at the heart of what you do, if you can be technologically innovative, being culturally innovative is surely not too much of a stretch.