I am trying to make some connections to round off the week. The hotseat from the Networked Learning Conference contrasts with the branding course from Futurelearn. Going back to last week on brands there is a link to a Wolff Olins blog on Doing Well. This claims that brands can be a force for social good. The hotseat discussion led by Neill Selwyn seems more likely to assume that commercial interests can damage education. One of his papers is available on Academica - Discourses of digital ‘disruption’ in education: a critical analysis.

So far I am trying to keep some sort of balance. The Wolf Olins approach has not had much critique so far but this is only week three. The hotseat discussion seems more concerned with a critique of the MOOC as currently presented than to work out alternatives. But this is an early stage for the conference.

Meanwhile I am dipping into a new edition of A Manager's Guide to Self Development (McGraw Hill 2013) which has a section on virtual leadership (p194). It is claimed that organisations born in the virtual era are rarely on the client list of Business Schools. It would be interesting to know of cases that contradict this claim. It may be that there is a contrasting approach to learning as much as to organisation or other topics that a Business School offers. I hope to find some clues about this for future posts so link suggestions are welcome.

Neil Selwyn writes about the role of those educational technologists who have been closer to commercial practice-

In terms of their underlying values, most people working in this area are driven by anunderlying belief that digital technologies are – in some way – capable of improvingeducation. This mind-set is evident, for example, in the tendency throughout the 2000s torefer to ‘Technology Enhanced Learning’ or before this during the 1980s and 1990s to‘Computer Assisted Learning’ - descriptions that both leave little doubt over the inherentconnection between digital technology and the improvement of learning and teaching.

I am wondering about 'Technology Enhanced Learning" and "Computer Assisted Learning" as if they were brands. Similar for Networked Learning or Management Learning. I know there is some work on Critical Management Studies as a brand but cannot find it yet, will have to visit an actual library.

There is a critique of "brands" but I am thinking about the course while the Futurelearn content is on free offer.