Breaking the Rules

Supporting Learning and Teaching Technology Innovations

Abstract

The learning and teaching landscape in higher education fails to actively support innovators to experiment with new technologies and educational methods. It is also a poor provider of ongoing support for innovations after start up funding runs out. There are tensions between enterprise systems and ‘grass roots’ initiatives in a context where technology is changing rapidly and institutions are slow to respond. Innovators in learning and teaching using emergent technologies are often treated as suspects in an undefined crime. They are pushing boundaries... and bureaucratic institutional buttons! Charles Sturt University (CSU) took an unprecedented step to break these punitive rules of engagement with an institutional Learning and Teaching through Technology Innovation Support Service (LATISS). The LATISS is described within the framework of a four phase learning and teaching with technology innovation (FPLTI) management model, and offered to other institutions of higher education as a means to foster innovation.