Dr Anita Howarth
Senior Lecturer in Journalism

New media technologies in universities – rights, risks and governance
Funder: Brunel University
Duration: December 2015 - May 2016

Mobile technologies and the push to reconfigure the workings of universities in the digital economy present various instrumental and ethical challenges. Most universities are investing in digital and technical infrastructure to administer, deliver and disseminate research and education. Dedicated platforms for teaching and course administration, the promotion of lecture capture and the enhancement of teaching and student experiences in the classroom have implicated technologies at the forefront of these endeavours. Human and organisational interfaces with technologies present many challenges for the academy, for institutions and equally for educators and students. In view of this, the project seeks to review the main challenges facing the wiring up of the academy through convergent digital technologies today. Many universities have enacted policies to both promote and govern new media technologies. What then are the main opportunities and challenges (both ethical and legal) presented by new technologies for the academy and how do new media technologies both empower us and make us vulnerable? With a view to exploring these issues, the first phase of research undertaken in 2013 looked at the policies enacted by universities with regard to lecture capture and recording in the classroom with particular attention to disability rights, performance rights and privacy. The first phase of research yielded some rich material and became the basis of two research papers (see below). I would like to now extend the research to its second phase to review the development of policy and attendant changes and challenges that confront us in the coming years. There is already an indication that most universities are switching from an ‘opt-in’ clause to an ‘opt out’ clause in terms of lecture capture. These overarching changes have implications for how educators and students interface with technology and how these may mediate both the take-up rates as well as the salience in governing new media technologies in the academy beyond the JISC guidelines. The second phase will be in collaboration with Dr Yasmin Ibrahim, Queen Mary, University of London. Dr Ibrahim’s work is in new media technologies, mine is in the area of risk and we have already co-authored one research paper based on the first phase of data collection (I’ve attached it here should you wish to read it). The findings from this research will have important bearings for the academy as a whole by illuminating some of the fault lines within policy and governance where institutions are not adequately addressing the issues presented by new media technologies both in the ethical and legal sense. The research will yield original data on the governance of technologies in the UK universities. It will be the basis for renewed academic output including research papers, journal articles, conference presentation as well as an impact case study to highlight the issues facing the UK academy and the recommendations for sound policy making to address the inherent voids within the policy domain which make institutions vulnerable in the digital economy.