ABSTRACT

During the recent years several research networks, professional communities and initiative groups have linked virtual and social networking in order to promote innovations and knowledge development. The field of vocational education and training (VET) has been one of the fields for piloting with such initiatives. However, very often these approaches are considered as 'technical tools' that can be attached to content-related and community-oriented innovation agendas. Therefore, the experiences with such approaches have rarely been subject to conceptualisation and self-reflection.

The workshop draws upon the experiences of the contributors on such initiatives both in the field of VET and in closely related innovation contexts. Furthermore, the workshop draws upon the experience of the contributors on working with projects that combine the following characteristics:

• interdisciplinary and action-oriented research concepts,
• dialogue-based and community-oriented platforms,
• support for knowledge sharing and collaborative knowledge development.

The following contributions will be presented:

1. The contribution of Pekka Kämäräinen (Jyväskylä Polytechnic, Finland) provides an overview of different generations of initiatives and related issues regarding VET-related innovation agendas, community building and networking as well as the role of virtual platforms.
2. The contribution of Alan Brown (IER, University of Warwick, England) discusses the experiences with developing a joint platform for dialogue between researchers, practitioners and policy-makers in the context of the National Guidance Research Forum in the UK and a complementary platform devoted to work-related learning research. He also links the experiences with national initiatives to parallel experiences with European cooperation.
3. The contribution of Brian Dillon (Nexus Research Co-operative, Ireland) and Raymond Elferink (RayCom Software Development, The Netherlands) discusses the evolution of 'knowledge networking' in the light of successive project generations. The development of the approach is traced back to prior work with project-internal self-evaluation and dialogue between diverse partners. This development is followed to the next phase that is characterised by cross-project self-evaluation based on virtual support. The current phase is characterised as 'knowledge networking' as a culture of collaborative knowledge development across projects and networks. A representative of one of the projects using the 'SPEAK' system in Ireland will also contribute.

The workshop will be supported with a related web-based platform and the presentations will be linked to web-demonstrations. The contributors invite other parallel initiatives to present insights into their experiences as a challenge for conceptual work that is related to the given theme.

Communities, Networking and Virtual Support: The paper of Alan Brown

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This is a Microsoft Word version of the full paper for Alan Brown's workshop at ECER 2005