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The visiting fellow who will not visit
18 June 2009
A lecturer will take her sabbatical at Durham without leaving Canberra, writes Hannah Fearn
Patricia Easteal, an Australian lecturer, has accepted a "virtual sabbatical" at Durham University in what is believed to be a global first.
Dr Easteal will attend staff meetings taking place in Durham, teach students and turn up to morning coffee breaks, all without ever leaving her home in Canberra.
The arrangement will allow her to work for the British university while still enjoying the sunny climes of the Australian capital.
Dr Easteal, professor of law at the University of Canberra, has accepted a five-month research sabbatical at Durham. She will conduct all her business with staff and students via online tools such as Skype and YouTube.
Although she has never stepped foot in the university, Dr Easteal now holds the title of visiting fellow in the School of Applied Social Sciences at Durham.
During the sabbatical, she will work with students and academics remotely through virtual coffee breaks, blogs, wikis, as well as teaching through Second Life.
Nicole Westmarland, lecturer in criminal justice at Durham, devised the project with Dr Easteal after the pair collaborated on a book.
"She mentioned that she was on sabbatical, couldn't actually leave Australia and had come up with this pioneering concept of a virtual sabbatical," Dr Westmarland said. "We've got to a stage (technologically) where it's easier to do that."
Dr Easteal said: "I thought about the purposes of the sabbatical, both for the visitor and for the host institution, and had a 'eureka' moment.
"Like so many aspects of academia, why couldn't these be fulfilled through e-technology?"
Dr Easteal took up her post on 1 June. From September, after a period to test the technologies, she will have virtual access to all staff and students.
She will work with Durham until the end of November. "I do feel like a pioneer and am looking forward to five months of trial and error," she said.
Dr Westmarland acknowledged that there was potential for technological hitches, and that the 11-hour time difference between Durham and Canberra could prove problematic. Dr Easteal will have to record some lectures for students and contribute to some staff meetings after the event by watching them online and submitting her comments.
"We're just giving it a go, really. We're not 100 per cent clear that it is even something we want to recommend to others, but we're trialling it as a concept," Dr Westmarland said.
If successful, it is hoped that the virtual sabbatical will help academics who cannot travel, because they are carers or have a disability, to boost their careers by taking up a post at a foreign university.
"International exchange is an important aspect of academic life. These are criteria used by many universities in tenure and promotion decision-making," Dr Easteal said.
hannah.fearn@tsleducation.com.
Readers' comments
What is possibly a global first is that we're doing this as an action research project and will be documenting everything as we go along. The result will be at least one article which will provide a template or models for future virtual travelers. What works; what doesn't work; pluses and the minuses. Also as part of the action research, I will be comparing the virtual sabbatical with a face to face one at the University of Melbourne Law School which will be going on concurrrently.
How much is Durham paying Dr. Easteal? Nice work if you can get it. What kind of amateur is Dr Westmarland, who can 'give it a go'? This stinks. Let Dr. Easteal explain why she believes this will 'boost her career'. What good does she assume it will do for Durham? and please can all UK academics be made visitng scholars at the University of Canberra
nnovation is easily ridiculed. Our preferred approach to finding the limits of what can be achieved, in this case for international exchange when travel is not an option, is to 'give it a go'. Others will benefit from our experience. If our experiment reveals nothing more, we will at least be able to report that staying away from crowded airports and avoiding all those queues, buses, taxis etc, is no guarantee that you will not be insulted and experience unnecessary rudeness - from people who themselves do not have to leave home. We are, however, looking forward to learning a great deal more both from each other and about the experience. Readers can learn about the results when they are published in the academic literature.
Dr Westmarland has a solid record in research, publication and teaching (noted in http://www.dur.ac.uk/sass/staff/profile/?id=4290 ). Dr Easteal is a leading researcher and teacher, again with an excellent publication record in peer-reviewed law journals, awards for teaching and acknowledgement from the bench in Australian courts. An interdisciplinary and international collaboration using new technologies seems worth pursuing, irrespective of grumbles from QH Flack (whose internet presence seems to comprise snarky posts in blogs and comments in online newspaper pages). Three cheers for experimentation ... the article makes it clear that they are exploring new tools rather than offering a silver bullet.
They all laughed at Christopher Columbus when he said the world was round. It is one thing to have an idea, it is quite another to put it into practice and this voyage of discovery is to be applauded. As someone who regularly expects her students to work with other students elsewhere in the world, through wikis, blogs, and other digital media, I'm delighted to see an academic venturing into cyberspace as a virtual visiting fellow. It is not easy to work in this way and I will be interested to read about the challenges faced (and how they are overcome). This enterprise may herald a new way of working that opens up opportunities far beyond the academy. It is the fundamental task of academics to 'give it a go', to try, to strive, to dream, to imagine and to exercise those imaginings by experimenting. This is a bold move and I await further reports of the adventures of Drs Easteal and Westmarland with anticipation.
Since 'Fred smith' has generously brought in the Snark, and Helen Jones claims this is a 'voyage of discovery' "Other maps are such shapes, with their islands and capes! But we've got our brave Captain to thank:" (So the crew would protest) "that he's bought us the best -- A perfect and absolute blank!" Most of us collaborate with colleagues in other countries, but we do not see the need to indulge in grandiloquent claims about 'virtual visiting fellows' Columbus, as I recall, did do some visiting.
Q.H ... it's 2009 and it's appropriate to explore the use of new technologies for collaborative research and teaching. Westmarland and Easteal appear to be aspiring to excellence, looking forward rather than backwards. Judging by their publication record and statements above they will be sharing their insights about the trial in the pedagogical literature and other venues. All power to them ... it's a shame that more scholars aren't grappling with the challenges of the internet and of tight academic budgets. Do you have anything to offer apart from resentment (vulgarities such as "stinks" and "amateur") and snide comments?
I unreservedly apologize for 'It stinks' I apologize to anyone who was led to believe that I questioned the scholarship or the qualifications of Drs Westmarland and Easteel, and to both of them for having inadvertantly given this impression. I am delighted to explore the use of new technologies, but not to give them misleading and inappropriate names. I look forward to the publications of their insights about this project, particularly the full figures of costs. I assume that the next REF will find a way of including the publications of Dr Easteal on the Durham return. I am glad to have been reminded how language is used in at least one UK university.
QH ... I'm not sure that we're all reading the same article. I cannot see a use of "misleading and inappropriate names". The use of 'virtual' is standard terminology in relation to electronic networks. 'Sabbatical' is also accepted terminology (at Cambridge, Durham, Harvard and Melbourne). Easteal says "I do feel like a pioneer and am looking forward to five months of trial and error". No over-reaching there. Westmarland says "We're just giving it a go, really. We're not 100 per cent clear that it is even something we want to recommend to others, but we're trialling it as a concept". To use an old, often-misused but valuable word, they're empiricists ... they appear to be aiming to experiment and report. We might all learn! If you have the answers already, please share