This
study draws on the sociology of translations, otherwise commonly
known as actor-network theory as a framework for its analysis. It
provides an example of how ANT can be used in a research project
investigating technological innovation, and fully describes the data
collection and analysis process. It shows how innovation translation
can usefully trace the progress of technological innovations - in
this case the adoption of the programming language Visual Basic (VB)
into a university curriculum. It covers the period from 1989 to 1999
and maps the progress of Visual Basic from novelty to 'obvious
choice' in this university’s Information Systems curriculum. The
research thus investigates a single instance of innovation, and
traces the associations between various human and non-human actors
including Visual Basic, other contending programming languages, the
university, the student laboratories, the Course Advisory Committee
and the academic staff that made this happen.
Little of
the literature on innovation deals with university curriculum and
most reported work on curriculum innovation focuses on research,
development and diffusion studies of the adoption, or otherwise, of
centrally developed curriculum innovations in primary and secondary
schools. The innovation described here is of a different order being
sponsored initially by a single university lecturer in one of the
subjects for which he had responsibility. It examines something that
does not appear to have been reported on before: negotiations and
alliances that allow new material, in this case the
programming language Visual Basic, to enter individual subjects of a
university curriculum, and to maintain a durable place there. The
study reveals the complex set of negotiations and compromises made
by both human and non-human actors in allowing VB to enter the
university curriculum.
The book is composed of eight chapters and three appendices. The
study itself is reported in four separate chapters: Discovery and
Exploration, Prior Claimants: Pick and Alice, The Merger, and
Surviving and Object-Oriented Challenge. The concept of 'real'
programming languages becomes very important in the study and this
book concludes with a chapter investigating what it is to become
'real' in the Information Systems curriculum.
Dr Arthur Tatnall is an Associate
Professor in the Graduate School of Business at Victoria University
in Melbourne, Australia. He holds bachelors degrees in science and
education, a Graduate Diploma in Computer Science, and a research
Master of Arts in which he explored the origins of business
computing education in Australian universities. His PhD involved a
study in curriculum innovation in which he investigated the manner
in which Visual Basic entered the curriculum of an Australian
university. His research interests include technological innovation,
information technology in educational management, information
systems curriculum, project management and electronic commerce. He
has written several books relating to information systems and has
published numerous book chapters, journal articles and conference
papers.
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
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Tatnall, Arthur
Innovation Translation in a
University Curriculum: a Study Informed by Actor-Network
Theory
Bibliography
Includes index
ISBN 978-1-920889-24-1 (paper back)
ISBN 978-1-920889-25-8 (hard cover)
Information storage
and retrieval systems – Education.
Information resources
management – Australia.
025.04
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