ReMIT, Researching eMature Institutional Themes, is the empirical component of the research work I'm carrying out through a PhD programme at IoE, the London University Institute of Education. The research began, in 2006 at the University of Lincoln, to explore the evolving use of information & learning technology (ILT) to support the work English FE colleges do, exploring issues related to the following broad areas of enquiry:-
What characteristics does an e-mature college have? When is it e-ready?
What happens to the people and processes in a college as it becomes e-ready?
How can college stakeholders organise for, and contribute to, the e-readiness of their institution?
A summary of the thinking behind ReMIT as I transferred to IoE in September 2007 can be seen in my initial research proposal - written before I'd done any fieldwork and whilst still, as now really, open to all sorts of ideas about exactly how best to proceed.
During the period December 2007 - March 2008 a series of exploratory 'prepilot' visits to colleges aimed to scope out the subsequent main empirical research phase - expected to use mailed and online questionnaires, as well as an extensive series of face-to-face interviews and a number of in-depth case studies.
The exploratory research changed the emphasis of my research approach as it became clear how important it is to raise ILT issues with college managers through tools that have immediate significance for them – rather than through elegant (but, for busy managers, perhaps less resonant) theoretical models, in order to get a full understanding "grounded" in FE realities.
Early results from these visits have led to a focus on developing an e-Readiness 'map' as the vehicle for discussions with college managers, on carrying out a number of case studies during 2008/9. The different perspectives offered by organisation theory, change theory and information systems theory (reviewed in an OCI paper 1Mb pdf) have emerged as the theoretical foundations for the ReMIT work, and the emergence of Becta's Generator initiative offered a new opportunity to observe theory meeting practice.
The main phase of the research data gathering is planned to take place 2010/11, structured around the Generator framework. Although, with Becta's demise, it's not yet clear where the initiative itself will lead, as a national agency's instrument designed to support "New Generation" learning across the sector, Generator's very existence and fate represent an important element in the research area.
The research should be complete by the end of 2012.