"The Media Workshop" : Designing a Sustainable Organisation for a Digital Learning Environment

In this presentation we will report and discuss experiences from the process of designing a sustainable organisation for a digital learning environment for Malmo University as a whole. With pedagogy as a starting point the aim has been to create an intentional community of practice with a focus on learning and digital media. Malmö University aims to be at the pedagogical forefront by using information technology and the possibilities afforded by new media, in order to create a more efficient learning process and a mutual exchange of knowledge. But how can this strategy be realized? New forms of teaching and learning in higher education require new spaces for teaching and learning. We also know that teachers in higher education need support, training, learning resources and infrastructure in order to create those new learning spaces and to develop their scholarship of teaching and learning with a focus on digital media (cf Allen et. al 2012 a,b; Bebell & O ́Dwyer, 2010; Holcomb, 2009). Our solution to this challenge is to create a multi- institutional research based hub for learning with digital media. The idea stems from the Lave & Wenger (1991; Wenger, 1998) concept “community of practice” with the addition of technology stewarding as a way to cultivate digital learning processes. At Malmo University this hub goes under the working title “the media workshop” and has both a physical and a virtual form.