Flexible working, flexible learning?

by Derek Morrison, 13 February 2009

There was an interesting set of articles on flexible working in The Independent’s SustainIT section (10 February 2009). Ok, this Independent pull-out was in association with BT so we have to be alert to implicit product placement but, nevertheless, there was some interesting stuff that I think could be applied equally to the world of flexible learning. Having previously worked in a few organisations earlier lives one of whom’s idea of valuing flexible working was to take remote staff’s pictures off the headquarter’s wall because they weren’t “in the office every day”, or others who so easily fell into the habit of “managing and communicating by email”, even when offices or desks were within sight of each other, suggests that what’s far more important for successful flexible working (and learning) than any technology is an outcomes-oriented mindset and ethos of the organisation going down this road. Strongly hierarchical organisations oriented to high control who embark on this road can so easily end up just using technology to depersonalise interaction and reduce flexibility rather than increase it.

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