Skip to main content

Eugene Kowch

University of Calgary, Education Policy, Leadership, Technology and Change, Faculty Member

Followers

196

Following

23

Co-authors

3

Mentions

1

Public Views

I am interested in research that creates solutions for changing organizations in a complex, learning-and-doing information age world. I welcome new graduate students in masters and doctoral (PhD)with interdisciplinary interests in learning and performance, organization innovation, complex change, systemic change, learning environment design and policy design in any environment. As President of AECT, the premiere educational technology professional society, I am expanding the network of colleagues and the reach of the profession in publications, policy and social impact in new areas of practice and in more countries.The students I supervise have found careers at Accenture, Airbus, General Electric, Siemens, business school, medicine and education as professors around the world. They also practice / research in school systems ranging from Vancouver to Atlanta to Athens to Melbourne with research partners in university/college organizations around the world, we focus with education systems (public,and private), governments at all levels, industries and business. We network to troubleshoot and solve problems, develop new theory and practice, and to advance thinking and help people change toward more robust, resilient and adaptive (smart) organizations.The organizations we work with go well beyond adminspeak - they get smarter (with us!). Complex organizations that learn emerge as more reslient knowledge era places to live, work and grow.Don't be a stranger - contact us anytime if this work interests you.
Phone: available via your email request
Address: University of Calgary Main Campus

less

InterestsView All (12)

Uploads

Papers by Eugene Kowch

Designing effective instruction

Educational Technology Research and Development, Dec 1, 2004

Rather than reviewing the updated content, in this book review I survey the conceptual framework ... more

Conceptualising the essential qualities of complex adaptive leadership: networks that organise

International journal of complexity in leadership and management, 2013

Examining Technology Use and Evaluation in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning: A Systematic Review

Learning, Design, and Technology, 2017

The Power of Self-Directed Youth Innovator Mentor Networks: Research-Based Mentor Network Designs to Prevent Youth Innovator Entropy Over a Lifetime

Proceedings of the 2019 AERA Annual Meeting

Power of the Pen, Purse or Purpose? Ideas and Strategies for Regulating Our (Fading?) Contribution to Teacher Preparation

Re-Connecting at the Interface: A Concept for Integrating Specific Software and Instructional Design Principles

Will You Choose the Power of the Pen, Purse or Purpose? Contemporary Ideas and Strategies for Regulating Our Profession

Surviving the Next Generation of Organizations-as Leaders

The Wiley Handbook of Learning Technology, 2016

Systems Thinking and Change: A Section Introduction

Springer eBooks, 2023

Suggesting a Critical Expansion of Our Epistemology for Emerging Leaders

Ethics to Prepare Educators for Professional Service Robots in Classrooms

2019 International Joint Conference on Information, Media and Engineering (IJCIME)

This paper outlines ethical principles for educators preparing for service robots in the classroo... more This paper outlines ethical principles for educators preparing for service robots in the classroom (professional service robots). At the dawn of artificial intelligence (AI) as service robots arrive in education systems, we first define robots and professional service robots. We then review and suggest a conduct-focused ethics path over individual moral path to guide educators to consider ethics and key ethical issues involved in professional service robot design, development, implementation and partnering efforts for education settings. Borrowing from the robot ethics (roboethics) fields that has emerged from computer science and bioethics, we suggest that educators new to classroom robots and AI can ethically reduce the complexity of their work by considering simple social impact issues, specifically human relations and job issues at this early stage in professional robot thinking. We conclude by offering ethics of care principles and culture research to help educators who may adopt a caring stance to work in the diverse global context of robotics and education today.

The Web in Higher Education: Assessing the Impact and Fulfilling the Potential

Computers & Education, 2003

Leading Transformation with Digital Innovations in Schools and Universities: Beyond Adoption

Digital Transformation of Learning Organizations, 2021

Digital innovations in schools and universities matter. New leadership approaches and new organiz... more Digital innovations in schools and universities matter. New leadership approaches and new organization knowledge are necessary for leaders to realize long-term school and university transformations afforded by important digital innovation experiments. This chapter takes a hard look at leadership and organization theory and practice, along with a critical look at innovation adoption to help digital school and university innovation teams find more sustainable, impactful innovations. First, we examine research and theory on formal leadership and organization to argue that classical, formal leaders separate people from the work of others, limiting innovation teamwork. We also examine formal organizations as “houses,” finding that these over-structure people and power in vertical functional “boxes” in bureaucracies that limit school or university readiness to adapt—even when great digital innovations offer transformation potential. Less formal leadership and organization is then explored...

Towards Leading Adaptable Colleges: A Description of the Potential for Experimentation in Three British Columbia Colleges

In this research, three British Columbia colleges were studied to understand how executive teams ... more In this research, three British Columbia colleges were studied to understand how executive teams led innovation and enabled or failed to enable experimentation in an economic climate of decreasing funding. By creating a description of these teams, the author then concludes about the generative adaptive capacity of the colleges in the context of a challenging economic environment. Each college was described and interpreted as a separate case, and the researcher presents an integrated framework from an analysis of the findings and relevant literature on leading high capacity institutions. The most relevant literature for a study of this context was found to be complexity theory. Here, the author uses a new conceptual frame applied to describe and to interpret organizational culture and leadership approaches. The research found that none of the cases studied provide strong evidence of an executive team succeeding in creating adaptation through innovation via novel experimentation. As a...

Memory Contested, Locality Transformed: Representing Japanese Colonial 'Heritage' in Taiwan

In the search for a Taiwanese identity rooted in the land of Taiwan the Japanese colonial past pl... more In the search for a Taiwanese identity rooted in the land of Taiwan the Japanese colonial past plays an ambiguous role. The Japanese colonial sites became a constituent part of the new identity and cultural narrative of Taiwan in the 1990s and 2000s, when a memory boom was experienced in Taiwan representing new politics both cultural and economic which differed from the previous political periods of Japanese and postwar KMT (Kuomintang; Chinese Nationalist Party) rule. Min-Chin Chiang presents the extreme complexity of sharing the Japanese colonial past in postcolonial Taiwanese society. In this book she examines possibilities of decolonization through community-based heritage activities. Problems and ambiguity stemming from the tentative transformation from colonialism to locality help to trigger further thinking or warn against the ideological trap of taking mutuality in ‘sharing’ the past for granted. Hence, decolonization does not necessarily mean ‘removing colonial material tra...

Principles for Teaching, Leading, and Participatory Learning with a New Participant: AI

2018 International Joint Conference on Information, Media and Engineering (ICIME), 2018

This paper discusses principles and practices that can optimize artificial intelligence (AI) in t... more This paper discusses principles and practices that can optimize artificial intelligence (AI) in teaching and learning from the perspectives of leading organizational change and by reimaging learning activities with AI as a collaborative partner. Based on the Kowch's participatory teaching and learning (PTL) principles for networked organizations, the authors analyze the integration of new talent patterns emerging in more agile interdisciplinary education systems connected through information and technologies, and propose principles for collaboration through machines as AI participants and principles for designing new education systems where the teams with AI can thrive. Taking a different angle from the traditional linear education system design tasks and education institution redesigns, the proposed principles assume more time for education and training leaders to take stronger leadership roles in the creation of better teams with AI augmentation. We offer principles for designing education institutions that are capable of adapting with these innovations and we also offer principles for designing these next generation learning environments. Finally by "zooming in" on instruction and AI, we use Activity theory to imagine better inclusions of social and cultural components with AI as an important, emerging, and unscripted new partner.

A New Paradigm for Teaching, Leading and Learning in Participatory Learning Environments

Actions of Their Own to Learn, 2018

I have studied education systems for almost 20 years, working with interdisciplinary research tea... more I have studied education systems for almost 20 years, working with interdisciplinary research teams bridging the traditional gap between education administration and education technology disciplines. Two persistent, surprising research findings have emerged after studying institutions involving well over 300,000 teachers, leaders and communities. First, we find that contemporary education professionals use abundant language describing an ideal - better student learning outcomes by transforming schools into more social, participatory technology-enhanced learning environments. The second and more troubling theme is that the vast majority of these same school leaders, teachers and educational technologists are falling short of their ideals. Educators are failing to imagine, to lead and to sustain truly participatory schools and school districts. This chapter is a response to those findings. To fill a knowledge gap, this chapter provides some theory and several sets of practical guidelines for participatory teachers, leaders, learners and the educational technologists who must work together to sustain meaningful Participatory Teaching and Learning (PTL) environments in the information age. Grounded by research findings from large studies of entire school districts and built from a complexivist, post structural approach, this chapter concludes with sets of practical guidelines for educators reconceptualizing an integration of teaching, supports and leadership across our schools and districts. This is an initial guide for school districts that want to explore and reconceptualize education so that we can lead, teach, build and learn together within more robust PTL environments. First, this Chapter examines a paradigm shift that is necessary for sustainable PTL in school districts. Next, we survey important lessons from complexity theory to help educators understand the essential patterns of interconnected relationships that are essential for participatory teachers, learners and leaders. Following a brief overview of network and cluster theory for readers we suggest that participatory learning is better in a garden environment than in a tight flower box. Next, we examine the enabling role of educational technology and not just tools found within well-designed participatory environments. Finally, we conclude by offering guidelines for future school and district PTL teachers and leaders: – Five design principles for project based, enabling LMS environments – Seven principles for high capacity participatory network teams – Four principles for leading innovation in participatory schools &amp; Districts – Three principles for leading change in participatory schools &amp; Districts The complicated nature of schooling today can make school teachers and school leaders feel that the constraints of procedures, policies and structures severely limit some of our most innovative new pedagogical practices (Shirky, 2008). Traditional practices sometimes represent more independent or closed ‘boxes’ for teaching and learning rather than the ‘open garden’ that is necessary for more liberated, meaningful participatory learning praxis. Our historical disciplinary or subject-based professional preparation for teaching very often separates contemporary education professionals at a time when interdisciplinary mindsets are required to design and enact, in particular, sustainable, PTL practices. Participatory education systems need new thinking to reconceptualise the complex interplay of disciplines, pedagogy and changing system structures to support sustainable collaboration in the education project. We know that no single subject expert, school administrator or educational technologist can sustain meaningful participatory learning designs alone so to support PTL educators, this chapter suggests new ways that education professionals can open up pedagogical spaces by shifting to an information age paradigm where collaborative learning in education systems integrates within an education technology (not tool based) ecosystem. I argue that with this collection of new ideas and approaches educators can create more flexible administrative approaches and teaching supports to sustain genuinely social classes, schools, districts and communities. I suggest that this work must be done collaboratively and collegially by shedding old disciplinary and epistemological baggage brought from an outdated idea that technology is a tool, teaching is art and collaboration is piecemeal (polite) delegation. A failure to support and to co-create participatory learning designs, instruction and resources together in context, will result in more beautiful but unsustainable PTL efforts. This would be a recognizable but sad reality.

21st Century Citizen Networks in Complex States: Shall We Dance or Play Tug-of-War?

The Citizen in the 21st Century, 2013

Conversations from SE Asia: Should we Imagine Social Entrepreneurship as a Catalyst for Positive Impact?

TechTrends, 2018

School Identity in the Context of Alberta Charter Schools

Journal of School Choice, 2016

ABSTRACT The central tenet of this investigation is that educational institutions possess their o... more ABSTRACT The central tenet of this investigation is that educational institutions possess their own school identity. Acknowledging that school identity is influenced by institutional mechanisms and personal dynamics, we examine school identity in the context of 13 Alberta charter schools. Narratives of 73 educational stakeholders across the network of Alberta charter schools reveal a heightening of trust and authenticity as related to school identity. We propose that lessons learned from this study can inform stakeholders within other school settings. In particular, that an explicitly articulated vision of school identity may challenge the entrenched norms and practices typical of large bureaucratic organizations.

Designing effective instruction

Educational Technology Research and Development, Dec 1, 2004

Rather than reviewing the updated content, in this book review I survey the conceptual framework ... more

Conceptualising the essential qualities of complex adaptive leadership: networks that organise

International journal of complexity in leadership and management, 2013

Examining Technology Use and Evaluation in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning: A Systematic Review

Learning, Design, and Technology, 2017

The Power of Self-Directed Youth Innovator Mentor Networks: Research-Based Mentor Network Designs to Prevent Youth Innovator Entropy Over a Lifetime

Proceedings of the 2019 AERA Annual Meeting

Power of the Pen, Purse or Purpose? Ideas and Strategies for Regulating Our (Fading?) Contribution to Teacher Preparation

Re-Connecting at the Interface: A Concept for Integrating Specific Software and Instructional Design Principles

Will You Choose the Power of the Pen, Purse or Purpose? Contemporary Ideas and Strategies for Regulating Our Profession

Surviving the Next Generation of Organizations-as Leaders

The Wiley Handbook of Learning Technology, 2016

Systems Thinking and Change: A Section Introduction

Springer eBooks, 2023

Suggesting a Critical Expansion of Our Epistemology for Emerging Leaders

Ethics to Prepare Educators for Professional Service Robots in Classrooms

2019 International Joint Conference on Information, Media and Engineering (IJCIME)

This paper outlines ethical principles for educators preparing for service robots in the classroo... more This paper outlines ethical principles for educators preparing for service robots in the classroom (professional service robots). At the dawn of artificial intelligence (AI) as service robots arrive in education systems, we first define robots and professional service robots. We then review and suggest a conduct-focused ethics path over individual moral path to guide educators to consider ethics and key ethical issues involved in professional service robot design, development, implementation and partnering efforts for education settings. Borrowing from the robot ethics (roboethics) fields that has emerged from computer science and bioethics, we suggest that educators new to classroom robots and AI can ethically reduce the complexity of their work by considering simple social impact issues, specifically human relations and job issues at this early stage in professional robot thinking. We conclude by offering ethics of care principles and culture research to help educators who may adopt a caring stance to work in the diverse global context of robotics and education today.

The Web in Higher Education: Assessing the Impact and Fulfilling the Potential

Computers & Education, 2003

Leading Transformation with Digital Innovations in Schools and Universities: Beyond Adoption

Digital Transformation of Learning Organizations, 2021

Digital innovations in schools and universities matter. New leadership approaches and new organiz... more Digital innovations in schools and universities matter. New leadership approaches and new organization knowledge are necessary for leaders to realize long-term school and university transformations afforded by important digital innovation experiments. This chapter takes a hard look at leadership and organization theory and practice, along with a critical look at innovation adoption to help digital school and university innovation teams find more sustainable, impactful innovations. First, we examine research and theory on formal leadership and organization to argue that classical, formal leaders separate people from the work of others, limiting innovation teamwork. We also examine formal organizations as “houses,” finding that these over-structure people and power in vertical functional “boxes” in bureaucracies that limit school or university readiness to adapt—even when great digital innovations offer transformation potential. Less formal leadership and organization is then explored...

Towards Leading Adaptable Colleges: A Description of the Potential for Experimentation in Three British Columbia Colleges

In this research, three British Columbia colleges were studied to understand how executive teams ... more In this research, three British Columbia colleges were studied to understand how executive teams led innovation and enabled or failed to enable experimentation in an economic climate of decreasing funding. By creating a description of these teams, the author then concludes about the generative adaptive capacity of the colleges in the context of a challenging economic environment. Each college was described and interpreted as a separate case, and the researcher presents an integrated framework from an analysis of the findings and relevant literature on leading high capacity institutions. The most relevant literature for a study of this context was found to be complexity theory. Here, the author uses a new conceptual frame applied to describe and to interpret organizational culture and leadership approaches. The research found that none of the cases studied provide strong evidence of an executive team succeeding in creating adaptation through innovation via novel experimentation. As a...

Memory Contested, Locality Transformed: Representing Japanese Colonial 'Heritage' in Taiwan

In the search for a Taiwanese identity rooted in the land of Taiwan the Japanese colonial past pl... more In the search for a Taiwanese identity rooted in the land of Taiwan the Japanese colonial past plays an ambiguous role. The Japanese colonial sites became a constituent part of the new identity and cultural narrative of Taiwan in the 1990s and 2000s, when a memory boom was experienced in Taiwan representing new politics both cultural and economic which differed from the previous political periods of Japanese and postwar KMT (Kuomintang; Chinese Nationalist Party) rule. Min-Chin Chiang presents the extreme complexity of sharing the Japanese colonial past in postcolonial Taiwanese society. In this book she examines possibilities of decolonization through community-based heritage activities. Problems and ambiguity stemming from the tentative transformation from colonialism to locality help to trigger further thinking or warn against the ideological trap of taking mutuality in ‘sharing’ the past for granted. Hence, decolonization does not necessarily mean ‘removing colonial material tra...

Principles for Teaching, Leading, and Participatory Learning with a New Participant: AI

2018 International Joint Conference on Information, Media and Engineering (ICIME), 2018

This paper discusses principles and practices that can optimize artificial intelligence (AI) in t... more This paper discusses principles and practices that can optimize artificial intelligence (AI) in teaching and learning from the perspectives of leading organizational change and by reimaging learning activities with AI as a collaborative partner. Based on the Kowch's participatory teaching and learning (PTL) principles for networked organizations, the authors analyze the integration of new talent patterns emerging in more agile interdisciplinary education systems connected through information and technologies, and propose principles for collaboration through machines as AI participants and principles for designing new education systems where the teams with AI can thrive. Taking a different angle from the traditional linear education system design tasks and education institution redesigns, the proposed principles assume more time for education and training leaders to take stronger leadership roles in the creation of better teams with AI augmentation. We offer principles for designing education institutions that are capable of adapting with these innovations and we also offer principles for designing these next generation learning environments. Finally by "zooming in" on instruction and AI, we use Activity theory to imagine better inclusions of social and cultural components with AI as an important, emerging, and unscripted new partner.

A New Paradigm for Teaching, Leading and Learning in Participatory Learning Environments

Actions of Their Own to Learn, 2018

I have studied education systems for almost 20 years, working with interdisciplinary research tea... more I have studied education systems for almost 20 years, working with interdisciplinary research teams bridging the traditional gap between education administration and education technology disciplines. Two persistent, surprising research findings have emerged after studying institutions involving well over 300,000 teachers, leaders and communities. First, we find that contemporary education professionals use abundant language describing an ideal - better student learning outcomes by transforming schools into more social, participatory technology-enhanced learning environments. The second and more troubling theme is that the vast majority of these same school leaders, teachers and educational technologists are falling short of their ideals. Educators are failing to imagine, to lead and to sustain truly participatory schools and school districts. This chapter is a response to those findings. To fill a knowledge gap, this chapter provides some theory and several sets of practical guidelines for participatory teachers, leaders, learners and the educational technologists who must work together to sustain meaningful Participatory Teaching and Learning (PTL) environments in the information age. Grounded by research findings from large studies of entire school districts and built from a complexivist, post structural approach, this chapter concludes with sets of practical guidelines for educators reconceptualizing an integration of teaching, supports and leadership across our schools and districts. This is an initial guide for school districts that want to explore and reconceptualize education so that we can lead, teach, build and learn together within more robust PTL environments. First, this Chapter examines a paradigm shift that is necessary for sustainable PTL in school districts. Next, we survey important lessons from complexity theory to help educators understand the essential patterns of interconnected relationships that are essential for participatory teachers, learners and leaders. Following a brief overview of network and cluster theory for readers we suggest that participatory learning is better in a garden environment than in a tight flower box. Next, we examine the enabling role of educational technology and not just tools found within well-designed participatory environments. Finally, we conclude by offering guidelines for future school and district PTL teachers and leaders: – Five design principles for project based, enabling LMS environments – Seven principles for high capacity participatory network teams – Four principles for leading innovation in participatory schools &amp; Districts – Three principles for leading change in participatory schools &amp; Districts The complicated nature of schooling today can make school teachers and school leaders feel that the constraints of procedures, policies and structures severely limit some of our most innovative new pedagogical practices (Shirky, 2008). Traditional practices sometimes represent more independent or closed ‘boxes’ for teaching and learning rather than the ‘open garden’ that is necessary for more liberated, meaningful participatory learning praxis. Our historical disciplinary or subject-based professional preparation for teaching very often separates contemporary education professionals at a time when interdisciplinary mindsets are required to design and enact, in particular, sustainable, PTL practices. Participatory education systems need new thinking to reconceptualise the complex interplay of disciplines, pedagogy and changing system structures to support sustainable collaboration in the education project. We know that no single subject expert, school administrator or educational technologist can sustain meaningful participatory learning designs alone so to support PTL educators, this chapter suggests new ways that education professionals can open up pedagogical spaces by shifting to an information age paradigm where collaborative learning in education systems integrates within an education technology (not tool based) ecosystem. I argue that with this collection of new ideas and approaches educators can create more flexible administrative approaches and teaching supports to sustain genuinely social classes, schools, districts and communities. I suggest that this work must be done collaboratively and collegially by shedding old disciplinary and epistemological baggage brought from an outdated idea that technology is a tool, teaching is art and collaboration is piecemeal (polite) delegation. A failure to support and to co-create participatory learning designs, instruction and resources together in context, will result in more beautiful but unsustainable PTL efforts. This would be a recognizable but sad reality.

21st Century Citizen Networks in Complex States: Shall We Dance or Play Tug-of-War?

The Citizen in the 21st Century, 2013

Conversations from SE Asia: Should we Imagine Social Entrepreneurship as a Catalyst for Positive Impact?

TechTrends, 2018

School Identity in the Context of Alberta Charter Schools

Journal of School Choice, 2016

ABSTRACT The central tenet of this investigation is that educational institutions possess their o... more ABSTRACT The central tenet of this investigation is that educational institutions possess their own school identity. Acknowledging that school identity is influenced by institutional mechanisms and personal dynamics, we examine school identity in the context of 13 Alberta charter schools. Narratives of 73 educational stakeholders across the network of Alberta charter schools reveal a heightening of trust and authenticity as related to school identity. We propose that lessons learned from this study can inform stakeholders within other school settings. In particular, that an explicitly articulated vision of school identity may challenge the entrenched norms and practices typical of large bureaucratic organizations.

CANDIDATE FOR AECT PRESIDENT (Speech Slides)

Nominated by AECT to run for President of this 2500 member professional association - a premiere... more

Distributed Leadership Across a Welcoming Community.. for the CLIP Presentation: Calgary Local Immigration Partnership

Emerging public sector services are more and more partnered collectives of professionals and citi... more Emerging public sector services are more and more partnered collectives of professionals and citizens working together. This immigration partnership explores new models for governance and leadership in this presentation exploring the forms, characteristics and genesis of leading (and creating leaders) in networked DL (Distributed Leadership) organizations.

Got a Job Yet_? Strategies for Getting a Teaching Job in a Tough Economy

A complexity thinking perspective and analysis of the demand for new teachers indicates geographi... more

Leading Interdisciplinary Educational Technology Organizations

Teacher Accreditation_University Program Accreditation for AECT (Association of Educational Communication and Technology)

The world's largest educational technology professional society contemplates participation in US ... more The world's largest educational technology professional society contemplates participation in US and other educational technology teacher and graduate program accreditation for schools, colleges and universities (worldwide). Position paper with an analysis of accreditation trends across the globe and policy trends in an information age economy.

Structural Alignment Across Petroleum Service Organizations: Relational Innovations for Organizational Change

An invited presentation to the Canadian Petroleum Service Sector leaders and executives to discus... more An invited presentation to the Canadian Petroleum Service Sector leaders and executives to discuss strategic planning, organizational and operational alignment and strategic planning after the Economic Crisis. Guides for the future, for organization relational dynamics, and value alignment across structures and relational systems.

Looking Back and Looking Forward: Characteristics of Complex Adaptive Leadership _ Inspiring to Lead Innovation in Alberta School Systems

A road map for change in the superintendency in Alberta and beyond, showing the trajectory of edu... more

Characteristics of High Capacity, Semi-Autonomous Systemic Change Teams: Leaders – Are you Ready for This? Research on a State Innovation

This paper outlines the key characteristics for high capacity teams working across and between la... more This paper outlines the key characteristics for high capacity teams working across and between large organizations. Based on a large research project on teaching, innovation and learning in a shared service, centrally served Citrix project pilot across a state(province), the author finds that specific ways of thinking about networked teamwork need to follow new findings about networked professional praxis, learning and teaching for the information age.

Advanced Leadership Doctoral Course Outline: Reconciling Neo Bureaucracy and Transformation Theory

Systems Thinking and Change (Book in a Series). E. Kowch (Ed.) 2000

Systems Thinking and Change, 2020

This is the introduction to a new online Major Reference work (Edited Book - Kowch, 2020) publish... more This is the introduction to a new online Major Reference work (Edited Book - Kowch, 2020) published online. It updates systems thinking theory for 2020, and demonstrates new theory, practice and research in 600 pp of extensive articles written by 32 authors in 11 countries. Beyond applying systems theory models, we are realizing that leading education systems means "mashing up" models, thinking about systems, and leading in ecosystems, not just classes or service units.

See the website link for access to the 16 Chapters below.