Janus the Consultant: educational technology at the Open University

Summary The Open University is well placed to examine the way educational technologists can help improve the quality of students' learning experience. In this paper I have discussed four styles of consultancy which are not quite satisfactory, and proposed a fifth. As ‘scientist’ and ‘systematic technician’ the consultant runs into trouble because he underestimates the complexity of education. His tools are too limited for the situations he faces, and his vision of the end of education too simple‐minded. As ‘students' advocate’ and ‘problem solver’ he can, in principle, treat situations on their merits. These styles are humanistic and satisfying—when they work. Unfortunately there are no good, hard prescriptions for showing younger consultants how to do it. There certainly are good consultants who have mastered these styles, but their methods have been little studied, and are not easily made public. The transformer, on the other hand, is a practical vision. Transformation is a process whereby complex information is organised for the reader's benefit. The constituent activities can be analysed and learnt; in other words, there are pro‐cedures which can be specified. The notion of transforming does justice to the real complexity of education, and puts the student's interest in the foreground. In this way the idea of the transformer is quite consistent with the ‘students' advocate’ and ‘problem‐solver’ styles while being more practical for many purposes.