POD Network News Winter 2015

President\u27s Message Notes from the POD Office Conference News Conference Awards Election Results Committee Updates Journal Updates Institute Announcements Special Column: Small Colleges Committee POD Essays on Teaching Excellence Contact the Edito

Sitka School District Kindergarten Literacy Curriculum Handbook

The intent of this handbook is to provide support to a teacher and be used as a resource. This document is intended to guide a Baranof Elementary Kindergarten teacher, through the year, with the use of a theme document. However, the scope and sequence contains the skills and content that must be addressed by the end of the year. The literacy curriculum handbook was developed based on Froebel\u27s kindergarten philosophy and Bruner\u27s educational philosophy that early childhood education should be hands-on and developmentally appropriate. The handbook includes programs available to kindergarten teachers in Sitka, Alaska while continuing to be content-based, science and social studies thematic units. The needs of each child will be met through a blend of whole group instruction, small group interaction, as well as differentiation of instruction

Vitalizing the finnish design ecosystem - Case: Development of the national design network collaboration platform

Design service networks are a current means for Finnish design service providers to broaden their service portfolios and to secure and engage in demanding projects from large clients. Collaboration processes within the design service network are fundamentally constituted of the ways in which designers think and work together, the tools and methods they use within their common projects and the physical and virtual platform provided to maintain and manage the collaboration. Sharing knowledge is a core component of network collaboration. It builds trust between stakeholders; it manifests common values and objectives laying the basis for the creation of new knowledge within the network. This research project examines knowledge creation activities within the Finnish design ecosystem, namely the development that lead to the creation of the Co-Design Bay -collaboration platform concept in the city of Lahti between 2012-2015. Using data from project meetings, discussions and interviews with Finnish design organizations and the network of knowledge‐intensive design business service firms, I explore the theories of Ikujiro Nonaka and his associates. Results from applying Nonaka’s theories to the information gathered suggest that, first, utilizing knowledge creation processes collectively in a network setting is more likely to lead to improvements in design services than the application of individual knowledge. Second, sourcing of external knowledge, especially from peers, partners and customers, is more productive in design business development than local and progressive knowledge creation within a service unit. Information gathering from the design ecosystem and co-operation between network partners to find and create knowledge thus support the development of knowledge intensive design services. The thesis addresses the following questions: 1) What are the reasons that lead to the development of a holistic collaboration platform concept for the national design ecosystem instead of a local internet-based service? 2) What further actions does the application of Nonaka’s theories highlight, that could be utilized to vitalize the Finnish design ecosystem? 3) What would be the implications of realizing development processes based on the paths highlighted by Nonaka’s theories, compared to the current plan of developing a platform to enhance collaboration between stakeholders of the Finnish design ecosystem?Suomalaiset muotoilupalveluntarjoajat hyödyntävät verkostoyhteistyötä palveluidensa ja tarjoomansa laajentamiseen. Yhteistyöverkoston osaajista koottavat suuremmat palveluyksiköt mahdollistavat kentän pienille asiantuntijayrityksille laajempien ja vaativampien toimeksiantojen vastaanottamisen, sekä suurempien asiakkaiden palvelemisen. Suunnittelupalveluverkoston yhteistyötiimien prosessit rakentuvat muotoiluajattelu-toimintamallin pohjalle. Työkalut ja metodit joita ryhmät hyödyntävät, sekä niiden ylläpitämiseen käytettävissä olevat fyysiset ja virtuaaliset toiminta-alustat määrittävät prosessien rakenteen ja yhteistoiminnan tason. Tiedon jakaminen on verkostoyhteistyön ydin, jonka kautta määrittyvät yhteistyöyksiköiden tavoitteet ja arvopohja. Tarkoituksenmukainen ja avoin tiedon jakaminen rakentaa luottamusta verkoston sidosryhmien välille ja valaa pohjan uuden tiedon luomiselle. Tämä tutkimusprojekti tarkastelee Suomen design –ekosysteemin sisäisiä tiedon luomisen käytäntöjä, keskittyen Lahdessa vuosina 2012 - 2015 toteutettuun, Co-Design Bay –yhteistyöalustakonseptin syntymään johtaneeseen kehitysprosessiin. Tutkin aihetta peilaten kehitysprosessia Ikujiro Nonakan ja hänen tutkijakollegoidensa tiedonluomisen teorioihin, hyödyntäen vertailuaineistona suomalaisten muotoiluorganisaatioiden muotoiluintensiivisten teollisuus- ja palveluyritysten projektitapaamisissa, koulutuksissa ja organisaatioiden avainhenkilöiden kanssa käymissäni keskusteluissa aiheesta kokoaamani materiaalia. Nonakan teorioiden hyödyntäminen tutkitun prosessin aineiston analyysiin osoittaa ensiksikin sen, että kollektiivinen tiedon luomisprosessien aktivointi verkostoympäristössä johtaa todennäköisemmin muotoilupalvelun positiiviseen kehittymiseen, kuin yhden muotoilupalveluyksikön sisällä suoritettu kehitystyö. Toiseksi, erityisesti vertaisryhmiltä, partnereilta ja asiakkailta kerätyn ulkoisen tiedon hyödyntäminen on tuottoisampaa muotoilupalveluja kehitettäessä kuin paikallinen progressiivinen tiedon luominen. Tiedon etsiminen ja kokoaminen suunnitteluekosysteemistä ja verkostokumppaneiden keskeinen yhteistyö tiedon luomisessa tukevat tietointensiivisten muotoilupalveluiden kehittymistä. Tämä tutkimusprojekti vastaa seuraaviin kysymyksiin: 1) Mitkä syyt johtivat kokonaisvaltaisen yhteistyöalustakonseptin kehittämiseen kansalliselle design ekosysteemille internet-palvelun sijaan? 2) Mitä potentiaalisia muotoilukentän elävöittämistoimenpiteitä Nonakan teorioiden hyödyntäminen tuo esille? 3) Minkälaisia seurauksia Nonakan teorioiden esille tuomien kehitysprosessien hyödyntäminen tuottaisi nykyisiin virtuaalialustan kehityssuunnitelmiin verrattuna

Effects of Creativity Instruction in Science on Creative Thinking and Science Achievement in Chinese Students

This study investigated the effectiveness of the 3eT instructional model designed by Hong (Hong, 2012a; Hong, O\u27Neil, Drobick, & Beisel, 2013) that focused on increasing students\u27 creative-thinking ability. 120 seventh-graders in China participated in the study. Participants were randomly assigned to the experimental or the control group. They learned a segment of a science curriculum unit with instructional materials developed based on the 3eT model which aimed to encourage students to use creative thinking techniques. Patterns of students\u27 perceptions of a creative person were compared between the experimental group and the control group. Content analyses of students\u27 narrative responses elicited five themes: Thinking Ability, Personality, Motivation, Intelligence, and Skills. In general, both the control and the experimental groups provided similar results for the five themes. However, Fisher\u27s exact tests indicated that students in the experimental group proposed more concepts related to Divergent thinking, Like to conducting experiments and research, and Having special talents, which were some of the key features that the 3eT instructional model had emphasized during the training. The MANOVA tests indicated that significant differences were found in the combined creative-thinking scores for three TIPS items. The follow-up ANOVA tests indicated significant differences between groups on all three dependent variables (fluency, flexibility, and originality) for the TIPS1. There were significant differences on originality mean scores across all three TIPS items. In addition, the results of the current study did not support the claim that the 3eT instructional model affected students\u27 science achievement scores. The current study provided a practical and effective way that creative-thinking techniques could be integrated into the 3eT instructional model and be delivered in the regular classroom curriculum

Digital and Strategic Innovation for Alpine Health Tourism

This open access book presents a set of practical tools and collaborative solutions in multi-disciplinary settings to foster the Alpine Space health tourism industry’s innovation and competitiveness. The proposed solutions emerge as the result of the synergy among health, environment, tourism, digital, policy and strategy professionals. The approach underlines the pivotal role of a sustainable and ecomedical use of Alpine natural resources for health tourism destinations, and highlights the need of integrating aspects of natural resources’ healing effects, a shared knowledge of Alpine assets through digital solutions, and frames strategic approaches for the long-term development of the sector. The volume exploits the results of the three-years long EU research project HEALPS 2, which involved several stakeholders from the health tourism, healthcare and sustainable tourism industries. This book is relevant for health tourism destinations and facilities (hotels, clinics, wellness and spa companies), regional and local authorities (policy makers), business support organizations, researchers involved in digital healthcare and geoinformatics

Digital and Strategic Innovation for Alpine Health Tourism

This open access book presents a set of practical tools and collaborative solutions in multi-disciplinary settings to foster the Alpine Space health tourism industry’s innovation and competitiveness. The proposed solutions emerge as the result of the synergy among health, environment, tourism, digital, policy and strategy professionals. The approach underlines the pivotal role of a sustainable and ecomedical use of Alpine natural resources for health tourism destinations, and highlights the need of integrating aspects of natural resources’ healing effects, a shared knowledge of Alpine assets through digital solutions, and frames strategic approaches for the long-term development of the sector. The volume exploits the results of the three-years long EU research project HEALPS 2, which involved several stakeholders from the health tourism, healthcare and sustainable tourism industries. This book is relevant for health tourism destinations and facilities (hotels, clinics, wellness and spa companies), regional and local authorities (policy makers), business support organizations, researchers involved in digital healthcare and geoinformatics

The pragmatic nature of creativity : exploring the structuring process of expert choreographers

To date, empirical studies in choreography mainly focused on the movement generation and manipulation stages. Often, the structuring phase, which entails selection, ordering, and refinement of movement materials, remained untouched. Thus, this empirical study examines the cognitive processes that are associated with structuring and explores how expert choreographers navigate their way through endless possibilities prior to choosing a final dance design. Building from the assumption that choreographers operate in a manner similar to designers, a model of design heuristics (Yilmaz et al. 2011) was used to frame questions and investigate the transformation of dance structures over time. Generally, changes in the detail level were labeled as ‘local strategies’ and changes to the overall structure were categorized as ‘transitional’. These two groups were divided further based on the type of strategies used by expert choreographers during their creative process. The classification system that emerged enabled the identification of patterns of strategy use, leading toward a better understanding of the structuring process. Sue Healey and Gideon Obarzanek, the choreographers participating in this study, worked with a group of five dancers and had five days to generate three different dance compositions under several restrictions. They were given the same theme and soundtrack and could only work with movement material that was generated in day one. Moreover, they were asked to incorporate a design strategy during the creation of their second piece, so that its effect on the structuring process could be evaluated. Observations and interviews enabled the extraction of quantitative and qualitative information indicating how many strategies were used per piece, which were used more often, what influenced decision making, which combinations and outcomes were mostly favored by the choreographers, and what the effect was of using an explicit strategy on the structuring process. I found that choreographers transform their composition through the application of multiple strategies, particularly local ones. Still, each choreographer relies on a particular set of strategies based on the problems they identify in each process and their own personal preferences. Notably, while the use of explicit strategies led to ambiguous results, real innovation was enabled through the application of ‘Process Strategies’. These techniques guided the choreographers’ overall approach through the solution space by forcing changes in a particular direction. As a result, new dance forms were discovered. Rehearsal time seemed to be a major influence on the structuring process. The more time that was spent on creating a piece, the more alterations were applied. However, having more creation time did not always guarantee a better outcome. In fact, finding the right framework and constraints appeared to be more valuable to the creative process

Organizing for Sustainability

This upper-level Open Access textbook aims to educate students and professionals on how to develop business models that have a positive impact on people, society, and the social and ecological environment. It explores a different view of how to organize value creation, from a focus on an almost exclusively monetary value creation to one that creates positive impact through multiple values. The book offers students and entrepreneurs a structured approach based through the Business Model Template (BMT). It consists of three stages and ten building blocks to facilitate the development of a business model. Users, be they students or practitioners, need to choose from one of the three offered business model archetypes, namely the platform, community, or circular business models. Each archetype offers a dedicated logic for vale creation. The book can be used to develop a business model from scratch (turning an idea into a working prototype) or to transform an existing business model into one of the three archetypes. Throughout the book extra sources, links to relevant online video clips, assignments and literature are offered to facilitate the development process. This book will be of interest to students studying the development of business models, sustainable management, innovation, and value creation. It will also be of interest executives, and professionals such as consultants or social entrepreneurs seeking further education