The Role of Responsive Library Makerspaces in Supporting Informal Learning in the Digital Humanities

Makerspaces make a unique contribution to the partnership between academic libraries and digital humanities by providing a creative, informal space for learning skills and new knowledge, sharing materials and equipment, and exploring and experimenting through an problem-solving, inquiry-based learning approach. The concept of the makerspace as a "liminal" space, containing inherent contradictions and tensions between formal and informal learning, structure and agency, forms a basis for understanding the role the makerspace plays in shaping, and being shaped by, a digital humanities community of practice. This chapter discusses particular experiences that demonstrate some of the ways in which the Curtin Library Makerspace in Western Australia has been involved in digital humanities since it was established in 2015. It has nurtured a creative environment for informal learning through facilitating maker activities; fostered collaborations with teaching academics to support the curriculum; and supported the development of longer-term research projects. We discuss the issues particular to each of these experiences, as the Makerspace negotiated the challenge of retaining the informality of the makerspace, while at the same time recognizing the need for infrastructural support to enable it to participate as an equal partner in digital humanities research projects

Thoughtful Thinkers: Secondary Schoolers’ Learning about Design Thinking

Design thinking is a specific design practice that aims to foster innovation by elevating participants’ creative thinking abilities. It usually involves a problem-­‐ solving approach to solve complex problems, and can be best achieved through collaborative and human-­‐cantered activities. In post-­‐secondary education, design-­‐ thinking techniques and practices have been implemented into different curricula as particular skills that need to be learned in the 21st century. However, little work has been conducted to investigate design thinking in secondary education. This paper presents our findings on the successful implementation of an interaction design-­‐ thinking curriculum in secondary school education. We have performed qualitative research activities to find out about the success of the curriculum by investigating the abilities of students in transferring knowledge gained from a familiar situation (the course) to an unfamiliar situation (outside the course). Our findings suggested that teaching design thinking to secondary school students was beneficial, enabled students to make thoughtful decisions in solving simple to complex problems in their everyday life situations

Creativity and Design Thinking in the Final Project of an Audiovisual Communication Degree

Son cada vez más los autores que recomiendan la inserción del emprendizaje, la innovación y la creatividad en los currículos de los grados en Comunicación. Este artículo describe cómo se ha desarrollado una de estas tres dimensiones (la creatividad) a través del Design Thinking en los Trabajos de Fin de Grado (TFG) de un Grado en Comunicación Audiovisual. Se basa para ello en los testimonios de los tutores (tanto los tutores académicos como aquellos de entidades externas) y en las percepciones de los propios estudiantes. El refuerzo del enfoque multidisciplinar de los proyectos y el fomento de la motivación del alumnado se presentan como los retos más inmediatos.Many authors recommend embedding entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity into Media Studies curricula. This article describes how one of these three dimensions (i.e., creativity) has been developed through Design Thinking in the Final Project of a Communication Degree, based on the testimonies of the tutors (both academic tutors and those of external companies and entities) and on the perceptions of the students themselves. The reinforcement of the multidisciplinary approach of the projects and the promotion of student motivation seem to be the most immediate challenges

Digital Facilitation Assistance for Collaborative, Creative Design Processes

People focus more and more on creating innovations collaboratively. Digital assistants (DAs) can accelerate such collaborative, creative design processes by supporting people in their work. Especially in the context of design, such as design thinking, moderators that facilitate collaborative, creative workshops can benefit from the support for their teams and themselves in the form of a DA. Based on interviews with experienced workshop facilitators from research and practice, we discuss implications for the design and usage of DAs in collaborative, creative design processes. We identify 16 distinct capabilities of DAs for task, process and interaction facilitation to guide design research and practitioners’ endeavors toward helpful automated DT facilitation support. Moreover, we outline a research agenda to foster future research on this young research area

Issues & Approach in Defining a European Research Agenda on Information Systems and Management in Creative eMedia Industries

According Gartner, media industries are the third largest spender in IT infrastructure, software, and hardware after banking and manufacturing industries. Newcomers in media industries utilize latest technologies to produce, manage, and distribute their content in a way the consumer would like to enjoy digital content with their rich new content offerings. Amazon, Apple, Facebook, or Google are just the prime examples for companies attracting many new consumers with their innovative content offerings. Their IT infrastructures are centred on the management of digital content throughout their software solutions to manage digital rights, apply data mining, or their customer relationship management software. Within the scope of this position paper the challenge is to pinpoint to the importance of defining a research agenda on information systems and management in creative media industries, to create a holistic vision of eMedia industries in total – from traditional towards fully digital media industries

Design ethnography in information systems

Until recently, most ethnographic research in information systems has been based on the traditional anthropological model of ethnography. In this traditional model of ethnography, one of the most important data-gathering techniques is participant observation. The ethnographer observes and participates but does not actively seek to change the situation. In recent years, however, a new type of ethnographic research has emerged - one that can be called design ethnography. Design ethnography is where the researcher goes beyond observation and actively engages with people in the field. Our view is that design ethnography has much potential for research in information systems. It is a new form of engaged scholarship that bridges the gap between ethnographic research and design science research

Managing Innovation: The Networked Form of University in the XXI Century

In the last decades, universities have deeply changed their role and mission in order to become entrepreneurial institutions able to compete in a global setting. Contemporary processes of globalization, digitization, and networking, have induced new forms of organization, production, and distribution of knowledge. The presence of research-oriented universities can assist geographically proximate firms directly through the provision of educated workers and indirectly by way of myriad externalities. Starting from different approaches, namely the Triple Helix Model and its extensions and the systems theory, the authors shed light on the new networked form of universities. Nowadays, competitiveness relies on a vast and complex entity constituted by many players. The university can develop through an externally-driven growth in which networks of (local and international) relationships enable to gain advantages and reputation.    This becomes particularly evident in the area of media and communications: the news industry and its ecosystem are being disrupted due to dramatic social and technological changes. Universities active in media and journalism education can play a central role not only when it comes to knowledge transfer, bringing together experts from academia and the industry. At the same time, universities try also to create a sustainable future for journalism by offering funding schemes and by incubating new media initiatives for instance in areas such as entrepreneurial journalism. Thus, pursuing the third mission, universities take more and more the role of an industry, transferring both knowledge and technology to infuse existing (media) firms with new life and helping to generate new start-ups

Note Taking Activity and its assessment in a Blended Learning Environment

"Note-taking" is a popular skill for all types of learning activities. In recent years, the online educational environment has began spreading rapidly at institutes of higher educational, obviating the need for printed materials or written notes. This means that students’ ability to take notes may decline and this may influence the success of their learning.  In order to examine this phenomenon, students' notes were surveyed during a blended learning course in a bachelor level program at a Japanese university. The course consisted of an online test system and face-to-face lectures using ICT equipment. Participant's learning performance was measured using online tests, written essays and a final exam, in addition to the assessment of their notes.  The contributions of note-taking activities were measured using statistical tests. As individual note-taking performance may be based on student's characteristics, these contributions were also examined. In the analysis, metrics of participant's characteristics such as personality, information literacy and learning experience were surveyed. Additionally, lexical features of notes taken were extracted using a text analysis technique, and these features were compared with the grades given. Conceptual mapping of the contents of notes was conducted, and the behaviour of good note-takers is discussed using the extracted results. &nbsp

Creatividad y Design Thinking en los TFG de un Grado en Comunicación Audiovisual

Son cada vez más los autores que recomiendan la inserción del emprendizaje, la innovación y la creatividad en los currículos de los grados en Comunicación. Este artículo describe cómo se ha desarrollado una de estas tres dimensiones (la creatividad) a través del Design Thinking en los Trabajos de Fin de Grado (TFG) de un Grado en Comunicación Audiovisual. Se basa para ello en los testimonios de los tutores (tanto los tutores académicos como aquellos de entidades externas) y en las percepciones de los propios estudiantes. El refuerzo del enfoque multidisciplinar de los proyectos y el fomento de la motivación del alumnado se presentan como los retos más inmediatos