Identifying Five Archetypes of Interaction Design Professionals and Their Universal Design Expertise

Systems and services based on Information and Communications Technology (ICT) are now prevalent in our daily lives. Digital transformations have been, and are still being, initiated across private and public sectors. As such, the consequences of digital exclusion are severe and may block access to key aspects of modern life, such as education, employment, consumerism and health services. In order to combat this, regions and countries such as the USA, Canada, EU and Scandinavia have all legislated universal design (UD) in relation to ICT, in order to ensure as many citizens as possible have the opportunity to access and use digital information and services. However, there has been limited research into how higher educational programs address legislated accessibility responsibilities. This paper looks into the discipline of interaction design (IxD). IxD is the design domain focused on ‘how human beings relate to other human beings through the mediating influence of products’ (Buchanan, R. (2001) Designing research and the new learning. Des. Issues, 17, 3–23). The study presents an analysis of Norwegian higher educational programs within IxD. Based on document analysis, we map the skillsets the study programs state to deliver and investigate to what degree UD expertise is included. Our findings indicate the study programs do not deliver adequate training in UD, in order to fulfill the professional responsibilities related to ICT accessibility. From our findings, we extrapolate five ‘archetypes’ of interaction designers. These personas-like analytical constructs hold slightly different characteristics. For each of the five, we propose UD expertise fitting key skillsets. We hope our contributions are useful both for the higher education sector and the industry and will contribute to raised awareness of UD skills so they can educate interaction designers in their different industry roles with required competences.acceptedVersio

初等教育におけるコンピュータサイエンス教育のカリキュラム編成に関する研究

Tohoku University博士（情報科学）thesi

Development of a Shared Curriculum for Studies in Computer Science and Information Systems

The basic principles of the development of modern curriculum in computer science and information systems in Latvia as well as lessons learnt are discussed. The curriculum is based on two widely used documents “Computing Curricula 1991” and “IS’97”. At the same time the curriculum is strongly influenced by the local conditions of Latvian higher education system and requirements of the labour market. Some international experience in a model curriculum development has been acquired, too. New trends have emerged and new requirements have been fixed. Now, after ten years of experience there is a strong necessity to weight the pros and cons and to start revising of the curriculum

Business Informatics: An Engineering Perspective on Information Systems

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Computational Thinking and Literacy

Today’s students will enter a workforce that is powerfully shaped by computing. To be successful in a changing economy, students must learn to think algorithmically and computationally, to solve problems with varying levels of abstraction. These computational thinking skills have become so integrated into social function as to represent fundamental literacies. However, computer science has not been widely taught in K-12 schools. Efforts to create computer science standards and frameworks have yet to make their way into mandated course requirements. Despite a plethora of research on digital literacies, research on the role of computational thinking in the literature is sparse. This conceptual paper proposes a three dimensional framework for exploring the relationship between computational thinking and literacy through: 1) situating computational thinking in the literature as a literacy; 2) outlining mechanisms by which students’ existing literacy skills can be leveraged to foster computational thinking; and 3) elaborating ways in which computational thinking skills facilitate literacy development

Proceedings ICPW'07: 2nd International Conference on the Pragmatic Web, 22-23 Oct. 2007, Tilburg: NL

Proceedings ICPW'07: 2nd International Conference on the Pragmatic Web, 22-23 Oct. 2007, Tilburg: N

NEGLECTED AND MISALIGNED: A STUDY OF COMPUTER SCIENCE TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS, BELIEFS AND PRACTICES TOWARDS PRIMARY ICT

The present study attempts to explore aspects of teachers’ personal practical knowledge by investigating computer science teachers’ perceptions, beliefs, and practices towards Primary ICT just before a curriculum transition period and the replacement of the former program of studies with a “Computer Science” curriculum. For the needs of this investigation, an exploratory sequential mixed methods design was employed. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 33 computer science teachers, while 157 were surveyed by means of a questionnaire developed from the analysis of qualitative data. The findings of the study indicated that there is a misalignment between the policy rationale towards ICT, teachers’ understanding of ICT and the implementation of ICT in the primary classroom. Due to teachers’ lack of professional-pedagogical knowledge, contextual factors and policy decisions, which consistently neglect teachers’ needs and personal practical knowledge, CS teachers have developed their own ways of theorizing, conceptualizing and practicing education in ICT. These findings are discussed within the light of the corresponding literature and suggest that structural and curricular transformations in digital education are condemned to carry within them the seeds of their own dismissal when they are not ingrained in the reality of classroom practice and on teachers’ practical knowledge, which entails their involvement in the design and formulation of any intended changes.  Article visualizations