Construction safety and digital design: a review

As digital technologies become widely used in designing buildings and infrastructure, questions arise about their impacts on construction safety. This review explores relationships between construction safety and digital design practices with the aim of fostering and directing further research. It surveys state-of-the-art research on databases, virtual reality, geographic information systems, 4D CAD, building information modeling and sensing technologies, finding various digital tools for addressing safety issues in the construction phase, but few tools to support design for construction safety. It also considers a literature on safety critical, digital and design practices that raises a general concern about ‘mindlessness’ in the use of technologies, and has implications for the emerging research agenda around construction safety and digital design. Bringing these strands of literature together suggests new kinds of interventions, such as the development of tools and processes for using digital models to promote mindfulness through multi-party collaboration on safet

A web-based teaching/learning environment to support collaborative knowledge construction in design

A web-based application has been developed as part of a recently completed research which proposed a conceptual framework to collect, analyze and compare different design experiences and to construct structured representations of the emerging knowledge in digital architectural design. The paper introduces the theoretical and practical development of this application as a teaching/learning environment which has significantly contributed to the development and testing of the ideas developed throughout the research. Later in the paper, the application of BLIP in two experimental (design) workshops is reported and evaluated according to the extent to which the application facilitates generation, modification and utilization of design knowledge

ICS Materials. Towards a re-Interpretation of material qualities through interactive, connected, and smart materials.

The domain of materials for design is changing under the influence of an increased technological advancement, miniaturization and democratization. Materials are becoming connected, augmented, computational, interactive, active, responsive, and dynamic. These are ICS Materials, an acronym that stands for Interactive, Connected and Smart. While labs around the world are experimenting with these new materials, there is the need to reflect on their potentials and impact on design. This paper is a first step in this direction: to interpret and describe the qualities of ICS materials, considering their experiential pattern, their expressive sensorial dimension, and their aesthetic of interaction. Through case studies, we analyse and classify these emerging ICS Materials and identified common characteristics, and challenges, e.g. the ability to change over time or their programmability by the designers and users. On that basis, we argue there is the need to reframe and redesign existing models to describe ICS materials, making their qualities emerge

A teacher’s voice: Embracing change to make a difference

The challenge to understand the impact and demands of new forms of literacy for teachers with considerable expertise is intensified when making sense of multiple forms of texts. This paper examines how an experienced teacher made changes to her literacy pedagogy when faced with a class problem for which she felt unprepared. The story is told predominantly through the voice of the teacher using her reflective journal. An example of Web 2.0 technology, specifically the construction of a wiki, is planned and implemented to reflect the teacher’s changing views of literacy. The key focus is how this teacher will transition her practice to meet the new demands of literacy teaching, what critical moves are required of her in order to do this and how does she shift from the traditional role of facilitator to designer of online learning. Through such analysis it is proposed that it is possible for an experienced teacher to theorise, implement and adopt a stance that encompasses a broader view of literacy and literacy instruction

Innovative teaching strategies: enhancing the soft-skilloriented approach through integrated onsite-online learning environments

ABSTRACT The integration of ICT in Higher Education requires reflective design by teachers. In particular, from recent international research on the subject, it emerges that the perspective of the TPCK framework (Technological, Pedagogical, Content Knowledge) can favour an effective design reasoning of teachers. Teaching practice requires the implementation of innovative organizational models for the creation of learning environments that offer continuity between classroom and distance learning (Hybrid Instruction Solution). The empirical mix-method research involved a group of volunteer teachers of different teachings. The objective was to design and implement innovative teaching solutions using ICT in onsite/online environments to enhance specific soft skills in students. The results of a questionnaire (CAWI) given to incoming and outgoing teachers from the experience of designing and conducting the didactic action will be presented. the TPCK perspective design of integrated learning environments and the reasoned choice of coherent methodologies seem to make a soft-skilloriented didactics feasible

Games-Based Online Course Design: Prototype of Gamification for Online Tutors

With the ubiquity of interactive games in students’ lives and the rise of gamified experiences across the web and mobile applications, online tutors and practitioners of technology enhanced learning have been inspired to incorporate games-based elements. This paper introduces a prototype of an online application that helps online tutors to embed gaming to design their online course. We developed a framework for online course leaders which explains how Wikis (as an online learning platform) can support students’ learning, interaction, and sharing of knowledge in the online community. We are presenting a metaphor for the course design in a gameboard like “snakes and ladders”. This metaphoric game enables online tutors to elaborate online interaction among their students. The game methodological design approach for this metaphoric game merges different pedagogical theories such as (socio-constructivism) with practice in online learning (Wiki) and gives the online tutor an idea about what theory/approach is used when selecting any technological tool or moving forward in the game. This framework could help tutors, educational institutions and students to use a common language with students to describe their teaching and learning activities. Primarily, it helps tutors to make decisions about learning activities, facilitate, guide and support students’ communication and collaboration

Technical Issues in the Development of Knowledge-Based Services for the Semantic Web

The Semantic Web aims to extend the current Web with formal semantics in order to improve how users experience the Web, by ameliorating current activities and supporting the automation of some others. So far, current Semantic Web prototypes mostly aim at collecting and exposing information. Still, a semantic layer can support applying Knowledge-Based Systems techniques to the development of brand-new fully-fledged Knowledge-Based Services for the Web. In this paper, we present the technical issues that have to be faced in the development of such a kind of application by presenting the Online Design of Events Application: a Semantic Web-based design support system that assists event organisers in the process of preparing events such as workshops and conferences, by effectively reasoning over an inter-organisational process across the Web

Failure is an option:an innovative engineering curriculum

PurposeAdvancements and innovation in engineering design are based on learning from previous failures but students are encouraged to ‘succeed’ first time and hence can avoid learning from failure in practice. The purpose of the study was to design and evaluate a curriculum to help engineering design students to learn from failure.Design/Methodology/ApproachA new curriculum design provided a case study for evaluating the effects of incorporating learning from failure within a civil engineering course. An analysis of the changes in course output was undertaken in relation to graduate destination data covering 2006 to 2016 and student satisfaction from 2012 to 2017 and a number of challenges and solutions for curriculum designers were identified.FindingsThe design and delivery of an innovative curriculum, within typical constraints, can provide opportunities for students to develop resilience to failure as an integral part of their learning in order to think creatively and develop novel engineering solutions. The key issues identified were: the selection of appropriate teaching methods, creating an environment for exploratory learning, group and team assessments with competitive elements where practicable, and providing students with many different pedagogical approaches to produce a quality learning experience.OriginalityThis case study demonstrates how to design and implement an innovative curriculum that can produce positive benefits of learning from failure. This model can be applied to other disciplines such as building surveying and construction management. This approach underpins the development of skills necessary in the educational experience to develop as a professional building pathologist

PLM and early stages collaboration in interactive design, a case study in the glass industry

Product design activity is traditionally presented as a succession of four to six stages. In the early stages of design, during the search for concepts, multi-disciplinary teams are working together, sometimes on the fringe of the digital design chain. But it is during these stages, that most of the product development cost is committed. Therefore, collaboration should be emphasized, and PLM software should contribute to it strongly. This paper first defines the boundaries of the early stages of design. Then, we analyze designer collaboration in this stage and describe the knowledge necessary for efficient collaboration. Finally, we propose and test a concept for a tool to assist the early stages of design, to be integrated in a continuum with other existing digital design tools. A case study is presented in Verallia, specialized in the design and manufacturing of glassware

Sustainable exhibit design: guidelines for designers of small scale interactive and travelling exhibits

This study was commissioned as part of Lincolnshire County Council’s FLOWS ‘2B’ Information and Symbols Project and UK match funding for this particular FLOWS Project has been provided by East Midlands Development Agency. The aim of FLOWS is to improve the sustainability of development in flood risk areas through development of ‘good practice’, by improved integration of flood risk information into decision-support systems for spatial planning and water management. FLOWS involves over 40 individual projects which are based in four Work Packages. Lincolnshire County Council is jointly leading Work Package 3 (Spatial Planning) and is also leading on Projects in Work Package 2 (Public Perception/Dissemination). This study has been produced as part of Lincolnshire County Council’s ‘FLOWS 2B Information and Symbols Project’ and in the wider context, is focussing on raising public awareness of flooding and flood risk by exploring innovative methods of disseminating information on the subject of flood risk to the public. This project involves the production of interactive exhibits aimed at raising the awareness of flood risk in Lincolnshire and is a partnership between Lincolnshire County Council and the School of Architecture at the University of Lincoln. A study focussing on creating sustainable exhibitions has been undertaken via the University of Lincoln that will directly inform the FLOWS exhibits. As detailed in the project brief, this study on Sustainable Exhibit Design will investigate best practice in sustainable exhibit design and produce a report setting out guidelines for designers of small interactive and travelling exhibits, guidelines which are directly applicable to the proposed FLOWS exhibit. The report will form a contribution to exhibition design knowledge through wider distribution via the University of Lincoln and FLOWS websites and a conference presentation