Community-based co-design of a crowdsourcing task management application for safeguarding indigenous knowledge

Teaching indigenous knowledge (IK) to African youth has become more complicated due to a variety of reasons such as urban migration, loss of interest in it, the dominance of scientific knowledge and the technological revolution. Therefore, there is a considerable movement towards using technologies to safeguard IK before it becomes obsolete. It is noteworthy that research conducted and software development perspectives being used are mainly based on Western worldviews that are inappropriate for African socio-cultural contexts. IK holders are often not in charge of the digitisation process and merely treated as subjects. In this study, we explored a suitable development approach of a crowdsourcing task management application (TMA) as an auxiliary tool for safeguarding IK. Moreover, the study sought to provide an opportunity for the indigenous communities to make requests of three-dimensional (3D) models of their traditional objects independently. The delivered traditional 3D models are imported into the communities' IK visualisation tools used by the IK holders to teach the youth about their cultural heritage. The main objective of this study was to ascertain how the indigenous rural communities could appropriate a foreign technological concept such as crowdsourcing. This brought about our first research theme: investigating the necessary conditions to establish and maintain beneficial embedded community engagement. The second theme was to determine the suitable methods for technology co-design. Thirdly, to discover what does the communities' appropriated crowdsourcing concept entail. We applied a consolidated research method based on Community-based CoDesign (CBCD) extended with Afrocentric research insights and operationalised with Action Research cycle principles of planning, action and reflection. CBCD was conducted in three cycles with Otjiherero speaking indigenous rural communities from Namibia. Reflections from the first cycle revealed that the rural communities would require unique features in their crowdsourcing application. During the second cycle of co-designing with the ovaHimba community, we learnt that CBCD is matured through mutual trust, reciprocity and skills transfer and deconstructing mainstream technologies to spark co-design ideas. Lastly, in our third cycle of CBCD, we showcased that communities of similar cultures and knowledge construction had common ideas of co-designing the TMA. We also simulated that the construction of traditional 3D models requires indigenous communities to provide insight details of the traditional object to minimise unsatisfactory deliverables. The findings of this study are contributing in two areas (1) research approach and (2) appropriation of technology. We provide a synthesis of Oundu moral values and Afrocentricity as a foundation for conducting Afrocentric research to establish and maintain humanness before CBCD can take place. With those taken as inherent moral values, Afrocentricity should then solely be focused on knowledge construction within an African epistemology. For the appropriation of technology, we share codesign techniques on how the indigenous rural communities appropriated the mainstream crowdsourcing concept through local meaning-making. CBCD researchers should incorporate Afrocentricity for mutual learning, knowledge construction, and sharing for the benefit of all

LIPIcs, Volume 248, ISAAC 2022, Complete Volume

LIPIcs, Volume 248, ISAAC 2022, Complete Volum

Proceedings of the 19th Sound and Music Computing Conference

Proceedings of the 19th Sound and Music Computing Conference - June 5-12, 2022 - Saint-Étienne (France). https://smc22.grame.f

Student Expectations: The effect of student background and experience

CONTEXT The perspectives and previous experiences that students bring to their programs of study can affect their approaches to study and the depth of learning that they achieve Prosser & Trigwell, 1999; Ramsden, 2003). Graduate outcomes assume the attainment of welldeveloped independent learning skills which can be transferred to the work-place. PURPOSE This 5-year longitudinal study investigates factors influencing students’ approaches to learning in the fields of Engineering, Software Engineering, and Computer Science, at two higher education institutes delivering programs of various levels in Australia and New Zealand. The study aims to track the development of student approaches to learning as they progress through their program. Through increased understanding of students’ approaches, faculty will be better able to design teaching and learning strategies to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student body. This paper reports on the first stage of the project. APPROACH In August 2017, we ran a pilot of our survey using the Revised Study Process Questionnaire(Biggs, Kember, & Leung, 2001) and including some additional questions related to student demographics and motivation for undertaking their current program of study. Data were analysed to evaluate the usefulness of data collected and to understand the demographics of the student cohort. Over the period of the research, data will be collected using the questionnaire and through focus groups and interviews. RESULTS Participants provided a representative sample, and the data collected was reasonable, allowing the questionnaire design to be confirmed. CONCLUSIONS At this preliminary stage, the study has provided insight into the student demographics at both institutes and identified aspects of students’ modes of engagement with learning. Some areas for improvement of the questionnaire have been identified, which will be implemented for the main body of the study

A new strategy for active learning to maximise performance in intensive courses

This paper describes an innovation in the delivery of an introductory thermodynamics course offered to students studying towards an engineering qualification. The course was delivered in intensive format, across three weeks of study. Students find it challenging to engage with complex engineering topics in a short period of time, and there is no sizeable study break for pre-exam study. This means that students cannot afford to delay in learning and applying content. Every class must be an opportunity to interact with the content immediately. The innovation described here involved implementing a new daily structure for the course that attempted to mimic the standard process by which students learn material, apply it, study it and practice it in across a traditional-length semester. The new structure involved integrating the lecture and recitation components to the course to increasing the active learning during material delivery, then allowing students to engage in guided study and open-book formative assessment. This paper describes the implementation of this innovation. A brief review of the literature on intensive courses is provided, followed by a description of the approach used in this particular class. The results are then presented, and evaluated in the context of the research and the instructor’s own critical reflection

Chair a session/Integration of theory and practice in the learning and teaching process

The theme for AAEE-2017 is “Integrated Engineering”, which covers a range of sub-themes, such as: Integration of theory and practice in the learning and teaching process Interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary engineering programs and learning environments Integration of teaching and research in the engineering training process The role and impact of engineering students and educators in the wider community Systems perspectives on engineering education. Integration is also about connections, e.g. between students and teachers, between students in learning together, and between educational institutions and industry and wider society in the engineering education process