Journeys to Open Educational Practice: UKOER/SCORE Review Final Report

In 2008 the JISC Good Intentions report concluded that the landscape around learning materials had changed sufficiently to support a range of sustainable models for sharing. The report charted and acknowledged the long history of approaches to support sharing that had helped to shape the landscape. Most of the models highlight a growing acknowledgement of the need to build and support open and sustainable communities to share practice and resources. Indeed such communities are often the key to sustaining the service, whichever model is adopted. This is the type of model most likely to encourage sharing between teachers as well as learners. The growing OER community is taking collaborative approaches to tackling the ongoing challenges of raising awareness, licensing and trust issues, and standards and technologies. The challenge for the UK now is to ensure that our HE institutions are enabled to create policies, practices and support their staff to accelerate the transformations required to contribute and benefit from this global movement. It is also vital to ensure that we capture the real picture of use and re-use of such services and collections to inform future OER programmes. HEFCE funding for OER initiatives followed this report in 2009 and has, in many ways, provided some of the scaffolding and support for a variety of individuals, communities and institutions to move forwards in their own journeys, whether they started years before in other contexts or had just joined on the road to open sharing

Utilizing industry 4.0 on the construction site : challenges and opportunities

In recent years a step change has been seen in the rate of adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies by manufacturers and industrial organisations alike. This paper discusses the current state of the art in the adoption of industry 4.0 technologies within the construction industry. Increasing complexity in onsite construction projects coupled with the need for higher productivity is leading to increased interest in the potential use of industry 4.0 technologies. This paper discusses the relevance of the following key industry 4.0 technologies to construction: data analytics and artificial intelligence; robotics and automation; buildings information management; sensors and wearables; digital twin and industrial connectivity. Industrial connectivity is a key aspect as it ensures that all Industry 4.0 technologies are interconnected allowing the full benefits to be realized. This paper also presents a research agenda for the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies within the construction sector; a three-phase use of intelligent assets from the point of manufacture up to after build and a four staged R&D process for the implementation of smart wearables in a digital enhanced construction site

The Inscrutable New Actor: An Employee Perspective on the Flipside of AI

An in-depth understanding of employees’ threat perceptions towards AI or other IT-related transformations could inform and elevate existing innovation processes, leading to higher adoption rates. Existing IS and management research mostly refers to organizational performance measures and customer perceptions, neglecting the critical role of employees. This paper argues that effective transformation and integration of this new actor AI predominantly depends on employees–acting as intermediaries between the technology and customers. Noting the largely neglected flipside of AI transformation from an employee perspective, the current article conducts a qualitative investigation among 103 healthcare professionals to derive important AI-adoption barriers. Drawing on self-determination and social impact theory, data among five AI-application categories were analyzed, leading to three important job-related threat dimensions: Professional Development & Leadership, Workforce Empowerment & Collaboration, Workforce Resilience & Risk Management. The resulting conceptual framework offers valuable cross-industrial insights, contributing to the broader understanding of adoption resistance

Owner-Manager Perceived Relationship Between ICT Adoption and SME Performance in Busiro West Wakiso District, Uganda

This study explored the relationship between ICT adoption and SME performance from the perspective of owner-managers in Busiro West in Wakiso District. More specifically, (i) to assess the relationship between ICT adoption and SMEs performance in Busiro West Wakiso District, (ii)to identify the current challenges on ICT adoption by SMEs in Wakiso, and (iii) to analyse the level of adoption of ICT in SMEs. With the respondent of 140, the study adopted a mix method and cross-sectional survey design.  The findings revealed: (i) There is a significant positive relationship between ICT adoption and SME performance (r = 0.913; p value = 0.000). (ii)Some of the challenges that impeded ICT adoption included high costs, limited skills, lack of infrastructure, and security concerns. The study also confirmed that SME owner-managers know the benefits of ICT adoption, but several have failed to consistently adopt and use it due to the several challenges associated with adopting ICT. (iii)The study also observed a low level of ICT adoption among the SMEs. Conclusions were drawn and recommendations made with regards to government intervention, service providers imitative, owner-manager role and general public sensitisations. The study contributed to body of knowledge that confirms the importance of ICT adoption to business performance and success. Keywords: ICT adoption, SME Performance, Owner-manager, Uganda DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/14-24-06 Publication date: December 31st 202

Editing Team: Markus Fiedler

and contributions of the FIA community on the important research topics that should be addressed for the Framework Programme 8 research programmes broadly grouped around three main concerns; economic and business interests; societal interests and challenges; technical disruptions and capabilities. The contents of this roadmap originate with the community of researchers working on all aspects of the Future Internet and meet to share and discuss ideas through the Future Internet Assembly through an open consultation of research projects who participate in FIA. This roadmap is primarily concerned with identifying research that can be carried out in the second half of this decade and which will have an impact in 2020 and beyond. By ‘impact ’ we mean will result in products, services, systems, capabilities, that come to market and are available and deployed in that timeframe The approach adopted in this report is to integrate contributions across the entire space of future Internet research with the aim of bringing out the vision for how and where the Internet will make a significant difference in the future and identifying the broad challenges and gaps, and identifying the solutions and research needs in the future. In this report we have summarised and grouped ideas with the aim of identifying the strong themes and consistent challenges that emerge looking acros

My boy builds coffins. Future memories of your loved ones

The research is focus on the concept of storytelling associated with product design, trying to investigate new ways of designing and a possible future scenario related to the concept of death. MY BOY BUILDS COFFINS is a gravestone made using a combination of cremation’s ashes and resin. It is composed by a series of holes in which the user can stitch a text, in order to remember the loved one. The stitching need of a particular yarn produced in Switzerland using some parts of human body. Project also provides another version which uses LED lights instead of the yarn. The LEDs - thanks to an inductive coupling - will light when It will be posed in the hole. The gravestone can be placed where you want, as if it would create a little altar staff at home. In this way, there is a real connection between the user and the dearly departed