Get yourself connected: conceptualising the role of digital technologies in Norwegian career guidance

This report outlines the role of digital technologies in the provision of career guidance. It was commissioned by the c ommittee on career guidance which is advising the Norwegian Government following a review of the countries skills system by the OECD. In this report we argue that career guidance and online career guidance in particular can support the development of Norwa y’s skills system to help meet the economic challenges that it faces.The expert committee advising Norway’s Career Guidance Initiativ

A Seeing Place – Connecting Physical and Virtual Spaces

In the experience and design of spaces today, we meet both reality and virtuality. But how is the relation between real and virtual construed? How can we as researchers and designers contribute to resolving the physical-virtual divide regarding spaces? This thesis explores the relations between the physical and the virtual and investigates ways of connecting physical and virtual space, both in theory and practice.\ua0The basic concepts of the thesis are Space, Place, and Stage. The central idea is that the stage is a strong conceptual metaphor that has the capacity to work as a unifying concept relating physical and virtual spaces and forming a place for attention, agreements, and experience – A Seeing Place. The concept of seeing place comes from the Greek word theatre, meaning a “place for seeing”, both in the sense of looking at and understanding.\ua0In certain situations, the relations between physical and virtual spaces become important for users’ experience and understanding of these situations. This thesis presents seven cases of physical-virtual spaces, in the field of architectural and exhibition design. The method of these studies is research by design. The discussion then focuses on how each setting works as a stage, and how conceptual metaphors can contribute to the connection between physical and virtual spaces.\ua0Building upon the explorations and experiments in different domains, the thesis contains a collection of seven papers concerning the relations between physical and virtual space in different contexts outside the world of theatre. These papers range from more technical about Virtual Reality (design of networked collaborative spaces) to more conceptual about staging (methods in interaction design) and virtual space (using a transdisciplinary approach).\ua0The results of those studies suggest that the Stage metaphor of a physical-virtual space can contribute to the elucidating of relations between physical and virtual spaces in number of ways. Conceptually, the stage metaphor links together the semiotic and the hermeneutic views of space and place. And, from a practice-based perspective, A Seeing Place view opens up the way to creating contemporary spaces and resolving the physical-virtual divide

The Object of Platform Studies: Relational Materialities and the Social Platform (the case of the Nintendo Wii)

Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System,by Ian Bogost and Nick Montfort, inaugurated thePlatform Studies series at MIT Press in 2009.We’ve coauthored a new book in the series, Codename: Revolution: the Nintendo Wii Video Game Console. Platform studies is a quintessentially Digital Humanities approach, since it’s explicitly focused on the interrelationship of computing and cultural expression. According to the series preface, the goal of platform studies is “to consider the lowest level of computing systems and to understand how these systems relate to culture and creativity.”In practice, this involves paying close attentionto specific hardware and software interactions--to the vertical relationships between a platform’s multilayered materialities (Hayles; Kirschenbaum),from transistors to code to cultural reception. Any given act of platform-studies analysis may focus for example on the relationship between the chipset and the OS, or between the graphics processor and display parameters or game developers’ designs.In computing terms, platform is an abstraction(Bogost and Montfort), a pragmatic frame placed around whatever hardware-and-software configuration is required in order to build or run certain specificapplications (including creative works). The object of platform studies is thus a shifting series of possibility spaces, any number of dynamic thresholds between discrete levels of a system

2022-2023 Bulletin

https://soundideas.pugetsound.edu/bulletins/1080/thumbnail.jp

Exploring Knowledge Processes for Technology Assimilation

In the emerging knowledge society, the ability to make the experience and expertise of those involved in and affected by new technology unconditionally available to all members of an organization is becoming increasingly important. One of the problems in developing such knowledge processes for technology assimilation is that current social structures do not easily accommodate unconditional participation. Since the implementation of modern information technology is changing the workplace and the nature of work itself, alternative social structures are needed. This research takes as given that deep questions concerning knowledge processes and social transformation are in principle undecidable; and, only questions which are in principle undecidable, we can decide. Since most scientific research deals with decidable questions, an alternative research approach has been designed to deal with these deeper questions. The central research question is: how do (or might) organizational personnel contribute to a knowledge process that facilitates the assimilation of new technologies? As an alternative to traditional research hypotheses, the research approach developed here to address undecidable questions formulates propositions as statements which are false, but whose truth would be desirable. The research design then explores the desirability of these propositions rather than their truth. This exploration was conducted at a major research university which was in the process of implmenting new distance education technology. The propositions are based in ideas that come from cybernetic inquiry and draw specifically from Heinz von Foerster\u27s distinction between trivial and non-trivial machines. A theoretical framework extends the concept of the non-trivial machine by identifying three types. This typing augments and complements the non-linear dynamic theory of leadership of Margaret Wheatley (Leadership and the New Science), the spiral of knowledge of Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi (The Knowledge-Creating Company), and the knowledge society of Peter Drucker (Post-Capitalist Society). The distinction between the \u27closed world\u27 and \u27open development\u27 paradigms of Peter Brodner proves valuable in explaining the results of the research. The primary conclusions of this research are: (1) members of current hierarchical organizations do not, for the most part, participate unconditionally in knowledge processes that affect their tasks, roles, and performance metrics; (2) many, if not most, organizational members recognize the significance, if not the necessity, of dialogue as an aspect of knowledge processes, although some are cynical about the possibility; and, (3) a hypothesis worth pursuing in future research is: organizational members participate in knowledge processes for technology assimilation when the propositions on cybernetics and social transformation are true. It is also suggested that other approaches to research on undecidable questions would be worth pursing

Lawrence University Course Catalog, 2020-2021

https://lux.lawrence.edu/coursecatalogs/1018/thumbnail.jp

Engaging the fourth industrial revolution

The reality of a radically changing world is beyond dispute. The notion of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is a heuristic key for the world of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, quantum computing, big data, the internet of things, and biotechnology. The discussion of emerging technologies and the Fourth Industrial Revolution highlights urgent questions about issues like intention, function, risk, and responsibility. This publication stimulates further reflection, ongoing conversation, and eventually the production of more textured thinking. The conversation with technology and with thinkers on technology, holds the promise of a certain fecundity, the possibility to see deeper into human evolution, but also, may be, into the future of humankind