Connecting the dots: information visualization and text analysis of the Searchlight Project newsletters

This report is the product of the Pardee Center’s work on the Searchlight:Visualization and Analysis of Trend Data project sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation. Part of a larger effort to analyze and disseminate on-the-ground information about important societal trends as reported in a large number of regional newsletters developed in Asia, Africa and the Americas specifically for the Foundation, the Pardee Center developed sophisticated methods to systematically review, categorize, analyze, visualize, and draw conclusions from the information in the newsletters.The Rockefeller Foundatio

The role of motivation in regulating the extent to which data visualisation literacy influences business intelligence and analytics use in organisations

Dissertation (MCom (Informatics))--University of Pretoria 2022.The ability to read and interpret visualised data is a critical skill to have in this information age where business intelligence and analytics (BI&A) systems are increasingly used to support decision-making. Data visualisation literacy is seen as the foundation of analytics. Moreover, there is great hype about data-driven analytical culture and data democratisation, where users are encouraged to have wide access to data and fully use BI&A to reap the benefits. Motivation is a stimulant to the richer use of any information system (IS), yet literature provides a limited understanding of the evaluation of data visualisation literacy and the effect of motivation in the BI&A context. Thus, this study aims to explain the role of motivation in regulating the extent to which data visualisation literacy influences BI&A’s exploitative and explorative use in organisations. Data visualisation literacy is measured using six data visualisations that focus on the five cognitive basic intelligent analytical tasks that assess the user's ability to read and interpret visualised data. Two types of motivations are assessed using perceived enjoyment as an intrinsic motivator and perceived usefulness as an extrinsic motivator. The model is tested using quantitative data collected from 111 users, applying Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The results indicate that intrinsic motivation exerts a positive effect on BI&A exploitative and explorative use while extrinsic motivation has a positive effect on BI&A exploitative use but weakens innovation with a negative effect on explorative use. The results further show an indirect relationship between data visualisation literacy with BI&A use through motivation. In addition, exploitation leads to creativity with exploitation positively being associated with exploration.InformaticsMCom (Informatics)Unrestricte

Favouring behavioural change of household’s energy consumption through social media and cooperative play

A change in how individuals consume energy is a key step in fighting climate change since it represents a crucial contribution to a more collective and sustainable lifestyle adoption. To carry out such process, designers and scientists are seeking new ways to increase public discussion and social involvement in energy reduction issues. In relation to this, the emphasis is on raising collective awareness to enable behavioural change and to inspire people in making sustainable decisions on energy consumption. This article draws on techniques and approaches from social science, gameful design and sustainability. It defines and discusses cooperative play as a privileged path for developing energy-related mobile applications. We present here an overview of multiple perspectives, in terms of content and methodology, to contribute to elaborating design methodologies that can favour behavioural change on households’ energy consumption

Learning in the 'platform society': disassembling an educational data assemblage

Schools are increasingly involved in diverse forms of student data collection. This article provides a sociotechnical survey of a data assemblage used in education. ClassDojo is a commercial platform for tracking students’ behaviour data in classrooms and a social media network for connecting teachers, students and parents. The hybridization of for-profit platforms with a key public institution of society raises significant issues. ClassDojo is designed to influence how school leaders and teachers make decisions, how schools connect with parents, and how teachers act to change students’ behaviour. Conceptualized as a ‘public sphere platform’ ClassDojo is reshaping discourses, practices and subjectivities in schools. In particular, ClassDojo provides evidence of how the business model and political economy governing social media—‘platform capitalism’—is being inserted into public education. It is prototypical of education in an emerging ‘platform society,’ and of how student and teacher subjectivities are being reshaped by the presumptions and worldviews encoded in digital platforms

The Use of Educational Games in High School Chemistry Learning in West Java Province

The implementation of games in chemistry classes has provided an interesting and alternative teaching method and allows students to learn in a more entertaining way compared to traditional learning process. The game-based learning approach is divided into three approaches, namely game-based learning or educational games, gamification, and game-assisted learning. Many chemistry games have been constructed in recent years to review and strengthen various chemistry topics; therefore, it is expected that Chemistry teachers in high schools in Indonesia, especially in West Java province implement educational games in the learning process. For that reason, it is necessary to perceive an overview of the use of educational games in Chemistry learning in secondary schools in West Java province. Survey research was carried out using a random sampling technique. There were 99 chemistry teachers from 91 high schools spread across the province of West Java who voluntarily participated in the online survey. The result of the analysis obtained that 35% of chemistry teachers in the province of West Java have implemented gamification and learning using game assistance. On the contrary, game-based learning has never been implemented in Chemistry learning process in secondary schools in West Java provinc