Barriers and Desired Affordances of Social Media Based e-Participation

The high rate of adoption of Social Media technologies and platforms make them naturally appealing for engaging citizens. Interestingly, despite the proliferation of e-Participation platforms, overall efforts towards mainstreaming Social Media-based and citizen-led political deliberations are still limited. Consequently, there is a paucity of research on effectiveness of Social Media technologies as e-Participation platforms; barriers to their use for e-Participation and their potentials to reshape deliberations on traditional e-Participation platforms. This paper investigates the perceived barriers to e-Participation and affordances of Social Media from the perspectives of senior decision maker and political actors. Grounded in the analytical framework for the duality e-Participation, we designed an instrument and interviewed 10 politicians and decision makers at different levels of government across three countries in Europe. Our results provide insights into barriers and perceived affordances of Social Media for e-Participation as well as the necessary conditions for increased adoption of Social Media for citizen-led participation

An investigation into how Web 2.0 technologies can be used to enhance the educational supervision of teachers

The concept of educational supervision has witnessed significant development in recent years and many studies in this field have demonstrated how computers and the internet have been employed in the process. However, the researcher has found no studies that examined the use of Web 2.0 online platforms and tools that promote interaction among users in educational supervision.The main purpose of this study is to examine the possibility of using Web 2.0 technologies in educational supervision in Saudi Arabia and investigate how these technologies can be used to enhance the educational supervision of teachers. In practical terms I planned to introduce Web 2.0 tools into the educational supervision process to support and enhance activities undertaken by supervisors and teachers.A small-scale four-stage development programme was run with groups of teachers and supervisors with the evaluation of that process making use of a mixed method approach to data collection. In the first stage interviews were held with seven supervisors and seven teachers, in order to explore the possibility of application, to build a picture and to enable me to become acquainted with data collection and analysis procedures and techniques. In the second stage, data was collected from 23 supervisors by focus group and questionnaire regarding the current usage of Web 2.0 technology in educational supervision and to examine how such technologies could facilitate supervisors’ work. In stages three and four, data was collected from thirty teachers through a pre-survey, followed by a Web 2.0 training programme and post-survey. The objectives in these stages were to study teachers’ usage of Web 2.0 technology and to evaluate the effect of the training programme in order to recognise and use the affordances of Web 2.0 tools for supervision.Teachers’ knowledge, awareness and confidence in relation to all of the tools were shown to have increased after the training programme, with the majority showing enthusiasm about employing this technology in educational supervision. The participants generally agreed that using Web 2.0 technologies in educational supervision is crucial and facilitated supervisors’ work

Understanding appropriation of a social media technology to manage chronic illness: The Facebook case

With the rapid increase of social media appropriation globally, there has been a surge in the number of chronically ill adults who leverage social media tools as part of their illness management practice. While numerous studies discuss the potential benefits of appropriation there seem to be limited studies that have explored appropriation of social media by investigating how and why these technologies have been appropriated by these patients. This paper applies an interpretive case study with mixed methods to examine appropriation of Facebook by these cohorts. Our results highlight the patterns of social media appropriation: lurking as passive learning; liking and reacting to show support and; borderless appropriation of multiple social media tools. Among a range of influences, crafting a positive illness identity, communal filtering of misinformation were found to be positive influences and barriers like emotional overload were found to influence appropriation for chronically ill adults on social media

Disrupting Complex Systems with Emerging Technologies: A Study on United States Airport Operations

The number of United States domestic commercial flight passengers are growing every year, which means the number of people checking-in, dropping off their bags, and going through TSA within airports is equally growing. With the increasing number of passengers and aging airports, there are several areas of pain points within airports where passengers hit a bottleneck due to the current systems that airports have in place. There are three main areas that we are going to reference. First the check-in process, where customers have to get their tickets, input identification information, and check-in for their flight. Second, baggage-drop off, where customers get their baggage weighed and tagged. Lastly, is Transport Security Administration (TSA). This is where consumers get their carry-on bags scanned as well as their person. In each of these areas, there are some levels of inconvenience imposed on the customer by the current system. With technological advancements being used in other industries, the goal of this thesis is to look at what existing technologies can be modified and used within airport operations to reduce the long lines that customers face every time they travel

An anatomy of a social network : momentum, enhanced engagement and social media fatigue : a qualitative case study of situated literacy and engagement among further education re-sit students in the UK

The thesis presents a case study of how an online social network supported the classroom learning experienced by students undertaking the GCSE English re-sit. Inherent to the study is the problem of engagement and motivation among students ambivalent to this compulsory curriculum. The case study compares uses of the network between 16-19 year olds and adults in a Further Education college in the northwest of England.A theoretical model was constructed from a content analysis of communication posts across two years and four separate groups (n = 87) using the social network Edmodo.com. This was complemented by interviews with 15 students and observations of blended (classroom-based) use of the network. Coding of network communications showed how high levels of engagement assisted the negotiation of actions towards goals through co-operative communities of practice. High instances of affective disclosures in the network reveal apprehension to mobile provision, as well as opportunities for transformed perspective framed as decision-making thresholds.Students‘ posts lead to a profiling based on the frequency and types of communication posts made to the network, enabling insights into use and the design of a Continuum of Engagement. The theoretical continuum illustrates how momentum occurs through increased activity across time through socially cohesive communities that can help orientate learners to objectives, albeit, mainly among adult learners and specifically where blended to classroom use. Further conceptualisation of the inhibitors that exist with younger and peripheral members are presented as ontological thresholds of online presence – barriers to community participation based upon individual‘s affective dispositions. These factors may contribute to a sense of resistance to online learning, labelled Social Media Fatigue, indicating divergence with social learning models. Underscoring all activity are technological features perceived variably by students as affordances or as inhibitors to participation. Pedagogical strategies and interventions by educators are recommended that illustrate how students can be supported to negotiate ontological thresholds creating momentum in engaged agency towards increased self-determination

Occupant interactions with low energy architecture: exploring usability issues

Dwellings are becoming more complicated as designers seek to cut heat losses from buildings. But to achieve a high level of performance, occupants will need to operate buildings in very specific ways. Future homes may be less like machines for living in, and more like complex systems of interconnected equipment that place significant cognitive, physical and psychological demands on those who inhabit them. Adapting to low carbon technologies will require changes to existing practices, new skills, and will offer new experiences - both good and bad - that will influence or even determine their adoption by users. This paper considers how designers of low carbon buildings can increase their understanding of how occupants might interact with these buildings. The paper draws parallels with the co-evolution of technology and users in the computing industry during the 1980s and examine the changing attitudes to 'the user' and the methods developed through usability studies to offer a better interactive experience. Such methods suggest ways of studying occupant interactions with buildings and their systems, but need to be adapted to be relevant to enclosures rather than devices.The paper highlights the relevance of Gibson's concept of affordance as a tool with which to explore the terrain

Designing the Teacher: Applying \u27Design Thinking\u27 to Improve Composition Pedagogy and Practice

College composition courses have conventionally relied on alphabetic, print writing as the primary method for constructing meaning, but contemporary communication practices are increasingly multimodal and media-based (Palmeri, 2012; Yancey, 2011). While many teachers and scholars advocate that students benefit from engaging in the production of multimodal texts, fewer educators create digital and new media products themselves. Through a meta-analytical approach, this project explores the potentials that the act of design offers teacher-scholars for improving their pedagogy and practice. Utilizing a design thinking framework, the generative analysis of established scholarship, primary research, and authentic experiences provided significant insights into the cognitive, physical, and social processes that make up design, which suggest a need to contemporize language and adapt approaches to suit modern materials and methods for composing. For instructors, the fruitful knowledge gained through design is not limited to a single product or person but should be applied to classroom practices to improve the teaching of multimodal projects. Further, teacher-scholars are encouraged to share their media products through digital platforms to serve as accessible resources for other educators, which might encourage and improve the instruction of design and cultivate change in the culture of the writing classroom by fostering an inclusive and innovative space for composing