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Embedding sustainability through systems thinking in practice: some experiences from the Open University
One initiative that has emerged during the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) through the work of the Open University Systems group has been its postgraduate programme in Systems Thinking and Practice (STiP). Built on some forty yearsâ experience of systems teaching and research at the Open University (OU), this open learning, distance taught programme is designed to develop studentsâ abilities to tackle complex messy situations, to provide skills to think more holistically and to work more collaboratively to avoid systemic failures. This paper critically reviews the trajectory of this programme âits past, present and future. It discusses the STiP programmeâs many boundaries with other programmes and across sectors. Challenges of epistemology, ethics and purpose are explored, in relation to education for sustainability. The programmeâs many and varied teaching and learning processes are explicated. The pedagogy of the STiP programme is grounded in a diverse range of studentsâ experiences and needs that by no means all focus explicitly, or primarily, on sustainability or sustainable development. Many OU students study part-time alongside their other commitments, both work and community-based. STiP students are all interested in systems and learning. But what STiP is a part of for them varies considerably. Students come mainly from the UK and rest of Europe. Many of their interactions are online through several different fora. A diverse, active and critical OU STiP alumni community has developed, initiated by the early graduates of the programme. Academics responsible for the programme also participate in this communityâs deliberations, at the invitation of student alumni. In this paper, the authors build on their various experiences of the STiP programme and re-explore its contexts and boundaries from an ESD point of view. They use some of the systems heuristics that they teach, to critically reflect on both what is being achieved through this programme in relation to education for sustainability and what they and some of their past students and associate lecturers think ought to be occurring in this respect as they go forward
Social Informatics Education in I-Schools
This essay focuses on the philosophical and conceptual underpinnings of a program of
study in Social Informatics. We examine foundational concepts and analytical tools,
ideas worked out by Rob Kling and others about the key components of an ICToriented
education (even when the intent of their discussion was not pedagogical). Our
intention is to assay Klingâs program of critical inquiry for a Social Informatics
education that prepares information professionals to respond appropriately and
ethically in their future careers. We do not to recommend the adoption of specific
courses for a Social Informatics education. We had also planned to identify those
components of a Social Informatics education that I-schools and library and information
science schools have incorporated in their program offerings to determine how much
progress has been made to adopt a critical perspective on the relationship between
technology and people. However, this proved to be nearly impossible; we discuss our
limited findings based on our initial exploration. Our concluding remarks address
additions to the Kling perspective on a Social Informatics education that we would like
to see and offer some thoughts on ways to support a Social Informatics education for
information professionals.Indiana Universit
Increasing information feed in the process of structural steel design
Research initiatives throughout history have shown how a designer typically makes associations and references to a vast amount of knowledge based on experiences to make decisions. With the increasing usage of information systems in our everyday lives, one might imagine an information system that provides designers access to the âarchitectural memoriesâ of other architectural designers during the design process, in addition to their own physical architectural memory. In this paper, we discuss how the increased adoption of semantic web technologies might advance this idea. We investigate to what extent information can be described with these technologies in the context of structural steel design. This investigation indicates significant possibilities regarding information reuse in the process of structural steel design and, by extent, in other design contexts as well. However, important obstacles and question remarks can still be outlined as well
Extending the design process into the knowledge of the world
Research initiatives throughout history have shown how a designer typically makes associations and references to a vast amount of knowledge based on experiences to make decisions. With the increasing usage of information systems in our everyday lives, one might imagine an information system that provides designers access to the âarchitectural memoriesâ of other architectural designers during the design process, in addition to their own physical architectural memory. In this paper, we discuss how the increased adoption of semantic web technologies might advance this idea. We briefly discuss how such a semantic web of building information can be set up, and how this can be linked to a wealth of information freely available in the Linked Open Data (LOD) cloud
Challenges to Teaching Credibility Assessment in Contemporary Schooling
Part of the Volume on Digital Media, Youth, and CredibilityThis chapter explores several challenges that exist to teaching credibility assessment in the school environment. Challenges range from institutional barriers such as government regulation and school policies and procedures to dynamic challenges related to young people's cognitive development and the consequent difficulties of navigating a complex web environment. The chapter includes a critique of current practices for teaching kids credibility assessment and highlights some best practices for credibility education
The simultaneity of complementary conditions:re-integrating and balancing analogue and digital matter(s) in basic architectural education
The actual, globally established, general digital procedures in basic architectural education,producing well-behaved, seemingly attractive up-to-date projects, spaces and first general-researchon all scale levels, apparently present a certain growing amount of deficiencies. These limitations surface only gradually, as the state of things on overall extents is generally deemed satisfactory. Some skills, such as âold-fashionedâ analogue drawing are gradually eased-out ofundergraduate curricula and overall modus-operandi, due to their apparent slow inefficiencies in regard to various digital mediaâs rapid readiness, malleability and unproblematic, quotidian availabilities. While this state of things is understandable, it nevertheless presents a definite challenge. The challenge of questioning how the assessment of conditions and especially their representation,is conducted, prior to contextual architectural action(s) of any kind
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