454 research outputs found
Big data for monitoring educational systems
This report considers âhow advances in big data are likely to transform the context and methodology of monitoring educational systems within a long-term perspective (10-30 years) and impact the evidence based policy development in the sectorâ, big data are âlarge amounts of different types of data produced with high velocity from a high number of various types of sources.â Five independent experts were commissioned by Ecorys, responding to themes of: students' privacy, educational equity and efficiency, student tracking, assessment and skills. The experts were asked to consider the âmacro perspective on governance on educational systems at all levels from primary, secondary education and tertiary â the latter covering all aspects of tertiary from further, to higher, and to VETâ, prioritising primary and secondary levels of education
Conflicts, integration, hybridization of subcultures: An ecological approach to the case of queercore
This paper investigates the case study of queercore, providing a socio-historical analysis of its subcultural
production, in the terms of what Michel Foucault has called archaeology of knowledge (1969). In
particular, we will focus on: the self-definition of the movement; the conflicts between the two merged
worlds of punk and queer culture; the \u201cinternal-subcultural\u201d conflicts between both queercore and
punk, and between queercore and gay\lesbian music culture; the political aspects of differentiation.
In the conclusion, we will offer an innovative theoretical proposal about the interpretation of subcultures
in ecological and semiotic terms, combining the contribution of the American sociologist Andrew Abbot
and of the Russian semiologist Jurij Michajlovi\u10d Lotma
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Playing with Virtual Reality: Early Adopters of Commercial Immersive Technology
This dissertation examines early adopters of mass-marketed Virtual Reality (VR), as well as other immersive technologies, and the playful processes by which they incorporate the devices into their lives within New York City. Starting in 2016, relatively inexpensive head-mounted displays (HMDs) began to be manufactured and distributed by leaders in the game and information technology industries. However, even before these releases, developers and content creators were testing the devices through âdevelopment kits.â These de facto early adopters, who are distinctly commercially-oriented, acted as a launching point for the dissertation to scrutinize how, why and in what ways digital technologies spread to the wider public.
Taking a multimethod approach that combines semi-structured interviews, two years of participant observation, media discourse analysis and autoethnography, the dissertation details a moment in the diffusion of an innovation and how publicity, social forces and industry influence adoption. This includes studying the media ecosystem which promotes and sustains VR, the role of New York City in framing opportunities and barriers for new users, and a description of meetups as important communities where devotees congregate.
With Game Studies as a backdrop for analysis, the dissertation posits that the blurry relationship between labor and play held by most enthusiasts sustains the process of VR adoption. Their âplayborâ colors not only the rhetoric and the focus of meetups, but also the activities, designs, and, most importantly, the financial and personal expenditures they put forth. Ultimately, play shapes the system of production by which adopters of commercial VR are introduced to the technology and, eventually, weave it into their lives. Situating play at the center of this system highlights that the assimilation of digital media is in part an embodied and irrational experience. It also suggests new models by which future innovations will spread to the public
Redesigning chemical analysis: transducing information from chemical into digital
Aquesta tesi planteja que les xarxes distribuĂŻdes de detecciĂł de substĂ ncies quĂmiques serĂĄn eines beneficioses per aconseguir millors resultats de salut com a ĂŠssers humans, aixĂ com per a guiarnes en el nostre paper autodeterminat con a guardians en l'Ă mbit ecològic. Tot aixo, des de la perspectiva dâintroduir elements de disseny en les eines analĂtiques.
El treball comença amb una introducciĂł a la visiĂł de com els sensors quĂmics s'adapten als contextos mĂŠs grans de la biologia, la història i la tecnologia. El segon capĂtol ofereix una base de coneixements sobre els mètodes i principis cientĂfics i tecnològics subjacents sobre els quals es basa aquest treball. A continuaciĂł, es fa una revisiĂł crĂtica dels avenços acadèmics cap als sensors electroquĂmics distribuĂŻts, que divideixen el problema en tres aspectes: rendiment adequat, usabilitat intuĂŻtiva i assequibilitat. Entre aquests, la usabilitat s'identifica com el coll d'ampolla principal en l'adopciĂł generalitzada de sensors quĂmics centrats en l'usuari.
Els capĂtols posteriors ofereixen algunes respostes als reptes, en forma de treball experimental original. Encara que aquest treball es basa en l'electroquĂmica analĂtica, s'aborda des dâuna metodologia de disseny, amb iteracions d'anĂ lisi i sĂntesi incrustades en el procĂŠs d'ideaciĂł.
Les declaracions finals reflexionen sobre el treball com una petita part en una creixent revoluciĂł de l'edat de la informaciĂł quĂmica; com una petita esquerda a la presa que contenia una allau de dades quĂmiques de diagnòstic amb conseqßències imprevisibles, però positives i revolucionĂ ries.Esta tesis postula que las redes distribuidas de detecciĂłn quĂmica serĂĄn herramientas beneficiosas para alcanzar mejores resultados de salud como seres humanos, asĂ como para guiarnos en nuestro papel autodeterminado como guardianes en la esfera ecolĂłgica. Todo esto desde una perspectiva de introducir elementos de diseĂąo en herramientas analĂticas.
El trabajo comienza con una introducciĂłn a la visiĂłn de cĂłmo los sensores quĂmicos se ajustan a los contextos mĂĄs amplios de la biologĂa, la historia y la tecnologĂa. El segundo capĂtulo proporciona algunos antecedentes de los mĂŠtodos y principios cientĂficos y tecnolĂłgicos subyacentes en los que se basa este trabajo. Esto es seguido por una revisiĂłn crĂtica de los avances acadĂŠmicos hacia sensores electroquĂmicos distribuidos, que divide el problema en tres aspectos: rendimiento apropiado, usabilidad intuitiva y asequibilidad. Entre estos, la usabilidad se identifica como el cuello de botella principal en la adopciĂłn generalizada de sensores quĂmicos centrados en el usuario.
Los siguientes capĂtulos ofrecen algunas respuestas a los desafĂos, en forma de trabajo experimental original. Mientras que este trabajo se arraiga en la electroquĂmica analĂtica, se aborda desde una metodologĂa de diseĂąo, con iteraciones de anĂĄlisis y sĂntesis integradas en el proceso de ideaciĂłn.
Las declaraciones finales reflejan el trabajo como una pequeĂąa parte en una floreciente revoluciĂłn de la era de la informaciĂłn quĂmica; como una pequeĂąa grieta en la presa que contiene una avalancha de datos quĂmicos de diagnĂłstico con consecuencias imprevisibles, pero positivas y revolucionarias.This thesis posits that distributed chemical sensing networks will be beneficial tools towards our greater health outcomes as humans, as well as in guiding us in our self-determined role as custodians over the ecological sphere. A perspective of infusing design elements and approaches into analytical tools is shared.
The work begins with an introduction presenting a vision of how chemical sensors fit within the greater contexts of biology, history, and technology. The second chapter provides some background to the underlying scientific and technological methods and principles on which this work stands. This is followed by a critical review of the academic advances towards distributed electrochemical sensors, which divides the problem into three aspects of appropriate performance, intuitive usability, and affordability. Amongst these, usability is identified as the principal bottleneck in the widespread adoption of user-centered chemical sensors.
The subsequent chapters offer some responses to the challenges, in the form of original experimental work. While rooted in analytical electrochemistry, the work is approached with a design methodology, with iterations of analysis and synthesis embedded in the ideation process.
Concluding statements reflect on the work as a small part in a burgeoning revolution of the chemical information age; as a minor crack in the dam holding back a flood of diagnostic chemical data with unforeseeable, yet positive and revolutionary consequences
AM Envelope:
This dissertation shows the potential of Additive Manufacturing (AM) for the development of building envelopes: AM will change the way of designing facades, how we engineer and produce them. To achieve todayâs demands from those future envelopes, we have to find new solutions.
New technologies offer one possible way to do so. They open new approaches in designing, producing and processing building construction and facades. Finding the one capable of having big impact is difficult â Additive Manufacturing is one possible answer.
The term âAM Envelopeâ (Additive Manufacturing Envelope) describes the transfer of this technology to the building envelope. Additive Fabrication is a building block that aids in developing the building envelope from a mere space enclosure to a dynamic building envelope.
First beginnings of AM facade construction show up when dealing with relevant aspects like material consumption, mounting or partâs performance.
From those starting points several parts of an existing post-and-beam façade system were optimized, aiming toward the implementation of AM into the production chain. Enhancements on all different levels of production were achieved: storing, producing, mounting and performance.
AM offers the opportunity to manufacture facades âjust in timeâ. It is no longer necessary to store or produce large numbers of parts in advance. Initial investment for tooling can be avoided, as design improvements can be realized within the dataset of the AM part. AM is based on âtool-lessâ production, all parts can be further developed with every new generation.
Producing tool-less also allows for new shapes and functional parts in small batch sizes â down to batch size one. The parts performance can be re-interpreted based on the demands within the system, not based on the limitations of conventional manufacturing. AM offers new ways of materializing the physical part around its function. It leads toward customized and enhanced performance.
Advancements can for example be achieved in the semi-finished goods: more effective glueing of window frames can be supported by Snap-On fittings. Solving the most critical part of a free-form structure and allowing for a smart combination with the approved standards has a great potential, as well.
Next to those product oriented approaches toward future envelopes, this thesis provides the basic knowledge about AM technologies and AM materials.
The basic principle of AM opens a fascinating new world of engineering, no matter what applications can be found: to âdesign for functionâ rather to âdesign for productionâ turns our way of engineering of the last century upside down. A collection of AM applications therefore offers the outlook to our (built) future in combination with the acquired knowledge.
AM will never replace established production processes but rather complement them where this seems practical. AM is not the proverbial Swiss-army knife that can resolve all of todayâs façade issues! But it is a tool that might be able to close another link in the âfile-to-factory chainâ. AM allows us a better, more precise and safer realization of todayâs predominantly free designs that are based on the algorithms of the available software. With such extraordinary building projects, the digital production of neuralgic system components will become reality in the near future â today, an AM Envelope is close at hand. Still, âprintingâ entire buildings lies in the far future; for a long time human skill and craftsmanship will be needed on the construction site combined with high-tech tools to translate the designersâ visions into reality. AM Envelope is one possible result of this
AM Envelope
This dissertation shows the potential of Additive Manufacturing (AM) for the development of building envelopes: AM will change the way of designing facades, how we engineer and produce them. To achieve todayâs demands from those future envelopes, we have to find new solutions.
New technologies offer one possible way to do so. They open new approaches in designing, producing and processing building construction and facades. Finding the one capable of having big impact is difficult â Additive Manufacturing is one possible answer.
The term âAM Envelopeâ (Additive Manufacturing Envelope) describes the transfer of this technology to the building envelope. Additive Fabrication is a building block that aids in developing the building envelope from a mere space enclosure to a dynamic building envelope.
First beginnings of AM facade construction show up when dealing with relevant aspects like material consumption, mounting or partâs performance.
From those starting points several parts of an existing post-and-beam façade system were optimized, aiming toward the implementation of AM into the production chain. Enhancements on all different levels of production were achieved: storing, producing, mounting and performance.
AM offers the opportunity to manufacture facades âjust in timeâ. It is no longer necessary to store or produce large numbers of parts in advance. Initial investment for tooling can be avoided, as design improvements can be realized within the dataset of the AM part. AM is based on âtool-lessâ production, all parts can be further developed with every new generation.
Producing tool-less also allows for new shapes and functional parts in small batch sizes â down to batch size one. The parts performance can be re-interpreted based on the demands within the system, not based on the limitations of conventional manufacturing. AM offers new ways of materializing the physical part around its function. It leads toward customized and enhanced performance.
Advancements can for example be achieved in the semi-finished goods: more effective glueing of window frames can be supported by Snap-On fittings. Solving the most critical part of a free-form structure and allowing for a smart combination with the approved standards has a great potential, as well.
Next to those product oriented approaches toward future envelopes, this thesis provides the basic knowledge about AM technologies and AM materials.
The basic principle of AM opens a fascinating new world of engineering, no matter what applications can be found: to âdesign for functionâ rather to âdesign for productionâ turns our way of engineering of the last century upside down. A collection of AM applications therefore offers the outlook to our (built) future in combination with the acquired knowledge.
AM will never replace established production processes but rather complement them where this seems practical. AM is not the proverbial Swiss-army knife that can resolve all of todayâs façade issues! But it is a tool that might be able to close another link in the âfile-to-factory chainâ. AM allows us a better, more precise and safer realization of todayâs predominantly free designs that are based on the algorithms of the available software. With such extraordinary building projects, the digital production of neuralgic system components will become reality in the near future â today, an AM Envelope is close at hand. Still, âprintingâ entire buildings lies in the far future; for a long time human skill and craftsmanship will be needed on the construction site combined with high-tech tools to translate the designersâ visions into reality. AM Envelope is one possible result of this
NEUVis: Comparing Affective and Effective Visualisation
Data visualisations are useful for providing insight from complex scientific data. However, even with visualisation, scientific research is difficult for non-scientists to comprehend. When developed by designers in collaboration with scientists, data visualisation can be used to articulate scientific data in a way that non-experts can understand. Creating human-centred visualisations is a unique challenge, and there are no frameworks to support their design. In response, this thesis presents a practice-led study investigating design methods that can be used to develop Non-Expert User Visualisations (NEUVis), data visualisations for a general public, and the response that people have to different kinds of NEUVis. For this research, two groups of ten users participated in quantitative studies, informed by Yvonna Lincoln and Egon Gubaâs method of Naturalistic Inquiry, which asked non-scientists to express their cognitive and emotional response to NEUVis using different media. The three different types of visualisations were infographics, 3D animations and an interactive installation. The installation used in the study, entitled 18S rDNA, was developed and evaluated as part of this research using John Zimmermanâs Research Through Design methodology. 18S rDNA embodies the knowledge and design methods that were developed for this research, and provided an opportunity for explication of the entire NEUVis design process. The research findings indicate that developing visualisations for the non-expert audience requires a new process, different to the way scientists visualise data. The result of this research describes how creative practitioners collaborate with primary researchers and presents a new human-centred design thinking model for NEUVis. This model includes two design tools. The first tool helps designers merge user needs with data they wish to visualise. The second tool helps designers take that merged information and begin an iterative, user-centred design process
Opening digital fabrication: transforming TechKnowledgies
This study analyses the field of open digital fabrication where novel digital capabilities and hopes for social transformation have merged to form arrangements that seek to democratise knowledge and technology through collaboration. Through qualitative social science the study analyses FabLabs and open source technologies and the respective collective procedures that produce and organise technology and knowledge that redefine the entanglement of our society and its technologies
Processpatching: defining new methods in aRt&D
In the context of a rapidly changing domain of contemporary electronic art practice- where the speed of technological innovation and the topicality of art 'process as research' methods are both under constant revision- the process of collaboration between art, computer science and engineering is an important addition to existing 'R&D'. Scholarly as well as practical exploration of artistic methods, viewed in relation to the field of new technology, can be seen to enable and foster innovation in both the conceptualisation and practice of the electronic arts. At the same time, citing new media art in the context of technological innovation brings a mix of scientific and engineering issues to the fore and thereby demands an extended functionality that may lead to R&D, as technology attempts to take account of aesthetic and social considerations in its re-development. This new field of new media or electronic art R&D is different from research and development aimed at practical applications of new technologies as we see them in everyday life. A next step for Research and Development in Art (aRt&D) is a formalisation of the associated work methods, as an essential ingredient for interdisciplinary collaboration.
This study investigates how electronic art patches together processes and methods from the arts, engineering and computer science environments. It provides a framework describing the electronic art methods to improve collaboration by informing others about one's artistic research and development approach. This investigation is positioned in the electronic art laboratory where new alliances with other disciplines are established. It provides information about the practical and theoretical aspects of the research and development processes of artists. The investigation addresses fundamental questions about the 'research and development methods' (discussed and defined at length in these pages), of artists who are involved in interdisciplinary collaborations amongst and between the fields of Art, Computer Science, and Engineering. The breadth of the fields studied necessarily forced a tight focus on specific issues in the literature, addressed herein through a series of focused case studies which demonstrate the points of synergy and divergence between the fields of artistic research and development, in a wider art&D' context. The artistic methods proposed in this research include references from a broad set of fields (e. g. Technology, Media Arts, Theatre and Performance, Systems Theories, the Humanities, and Design Practice) relevant to and intrinsically intertwined with this project and its placement in an interdisciplinary knowledge domain.
The aRt&D Matrix provides a complete overview of the observed research and development methods in electronic arts, including references to related disciplines and methods from other fields. The new Matrix developed and offered in this thesis also provides an instrument for analysing the interdisciplinary collaboration process that exclusively reflects the information we need for the overview of the team constellation. The tool is used to inform the collaborators about the backgrounds of the other participants and thus about the expected methods and approaches. It provides a map of the bodies of knowledge and expertise represented in any given cross-disciplinary team, and thus aims to lay the groundwork for a future aRt&D framework of use to future scholars and practitioners alike
AI for Everyone?
We are entering a new era of technological determinism and solutionism in which governments and business actors are seeking data-driven change, assuming that Artificial Intelligence is now inevitable and ubiquitous. But we have not even started asking the right questions, let alone developed an understanding of the consequences. Urgently needed is debate that asks and answers fundamental questions about power. This book brings together critical interrogations of what constitutes AI, its impact and its inequalities in order to offer an analysis of what it means for AI to deliver benefits for everyone. The book is structured in three parts: Part 1, AI: Humans vs. Machines, presents critical perspectives on human-machine dualism. Part 2, Discourses and Myths About AI, excavates metaphors and policies to ask normative questions about what is âdesirableâ AI and what conditions make this possible. Part 3, AI Power and Inequalities, discusses how the implementation of AI creates important challenges that urgently need to be addressed. Bringing together scholars from diverse disciplinary backgrounds and regional contexts, this book offers a vital intervention on one of the most hyped concepts of our times
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