Towards a Holistic Understanding of Technology-mediated Learning Appropriation

Information technology in the learning process is one major success factor for innovative learning scenarios. A necessary pre-condition is the faithful appropriation of technology-mediated learning (TML) to ensure learning outcomes. However, research still lacks insights concerning determinants and consequences of a faithful TML appropriation. Therefore, this research-in-progress paper presents a mixed-methods research approach to gain a holistic understanding of TML appropriation. First, based on the insights of adaptive structuration theory, a theoretical model is developed considering objective and subjective measures for TML appropriation as well as antecedents and consequences of TML appropriation. Second, the mixed-methods approach is presented in order to evaluate the theoretical model. Our expected contribution to theory includes an extension of both TML and adaptive structuration theory with an in-depth view of TML appropriation. Expected practical contributions include the derivation of design implications for TML services that are faithfully appropriated to ensure learning success of TML participants

Promoting sustainable construction: European and British networks at the knowledge-policy interface

The responsibility of builders, developers, planners, architects and policy-makers to promote more sustainable urban environments and buildings is consistently prioritized in nascent European, national and local planning strategies. Yet what counts as ‘sustainable construction’ varies by issue, sector and policy mandate. Proponents of sustainable construction might promote technological shifts in terms of materials, energy use and waste reduction, or they might encourage cultural and behavioural adaptations to how society views, uses and plans its built environment. This paper examines this problematic bifurcation of sustainable construction into two exclusive agendas: the construction technology agenda and the urban sustainability planning agenda, each constituted by distinct policy and sector-based networks. It is argued that the orientation to detail in the construction technology agenda operates at odds with the holistic process orientation of the broader urban sustainability agenda, thus complicating the effective translation or co-generation of sustainable construction knowledge between the two networks. The lack of integration between these two sets of networks should be cause for concern, yet appears to be largely overlooked in mainstream policy processes

Dynamics of Affordances and Implications for Design

Affordance is an important concept in HCI. There are various interpretations of affordances but it has been difficult to use this concept for design purposes. Often the treatment of affordances in the current HCI literature has been as a one-to-one relationship between a user and an artefact. According to our views, affordance is a dynamic, always emerging relationship between a human and his environment. We believe that the social and cultural contexts within which an artefact is situated affect the way in which the artefact is used. Using a Structuration Theory approach, we argue that affordances need also be treated at a much broader level, encompassing social and cultural aspects. We suggest that affordances should be seen at three levels: single user, organizational (or work group) and societal. Focusing on the organizational level affordances, we provide details of several important factors that affect the emergence of affordances

La formación de docentes en TIC: aportaciones desde diferentes modelos de formación

Training the teaching staff in Information and Communication Technologies comes implicitly with the study of its different dimensions and principles, regarding the indications that have been pointed from a variety of studies and works. In our current society, it is clear that the significance of ICT to improve quality and educational performance is not exclusively determined by its presence, but also by the variety of transformations that involves not only using them as a way of consuming knowledge but also seeing them as tools to enrich, create and generate said knowledge. From this perspective, investment in professional development is more important than investment in resources associated with technology. ftis is an important aspect for incorporation of ITC, not considering only its use to do better things than we do without it, but to do things in a complete different manner. We present this article which describes a tour of some of the bases and models, analyzing the problematic of training in digital skills that teachers might face when they incorporate them into their teaching and professional practice.Hablar de la formación del profesorado en Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación, implica el estudio de diferentes dimensiones y principios, contemplando las indicaciones que han apuntado distintos estudios y trabajos. En la sociedad actual, es claro que la significación de las TIC para mejorar la calidad y el rendimiento educativo, no viene exclusivamente determinado por su presencia, sino también por diferentes transformaciones que implican pasar de utilizarlas únicamente como una forma de consumir conocimientos, a verlas como herramientas para enriquecerlos, crearlos y generarlos. Desde esta perspectiva, la inversión en desarrollo profesional es más importante que la inversión en recursos asociados a la tecnología, siendo unaspecto importantepara su incorporación, el noplantearse únicamente su utilización para hacer mejor las cosas que hacemos sin ellas, sino para hacer cosas completamente distintas. Desde esta óptica, planteamos el presente artículo en el que se describe un recorrido por algunas de las bases y modelos, analizando la problemática de la formación en las competencias digitales que debe poseer el profesorado a la hora de incorporarlas en su práctica docente y profesional

Activity Theory. A framework for understanding the interrelations between users and workplace design.

Activity theory (AT) is a conceptual framework for the study of human activity. From this theoretical perspective, an activity system is the primary unit of analysis and is broken into three analytical components: (i) the subject - the person, group or organisation being studied, (ii) the mediating tools by which the activity is carried out, and (iii) the object that the provides the meaning and purpose for which subjects engage in activities. As the concept of tool mediation is central to the theory, its application in workplace studies has enabled an understanding of the interaction between employees as users, their activities and workplaces as mediating tools. AT has been applied in workplace studies to examine the implications of relocating to flexible offices, offering a holistic and contextual method of discovery that has informed use(r)-centred workplace design. Qualitative and interpretative research is recommended for examining the components of activities and their interdependencies. To this end, contextual inquiries are recommended, with a triangulation of methods such as interviews, observations and walkthroughs to ensure a comprehensive understanding of activity systems. The chapter concludes with a step-by-step guide for conducting workplace studies, using AT as an analytical framework

Mediating towards digital inclusion: the monitors of internet access places

Local dynamics play a key role in individual and collective empowerment for digital literacy and citizenship. This paper presents the results and reflections from a broader investigation into the public Internet access places in Portugal in the inland municipalities of the country's coast, undertaken by ObLID Network. Specifically, we intend to reflect on the actual mission of these places and reveal the actual profile, activities and training needs of their monitors and coordinators. In the first stage of the empirical study, several documents available on the Internet Spaces Network are analyzed. In the second stage, a questionnaire was applied to monitors and coordinators of the Internet access places, in seventeen Portuguese municipalities. The research results warn of the need to redefine and clarify the social and educational value of Internet spaces, indicating that the dominant activities of monitors in the Internet access places do not induce the foster of literacy and digital inclusion of the most vulnerable groups. In this context, actions are proposed that can contribute to improving the mission of Internet places, as well as the training quality of their monitors and coordinators. Internet Access Spaces, made available by municipalities, should be used to promote digital literacy programs, for individuals and groups.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A New Theoretical Framework for Artifact-Mediated Regulation

In this paper, we attempt to integrate the traditionally disparate concepts of technology design, use and organizational practice in organizational studies. Using Jean-Daniel Reynaud’s joint-regulation theory, we demonstrate how these traditionally separate perspectives on ICT-related practice and organizational change process can be brought together under the umbrella of a practice-based view emphasizing rule-setting in organizations. Further, we synthesize existing accounts of practice-based view on organizational processes to introduce the notion of artifact-mediated regulation. It is argued that combined with Reynaud’s joint-regulation theory, the proposed notion of artifact-mediated regulation provides a tool for holistic analysis of the dynamics between ICT design and use and organizational practice.ou

Community building and virtual teamwork in an online learning environment

In the world of OTIS, an online Internet School for occupational therapists, students from four European countries were encouraged to work collaboratively through problem based learning by interacting with each other in a virtual semi-immersive environment. This paper aims to explore the issues that there was little interaction between students from different tutorial groups and virtual teamwork developed in each of the cross cultural tutorial groups. Synchronous data from European students was captured during tutorial sessions and peer booked meetings and evidence suggests that communities of interest were established. It is possible to conclude that collaborative systems can be designed, which encourage students to build trust and teamwork in a cross cultural online learning environment. </p