Geoinformation, Geotechnology, and Geoplanning in the 1990s

Over the last decade, there have been some significant changes in the geographic information available to support those involved in spatial planning and policy-making in different contexts. Moreover, developments have occurred apace in the technology with which to handle geoinformation. This paper provides an overview of trends during the 1990s in data provision, in the technology required to manipulate and analyse spatial information, and in the domain of planning where applications of computer technology in the processing of geodata are prominent. It draws largely on experience in western Europe, and in the UK and the Netherlands in particular, and suggests that there are a number of pressures for a strengthened role for geotechnology in geoplanning in the years ahead

CHORUS Deliverable 4.5: Report of the 3rd CHORUS Conference

The third and last CHORUS conference on Multimedia Search Engines took place from the 26th to the 27th of May 2009 in Brussels, Belgium. About 100 participants from 15 European countries, the US, Japan and Australia learned about the latest developments in the domain. An exhibition of 13 stands presented 16 research projects currently ongoing around the world

3D and 4D Simulations for Landscape Reconstruction and Damage Scenarios. GIS Pilot Applications

The project 3D and 4D Simulations for Landscape Reconstruction and Damage Scenarios: GIS Pilot Applications has been devised with the intention to deal with the demand for research, innovation and applicative methodology on the part of the international programme, requiring concrete results to increase the capacity to know, anticipate and respond to a natural disaster. This project therefore sets out to develop an experimental methodology, a wide geodatabase, a connected performant GIS platform and multifunctional scenarios able to profitably relate the added values deriving from different geotechnologies, aimed at a series of crucial steps regarding landscape reconstruction, event simulation, damage evaluation, emergency management, multi-temporal analysis. The Vesuvius area has been chosen for the pilot application owing to such an impressive number of people and buildings subject to volcanic risk that one could speak in terms of a possible national disaster. The steps of the project move around the following core elements: creation of models that reproduce the territorial and anthropic structure of the past periods, and reconstruction of the urbanized area, with temporal distinctions; three-dimensional representation of the Vesuvius area in terms of infrastructuralresidential aspects; GIS simulation of the expected event; first examination of the healthcareepidemiological consequences; educational proposals. This paper represents a proactive contribution which describes the aims of the project, the steps which constitute a set of specific procedures for the methodology which we are experimenting, and some thoughts regarding the geodatabase useful to “package” illustrative elaborations. Since the involvement of the population and adequate hazard preparedness are very important aspects, some educational and communicational considerations are presented in connection with the use of geotechnologies to promote the knowledge of risk

Reviews

Judith Jeffcoate, Multimedia in Practice ‐Technology and Applications, BCS Practitioner Series, Prentice‐Hall International, 1995. ISBN: 0–13–123324–6. £24.95

How does Information Technology impact the methods, potential and purpose of education?

It is evident that information technology has affected changes to the methods, purpose and the perceived potential of education. While various authors differ in their opinion on the degree, desirability and destiny of these changes, all agree that change processes have certainly been underway. However, the process of change is far from over. Numerous authors auger grave peril for education institutions that refuse to integrate information technology into every level of the education institution. Some authors argue that the very nature of education itself will change. Information technology, whether perceived as a power for good or a power for evil, certainly has not been neutral. While effecting change has been difficult in many situations, contemporary information technology has by its very nature, been an agent of change in education institutions

Innovation from user experience in Living Labs: revisiting the ‘innovation factory’-concept with a panel-based and user-centered approach

This paper focuses on the problem of facilitating sustainable innovation practices with a user-centered approach. We do so by revisiting the knowledge-brokering cycle and Hargadon and Sutton’s ideas on building an ‘innovation factory’ within the light of current Living Lab-practices. Based on theoretical as well as practical evidence from a case study analysis of the LeYLab-Living Lab, it is argued that Living Labs with a panel-based approach can act as innovation intermediaries where innovation takes shape through actual user experience in real-life environments, facilitating all four stages within the knowledge-brokering cycle. This finding is also in line with the recently emerging Quadruple Helix-model for innovation, stressing the crucial role of the end-user as a stakeholder throughout the whole innovation process

ImpacT2 project: preliminary study 1: establishing the relationship between networked technology and attainment

This report explored teaching practices, beliefs and teaching styles and their influences on ICT use and implementation by pupils. Additional factors explored included the value of school and LEA policies and teacher competence in the use of ICT in classroom settings. ImpaCT2 was a major longitudinal study (1999-2002) involving 60 schools in England, its aims were to: identify the impact of networked technologies on the school and out-of-school environment; determine whether or not this impact affected the educational attainment of pupils aged 816 years (at Key Stages 2, 3, and 4); and provide information that would assist in the formation of national, local and school policies on the deployment of IC

The students' point of view about quality of educational multimedia software

The study reported here is part of an international project supported by EU (PEDACTICE - Educational Multimedia in Compulsory School: From Pedagogical Assessment to Product Assessment) and had as main goal to know the opinion and the perception of the Portuguese students about criteria of quality of educational multimedia software. In order to obtain elements on the student`s point of view about educational multimedia software, we decided to interview small groups of pupils who are involved in the work with multimedia materials and than gather, organize and analyse the information got. The sample of interviewed pupils can be considered as representative of the Lisbon schools attended by teachers and pupils very much interested in multimedia materials which these students use not only as an aid to learning activities but also as a support to home and school work. As main results of the study we can refer: a) the confirmation of the success of computers and multimedia among the young Portuguese student population, being manifest either in their attitudes or in the diversity of their experiences, including the technical mastery of informas; b) the acknowledgment, by the students, of the role of the school and of those of their teachers who had till now led the process; c) an unexpected emphasis attached by the students, mainly by the older ones, to the use of computer as a resource for school work which, till now, was done without it; and d) the rare use of the computer for supporting tasks of creative or autonomous nature.European Comissio