Building Collaborative Capacities in Learners: The M/cyclopedia Project Revisited

In this paper we trace the evolution of a project using a wiki-based learning environment in a tertiary education setting. The project has the pedagogical goal of building learners’ capacities to work effectively in the networked, collaborative, creative environments of the knowledge economy. The paper explores the four key characteristics of a ‘produsage’ environment and identifies four strategic capacities that need to be developed in learners to be effective ‘produsers’ (user-producers). A case study is presented of our experiences with the subject New Media Technologies, run at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. This progress report updates our observations made at the 2005 WikiSym conference

Losing by Expanding: Corralling the Runaway Object

At the time of publication C. Spinuzzi was at the University of Texas at Austin.Third-generation activity theory (3GAT) has become a popular theoretical and methodological framework for writing studies, particularly in technical communication. 3GAT involves identifying an object, a material or problem that is cyclically transformed by collective activity. The object is the linchpin of analysis in the empirical case. Yet the notion of object has expanded methodologically and theoretically over time, making it difficult to reliably bound an empirical case. In response, this article outlines the expansion of the object, diagnoses this expansion, and proposes an alternate approach that constrains the object for case-study research in writing studies.Writin

Libraries in transition: evolving the information ecology of the Learning Commons: a sabbatical report

This sabbatical report studied various models in order to determine best practices for design, implementation and service of Leaning Commons, a library service model which functionally and spatially integrates library services, information technology services, and media services to provide a continuum of services to the user

A “Knot” – breaking the inertia in construction?

The aim of this paper is to contribute to new collaborative processes in construction practice, which are challenged by a traditional understanding of teams in construction project management. A dynamic innovative and open-ended expansive process is requested and badly needed. The development and implementation of new technology require a parallel process of developing the use of technology and the social processes of its use. Knotworking represents a distributed collaborative expertise in pursuit of a task that is organised among designers from different design disciplines and other players in a construction process. In Finland and Denmark experiments with Knotworking is being developed and tested: Experiments with Knots, how can it change or create new objects and solutions in construction? The method of the study is action research and applied ethnography that is a practice-oriented approach to contribute to change processes. The degree of authors’ participation varied from being a facilitator, consultant or observer in the Danish case and from being a facilitator and observant in the Finnish case. The data collection was a participant observation in a Finish and Danish case. The participants of the experiments were architects, contractors, energy specialists, HVAC design engineers, structural engineers, a cost calculator, representatives of property owners and researchers. The data was saved in digital format using several video cameras. We also gathered BIM documents, process charts, advisors’ reports and photographs. Experiments with Knots have the potential to break inertia in construction, multiple solutions will persist and it implies learning by experimenting with the new practice. The Knots are organised to solve specific problems or tasks requiring multidisciplinary expertise. Working with Knots as a successful process requires intensive collaboration across organizational boundaries and hierarchies through object-oriented actions, i.e. objects of activities that include both material and cognitive constructions which lead to entail directionality, purpose, and meaning to collective activities.Peer reviewe

New technologies for urban designers: the VENUE project

In this report, we first outline the basic idea of VENUE. This involves developing digital tools froma foundation of geographic information systems (GIS) software which we then apply to urbandesign, a subject area and profession which has little tradition in using such tools. Our project wasto develop two types of tool, namely functional analysis based on embedding models of movementin local environments into GIS based on ideas from the field of space syntax; and secondlyfashioning these ideas in a wider digital context in which the entire range of GIS technologies werebrought to bear at the local scale. By local scale, we mean the representation of urban environmentsfrom about 1: 500 to around 1: 2500

Automated pick-up of suturing needles for robotic surgical assistance

Robot-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy (RALP) is a treatment for prostate cancer that involves complete or nerve sparing removal prostate tissue that contains cancer. After removal the bladder neck is successively sutured directly with the urethra. The procedure is called urethrovesical anastomosis and is one of the most dexterity demanding tasks during RALP. Two suturing instruments and a pair of needles are used in combination to perform a running stitch during urethrovesical anastomosis. While robotic instruments provide enhanced dexterity to perform the anastomosis, it is still highly challenging and difficult to learn. In this paper, we presents a vision-guided needle grasping method for automatically grasping the needle that has been inserted into the patient prior to anastomosis. We aim to automatically grasp the suturing needle in a position that avoids hand-offs and immediately enables the start of suturing. The full grasping process can be broken down into: a needle detection algorithm; an approach phase where the surgical tool moves closer to the needle based on visual feedback; and a grasping phase through path planning based on observed surgical practice. Our experimental results show examples of successful autonomous grasping that has the potential to simplify and decrease the operational time in RALP by assisting a small component of urethrovesical anastomosis

Cracking the Code: Synchronizing Policy and Practice for Performance-Based Learning

Proposes a policy framework for integrating performance-based learning into the education system, synchronizing policy and practice, and ensuring collaborative state leadership and flexible federal leadership. Lists state policy issues and exemplars

Slow EdTech: Pedagogical principles, collaborative explorations, and persistent challenges

This article describes two “Slow EdTech” initiatives, using this label to denote a focus on learning and the development of capacities for learning along with a mindful approach to the uptake of new digital tools that become available. One initiative, dating from 2001, is a set of guidelines about specific situations and specific ways in which specific educational technologies are of significant pedagogical benefit. The other, dating from 2013, is online Collaborative Explorations (CEs) for moderate-sized open online collaborative learning. The tools and processes used in CEs for inquiry, dialogue, reflection, and collaboration are designed to be readily learned by participants so they can translate them into their own settings to support the inquiries of others. Reflection on both initiatives points to the deeper source of challenges for Slow EdTech, namely, the political, economic and cultural context in which U.S. education is embedded