How to bring a technical artifact into use: A micro-developmental perspective

In order to understand how technical artifacts are attuned to, interacted with, and shaped in various and varied classrooms, it is necessary to construct detailed accounts of the use of particular artifacts in particular classrooms. This paper presents a descriptive account of how a shared workspace was brought into use by a student pair in a face-to-face planning task. A micro-developmental perspective was adopted to describe how the pair established a purposeful connection with this unfamiliar artifact over a relatively short time frame. This appropriation was examined against the background of their regular planning practice. We describe how situational resources present in the classroom—norms, practices and artifacts— frame possible action, and how these possibilities are enacted by the pair. Analysis shows that the association of norms and practices with the technical artifact lead to a contradiction that surfaced as resistance experienced from the artifact. This resistance played an important part in the appropriation process of the pair. It signaled tension in the activity, triggered reflection on the interaction with the artifact, and had a coordinative function. The absence of resistance was equally important. It allowed the pair to transpose or depart from regular procedure without reflection

Introduction to Decision Support Systems

Decision support systems (DSSs) are computer programs that, by using expert knowledge, simulation models and/or databases, are of assistance in the decision-making process as they offer management recommendations and/or options. The principal aim of a DSS is to improve the quality, speed and effectiveness of decisions. Since their beginnings in the 1960s, DSSs have been established as being an effective decision-making tool in different areas including agriculture. Weed science has not been immune to their influence, and since the end of the 1980s, a batch of DSSs have been developed towards the recognition and identification of seeds and seedlings, herbicide selection and the economic assessment of management strategies. Despite being powerful tools, DSSs have certain constraints and also a given resistance to their use. I hope that this chapter will serve to give a general insight into DSSs and their use in weed science, as well as to encourage the spreading of these systems in order to establish sustainable agriculture