Näkökulmia laadukkaaseen oppimiseen ja aluekehitykseen

Näkökulmia laadukkaaseen oppimiseen ja aluekehitykseen –artikkelikokoelma on järjestyksessään kolmas Näkökulmia-julkaisu, jonka toimittamisessa TALO-hanke on ollut mukana. Se on jatkoa vuosina 2006 ja 2007 julkaistuille teoksille Näkökulmia ammatilliseen kasvuun sekä Näkökulmia opettajuuteen ja asiantuntijuuteen. Julkaisun artikkelit ovat vuonna 2007 Lahden ammattikorkeakoulussa järjestetyn T&Kosaamisen -seminaarisarjan sekä Päijät-Hämeen korkeakoulujen yhteisen tiedepäivän Lahti Science Dayn antia. Artikkelikokoelma jakaantuu kolmeen teemaan: 1) laadukas oppiminen, 2) osaamisen kehittäminen ja 3) aluekehitys. Ensimmäisen teeman artikkelit käsittelevät laadukasta oppimista opiskelijan, opettajan ja koulutusorganisaation näkökulmista. Toisen teeman artikkeleissa osaamisen kehittämistä tarkastellaan yksittäisen koulutusohjelman toteutuksen ja sen arvioinnin sekä koko organisaation osaamisen johtamisen ja HRM-työn näkökulmista. Viimeisen teeman artikkelit käsittelevät tutkimus- ja aluekehitystyötä ammattikorkeakouluissa sekä innovaatiotoimintaa osaamisen, tiedon ja voimavarojen yhdistämisenä

Kokeilut käytäntöön -työkirja

Palvelutalouden vallankumous – Ihminen digitalisaation keskiössä -projekt

Overcoming Barriers to Frugal Innovation: Emerging Opportunities for Finnish SMEs in Brazilian Markets

Frugal innovation has become a popular concept, in academia but also in industry at large. Although there has been a great deal of discussion about the relevance of frugal innovation to the developed world, the notion’s full acceptance within small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) still seems far in the distance. The opportunities and barriers seen with practical implementation of frugal innovation during the development processes have received little attention. This article considers these opportunities and barriers in the context of Finnish SMEs, providing insight specifically into the approaches these companies take in Brazilian markets. Qualitative data were drawn from a case study forming part of an extensive action research-based development project called SCALA, aimed at creating suitable and scalable mobile learning services for global markets. The concepts of frugal innovation and proceeding from user needs – essential parts of the development processes – are examined by observing three Finnish SMEs and their top managers, with particular focus on their interaction with Brazilian partners. Development sessions and meetings shed light on how the companies perceived and responded to testing their products/services with six individual schools in Brazil. Although frugal innovation is seen as essential for guaranteeing long-term competitiveness of Finnish SMEs – and access to rapidly growing, unsaturated emerging markets such as Brazil can be a step in the right direction – our study highlights numerous barriers and ways to overcome them in the real-world implementation of frugality in SMEs’ development processes

The university-industry collaboration in the video-supported learning

In the video-supported collaborative learning a joint pedagogical vision of educators and education technology companies could provide clear alignment for product development and usage benefiting various fields of knowledge-intensive work-life. A user-driven understanding about the process of learning and teaching via video-based collaborative teamwork can benefit the companies striving to meet the needs of customers in the emergent and changing digital environments. The collaboration between universities and the industry is increasingly perceived as a vehicle to enhance innovation through knowledge exchange. However, this collaboration is not without challenges. This study investigates the significant factors of university-industry collaboration in the context of video-supported collaborative learning. To answer the research question which factors are significant in initiating, maintaining, and developing video-supported collaborative learning practices in the university-industry collaboration qualitative research was conducted. The data included the observation of the workshops for education experts and teachers’ and company representatives’ interviews. The study suggests that collaboration is a process that needs, for example, common goal, commitment, the presence of the participants, dialogue, and the facilitation of social interaction including digital tools and forums to reflect and discuss the experiences. The university-industry collaboration at the organizational levels, as well as the individual level of participating managers, teachers, and students, is essential. Collaboration should not be considered as a static path; the collaboration needs to be continuously evaluated based on objectives formulated by the participants

Managing changes in the environment of human–robot interaction and welfare services

The purpose of this study was to investigate decision-makers’ views on changes that robotics will create in welfare services. The purpose was also to discover what the opportunities and challenges are in human–robot interaction during these changes and how to manage these changes. As a research method, an online survey was used. The survey was sent to Finnish decision-makers (N = 184). They were divided into three groups: Techno-positive (n = 66), Techno-neutral (n = 47), and Techno-critical (n = 71). According to the results, more than 80% of the respondents saw that robots can offer support in existing work tasks, and more than 70% saw that the robots can do existing tasks. The most often mentioned challenges were the reduction of interaction and the reduction of human touch. Further, there are various knowledge needs among the respondents. Most of the knowledge needs were not based on the technical use of the robots; rather, they were quite scattered. The results suggest that successful use and implementation of robots in welfare services require a comprehensive plan and change agents. This study suggests that techno-positive people could act as change agents, assisting in implementing the changes. In addition, to manage change in the welfare services it is essential to improve the quality of the information, solve the resistance to change, create organizational awareness, and understanding, and establish a psychological commitment to change the processes