Designing Activity-Based and Context-Sensitive Ambient Sound Environments in Open-Plan Offices

This paper addresses the problem of sound disturbance in open office environments. We have in a design-based research study explored how digital, real time generated sound can be added to a work environment and how these sound environments are perceived by respondents when performing work tasks. In this first explorative study we have chosen to focus on designing a digital sound system for activity-based offices, where the physical environment is already designed for particular activities. Our approach is to explore if adding appropriate acoustic designs to the ambient environment can enhance workplaces. Our results show that test subjects perceived that acoustic design could enhance the ambient environments if the acoustic design is pertinent with the environment as a whole

ExploreASL: an image processing pipeline for multi-center ASL perfusion MRI studies

Arterial spin labeling (ASL) has undergone significant development since its inception, with a focus on improving standardization and reproducibility of its acquisition and quantification. In a community-wide effort towards robust and reproducible clinical ASL image processing, we developed the software package ExploreASL, allowing standardized analyses across centers and scanners. The procedures used in ExploreASL capitalize on published image processing advancements and address the challenges of multi-center datasets with scanner-specific processing and artifact reduction to limit patient exclusion. ExploreASL is self-contained, written in MATLAB and based on Statistical Parameter Mapping (SPM) and runs on multiple operating systems. To facilitate collaboration and data-exchange, the toolbox follows several standards and recommendations for data structure, provenance, and best analysis practice. ExploreASL was iteratively refined and tested in the analysis of >10,000 ASL scans using different pulse-sequences in a variety of clinical populations, resulting in four processing modules: Import, Structural, ASL, and Population that perform tasks, respectively, for data curation, structural and ASL image processing and quality control, and finally preparing the results for statistical analyses on both single-subject and group level. We illustrate ExploreASL processing results from three cohorts: perinatally HIV-infected children, healthy adults, and elderly at risk for neurodegenerative disease. We show the reproducibility for each cohort when processed at different centers with different operating systems and MATLAB versions, and its effects on the quantification of gray matter cerebral blood flow. ExploreASL facilitates the standardization of image processing and quality control, allowing the pooling of cohorts which may increase statistical power and discover between-group perfusion differences. Ultimately, this workflow may advance ASL for wider adoption in clinical studies, trials, and practice

Tracing expansive learning in computer-supported collaborative teaching

The theory of expansive learning is used in many studies to explore change in inter-organizational and non-traditional settings. However, long-term, fundamental expansive learning is challenging to study due to the amount of data and the duration of object formation over several years. Researchers call for methods for systematic analysis of expansive learning. This paper presents an approach to systematically trace expansive learning in teaching practice. The approach was developed during a three-year school development project in an elementary school context. The participatory project engaged 66 teachers and 32 researchers from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark aiming to develop innovative computer-supported collaborative teaching for a virtual Nordic classroom. The project was arranged in small inter-organizational teams that iteratively created, implemented, and evaluated novel ways of conducting computer-supported collaborative teaching. The project was immensely challenging with conflicts of interests and systemic contradictions between the inter-organizational collaborating teams, but when resolved cultivated the change in practice. To trace the formation of the teaching practice, we used an integrated approach combining the theory of expansive learning with a teaching practice framework, TPACK in situ, which helped us handle complexity and systematize the object formation, as well as examine the type of learning the teachers acquired

Educational technology in teaching : What do teachers perceive they need in order to develop their professional competence?

 This paper addresses the challenge of how to reach an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) competent teaching faculty in the Swedish compulsory school. Continuing professional development (CPD) can be a means to reach ICT-competence among teachers. In order to achieve successful CPD it is important to understand what teachers’ perceive they need in their professional development, which is examined in this paper. The study was performed in order to get a better understanding of the challenges associated with achieving ICT-competence. 17 teachers have been interviewed to investigate how they perceive needs regarding professional development and how they want these needs to be met. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed by learning theories suitable for professional practices. Teachers’ expressed needs were interpreted as well aligned with CPD methods advocated in research literature, but less aligned with previous CPD initiatives. Their expressed needs were highly divergent, depending on individual competence, motivation and learning preferences. Previous ICT initiatives may therefore have been too uniform to be effective.Skolverkets matematiksatsnin

The dual role of humanoid robots in education : As didactic tools and social actors

The idea of using social robots for teaching and learning has become increasingly prevalent and robots are assigned various roles in different educational settings. However, there are still few authentic studies conducted over time. Our study explores teachers’ perceptions of a learning activity in which a child plays a digital mathematics game together with a humanoid robot. The activity is based on the idea of learning-by-teaching where the robot is designed to act as a tutee while the child is assigned the role of a tutor. The question is how teachers perceive and talk about the robot in this collaborative child-robot learning activity? The study is based on data produced during a 2-years long co-design process involving teachers and students. Initially, the teachers reflected on the general concept of the learning activity, later in the process they participated in authentic game-play sessions in a classroom. All teachers’ statements were transcribed and thematically coded, then categorized into two different perspectives on the robot: as a social actor or didactic tool. Activity theory was used as an analytical lens to analyze these different views. Findings show that the teachers discussed the activity’s purpose, relation to curriculum, child-robot collaboration, and social norms. The study shows that teachers had, and frequently switched between, both robot-perspectives during all topics, and their perception changed during the process. The dual perspectives contribute to the understanding of social robots for teaching and learning, and to future development of educational robot design.This work was supported partly by the Marcus and Amalia Wallenberg Foundation through the project START (Student Tutor and Robot Tutee), and partly by the Swedish Research Council through the national graduate school GRADE (Graduate School for digital technologies in education)</p

Workplace work-integrated learning : supporting industry 4.0 transformation for small manufacturing plants by reskilling staff

Small manufacturing plants nowadays need to consider Industry 4.0 to stay competitive in the market. Among the challenges regarding the transformation towards Industry 4.0 are requirements to re-skill the staff for the new work environment. The staff have to either adapt to the workplace transformation brought by digitalisation, automation and robotics or face layoffs. This paper reports on a transformation process towards Industry 4.0 which was conducted in a small manufacturing enterprise where automated assembly line, industrial robots, codes and algorithms have replaced the previous manual set-up. In order to extend the learning models from educational to workplace settings, we investigated how a small manufacturing plant tackles the challenge of transformation towards Industry 4.0 with existing staff. We examined the transformation process through non-participant observations and 17 interviews during the initiation phase, and before, during, and after the new robotic system was launched. Based on the empirical study, we propose (a) a transformation method with respect to the workplace and adult learning scholarship and (b) a taxonomy of work-integrated learning activities to support the learning needed to manage transformations towards industry 4.0