Designing technology to innovate teaching practices: a critical assessment of a learning design support environment

This thesis, at the meeting point of information systems and education research, starts with a critical assessment of the theoretical assumptions underlying ICTmediated learning research, and takes issue with instrumentalist approaches to technology as a means of encouraging learning through collaboration and of achieving innovation in work practices. I argue that technologies and knowledge (as well as what is considered worth learning) are imbricated in an ongoing “scene of struggle” where different interests, institutional logics, rationalities, and realities are negotiated. This research draws on an empirical case study which follows the efforts of an interdisciplinary research team in a 3-year project while developing and evaluating a Learning Design Support Environment (LDSE). The expected aim of the LDSE project was to foster a community of practice among academics that would share knowledge of teaching practices, and collaboratively discover innovative approaches to technology-enhanced learning. I also bring the broader sociotechnical context into the discussion, to understand the different institutional logics entangled with this technology. A conceptual framework is developed that integrates insights from recent contributions in institutional theory and actor-network theory. The former sensitise us to the broader social context and the complex interaction of different institutional logics. The latter emphasizes the entanglement of technology, knowledge, and practices. This framework offers an effective lens to understand how technologies aimed at supporting collaborative learning at work, and particularly in teaching, are bound up with practices and institutional logics in a given sociopolitical context. Such understanding will reveal the assumptions of straightforward means-to-ends innovation in technological interventions aimed at achieving learning and change, by laying bare the complex sociotechnical processes involved in making “a technology work” and in legitimating knowledge and practices

Modularity Archetypes and Their Coexistence in Technological Development: The Case of a Telecoms Company from Analogue Voice to 5G

Modularity is a key concept in the research and practice of information systems. Yet, it has been variously interpreted. Synthesizing the literature, we inductively develop a two-by-two matrix encapsulating two dualities of modularity: architectural vs. governance dimensions, and bottom-up vs. top-down perspectives. This matrix groups the literatures into four archetypical approaches to modularity (Engineering, Ecosystem, Generative and Logical). We next illustrate these archetypes through a qualitative study of a large global telecommunications firm. Drawing upon archival data and interviews, we show how each of these four approaches to modularity become dominant at different times, but also how they overlap and coexist

The value and structuring role of web APIs in digital innovation ecosystems: the case of the online travel ecosystem

Interfaces play a key role in facilitating the integration of external sources of innovation and structuring ecosystems. They have been conceptualized as design rules that ensure the interoperability of independently produced modules, with important strategic value for lead firms to attract and control access to complementary assets in platform ecosystems. While meaningful, these theorizations do not fully capture the value and structuring role of web APIs in digital innovation ecosystems. We show this with an empirical study of the online travel ecosystem in the 26 years (1995–2021) after the first Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) were launched. Our findings reveal that web APIs foster a dynamic digital innovation ecosystem with a distributed networked structure in which multiple actors design and use them. We provide evidence of an ecosystem where decentralized interfaces enable decentralized governance and where interfaces establish not only cooperative relationships, but also competitive ones. Instead of locking in complementors, web APIs enable the integration of capabilities from multiple organizations for the co-production of services and products, by interfacing their information systems. Web APIs are important sources of value creation and capture, increasingly being used to offer or sell services, constituting important sources of revenue

Epistemic Mirroring: How firms’ governance of internal relations shapes the interpretation of a digital ecosystem architecture

The mirroring hypothesis asserts a symmetry between how a firm organizes its activities and tasks internally (division of labour) and how technologies are logically partitioned into subcomponents and modules. Yet digital artifacts can violate fundamental properties of physical modular systems, such as the impossibility to univocally allocate functionalities to the various modules, due to their agnostic and generative nature. Although an increasing amount of works is starting to question the usefulness of classic modularity theory to understand how firms take decisions and organize their activities internally, there is still a scant literature on the topic. In this work we draw upon the mirror hypothesis, and complement it with the insight provided by the IT governance literature. By doing so, we suggest that a company’s epistemic interpretation of the modular nature of a digital system depends on the dynamics of its internal decision-making process, reflecting formal and informal patterns of authority among its actors. Our study is evidenced by an extensive case study of the roll-out of an advanced technology by a large global multinational. In this was we study whether, and how, is it possible to establish interdependence between the way in which a firm makes sense of, and resolves, the conflicting goals and objectives of its internal actors and the way in which it interprets and conceives of the architecture of the digital ecosystem it is part of. We term this epistemic mirroring

Epistemic Mirroring: understanding the interdependence between a firm’s governance of internal relations and its interpretation of the digital ecosystem architecture

The mirroring hypothesis asserts a symmetry between how a firm organizes its activities and tasks internally (division of labour) and how technologies are logically partitioned into subcomponents and modules. Yet digital artifacts can violate fundamental properties of physical modular systems, such as the impossibility to univocally allocate functionalities to the various modules, due to their agnostic and generative nature. Although an increasing amount of works is starting to question the usefulness of classic modularity theory to understand how firms take decisions and organize their activities internally, there is still a scant literature on the topic. In this work we draw upon the mirror hypothesis, and complement it with the insight provided by the IT governance literature. By doing so, we suggest that a company’s epistemic interpretation of the modular nature of a digital system depends on the dynamics of its internal decision-making process, reflecting formal and informal patterns of authority among its actors. Our study is evidenced by an extensive case study of the roll-out of an advanced technology by a large global multinational. In this was we study whether, and how, is it possible to establish interdependence between the way in which a firm makes sense of, and resolves, the conflicting goals and objectives of its internal actors and the way in which it interprets and conceives of the architecture of the digital ecosystem it is part of. We term this epistemic mirroring

BUILDING SITUATIONAL AWARENESS IN THE AGE OF SERVICE ECOSYSTEMS

We discuss the little-explored construct of situational awareness, which will arguably become increasingly important for strategic decision-making in the age of distributed service ecosystems, digital infrastructures, and microservices. Guided by a design science approach, we introduce a mapping artefact with the ability to enhance situational awareness within, and across, horizontal value chains, and evaluate its application in the field amongst both IS practitioners and IS researchers. We make suggestions for further research into both construct and artefact, and provide insights on their use in practice

Histopathological classification of lymphomas in canine and feline species

PòsterJun

Anandamide and 2-arachidonoylglycerol baseline plasma concentrations and their clinical correlate in gambling disorder

Introduction Different components of the endocannabinoid (eCB) system such as their most well-known endogenous ligands, anandamide (AEA) and 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG), have been implicated in brain reward pathways. While shared neurobiological substrates have been described among addiction-related disorders, information regarding the role of this system in behavioral addictions such as gambling disorder (GD) is scarce.AimsFasting plasma concentrations of AEA and 2-AG were analyzed in individuals with GD at baseline, compared with healthy control subjects (HC). Through structural equation modeling, we evaluated associations between endocannabinoids and GD severity, exploring the potentially mediating role of clinical and neuropsychological variables.MethodsThe sample included 166 adult outpatients with GD (95.8% male, mean age 39 years old) and 41 HC. Peripheral blood samples were collected after overnight fasting to assess AEA and 2-AG concentrations (ng/ml). Clinical (i.e., general psychopathology, emotion regulation, impulsivity, personality) and neuropsychological variables were evaluated through a semi-structured clinical interview and psychometric assessments.ResultsPlasma AEA concentrations were higher in patients with GD compared with HC (p = .002), without differences in 2-AG. AEA and 2-AG concentrations were related to GD severity, with novelty-seeking mediating relationships.ConclusionsThis study points to differences in fasting plasma concentrations of endocannabinoids between individuals with GD and HC. In the clinical group, the pathway defined by the association between the concentrations of endocannabinoids and novelty-seeking predicted GD severity. Although exploratory, these results could contribute to the identification of potential endophenotypic features that help optimize personalized approaches to prevent and treat GD

Systematic Collaborative Reanalysis of Genomic Data Improves Diagnostic Yield in Neurologic Rare Diseases

Altres ajuts: Generalitat de Catalunya, Departament de Salut; Generalitat de Catalunya, Departament d'Empresa i Coneixement i CERCA Program; Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación; Instituto Nacional de Bioinformática; ELIXIR Implementation Studies (CNAG-CRG); Centro de Investigaciones Biomédicas en Red de Enfermedades Raras; Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa; European Regional Development Fund (FEDER).Many patients experiencing a rare disease remain undiagnosed even after genomic testing. Reanalysis of existing genomic data has shown to increase diagnostic yield, although there are few systematic and comprehensive reanalysis efforts that enable collaborative interpretation and future reinterpretation. The Undiagnosed Rare Disease Program of Catalonia project collated previously inconclusive good quality genomic data (panels, exomes, and genomes) and standardized phenotypic profiles from 323 families (543 individuals) with a neurologic rare disease. The data were reanalyzed systematically to identify relatedness, runs of homozygosity, consanguinity, single-nucleotide variants, insertions and deletions, and copy number variants. Data were shared and collaboratively interpreted within the consortium through a customized Genome-Phenome Analysis Platform, which also enables future data reinterpretation. Reanalysis of existing genomic data provided a diagnosis for 20.7% of the patients, including 1.8% diagnosed after the generation of additional genomic data to identify a second pathogenic heterozygous variant. Diagnostic rate was significantly higher for family-based exome/genome reanalysis compared with singleton panels. Most new diagnoses were attributable to recent gene-disease associations (50.8%), additional or improved bioinformatic analysis (19.7%), and standardized phenotyping data integrated within the Undiagnosed Rare Disease Program of Catalonia Genome-Phenome Analysis Platform functionalities (18%)

Memoria y retorno del exilio republicano catalán (Memory and Return of the Catalan Republican Exile)

<p>The end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939 meant that many republicans went into exile fleeing Francoism. In the case of intellectuals and writers from Catalunia, exile constituted the only means of ensuring the continuity of their culture, given the cultural and linguistic repression by the dictatorship. Much later than they had expected, some were able to return but, after so many years, return meant yet another rupture; it meant returning to a country no longer the one so often remembered and yearned for.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Such events, as is often the case in turbulent historical periods, generated a need to bear witness to the individual and collective experiences, which in literary terms translated into a considerable volume of testimonial works – which continue to be published – by those who suffered this war and exile. As we shall see, memory becomes a kind of <i>con-suelo</i> – comfort - countering the ruptures with a sense of coherence and continuity.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>For one who has had to leave their country, the land of their birth becomes part of the past, so that in such cases to make present what is far, to remember, involves not only temporal but also spatial issues. When the exile (if such a thing is possible) returns, time inexorably has passed. But what happens with the space re-encountered? In the case of two testimonial texts written by two republicans on their return from exile in Mexico – <i>Al cap de 26 anys</i> (1972) by Avel-lí Artís-Gener and <i>Viatge a l’esperanca</i> (1973), by Artur Bladé Desumvila – we propose to analyse the pattern woven between memory, homeland and return by the experience of exile. We shall see how the return, intended to contrast the idealised country with that in which the exile finds him/herself again, gives rise to a series of reflections about homeland and memory as the foundations of the exile’s identity.</p