Designing Game Based Learning – a Participatory Approach

Game Based Learning seems to be an interesting new possibility of teaching and learning, but the effort spent on designing games and the possible positive outcomes have to be weighed carefully. The following paper describes the development process and the conceptual design of a simulation game on sustainability for teenagers. The design process is participatory in nature. Members of the future group of learners are involved in the design process at every stage. This involvement is especially important to overcome the contradiction between the goal of the game as such and the pedagogical goal of the designers

Die Bedeutung von Subventionen im Forschungs- und Entwicklungsbereich von Unternehmen

Subventionen im Forschungs- und Entwicklungsbereich sind quantitativ schwierig von anderen Fördermaßnahmen abzugrenzen. Diese Subventionen können durch Marktversagenstatbestände wie zum Beispiel externe Effekte, Informationsmängel und Unteilbarkeiten induziert werden. Diesem ist die Theorie des Staatsversagens entgegenzustellen, so wie es durch die Neue Politische Ökonomie erarbeitet worden ist. Die traditionellen Wirkungsanalysen von Subventionen im FuE-Bereich sind in der Regel nicht dynamisch modelliert wie es der Untersuchungsgegenstand nahe legt. In einem dynamischen Modell kann gezeigt werden, daß Subventionen im unternehmerischen FuE-Bereich in der Lage sind, technischen Fortschritt zu generieren. Daß der Staat dabei jedoch bessere Informationen über die zu fördernden Technologien als der Markt haben soll, ist im Sinne der v. Hayekschen These über die Anmutung von Wissen zweifelhaft

Unmanned Aerial Systems for Rapid Mapping - UASRapidMap 2013 4th JRC ECML Crisis Management Technology Workshop

The 4th JRC ECML Crisis Management Technology Workshop on Unmanned Aerial Systems for Rapid Mapping was co-organised by the European Commission Joint Research Centre and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research - Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNITAR - UNOSAT). It took place in Geneva & Dardagny, Switzerland from 11 to 13 September 2013. 74 participants from UN and EC stakeholders, NGOs, civil protection bodies, academia, and industry attended the workshop. The workshop's purpose was to present, demonstrate, and explore the state-of-the-art and future potential of unmanned aerial systems for rapid mapping applications in the context of humanitarian crisis aid and natural disaster relief operations. Main impressions from the workshop were the diversity in technological solutions for various practical uses, the rapid turnaround time from flight to having useable data at hand in the field and a reality check on what are still challenges related to flight permissions. Within the European Union a process on the harmonisation of the diverse regulations for UAS operations and the introduction of UAS into the civil airspace is ongoing. The UAS technology will most likely make a large impact on data collection in future emergency situations. In addition, based on what was demonstrated, the tools are also useful for disaster risk reduction activities.JRC.G.2-Global security and crisis managemen

Interoperability of Mobile Devices for Crisis Management: Outcomes of the 1st JRC ECML Crisis Technology Workshop

The 1st JRC ECML Crisis Technology Workshop on Mobile Interoperability for International Field Deployment took place in the European Crisis Management Laboratory (ECML) of the Joint Research Centre in Ispra, Italy, from 12 to 13 March 2012. 37 participants attended the workshop. They were coming from: 11 EU countries and Norway, Brazil and US, 3 UN agencies, and 2 NGOs. The workshop's purpose was to measure the added value of mobile assessment technology for rapid situation assessment in international emergency operations. Seven mobile assessment systems were deployed among the participants and needed to provide, in an interoperable way, real-time data to a single electronic On-Site Operations Coordination Centre (eOSOCC). The performance of the systems was benchmarked against a traditional paper-based assessment that was conducted simultaneously (pOSOCC). In the workshop experiment both paper and electronic On-Site Operations Coordination Centres (OSOCCs) reached a similar situation awareness in the same time, but only the eOSOCC had products available as sharable electronic maps and documents. The final map with all incoming feeds in the eOSOCC was very cluttered and there was considerable information overload. Therefore sophisticated editing, filtering, and visualization functionalities have to be available for eOSOCC staff. Mobile technology is mature and can be deployed in an interoperable way. However, then the information of each system leaves the proprietary applications for processing and analyzing the data. The main impression from the eOSOCC team was that there is a lot of potential. Having access in real-time to field information was felt to be extremely useful. Still missing are tools and procedures for exploiting this benefit. Most important are tools to curate, filter, manipulate, edit, and delete assessment information of all teams. A dedicated eOSOCC software suite is needed that gives full control over the data to the eOSOCC staff.JRC.G.2-Global security and crisis managemen

Collaborative Situation Report Production on Big Wall Displays: the CoSitRepSys

This paper presents the concept for a collaborative situation report production system (hereinafter referred to as CoSitRepSys) being used in situation monitoring centres and crisis management headquarters (hereinafter crisis rooms) equipped with large display areas. We present a concept of a collaborative system that aims at supporting the production of daily bulletin and situation report production or similar workflows. The central feature of the CoSitRepSys is the collaborative editing of reports and a broad applicability on big wall displays of varying size. The whole system uses just a few simple interaction patterns. There are two separate areas: one for creating and editing situation reports and another for sifting and review of information sources. The key artefact is the big wall display and the information shown thereon. Besides the present operators also remote team members can control what is displayed by using their personal mobile devices, such as laptops, tablets or smart phones. Web technology and html-based deployment ensures a substantial independence of operating systems.JRC.G.2-Global security and crisis managemen

Ontology Visualization: Tools and Techniques for Visual Representation of Semi-Structured Meta-Data

Ontologies are used to represent a variety of domain knowledge and data collections, scopes, viewpoints and linked heterogeneous information sources. They range from simple topologies to highly structured knowledge bases with complex relations. When mapping or aligning two or more ontologies an efficient user support is needed so that the users can understand the prerequisites and the consequences of the alignments. Information Visualization techniques can help to facilitate user understanding of the ontology alignment results. In general, a lot of work in visualization of ontologies exist. We found an enormous number of ontology visualization tools by a literature study. Many of them apply graph visualization but there are other approaches as well. We have identified interesting solutions for dealing with the complexity of large ontologies. Ontology engineering, ontology mapping and alignment can benefit from Information Visualization. Our collection is a starting point to demonstrate the usefulness of Information Visualization techniques, however, a detailed evaluation would be the next step to consolidate this research area and help to boost the adoption of ontologies in common Web applications

Sustainable Living - A Multiplayer educational game based on Ecodesign

The educational Ecodesign game SuLi (Sustainable Living) aims at transferring basic knowledge about sustainability to young people onwards in a playful way. When playing the game, the impacts of producing and consuming goods are displayed. The importance of design and production decisions is transferred and the players are confronted with the consequences of their activities in an enjoyable but reasonable manner. This knowledge about the impacts of production and consumption along a products´ life cycle will help preferring environmentally sound products that were produced under fair conditions. The integration of the target group of the game takes place at an early stage of development so that their needs and wishes can be addressed and taken into account. During the testing phase the practical use of the game is also tested and evaluated on this high school