Cristobal Cobo

Unplugging: Deconstructing the Smart City

Abstract This paper explores the subtle notion of unplugging to critically analyze the technological determinism of the Smart City. This exploration suggests that being digitally connected should not be perceived as gaining social capital. This article critiques the assumptions of the Smart City and proposes a 10-dimension conceptual framework. The first section of this article explores hyper-connected societies and how unplugging could be beneficial. The main subjects, Digital Natives, are discussed in the second section of this article. The third section is a decalogue on deconstructing the Smart City, and the final section presents key ideas and questions for future analysis.

Skills for innovation: envisioning an education that prepares for the changing world

This article explores and discusses key conditions needed to develop skills for innovation. This article analyses five trends that can contribute to fostering the development of skills for innovation within and outside formal educational institutions. These key trends, identified through a literature review, are elements that foster learning and human capital development necessary for an innovative society. These five key elements are: (1) the mismatch between formal education and the challenges of an innovative society; (2) the shift from what we learn to how we learn; (3) the fluctuating relationship between digital technologies and contents; (4) the changing conceptions of space-time and the emphasis on lifelong learning; and (5) the development of soft skills. Finally, this article ends highlighting that the expanded learning and the development of skills for innovation are critical aspects for the future of education.

The real component of virtual learning: motivations for face-to-face MOOC meetings in developing and industrialised countries

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) offer the possibility of entirely virtual learning environments, with lectures, discussions, and assignments all distributed via the internet. The virtual nature of MOOCs presents considerable advantages to students in terms of flexibility to learn what they want, when they want. Yet despite their virtual focus, some MOOC users also seek to create face-to-face communities with students taking similar courses or using similar platforms. This paper aims to assess the learner motivations behind creation of these offline communities. Do these face-to-face meetings represent an added extra to the learning experience, with students taking advantage of the context of the MOOCs to create new personal and professional connections? Or, are offline meetups filling a gap for students who feel that not all learning can take place online? We also assess the extent to which these patterns vary between developing and industrialised regions, thus testing the claim that MOOCs are helping to democratise access to education around the world. Our research is based on a unique source of socially generated big data, drawn from the website ‘meetup.com’, which gives us a data set of over 4000 MOOC related events taking place in over 140 countries around the world over a two year period. We apply a mixed methods approach to this data, combining large-scale analysis with more in-depth thematic hand coding, to more fully explore the reasons why some learners add a ‘real’ component to their virtual learning experience.

Cross-Disciplinary lessons for the future internet

There are many societal concerns that emerge as a consequence of Future Internet (FI) research and development. A survey identified six key social and economic issues deemed most relevant to European FI projects. During a SESERV-organized workshop, experts in Future Internet technology engaged with social scientists (including economists), policy experts and other stakeholders in analyzing the socio-economic barriers and challenges that affect the Future Internet, and conversely, how the Future Internet will affect society, government, and business. The workshop aimed to bridge the gap between thosewho study andthose who build the Internet. This chapter describes the socio-economic barriers seen by the community itself related to the Future Internet and suggests their resolution, as well as investigating how relevant the EU Digital Agenda is to Future Internet technologists.

Networks for citizen consultation and citizen sourcing of expertise

This study aims to explore how public websites facilitate the creation of networks for citizen consultation. Evidence-based analysis is applied to European public-sector websites to determine the degree to which they adopt digital mechanisms and strategies to facilitate citizen participation and collaboration. This study analyses outstanding European public-sector websites as categorised by the European Commission at the 4th European eGovernment Awards (EeGA) 2009. These finalists, which were selected by independent judges, are taken as a representative sample of the range of eGovernment projects in Europe. Although other eGovernment projects with exemplary features certainly exist, the unbiased nature of this list, which consists of 52 finalists from 31 countries, provides an objective criterion for inclusion, thus making our sample analytically stronger than an opportunistic sample. The selected websites are analysed and classified based on the taxonomy of citizen participation elaborated by Dutton, who defines three levels of digital citizen engagement: (1) sharing, (2) contributing, and (3) co-creating knowledge. These constitute a matrix describing different levels of maturity in an e-democracy. The results of the analysis and the application of this methodology provide an overview of the strategies and policies adopted by European governments to promote and support e-democracy. Interestingly, the results also show that the vast majority of European Union (EU) public websites adopt strategies to promote only the earliest stages of digital citizen engagement, primarily at level 1. This study also reveals how the public sector utilises various tools, social networks and digital resources to create virtual networks of citizen consultation and citizen sourcing of expertise. A valuable result of this study is the taxonomy of digital citizen engagement and its operationalisation, which may be useful for future research. Finally, this work identifies practices, strategies and mechanisms for fostering e-democracy in the EU.

Strategies for data and learning analytics informed national education policies: the case of Uruguay

This work provides an overview of an education and technology monitoring system developed at Plan Ceibal, a nationwide initiative created to enable technology enhanced learning in Uruguay. Plan Ceibal currently offers one-to-one access to technology and connectivity to every student and teacher (from primary and secondary education) as well as a comprehensive set of educational software platforms. All these resources generate massive amounts of data about the progress and style of students learning. This work introduces the conceptual framework, design and preliminary results of the Big Data Center for learning analytics currently being developed at Plan Ceibal. This initiative is focused on exploiting these datasets and conducting advanced analytics to support the educational system. To this aim, a 360 degrees profile will be built including information characterizing the users online behavior as well as a set of technology enhanced learning factors. These profiles will be studied both at user (e.g., student or teacher) and larger scale levels (e.g., per school or school system), addressing both the need of understanding how technology is being used for learning as well as to provide accurate feedback to support evidence based educational policies.

A conceptual framework for the analysis and visualization of Uruguayan internet for education

In this forum we celebrate research that helps to successfully bring the benefits of computing technologies to children, older adults, people with disabilities, and other populations that are often ignored in the design of mass-marketed products. --- Juan Pablo Hourcade, Editor

Mechanisms to Identify and Study the Demand for Innovation Skills in World-Renowned Organizations

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the interrelationship between the fields of education and workforce in the context of post‐industrial societies. It seeks to analyze key challenges associated with the match (and mismatch) of skill supply and demand between education and the work force.Design/methodology/approach – Using a “purposeful sample”, the study provides an evidence‐based analysis that explores how and to what extent soft skills are currently required by world recognized organizations such as Greenpeace, World Bank, OECD, Google, Apple and Samsung.Findings – After a revision of different perspectives to identify and categorize the key skills of the twenty‐first century, the study describes seven non‐technical cognitive and social key skills called soft skills for innovation.Research limitations/implications – After exploring a small sample size of five recent job vacancies promoted by six major international organizations, the study analyzes the current demand for soft skills for innovation suc...

Shaping 21st Century and Exploring Trends for the Coming Education

This study stresses the necessity to enhance new informational skills and digital literacies among the younger generations. After and international review of literature this work elaborates an updated definition of the “e-competencies” concept and describes it dimensions and purposes strategies. Thus five underlying concepts that constitute the expression e-competencies have been elaborated: e-awareness; technological literacy; informational literacy; digital literacy and media literacy, just as the following image summarized. Finally instruments to analyze and assess the development the “digital literacies” are discussed.

Creative Learning @ Scale

In todays fast-changing world, the ability to think and act creatively is more important than ever before. This panel will discuss tools, activities, and strategies for helping people develop as creative thinkers -- and how to scale those efforts to engage learners around the world. The panel will draw on examples involving learners of many different ages, in many different places, both in school and out.