Elisabeth Unterfrauner

Social inclusion of Young Marginalised People through online mobile communities

Youth exclusion is widespread and increasing across Europe. Information and communication technology (ICT) has the potential to serve as a gateway to social inclusion. However, computer and internet access of marginalised young people are limited. Alternative methods to approach them through ICT are needed. The interdisciplinary project ComeIn (Online Mobile Communities to facilitate the Social Inclusion of Young Marginalised People - EU FP7) studies and utilises mobile networks as a means for social inclusion. This approach combines the benefits of the online community concept with an inclusive approach, realised through the most abundant device used by marginalised youth in Europe - mobile phones.

Diversity in FabLabs: Culture, Role Models and the Gendering of Making

Diversity and inclusion in the technology sector is increasingly debated, specially in the context of equal opportunities for all and a shortage of experts in many tech related industries. The need to be more inclusive can refer to different age groups, people with diverse culturally and linguistically backgrounds or gender. All in all, ethnic, gender and socio-economic diversity is not yet at the forefront of fabrication laboratories (FabLabs) agendas for change. This paper aims to contribute to the discussion of diversity and inclusion by primarily elaborating gender relations in FabLabs and, to a lesser extent, discussing age and socio-economic conditions of makers. Our analysis is based on 39 interviews and the analysis of 55,450 data points extracted from the log files of 3d-printers, CNC milling machines, laser cutters and cutting plotters. This combination of qualitative and quantitative data reveals that, indeed, some machines are used more frequently by men or women. However, the main difference is in absolute numbers, i.e. women are not joining FabLabs for a variety of reasons ranging from uninviting cultures to the lack of role models in technology driven areas in general.

Interactive reflection trainings on RRI for multiple stakeholder groups

ABSTRACTThe article builds on the perceived gap between ‘RRI in theory’ and ‘RRI in practice’ and demonstrates the need for RRI training for different stakeholder groups so as to overcome this gap. The RRI Tools project has developed different kinds of materials and tools that can be used in RRI trainings. Based on the umbrella notion of RRI, as elaborated in the RRI Tools project which spans the six key dimensions of RRI, its process requirements, outcomes and stakeholders, the training illustrates exemplary exercises that would serve a different purpose: to raise awareness for RRI, to enable mutual understanding of different stakeholder groups’ perception on RRI, to reflect on RRI and to implement RRI in daily practices. Experiences gained from the various training exercises are described, which result in recommendations and guidelines on how to set up a multi-stakeholder workshop in terms of setting, methodology, content and participants.

Towards a Model of Early Entrepreneurial Education: Appreciation, Facilitation and Evaluation

This paper introduces the Maker movement as a bottom-up movement, placing digital fabrication technologies on people’s desks to produce “almost anything”. It explores further the pedagogical value of making in education in general and in early entrepreneurial education in particular. Making as a pedagogical approach is analysed referencing established pedagogical concepts as well as a qualitative study including makers and managers of maker spaces. Although maker education has so far only rarely been introduced in formal education, there are many initiatives that bring making and formal education together. According to maker experts, formal education would benefit from making because it is well suited to develop practical skills such as prototyping, supporting creativity and promoting critical reflection. In conclusion we describe a model of introducing making in early entrepreneurial education and conclude with a proposed assessment framework for measuring its impact, which will be tested in an on-going project funded by the European Commission.

The Maker Movement and the Disruption of the Producer-Consumer Relation

The Maker movement represents a return of interest to the physical side of digital innovation. To explore expectations and values within the Maker movement, we applied qualitative research method, interviewing 10 managers of maker initiative as well as 39 makers from eight different countries. The paper analyses how the Maker movement is contributing to a change in production, logistics and supply chains and how it changes the relationship between producer and consumer. Based on the interview data and supported by literature, the study indicates that the Maker movement has the potential to impact producer-consumer relationships in many ways. Making, on a bigger scale would mean producing locally, de-centralised and on-demand. This would have an impact on the logistics and the supply chain. Long transportation routes would be avoided and shorter supply chains would make some of the-in-between vendors obsolete. Makers as prosumers, who produce for themselves, are introducing two growing phenomena: a more personalised relationship between maker and object and personalised products as a form of self-expression.

Institutional conditions for the implementation of accessible lifelong learning (ALL) based on the EU4ALL approach

The project EU4ALL aims at researching and developing technologies and conceptual frameworks to make lifelong learning accessible to everyone. Within this project the conditions at higher education institutions necessary to introduce a service architecture as conceptual and technical framework such as the one developed within the project was studied. Beyond the project the results presented might be equally be applied to other innovations to be introduced in institutions in order to make lifelong learning more accessible while the introduction of the EU4ALL architecture might serve as example. Interviews with decision makers in Higher Education Institutions led to four different types of institutions with different levels of accessibility practice in place.

Hacking the Knowledge of Maker Communities in Support of 21st Century Education

The paper addresses the need to rethink education to be effective in a changing environment. More concretely we look at the intersection of craft-based learning, digital fabrication technologies and schools’ capacities to absorb educational innovations. Although making and hacking are known activities within constructionist learning settings, they are not yet widespread at a school level. An explorative study of maker education across European countries has shown that a major impediment to innovations, such as digital fabrication in schools, were the perceived complexity of the process, the technical skills required and the lack of easily accessible resources for getting started or being able to troubleshoot if needed. The aim of this paper is to test the possibilities of referencing existing knowledge embedded in platforms such as instructables.com. Using the available API, we created a network graph of 225,681 instructables authored by 74,824 authors. The potential of that knowledge base is analysed in two steps: first, we describe the available content on the platform in terms of topics, structure and licenses and second, we explore the value of topic networks, as one specific possibility to make platform knowledge more accessible to educators and learners themselves. A first prototype has been implemented and evaluated, showing the importance of discussing the value and limitations of resources external to educational systems, learning by doing, accountability and the right to tinker in technology-embedded teaching.

Socio-scientific analysis of user requirements in mobile learning: a case study on marginalised young people

Although marginalised young people have been proved to have less access to Information and Communication Technologies such as the Internet, their access to mobile phones does not differ from non-marginalised young people. Since mobile phones seem to play an important role in youths life, delivering learning programmes via this piece of technology seems a promising idea. Thereby, to analyse the requirement of the future users of learning programmes to be designed is fundamental since little about their characteristics and needs is known. A triangulation of data, consisting of academic literature review, expert interview data and focus group data, led to valuable conclusions.