Ole Smørdal

Is there a space for the teacher in a WIKI

In this paper we ask to what extent collective cognition can be supported and sustained in classroom practices. One major challenge for learning in technology-rich, collaborative environments is to develop design principles that balance learner exploration with a more goal directed effort. We argue that teachers play a key role in such efforts and that educational wiki designs need to allow such a role in order to support group knowing. First, from an activity theoretical perspective we discuss teaching in knowledge collectives as new type of educational activity. Next, we analyze functions and meta level affordances found in the MediaWiki application. This is followed by a presentation of an intervention study in which the MediaWiki was used by a class of Upper Secondary School learners in Norway. Findings are used to discuss design principles for wikis that support collective cognition and where there is a place for the teacher.

Personal Digital Assistants in medical education and practice

Abstract This paper reports on a current project, KNOWMOBILE, that explores how wireless and mobile technologies, in this case how Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) may be useful in medical education and clinical practice, particularly to access net-based information. KNOWMOBILE is a research collaboration involving academic and industrial partners which aims to support Problem-Based Learning (PBL) and the integration of Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) in medical education reform in Norway. What does ‘just-in-time’ access to information mean in clinical settings? How can health professionals be helped with access to the most up-to-date medical information? From a preliminary analysis of the problems of Personal Digital Assistants in use — and nonuse — problems regarding information and communication infrastructure discussed that require work from a social historical interpretation of ‘infrastructures’ in order to enhance design perspectives and directions for future research. It is concluded that the PDAs should not be regarded as Personal Digital Assistants, but rather as gateways in complicated webs of interdependent technical and social networks.

Experimental zones: two cases of exploring frames of participation in a dialogic museum

Abstract A matter of concern for dialogic institutions such as museums is the struggle to find appropriate ways of integrating social media and digital technologies into dialogues with visitors. This paper addresses how co-creation and experimental methods may be applied in a situated, natural environment, exploring how these technologies may be shaped to support museum visitor relations. The concept ‘experimental zone’ is suggested as a format for a collaborative design space where digital media-based dialogues are explored in line with professional practices. This concept is discussed in relation to two design experiments undertaken in collaboration with the Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology.

Soft Objects Analysis - A modelling approach for analysis of interdependent work practices

There is an increasing need for analysing problematic situations and creating visions for computer systems that are getting used as means of communication and coordination of work in and between work practices in an organisation. In this paper an extension of object oriented frameworks with Activity Theory and elements from Soft Systems Methodology is used to develop an analysis technique that address such issues.

Matters of becoming, experimental zones for making museums public with social media

Making things public challenges existing matters of concern and, in design, may also be about changing them. This paper advances the concept of translation from early ANT literature and explores it in order to support co-designing for making things public. We elaborate on how translations may be understood as moves and transformations of practices and objects that require both time and learning. We discuss how translations may include the emerging, situated, fluid, enacted, experiential and the material, and suggest co-design to rethink translation as a temporal process of learning and ‘becoming’. Our aim is to demonstrate a mutual theoretical influence between ANT and co-design. Our conceptual reflection is based on a museum design case where museum staff and the authors explore new communicational modes of social media. The project established a longitudinal ‘experimental zone’ as space and time for design in the everyday practice of the museum. The paper reflects upon the value of ANT as a framework for rethinking the design–use divide using concepts of learning and translations to bring awareness of co-design as temporal, fluid and emerging processes of becoming.

Classifying Approaches to Object Oriented Analysis of Work with Activity Theory

There is a need to use object orientation to analyse work practices. This should be done based on a social theory on how computers mediate the work arrangement. This paper presents a conceptual framework based on activity theory in which two main schools of object oriented modelling are explained. Thus, several object oriented analysis approaches may be combined and contribute to more powerful representational forms.

Enacting Science Inqury Scripts across Contexts and in Hybrid Spaces

We have found ourselves struggling with the design of digital technology to support scripted collaboration in science education. There are two emergent trends that challenge current understanding of collaborative scripts: One is the merging of real and virtual worlds to produce new environments and visualizations where physical and digital objects co-exist and interact in real time. The other is the merging of embodied experiences from science centres and museums with the activities in the science classroom to produce fun, engaging, and reflective experiences. Further, these environments are inherently social, facilitating dialogue and social exchange. For design of collaborative science learning these trends are challenging, as a network of scripts typically is needed, addressing collaboration, the inquiry process, the epistemological interactions, and the flow of materials that is being consumed and produced. These scripts are inscribed into a range of technologies, such as web-based environments, mobile applications, tangible and physical interfaces, social networks, and spatial, embedded and embodied simulations in immersive learning environments as found in science centres. In this paper we look into a design based research intervention that took place in a Secondary Norwegian school and at the Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology. Based on our experiences we identify a need for new concepts that can increase the awareness in design to the role of scripts in complex environments, and suggest a socio-material and material-semiotic approach that emphasize how scripts are inscribed and entangled in the social and in the material resources, and how they are enacted in epistemological and social activities by students, teachers, and museum educators.

Objects @ Work - An Activity Theoretical Framework for OO Modelling of Computer Mediated Cooperative Activities

The roles of computer systems in modern organisations are addressed in this paper, and three modelling metaphors are proposed in order to address human activities that are mediated by computer systems: Physical modelling to address production (how people orient in and change the world they live and work in), theatrical performances (how the work is divided in the work community), and flow (how people interact and communicate). Several metaphors may be combined in order to address the activity as a whole.