Managing distraction in 21st century learning environments

First year students attend face-to-face classes armed with an arsenal of internet enabled digital devices. The conundrum is that while these devices offer scope for enhancing opportunities for engagement in face-to-face learning, they may simultaneously distract students away from learning and compound isolation issues. This paper considers how to best to use these devices for maximum engagement in first year face-to-face learning so as to assist students in connecting with other learners and instructors within the learning environment

What is the role of design-led innovation and design-led prototyping in developing novel business models?

Recently, ‘business model’ and ‘business model innovation’ have gained substantial attention in management literature and practice. However, many firms lack the capability to develop a novel business model to capture the value from new technologies. Existing literature on business model innovation highlights the central role of ‘customer value’. Further, it suggests that firms need to experiment with different business models and engage in ‘trail-and-error’ learning when participating in business model innovation. Trial-and error processes and prototyping with tangible artifacts are a fundamental characteristic of design. This conceptual paper explores the role of design-led innovation in facilitating firms to conceive and prototype novel and meaningful business models. It provides a brief review of the conceptual discussion on business model innovation and highlights the opportunities for linking it with the research stream of design-led innovation. We propose design-led business model innovation as a future research area and highlight the role of design-led prototyping and new types of artifacts and prototypes play within it. We present six propositions in order to outline future research avenues.

Towards visualising people’s ecology of hybrid personal learning environments

Ambient media architecture can provide place-based collaborative learning experiences and pathways for social interactions that would not be otherwise possible. This paper is concerned with ways of enhancing peer-to-peer learning affordances in library spaces; how can the library facilitate the community of library users to learn from each other? We report on the findings of a study that employed a participatory design method where participants were asked to reflect and draw places, social networks, and activities that they use to work (be creative, productive), play (have fun, socialize, be entertained), and learn (acquire new information, knowledge, or skills). The results illustrate how informal learning – learning outside the formal education system – is facilitated by a personal selection of physical and socio-cultural environments, as well as online tools, platforms, and networks. This paper sheds light on participants’ individually curated ecologies of their work, play, and learning related networks and the hybrid (physical and digital) nature of these places. These insights reveal opportunities for ambient media architecture to increase awareness of and connections between people’s hybrid personal learning environments.

The moderating role of learning on competitive advantage : longitudinal evidence from young firms

The question of how young firms reconcile the absence of well-established learning routines arising from the “liabilities of newness” with the “learning advantages of newness” has received scant attention in entrepreneurship. While older firms follow established learning routines and sometimes face problems in overcoming inertia, young firms with lower levels of inertia are better poised to explore, search and test unique avenues for their products and services. The process of learning and capability development as well as establishing uniqueness in their product offerings is an important part not only in the early stages of firm growth, but also in firm survival. Given their inexperience, for young firms, these learning processes are iterative and include contrasting learning loops that sometimes progress and at other times digress from initially perceived unique ideas. Such processes are embedded within capabilities that the firm develops and nurtures. Based on this premise and adopting a capabilities-based view, we examine how strategic networks and environmental knowledge affects uniqueness- mediated performance in young firms. We identify firms with digressive learning strategies based on their self-assessment of learning and compare them with other firms to demonstrate a differential effect on performance.

Researching doctoral pedagogy close up : design and action in two doctoral programs

With growing international interest in diversifying sites for pedagogical work within the doctorate, doctoral programs of different kinds are being developed in different disciplinary, institutional and national settings. However, little is known about how the pedagogical work of these programs is designed and enacted, and with what effects. In this paper, we present two cases of doctoral pedagogical work being undertaken within different disciplinary and institutional settings to describe how learning opportunities were designed and to theorise what it means to be engaged in doing doctoral pedagogy. Starting from the position that working from a design model supports systematic and rigorous documentation and development of pedagogy, we employ the twin concepts of design and action, drawing broadly on rhetorical and ethnomethodological understandings of pedagogy as social action. Of particular interest within the concept of design itself is the concept of enactment, the translation of designs into the practices of doctoral work. Together, the two cases become a resource for ‘slowing down’ and making visible the practices of doctoral pedagogy that often go unrecognised because they appear so ordinary and everyday. This call for examining close-up existing doctoral education practices and relationships is attending to the ‘next challenge for doctoral education’ (Green, 2009).

Reflection in Integrated Problem Based Learning : 20 years of continuing application to the teaching of architecture

In 1984 the School of Architecture and Built Environment within the University of Newcastle, Australia introduced an integrated program based on real design projects and using Integrated Problem Based Learning (IPBL) as the teaching method. Since 1984 there have been multiple changes arising from the expectations of the architectural fraternity, enrolling students, lecturers, available facilities, accreditation authorities and many others. These challenges have been successfully accommodated whilst maintaining the original purposes and principles of IPBL. The Architecture program has a combined two-degree structure consisting of a first degree, Bachelor of Science (Architecture), followed by a second degree, Bachelor of Architecture. The program is designed to simulate the problem-solving situations that face a working architect in every day practice. This paper will present the degree structure where each student is enrolled in a single course per semester incorporating design integration and study areas in design studies, professional studies, historical studies, technical studies, environmental studies and communication skills. Each year the design problems increase in complexity and duration set around an annual theme. With 20 years of successful delivery of any program there are highlights and challenges along the way and this paper will discuss some of the successes and barriers experienced within the School of Architecture and Built Environment in delivering IPBL. In addition, the reflective process investigates the currency of IPBL as an appropriate vehicle for delivering the curriculum in 2004 and any additional administrative or staff considerations required to enhance the continuing application of IPBL.

Collaboration and competition on a Wiki : the praxis of online social learning to improve academic writing and research in under-graduate students

The number of internet users in Australia has been steadily increasing, with over 10.9 million people currently subscribed to an internet provider (ABS, 2011). Over the past year, the most avid users of the Internet were 15 – 24 year olds, with approximately 95% accessing the internet on a regular basis (ABS, Social Trends, 2011). While the internet, in particularly Web 2.0, has been described as fundamental to higher education students, social and leisure internet tools are also increasingly being used by these students to generate and maintain their social and professional networks and interactions (Duffy & Bruns, 2006). Rapid technological advancements have enabled greater and faster access to information for learning and education (Hemmi et al, 2009; Glassman & Kang, 2011). As such, we sought to integrate interactive, online social media into the assessment profile of a Public Health undergraduate cohort at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). The aim of this exercise was to engage undergraduate students to both develop and showcase their research on a range of complex, contemporary health issues within the online forum of Wikispaces for review and critique by their peers. We applied Bandura’s Social Learning Theory (SLT) to analyse the interactive processes from which students developed deeper and more sustained learning, and via which their overall academic writing standards were enriched. This paper outlines the assessment task, and the students’ feedback on their learning outcomes in relation to the Attentional, Retentional, Motor Reproduction, and Motivational Processes outlined by Bandura in SLT. We conceptualise the findings in a theoretical model, and discuss the implications for this approach within the broader tertiary environment.

Supporting the learning of rapid application development in a database environment

Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs) are computer systems designed to provide individualised help to students, learning in a problem solving context. The difference between an ITS and a Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI) system is that an ITS has a Student Model which allows it to provide a better educational environment. The Student Model contains information on what the student knows, and does not know, about the domain being learnt, as well as other personal characteristics such as preferred learning style. This research has resulted in the design and development of a new ITS: Personal Access Tutor (PAT). PAT is an ITS that helps students to learn Rapid Application Development in a database environment. More specifically, PAT focuses on helping students to learn how to create forms and reports in Microsoft Access. To provide an augmented learning environment, PAT’s architecture is different to most other ITSs. Instead of having a simulation, PAT uses a widelyused database development environment (Microsoft Access). This enables the students to ask for help, while developing real applications using real database software. As part of this research, I designed and created the knowledge base required for PAT. This contains four models: the domain, student, tutoring and exercises models. The Instructional Expert I created for PAT provides individualised help to the students to help them correctly finish each exercise, and also proposes the next exercise that a student should work on. PAT was evaluated by students enrolled in the Databases subject at QUT, and by staff members involved in teaching the subject. The results of the evaluation were positive and are discussed in the thesis.

Resilience by design: A participatory approach to designing an interactive digital application for promoting children's resilience

The promotion of resilience (the capacity of an individual or community to bounce back and recover from adversity) has become an important area of public health. In recent years it has expanded into the digital domain, and many online applications have been developed to promote children's resilience. In this study, it is argued that the majority of existing applications are limited because they take a didactic approach, and conceive of interaction as providing navigational choices. Because they simply provide information about resilience or replicate offline, scenario-based strategies, the understanding of resilience they provide is confined to a few, predetermined factors. In this study I propose a new, experiential approach to promoting resilience digitally. I define resilience as an emergent, situated and context-specific phenomenon. Using a Participatory Design model in combination with a salutogenic (strength-based) health methodology, this project has involved approximately 50 children as co-designers and co-researchers over two years. The children have contributed to the design of a new set of interactive resilience tools, which facilitate resilience promotion through dialogic and experiential learning. The major outcomes of this study include a new methodology for developing digital resilience tools, a new set of tools that have been developed and evaluated in collaboration with children and a set of design principles to guide future development. Beyond these initial and tangible outcomes, this study has also established that the benefits of introducing Participatory Design into a health promoting model rests primarily in the change of the role of children from "users" of technology and education to co-designers, where they assume a leadership role in both designing the tools and in directing their resilience learning.

Learning and assessment in Australia

Camp Kilda (CK) is regarded as being a quality early childhood center, and has many features you would typically expect to see in settings across Australia. The children are busily engaged in hands-on activity, playing indoors and outdoors, in the sandpit, under the shade of a big mango tree. The learning environment is planned to offer a variety of activities, including dramatic play, climbing equipment, balls, painting, drawing, clay, books, blocks, writing materials, scissors, manipulative materials. The children are free to access all the materials, and they play either individually or in small groups. The teachers encourage and stimulate the children’s learning, through interactions and thoughtful planning. Learning and assessment at CK is embedded within the cultural and social contexts of the children and their community. Children’s learning is made visible through a rich variety of strategies, including recorded observations, work samples, photographs, and other artifacts. Parents are actively encouraged to build on these “stories” of their children. Planning is based around the teachers’ analysis of the information they gather daily as they interact with the children and their families.

Imagination in school children's choice of their learning environment: An Australian study

A visual research project addressed school children's concepts of ideal learning environments. Drawings and accompanying narratives were collected from Year 5 and Year 6 children in nine Queensland primary schools. The 133 submissions were analysed and coded to develop themes, identify key features and consider the uses of imagination. The children's imagined schools echo ideas promoted by progressive educators. The results of this study suggest benefits for school designers can emerge from the imaginative contributions of children in creating engaging environments, while educational policy makers can benefit from children's ideas in the promotion of engaging, student-centred pedagogies.

Learning processes in creative industries initiatives in developing countries : an examination of policy and practice

What does a dance group in Benin that mixes contemporary and ethnic dancing have in common with Mongolian felt producers that want to enter the design market in Europe? These are both examples of learning processes in Creative Industries initiatives in developing countries. Following the concept of sustainable development, I argue that the challenge for developing countries in contemporary society is to meet the very real need of people for economic development and opportunities for income generation, while at the same time avoiding unintended and unwanted consequences of economic development and globalisation. The concept of the Creative Industries may be a way to promote a development that is sustainable and avoids social exclusion of groups-at-risk. In line with this, I argue that the Creative Industries sector could, in fact, link economic development and the continuation and evolution of local traditions and cultural heritage. A pressing question then is: how can education and learning contribute to creating a context in which talent can flourish? This study aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the research problem of this thesis: what elements are conducive for individual learning processes in creative development initiatives? In this, I argue that it is crucial to determine what ingredients and characteristics contribute to making these initiatives successful, that is, to meet their specific goals, in a developing context. This is explored through a staged analysis: an overview of quantitative data, an inventory and comparative case studies and, finally, the description and analysis of two in-depth case studies – felt design in Mongolia (Asia) and dance in Benin (Africa), in which I was an observer of the action phase of the local interventions. The analysis culminates in practice-related outcomes related to the operation of creative development initiatives, as well as the contribution to the academic debate on issues like the cultural gap between developed and developing countries, transformative learning and the connection of learning spaces.

Towards informed learning: Snapshots of a Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence program in Denver

This paper outlines the Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence (SIR) program that I undertook at University of Colorado in Denver, USA, in August-December 2010. It explains how the SIR program proved a most enriching experience for me, professionally and personally. One reason for this paper is to encourage other LIS professionals and educators to apply for Fulbrights and other types of scholarships and exchange programs. And also to reinforce the message that research and further study really can open doors and enrich our professional careers.

First year design "Visualisation II": The hybridisation of analogue and digital tools

This paper discusses first year students’ responses and outcomes to the integration of digital technologies in their second semester foundational visualisation class; ‘Visualisation II’. As the second class in the Visualisation series, previous analogue knowledge taught in ‘Visualisation I’ is compounded with new digital technologies establishing the introduction to a myriad of hybrid visualisation tools and techniques for design exploration and design artefact. This research examines the differentiation between analogue and digital design, common precedents of the two, and reflects upon the environment and class structure with the learning experiences and confidence of surveyed participants.

Shut up and write! Facilitating informal learning in doctoral candidature

Doctoral candidates spend at least 2/3 of their degree outside of structured classroom instruction; most of their learning and writing takes place in their own time. Providing research degree candidates with writing help during their degree study is difficult. Candidates come into their degree with widely varying needs and levels of experience. Course work might seem to offer a way to create parity, but, according to the Australian Qualification Framework, mandated coursework can only occupy 1⁄3 of the degree