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Framing Computational Thinking for Computational Literacies in K-12 Education
Get PDFThe last decade has seen an increased interest in promoting computing education for all, focused on the idea of “computational thinking.” Currently, three framings for promoting computational thinking in K-12 education have been proposed, emphasizing either (1) skill and competency building, (2) creative expression and participation, or (3) social justice and reflection. While each of these emphases is valuable and needed, their narrow focus can obscure important issues and miss critical transformational opportunities for empowering students as competent, creative, and critical agents. We argue that these computational framings should be seen as literacies, thereby historicizing and situating computer science with respect to broader educational concerns and providing new directions for how schools can help students to actively participate in designing their digital futures.This work has been funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany (BMBF) (grant no.: 16DII111, 16DII112, 16DII113, 16DII114, 16DII115, 16DII116, 16DII117 – „Deutsches Internet-Institut“
Fragmentation in high-choice media environments from a micro-perspective: Effects of selective exposure on issue diversity in individual repertoires
Get PDFOnline communication is often seen to promote audience fragmentation because it facilitates selective exposure and therefore is likely to divide audiences into sub-publics that hardly share common issues with other sub-publics. This study takes a micro-perspective on fragmentation by focusing on issue diversity in media items users have encountered in a particular week. Diversity was assessed via content analyses based on online diaries of 645 participants who recorded their media use concerning the German debates on climate change and federal elections. Findings show lower degrees of diversity for users of non-jour- nalistic online media than for users of journalistic mass media
Supplementary Material for “Somebody’s Watching Me: Smartphone Use Tracking and Reactivity”
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“Why Drones for Ordinary People?” Digital Representations, Topic Clusters, and Techno-Nationalization of Drones on Zhihu
Get PDFUnmanned and unwomaned aerial vehicles (UAV), or drones, are breaking and creating new boundaries of image-based communication. Using social network analysis and critical discourse analysis, we examine the 60 most popular question threads about drones on Zhihu, China’s largest social question answering platform. We trace how controversial issues around these supposedly novel tech products are mediated, domesticated, visualized, or marginalized via digital representational technology. Supported by Zhihu’s topic categorization algorithm, drone-related discussions form topic clusters. These topic clusters gain currency in the government-regulated cyberspace, where their meanings remain open to widely divergent interpretations and mediation by various agents. We find that the largest drone company DJI occupies a central and strongly interconnected position in the discussions. Drones are, moreover, represented as objects of consumption, technological advancement, national future, and uncertainty. At the same time, the sense-making process of drone-related discussions evokes emerging sets of narrative user identities with potential political effects. Users engage in digital representational technologies publicly and collectively to raise questions and represent their views on new technologies. Therefore, we argue that platforms like Zhihu are essential when studying views of the Chinese citizenry towards technological developments
When do Companies Train Low Skilled Workers? The Role of Technological Change, Human Resources Practices, and Institutional Arrangements
Get PDFThe article investigates the role of technological change, HR practices, and institutional organizational differences in training participation of low skilled workers in Germany. By building on institutional theories four hypotheses are derived and tested. Regression analysis based on the IAB Establishment Survey (wave 2011 and 2013) show evidence that the training participation of low skilled workers is shaped by organizational characteristics in terms of advanced production technology, investments in EDP, organizational or technological innovation, institutionalized arrangements and HR policies. While the effects of technology and innovations are of short-term nature, institutionalized arrangements in terms of employee representations and formalized HR practices have an enduring effect: They are positively associated with both a higher likelihood of training investments in low skilled workers and higher rates of continuing training participation among low skilled workers in 2011 and 2013.This work has been funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany (BMBF) (grant no.: 16DII111, 16DII112, 16DII113, 16DII114, 16DII115, 16DII116, 16DII117 – „Deutsches Internet-Institut“
Wearable Computing im Betrieb gestalten. Rolle und Perspektiven der Lösungsentwickler im Prozess der Arbeitsgestaltung
Get PDFWearables (beispielsweise Datenbrillen und Smartwatches) sind ein besonders sichtbares Element von Industrie-4.0-Anwendungen. Sie sollen situationsgerechte Informationen zur Verfügung stellen, können aber zugleich auch Daten über den Arbeitsprozess – und teils sogar über Bewegungsmuster und Vitalfunktionen der Beschäftigten – generieren. Die Wearable- Technologie ist in einem frühen Entwicklungsstadium, in dem die Interessen und Sichtweisen der relevanten Akteure, vor allem der Technikentwickler und des Managements möglicher Anwendungsunternehmen von besonderer Bedeutung sind. Der vorliegende Artikel untersucht die Rolle der Lösungsentwickler und ihr Verständnis von Arbeit und den Arbeitsprozessen, in denen Wearables eingesetzt werden sollen. Er beruht auf leitfadengestützten Interviews mit Lösungsentwicklern. Gezeigt wird ein ambivalentes Verständnis von Arbeit: Auf der einen Seite dominiert die Wahrnehmung menschlicher Arbeitskräfte als potenzielle Fehlerquellen und die Fokussierung auf die Optimierung einzelner Arbeitsplätze und ihrer Ergonomie, während übergreifende Fragen der Arbeitsgestaltung und Arbeitsorganisation ausgeblendet werden. Auf der anderen Seite werden die Potenziale und Gefahren der Wearable-Technologien im Hin- blick auf Individualisierung, Datenschutz und Kontrolle differenziert gesehen und diskutiert.Wearables (such as data glasses and smartwatches) are a particularly visible element of Industry 4.0 applications. They aim at providing situationspecific information to workers, but at the same time they can also generate data on the work process – and sometimes even on movement patterns and vital functions of the employees. Wearables technology is at an early stage of development, in which the interests and perspectives of relevant stakeholders, especially technology developers and the management, are of particular importance. This article explores the role of solution developers and their understanding of work and the work processes in which wearables are to be used. It is based on semi-structured interviews with solution developers and experts from science and companies. The analysis shows an ambivalent understanding of work: on the one hand, it is characterized by the perception of workers as potential sources of error and it focuses on the optimization of individual workplaces and their ergonomics, while broader questions of work design and work organization are ignored. On the other hand, the technology developers see and discuss the potentials and dangers of wearables technologies with regard to individualization, data protection and control in a differentiated manner
Pathways to environmental activism in four countries: social media, environmental concern, and political efficacy
Get PDFIn 2018-9, millions of youth participated in climate-related marches across the globe. This activism reflects youth’s distinctive form of political participation: cause-oriented, expressive, and networked. However, the pathway between environmental concern and environmental activism is complicated in some contexts and for some citizens. This article uses survey data from four countries (Canada, France, the United Kingdom, the United States) gathered in autumn 2019. We focus on the environmental activism of youth and young adults (aged 18–33 years, n = 1574). We find the role of social media is consistent and strong for all environmental activities in all countries; the role of political efficacy depends on activity and country but has a positive role in environmental activism; and environmental concern is a positive and significant correlate of boycotting and signing petitions but a weak predictor of participating in environmental marches. The relationship between environmental concern and environmental marches is distinctive in the United Kingdom. Overall, we find that concern about a social cause does not automatically translate into increased activism related to that cause. Moreover, online social networks, political efficacy, and political context are critical to understanding this mobilization process.This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) under Grant (435-2019-04-94)
The Ethical Gestalt of Autonomous Security Systems
No full textIn his lecture, Thomas Burri will present the first comprehensive “Evaluation Schema“ for autonomous security systems, including weapons systems, which he developed together with an interdisciplinary team of researchers under the leadership of Dr. Markus Christen (University of Zurich). Prof. Burri will discuss the system’s strengths and weaknesses and show how and where to extend it in the future
Creativity and Productivity In Product Design for Additive Manufacturing: Mechanisms and Platform Outcomes of Remixing
Get PDFThe present study explores the phenomenon of remixing in product design for additive manufacturing (AM). In contrast to other manufacturing techniques, AM offers unprecedented flexibility in adapting existing product designs to changing requirements. However, in order to benefit from this potential, structured design procedures and tools are indispensable. As a possible solution, online platforms for collaborative 3D model creation are increasingly implementing features for remixing, a concept describing the creation of new models on the foundation of existing design elements. Against this backdrop, the objective of this research is to provide evidence for the value of remixing as an organizational intervention for improving product design processes. To this end, we present a mixed methods approach using data from Thingiverse, the world's largest AM-related online community. In a first step, we investigate qualitative data from 81 individual remix-based designs to identify the underlying mechanisms of remixing. We identify six such mechanisms that can further be grouped by the intended outcome of the respective process (creativity-oriented: inspiration, play, learning; productivity- oriented: speed, improvement, empowerment). In a second step, we turn to a quantita- tive analysis of platform data, which indicates that remixing may lead to better design process outcomes in terms of quantity and diversity of designs. Furthermore, we find that designs created by remixing designers are significantly more often printed by com- munity members suggesting that remixing helps ensure manufacturing compatibility akin to continuous process improvement. Our research has several implications for individual designers and organizations engaging with product design for AM
Supplementary Material for “The effects of narratives and popularity cues on signing online petitions in two advanced democracies”
Get PDFAppendix 1 Condition: CLIMATE CHANGE ISSUE, NARRATIVE CONDITION (Australian study).
Appendix 2 Condition: CLIMATE CHANGE ISSUE, NON-NARRATIVE CONDITION (Australian study)
Appendix 3 Condition: INCREASE IN SOCIAL WELFARE ISSUE, NARRATIVE CONDITION (Australian study)
Appendix 4 Condition: INCREASE IN SOCIAL WELFARE ISSUE, NON-NARRATIVE CONDITION (Australian study