People with severe disabilities (SD) communicate in complex ways, and their teachers, parents and other involved professionals find it difficult to gain knowledge and share their experiences regarding the person with SD’s communication methods. The purpose of this study is to contribute to our understanding of how parents and professionals share learning about communication and augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) for people with SD by participating in blended learning networks (BLNs). Thirty-six parents and professionals participated in online web-based BLNs according to a prepared format; four groups were formed, and all of the groups participated in four discussion sessions and an evaluation session. Detailed minutes from the 16 BLN sessions, an evaluation session and course evaluation data were thematically analysed. The theoretical frameworks were different perspectives on disability within communication research and special education research, and theories about shared learning in networks. The analyses revealed themes that focused on communication partners’ knowledge, attitudes and strategies regarding communicating with people with SD; the importance and power of using multimodal AAC; and the universality, user-friendliness and empowering aspects of iPads and apps. The findings suggest that participants perceive communication and AAC with people with SD from relational, dialogical and interactional perspectives, whereas the categorical perspective was less pronounced. In accordance with other professional competence research, the use of online web-based BLNs with mixed groups that was described in this paper yielded positive evaluations from the participants. The opportunity for meeting others involved in caring for people with SD, the actual blended groups and the sharing of technology and AAC experiences in particular were highlighted.

This edited collection presents a Nordic perspective on intensified discussions concerning digitalization and digital competence in the current trends of educational work. Using a multidisciplinary and holistic approach, the book compares Nordic countries' attitudes towards the digitalization of education and demonstrates the Nordic region's position as digital front-runners in a European and global context. The book provides up-to-date cases and future-oriented perspectives on digitalization and digital competence in educational work. Chapters use empirical data gained from policy documents, interviews, and questionnaires to present nuanced discussions, theoretical perspectives, and implications for the future of digitalization in education. Ultimately, this book's reach far exceeds that of its Nordic contexts and will be of use to postgraduate students, researchers, and scholars across the globe involved with digital education, teacher education, and educational policy and politics more broadly . . .

In the user’s interaction with systems, waiting and interruptions often constitute a source of negative experiences. However, system response time can be difficult or impossible to control, due to for example poor internet connection. This study explores “subjective experienced time”, which refers to the users’ assessment of system response timeliness. The aim of this study is to gain increased knowledge of user satisfaction and subjectively experienced time in interaction with mobile applications. Thirty participants used and evaluated three mobile applications, containing unique stimuli in progress indicators. The results show correlation between progress indicators’ degree of feedback and the subjectively experienced time and user satisfaction. Contributions include increased insight into the somewhat complex connection between the degree of feedback, subjectively experienced time and user satisfaction, as well as design implications for user-centred design.

This paper addresses the problem of how to reach an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) competent teaching faculty in Swedish compulsory school.  Continuing professional development (CPD) is often used as a mean to increase competence in general among teachers, and is used for ICT initiatives as well. However, numerous studies have shown that previous ICT initiatives have not achieved sustainable change in teaching practices to the extend desired by policymakers. This study addresses the problem by investigating how such change initiatives can affect teachers in their every-day work. Therefore, we explore challenges and experiences, as perceived by teachers, related to CPD as a mean to achieve ICT competence into their profession. 17 teachers have been interviewed. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analysed by learning theories suitable for professional practices. Teachers’ expressed needs were well aligned with CPD methods advocated in research literature, but less aligned with previous CPD initiatives. Their expressed needs were diverse, reflecting their individual competence, length of teaching experience, personal motivation and learning preferences. 

Digital technologies have become thoroughly enmeshed in everyday life, forming a backdrop of experience. We live not only with these technologies but also through them as they mediate our engagement with the world. This mediation calls for closer attention with respect to practical design concerns as well as more theoretical and philosophical questions regarding the role of technologies in experience and society. This dissertation is an inquiry into this mediating role of technology. Its purpose is to analyze and theorize the relation between mediating technologies and the activities they make visible; to theorize the structure and dynamics of digitally-mediated engagement; and to provide a flexible conceptual framework that can be used for analyzing these aspects during design and critique. It develops a conceptualization of digital technologies as responsive digital materials that function as substrates that can make activities visible as traces. It then applies and extends existing postphenomenological theories of technological mediation in order to account for these specific components of digital material and to examine the structure and dynamics of digital material mediation. These theoretical developments are empirically grounded in a set of structured close analyses of specific digital material cases. This analytic, artifact-centered method was developed in order to analyze specific mechanisms by which digital technologies make activities visible, and in a way that can be useful in both practical design work and more theoretical analyses. The primary contributions of this dissertation are a theoretical framing of the mediating role and capabilities of technologies as a unit of analysis; development and extension of existing conceptualizations of digital material and technological mediation; a conceptual framework that can be used in framing and analysis; a method of framing and analyzing digital material cases; and an archive of cases that illustrate this method and approach. The high-level goal of this dissertation is to enable and contribute to a philosophically-grounded understanding of the role of digital technologies in society and human experience, and its contributions are intended to enable further, more precise, and more practical inquiries into the ways in which digital materials mediate engagement with the world.

Digital technologies mediate engagement with the world by making ac- tivities visible. The automaticity and physicality of the ways in which they do this suggest that it could be productive to view them as responsive digital materials. This paper explores the structure and function of responsive materials in order to develop a conceptualization of responsive digital materials. It then begins to unpack the com- plexities of digital material mediation through both drawing on and extending existing postphenomenological theory. 

Recent work identified a concerning trend of disproportional gender representation in research participants in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). Motivated by the fact that Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) shares many participant practices with HCI, we explored whether this trend is mirrored in our field. By producing a dataset covering participant gender representation in all 684 full papers published at the HRI conference from 2006-2021, we identify current trends in HRI research participation. We find an over-representation of men in research participants to date, as well as inconsistent and/or incomplete gender reporting which typically engages in a binary treatment of gender at odds with published best practice guidelines. We further examine if and how participant gender has been considered in user studies to date, in-line with current discourse surrounding the importance and/or potential risks of gender based analyses. Finally, we complement this with a survey of HRI researchers to examine correlations between the who is doing with the who is taking part, to further reflect on factors which seemingly influence gender bias in research participation across different sub-fields of HRI. Through our analysis we identify areas for improvement, but also reason for optimism, and derive some practical suggestions for HRI researchers going forward.

Interpretation of the law is important in the administrative decision-making process in local municipal planning, which is a co-operative process. Local mobility also plays an important role. A study of work practice highlights the need to take this into account when designing support for decision-making processes.

Achieving product and process quality are among the central themes of software engineering, and quality is an important factor in the marketplace. Usability and user experience (UX) are two important aspects of quality, particularly for interactive products. To achieve usability means producing products that let users do things in a satisfactory, efficient and effective way. To develop products with good UX, means going beyond usability, in ways that are still not clear to us. Achieving good usability and UX is hard. This thesis is concerned with organizations which work towards these goals. This research is concerned with understanding and improving the processes by which technology is designed and developed, and understanding the demands and expectations users have. It is about how companies can and actually develop products with good usability and UX, and what stops them from working towards this as efficiently as they could. We have viewed the usability and UX challenge from the viewpoints of Quality, Organizations, and Institutions, with a focus on participatory design, user-centred design and wicked problems. The research can be characterised as empirical research performed over a period of seven years, in close cooperation with industrial partners. The research was performed using multiple data collection methods to create constructs and shape theory. The field methods have ranged from being a participant observer, to performing interviews and holding workshops with members of the participating organisations. A case study approach was initially used, but focus soon moved from case study methodology to a closer focus on grounded theory, and finally the focus shifted to constructivist grounded theory. The thesis contributes to the field of software engineering in several ways. Usability has a long history within software engineering, human computer interaction, and design science, but the different discourses within the fields have meant that communication between the fields was problematic. The research in this thesis has moved between the different fields, contributing to bridging the gap between the areas. It gives an illustration of how usability work actually takes place in different types of companies, from a developer of operating systems for smartphones, to a global engineering company, which knows that it must find ways of working with, and measuring, usability and user experience. It gives concrete knowledge about the way in which companies can work with usability testing, and how they can provide information to satisfy the information needs of different stakeholders. It provides a discussion of the state of UX today, taking up the problems that stop industry making use of the definitions and theories of UX that exist. Thus, it gives an illustration of the different factors in product design, development and sales, from dealing with organizational factors to satisfying user needs, that all make usability work such a rocky road to navigate.

This article presents an experience report where we compare 8 years of experience of product related usability testing and evaluation with principles for software process improvement (SPI). In theory the product and the process views are often seen to be complementary, but studies of industry have demonstrated the opposite. Therefore, more empirical studies are needed to understand and improve the present situation. We find areas of close agreement as well as areas where our work illuminates new characteristics. It has been identified that successful SPI is dependent upon being successfully combined with a business orientation. Usability and business orientation also have strong connections although this has not been extensively addressed in SPI publications. Reasons for this could be that usability focuses on product metrics whilst today's SPI mainly focuses on process metrics. Also because today's SPI is dominated by striving towards a standardized, controllable, and predictable software engineering process: whilst successful usability efforts in organisations are more about creating a creative organisational culture advocating a useful product throughout the development and product life cycle. We provide a study and discussion that supports future development when combining usability and product focus with SPI, in particular if these efforts are related to usability process improvement efforts.

In this paper we reflect on teaching PD, in an experience report of a student project taking place in an industrial context. The paper contributes to discussions in the PD community about how PD is, and could be, taught. It looks at what happened in the project, and issues that arose, from the point of view of the students and the company. It looks at the way in which uncertainty and power relations have played a role in the project, and how the students have been affected by them. It discusses the importance of the co-design that took place, mainly around prototyping, and the difficulties students experienced when working with PD methods. It looks at the importance of the roles involved in the project. We end with important points for discussion concerning teaching PD.

This study investigates the prospect of integrating sustainability issues into game development education by reporting experiences from two Nordic Alliance for Sustainability in Gaming (NASG) events. The paper highlights the importance of offering a social, creative environment in which the process of jamming is emphasized over results. We unpack the potential of game jams to be used for teaching subjects other than game development itself, particularly in relation to complex, anxiety provoking topics such as sustainability. Based on data consisting of participant reflections on their own moods and gained insights throughout the course of the jam, the research reveals a clear change in attitudes among the participants as they move on in their creative process. The study concludes that game jams, as activities defined by high levels of creativity and social engagement, is a powerful educational tool for approaching heavy topics while still letting participants cope with, and even empower them to address such complex issues.

På grund av digitaliseringen är kunskapsarbetare inte längre bundna till sina arbetsplatser för att utföra sitt arbete. Tillgången till informations- och kommunikationsverktyg innebär att allt fler arbetslag har medarbetare som arbetar på distans, vilket innebär nya utmaningar och möjligheter för chefer sett både till kommunikation och koordination. Coronapandemin med dess restriktioner har inneburit en större andel distansarbetare och flexibla team, vilket skapar ett ökat behov av kunskap inom området. Krav på ledarskap förändrades i och med ICT verktygens växande roll på arbetsplatser, vilket är bakgrunden till denna studie. Därför ämnar denna uppsats skapa en fördjupad förståelse för hur chefer leder och koordinerar sina anställda med hjälp av ICT verktyg på den flexibla arbetsplatsen. Utifrån ett tvärvetenskapligt angreppssätt där Företagsekonomi och Människa-dator interaktion förenas, har chefer intervjuats på två fallorganisationer som har liknande systemstruktur för internkommunikation. Med en dualistisk syn på tekniska och sociala aspekter, kan uppsatsen bidra till en ökad förståelse för e-ledarens roll ur både ett tekniskt och ett socialt perspektiv. Våra resultat i kombination med tidigare studier, antyder att chefer inom kunskapsintensiva arbetsplatser möter vissa utmaningar med koordination och kommunikation med hjälp av ICT verktyg, både när det kommer till tekniska och sociala aspekter. Den uppgiftsorienterade kommunikationen och koordinationen främjas av ICT verktyg i större utsträckning, än vad gäller den sociala interaktionen och kommunikationen. 

This thesis examines the roles played by digital information and communication technologies in a Swedish public library’s three-year long renovation project. As a case study of technology-influenced collaboration in a cultural heritage institution, this study addresses a gap in digital humanities research on the practical details of sociotechnical collaboration, as well as a lack of documentation of an ongoing trend of renovations and rebuildings of Swedish public libraries. 

A large number of internal materials produced at the library during the course of its renovations was studied, and semi-structured qualitative interviews with three of the cultural heritage workers involved were conducted. Reading these materials with an actor-network theory approach, an account was constructed of the renovation project and the usages therein of digital technologies, in order to examine these technologies as actors and their effects on the project.

It was found that, throughout the project, information and communication technologies were used to think, plan, organize, discuss, and make decisions about the work, that limitations and affordances of these technologies shaped how they could be used, and that this thus had effects on the project. Digital technologies are shown to have been active and agential, and avenues for future research are suggested.

This paper presents a project where polling and chat were used in the foreign language classroom to promote student participation and, at the same time, provide a record of student contributions. The setting is a Swedish university course in grammar and translation for advanced learners of English. The majority of seminars are devoted to discussing translation assignments that students have prepared at home. During the project, Adobe Connect Pro, a web conferencing solution for online meetings, was used, and all students had access to a computer in the classroom. For each seminar, an online meeting was set up in Adobe Connect with the following tools enabled:

• A poll, used as a clicker at the start of the seminar to gather input from students on a specific language issue.
• A chat, where students typed in their solutions to the translation assignment.
• A whiteboard, where a selection of student solutions were displayed for feedback and discussion.

Student evaluations of the project express that students are positive to using online technology in the classroom. The students participated actively in the poll and chat sessions. In the subsequent oral discussions, participation was remarkably wide. From the teacher’s perspective, the chat provided a written record of student contributions that could be used for further analysis and discussion. Some challenges included managing both written and oral communication in the classroom, and dealing with larger chunks of text in the chat.

Information Systems (IS) and Human Computer Interaction(HCI)–including Computer-Supported Cooperative Work(CSCW)–address the development and adoption of computingsystems by organizations, individuals, and teams. Whileeach has its own emphasis, the timelines for adopting qualitativeand critical research differ dramatically. IS used bothin the late 1980s, but critical theory appeared in HCI onlyin 2000. Using a hermeneutic literature review, the papertraces these histories; it applies academic cultures theoryas an explanatory framework. Institutional factors includeepistemic bases of source disciplines, number and centralityof publication outlets, and political and geographic contexts.Key innovations in IS are covered in detail. The rise ofplatformization drives the fields toward a common scopeof study with an imperative to address societal issues thatemerge at scale.

Qualitative and Critical Research in Information Systems and Human Computer Interaction explores the history and adoption of qualitative and critical research in Information Systems (IS) and contrasts it with the growth of similar methods/theories in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and, to a lesser, extent Computer Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW). The supposition behind the comparison was that the areas overlap in subject matter and would overlap in methods and authors. However, marked differences were observed in the structure of publications, conferences, and on social media that led to questions about the extent to which the fields shared a common framework. The authors find that the history of each discipline reflects institutional factors that affected the respective timelines for the use of these approaches. This leads them to consider a sociological epistemic framework, which explains the differences quite well. It also supports characterizations of the culture of IS made by members, as having open paradigm and high collegiality, described as an adhocracy. The authors propose that qualitative and critical research developed interdependently in IS. Aside from institutional factors, a further difference in uptake of methods and critical framework comes from the US/Europe divide in research traditions and the political/epistemic climates affecting research in the respective regions. Research from beyond the transatlantic traditions postdates the developments covered here but is touched on at the end of the monograph. The primary goal of Qualitative and Critical Research in Information Systems and Human Computer Interaction is to better understand the ways the IS research community differentiates itself into diverse constituencies, and how these constituencies interact in the field's complex processes of knowledge creation and dissemination. Another goal is to create cross-disciplinary discussion and build on related work in the fields. This is important in the era of platforms with global reach, and the concurrent development of powerful AI and analytics capabilities that both intrude on daily life and try to emulate human intelligence.

Due to the maturity of technological development, widespread use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is becoming prevalent in the civil and commercial sectors. One promising area of application is in emergency rescue support. As recently seen in a number of natural catastrophes such as the hurricanes in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico, major communication and electrical infrastructure is knocked out, leading to an inability to communicate between the victims and rescuers on the ground as well as between rescuers themselves. This paper studies the feasibility of using heterogeneous teams of UAVs to rapidly deliver and establish ad hoc communication networks in operational environments through autonomous in-air delivery of CommKits that serve as nodes in local ad hoc networks. Hardware and software infrastructures for autonomous CommKit delivery in addition to CommKit specification and construction is considered. The results of initial evaluation of two design alternatives for CommKits are presented based on more than 25 real flight tests in different weather conditions using a commercial small-scale UAV platform.

Crowd stampede has attracted significant attention of emergency management researchers in recent years. Early-warning of crowd stampede in metro station commercial area is discussed in this paper under the context of Internet of Things (IoT). Metro station commercial area is one of the entity carriers of E-commerce. IOT is a new concept of realizing intelligent sense, monitoring, tracking and management, which can be used in early-warning analysis of crowd stampede in metro station. Stampede risk early-warning in commercial area plays an important role in ensuring the operation of e-commerce online. Firstly, the laws and characteristics of the crowd movement in the commercial area of metro station are studied, which include the laeuna effect, block effect and aggravation effect. Secondly, the early-warning paradigm is constructed from four dimensions, ie. function, modules, principle and process. And then, under the IOT environment, the AHPsort II is applied to integrate the early-warning information and classify the stampede risk level. Finally, the paper takes the commercial area of Wuhan A metro station as an example to verify the practicability and effectiveness of the AHPsort II application to early-warning of crowd stampede in metro station commercial area.

Loneliness in advanced age has become one of the societal concerns considering its detrimental effects onphysical and mental health of older people. Information and communication technologies show thepotential to prevent or tackle loneliness and social isolation among older people. Given a percentage of theolder population feeling lonely, loneliness in older age has been increasingly recognized as a stereotypeabout older people and ageing which shapes self-perceptions of ageing. This cross-sectional study aims toinvestigate the interaction between older people’s Internet use and the level of loneliness, as well asintroduce the important role that self-perceptions of ageing may play in this association. The analyses wereperformed on data of community-dwelling older adults aged 65+ years from the German Ageing Survey.Findings from this study have shown that older people’s greater Internet use was significantly associatedwith a lower level of loneliness; meanwhile, positive self-perceptions of ageing were correlated with alower degree of loneliness. Additionally, self-perceptions of ageing (in the aspect of personal competence)moderate the relationship between Internet use and loneliness among older people. This paper allowsinsight into the important moderating role of positive self-perceptions of ageing in the relationship betweenolder people’s Internet use and the level of loneliness. This moderating effect hence contributes to thebeneficial implications of frequent Internet use on preventing or reducing the level of loneliness. Given theglobal context of overwhelming facilitation of digital technologies across sectors and vulnerable socialgroups, it is of significance to empower older adults with negative self-perceptions of ageing to ensure theygain benefits from technological advances, as well as to challenge the prevalent stereotypes about olderpeople and ageing in societies.

Social shopping enables people to share and discuss about shopping in collaborative shopping environments. While much work has focused on using social data to promote shopping, fewer works have examined the way people socialize in the context of shopping as a personalized collaborative activity. In this paper, we propose to use qualitative methods to gain insight into people’s perceptions, concerns, and challenges in social shopping-related activities. Based on the findings, our work may contribute to the design of future online shopping sites and social media platforms that improve user engagement and participation in social shopping interactions, as well as facilitating personalized shopping and social experiences in online communities.

This paper presents the results of EcoPanel, an eco-feedback visualization created in collaboration with a Swedish food retailer. The visualization uses automatic data gathering to provide consumers with detailed information and long-term trends about their organic food consumption. The results from a five months test with 65 users show an increase in organic purchases compared to the control group, especially for the users who overestimated their percentage of organic food before the test. From the results we point out the possibilities of using visualization as a way of creating insight on behaviors such as food consumption, that are difficult to grasp from individual actions. This insight can be a way of closing the gap between attitudes and actual behavior, helping users that are already aware and willing to change, to perform more sustainable.

This article discusses anxiety as an analytical and methodological concept in the investigation of post-authoritarian societies, drawing on three well-being-focused anxieties that marked Greece in the 1980s: first, the degradation of the urban environment, especially in Athens; second, the technologisation of everyday life, most notably the popularisation of information technology; and third, the impact of novel, consumption-focused media, particularly lifestyle magazines. The analysis distinguishes anxiety from fear and argues that fear is commoner in authoritarian regimes than in new democracies, which often experience optimism and cultural pluralism. These conditions foster anxieties related to well-being. By exploring a juncture at which moderate economic progress coincided with democratisation and closer contact with Western Europe, the article argues that anxiety is a productive tool for examining the emotional impact of mild perceived threats to well-being in societies characterised by relatively calm life conditions.

The aim of this study is to enhance the understanding of how sport dressage riders describe rider-horse communication when riding, and to relate these descriptions to current research on human-horse communication. Interviews with 15 amateur dressage riders were analyzed using a qualitative approach. The study shows that the interviewed riders describe the communication with the horses partly in a behavioristic way, applying concepts based on learning theory, which deviate from the description of riders as lacking understanding of these concepts put forth by some researchers. The riders connect the timing of their aids to equestrian feel, which they describe as the most difficult yet the most awarding aspect of the interspecies communication that riding is. Simultaneously, they acknowledge that horses are fully capable of choosing to listen to and cooperate with their requests.

This paper explores MultiAgent Systems coordination from a socio-psychological point of view. Activity Theory is introduced to explain the coordination among intelligent agents. The hierarchy and motivation thinking from Activity Theory is used to define the motivation driven MultiAgent Systems coordination mechanism. Finally, we apply this mechanism into a health care scenario.

This thesis explores aesthetization in general and fashion in particular in digital technology design and how we can design digital technology to account for the extended influences of fashion. The thesis applies a combination of methods to explore the new design space at the intersection of fashion and technology. First, it contributes to theoretical understandings of aesthetization and fashion institutionalization that influence digital technology design. We show that there is an unstable aesthetization in mobile design and the increased aesthetization is closely related to the fashion industry. Fashion emerged through shared institutional activities, which are usually in the form of action nets in the design of digital devices. “Tech Fashion” is proposed to interpret such dynamic action nets of institutional arrangements that make digital technology fashionable and desirable. Second, through associative design research, we have designed and developed two prototypes that account for institutionalized fashion values, such as the concept “outfit-centric accessory.” We call for a more extensive collaboration between fashion design and interaction design.

My thesis project explores a new paradigm of mood board tool that challenges

the current paradigm of confining everything to 2D, flat interfaces. while investi-

gating how AI can inspire and assist industrial designers during the form explora-

tion process.

Using a human-centered design approach, the project led to the development of

COSMO, an AI-integrated, inspiration-triggering mood board tool for industrial

designers. It addresses the issue of limited variety in current digital inspiration

platforms, where similar content is often suggested due to AI algorithms.

COSMO encourages using a variety of inspiration sources, including digital

visuals and real-life experiences. This approach fosters creativity and personal

connection, helping designers deeply resonate with the inspiration they collect

and retrieve it at a more profound level.

COSMO also utilizes Mixed Reality technology to offer an immersive, distrac-

tion-free experience when organizing and internalizing inspiration sources.

It offers a virtual meditative space that uses AI-assisted association loops to

build associations. These loops create multiple layers of associations, assisting

human designers in widening their initial associations. This leads to inspiration

sources that are semantically different but insightful.

In today’s information focused world, most days involve contact with some form of screen and keyboard for work and leisure purposes. Learners must be dexterous and agile to effectively respond to shifting labour market requirements reflecting fast-changing technological needs and expectations. Information is available in a myriad of forms and successful engagement requires effective and efficient skills and understanding. With this background, this paper asserts that a musical skill set broadens the way that learners subsequently engage with and manage their information acquisition and use. This provides a broader base for ongoing knowledge management. Using philosophical and reflective approaches, it draws on life experiences from arts education by way of a duoethnographic approach. Two narratives provide insights of individual experiences, subsequent acquisition and engagement with information and consequent enhanced knowledge. These are analysed using a personal knowledge management model, providing a visualisation approach to the collaboration through knowledge sharing. The dialogic results demonstrate how the background of musical competence enriched subsequent learning capability in structuring and operationalising knowledge acquisition and management.

In diesem Beitrag wird anhand der Steuerung des manuellen Verwiegesystems ManDos erläutert, wie eine Smartwatch im industriellen Umfeld genutzt werden kann, um den Nutzern eine möglichst freihändige und ortsungebundene Interaktion zu ermöglichen. Dazu wurde zunächst eine Analyse des bestehenden Systems durchgeführt, im nächsten Schritt ein Konzept und der Anwendungsfall erarbeitet und im letzten Schritt das Konzept realisiert.

The task of ensuring Patient Safety is, more than ever, central in Healthcare. The report “To Err is Human” [Kohn et al. 2000], was revealing alarming numbers of incidents, injuries and deaths caused by deficiencies in healthcare activities. The book initiated assessment and change of Healthcare methods and procedures. In addition, numerous reports to Swedish HSAN (Medical Responsibility Board) have shown a high rate of information and communication deficiencies in Healthcare has a direct or indirect cause of incidents, injuries and deaths. Despite numerous of new sophisticated tools for information management in recent years, e.g., tools such as Electronic Health Records (EHR) and Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS), the threats to Patient Safety have not been redeemed. Rather to the contrary. Underlying reasons for this paradox are twofold. Firstly, advancements in diagnosing techniques have given rise to increasing volumes of data at the same time as the number of patients has increased due to demographic changes and advancements in treatments. Secondly, the information processing systems are far from aligned to related workflow processes. In short, we do not at present have interoperability in our Healthcare systems. In this doctoral dissertation, we present an in-depth analysis of two different “HSAN-typical” cases, where Patient Safety was jeopardized by incomplete information flows and/or information breakdowns. The cases are mirroring the apprehension of Simplicity, that is, Occam´s Razor of Diagnostic Parsimony. A well-known protocol used in Healthcare and implemented in most (knowledge based) CDSS. This rule of thumb is the foundation for the well-known adage: “when you hear hoof beats, think horses, not zebras”. Hickam´s Dictum is one well known objection to the simplifications of Occam´s Razor stating "Patients can have as many diseases as they damn well please". Of course, this Dictum is harder to implement effectively! In the thesis we suggest a visualization tool Visual Incidence Anamneses (VIA) to provide middle out compromise between Ockham and Hickam but providing means to increase Patient Safety. The findings of our Study for the thesis have resulted in a number of Aspects and Principles as well as Core-principles for future CDSS design, That is, tools and methodologies that will support designing and validating Interoperability of Healthcare systems across patient-centric workflows. The VIA tool should be used as the initiating point in a patient (individual) centered workflow, quickly visualizing vital information such as symptoms, incidents and diagnoses, occurring earlier in the medical history, at different times, to ground further vital decisions on. The visualization will enable analysis of timelines and earlier diagnoses of the patient, using visually salient nodes for visualization of causalities in context. Furthermore, support for customization of the tool to the views of stakeholders, members of healthcare teams and empowerments of the patient, is crucial.

Today Patient Empowerment is gaining ground in the area of health care in modern western societies. This concept is revolutionary, as it potentially alters the balance of power within traditional and apparently solid hierarchical health care structures. The Internet has accelerated the process by providing tools and techniques enabling nearly unlimited access to information and exchange of experiences. However, the benefit from this approach is bilateral, with respect to both care providers and care receivers (consumers). In order to obtain increased efficiency, in an economical as well as medical perspective, the responsibility for proper health and recovery support lies on both sides. Therefore, patients must be prepared for some kind of action. Accordingly, in the role of being a patient, today and in the future, the patient will no longer be “patient”. On the contrary, the patient must be proactive; not stagnate as a passive receiver of care. Nevertheless, as encouraging as this conceptualization is, it also harbours new demands on this “new type of patient”. Consequently, even if the advantages are predominant, the approach will cause friction: not every patient is capable to take action, as the “new empowered patient” should already be healthy and strong to undertake such tasks (a paradox within the concept). The challenges are, by design of Empowering Systems, to decrease or eliminate such difficulties. For a proper understanding of this licentiate thesis, it is essential to notice that the Patient Empowerment phenomenon is highly related to aspects of activity and learning. With reference to this, these empowering requirements should be met by eHealth design especially adapted for this aim. A Model (the KIViC-model) is advocated, which initially has been constructed, and further on evaluated in a Study within the area of congenital heart conditions, to underpin and strengthen design discussions about the importance of information transparency (for patient activity and learning) in health care. Simultaneously, questions concerning visualization of the right information (what is needed), at the right time (when it is needed), and at the right place (where and how it is needed) are highlighted by virtue of the study. Moreover, and maybe of highest importance, questions of the digital divide and security are discussed to underline hazards related to the transformation of one system into another. The paradox within the Patient Empowerment concept is obviously crucial and most likely is context aware Information Systems Design one key that could resolve this. Conclusively, Empowerment Systems should provide the patient with tools to become empowered; despite impeding deficiencies.

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation become more intertwined, understanding their impact on user control is essential. This study investigates dynamic user control in AI-driven automated systems, particularly in work environments. While adaptive automation (AA) has been extensively studied, there's a gap in research on adaptable and hybrid automation, where users control the level of automation (LOA). We bridge this gap with a design-oriented case study structured into three phases, evaluating one adaptable and one hybrid prototype. By understanding real-world perspectives of users and providers of an AI-driven automation system, we address the question: "How can we support users with dynamic control when designing for human-centred automation?”. Our findings are synthesized into insights that suggest a preference for a hybrid approach; one that balances user and AI-system collaboration, providing adaptive and personalized support, without overwhelming adaptability. Overall, our results conclude the importance of human involvement in the automation process, underscoring the need for "human touch” in the design of humancentred automation (HCAI).

This special collection contains articles from participants in the 7th International Designs for Learning Conference – Remediation of Learning. The focus of the conference and the special collection is on current changes in the designs of information and knowledge representations and their consequences on how we understand and evaluate learning and communication.

The conference was held in May 2021 and due to the pandemic it was run digitally through Zoom. A total of 43 abstracts were submitted, and all delegates were invited to submit a full paper to the Designs for Learning Journal. Five articles were finally included in the special collection and are presented below, along with an acknowledgement of the abstracts presented during the conference.

This dissertation explores the potential of digital resources to support students' participation in learning environments. The research questions focus on the student perspective on participation in formal and informal learning environments, as well as the role digital resources can play in promoting student participation in school instruction.

Four participant-based studies investigate students' and teachers' views on how technology-enhanced learning can benefit the significant interactions that promote participation in learning environments. Students express a lack of digital resources actively supporting their participation in school compared to experiences from their personal lives. They emphasize the need for increased use of digital resources for information management and interactions in the learning process. Teachers stress the importance of being able to provide timely and specific feedback to students through digital platforms. They also express the need to visualize students' reasoning and to compile and have updated results at both individual and group levels. Both teachers and students identify the potential of digital resources to increase student participation, for example, by developing digital resources that can handle information flows and provide a common platform for interaction and collaboration. Learning is facilitated and strengthened by meaningful social participation, which needs to be related to the ongoing development of learning environments in the rapidly changing digital landscape.

To promote student participation with the support of a technology-enhanced learning environment, a balance is required between meeting students' needs, content requirements, and teachers' challenges in conducting quality teaching with digital resources as support. The dissertation presents principles regarding the use of digital resources to promote student participation. The principles focus on accessibility, individual adaptation to different learning styles, and strengthening students' community. These principles, derived from teachers' experiences, are believed to support teachers' pedagogical practices in the aim of increasing student participation in the learning process. Teachers see many applications within technology-enhanced learning to support both student participation and engagement. However, the low availability and reliability of digital resources in schools constitute a significant barrier.

In the current digital era, technology plays a crucial role in facilitating diverse interactions that are essential for pupil engagement in the learning process. This article delves into the perspectives of secondary school teachers regarding the active participation of pupils in school activities through the utilization of digital technologies. The concept of participation is approached from two dimensions: passive presence and active involvement, with a specific focus on the latter, emphasizing active engagement. The study centers on the application of digital resources in Swedish grades 7–9 to promote pupil participation and enhance the learning experience. We examine the use, effectiveness, and areas requiring improvement of existing digital resources. Drawing from prior workshops involving teachers, we aim to elucidate educators’ viewpoints on the role of technology in enhancing pupil participation. Grounded in the Garrison and Andersson’s theoretical framework, the study advances the comprehension of the interactions necessary to foster an effective learning environment, as perceived by educators. The results derived from the thematic analysis yield four themes: 1) Interaction between teacher and pupil, 2) Interaction between pupil and content, 3) Interaction between pupil and pupil and 4) Extended interaction. The study concludes by outlining a set of guidelines in how digital resources can support pupil participation as the response to identified challenges.

There is a growing strand of research on social justice in HCI. While many contemporary HCI studies are being conducted and analyzed in a social justice context, still few studies examine how this plays out among older adults and their use of technology. In this paper, three streams of HCI and HCI-connected research are mapped out describing personal characteristics, economic benefits, and age-related vulnerability at the forefront of older adults’ technology use. Through an empirical study and a social justice-oriented perspective, I establish how HCI research on older adults’ technology use fails to include important societal factors and misses out on valuable insights such as how societal structures can affect senior’s life and technology use. Contributions posit three opportunities into how a social justice-oriented perspective can benefit research regarding older adults’ technology use in HCI.

Information visualization aims at creating visually concrete representations of big and abstract data. Research shows that the subject has good potential when it comes to conveying information within many various sectors. However, there is a scarce range of research defining a design space for information visualization tools with the aim of trying to convey clear and true information that is completely understandable for many different target groups with varying educational background, cognitive state, etc. To explore the gap of such design and the potential that information visualization has towards it, a study was conducted to gather the experience of healthcare practitioners with various experience of examining and presenting results to patients with a certain condition. To gather their opinions and thoughts, semi-structured interviews were used and from the results, four defined design aspects emerged. These four emerged design aspects have potential to work as a base when designing a future design concept. 

Digitizing health care takes place in parallel with demographic changes posing one of the greatest social changes of our time. Although modern elderly care has evolved closely related to technological development and evaluated by established methods, digitization places new demands on approaches as a result of its systemic characteristics and its potential to bridge different environments and social contexts and the involvement of elderly users. This paper is paying attention to three challenges: digitizing already existing technological environments; implementing technology in new arenas outside hospitals and laboratories; and the imbalance between perceptions of elderly users and their actual needs and demands. The conclusions point out that digitization provides opportunities to deepen or reflections on technology and implementation, develop multidisciplinary collaborations and enhance proactive engagements to make new technologies work.

Samhället vi lever i är i ständig förändring och utveckling. Digitala verktyg som smartphones, surfplattor och applikationer som exempelvis spel, är en stor del av barns vardag. Vi har i denna undersökning haft fokus på att undersöka hur förskollärare och barnskötare involverar digitala verktyg i förskolans språkutvecklande undervisning. Genom intervjuer, insamling av lokala arbetsplaner samt enkätundersökning, har vi tagit del av förskollärares, barnskötares samt IKT-pedagogers tankar och erfarenheter som relateras till vårt syfte och vår frågeställning. I vår analys av den insamlade empirin har vi använt oss av det teoretiska ramverket TPACK, för att analysera och diskutera den flerdimensionella och dynamiska kompetensen som förskollärare behöver för att undervisa i förskolan om och med digitala verktyg. Om man som förskollärare kan tillskriva sig TPACK, har man således en professionell digital kompetens som behövs för undervisning i förskolan (Koehler & Mishra, 2006, 2009). Vår tolkning är att TPACK och professionell digital kompetens har samma innebörd och vi kommer därför i vår undersökning att använda oss av formuleringen professionell digital kompetens.

Resultatet av vår undersökning visar på att förskollärares och barnskötares förhållningssätt samt kompetenser är avgörande för hur digitala verktyg används för att nå språkutveckling hos barnen. Där förskollärare eller barnskötare visar ett intresse för digitala verktyg, skapas även en lärandemiljö där dessa också nyttjas i större utsträckning. Vidare visade vår undersökning på vikten av att förskollärare och barnskötare innehar professionell digital kompetens, där dessa kunskapsdomäner kommer till uttryck i planering och genomförande av den språkutvecklande undervisningen.  

Enhanced data services through mobile phones are expected to be soon fully transactional and embedded within future mobile consumption practices. While private services will surely continue to take the lead, others such as government and NGOs will become more prominent m-players. It is not yet sure which form of technological standards will take the lead including enhance SMS based operations or Internet based specifically developed mobile phone applications. With the introduction of interactive transactions via mobile phones, currently untapped segment of the populations (without computers) have the potential to be accessed. Our research, as a reflection of the current market situation in an emerging country context, in the case of mobile phones analyzes the current needs or emergence of dependencies regarding the use of m/e-government services from the perspective of municipality officers. We contend that more research is needed to understand current preparatory bottlenecks and front loading activities to be able to encourage future intention to use e-government services through mobile phone technologies. This study highlights and interprets the current emerging practices and praxis for consuming m-government services within government.

Conducting meetings in digital forums places different demands on us than if the meetings would take place in a physical room. Above all, one must think about how to create good conditions for constructive and respectful discussions. Here are eight tips that, based on experience, are known to contribute to a good digital meeting. 

The good practice identified through two years of activity within the COLISEE project is valuable since these activities have produced practical examples which can be analyzed, and pathways which can be followed, but not models which can be reproduced, given the fact that the local context and environment vary so much from one university to another. The authors of this booklet are aware that there is a long way for each university to go if they want to develop a true digital culture and overcome the well documented resistance to change. However, the contribution of the project in terms of the digital resources identified and made available to a varied public (students, university teachers etc.) is substantial given the fact that the digital resources which have been evaluated, developed (e.g. MOOCs) and tested within the bounds of the COLISEE project are numerous and respond to a real need. The effort expended by the authors on this piece of team work has centered on the three key competences of the project but also of the forthcoming Master’s programme (plurilingualism and corporate culture).

Concluding Remarks

As we reach the end of this booklet on ‘The use of Digital Resources in University Programmes’, it is worth noting both the limitations of this piece of collaborative work and the contributions it has made, especially in terms of the sustainability of the project and the anticipated impact of the COLISEE project deliverables. Its limitations lie in the fact that it cannot lay any claim to have come up with a model which others can follow. The good practice identified through two years of activity within the COLISEE project is valuable since these activities have produced practical examples which can be analyzed, and pathways which can be followed, but not models which can be reproduced, given the fact that the local context and environment vary so much from one university to another. The authors of this booklet are aware that there is a long way for each university to go if they want to develop a true digital culture and overcome the well documented resistance to change. However, the contribution of the project in terms of the digital resources identified and made available to a varied public (students, university teachers etc.) is substantial given the fact that the digital resources which have been evaluated, developed (e.g. MOOCs) and tested within the bounds of the COLISEE project are numerous and respond to a real need. The effort expended by the authors on this piece of team work has centered on the three key competences of the project but also of the forthcoming Master’s programme (plurilingualism and corporate culture).

The students from the various universities who follow this Master’s course will be able to develop each of the three competences autonomously as well as develop familiarity with the use of new technologies. The university teachers who participate in the Master’s will be able to enrich their own professional practice so long as they make the effort to undertake training and to question their own practices. Overall, this good practice guide fully meets one of the outcomes expected from the COLISEE project.

Number fascinationA reflection on data and measuring

An exhibition is open from 3rd of May until 2nd of October 2022.

Our lives are full of numbers and metrics. The minutes you need to boil an egg, the temperature outside, the hours until the end of the workday, the hourly pay rate of your job, the recommended amount of salt in your daily diet, the number of likes on your latest social media post. Numbers help to make sense of what we think, feel and know. Everything can be measured, once we learn how to count.

Since the 16th century, Europeans have become increasingly obsessed with collecting data. The ability to describe the world quantitatively gave way to modern science and the hope that we could understand how things are.

When you count things, you probably feel achievement and success: the number of followers you have on social media, the clicks on your latest post, the number of steps you have taken this day. But to know what decisions you need to make, good metrics and a clear understanding of what is being measured are needed. If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. Or can you?

This exhibition is part of Me-Mind, a Creative Europe project that aims to measure and visualise the effect of culture. Throughout the process, we’ve come up with great questions about what measuring and counting mean, their challenges and the effect they can have on people. We’re sharing these thoughts in the form of an exhibition.

Please ask yourself about your relationship with data as you are going through the sections of the exhibition. And when you reach the last one, where we present the results of our investigation, please ask questions and be critical of what we have developed. All data sets should be questioned by as many minds as possible.