Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Digital uses and practices'

The refugee crisis is currently a major world event. However, not much is known about the technology adoption and digital skills of those fleeing these conflicts and seeking asylum in foreign countries. To study this, a qualitative study was conducted in Umeå, Sweden. Data was collected through interviews, written responses and observations. The results show that refugees and asylum seekers have positive attitude towards digital technology adoption. However, they perceived digital technology primarily as tools to fulfil their recreational needs. A strategic use of technology for improving productivity was not evident. While formal internet skills were generally common among every user, most interviewees were not able to carry out more complex tasks, such as finding facts online, as they found it particularly challenging to select appropriate search systems and to construct meaningful queries. This research wants to contribute to the literature in IT and social inclusion. The findings reported here suggest that digital divide can be conceptualized as digital illiteracy because of lacking awareness over data management and information processing capabilities. Moreover, identifying the digital practices of these minority groups could be extremely meaningful for the digital inclusion strategy efforts of Sweden and for a better design of public services.

In the last few decades Creative Industries (CIs) have been gaining ground as an important topic in academic and political agendas. CIs have their origin in creativity and individual talent to produce content, services or products with symbolic value, e.g. design, music, video games, among other sectors. The rationale in grouping these rather diverse activities together was said to be that individual creativity and intellectual capital were the primary drivers for these sectors. Moreover, digital technologies play an important role as they provide new forms of expressions of creativity (such as in music, movies or video games). In the academic literature, these activities have been widely studied as new industries in developed countries. Nevertheless, there is a gap with regards to studying their innovation processes. After conducting the literature review (second chapter), I argue that research on creative industries has analyzed innovation from different perspectives but in a separate way, without in-depth analysis of their innovation process. Furthermore, the role of new digital technologies in the innovation process has not been analyzed, which play a major role in these industries. In this regard, this doctoral thesis aims to contribute to the literature by exploring different topics of the innovation process in creative industries from the perspective of the use of new technologies (technological change) and the emergence of new practices (organizational change). The case of the mobile games sector (i.e. games to be played on portable devices) has been used as study context. In pursuit of the objective, it is proposed a compendium of four articles corresponding to the central chapters of this thesis. The first article (Chapter 2) is a literature review. In this paper, the existing innovation process literature in creative sectors is reviewed, and a theoretical model for the entire innovation process is proposed. In essence, it explains how innovation occurs and what managerial practices are commonly used. Based on the proposal, an agenda for future research is presented. The research agenda leads us to focus on the second paper (Chapter 3) on the innovation process in a specific creative sector, mobile games, and new practices that have been introduced due to technological and market changes. Based on a qualitative approach of 14 case studies, the paper proposes a data-driven innovation process model. This model explains how mobile companies explore, develop and commercialize new products/services in an iterative way, and the role of technological and market changes on the emergence of this model. The Chapter 4 presents an exploratory study on how digital platforms, as internet technologies, have changed and introduced new innovation practices. Using qualitative data from 50 interviews with professional, the results show that digital platforms have introduced some practices such as a creation process in real time, and they have reorganized others, such as internal structures. This research aims to contribute to the literature by improving the knowledge on how technologies change managerial practices (in this case the innovation process) and organizations. The last paper (Chapter 5) presents an inductive study on how hackathons, as new innovation and collaborative practices, contribute to innovation in large organizations. Drawing on a single case of a large company from a creative sector (mobile games), and based on analytical interviews and non-participant observation, the results suggest that hackathons contribute by promoting exploration activities, and by enhancing some preconditions for innovation, such as attracting talent. This paper aims to contribute to the existing research on new innovation practices by positioning the results in innovation literature. Finally, the conclusions section (Chapter 6) reflects on the results obtained and it presents some future research lines to continue developing the creative industry and innovation process literature.

This thesis aims to examine the News Usage practices of young Pakistani university students in the networked news media environment. The development of internet and its subsequent technologies have played a significant role in the transition from Mass Media towards Networked Media and this transition has directly influenced news usage practices. In Pakistan, almost 99% of the sample population of this research has mobile phones. The introduction of 3G and 4G mobile technologies in 2014 and recent ICT policy initiatives suggests that there are plans to subsidize smart phones in the country, which will further boost the digital environment. The news users in Pakistan now have more choices to follow news from multiple platforms and via multiple devices. There is a networked media ecosystem around users and it is continuously evolving and consequently transforming the news media institutions and the users’ news usage experience. The practice of using news is changing and transforming the user’s news usage experience but the available theoretical framework did not adequately address this, until the emergence of the ‘Theory of Mediatization’. The four main contributors to mediatization theory have been Lundby (2014) Hepp (2009), Hjarvard, (2008), Couldry (2008) and Krotz (2007) .Building on their contribution, and including the valuable addition by Winfried Schulz (2004), I am applying the framework of mediatization to a cohort of university students in Pakistan to investigate their changing news usage practices in the networked media environment. I have adopted a mixed method approach, following the double sequential loops method.

The purpose of incorporating digital educational games in educational settings is to engage the students' desire to learn. The aim of the syllabus for upper secondary school, as expressed by Skolverket (2011) is to support the students for lifelong learning and in order to do so, motivation is needed. However, a problematic gap can be found between “games” and “formal education” which are two different concepts which cross paths in this study. One path shows the foundation of the Swedish steering documents, and the other displays the motivational aspects of implementing digital educational games in educational settings. This qualitative research uses questionnaire surveys with structured questions and semi-structured follow-up interviews via email in order to examine to what degree digital educational games can be implemented in the English 6 classroom. It investigates the effectiveness of digital educational games in regard to English teaching and teachers’ attitudes and beliefs. The results display different approaches teachers could take when incorporating digital educational games in their classroom but also show significant factors such as teachers' experiences in the digital classroom. The research concludes that digital educational games can be used to encourage student motivation and in the teaching practices of upper secondary school teachers in Malmö. This is therefore an important area that should be further researched to ensure that teachers receive sufficient guidance and experience for using digital educational games in the English classroom.

Submitted by Clebson Anjos (clebson.leandro54@gmail.com) on 2016-02-18T17:34:43Z No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 3121270 bytes, checksum: d416970a37ec09f358cc486ed8268bdb (MD5)<br>Made available in DSpace on 2016-02-18T17:34:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 3121270 bytes, checksum: d416970a37ec09f358cc486ed8268bdb (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-06-26<br>Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES<br>After a long journey using various materials from nature as learning support, books are presented in a new format: digital one. After living for more than 500 years with printed books, the mediated society comes across new practices and cyberspace provides necessary infrastructure to spread the electronic text, which has now personified immateriality. Thus, we have studied the concept of the book not only as an important means of acquiring knowledge, but also its use in contemporary times as a hypermedia process which involves various social actors and more broadly embraces the publishing sector. Our goal, therefore, is to study this process from the tripartite relationship between reader-author-publisher and the new practices and uses created by the advent of digital books as part of cyberculture. In order to do so, we have conducted an empirical qualitative research aiming at gathering current information about the growing adoption of eBooks in contemporary society and we have used the Grounded Theory in order to understand the current changes within the publishing sector. From the analysis we noticed that, despite the dynamics of production and distribution of digital books, the publishing market is still strongly based on business model for printed books. On the other hand, digital books have shown a potential that is capable of supplying new needs, which have risen in the cyberculture context, due more to the interaction and sharing media power than to its technology itself.<br>Após uma longa trajetória, com a utilização de diversos materiais da natureza como suporte, o livro apresenta-se sob um novo formato, o digital. Depois de conviver por mais de 500 anos com o livro vinculado ao impresso, a sociedade midiatizada depara-se com novas práticas e o ciberespaço fornece a infraestrutura necessária para a disseminação do texto eletrônico, agora personificado pela imaterialidade. Passamos a estudar, então, o conceito de livro não apenas como um importante suporte de aquisição de conhecimento, mas também, o seu uso na contemporaneidade como um processo hipermidiático, formado por diversos atores sociais e abarcando o setor editorial de maneira mais ampla. Nosso objetivo, portanto, constitui-se no estudo desse processo, a partir do tripé leitor autor e editor, e dos novos usos e práticas geradas pelo advento do livro digital no âmbito da cibercultura. Para tal, realizamos uma pesquisa qualitativa, de caráter empírico, visando buscar informações recorrentes da crescente adoção dos eBooks na sociedade contemporânea, e utilizamos a Teoria Fundamentada para compreender as mudanças que estão ocorrendo no setor editorial. A partir da análise, percebemos que, apesar da dinamicidade da produção e difusão do livro digital, o mercado editorial se mantém baseado em um modelo de negócios muito forte com o livro impresso. Por outro lado, o livro digital vem demonstrando um potencial capaz de suprir novas necessidades que surgiram no contexto da cibercultura, muito mais pelo poder midiático de interação e compartilhamento de conteúdo do que pela própria tecnologia que o sustém.

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras/Inglês e Literatura Correspondente<br>Made available in DSpace on 2012-10-23T19:48:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 251709.pdf: 8526235 bytes, checksum: 89333c6b26dd765f2f5f895e13a870ce (MD5)<br>Against the backdrop of the increasing accessibility of media production technologies and the growth in the usage of Internet video websites, this thesis investigates the video work published on the activist media website Centro de Mídia Independente (CMI), in order to explore the uses being made of Internet video in a local context. The thesis looks at a number of new paradigms of the global in order to provide a theoretical context from which to consider the technology on which this use of video is based, the new social movements from which the videos are emerging, and how the videos are positioned in relation to the globalized networked environment of the Internet. The context for the textual analysis is provided by a discussion of narrative forms in journalistic texts, documentary and new media, and particularly, of documentary modes, tensions between journalism and documentary, the impact of digital media on documentary, and properties of digital and new media. The analysis takes the video production from Florianópolis posted to the CMI in 2005 as a case study, exploring the range of documentary modes suggested by the videos, additional styles and strategies that they make use of, and the integration of the videos with the hypertext environment in which they are posted. The thesis argues that a significant dimension of the videos is the diversity of styles and perspectives that they represent. It also argues that locality can be considered in the videos through the shared contexts of their subject matter and of the way in which they are posted to the CMI website. The thesis concludes that the multiplicity of forms of expression encountered in the videos and the multiplicity of perspectives that they provide on their subjects points to the democratic potential of websites such as the Centro de Mídia Independente. Tendo com pano de fundo o crescente acesso às tecnologias de produção de mídia e o crescimento no uso de websites relacionados ao uso de vídeo na Internet, esta dissertação investiga os trabalhos em vídeo publicados no website de mídia ativista, Centro de Mídia Independente (CMI), para explorar os usos de vídeo na Internet em um contexto local. A dissertação aborda novos paradigmas 'do global' para oferecer um contexto teórico onde são considerados a tecnologia usada por estes vídeos, os novos movimentos sociais de onde os vídeos estão surgindo e a forma como os vídeos são posicionados em relação ao ambiente globalizado e em rede da Internet. O contexto da análise textual é constituído por uma discussão do discurso jornalístico, do documentário e das novas mídias, e particularmente, de modos documentários, de tensões entre jornalismo e documentário, do impacto de mídia digital no documentário, e das propriedades de mídias novas e digitais. A análise traz como estudo de caso a produção de vídeos em Florianópolis de 2005, disponibilizada no website do CMI, e explora a variedade de modos documentários sugeridos pelos vídeos, estilos e estratégias utilizadas por estes e a integração dos vídeos com o ambiente onde estão disponibilizados. A dissertação argumenta que um aspecto significativo dos vídeos é a diversidade de estilos e perspectivas que eles representam. É argumentado ainda que a questão de localidade pode ser considerada nos vídeos a partir dos contextos compartilhados dos seus assuntos e da maneira que estes estão disponibilizados no website do CMI. Conclui-se que a multiplicidade das formas de expressão encontradas nos vídeos e a multiplicidade de perspectivas que oferecem em relação a seus sujeitos apontam o potencial democrático de websites como o Centro de Mídia Independente.

This dissertation researched and reported on how technology was used to facilitate and inform reflective teaching practices. It also identified the characteristics of benefits and barriers in using technology for teaching and reflection.The study, descriptive in nature, was designed to determine the reflective practices of instructors and how emerging technologies could be used to enhance that reflection. To obtain this information, a Grounded Theory approach was used.Data were gathered and evaluated from a national survey of instructors on their teaching practices, technology used in teaching, how they reflected on their teaching, how they used technology to reflect on their teaching, and barriers to using technology for teaching and reflection.Seventy-three completed survey responses were received and coded into code families. These individual codes and code families were then analyzed to determine themes on how instructors used technology for more effective reflection on their teaching.The findings identified a number of themes related to (a) reflective teaching practices, (b) how instructors used technology to reflect on teaching, (c) the characteristics of learning technologies that supported reflective teaching practices, and (d) the barriers to using these technologies. The themes showed examples of how reflecting with technology supports effective teaching and learning.

This dissertation investigates the interplay between a selected set of museum practices, such as online strategies, digitisation of artwork reproductions, and crowdsourcing, through a theoretically grounded perspective. Existing discourse and debate on the museum's movement from an exclusively physical, to a digital or hybrid presence display an excessive interest in advocacy, usually focusing on small examples of successful practices which are then argued as somehow empowering or resolutive, usually from a 'social justice' point of view. Conversely, in those same discourses little attention is paid to the macro-context within which these cases take place: current debates lack an articulation of how museum practices reflect ongoing trends and paradigms on a culture-wide level, and also eschew non-advocative, neutral discussion of the politics, discourses and power relations that such practice entail. I suggest that the contemporary constructivist, digital museum can be better contextualised if we frame emergent digital museum praxis within a framework that resorts to well-established, and well-described theoretical paradigms that can be observed in other cultural and social contexts as well. The advantage of such an approach is that museum practice, and the museum as an institution, can then be seen in continuity with current macro-trends, rather than as isolates whose usefulness and sustainability begins and ends within the museum's precinct. This dissertation begins this proposed shift in point of view by addressing emergent museum practices such as the drafting of digital strategies; the creation of digital reproductions of artworks for online display; and crowdsourcing in the context of theoretical frameworks such as the utopian imagination; ontology of digital-beings; and contemporary labour practices. While not comprehensive, and exploratory in nature, this dissertation contributes to the discipline by providing a new, more in-depth point of view on 'hot' practices, encouraging a contextualisation of the museum that goes beyond the museum itself, into a theoretical and interdisciplinary field that takes advantage of ideas developed within digital humanities, labour critique, informatics and cultural studies.

Avec l’arrivée des technologies de l’information, l’explosion de l’information et la recrudescence des supports ont modifié les pratiques des usagers des bibliothèques qui utilisent de plus en plus le numérique et les nouveaux outils de communication. Ces évolutions placées dans le cadre de la formation à l’université nous interrogent sur l’enjeu que peut représenter la formation documentaire dans les besoins et les attentes des utilisateurs pour une meilleure utilisation de l’information. Notre recherche se précise autour des médias socionumériques qui ponctuent le quotidien des étudiants et qui suscitent des interrogations sur leurs impacts dans l’accès à la documentation universitaire. On observe que les compétences à maîtriser par les usagers sont encore occultées dans les formations classiques proposées dans les bibliothèques universitaires alors qu’elles sont nécessaires pour provoquer une meilleure réception des savoirs informationnels et documentaires afin d’interagir sur un enfermement consumériste de l’information.En nous appuyant sur une méthodologie avec des entretiens exploratoires à un questionnaire auprès de professionnels de l’information, de la communication et de la documentation, notre étude montre que c’est dans le cadre d’une convergence numérique qu’un changement peut s’opérer chez les étudiants. Cette convergence s’inscrit dans le cadre de formations qui s’orientent vers les cultures numériques qui allient à la fois l’éducation aux médias déclinant l’esprit critique, l’apprentissage centré apprenant et la culture technique qui doit prendre en compte à la fois la connaissance des outils mais aussi la formation par les outils. C’est cette vision de l’écologie de la formation qui préfigure dans notre analyse et qui s’annonce pour les bibliothèques universitaires comme un axe fort d’ancrage dans l’enseignement supérieur, autour d’une dynamique axée vers une convergence info-documentaire numérique. Ces préconisations sont envisagées dans le cadre d’actions collectives au sein de l’université avec une réelle médiation entre les différents acteurs de l’éducation et de la formation et une place centrale pour la bibliothèque universitaire comme le lieu des transversalités de la formation numérique<br>With the advent of information technology, the information explosion and the resurgence of media changed the practices of users of libraries that use more digital and new communication tools. These developments within the University training interrogate us on the issue that may represent the documentary training in the needs and expectations of users for a better use of the information. Our research says around digital social media that punctuate the lives of students and which raise questions on their impacts in access to academic literature. Observed that skills to master by users are still obscured in conventional formations proposed in academic libraries that are necessary to produce a better reception of documentary and informational knowledge to interact a consumerist confinement of information. Based on a methodology with exploratory talks to a questionnaire with information, communication and documentation professionals, our study shows that this is in digital convergence that a change may occur among students. This convergence is part of formations that are moving towards digital cultures combining both education media declining the critical spirit, centered learning and technical culture which must take into account both the knowledge of the tools, but also the training tools. It is this vision of the ecology of the training that foreshadowed in our analysis and looming for academic libraries as a strong axis of anchoring in higher education around a dynamic oriented towards a digital documentary convergence. These recommendations are considered in the context of collective action within the University with real mediation between the different actors of education and training, and a central place for the University Library as the place of training for digital transversalities

Dans le contexte d'intégration du numérique à l'École au moyen de l'équipement personnel des élèves, la présente recherche vise à savoir de quelle manière la disponibilité permanente des équipements numériques personnels (tablette, ordinateur portable, téléphone portable ou mobile) modifie la représentation que les élèves se construisent de la forme scolaire. Deux cas sont étudiés par le biais d'une démarche empirique : les collégiens participant au projet TED dans le département de Saône-et-Loire et les lycéens participant au projet Living Cloud au Lycée pilote innovant international (LPII) de Jaunay-Marigny. Afin de construire un cadre d'analyse des dimensions de la forme scolaire, cette étude a déterminé dans un premier temps 4 dimensions d'analyse à partir des propositions théoriques disponibles. Dans un deuxième temps, l'étude analyse la modification de la représentation dans les 4 dimensions du rapport à l'École : le savoir, l'autorité, l'espace-temps et l'évaluation. Pour finir, la recherche s'appuie sur la médiation instrumentale et les interactions culturelles afin de savoir quelles catégories des interactions sont mobilisées dans l'instrumentation que les élèves font des équipements numériques à l'École. Pour réaliser cette recherche, les élèves ont été interrogés de deux manières : via un questionnaire en ligne et des entretiens collectifs d'explicitation. Les résultats issus du questionnaire en ligne ont, tout d'abord, permis de repérer la représentation que les élèves ont des deux espaces-temps : école et maison. Ensuite, ces résultats ont été analysés en termes de corrélations (tau de Kendall) et d'indépendance des variables (Khi-deux). Grâce à une analyse en composantes principales (ACP), les résultats ont permis de déterminer 8 profils d'élèves relativement à la forme scolaire et d'associer un profil à chaque élève. Suite à une analyse factorielle de correspondances multiples (AFCM), ces profils ont été associés au positionnement que les élèves ont par rapport à l'usage des équipements numériques et aux dimensions de la forme scolaire. Les résultats obtenus grâce aux entretiens collectifs ont été analysés à l'aide de catégories thématiques et conceptualisantes. Enfin, l'ensemble des résultats a été analysé en termes d'incidence de la médiation instrumentale sur les interactions culturelles. Les principaux résultats de cette recherche montrent l'impact de la scolarisation du numérique et les différences entre la vision que les adultes ont des représentations de l'École par les élèves et les propres représentations des élèves concernant l'École. Par ailleurs, l'étude signale la modification de la représentation du rapport à l'espace-temps surtout quant à la présence et à l'attention des élèves à l'école. Contrairement à certaines idées reçues, la figure de l'enseignant comme dépositaire du savoir légitime et de l'autorité reste stable dans la représentation des élèves, de même que l'importance de l'évaluation dans la représentation de l'École. Cependant, la représentation de la disponibilité de l'information et de l'accès à celle-ci est modifiée. L'horizontalité, dans la relation enseignant-élève, souvent attribuée à l'utilisation du numérique, est contestée par la présente analyse. De même, les résultats soulignent l'importance des composantes affectives et relationnelles dans l'intégration du numérique à l'institution scolaire et le rôle qu'y jouent l'origine sociale des élèves et leurs pratiques culturelles. Enfin, l'étude analyse les tensions entre les actuels lignes directrices des projets d'intégration du numérique à l'École et la forme scolaire traditionnelle<br>This research is situated in the context of educational institution projects that equip students with personal digital devices. It aims to explain how the permanent availability of personal digital devices (tablet, personal computer, mobile) changes the social representation students have of school as an institution, or the so-called “schooling form”. Two case studies at secondary-level education are analysed with an empirical approach: students participating in the TED project in Saône-et-Loire and students of the Living Cloud project at the Lycée Pilote Innovant International (LPII) in Jaunay-Marigny. In order to build the theoretical framework to analyse the schooling form concept, this study first determines 4 dimensions based on the literature available. Subsequently, it analyses the representation changes within these 4 dimensions of the relationship to the schooling form: knowledge, authority, space-time and evaluation. Finally, the present dissertation draws on the concept of instrumental mediation and cultural interactions in order to identify the interaction categories that are mobilized in the instrumentation performed by students during the use of personal digital devices at school. Students were questioned by two means: an online survey and collective interviews. The online survey results allowed us to identify the representation students have about two space-time frameworks: school and house. Results were analysed in terms of correlations (Kendall's Tau) and by the test of independence (Chi-square). Through the use of the Principal Component Analysis (PCA), the survey results allowed to determine 8 students' profiles regarding schooling and to associate them to each student. Using a Factorial Analysis of Multiple Correspondences (FAMC), these profiles were associated to students' positioning regarding the use of personal digital equipment and the 4 schooling form dimensions. Results obtained by means of collective interviews were analysed by thematic and conceptualising categories. Finally, the data corpus was studied in terms of the instrumental mediation incidence on cultural interactions. The main results of this investigation show the impact of digital schooling and the differences between how adults perceive the students' schooling form and the students' own representation of it. Furthermore, this study points to the changes in the student's representation of space-time, mainly in what regards the student's presence and attention in school. Contrary to previous research findings, this study shows that the teacher as a figure of legitiate knowledge and authority remains stable in students' representations, as well as the importance of evaluation in the schooling form representation. However, the representation of the availability of information and the access to information are transformed. Horizontality in the teacher-student relationship, often attributed to the use of digital devices, is questioned by the present study. Moreover, results underline the importance of considering the affective and relational components in the process of digital integration at school as well as the role of students' social origins and cultural practices. Finally, this study analyses the tensions between the main guidelines in digital integration projects and the traditional schooling form<br>La presente investigación se enmarca en el contexto de la integración de las tecnologías digitales en la Escuela, a través del equipamiento personal de los alumnos. Ésta tiene como objetivo conocer cómo la disponibilidad permanente de tabletas, computadores portátiles y teléfonos celulares, modifica la representación de los alumnos acerca de la forma escolar. Para ello, se analizaron empíricamente dos casos: los estudiantes de los colegios participantes del proyecto TED en Saône-et-Loire y los alumnos de liceo que forman parte del proyecto Living Cloud del Lycée pilote innovant international (LPII) de Jaunay-Marigny. En un primer momento, con base en la revisión de la literatura, se determinaron cuatro dimensiones de la relación a la forma escolar: saber, autoridad, espacio-tiempo y evaluación. Estas dimensiones constituyen el marco de análisis de las modificaciones a la representación de la forma escolar de los estudiantes. Finalmente, el estudio se apoya en las teorías de la mediación instrumental y de las interacciones culturales con el objetivo de identificar las categorías movilizadas en la instrumentación que los alumnos hacen de los equipos digitales en la Escuela. Para la realización de esta investigación, los alumnos fueron interrogados de dos maneras: un cuestionario en línea y entrevistas colectivas de explicitación. Los resultados obtenidos del cuestionario permitieron identificar la representación que tienen los alumnos de dos espacios-tiempo: escuela y casa. Estos resultados fueron analizados a través de correlaciones (tau de Kendall) y el test de independencia de variables (chi-cuadrada). Mediante un análisis de componentes principales (ACP), los resultados determinaron ocho perfiles de alumnos en relación a la forma escolar. Estos perfiles fueron atribuidos a cada uno de los alumnos estudiados. De igual forma, a través de un análisis factorial de correspondencias múltiples (AFCM), los perfiles fueron asociados al posicionamiento de los alumnos en relación al uso de equipos digital y las cuatro dimensiones de la forma escolar. Los resultados obtenidos en las entrevistas colectivas fueron analizados usando categorías temáticas y “conceptualizantes”. Finalmente, la totalidad de los resultados fueron estudiados en términos de la incidencia de la mediación instrumental sobre las interacciones culturales. Los resultados principales de este estudio muestran el impacto de someter el equipamiento digital al proceso de escolarización. Se observan las diferencias de percepción que tienen los adultos de la representación de los alumnos sobre la Escuela y la representación que tienen los propios alumnos sobre ella. Se muestra también la modificación de la representación de la relación al espacio-tiempo, sobre todo en lo que se refiere a la presencia y la atención de los alumnos en la Escuela. Contrariamente a las ideas generalizadas, el maestro como figura del saber legítimo y de autoridad, permanece estable en la representación de los alumnos, al igual que la importancia de la evaluación en la representación de la Escuela. Sin embargo, se observa una transformación en la representación de la disponibilidad y el acceso a la información. La horizontalidad de la relación maestro-alumno, frecuentemente atribuida a la utilización del equipamiento digital, es cuestionada por el presente análisis. También se plantea la importancia de los componentes afectivos y relacionales, así como el rol del origen social de los alumnos y sus prácticas culturales en la integración de lo digital en la Escuela. Para finalizar, esta investigación analiza las tensiones entre los actuales lineamientos de los proyectos de integración digital en la institución escolar y la forma escolar tradicional

Dissertação (mestrado) - Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná, São José dos Pinhais, 2011<br>Bibliografia: f. 91-94<br>fecções crônicas do aparato locomotor. Neste propósito a dessensibilização perineural do nervo digital palmar e intra-sinovial das articulações metacarpofalangeana e carpeana, são realizados com freqüência na clínica médica eqüina, visto que estas áreas s<br>Illicit practices are used in equines that participate in competitions, specially in the animals which have chronic ailments in the locomotor system. The perineural insensibilization of the palmar digital nerve and intrasynovial in the metacarpophalangeal

<p> Digital literacy is fast becoming a necessary skill for mediating life in the 21st century. Digital technologies, digital media, and digital devices have become ubiquitous and intrinsic in modern society and using one to interact with the others requires specific skills&mdash;digital literacies&mdash;be learned. The purpose of this research was to understand the extent to which Baby Boomers are digitally literate, the digital devices they understand and use, and the purposes for which they are using them. </p><p> Residents living in a specific group of age-restricted communities comprised of people 55 years of age and older were e-mailed requests to participate in an online survey. More than 8,200 homes received the invitations and 659 people agreed to participate. The survey consisted of 17 three-part, forced-choice questions and five demographic identifiers. To analyze the data, the researcher used SPSS and ran chi-square tests on each response comparing Older Boomers to Younger Boomers regarding specific digital activities in which they engaged, the device(s) they used, and the frequencies with which they engaged in those activities. </p><p> The results of this study indicate that the Baby Boomers in the study possess basic functional digital literacies. They use the Internet daily to read news, check weather, and look up recipes, directions, and medical information. While participation in the various activities was fairly even between both Boomer groups, Younger Boomers tend to send and receive text messages, bank online, pay bills online, search for recipes, save online bookmarks, visit social networks, read blogs, and take online classes more than Older Boomers. The majority of respondents were women, college educated, with annual household incomes of $75,000.00 or more. The most popular digital devices used were laptops, desktops, tablets, and smartphones, respectively and respondents averaged using three different digital devices while engaging in their digital activities. The trend is toward decreasing use of desktop and laptop computers and a corresponding increase in the use of tablets and smartphones.</p>

This thesis studies how individuals use digital media to manage connectivity and accomplish work across digital and physical spaces in modern organisations, ultimately conceptualising this new type of work as a new digital nomadic practice. Increased digitisation and the need for more flexible work styles have pressured organisations to adopt new digital media and to redesign their workplaces. Existing research provides some theoretical understanding of this phenomena, however it is scattered across multiple disciplines and lack a broader all-encompassing view of the concept. This study addresses this gap with deeper and more holistic theoretical engagement in order to better capture and explain new work practices within organisations today. Exploring the salient aspects of digital nomadic practices, the study builds on the emergent literature on connectivity to understand the ways and means of staying connected. It also draws on the technology adoption and affordance literature to review how individuals use the capabilities of multiple digital media that provide the potential for a particular action. Overall the study aims to i) understand how individuals conduct their work practices in physical and digital spaces, ii) identify how individuals use digital media to stay connected, and iii) understand how individuals manage connectivity. It draws on a single case study of a multinational IT organisation in the UK. The research follows a qualitative approach and inductively driven strategy. The study focuses on the dimensions of connectivity, digital media use, and follows digital nomad’s work ‘within and between’ the digital and physical spaces. The findings of this exploratory case study show that digital nomads use the new digital media in a way it precluded them from being overly connected and allowed them to manage connectivity across multiple, operational, social and organisational levels. It identified the digital media choice by drawing on a theory of nested affordances in order to capture media choice in a dynamic way, which happens at different levels, as digital media coexist together and provide combination of various affordances. These findings contribute to knowledge of how individuals choose digital media to manage their connectivity in digital and physical spaces, and particularly inform the study of digital media adoption and technological affordances.

Propósito: Las tecnologías digitales han ofrecido a los individuos muchas posibilidades para el ocio, transformando las actividades de ocio en el proceso, lo que implica cambios en la experiencia y las prácticas ocio. En este sentido exploramos esas actividades para encontrar los significados, efectos y motivaciones relacionadas con la experiencia de ocio digital. Los hallazgos nos han llevado a conceptualizar la naturaleza del ocio. Diseño / metodología / enfoque: La investigación se enmarca en el paradigma interpretativo / constructivista y la tradición hermenéutica. Entrevistamos a 30 personas que realizaban actividades de ocio con tecnologías digitales, en un período de seis meses en el año 2009, en Barcelona. El análisis de las narraciones proporcionadas por los informantes produjo un conjunto de temas con los que estructuramos las explicaciones realizadas. El análisis tiene en cuenta las actividades, espacios y momentos en que se realizan las actividades, las tecnologías utilizadas y los significados, satisfacciones y beneficios de dichas actividades. Resultados: Revisamos la naturaleza de ocio teniendo en mente, las condiciones de tecnologías digitales. Los hallazgos sugieren propiedades y características de las actividades de ocio digitales que están asociados con la libertad de elegir llevar a cabo actividades y con las características de las tecnologías. El ocio tradicional se transforma cuando se utilizan tecnologías digitales para el ocio. Proporcionamos evidencias al respecto al describir ocio digital en los hogares y las actividades de ocio social, con tecnologías digitales. Implicaciones de la investigación / limitaciones: El estudio sugiere que el ocio digital ha transformado la naturaleza del ocio y los hallazgos pueden ser usados para dar pautas en el diseño y desarrollo de tecnologías para el ocio en casa y la gestión de las actividades sociales. Hay una oportunidad para profundizar y encontrar más información sobre ocio digital en otras áreas de la vida de las personas, teniendo en cuenta sus familias u otras conexiones sociales. Además de estudiar ocio digital de acuerdo con la evolución de las tecnologías digitales, dispositivos y aplicaciones. Originalidad / valor: El estudio nos ha permitido redefinir la naturaleza del ocio y explorar las transformaciones de las actividades de ocio descritas en la investigación.<br>Purpose: Digital technologies have offered individuals many possibilities for leisure, transforming leisure activities in the process, which involves changes in the leisure experience and practices. In this regard, we explore leisure transformation to find the meanings, transformations and motivations related with the digital leisure experience. The findings have leaded us to conceptualize the nature of leisure. Design/methodology/approach: Research is framed in the interpretive/ constructivist paradigm and the hermeneutic tradition. We interviewed 30 individuals that used to perform leisure activities with digital technologies, over a period of six months in 2009 in Barcelona. The analysis leaded to a set of conceptual themes by applying narrative thematic analysis to the corpus of texts. We searched for spaces and moments in which the activities were performed, the technologies used and the meanings, satisfactions and benefits of those activities. Findings: We revisited the research about the nature of leisure after the used of digital technologies. The findings suggest properties and features of leisure activities that are associated with the freedom to choose and carry out activities and with the technological characteristics. Traditional leisure is transformed when digital technologies are used for leisure. We provide evidences about it by describing digital based leisure in the homes and social leisure activities with digital technologies. Research implications/limitations: The study suggests that digital leisure has transformed the nature of leisure and the findings can be used for the design and development of home leisure technologies and the management of social activities. There is an opportunity to go deeper and find more information about digital leisure in other areas of people's life considering their families or other social connections. Also study digital leisure according to the evolution of digital technologies, devices and applications. Originality/value: The study provides a basis to redefine the nature of leisure and also explores the transformations in leisure brought about by digital technologies.

Le monde de la santé ne ressemblant en rien à celui d’hier, le travail du « prendre soin » se doit d’être efficient et les professionnels du soin sont tenus de développer des compétences non académiques (CNA). L’enjeu majeur se situe dans la négociation du changement en termes d’ingénierie de formation, construite selon une approche par compétences inscrites dans le schéma universitaire et n’offrant que peu de places aux CNA. Or, la réussite des étudiants infirmiers ne dépend pas seulement des savoirs à transmettre, mais aussi de l’acquisition de ce type de compétences. En mars 2020, la crise sanitaire mondiale a obligé l’ensemble des établissements d’enseignement et de formation à basculer dans un monde méconnu par la plupart d’entre eux. Le recours au numérique, permettant la nécessaire « continuité pédagogique », a contraint bon nombre de formateurs à une refonte de leurs approches et pratiques. L’objet de cette recherche porte sur le choix de méthodes pédagogiques en lien avec les usages et les pratiques numériques, au service du développement des CNA des étudiants en soins infirmiers, dont notamment la comparaison entre les IFSI déjà connectés avant la pandémie et ceux « peu connectés ». Nous portons notre attention sur les différentes variations de posture du formateur et l’adéquation ou non avec les attendus des étudiants dans une période de contrainte pandémique où l’hybridation a été privilégiée. Pour ce faire, nous nous appuyons sur une démarche comparative, tant qualitative que quantitative, réalisée dans six IFSI afin de comprendre les singularités d’approche du dispositif numérique et leurs effets sur le développement des CNA. À l’appui d’un questionnaire auto-administré auprès de 436 étudiants en L2, nous investiguons l’impact des usages du numérique pendant la période pandémique sur les interactions sociales, l’implication dans le travail en individuel puis en collectif et le sentiment d’utilité. Nous abordons complémentairement avec les douze formateurs interrogés, le changement de leurs intentions didactiques et de leur posture déployée dans la relation pédagogique. Nous tentons aussi de comprendre par des entretiens réalisés auprès de douze étudiants s’ils ont repéré une transformation dans leur manière d’apprendre et de travailler ensemble, ainsi que leur ressenti sur leur processus de professionnalisation. Enfin, la tenue d’un carnet de bord de type professionnel lié aux rencontres informelles avec collègues et étudiants a permis de poser des pistes de réflexion sur les usages numériques et le travail collaboratif. Les résultats saillants révèlent principalement que la différence se situe sur le degré de connectivité des instituts, mais aussi sur le parcours antérieur de formation des étudiants, leur permettant d’appréhender la formation en distanciel de manière plus structurée en l’absence de lien social et d’interactions pédagogiques. Le travail collaboratif a été expérimenté positivement lors de cette pandémie. De plus, il apparait comme résultat intéressant l’influence du travail en distanciel sur les formateurs et la remise en question du sens de leur mission. Surtout, les habiletés inégales dans l’usage et les pratiques numériques se sont avérées un frein dans leur approche pédagogique. L’analyse des résultats permet une meilleure compréhension des besoins estudiantins et des possibles pédagogiques. La formation hybride est en train de prendre place, pour marquer cette transition du présentiel au tout distanciel contraint par la pandémie, et semble plus en phase avec les temporalités d’apprentissage des étudiants. Dans une perspective de refonte du programme de formation infirmière prévue en 2025, notre étude permet d’envisager, une réflexion collective autour des enjeux de l’apprentissage et des usages du numérique en formation, notamment, in situ, une approche expérimentale « renversée » des travaux dirigés au service du développement des CNA, essentielles dans ce métier du « care »<br>The world of healthcare has changed completely, and patients must be cared for efficiently. Health professionals must develop soft skills. The major issue at stake is making the necessary changes in the development of training programs, which are based on university programs and generally do not include soft skills. Yet to be successful, nursing students must not merely absorb information conveyed to them; they must also acquire skills such as these. In March 2020, the world health emergency obliged teaching and training establishments to deal with a situation that was completely novel for most of them. While the use of digital technology allowed the necessary pedagogical continuity, it forced many teachers and trainers to reconsider their procedures and practices. Our research concerns the choice of pedagogical methods in relation to digital uses and practices with the aim of fostering soft skills in nursing students, including a comparison of the NTI that were already using digital technology before the pandemic and those that were barely “digitally connected”. We will consider the differing attitudes of trainers and their degree of adequacy in response to students’ expectations during the pandemic period, when a hybrid approach was favoured. To do so, we adopted a method of qualitative and quantitative comparison, carried out in six NTIs, in order to understand the uniqueness of each institute’s approach to digital learning methods and the effects on the development of soft skills. Through a self-administered questionnaire given to 436 second-year university students, we investigate the impact the use of digital tools during the pandemic had on social interactions, the involvement of individuals and groups in their work, and the feeling of being useful. Through the questioning of twelve trainers, we additionally investigate changes in their didactic intentions and the attitudes displayed in their pedagogical relationships. By means of interviews conducted with twelve students, we also attempt to determine whether they noted any changes in their manner of learning and working together and in their perceptions of the process of becoming a health care professional. Lastly, the use of a professional notebook to record informal meetings with colleagues and students allowed us to identify avenues of reflection regarding digital technology and collaborative work. The most striking results revealed that the principal differences lay in the degree of digital connectedness of the various institutes, as well as in the students’ previous background, which could help them assimilate distance-learning courses in a more structured manner despite the lack of a social environment and pedagogical interaction. Collaborative projects were carried out during the pandemic with positive outcomes. Another interesting result was the effect that remote work had on trainers, leading them to question the meaning of their work. In particular, disparate levels of skill in terms of digital uses and practices were found to be an obstacle to pedagogical methods. The analysis of the results allows a better understanding of the needs of students and of pedagogical possibilities. Hybrid training, which is becoming more widespread following the transition from face-to-face training to full distance-learning as required by the pandemic, seems to be better suited to students’ time requirements. In regard to the goal of revamping the nurses training program in 2025, our study allows a collective reflection on the stakes involved in learning and the use of digital technology in training, including, in situ, an experimental “upside down” approach to tutorials with the aim of developing the soft skills that are so essential in this profession of providing care for others

This study explored the many layers involved in young children’s meaning-making as they digitally compose. Utilizing a multimodal, social semiotics theoretical framework to analyze children’s digital compositions using a composing app, this study was designed around one research question: What is the nature of three and four-year-old children’s multimodal meaning making while using a composing app? The qualitative study involved four focal participants from a three- and four-year-old classroom, who attended an inquiry-based lab school in the southeastern United States. The data were collected over a period of eight weeks, where the children were invited to tell their stories using a digital composing app on an iPad. Utilizing a naturalistic observational approach, the composing events were video-recorded and transcribed, capturing both what happened on and off the screen. Utilizing a multimodal analysis, the findings revealed multiple layers in young children’s compositional expression and exposed the importance of how compositions evolve. The affordances of digital tools offered opportunity for children to build layers of meaning and for those layers to be captured in ways not necessarily available before.

Ce travail de recherche se situe dans le champ interdisciplinaire des sciences de l’information et de la communication (SIC) et a pour but d’explorer la question de l'usage du web sémantique en bibliothèques numériques. Le web oblige les bibliothèques à repenser leurs organisations, leurs activités, leurs pratiques et leurs services, afin de se repositionner en tant qu'instituts de références pour la diffusion des savoirs. Dans cette thèse, nous souhaitons comprendre les contextes d'usage du web sémantique en bibliothèques numériques françaises. Il s'agit de s'interroger sur les apports du web sémantique au sein de ces bibliothèques, ainsi que sur les défis et les obstacles qui accompagnent sa mise en place. Ensuite, nous nous intéressons aux pratiques documentaires et à leurs évolutions suite à l'introduction du web sémantique en bibliothèques numériques. La problématique s'attache au rôle que peuvent jouer les professionnels de l'information dans la mise en place du web sémantique en bibliothèques numériques. Après avoir sélectionné 98 bibliothèques numériques suite à une analyse de trois recensements, une enquête s'appuyant sur un questionnaire vise à recueillir des données sur l'usage du web sémantique dans ces bibliothèques. Ensuite, une deuxième enquête réalisée au moyen d'entretiens permet de mettre en évidence les représentations qu'ont les professionnels de l'information du web sémantique et de son usage en bibliothèque, ainsi que de l'évolution de leurs pratiques professionnelles. Les résultats montrent que la représentation des connaissances dans le cadre du web sémantique nécessite une intervention humaine permettant de fournir le cadre conceptuel pour déterminer les liens entre les données. Enfin, les professionnels de l'information peuvent devenir des acteurs du web sémantique, dans le sens où leurs rôles ne se limitent pas à l'utilisation du web sémantique mais aussi au développement de ses standards pour assurer une meilleure organisation des connaissances<br>This research work deals with the interdisciplinary field of the information and communication sciences (CIS) and aims to explore the use of the semantic web in digital libraries. The web requires libraries to rethink their organizations, activities, practices and services in order to reposition themselves as reference institutes for the dissemination of knowledge. In this thesis, we wish to understand the contexts of use of the semantic web in French digital libraries. It questions the contributions of the semantic web within these libraries, as well as on the challenges and the obstacles that accompany its implementation. We are also interested in documentary practices and their evolutions following the introduction of the semantic web in digital libraries. The problem is related to the role that information professionals can play in the implementation of the semantic web in digital libraries. After selecting 98 digital libraries following an analysis of three censuses, a questionnaire survey aims to collect data on the use of the semantic web in these libraries. Then, a second interview-based survey consists of highlighting the representations that the information professionals have of the semantic web and its use in the library, as well as on the evolution of their professional practices. The results show that the representation of knowledge within the semantic web requires human intervention to provide the conceptual framework to determine the links between the data. Finally, information professionals can become actors of the semantic web, in the sense that their roles are not limited to the use of the semantic web but also to the development of its standards to ensure better organization of knowledge

Identifying the needs for building and managing Digital Forensics Capability (DFC) are important because these can help organisations to stay abreast of criminal’s activities and challenging pace of technological advancement. The field of Digital Forensics (DF) is witnessing rapid development in investigation procedures, tools used, and the types of digital evidence. However, several research publications confirm that a unified standard for building and managing DF capability does not exit. Therefore, this thesis identifies, documents, and analyses existing DF frameworks and the attitudes of organisations for establishing the DF team, staffing and training, acquiring and employing effective tools in practice and establishing effective procedures. First, this thesis looks into the existing practices in the DF community for carrying out digital investigations and more importantly the precise steps taken for setting up the laboratories. Second, the thesis focuses on research data collected from organisations in the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates and based on this collection a framework has been developed to understand better the building and managing the capabilities of the DFOs (DFOs). This framework has been developed by applying Grounded Theory as a systematic and comprehensive qualitative methodology in the emerging field of DF research. This thesis, furthermore, provides a systematic guideline to describe the procedures and techniques of using grounded theory in DF research by applying three Grounded Theory coding methods (open, axial, and selective coding) which have been used in this thesis. Also the techniques presented in this thesis provide a thorough critique, making it a valuable contribution to the discussion of methods of analysis in the field of DF. Finally, the thesis proposes a framework in the form of an equation for analysing the capability of DFOs. The proposed framework, called the Digital Forensics Organisation Core Capability Framework, offers an explanation of the factors involved in establishing the capability for a digital forensics organisation. Also software was developed for applying the framework in real life.

In 2014, the authors surveyed the born digital content legal deposit policies and practices in 17 different countries and presented the results of the survey at the 2015 International News Media Conference hosted by the National Library of Sweden in Stockholm, Sweden, April 15-16, 2015.2 Three years later, the authors expanded their team and updated the survey in order to assess progress in creating or improving national policies and in implementing practices for preserving born digital content. The 2017 survey reach has been broadened to include countries that did not participate in the 2014 survey. To optimise survey design, and allow for comparability of results with previous surveys, the authors briefly review 17 efforts over the last 12 years to understand the state of digital legal deposit and broader digital preservation policies (a deeper analysis will be provided in a future paper), and then set out the logic behind the current survey.

Artificial Intelligence Lab, Department of MIS, University of Arizona<br>The Internet is changing the way we live and do business. It also offers a tremendous opportunity for government to better deliver its contents and services and interact with its many constituentsâ citizens, businesses, and other government partners. In addition to providing information, communication, and transaction services, exciting and innovative transformation could occur with the new technologies and practices.

In this dissertation the complex, dynamic, contextual and multi-dimensional practice of teachers’ use of digital technologies in their everyday work has been illustrated and presented. The research draws upon the experience of teachers and school leaders from two compulsory schools as well as representatives from the municipal Department of Education and IT-unit within a municipality in the south of Sweden. A focused ethnographic approach has been undertaken and applied observations and interviews. Systems Thinking, specifically Soft Systems Methodology in combination with Cognitive Mapping have been applied to analyze the empirical material. The theoretical foundation builds upon teachers’ worldview towards digital technologies, because it is noted that teachers more easily adopt and use innovations that are in accordance with their personal thoughts and beliefs about teaching and learning. Further, teachers’ attitude and perception towards use of digital technologies are addressed as well as the role of school leadership. Additionally, importance of context, teachers’ knowledge and pedagogics have been discussed referring to various frameworks. The dissertation aims to illuminate the complex nature of teachers’ everyday practice. To gain understanding of the situation as a whole, there is also need to shed light on various aspects and underlying perspectives. Thus, this research aims to illuminate and advance the understanding of the complexity of compulsory school teachers’ everyday work practices using digital technologies. The outcome of this dissertation illustrates the complexity of teachers’ everyday practices as well as additional issues adding to the complexity, and shows that these complex issues are worthy of further study. Among the issues emerged from this dissertation are differences in regard to how the complex situation is understood because different actors have multiple and sometimes conflicting worldviews. Ambiguities in core objectives and relevant concepts were found. Additionally, a pervasive lack of understanding about the realities of daily education and teaching practices, including variances in worldviews and mindsets was found adding to the complexity of teachers’ everyday practice using digital technologies.

In the age of Industry 4.0, transformative technologies are radically changing design practice, workflow and fabrication; what outputs are designed; and in turn, the impact products and/or experiences created have on the user and ways of manufacturing. The research is focused on the role of Additive Manufacturing (AM) within Industry 4.0; industries being disrupted by these shifts, and the opportunities this presents for customised solutions. Key questions driving the research are: as emerging technologies transform ways of designing and fabricating, what opportunities does this present for more customised, personalised user experiences; for localised fabrication; for more sustainable futures (to include the relationship between sustainable materials research and the rise of Additive Manufacturing), and the role of design research to engage with these new paradigms and the impact on future design practice. The research is divided into four case studies, two focused on Design + Health and two on Industry 4.0 + Additive Manufacturing. The first two case studies utilise Additive Manufacturing for rapid prototyping and conceptual customised product design solutions across scales. These case studies identified opportunities with Additive Manufacturing and also gaps within industry to use these technologies for customised and localised solutions. In an age of rapid development of Additive Manufacturing tools that can radically enhance our ways of working and the outcomes possible (such as complexity of form, mass customisation and sustainable material use), accessibility to these tools within industry and by designers is a critical component of industry transformation in Advanced Manufacturing. When considering future design practice and the role design research can play to facilitate the uptake of new technologies within industry, the last two case studies are focused on industry integrated projects. As suggested by the World Economic Forum when discussing the rise of Additive Manufacturing in Industry 4.0, “whatever the requirements, they are non-negotiable for manufacturers, regulators and consumers … a focus on product life cycle intrinsically implies an even stronger focus on materials. The age of the application of Additive Manufacturing is in fact the age of materials.”1 The research started with Additive Manufacturing technologies identified as a means to facilitate more localised, customised and sustainable manufacturing, and ends with exploration into the future of Additive Manufacturing and the role research can play.Essentially, as we look to embrace new fabrication methods, the material-environmental and social-cultural sustainability impact are crucial considerations.2 This is supported by the CSIRO Advanced Manufacturing Roadmap (2016), which states that sustainable manufacturing and innovation (enabled through technologies such as Additive Manufacturing) are key to the future growth of Australia’s manufacturing and design industry.3 Along with the identification of the need for “improved collaboration and alignment between industry and research.”4 With the current impact of COVID-19 on supply chains, this perspective has been further enhanced by the CSIRO COVID-19: Recovery and Resilience report (2020)5, along with the recent release of the Circular Economy Roadmap for Plastics, Glass, Paper and Tyres (2021)6. As designers locally and globally, there are opportunities to respond to these issues with localised production, re-framing material use through the use of emerging technologies and Advanced Manufacturing.<br>Thesis (PhD Doctorate)<br>Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)<br>Queensland College of Art<br>Arts, Education and Law<br>Full Text

Aquest estudi ens presenta una perspectiva diferent de què és el que pensen els alumnes de la URV sobre l’ús de les tecnologies digitals amb finalitat acadèmica i social; i com es senten sobre el fenomen “natiu digital”. L’objecte central d’aquest estudi és entendre com els estudiants universitaris utilitzen les tecnologies digitals i quines són les implicacions del seu ús en l’educació superior. Per abordar aquest objectiu, el investigador va adoptar un enfocament interpretatiu i va desenvolupar una estratègia d’investigació de mètodes mixtes. Les principals tècniques de recollida de dades utilitzades van ser la revisió integradora de la literatura, els qüestionaris en línia i les entrevistes semi-estructurades. L’estudi es va realitzar a la Facultat de Ciències de l’Educació i Psicologia de la Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) de Tarragona, Espanya. La comunicació cara a cara, les xarxes socials, el correu electrònic personal, els missatges de text i el telèfon mòbil són les formes preferides de comunicació i connexió amb els altres. La majoria dels estudiants es comuniquen en grups via Facebook i WhatsApp que estan inclosos com part del seu procés d’aprenentatge per compartir informació relacionada amb la classe. Els resultats ens suggereixen que el seu coneixement tecnològic no és el que s’esperaria per els representants de la generació de natius digitals. Els resultats no confirmen l’afirmació que existeix una bretxa tecnològica entre els estudiants més joves i els seus companys de major edat. De fet, ambdós utilitzen les mateixes tecnologies en la seva vida quotidiana, com el ordenador, els telèfons mòbils (WhatsApp), el Internet, el correu electrònic i el Facebook; però això no ha de portar a la conclusió que la nova generació d’estudiants ha desenvolupat sofisticades habilitats tecnològiques.<br>Este estudio nos presenta una perspectiva diferente de qué es lo que piensan los alumnos de la URV acerca del uso de las tecnologías digitales con fines académicos y sociales; y cómo se sienten sobre el fenómeno "nativo digital". El objetivo central de este estudio es entender cómo los estudiantes universitarios utilizan las tecnologías digitales y cuáles son las implicaciones de su uso en la educación superior. Para abordar este objetivo, el investigador adoptó un enfoque interpretativo y desarrolló una estrategia de investigación de métodos mixtos. Las principales técnicas de recogida de datos utilizados fueron la revisión integradora de la literatura, cuestionarios en línea y entrevistas semi-estructuradas. El estudio se realizó en la Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación y Psicología de la Universidad Rovira i Virgili (URV) de Tarragona, España. Comunicación cara a cara, redes sociales, correo electrónico personal, mensajes de texto y el teléfono móvil son los modos preferidos de comunicación y conexión con los demás. La mayoría de los estudiantes se comunica en grupos vía Facebook y WhatsApp que son incluidas como parte de su proceso de aprendizaje para compartir información relacionada con la clase. Los resultados nos sugieren que su conocimiento tecnológico no es lo que se esperaría para los representantes de la generación de nativos digitales. Los resultados no confirman la afirmación de que existe una brecha tecnológica entre los estudiantes más jóvenes y sus compañeros de mayor edad. De hecho, ambos utilizan las mismas tecnologías en su vida cotidiana, como el ordenador, teléfonos móviles (WhatsApp), Internet, correo electrónico y Facebook; pero esto no debe llevar a la conclusión de que la nueva generación de estudiantes ha desarrollado sofisticadas habilidades tecnológicas.<br>This study presents a different perspective of what URV learners think about their use of digital technologies for academic and social purposes and how they feel about the “Digital Native Generation” phenomenon. The central aim of the study is to understand how university learners use digital technologies and what are the implications of their use for higher education. To address this aim, the researcher adopted an interpretivist approach and developed a mixed-method research strategy. The main data collection techniques used were integrative literature review, online questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The study was conducted in the Faculty of Educational Sciences and Psychology at the Rovira i Virgili University (URV) in Tarragona, Spain. Face-to-face interaction, social networks, personal email, text message and mobile cellphone were the preferred modes of communicating and connecting with others. Most of students’ communication is in groups via Facebook and WhatsApp and had integrated them as part of the learning process to share class-related information. The results suggest that their technological knowledge is not what would be expected for representatives of the digital native generation. The findings do not support the claim that there is a substantial gap between more technologically adept younger students and their older classmates. Indeed, both used many of the same technologies in their everyday lives, with computer, mobile phones (WhatsApp), the Internet, e-mail (personal and institutional account) and Facebook; but this should not lead to the conclusion that the new generation of students has developed sophisticated technological abilities.

As IT became ubiquitous, we recognized that IT was everywhere but in our theories. Despite significant efforts, Information System (IS) research is still in desperate search for the IT artifact. Recent reviews show that IS research first and foremost considers IT resources as a socio-technical and managerial concern. Analyses of inertia are restricted to cognitive limitations or technical challenges of IT development and use as separate activities. Hence, IS research assumes that more development resources, extended training, and better management could turn most failures into success. In this thesis, I posit that IS strategy research often treats normal failure as unexpected to maintain the rational idea that managers are in control and that IT does not matter in and of itself. I argue that planned and convergent views of change work well under stable and unitary conditions but in this way fail to account for the complexity of current IS strategy practice. To substantiate this claim, I demonstrate how IS research routinely neglects the material IT use story in the context of digital transformation (DT) studies and social informatics. Political conflict is a constant theme in IS strategy implementation research, yet few studies provided explanation for the apprehension that managers and workers display during the introduction of new IT resources; even as most managers remain men I found also no study that theorized gender politics as related to IS strategy outcomes. I argue in particular that the IS fields routine adherence to borrowed assumptions about the pace, linearity, and sequence of radical change have limited IS scholars to marginally improve on received DT narratives in which IT plays little or no part as IT appears as an agent mostly before and after DT. Though much is said about how IT triggers and enables organizational change, the actual processes and mechanisms that underlies IS strategy change enactments are thus poorly understood. To examine how the material roles of IT resources and their political use can be captured and explained, I summarize and synthesize insights grounded in empirics from four appended research papers. In this way, I chart avenues for material theorizing of micro-affordances and institutions, and develop an IS strategy-as-practice lens that attends IT use as a material practice. After developing this lens, I discuss how material practice perspectives afford deep understanding of the materialities through which actors create, sustain, and transform organizational practice with digital material, and highlight some opportunities to observe the social consequences of IT use in the context of critical studies on men and masculinities and digital gender.

Common thought about cinema calls to mind an audience seated in a darkened theatre watching projected moving images that unfold a narrative onto a single screen. Cinema is much more than this. There is a significant history of artists experimenting with the moving image outside of its familiar setting in a movie theatre. These investigations are often referred to as "expanded cinema". This dissertation proposes a genre of expanded cinema called haptic cinema, an approach to interactive narrative that emphasizes material object sensing, identification and management; viewer's interaction with material objects; multisequential narrative; and the presentation of visual and audio information through multiple displays to create a sensorially rich experience for viewers. The interactive digital media tabletop is identified as one platform on which to develop haptic cinema. This platform supports a subgenre of haptic cinema called tabletop cinema. Expanded cinema practices are analyzed for their contributions to haptic cinema. Based on this theoretical and artistic research, the thesis claims that haptic cinema contributes to the historical development of expanded cinema and interactive cinema practices. I have identified the core properties of a haptic cinema practice during the process of designing, developing and testing a series of haptic cinema projects. These projects build on and make use of methods and conventions from tangible interfaces, tangible narratives and tabletop computing.

Consumer grade Virtual Reality (VR)-headsets are on the rise, and with them comes an increasing number of digital games which support VR. How players perceive the gameplay and how well they perform at the games tasks can be key factors to designing new games. This master’s thesis aims to evaluate if a user can performa game task, specifically a target practice, in less time and/or more accurately when using a VR-headset as opposed to a computer screen and mouse. To gather statistics and measure the differences, an experiment was conducted using a test application developed alongside this report. The experiment recorded accuracy scores and time taken in tests performed by 35 test participants using both a VR-headset and computer screen. The resulting data sets are presented in the results chapter of this report. A Kolmogorov-Smirnov Normality Test and Student’s paired samples t-test was performed on the data to establish its statistical significance. After analysis, the results are reviewed, discussed and conclusions are made. This study concludes that when performing the experiment, the use of a VR-headset decreased the users accuracy and to a lesser extent also increased the time the user took to hit all targets. An argument was made that the longer previous experience with computer screen and mouse of most users gave this method an unfair advantage. With equally long training, VR use might score similar results.<br>Kommersiella VR-headset är en växande marknad, och med dem kommer allt fler digitala spel med stöd för VR. Hur spelare uppfattar spelmekaniken och hur väl de presterar i spelets uppgifter kan vara nyckelfaktorer för att designa nya spel. Syftet med detta examensarbete är att utvärdera om en användare kan utföra en speluppgift, specifikt prickskytte av måltavlor, snabbare och/eller mer noggrant när ett VR-headset används än jämför med datorskärm och mus. För att samla statistik och mäta skillnader, utfördes ett experiment med en testapplikation utvecklad jämsides med denna uppsats. Experimentet mätte hur noggrant och hur lång tid det tog 35 testpersoner att utföra testet, när de använde både VR och datorskärm. Den resulterande datan presenteras i resultatskapitlet i denna uppsats. Ett Kolmogorov-Smirnov normalitetstest och Student’s paired samples t-test utfördes på datan för att avgöra dess statistiska signifikans. Efter analysen gicks resultaten igenom, diskuterades och slutsatser drogs. Denna studie avgjorde att när experimentet genomfördes med VR-headset sänktes användarens pricksäkerhet och tiden det tog att träffa alla måltavlor ökade något. Ett argument fördes för att den långa föregående erfarenheten många har när det gäller datorskärm och mus gav metoden en orättvis fördel. Med lika lång träning i båda metoderna bör VR-metoden potentiellt kunna gelikvärdiga resultat.

This study examines the way young Saudi women use language and other communicative resources in their digitally mediated interactions. It is motivated by the debate in Saudi Arabia on the impact of digital media on the way people use language, especially Arabic, the way they manage their social relationships, and the way they enact their cultural identities. The study was conducted at a women’s university in the eastern part of Saudi Arabia. A hundred and three participants were asked to complete a questionnaire on their online language use. Forty-seven of those participants were asked to keep a detailed literacy log of their digital practices over a period of four days and to submit samples of their interactions for closer analysis. The theoretical framework used to analyze the data combines concepts from new literacy studies (Barton & Hamilton, 1998; Gee & Hayes, 2010; Street, 2003), multimodal discourse analysis (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2006; Jewitt, Bezemer, & O'Halloran, 2016), and mediated discourse analysis (Jones & Norris, 2005; Scollon, 2001). The framework sees people’s language use in terms of social practices and explores how those practices are affected by the different media people use to communicate, and how mediated communication is linked to broader issues of culture and identity. The analysis reveals that the participants’ digital practices are multimodal and multilingual, and the choices they make about the codes and modes they use take place in the context of a complex nexus of practice, involving the interaction among (i) the affordances and constrains of the different technologies they use, (ii) the demands of their social relationships, and (iii) their individual experiences and socialization into different ways of communicating. By appropriating different codes and modes in different ways in social media, young Saudi women are able to strategically situate themselves in different cultural ‘worlds’, maintaining traditional identities and cultural practices while at the same time enacting new kinds of identities. The study contributes to the debate on the effect of digital media on language use by adopting a sociocultural approach which links language use to social practices, social relationships and social identities.

Language-use has proven to be the most complex and complicating of all Internet features, yet people and institutions invest enormously in language and crosslanguage features because they are fundamental to the success of the Internet’s past, present and future. The thesis takes into focus the developments of the latter – features that facilitate and signify linking between or across languages – both in their historical and current contexts. In the theoretical analysis, the conceptual platform of inter-language linking is developed to both accommodate efforts towards a new social complexity model for the co-evolution of languages and language content, as well as to create an open analytical space for language and cross-language related features of the Internet and beyond. The practiced uses of inter-language linking have changed over the last decades. Before and during the first years of the WWW, mechanisms of inter-language linking were at best important elements used to create new institutional or content arrangements, but on a large scale they were just insignificant. This has changed with the emergence of the WWW and its development into a web in which content in different languages co-evolve. The thesis traces the inter-language linking mechanisms that facilitated these dynamic changes by analysing what these linking mechanisms are, how their historical as well as current contexts can be understood and what kinds of cultural-economic innovation they enable and impede. The study discusses this alongside four empirical cases of bilingual or multilingual media use, ranging from television and web services for languages of smaller populations, to large-scale, multiple languages involving web ventures by the British Broadcasting Corporation, the Special Broadcasting Service Australia, Wikipedia and Google. To sum up, the thesis introduces the concepts of ‘inter-language linking’ and the ‘lateral web’ to model the social complexity and co-evolution of languages online. The resulting model reconsiders existing social complexity models in that it is the first that can explain the emergence of large-scale, networked co-evolution of languages and language content facilitated by the Internet and the WWW. Finally, the thesis argues that the Internet enables an open space for language and crosslanguage related features and investigates how far this process is facilitated by (1) amateurs and (2) human-algorithmic interaction cultures.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Illinois State University, 1987.<br>Title from title page screen, viewed August 5, 2005. Dissertation Committee: Mary Ann Lynn (chair), Patricia H. Klass, Ronald L. Laymon, Thomas W. Nelson, William F. Stimeling. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-81) and abstract. Also available in print.

The aim of this doctoral thesis is to investigate the practices of rough sleeping and inhabiting public space, with a focus on the modern city of Rome. By inhabiting public spaces, people who are homeless expose their private sphere to public view. Paradoxically, this public exposure of the private becomes a means of exclusion according to Judith Butler and Athena Athanasiou (2013). Scholars acknowledge public space as constructed by the actions that people carry out in public (Lefebvre 1991; Tschumi 1996; Harvey 2012; Jon Goodbun et al. 2014). People who are homeless certainly contribute to the construction of public space (Petty 2016). However, as asserted by architectural scholar Gill Doron, certain practices 'reveal how the public space is restricted to a very small spectrum of activities, and how many other activities are not permitted' (Doron 2000, p.254). These practices put into question what public these spaces are designed and designated for, questioning why only some activities are regarded as public and why some others take place only at night when spaces are temporary urban voids. Rough sleeping in Rome takes place mostly at night, exposing the city to its own fragilities and contradictions. Public space emerges as precarious. It is defned by social and cultural boundaries, within which urban practices alternate one with the other. These are irreconcilable poles within a parallax gap (Žižek 2009). The theoretical scaffolding of the thesis is structured alongside two other transgressive case studies: Pussy Riot's occupation in Moscow and my interviews with parkour practitioners. These cases have been investigated in comparison with homelessness in order to highlight aspects concerning occupation of space as a performative action under precarious circumstances (precarity). The literary review is combined with auto-ethnographical studies I conducted with a community of rough sleepers, comprising 20-40 members who inhabit a portico area nearby St Peter's Square in Rome. I also ran focus groups, individual interviews and project presentations to people who either are involved in charitable bodies that deal with homelessness or are part of the general public, such as passers-by in St Peter's Square. This study has revealed a series of aspects concerning the negotiation of public space and the role of agency and mediation. This study has stimulated questions concerning the role design can play in discourses of social innovation and inclusion. The research conducted has also outlined diffculties concerning the range of data and the possible response to the many voices heard. How can design re-imagine the centre ground between alternative practices in space? By highlighting the centre as precarious, is it possible to fnd a way of re-thinking the centre? On the basis of this study, the aim of the research has been to look at the state of the gap between these alternative poles, investigating and exploring the concept of precarity. This suggests the possibility of redefning concepts of mediation, social inclusion and architectural activism, articulated further through a series of speculative projects, concluding with the presentation of a 'precarious' object I designed together with the community of rough sleepers in St Peter's Square and COTRAD onlus (a charitable body based in Rome).

The advent of social media has witnessed a transformation in how audiences interact with marketers online. While previous research has shown that media consumers generally hold a negative view of advertising, today’s media consumers are engaging with brands more than ever. This study examines what it means to be an active fan of marketers in social media to the modern media consumer through an investigation of how audiences relate to brands in the social media space. Centered around audiences’ uses and gratifications of three successful brand communities within Facebook through qualitative (field observations and individual interviews) and quantitative (surveys) methods, this study intends to gain further knowledge about the role of social media and its impact on forming new cultural trends. The findings suggest that while the uses and gratifications of Facebook brand pages and what becoming a fan of a brand on Facebook signifies to social media users vary, the prevailing motivation for and function of brand community membership is the construction of one’s digital identity in association with the brands of one’s choosing. Furthermore, despite being aware that Facebook brand communities are marketing platforms, fans were largely receptive to and held a positive attitude towards the brands. This critical study of brand fans on Facebook presents the importance of studying social media’s uses and implications in order to better understand new audience cultures within the interactive media landscape.

In recent years, the popularity of public social media platforms led a growing amount of companies to implement Enterprise Social Software (ESS) (Schwade & Schubert, 2018). ESS can be understood as online applications used in business contexts to foster communication, collaboration and exchange of information, which is particularly relevant for knowledge workers, such as consultants (Cetto et al., 2018; Nissen, 2018; von Krogh, 2012).

nÃo hÃ<br>This research with youths unfolds itself in an analysis of digital educational practices (DEPs) about mediating possibilities of art through images. Pictures are taken as meaningful through the production of audiovisual narratives, shared on socialnetworks by young high school students. The DEPs are addressed from EMdiÃlogo Portal, as practice of youths observatory, operating in national territory network of universities, with support of the Ministry of Education - MEC. In Fortaleza, that was conducted in partnership with the Federal University of Cearà - UFC, having as central scenario the imagetic field of youth culture of the State School President Castelo Branco, in 2013. With the analytical field of research, students from popular classes from public state schools, we have seen the power of these spaces as socializing factors, but with needing of new forms of production of subjectivities, where interaction and dialogue can afford the art mode, creating new sensitivities in considered young multidimensional subjects. The movement of these young people was analyzed under the conceptual prism of Youth, DEPs and Images. To discuss the investigation of such imagery creations in her expressive content, these productions was unveiled with the representations of bodies, values, daily life and imagination of youth culture. The image as a practice that puts into play the subjectivity of each individual, which makes turning himself more deeply in a production of meaning to their experiences, culminating in a look at their living conditions as a mean of expression more critical of themselves, the group and the other. The daily life and imagination of youth culture, as trials of self and other, indicate an interlaced complex of conflictualities and new socializing propositions, when mediation of educators occurs in a certain way - as stimulating the youth position as actors of their lives and expressions. Thus, it was seen that the presencial educational mediation is critical in digital educational practices and also that in these movements of artistic expressiviness, the exercise of authorship should be done where the reception of images is combined with an enhancement of imagery artistic production. In this movement, the subjects exchange places and perpectives, constituting significational fields. So it is that in this qualitative research, when configuring itself upon the observation in virtual ethnography, we can see how it takes place the critical and creative juvenile reflection in the school context, since a new visual culture can counteract the other mass forms of tame the subject insert in the merchandise logic. Evidencing authoral compositions of the subjects in the weaving of their imagery artistic experiences we believe it is possible to image culture gestate itself within new socialization parameters in weavings of imagery artistic experiences.<br>Este trabalho de pesquisa com as juventudes se desdobra em uma anÃlise das prÃticas educativas digitais (PEDs) acerca das possibilidades mediadoras da arte atravÃs das imagens. As imagens sÃo tomadas como significativas por meio da produÃÃo de narrativas a udiovisuais, compartilhadas em redes sociais por jovens estudantes do Ensino MÃdio. As PEDs sÃo abordadas a partir do Portal EMd iÃlogo, Ãnsito como prÃtica do observatÃrio de juventudes, atuante no territÃrio nacional, em uma rede de universidades, com apoio do MinistÃrio da EducaÃÃo - MEC. Em Fortaleza, foi realizado em parceria com a Universidade Federal do Cearà â UFC, apresentando como cenÃrio central o plano imagÃtico das culturas juvenis da Escola Estadual Presidente Castelo Branco, no ano de 2013. Tendo como campo analÃtico da pesquisa estudantes das classes populares da rede estadual pÃblica de ensino, vimos a potÃncia desses espaÃos como agÃncias socializadoras, mas necessitando alimentar - se de novas formas de produÃÃo de subjetividades, onde a i nteraÃÃo e o diÃlogo possam se dar ao modo da arte, criando sensibilidades novas, em sujeitos jovens considerados de modo multidimensio nal. O movimento desses jovens foi analisado sob o prisma conceitual das Juventudes, PrÃticas Educativas Digitais e Image ns . Ao problematizar a investigaÃÃo dessas criaÃÃes imagÃticas em seus conteÃdos expressivos, desvelou - se a produÃÃo tecida com as representaÃÃes dos corpos, valores, cotidiano e imaginÃrio das culturas juvenis. A imagem como prÃtica que coloca em cena as subjetividades de cada indivÃduo, que o faz voltar - se a si mesmo de maneira mais profunda em uma produÃÃo de sentidos para suas experiÃncias, culmina em um olhar sobre suas condiÃÃes de vida, como meio de expressÃo mais crÃtica de si, do grupo e do outro. O cotidiano e imaginÃrio das culturas juvenis, como experimentaÃÃes de si e do outro, assinalam um entrelaÃado jogo de conflitualidades e de novas proposiÃÃes socializadoras, quando a mediaÃÃo dos educadores se dà de certo modo - como estimuladora da posià Ão dos jovens como atores de suas vidas e expressÃes. Desse modo, viu - se que a mediaÃÃo educadora, presencial, à fundamental em prÃticas educativas digitais e que nesses movimentos de expressividade artÃstica o exercÃcio de autorias se deve fazer onde a re cepÃÃo de imagens se alia a uma potencializaÃÃo da produÃÃo artÃstica imagÃtica. Neste movimento, os sujeitos trocam lugares e deslocam olhares, constituindo campos de significaÃÃo. Assim à que nesta pesquisa qualitativa, ao se configurar valendo - se da obs ervaÃÃo em etnografia virtual, podemo s ver como à preciso situar a reflexÃo crÃtica e criativa juvenil no contexto escolar, jà que uma cultura visual nova pode se contrapor a outras formas massivas de 6 apassivar o sujeito inserto na lÃgica da mercadoria. Ev idenciando as composiÃÃes autorais dos sujeitos, nas tessituras de suas experiÃncias artÃsticas imagÃticas, julgamos ser possÃvel uma cultura da imagem se gestar dentro de novos parÃmetros de socializaÃÃo nas tessituras de experiÃncias artÃsticas imagÃtica s

We are told the Web is different from previous mass communication technologies because its technical affordances have created an informational “Wild West” (Reevell (2007)). We are also told, that by overestimating their ‘savvy’, we have abandoned many young people to the risks of this frontier beyond regulation (Hargittai, 2010) (boyd, 2014) (Livingstone, 2007). Young people are therefore said to be vulnerable to untruths circulating on the Web such as health misinformation (Levin-Zamir, Lemish, & Gofin, 2011) (Hargittai & Young, 2012) and conspiracy theories (Millar, 2012). The advertised remedy for these problem populations of digitally illiterate youths is a programme of re-education. I begin by examining these claims to show the way we have constructed and investigated this problem has shaped our claims about young people online. I argue, in our drive to locate problem populations, we have reduced young people’s relationship with the Web to a series of reductive summative judgments that blame the Web or young people for their lack of digital information literacy. If we accept the current orthodoxy and then blame the Web we offer a technological determinist explanation of reality: technology produces misinformed populations. If we locate the problem solely with young people, as many researchers do, we evoke a legacy of bio-physiological conceptions of youth’s deficiencies. Our social explanations often attribute young people’s deficiencies to their parent’s occupation (the typical proxy in this research domain for socio-economic status) or their ethnicity; but these reduce young people to unreflective victims of structural inequality. I begin by conceptually distancing my research from positivistic methods such as tests and questionnaires that often confirm young people’s relatively powerless position in society (Morrow & Richards, 1996); particularly when these methods result in binary judgments such as ‘unskilled’ or ‘skilled’. I then conceive of young people’s status as a social construct that affects their sense of self while they behave as active agents negotiating their position in society. Similarly, I reconceptualise hitherto fixed categories of information, misinformation, and disinformation as dynamic and socially-produced. I then position this unstable form of information within Foucauldian descriptions of the relationship between informational truths and the production of power in our society. I operationalise these new concepts of youth and information in this domain by using Mason’s (2011) facet methodology and mixed qualitative and digital ethnographic techniques. This combination of concepts (of youth, information, and power) and my research methods, allowed me to investigate the multidirectional and situational environmental and social influences (including my research methods) on youth’s engagements with information on the Web. My findings show that we cannot effectively isolate and implicate the Web, young people, or their socio-economic status as explanations of why and how young people use the Web for information. In analysing the data I began by looking for a conceptual framework that would account for the entanglements of technology, people, and society. This study identifies and analyses how young people’s web practices are defined by “the possibilities and impossibilities” (Bourdieu 1984, p100) that exist within young people’s educational fields and beyond. Although learning new skills is always important, the social context in which these skills are acquired and used is crucial. The social environment influences which skills are naturalised, incentivised, and rewarded. This thesis focuses on this space where, buffeted by the various vested interests who are concerned about how the Web is being utilised; young people are exercising their agency and using the Web in ways that suit their purposes. My research has found young people are not free to use the Web as they please nor do they always consciously or critically reflect on their own practices, yet they do describe complex patterns of usage that help them explore their sense of self as well as society’s norms and values. My data shows young people’s Web usage emerges from the tensions between: how they want to use the Web; how they have learnt to use it; how they have been taught to use it; how they have been allowed to use it; and how these tensions are played-out in context of their contingent social reality. In short, this thesis aims to repatriate young people’s web practices from the sterile, positivist methods space of questionnaires and tests of digital literacy to social contexts of everyday life. Constructions of young people in relation to technology have important consequences. We no longer think young people know what they are doing so we are now looking for evidence to substantiate our intervention strategies. These findings suggest we need to rethink, again, what we mean in our narratives of justification when are describing young people’s digital deficits and digital inequality otherwise these interventions could be ineffective or indeed counterproductive.

Researches done on social movements and media are often conducted at a micro-level, focusing on the individual activity (Klandermans 1997), or the macro level, excluding the meso level, linking the two first levels together. Furthermore, studies focusing on the relation between feminism as a social movement and media often neglect to identify the opportunities and the limitations of such an intersection. The aim of this research is to increase knowledge in this gap, offering a comprehensive conceptual framework that focuses on the three levels of interaction between media and feminist activism. Attention will also be paid to the intersection between offline and online as it ‘helps us question the bias towards online and always connected forms of activism’ . (Fotopoulou 2014) The research questions of this thesis are: How women in Great-Britain perceive the limitations and opportunities in media, to connect with the feminist movement? And How can we understand these experiences through the role of ICT linked to macro-processes such as mediatization?The findings are that the relatively new online platforms and media practices of digital and networked media are changing the landscape of how feminist activists think and fight for gender equality. They both carry the opportunities and the limitations of such a relation. Indeed, the assumption that social network and online media are a central in women’s organization is correct, however, they are not the only way of doing so and they should remain complementary. The concept of ‘digital sisterhood’ helps us to understand that complex balance and it allows us to question the different levels of activism that are being reconsidered.

<p> In 2010, the state of Pennsylvania began the work of creating and adopting a state-wide principal effectiveness plan that mirrored the framework established for the evaluation of teachers. Backed by a series of assumptions about the power of an assessment or evaluation tool to increase the effectiveness of school leaders, a team of educators at the state level reviewed plans from numerous states and districts as well as the widely recognized VAL-ED school leadership evaluation plan to inform the creation of a plan tailored for Pennsylvania school leaders. </p><p> The growing focus on evaluation of school leaders was fueled in part by a disconnect between overwhelmingly positive principal evaluations and standardized state assessment scores for student achievement that indicate a disproportionate percentage of &ldquo;failing&rdquo; schools. A growing body of research has explored the influences of principal leadership on student performance as well as the theoretical frameworks for effective principal evaluation plans. Less prevalent was research on the influence of an evaluation plan to guide, change or improve the practices of school leaders. </p><p> In the 2012-13 school year, over 200 school district, charter schools, Career and Technology Centers, and intermediate units in Pennsylvania agreed to implement the Principal Effectiveness Plan (PEP), later called the Pennsylvania Framework for Leadership (PFL), for the possible evaluation of up to 1900 school leaders in over 1300 individual school sites. This research was designed specifically to study the influence of the pilot year of the Pennsylvania Framework for Leadership on a group of principals in secondary schools in Pennsylvania by exploring how the principals conceptualized the uses of the plan on their daily practices. </p><p> The study was designed to explore qualitative data gathered through 17 secondary principal interviews which were a representative sample targeted from the 117 secondary principals who completed the pilot process and were included in the data set of 484 principal reports submitted to the Pennsylvania Department of Education at the end of the pilot year. In addition, survey data from PDE were used to inform the construction of the interview protocol. Researcher journal and memos were also considered (Maxwell, 2005, p. 96, p. 110, Miles &amp; Huberman, 1994, p. 72).</p>

Over the past decade there has been a dramatic increase in the volume of digital content created from museum, library and archive collections but research on how this material is actually used, particularly in digital learning environments, has fallen far behind the rate of supply. In order to address this gap, this thesis examines how communities of practice (CoPs) involved in the supply and use of digital artefacts in the Higher Education sector in the UK interact with content and what factors affect this process. It focuses on a case study involving the digitisation of Shakespeare collections used in postgraduate research, and the testing of use in a range of different learning environments. This produced a number of significant findings with implications for the HE and cultural sectors. Firstly, similar patterns of artefact use were found across all users suggesting there are generic ways in which everyone interacts with digital artefacts. However, distinct forms of use did emerge which correspond with membership of particular communities of practice. Secondly, members of a CoP appear to share a particular learning style and this is influenced by the learning environment. Finally, the research indicates that a mixed method for analysing and measuring use, piloted and tested in the case study, is possible.