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- Hattinger, Monika, 1969-
(författare)
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Co-constructing Expertise : Competence Development through Work-Integrated e-Learning in joint Industry-University Collaboration
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis is inter-disciplinary and proceed from the ongoing challenges of the increased digitalization, automation and robotization that impact the manufacturing industry's emergent need of high-qualified practitioners. Digitalization also challenges universities to open up to external collaboration and to design blended e-learning targeting industry knowledge needs. The studies take up on such challenges and explore inter-organizational collaborations and forms of knowledge construction to strengthen engineering competences integrated inwork in a way that enables manufacturing companies to remain effective and to be prepared for future industrial transformations. The objective is to explore how mutual construction of knowledge emerge through learning activities between multiple actors in a joint industry-university collaborative e-learning practice. The empirical setting is a new type of collaborative course concept developed within the project ProdEx. The project comprise a network of industries and one university in a longitudinal design and implementation process of blended and work-integrated e-learning. This initiative was explored with a collaborative action research approach integrated with five studies, from four perspectives, the industry managers, the practitioners, the research teachers and the course unit. Negotiated knotworking, from cultural-historical activity theory, became a central theoretical concept and a working tool to examine how managers, practitioners and research teachers together negotiated production technology knowledge content and e-learning design towards future workplace transformations. This concept was used to further understand how co-construction of knowledge was developing over time into a richer concept. The results contributes to a wider understanding of how co-construction of knowledge in an e-learning design practice was developing into stronger relations between actors and into more stable courses. Real learning cases and digital labs support theory-practical intertwining of mutual learning of active participation between practitioners and ix research teachers. Initial e-learning technology failures and pedagogical mistakes in the courses were easier to overcome, than issues concerning continuous company support for course participation. Matching industry competence needs with university research fields is continuously challenging. Practitioners' aiming for personal continuous competence development on university level created critical and high-qualitative performances and valuable engagement throughout the process of co-construction of knowledge. The knowledge co-construction became a two-way development, pushing research teachers to active involve and consider practitioners' industry experiences concerning learning content, pedagogical strategies and e-learning forms. While earlier research has discussed the problems of crossing boundaries between industry and university, overall findings show that industry and university actors are crossing boundaries when they mutually co-construct knowledge in an elearningpractice. Co-construction of knowledge entail mutual trust, sideways and interactive learning in a collaborative context. The main contribution suggested in the thesis is that co-constructing expertise entail three levels of activities among actors; to have insight into the purposes and practices of others (relational expertise), the capacity to transform the problems of a practice and together build common knowledge (distributed expertise), and finally the capacity of mutually co-construct knowledge acted upon in practice towards work-integrated transformations (co-constructing expertise).
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| 3. |
- Spante, Maria, 1967-, et al.
(författare)
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Find The Drive : On Co-Designing Practice And Experience Of A Research And Development Project Driven By Municipalities And University
- 2018
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Ingår i: ICERI2018 Proceedings. - : IATED. - 9788409059485 ; , s. 10347-10356
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper aims to highlight challenges and opportunities connected to collaboration between municipal school administrators, principals, teachers and researchers. The current study was formulated in cooperation between researchers and administrators from two rural Swedish municipalities. The study was based on their concern on large gender gap in grades, and on a notion held by some principals and teachers that the motivation for school is low for many students, especially among low-achieving boys.The project was co-designed in close collaboration between administrators, principals and researchers. The negotiated purpose was thus collaboratively broadened to include not only gender patterns but also other sociological aspects that affect learner identities and motivation. Project information was provided through on-site visits where the project was presented for all staff members at each school in each municipality. During the first year, observations were carried out in grade 6 in five schools, and grade 9 in three schools. Two researchers followed each class one week, by teacher invitation. The focus was on the conditions for learning and motivation offered in class, and on factors supporting and hindering the learning and motivation of girls and boys with different backgrounds and resources. Semi-structured interviews with teachers in the targeted classes (N=18) were held. The interviews focused on the teachers' notions of student achievement and motivation in regard to gendered norms, curriculum and classroom practices. Teachers were also asked to reflect on the possibilities to change prevailing patterns. Semi-structured interviews with students, mostly in pairs (N=70; 39 girls, 31 boys) were carried out. The topics for these interviews were the students' notions of how school, home and peers interplay with their views on learning, motivation and their aspirations for the future. In addition to the practice-based research activities, organizational development and competence building were key ambitions in the cooperation between the two municipalities and the university. The model for this was a one-day workshop for the entire pedagogical staff in the schools at the respective municipality (N=195, N= 65). During these days, local experiences and observations were discussed in relation to presented research concerning study motivation and gender patterns.Groups of teachers sat together and shared their understandings and reflections. All group conversations were documented in shared online documents for capturing and spreading thoughts and understandings. These shared documents provided a source for further discussions after the actual competence development day. The same model for data gathering will be carried out in year two of the project in order to have a solid foundation for analysis and further recommendations and suggestions. So far, our mutual experience from the range of roles participating in the project, is that the model for co-designing a project combining competence development arrangements with research activities is a fruitful cross-fertilizing process for knowledge creation and professional learning.
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| 5. |
- Svedäng, Maria, 1958-, et al.
(författare)
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Collaborative Work and ICT Tools Enabling Science Teaching and Learning in a Cross-Border Context
- 2015
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Ingår i: The European Conference on Technology in the Classroom 2015. ; , s. 125-137
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The collaboration and cross-border communication of 14–16-year-old students from Sweden and Denmark working with various science assignments using ICT was followed in an action-influenced project. The students collaborated in a complex learning context, including searching for information, planning, executing, and reporting experiments, posing questions, collecting facts, and communicating, using the Internet, shared documents and presentations, Blog, Skype, and Adobe Connect. The asynchronousICT communication tools used in the project enabled the teachers to include information and instructions for the students in the documents as well as following the students work online. The synchronous communication tools were importantfor the students to get to know each other and make friends.Most of the student groupswere successful in using the ICTs provided, in executing the experiments, communicating, and sharing information. Generally the students appreciated the possibility ofworking with fellow students from another country; they showed good ability to work autonomously, collaborate, and communicate about science issues. The ICT tool that were most popular among the students were Google docs and Skype.The complex learning situations created within the project enabled the students to interact regardless of physical borders and to trainin important key competencessuch as using scientific methods, developing digital skills, and communicating in the mother tongue as well as in foreign languages.
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| 7. |
- Ali, Rashid, et al.
(författare)
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Competence development at workplace : a work integrated informal learning (WIIL) approach
- 2016
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Ingår i: Far East Journal of Electronics and Communications. - Allahabad, India : Pushpa Publishing House. - 0973-7006. ; 2, s. 35-42
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Learning within the organization is not only linked to the formal training and education of the employees, but also to informal processes of sharing knowledge. The knowledge is often embedded in organizational activities, practices and norms, as well as in social ties among individuals in the organization. We analyzed employees' behavior and acceptance of online social networking as an information system (IS) of learning. The analysis is performed by a descriptive case survey within a telecom corporation in Pakistan. The purpose of our study is to bring an informal learning system at workplace. In this study we obtain quantitative data from 105 out of 180 targeted employees. The results show that a majority of the studied employees favor social networking to connect colleagues at different levels and more than half of the respondents share their knowledge and experiences using social sites. Nearly half of the respondents strongly agree that knowledge sharing is an important role of social sites within the organization and many are in favor of social media as an informal learning system. The results also show how the professionals use social networking sites to share their experiences and to build a virtual break in hierarchical levels of professions. This paper illustrates the benefits of social networking sites as an informal work integrated learning tool that also serves as an IS model for the organization.
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| 8. |
- Ali, Rashid, et al.
(författare)
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Social Networking sites for Interdisciplinary Learning at Workplace : Work integrated informal Learning (WiiL)
- 2016
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Ingår i: International Conference on Advanced Computing, Communication and Information Sciences (ICACCI-2016). - : Pushpa Publishing House. ; , s. 9-9
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Work Integrated Learning (WIL) studies usually focuses on educational situations when professional organizations are actively involved in learning processes for students in higher education. However, after completing the institutional period entering the professional arena, the professional person is still actually a student at the workplace as s/he never stops learning. Learning within the organization is not only linked to the formal training and education of the employees, but also to informal processes of sharing knowledge. The knowledge is often embedded in organizational activities, practices and norms, as well as in social ties among individuals in the organization. Our analysis of employees' behavior and acceptance of online social networking as an information system (IS) of learning is performed by a descriptive case survey within a telecom corporation in Pakistan. Thepurpose of our study is to bring an informal learning system at workplace. In this study we quantitative data isobtained from 105 out of 180 targeted employees. The results show that a majority of the studied employees favors social networking to connect colleagues at different levels and more than half of the respondents share their knowledge and experiences using social sites. Nearly half of the respondents strongly agree that knowledge sharing is an important role of social sites within the organization and many are in favor of social media as an informal learning system. The results also show how the professionals use social networking sites to share their experiences and to build a virtual break in hierarchical levels of professions. This paper illustrates the benefits of social networking sites as an informal work integrated learning tool that also serves as an IS model for the organization.
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| 9. |
- Ampem, Daniel Kwame Baidoo, et al.
(författare)
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Reaching Out, Tuning in : On the Problematic Information Structure Hindering Connection between Socially Engaged Organizations and Refugees in the Municipality of Trollhättan
- 2017
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Ingår i: Uddevalla Symposium 2017: Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Industrial Dynamics in Internationalized Regional Economies. - Trollhättan : University West. - 9789187531613 ; , s. 21-28
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The recent refugee crises have caused newcomers to settle in different municipalities in Sweden. Different municipalities respond differently to the situations that arise from an increased number of refugees waiting for decisions from the Swedish Migration Agency regarding residence permit. Such variation in response also affects how refugees can access relevant information about activities and initiatives available in the designated municipality while waiting. This study investigated how stakeholders' in the municipality of Trollhättan experienced their possibilities to spread information about their activities targeting refugees. A particular interest was on what kind of activities stakeholders provided, problems they face in reaching out to refugees, and opinions on using technology usage for outreach. Seven stakeholders in Trollhättan municipality were included in the study; a private company, the municipal employment office, a university and four nonprofit organizations. Findings suggest that stakeholders did arrange various types of initiatives but it was hard for refugees placed in Trollhättan to get access to these local initiatives. Stakeholders wanted to reach out to as many refugees as possible but they have a hard time doing so. The study concluded that information access of stakeholders activities is a major problem for refugees in Trollhättan. In order to address the dispersed and hard-to-find information from the varied stakeholders, a mobile app was suggested as a solution to the information problem in order to create a digital cental place for stakeholder initiatives and information spread. These initiatives, if known about, could create a more active and varied everyday life for refugees awaiting decisions from the migration board. For stakeholders to reach out with information of planned activities and for refugees to be able to tunein to these possibilities becomes particularly important in municipalities where refugees are dispersed in various kinds of locations, rather than living in largec amps.
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| 10. |
- Brocker, Kristina, et al.
(författare)
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Producing digital stories for language learning and digital competence across generations and positions of learners in municipalities
- 2019
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Ingår i: VILÄR 5-6 december 2019, University West, Trollhättan. - Trollhättan : Högskolan Väst. - 9789188847430 - 9789188847447 ; , s. 3-4
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Aim: There is a strong need for methods how to develop language learning and digital competence through all levels of education, and in particular for adult immigrants. In Sweden, the responsible organization for such adult education is called Swedish For Immigrants (SFI), hosted in municipalities. Our paper will describe and analyze a specific effort to create innovative models to not only enhance language learning but also digital competence, something that is emphasized in all levels in the Swedish educational system ranging from kindergarten to adult educations in which SFI is part of. Furthermore, it will also describe how future digital divide between new arrivals and their children growing up in a digital society can be prevented.Method and process: The study is framed as an action design research study incorporating initial trials in classroom practice of first translating stories from the mother tongue into Swedish and then later make a digital production using voice and pictures freeware functions in an app on surf tablets. These digital folk tales were then made accessible with QR codes in both Swedish and mother tongue. The latter with the aim of spreading digital folk tales in different mother tongues for children at kindergartens. In order to create an authentic situation for the adult learners in the SFI class, the teacher arranged for the learners to present their stories at kindergartens for both children and staff. At each visit there were 4 students, meeting 8-10 children and 8 staff. This turned out to be a true learning experience for all involved participants.Result: In a short period of time the immigrants learnt how to produce digital stories and QR-codes. The children were able to use their tablets and find different stories on different languages on laminated printed QR-code. After listening to the stories, the children could ask questions directly to the producer of the story what it was about including additional questions linked to the specific country the adult person came from. After the round of different stories in Swedish the immigrants hold a presentation for the kindergarten staff about how they had worked with the process of the making of the digital production. Inspired by the immigrants in combination of the response from the children, the staff became enthusiastic in relation to work with digital competence more related to their own work practice rather than a top-down demand, as they had previously experienced curriculum driven need to develop digital competence for their young children.Conclusion and future plans: In this case, we could clearly see promising effects from the combined effort of involving actors from children to top management of the municipality interlinked by the curriculum demand of developing digital competence and language learning combined with 21 century skills in life-long learning. Our argument is that story driven digital production combined with co-located presentations and cross generational meetings and talk, is a fruitful way of collaborative effort to empower both children, immigrant adult learners and professional practice of education. The next step is to enlarge the number of participant and have more kindergartens involved in this collaborative model of supporting lifelong learning to find out more about the positive effects seen so far in the design process as well as its problems.
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