A Merleau-Pontian phenomenology of the virtual: disembodied challenges and embodied prospects

Digital Engineering, the digital transformation of engineering to leverage digital technologies, is coming globally. This paper explores digital systems engineering, which aims at developing theory, methods, models, and tools to support the emerging digital engineering. A critical task is to digitalize engineering artifacts, thus enabling information sharing across platform, across life cycle, and across domains. We identify significant challenges and enabling digital technologies; analyze the transition from traditional engineering to digital engineering; define core concepts, including "digitalization", "unique identification", "digitalized artifacts", "digital augmentation", and others; present a big picture of digital systems engineering in four levels: vision, strategy, action, and foundation; briefly discuss each of main areas of research issues. Digitalization enables fast infusing and leveraging novel digital technologies; unique identification enables information traceability and accountability in engineering lifecycle; provenance enables tracing dependency relations among engineering artifacts; supporting model reproducibility and replicability; helping with trustworthiness evaluation of digital engineering artifacts.

The present research explores the formation of communicative competence in foreign languages in the context of modern electronic and digital society. A methodology is proposed based on the use of digital educational resources that simulate virtual urban environments. The main objective is to define and substantiate this methodology, based on the contributions of computer psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics and digital neuro-pedagogy. The central hypothesis of the study is that the understanding of the foreign language learning process, with emphasis on the particularities of neurocognitive connections, is favored by the use of computer-mediated digital didactic technologies. In this sense, various electronic educational resources are explored that allow recreating communicative situations typical of urban planning, both in real and virtual spaces. The study is based on the analysis of a variety of educational communicative situations of virtual urban planning, taking the process of learning a foreign language itself as the research object. To do this, analogous situations of the real environment of a city are compared with the simulation of a virtual urban space. Through this analysis, we seek to clarify the concepts of "communicative competence", "virtual urbanism" and "digital technologies".

The Virtual Child, or Six Provocations on Children’s Literature and (Pre-) Digital Culture Derritt Mason (bio) What comes to mind when you hear the word “virtual”? Today, we tend to associate it with digital technology: virtual offices, virtual worlds, virtual reality, the newly virtual dimensions of our lives in the wake of COVID-19. The term, however, has a much longer and often controversial history. Rob Shields opens his book, The Virtual, with the following illustrative example: in 1556 a Calvinist archbishop named Thomas Cranmer asserted a “doctrine of Virtualism” in regards to the Eucharist—Christ does not have a “Real Presence” in bread and wine, the Calvinists argued, but rather a virtual one (5–6). The Eucharist, in other words, is the blood and flesh of Christ in essence but not actually. This claim proved so contentious that Cranmer was executed for heresy. Now: what comes to mind when you think about children and the virtual? This combination could recall any number of contemporary debates, some of which might feel as heated as the fight over the Eucharist probably did in the sixteenth century. How much screen time should children be permitted? How and when are children vulnerable in virtual space? What can digital technology teach children, and when does it risk harming them? Are virtual worlds and spaces ruining the minds (and abilities) of future generations? These anxious questions, among many others, seemingly belong to what Samantha A. Smith and Simon A. Cole call “a new breed of techno-scientific moral panics” that concern themselves with the relationship between young people and emergent technologies (208). Anxieties about children and the virtual might feel unique to the digital age, but as this essay clarifies, a longer, pre-digital history of “the virtual child” demonstrates that the child itself has long been “virtual,” not merely—and only recently—confronted by the perils of virtual space. Such [End Page 1] a history illuminates the peculiarity of our current cultural moment, wherein worries about the digital virtual collide with the child’s enduring construction (by adults) as a virtual being that is, simultaneously and paradoxically, both promising and threatening. As I will explain, we need only reexamine the endless attempts to define the child and delineate its characteristics to see the anxious tensions aroused by the child’s ostensible virtuality. Given the etymology of “virtual,” I argue that we can characterize children’s literature as part of a broader apparatus, one that includes schooling and related sociocultural institutions, that seek influence over the child’s virtuality. Children’s literature often aims to instill virtue, or moral quality, in the child, while mapping and regulating their Virtù, or power, creativity, and possible lack of morality. The child’s virtuality has been the subject of adult concern for centuries, such that worried attempts to manage the child’s virtuality end up producing virtual spaces for this management to take place. Frequently, these virtual spaces take shape inside imperialist narratives of colonial exploitation that assign distinctly gendered tasks to its participants, grooming them for heterosexual adulthood. Such narratives survive today, yielding not only apprehensions about and hopes for the virtual child in a digital era, but also new forms of resistance to these enduring conventions. Instead of a refined and—we could say—fully-grown essay, I offer something “child-like” in the popular sense: six unformed, unfinished, playful provocations, which are occasionally unruly and requiring discipline (perhaps, even, a good spanking). These provocations span genre and form—fairy tales, digital apps, young adult literature, film, and poetry—to consider various iterations of the virtual child over the years, culminating in a brief examination of discourse about young activists; I offer “the activist child” as a noteworthy contemporary version of the virtual child. I begin, however, with a history and etymology of “virtual.” Provocation 1: Historicizing Virtù and the Virtual In The Virtual, Shields provides the dictionary definitions and etymology of his key concept: “The virtual: Anything, ‘that is so in essence or effect, although not formally or actually; admitting of being called by the name so far as the effect or result is concerned’” (OED qtd. in Shields 2). This first definition is...

The content of the article presents an analysis of the problems and trends in the development of modern digital technologies of inclusive education in the field of professional education, taking into account the development of relevant guidelines for customers of educational services. Current problems of digital inclusion in vocational education institutions are considered, namely: high-quality digital Ukrainian-language content that is accessible to various nosologies of education seekers with special educational needs, and the problem of training pedagogical workers in educational institutions to implement the concept of digital inclusion. It was determined that the use of digital technologies means a paradigm shift in approaches to teaching and learning, which is a potential for the transformation of professional education and an opportunity for customers of educational services to succeed in the global economy, ensuring the personalization of the educational process and overcoming the distance between the academic environment and production. At the same time, realizing this potential requires concerted action to address issues such as the digital divide, technology obsolescence, and quality and trust issues. In the context of inclusive educational innovation, digital accessibility is an important aspect of ensuring that all people, including persons with disabilities, have equal access to digital technologies and services. During the study of trends in the development of modern learning technologies in the field of professional and technical education, the staff of the department conducted an analysis of the interaction of inclusive learning technologies and modern digital technologies, focused on understanding how these two elements can interact to create an inclusive educational environment. The ways and possibilities of using digital technologies in the process of inclusive education are determined. The implementation and integration of digital technologies requires significant investment in infrastructure and ongoing support to ensure their sustainability and effectiveness. A successful example of such an infrastructural solution is the single educational-digital ecosystem of the Bilotserk Institute of Continuing Professional Education, which combines the intellectual, scientific, professional, educational, and technological potential of the subjects of the network educational-digital environment, provides for the use of digital, andragogic and interactive technologies in virtual space. The findings of the study indicate that although digital technologies have the potential to significantly improve the quality of vocational education, their successful implementation depends on addressing the associated challenges. It is important to constantly evaluate, study and introduce new initiatives in the field of digital learning and digital inclusion into the educational process, constantly update the educational process through the integration of digital technologies, ensure the appropriate quality of educational programs and resources.

This study explores the role of executive team feedback mechanisms and sensemaking processes in the adoption of digital technologies through a systematic literature review. It examines the intricate relationships among executive cognition, strategic decision-making, and organizational digital transformation. The research is structured into three main sections: the sensemaking process of executive teams, studies on digital technology adoption, and the influence of executive cognition on strategic decision-making. Employing a systematic literature review methodology, this study analyzes relevant academic literature from the past decade in the fields of management, information technology, and organizational behavior, focusing on how executive teams influence digital technology adoption and implementation through feedback mechanisms and sensemaking processes. Key findings indicate that: (1) the sensemaking process of executive teams significantly shapes organizational perceptions and acceptance of digital technologies; (2) heterogeneity in executive cognition may lead to divergences in strategic decision-making, thereby affecting the speed and effectiveness of technology adoption; and (3) feedback mechanisms play a critical role in facilitating executive team collaboration and dynamic adjustments in technology adoption. The study’s theoretical contribution lies in integrating sensemaking and executive cognition perspectives to propose a comprehensive framework for understanding the role of executive teams in digital technology adoption. This framework provides a theoretical foundation for future research and offers practical insights for managers formulating digital transformation strategies.

With advances in digital technology, physical and virtual spaces have gradually merged. For digitally disadvantaged groups, this transformation is both convenient and potentially supportive. Previous research on public infrastructure has been limited to improvements in physical facilities, and few researchers have investigated the use of mixed physical and virtual spaces. In this study, we focused on integrated virtual and physical spaces and investigated the factors affecting digitally disadvantaged groups’ intentions to use this new infrastructure. Building on a unified theory of the acceptance and use of technology, we focused on social interaction anxiety, identified the characteristics of digitally disadvantaged groups, and constructed a research model to examine intentions to use the new infrastructure. We obtained 337 valid data from the questionnaire and analysed them using partial least squares structural equation modelling. The results showed positive relationships between performance expectancy, perceived institutional support, perceived marketplace influence, effort expectancy, and facilitating conditions. The influence of psychological reactance was significantly negative. Finally, social interaction anxiety had a regulatory effect on performance expectancy, psychological reactance, perceived marketplace influence, and effort expectancy. Its effects on perceived institutional support and facilitating conditions were not significant. The results support the creation of inclusive smart cities by ensuring that the new public infrastructure is suitable for digitally disadvantaged groups. Meanwhile, this study presents new theoretical concepts of new public infrastructures, mixed physical and virtual spaces, which provides a forward-looking approach to studying digitally disadvantaged groups in this field and paves the way for subsequent scholars to explore the field in theory and literature.

Introduction Carol Zitzer-Comfort (bio) It seems impossible that three years have passed since Malea Powell chaired a session titled “Digital NDNs” at the 2008 MLA convention; however, here we are in 2011 sharing work that began in that thoughtprovoking, engaging session. As always, Malea created a session that was timely and innovative. First, Rick Mott presented an intriguing and visually fascinating overview of his use of digital literacy and technology in teaching Leslie Silko’s Ceremony. Second, Nancy Strow Sheley and I discussed using digital technology to bridge and connect classrooms in Long Beach, California, and in Nicosia, Cyprus, as our students in these different locales shared readings and commentary on American Indian literature. After the presentations, the room broke out in lively discussion. It was obvious that many people in the session, particularly Margaret Noori, were doing fascinating, cutting-edge work involving digital technology in their teaching of American Indian literatures and languages. This MLA session was just a beginning glimpse into the world of “digital NDNs.” Coming away from the session, I couldn’t stop thinking about the excitement generated by this timely topic. Even during the session, several of us discussed the possibility that SAIL might be interested in publishing a special issue on the joining of digital technologies and American Indian literature; thus, the seeds for this volume germinated. This issue could never have come to fruition without the patient assistance and guidance of editors James Cox and Daniel Heath Justice and, of course, the vision of Malea Powell. [End Page ix] The contributors present the ways in which twenty-first-century technology can be used to augment our teaching in meaningful, authentic ways. Margaret Noori, who is well known to all SAIL readers, presents an overview of how she uses technology to teach Anishinaabemowin. It was largely Meg’s excitement and innovation that compelled me to pursue the publication of this issue. Her essay focuses primarily on the development of the site Noongwa e-Anishinaabemjig: People Who Speak Anishinaabemowin Today, which is hosted by a server at the University of Michigan. This site continues to expand with the ever-changing world of language and technology and is an exciting space where scholars and students join together to teach and preserve Anishinaabemowin. As Noori points out: To see and save language, people have always relied on technology. At first it may have been the fire that kept the storyteller and audience together after dark or warmed the women singing beneath the moon. Today, technology is a myriad of tools and systems allowing language to transfer concepts of identity, complex instructions about the universe, arching narratives, whispers of love, or plans for war. Language is still, and has always been, united with technology. Rick Mott presents the development of groundbreaking, digitally motivated teaching in his paper, “Ceremony Earth: Digitizing Silko’s Novel for Students of the Twenty-first Century.” Like many of us teaching American Indian literature, Mott faces students who lack the background knowledge and context necessary to develop a full reading of many texts that we teach. As Mott notes: Many students I have taught, especially those who are non-Native, get frustrated when they read Leslie Silko’s canonical Native American novel, Ceremony. Not only do they struggle with Silko’s disruptions of linear temporality and her collapsing of binary oppositions, they also struggle with the novel’s geographic and cultural location, which is wholly unfamiliar to most of them. [End Page x] Mott has created a wealth of resources to provide his students with ways to better situate and contextualize Silko’s work. His essay “provide[s] background and context for this location-based, multimedia project, including reasons why digital literary artifacts attached to specific geographic points on geobrowsers are so appropriate for teaching Ceremony.” Gabriel Estrada presents a wholly different way of infusing the latest digital technology into his teaching of American Indian literature. Estrada’s article, captivatingly titled “Native Avatars, Online Hubs, and Urban Indian Literature,” draws upon and expands the earlier work of Susan Lobo and Jennifer Ladino. In his introduction, Estrada notes that what his “essay adds to Lobo’s and Ladino’s sentiment is a sense of...

This conclusion summarizes key insights from the former chapters, and highlights political dimensions of media use in digital everyday life. I particularly underline how our more digital everyday lives intensify communicative dilemmas, in which individuals in everyday settings negotiate with societal norms and power structures through their uses of media technologies. I also discuss how everyday media use connects us to different societal spheres and issues, also pointing to global challenges such as the pandemic and the climate crisis, arguing that everyday media use is key to our understandings of society. I discuss how to analyze this in media use research, emphasizing attention to processes of change and disruption.

The relevance of the research topic is accompanied by a great demand for digital and computer technologies and their rapid growth in the activities of any organization. Legal activity and security have changed a lot in recent years and also feels the impact of modern digital and computer technologies. The main purpose of the article is to study the main systemic engineering problems of using digital and computer technologies in the legal activities of firms in terms of ensuring security. To achieve this goal, we used the methodology of hierarchical ordering using information and mathematical tools of the theory of graphs and relationships, which allows you to streamline and form a connection between the main systemic engineering problems of using digital and computer technologies in the legal activities of firms. Based on the results of the analysis, we have formed an information model of the hierarchical ordering of the influence of the main systemic engineering problems of using digital and computer technologies in the legal activities of firms in terms of ensuring information security. Our study has a number of limitations, and they are related to the inability to cover all types and types of problems of using digital and computer technologies in legal activities due to a large amount of data and limited work. Further research will require the question of analyzing the impact of Industry 4.0, which is already practically here and with us, in the legal activities of firms.

PurposeDigitalization in precision agriculture incorporates state-of-the-art digital technologies. The transformation requires manufacturers to launch digital platforms and services. As a result, innovation ecosystems emerge. In turn, digital technologies introduce novelty into innovation processes. This socio-technical transition is critical to understanding Digital Service Innovation (DSI). Thus, it is necessary for a micro-founded analysis that biographizes the socio-technical assemblages between routines, artifacts and humans that emerge from DSI processes. Against this backdrop, this study aims to examine the co-production processes and the configuration of digital servitization ecosystems based on Routine Dynamics and Sociomateriality views and the DSI perspective.Design/methodology/approachThe study builds on multiple in-depth case studies, including three precision agriculture machinery and services ecosystems. For each ecosystem, the biography of the co-production process of the technological solution that integrates different actors and artifacts as a sociomaterial assemblage is reconstructed. The qualitative data consist of in-depth interviews with managers in the case companies and stakeholders in each ecosystem. Three ecosystems were surveyed. Documentary information from websites and technical documents on the products and services were systematized and incorporated into the analysis as a form of triangulation.FindingsThe analysis of ecosystem biographies evidences that DSI processes involve co-production between routines, actors and artifacts. This co-production implies moving from technology transfer relationships to the co-production of technological solutions oriented to digital servitization. New actors, digital artifacts and changes in user practices emerge as translators of DSI processes toward digital servitization. Thus, the emergence of technological solutions must be understood as socio-technical assemblages. The firms develop digital artifacts that allow the DSI process. The role of digital service platforms and users is critical in co-production. Digital artifacts based on algorithmic technologies perform automation and augmentation routines.Originality/valueThe study provides a complementary viewpoint between DSI approaches and the literature on Routine Dynamics and Sociomateriality. It explains in a micro-founded perspective, and based on biographies of the emergence of DSI ecosystems, how the relationship between digital artifacts, human practices and routines become dynamic in the co-production of Technological Solutions. This perspective proposes that DSI processes are based on the co-production of socio-technical assemblages. Thus, sociomateriality is at the center of analyzing the role of artifacts and the networks of relationships they perform and configure with humans, generating strategies, organizational practices and heterogeneous routine dynamics.

Contemporary health policy discourse renders individuals responsible for managing their health by means of digital technology. Seeing the digital as productive of citizenship, rather than facilitative of it, this paper unpacks the contested role of technology in acts of digital health citizenship. Drawing on longitudinal data collected in the English healthcare context, this article shows that digital health citizenship is produced through patients' involvement in the generation of health knowledge, including 'big' health data, digital artefacts, experiential knowledge and service feedback. The paper adds to existing literature by disaggregating the contested role of technology in displays of digital health citizenship, showing that digital health technology can give rise to expressions of altruism, belonging, and demands for recognition and change in healthcare, whilst responsibilising citizens for the care of themselves and others. The discussion shows how, rather than merely facilitating the actions of a free and autonomous subject, this citizenship often becomes algorithmically produced (e.g. through nudges) and remains isolated to separate instances of engagement without a long-term orientation. Our study enriches the growing sociological literature on health citizenship by exploring how digital technology produces health citizenship at the intersection of biosociality and technosociality.

Two studies were conducted to examine the use of grounded embodied pedagogy, construction of Imaginary Worlds (Study 1), and context of instructional materials (Study 2) for developing learners' Computational Thinking (CT) Skills and Concept knowledge during the construction of digital artifacts using Scratch, a block-based programming language. Utilizing a conceptual framework for grounded embodied pedagogy called Instructional Embodiment, learners physically enacted (Direct Embodiment) and mentally simulated (Imagined Embodiment) the actions and events as presented within pre-defined Scripts. Instructional Embodiment utilizes action, perception, and environment to create a dynamic, interactive teaching & learning scenario that builds upon previous research in embodied teaching and learning. The two studies described herein examined the effects of Instructional Embodiment, Imaginary World Construction, and Context on the development of specific Computational Thinking Concepts and Skills. In particular, certain CT Concepts, such as Conditionals, Variables, Thread Synchronization, Collision Detection, & Events, and CT Skills, such as abstraction and pattern recognition, were identified and measured within the learners' individual digital artifacts. Presence and/or frequency of these Concepts and Skills were used to determine the extent of Computational Thinking development. In Study 1, fifty-six sixth- and seventh-grade students participated in a fifteen-session curricular program during the academic school day. This study examined the type of instruction and continuity of Imaginary World Construction on the development of certain CT Skills and Concepts used in a visual novel created in Scratch. Main effects were found for learners who physically embodied the pre-defined instructional materials: embodying the pre-defined Scripts led to the learners using significantly more ‘speech’ Blocks in their projects and more Absolute Positioning Blocks for ‘motion’ than those who did not physically embody the same Scripts. Significant main effects were also found for continuity of Imaginary World Construction: learners who were instructed to continue the premise of the first digital artifact (Instructional Artifact) implemented significantly more computational structures in their second digital artifact (Unique Artifact) than those who were instructed to create a Unique Artifact with a premise of their own design. In Study 2, seventy-eight sixth- and seventh-grade students participated in a seventeen-session curricular program during the academic school day. This study examined the type of instruction and context of instructional materials on the development of CT Skills and Concepts during the construction of a video game using Scratch. Similar to Study 1, findings suggest that physically embodying the actions presented within the pre-defined instructional materials leads to greater implementation of many of these same structures during individual artifact construction. The study also showed that as the pre-defined Scripts become more complex (e.g. single-threaded to multi-threaded), the effect of physical embodiment on the development of CT Skills and complex CT Concept structures becomes less pronounced. Findings from this study also suggest that Context has a significant effect on identifying & implementing the CT Skill pattern recognition: learning CT Concepts from an Unfamiliar Context had a significant positive effect on the implementation of both Broadcast/Receive couplings and Conditional Logic & Operator patterns. In sum, the findings suggest that the type of instruction, the continuity of the Imaginary World being constructed, and the context of the instructional materials all play a significant role in the learners' ability to develop certain Computational Thinking Skills and Concept knowledge. The findings also suggest that a physically embodied approach to teaching abstract concepts that is grounded in an unfamiliar context is the most effective way to integrate a grounded embodied approach to pedagogy within a formal instructional setting.

Reconciling the Conservation of Cultural Heritage with Rural Development

Introduction: In Western countries, more patients experience chronic conditions and a lack of continuity of care. In Denmark municipal healthcare is responsible for home care and rehabilitation services, however, demographic changes and a lack of personnel threaten the provision of healthcare services in municipalities. To address these challenges, healthcare organisations have electronic health records to organise and manage care and work routines. Based on the assumption that digitalisation is a solution to the above-mentioned problems in municipalities, Danish municipalities implemented a specific digital documentation method to guide healthcare professionals (HCP) in planning and registering the services delivered to patients. digital solutions are perceived as beneficial to all parties involved. This paper aims to investigate how HCPs make sense of digital documentation practice and how digital documentation practice influences municipal healthcare. Theory and Methods: A qualitative single-case study design was chosen to explore digital documentation practice in home care in a medium size Danish municipality. Digital technologies are enacted into practice and have implications for healthcare practices. Weick’s sensemaking theory was used to explore healthcare professionals' sensemaking processes and to analyse how institutional logics framed the enactment of documentation practice. Data were generated using 124 hours of field observation of HCP practices in home care and 15 semi-structured with HCPs. Data from the user interface of the HCPs’ digital timetable showed care tasks and allocated time during a shift. Results: Sensemaking processes of documentation practice were intertwined and occurred in a daily flow in three ways 1) making sense of planning, 2) making sense of tasks and 3) making sense of documentation. HCPs understood digital documentation practice as a managerial tool designed to control resources and work routines. This led to a task-oriented practice that focused entirely on delivering fragmented tasks according to a timetable. HCPs were also influenced by medical and care professional logics and responded to service users’ needs and their own professional judgments. Thereby HCP enacted a traditional documentation practice, centred on sharing information with colleagues. When this occurred, they justified their actions by labelling time spent on documentation as documenting ‘deviations’. Discussion: The study can inform policymakers, HCPs and managers of how the digital solution affects HCPs documentation practices in municipal healthcare and the risk of being framed by the vision of achieving efficiency over trajectory awareness and coordination of care work. Conclusion: HCPs mitigated fragmentation by responding to a care professional logic, where they documented to share information and carried out invisible work outside of timetables and scheduled tasks. However, HCPs were focused on solving specific tasks by the minute with the possible consequence that continuity and their overview of the service user’s care and treatment disappeared. In conclusion, the digital documentation in electronic health records makes it difficult to keep a holistic view of care trajectories despite HCPs efforts to obtain continuity for patients.

In recent years, many scholars have carried out researchs on UAV digital twin from various aspects. However, the research is still in the preliminary stage, and there are still some problems, such as incomplete data and model fusion, poor migration of algorithm policy, poor relation between virtual and physical space, and lack of extensibility of application scenarios. In order to explore the application potential of digital twin technology in UAV fields, this paper introduces digital twin into UAV monocular visual navigation. Therefore, this paper proposes a digital twin(DT)-based framework integrating with deep neural network, which consists of physical space, virtual space, twin data layer and application layer. Next, the multi-modal decision model with decoupling methods in application layer consisting of perception model and control model is built to explore the global optimal solution and control the behaviors of UAV. Finally, the digital twin system and decision model are verified in virtual space and physical space respectively. The results shows that the UAV visual navigation system based on digital twin reduces the cost of application, algorithm development and deployment, and improves the migration ability of navigation policy. Compared with the baselines, the proposed decision model has the best navigation performance in both virtual space and physical space. Compared with the navigation policy without the decoupling method, the performance index is improved by about 8.6% in virtual space and 2.7 times in physical space.