Final Artifact Research Articles

World's oldest dendrochronologically dated archaeological wood construction

In 2018, during the construction of a motorway in the East Bohemian Region near the town of Ostrov (Czech Republic), archaeologists excavated a structure of a wooden water well lining with a square base area of 80 × 80 cm and 140 cm in height. Due to the excellent conservation of the oak timbers, studies of technological details and precise tree-ring dating were possible. The used trees were felled in the years 5256/55 BC, which makes this well the oldest dendrochronologically dated archaeological wooden construction worldwide. It is the third well from the Early Neolithic period that has been discovered in the Czech Republic within the last four years. The design consists of grooved corner posts with inserted planks. This type of construction reveals advanced technical know-how and, till now, is the only known type from this region and time period. Thanks to the combination of annually resolved and absolutely dated tree-ring widths (TRWs), the Czech oak TRW chronology has been significantly extended back to 5481 BC. Wood anatomical identification of fragments from the well filling show mainly oak (Quercus spp.) and hazel (Corylus spp.), indicating a local forest composition dominated by these taxa. The shape of the individual structural elements and tool marks preserved on their surface confirm sophisticated carpentry skills. Based on these observations, we established a model for the “chaîne opératoire” from forest utilization to the final artefact at the beginning of the Early Neolithic period.

Preventing a boondoggle: assuring a short term research abroad activity is an educative experience

Purpose At Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, an annual short-term, research abroad non-credit program was created in 2012 as a core component of the undergraduate research initiative that achieves learning outcomes in a meaningful way. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach In order to describe, and analyze the short-term research abroad activity, an instrumental case study design was created. The instrumental case study was chosen as a means of allowing the facilitators/authors to communicate how they attempted to assure that the program was educative. In order to determine if the program was in fact educative and that it met its goal of being an effective research experience the authors utilized two additional research methods. The first was a document analysis of the participant’s research artifacts. Each participant was required to communicate their findings by writing a paper that was submitted for publication to an applicable research journal. Findings The study found that an experiential education as a pedagogical framework coupled with a short-term research abroad activity can lead to a substantive educative experience, where the authors described and analyzed attempts to ensure that the short-term research abroad program was educative, it also describes the educational assessment findings which describe what was found when the authors tested whether they, in fact, met this goal. Research limitations/implications During the design phase of the short-term research abroad program, the authors turned to experiential education as a principle for how they would ensure that the program was grounded in an acceptable educational theory. Experiential education is a widely accepted educational practice used in experiences such as co-ops and internships, study abroad, undergraduate research and service learning. Practical implications To frame the short-term cultural research abroad program as something from which student could learn the authors utilized the National Society of Experiential Education’s (2013) list of eight principles of good practice. In order to safeguard that an activity is educative, an assessment or an evaluation of a demonstrative artifact is essential. In assessing the final artifact against a rubric or some other non-biased or less biased criteria, an educator can ensure that the student has gained new knowledge in the form of student learning outcomes (SLOs). In addition, the educator can use the results of this assessment to modify many different aspects of the experience ranging from the timing, the modality, the pre-work, even the learning outcomes themselves. Social implications Given financial and curriculum inflexibility of some students, Universities and faculty could achieve attainment of research-based, program agnostic, SLOs by offering short-term study abroad alternatives to the traditional semester or year-long experiences. With graduates looking to enter the job market where businesses are more globalized and executive’s recognition of a need for more international experience, carefully constructed short-term study abroad programs are meaningful avenues to build those credentials. Originality/value Such offerings can be constructed as customized experiences to achieve highly integrated skills across all degree programs.

Individually Optimized Commercial Road Transport: A Decision Support System for Customizable Routing Problems

The Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) in its manifold variants is widely discussed in scientific literature. We investigate related optimization models and solution methods to determine the state of research for vehicle routing attributes and their combinations. Most of these approaches are idealized and focus on single problem-tailored routing applications. Addressing this research gap, we present a customizable VRP for optimized road transportation embedded into a Decision Support System (DSS). It integrates various model attributes and handles a multitude of real-world routing problems. In the context of urban logistics, practitioners of different industries and researchers are assisted in efficient route planning that allows for minimizing driving distances and reducing vehicle emissions. Based on the design science research methodology, we evaluate the DSS with computational benchmarks and real-world simulations. Results indicate that our developed DSS can compete with problem-tailored algorithms. With our solution-oriented DSS as final artifact, we contribute to an enhanced economic and environmental sustainability in urban logistic applications.

Analyzing the Status of Performance Assessment in Middle School Technology Education in Chungnam

2015 개정 교육과정은 학생중심활동의 수업과 동시에 과정중심 평가를 강조하고 있다. 이 연구는 충남 지역 모든 중학교에서 2018년 실시되고 있는 수행평가의 현황과 실태를 조사하였다. 이를 위해 학교알리미 웹사이트에서 충남중학교 193개교의 연간 수업계획 및 수행평가 계획서를 받아 분석하였다. 주요 분석 항목은 기본 학교 정보, 기술교육과 관련된 정보, 수행평가와 지필평가의 비율, 기술 수업에서의 수행평가 내용과 도구이다. 자료 조사와 분석의 신뢰도를 위해 조사 분석표를 개발하였고 이를 기반으로 분석하였으며 최종적으로 신뢰할 수 있는 분석 자료 확보를 위해 기술교사 3인에 의한 검토를 받았다. 이 연구는 조사 대상인 193개 학교 중 공개된 자료가 불충분한 8개교를 제외한 185개 학교의 자료를 대상으로 하였다. 분석 결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 지필고사의 실시는 자유학기제의 실시로 인해 1학년에서 미실시가 가장 많았다. 둘째, 수행평가의 내용에 대한 분석 결과에서 수행평가의 내용 영역은 제조기술(86건) 영역에서 많이 수행되었으며 건설기술(79건), 수송기술(59건)의 순서로 나타났다. 가장 적은 수행영역은 생명기술(2건)으로 나타났다. 셋째, 포트폴리오 평가(94건)를 이용한 수행평가가 가장 많았으며 완제품평가(72건), 평가요소 체크리스트법(44건)이 뒤이어 나타났다. 중학교에서의 수행평가는 자유학기제의 실시와 상호 관련성이 높아 기술교육의 수업과 평가에도 영향을 미치고 있다. 게다가, 현장의 기술수업은 학생중심의 활동과 과정중심 평가를 위해 보다 다양한 평가 방법과 균형 잡힌 수행평가의 내용이 필요하다.2015 national curriculum has emphasized a students’ activity-based instruction with a process-based assessment. This study investigated the status of how performance assessments were performed for all middle school technology education programs in the Chungnam province. Annual semester school plans and performance assessment plans of 193 middle schools were downloaded from the School Information Announcement website to investigate basic school information, background information related to technology education, proportion of performance assessment and written exam for technology, and contents and tools for performance assessment in technology classes. This study developed analysis table and a review group by three technology teachers for reliable research procedure. This study analyzed 185 cases excluding 8 schools which had insufficient information for performance assessment in technology and home economics subject. The results from this analysis were the following: First, there were many schools did not provide written tests for the seventh graders in technology and home economics courses because of the free semester plan. Second, manufacturing technology was the most prevalent with 86 cases as a learning area topic of performance assessment. Invention (29 cases) and Biotechnology (2 cases) were not enough regarding the content for performance assessment. Third, performance assessment using a portfolio was widely utilized (94 cases). In addition, there were final artifacts(72 cases) and checklist(44 cases). Performance assessment has been implemented with a strong connection to the middle school free semester system regarding the instruction and assessment. Moreover, this study recommend that technology education classrooms should have more diverse assessment methods and balanced assessment topics or contents for students’ participation centered activities and process centered assessment.

Labor Visible and Invisible

Labor Visible and Invisible examines the process of concrete casting to discuss the invisible types of labor involved in the making of the formwork - something that is designed and constructed but invisible being removed from the final cast artifact, yet visible by virtue of having shaped, with fidelity in its negative form, the design intentions of the positive cast within it. Two concrete projects are elaborated, Lafayette 148 and Thermoplastic Concrete Casting. Both projects explore alternative techniques for formwork production to address design parameters that traditional methods fall short of accomplishing. Lafayette 148 also highlights when labor itself becomes the design criteria, to accommodate workers in a well-lit and well-ventilated environment for garment manufacturing. For the discussion on shifting modalities for design inquiry in architectural production (as in what constitute new forms of labor for designers) raised by Thermoplastic Concrete Casting, a similarly labor-intensive process for mold making for textile pleating is described. Here, the close alliance between clothing and architectural production offers an opportunity for textile pleating, advanced by the Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake, to serve as an example where innovations and emergent forms of creative productions are possible when traditional methods are challenged. In this parallel read, questions emerge as to whether concrete forming, whose methods steeped in true and tried processes could be reinvested with new life - especially in light of new types of technology and fabrication tools that are available today.

Tuning the Center of Gravity of 3D Printed Artifacts

In this study, we propose an Algorithms-Aided Design (AAD) approach to shift the center of gravity of 3D printed artifacts to a predefined location by creating a heterogeneous internal structure utilizing the same type of material. When the conventional design and fabrication pipeline of 3D printers and additive manufacturing machinery is employed, information about the interior of the artifacts is lost during the conversion of the design files to the STL file format. This de facto file standard only stores the boundary information of the objects. Even though the designed artifact has heterogeneous interior in the Computer Aided Design (CAD) software, after the conversion it becomes a homogeneous solid. Our method does not require an STL file, since we are using a query-based approach in which the built-in algorithm communicates with CAD software to acquire the necessary information about the design for manufacturing. According to the proposed pipeline, the designed artifact in CAD software is first decomposed into voxels having predefined sizes with AAD add-on software. Then, the desired center of gravity and the amount of extra material available are entered by the user and this additional material is distributed to the voxels by our developed algorithm so that the center of gravity of the final artifact is at the predefined location. At the end of the design process, filling percentages of some voxels is altered which made the structure internally heterogeneous. Then the final structure is directly sliced and the trajectories are converted to G-codes. Using the generated file, artifacts are printed on a desktop FFF printer. With the developed algorithm, we can modify the coordinates of the center of gravity of any shape by adjusting their interior structures and fabricate them on FFF printers.

Aqueous Mechanical Oxidation of Zn Dust: An Inventive Technique for Bulk Production of ZnO Nanorods

Metal to bulk metal oxide nanoparticles have been successfully processed via a sustainable, facile, and ecofriendly (green) approach, namely, aqueous mechanical-oxidation. Micron-sized zinc (Zn) dust (∼45 μm) was directly wet-milled using ceramic milling media for 72 h, resulting in the production of bulk monocrystalline ZnO nanorods (aspect ratio ∼5.2, hydrodynamic diameter of 315 nm) and voluminous H2 gas by catalyst-free water-splitting reaction. The mill-induced surface oxidation and the chemical purity of the synthesized nano ZnO were carefully studied using the XPS analysis. Other standard analytical tools were also employed to understand the crystallinity, phase purity, morphology, and surface area of the final artifact. The photocatalytic activities of these mechanically grown ZnO nanorods were ascertained from two cationic dye-degradation experiments, using the dyes methylene blue and rhodamine 6G. In a nutshell, the study throws a new insight into a cost-effective, zero-effluent, single-step, an...

The Meaning of Studio Practice Over Shadowed by Technology in Design Process

Design discipline can be defined as it has dynamic, technologic, socio- cultural features and its process changes constantly. The design problems in the design studio are mostly fictional; the virtual user, program and space become concrete by the requirement program that is specified according to research in this process. Although this designed virtual space has potential for construction, it is observed that it remains at conceptual format on paper and doesn’t become reality. It is a stubborn fact that both conceptual and construction project provide essential contributions to design discipline and make references to different aspects of design. The final design artifact generated in the light of this information, is beyond being just the perceptions, opinions and technological advancements. It can be defined as the reflection of the existence of its designer. In this report it will be emphasized how is design realized, how are the concern of conceptual thinking, analyzing, synthesizing, evaluating and resulting processes attained, where is the place of intelligence in the perception of problems. The importance of intelligence in the solving the problems and the experiences of memory in this process will be represented as well. As a result of this the design process and studio practice can be recognized as an “experimental” process and the developments in technology provide various interfaces and data. One of the purposes of this report is the discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of technology in the construction phase, which is the continuation of cognitive process. Beside this, design as an “interface” of susceptibility of its designer will be examined whether it reflects the original identities with technological advancements or not. Within the scope of this study, the real-physical environments perceived by an individual and the “perceptional phychology of space” created in individual’s mind is compared to the individual’s spatial perception experiencing in the virtual environments. The idea of the digital space created by using the VR and AR virtual reality technologies have been researched about to what extent it might be involved with the perception of real human psychology in design education. The effective use of technological visualizing methodologies such as VR and AR will expose a new perspective in design education.

Everware toolkit. Supporting reproducible science and challenge-driven education.

Modern science clearly demands for a higher level of reproducibility and collaboration. To make research fully reproducible one has to take care of several aspects: research protocol description, data access, environment preservation, workflow pipeline, and analysis script preservation. Version control systems like git help with the workflow and analysis scripts part. Virtualization techniques like Docker or Vagrant can help deal with environments. Jupyter notebooks are a powerful platform for conducting research in a collaborative manner. We present project Everware that seamlessly integrates git repository management systems such as Github or Gitlab, Docker and Jupyter helping with a) sharing results of real research and b) boosts education activities. With the help of Everware one can not only share the final artifacts of research but all the depth of the research process. This been shown to be extremely helpful during organization of several data analysis hackathons and machine learning schools. Using Everware participants could start from an existing solution instead of starting from scratch. They could start contributing immediately. Everware allows its users to make use of their own computational resources to run the workflows they are interested in, which leads to higher scalability of the toolkit.

Limitations from Assumptions in Generative Music Evaluation

The merit of a given piece of music is difficult to evaluate objectively; the merit of a computational system that creates such a piece of music may be even more so. In this article, we propose that there may be limitations resulting from assumptions made in the evaluation of autonomous compositional or creative systems. The article offers a review of computational creativity, evolutionary compositional methods and current methods of evaluating creativity. We propose that there are potential limitations in the discussion and evaluation of generative systems from two standpoints. First, many systems only consider evaluating the final artefact produced by the system whereas computational creativity is defined as a behaviour exhibited by a system. Second, artefacts tend to be evaluated according to recognised human standards. We propose that while this may be a natural assumption, this focus on human-like or human-based preferences could be limiting the potential and generality of future music generating or creative-AI systems.

A New DMSP Magnetometer & Auroral Boundary Dataset and Estimates of Field Aligned Currents in Dynamic Auroral Boundary Coordinates.

We have developed a method for reprocessing the multi-decadal, multi-spacecraft Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Magnetometer (DMSP SSM) dataset and have applied it to fifteen spacecraft-years of data (DMSP Flight 16-18, 2010-2014). This Level-2 dataset improves on other available SSM datasets with recalculated spacecraft locations and magnetic perturbations, artifact signal removal, representations of the observations in geomagnetic coordinates, and in-situ auroral boundaries. Spacecraft locations have been recalculated using ground-tracking information. Magnetic perturbations (measured field minus modeled main-field) are recomputed. The updated locations ensure the appropriate model field is used. We characterize and remove a slow-varying signal in the magnetic field measurements. This signal is a combination of ring current and measurement artifacts. A final artifact remains after processing: step-discontinuities in the baseline caused by activation/deactivation of spacecraft electronics. Using coincident data from the DMSP precipitating electrons and ions instrument (SSJ4/5), we detect the in-situ auroral boundaries with an improvement to the Redmon et al. [2010] algorithm. We embed the location of the aurora and an accompanying figure of merit in the Level-2 SSM data product. Finally, we demonstrate the potential of this new dataset by estimating field-aligned current (FAC) density using the Minimum Variance Analysis (MVA) technique. The FAC estimates are then expressed in dynamic auroral boundary coordinates using the SSJ-derived boundaries, demonstrating a dawn-dusk asymmetry in average FAC location relative to the equatorward edge of the aurora. The new SSM dataset is now available in several public repositories.

Conductive ZSM-5-Based Adsorbent for CO2 Capture: Active Phase vs Monolith

Among microporous adsorbents, zeolites constitute the reference materials in CO2-capture technologies, because of their high CO2 affinity, high chemical and thermal stability, and low cost. Being synthesized in powder form, they need to be shaped in pellets or monolith to be suitable for real applications. The process has a direct effect on CO2-capture properties of the material creating, in this sense, substantial differences between lab-scale (adsorbents) and plant-scale systems (adsorbers). The ability of the honeycomb monolith to efficiently separate gases of interest arises from the properties of its single components such as an active phase and a phase resulting from the decomposition of a binder. Moreover, the textural (i.e., pore distribution and exposed surface) and structural properties (e.g., amorphization) of the active phase can be modified in the conditions adopted during the process that leads to the final artifact. These modifications can affect the CO2-capture performances of the active p...

Designing and Creating a Game Installation

A game installation is a game that incorporates the surrounding environment, something that has mostly been explored on a city-wide scale. This paper concerns the creation of a game installation set within a room, and explores locative media, mixed reality games and the fourth wall. A framework for game installations has been designed and tested with a group of participants in a case study. The results in this paper show that the final artefact could be considered a success; recommendations for deeper development of the framework are also provided.

Lanze, Pfriem und Muschelschmuck. Experimentelle Nachbauten von Objekten aus tierischen Rohstoffen nach Originalen aus endneolithischen Gräbern des Unteren Traisentals

In the course of the project The Final Neolithic in the Lower Traisen Valley, 13 reproductions of Final Neolithic artefacts were produced by Wolfgang Lobisser and his team, in order to gain insights into Final Neolithic manufacturing techniques and the usage of the objects. For this, both authors macroscopically examined artefacts made of bone, antler, animal teeth and shell from 37 graves of the Corded Ware Culture and three Bell Beaker graves from the Traisen Valley in regard to manufacturing specifications and traces of usage. Tools, parts of clothes as well as two objects that are interpreted as a doll and a signaling whistle were reproduced. In the Late Neolithic crushing, splitting, grating, scraping, and grinding were the basic techniques for the processing of bone, antler, teeth, and shell material. The manufacturing of the reproductions shows that compared to flint drills, copper awls provide much better results for fine drillings in hard materials such as bone or antler. Some bone artefacts are characterised by notable glossy areas, indicating an intense usage. In some graves of men, bone artifacts such as chisels and pegs are associated with stone axes, fire stone tools, or copper blades. The combination of the equipment suggests that those buried in the graves had been skilled and experienced tradesmen.

Construction of Adam's Hut: an adaptation of Art Therapy for men living in the special ward of an acute psychiatric hospital in Finland

‘A hut, a shelter, or an object serves as a transmitter between unknown forces inside and outside the self’ (Kaj Noschis, 1986). The project described here used an adapted Art Therapy group in ways intended to provide localised primary experience for adult men who had histories of deprivation from early childhood. The men had great difficulty in taking in any benefit from their usual psychiatric care because of their early deprivation and also their difficulties in interacting verbally and in using symbolisation. The idea for this art therapy group project emerged from an interest in studying the needs of male patients treated by a special ward. The men were admitted to the special ward when they could not be treated in a mixed ward because of their very impulsive or aggressive behaviour. The paper is a description of the realization of the group treatment and the work process of two art therapists who were satellite workers for this special ward. Recognition of some of the vital needs of these patients was an important part of the work. The group was rewarding for all the participants and this was in stark contrast to what were usually negative experiences and difficult attitudes towards psychiatric care. The art psychotherapeutic approach is based on the Winnicottian work of Dockar- Drysdale. The final artefact is discussed as a piece of architecture and as a metaphor for the early bodily experience. The overall outcome is discussed using the ideas of Ester Bick, Didier Anzieu and Winnicott. The hut serves as a transmitter like the skin of the human being. The therapeutic idea would be ‘the consolidating of the hut’. The idea of Adam’s Hut was born as a result of an accumulation of clinical and artistic experiences, knowledge about psychic development and a set of problems present within the particular ward. Keywords: Primary experience; transmitting object between inside and outside the self; Symbolic realization by making art; Art therapy adapted to acute psychiatry; Skin. Identifying features such as the names of patients and the hospital have been anonymised.

Analysis of the Regulatory Framework for Electronic Money in Sri Lanka: Suggestions for Future Sustainability and Governance

“Electronic Money” which is also known as e-Money or Digital Money is distinguished by definition compared to other forms of electronic usage of money. Stored value or pre-paid products in which the monetary value is stored on an electronic device in the consumer’s possession are considered as electronic money products. Hence, typical debit and credit cards, mobile banking and Internet banking do not fall under e-Money classification. There are no specific regulations or guidelines issued for e-Money in Sri Lanka. Current e-Money operations are mainly governed by Mobile Payments Guidelines No. 1 and 2 of 2011 for Bank-led Mobile Payment Services and Custodian Account Based Mobile Payment Services, respectively. Also, these operations are further impacted by several other regulations in Sri Lanka which are not directly relevant to eMoney. Considering current trends and growth of electronic based transactions and comparing other developed markets, Sri Lanka has the potential of embracing electronic money products. Therefore, it is pertinent for Sri Lanka to develop specific legislations and directions for electronic money.This paper presents a detail analysis of applicable existing local regulations and selected international standards practiced in developed eMoney markets such as Europe, Japan, Hong Kong, and Kenya. Gap analysis for local regulation was conducted in comparison to the summarized international best practices and suggestions were developed in order to address them. As the final artifact of the paper, a framework covering the regulations with eight key aspects covering definitions, eligibility for issuers and process of approval, authority and their powers, customer onboarding and due diligence, consumer and merchant protection, operational guidelines and restrictions, dispute handling and legal framework, technology mandates and interoperability were developed and the operational regulatory process with five main components covering continuous monitoring and improvements were proposed for Electronic Money Regulations in Sri Lanka for Future Sustainability and Governance.

Simpler is better? Analysis of a codesign session with elders

ABSTRACTPrototyping plays various roles in software engineering: it can function in an exploratory way in order to gather requirements, or generate an artifact that, through iterative cycles of development, leads to final delivery of the product or system. According to literature (Beaudouin-Lafon, M., and W. Mackay. 2007. “Prototyping Tools and Techniques.” In Human Computer Interaction Handbook: Fundamentals. CRC Press.; Lim, Y. K., E. Stolterman, and J. Tenenberg. 2008. “The anatomy of prototypes: Prototypes as filters, prototypes as manifestations of design ideas.” ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI) 15 (2): 7.), a prototype can be described as an incomplete but flexible communication tool for a design idea, both manifesting and filtering interesting aspects of the original idea. On this basis, we propose a Peircean definition for this tool: a prototype can be considered as a complex set of signs, or better as a text, because each of its features literally “stands for” corresponding features of the final artifact, foreseeing particular aspects or the overall capacity of the outcome. But what happens when stakeholders involved in a project have no or little competence in tools and technologies discussed? Can they correctly interpret a prototype? To answer this question, we propose a Discourse Analysis (Duranti, A. 1997. Linguistic Anthropology. Cambridge, Mass: Cambridge University Press; Potter, J. 2004. “Discourse analysis as a way of analyzing naturally occurring talk.” In Qualitative research: Theory, Method and Practice, edited by D. Silverman, 200–221. SAGE; Schegloff, J. 1989. “Harvey Sacks’ lectures on conversation: an Introduction/memoir.” Human Studies 12: 185–209.) of a co-design session with elders of a daily centre for frail adults in Rome. In this context, we could observe how interactions between the material aspect of the prototype (i.e. the product itself) and its intended meaning (i.e. its significance) can produce distortions, in the form of aberrant interpretations or even a complete lack of comprehension. During this communication breakdown, prototypes lose their connection to the features and behaviors of the product: the relation between representamen and interpretant is lost.

Digital stories as a method for evidence-based practice and knowledge co-creation in technology-enhanced learning for children with autism

Storytelling is a powerful means of expression especially for voices that may be difficult to hear or represent in typical ways. This paper reports and reflects on our experiences of co-creating digital stories with school practitioners in a project focusing on embedding innovative technologies for children on the autism spectrum in classroom practice. The digital stories were short films or narrated sequences of slides and images that conveyed key views about experiences and practices with or around the technologies. The creation of the digital stories aimed to empower schools and individual teachers to construct and share their own authentic narratives and to build case examples of creative technology-enhanced teaching and learning. Through focusing on our experiences with one of the schools, we examine the use of digital stories as a method for enabling knowledge co-creation with practitioners and we discuss the evidential potential of digital stories. We argue that the co-creation of digital stories enabled teachers to find their voice in critiquing the usability, usefulness, efficacy and flexibility of the technologies. Furthermore, the stories, both the process of their creation and the final artefacts, provided a concrete grounding for knowledge co-creation about teaching practices and authentic technology-enhanced learning.

Creating a new sound world for Dracula (Browning 1931)

Dracula (Browning 1931)11Dracula (in italics) will refer to Browning's film (1931) throughout this article. belongs to the transitional period between silent and sound films. Its original soundtrack consists of only a few sonic elements, primarily dialogue and a few incidental sound effects. Music is used only at the beginning and in the middle (one diegetic scene) of the film. In 2012 I created a multi-channel composition which involved restoring the original soundtrack and adding my own sound and music elements. The final multi-channel artefact employed additional material (usually found in the rear channels) which provided a contextual commentary accompanying the restored original film. This article explores how this new multi-channel composition was created, and how it provided an enhanced, contextual meaning for the film. The article includes a discussion of the technical and aesthetic issues involved in cleaning the original dialogue, and providing the film with new music and sound design.

An evaluation framework for comparing business-IT alignment models: A tool for supporting collaborative learning in organizations

Researchers and practitioners have argued on the importance of business-IT alignment (BITA) for organizations to maximize the business value of IT. As a result, a vast number of BITA models have been designed to support organizations in achieving, assessing and maintaining BITA. These models focus on different components (i.e. concepts/aspects of alignment) and emphasize different perspectives of the alignment (i.e. how alignment is perceived by practitioners). This makes it difficult for practitioners to choose an appropriate BITA model for a specific organization. In this paper, an evaluation framework to support practitioners in choosing appropriate BITA models is proposed. The framework was constructed following design science as a research approach. The design science activities were carried out in an iterative manner until reaching a final artefact. The process started with an extensive literature survey that led to designing a tentative model. Following that, different empirical iterations contributed to the framework development. The final framework consists of 25 criteria categorized into four groups. It was tested on six major BITA models, demonstrating its feasibility. Finally, the framework was evaluated by interviewing five business consultants and seven IT managers from large Swedish organizations. The evaluation shows that the framework has a complete set of criteria with a sufficient level of coherence, but its usability and efficiency is argued differently. The framework, additionally, is argued to potentially be used as a collaborative learning tool on requirement of BITA between practitioners from both business and IT domain or serve in the academic world.