Contemporary higher education seems to be moving away from the lecture form and being replaced by student-centered education. This study attempts to ascertain in what ways student teachers experience the lecture as a meaningful educational form. The essay attempts to establish a shared system of meaning which will help determine what types of lectures are meaningful. Finally, the study also attempts to find different aspects of the lecture which are experienced as democratic.   The study is qualitative and began with a pilot study which was followed up by four interviews with student teachers who have recently completed the same AUO teachers’ program.   Different theories on media by Marshal McLuhan, Neil Postman and Walter Ong were utilized together with J.J. Gibson’s theories on affordances as well as Orrin Klapp’s theories on meaning. Using these theories it was determined that meaning is derived from the activities that are afforded by: the utilization of different media, perceiving the value of an event or thing, and the different functions of language. It was also determined from the different theories that the lecture is a type of ecology that requires a balance of meaningful information if the affordances of the environment are to be perceived. These theories were woven together and a model was established which was named “The Didactic Pendulum”. This model was used as a tool for interpreting and categorizing responses and explaining results.   The results indicate that meaningful lectures were to a large degree determined by the lecturer and their enthusiasm for the subject matter. It was also concluded that rhetoric and careful use of electronic media are also important. An important feature of the Teachers’ Education Program is that student teachers learn from observing the actions of the university teachers when they lecture. Concerning democratic aspects of the lecture, lectures are perceived democratic when they afford students with the opportunity to participate, but also when students get to challenge the ideas of the lecturers. One conclusion that was drawn was that a lecture is democratic when it has the potential to lead students to democratic action. A main critique of the lecture is that they are often experienced as isolated from other aspects of the course and students are not afforded the opportunity to question the content and the authority of the teachers. Moreover a balanced educational ecology is one where the lecturer is open to feedback signals of the students and is able to alter the flow of information accordingly.

The IT artifact is at the core of the information systems (IS) discipline and yet most IS research does not directly theorize the IT artifact or its nomological network (Benbasat and Zmud 2003; Orlikowski and Iacono 2001). This research seeks to answer a repeated call for more direct engagement with the IT artifact and its nomological net with affordance theory adopted as the basis for this theoretical work. An exploratory case study was conducted to answer the research question, how do the material properties of health information systems enable and constrain the work practices of clinicians? The study was conducted at a large urban acute care hospital in the Midwestern United States with registered nurses working on inpatient care units as the clinicians of interest. Through interviews with nurses and other clinical stakeholders and the observation of nurse’s work practices on three patient care units in the hospital, theoretical insights were developed on the nature of affordances for information systems research. IS affordances are defined in this study as relationships between abilities of an individual and features of an information systems within the context of the environment in which they function. The concepts of an affordance range and an affordance threshold are proposed as theoretical constructs in the nomological network of affordances that help to explain the use of information systems as a function of the difficulty of acting on IS affordances. The relationship between affordances and constraints is theorized and linked to the affordance range and threshold with the assertion that constraints are closely associated with the difficulties experienced by users in acting on IS affordances. The challenge of studying IS affordances in all their complexity is discussed with the suggestion that researchers take the user’s perspective of affordances to alleviate the need for repeated decomposition. Finally, the role of information systems in facilitating social interaction is emphasized through the concept of affordances for sociality. The contribution of this research to the IS field is a more nuanced understanding of the nature of the IT artifact and its relationship to the users of that technology.

Drawing on earlier research, and using observations as the method, this study presents a design of a nature playscape for children. Applying outdoor pedagogy to the fundamental structure of a specific location, the study proposes a design of a playscape, over a more obvious design, for instance one based around a quiz walk.The theoretical framework is Gibson’s theory of affordance, and the goal has been to create a "play flow". The study concludes that spatial rhetorics can be an important tool when teaching children about nature. / Med tidigare forskning som underlag och observationer som metod har mina studier resulterat i gestaltningen av en naturslinga för barn. Genom en diskussion om utomhuspedagogikens kärna och platsens grundläggande struktur har arbetet lett till designen av ett leklandskap, istället för frågor eller stationer placerade längs en stig. Som teoretiskt ramverk för gestaltningen har Gibsons teori om affordans använts. Genom en medveten design av landskapets terräng har målsättningen varit att skapa ett lekflöde på platsen. Detta för att visa hur rummet kan ha betydelse för lärandet om naturen.

This dissertation is comprised of three articles that build on and support each other. The first article is an extensive literature review, and the other two are empirical studies. In this literature review, the author discussed major theories about human learning processes to guide instructional designers about effective integration of multiple modes in interactive learning environments and explored the knowledge base on representations and manipulatives in mathematics education. The first empirical study?s purpose was to investigate effects of affordances provided with virtual learning environments at different treatment durations. Students from multiple sixth-grade classes were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups differed by allocated session time (10-, 20-, and 30-minute). The online manipulative tool (OMT), which was designed to scaffold learning in operations with rational numbers, allowed students to use the following three components in any order: (a) audio, (b) audio-visual, and (c) manipulatives. Analyses showed that students who used manipulatives most achieved highest; whereas, students who used audio-visual most achieved the second highest. Additionally, the 30-minute group used each component of OMT the least. A meaningful increase in standard algorithm use over manipulatives suggested a transition from concrete to abstract thinking. The second empirical study's purpose was to compare OMT's different representational aspects and to estimate OMT's effects on achievement and technology acceptance when compared to those of traditional classroom activities. Elementary- and middle-grade students were randomly assigned to the control group or one of three treatment groups: (a) audio-visual, (b) virtual-kinesthetic, and (c) dual-mode (virtual-kinesthetic and audio-visual combined). When the control group was compared with experimental groups, pre- and post-test results suggested that OMT was more effective than traditional classroom activities in improving students' understanding of operations with rational numbers. When the students' achievement on pre- and post-tests among experimental groups was compared, no substantial difference was found. However, students in the dual-mode group scored the highest on the technology acceptance survey. Students' technology acceptances also differed among different SES levels but not genders. The results suggested that virtual manipulatives provided additional affordances for conceptual understanding. However, students' acceptances of technology should be considered when implementing new technologies.

Denna studie syftar till att ta reda på vad för slags platser som barn i svensk förskola ser som lockande samt vilken lek som sker vid dessa platser. Studien utgår ifrån barns perspektiv i ett försök att se barns röster och göra dem hörda. Metoden som använts är kvalitativa intervjuer med barn men med utgångspunkt från barns egna fotografier på de platser de helst leker. Intervjufrågorna är öppna och riktade mot platsen i sig och leken som utspelas där. Resultatet visade att barnen helst lekte på platser där det fanns material och rekvisita för att utföra rollekar, rum med öppna ytor och förutsättning för konstruktionslek samt platser där material fanns tillgängligt för att barnen skulle kunna utföra roll-, konstruktions- eller rörelselek. Något som även tydliggjordes var att barn även valde dessa platser på grund av att de erbjöd lek med andra kamrater och fanns i närheten av vuxna. Något som kommer att diskuteras i studien är hur barnens val kunnat se annorlunda ut om man utgår från att det kan finnas förbestämda tillskrivningar i handlandet/leken på platsen. / This study aims to find out what kind of places children in the Swedish preschool sees as enticing as well as the games that takes place at these sites. The study is based on the child's perspective in an effort to ensure children's voices and make them heard. The method used is qualitative interviews with children, based on the child's own photographs in the places they prefer playing. The questions are open and directed to the site itself and the games that take place there. The result showed that the children likes to play in places where there are materials and props for performing role play, rooms with open space and conditions for construction play and also places where the material was available for the children to perform role, construction or active games. Something that also became clear was that the children chose these locations because they offered play with other comrades and were near adults. Something that will be discussed in the study is how children's choices could have been different if it is assumed that there may be predetermined attributions in actions/games at the spot.

This study explores young children's use of digital tablets in Swedish preschool environments, with special interest in how the use of digital tablets may affect children's agency. A multimodal, design theoretical approach was used, combined with sociology of childhood, to highlight the dynamics between children's agency and the affordances provided by the digital tablets. Two video ethnographic substudies were conducted within two separate preschool settings, including preschools where children use digital tablets to communicate in a minority language. In order to take into account as many modes of communication as possible, video recordings of children's use of the digital tablets was set side-by-side with screen recordings of the digital tablets. Major findings include how children's agency in digital tablet activities is intertwined with the different affordances, as emerging in the children's interaction with one another and the digital tablet. It was found that when affordances were built on visual, auditive and corporeal modes of communication, children's agency was enabled. Such affordances are in this study argued to be more, for the children, apt modes of communication for children to exert agency. Furthermore, it is argued that when children are given the possibility to communicate in their minority language, using for example Skype, this is a form of children's agency. The didactical implications and the societal potentials for children's use of digital tablets in preschools are discussed in relation to the creative skills individuals may need in an unknown future.

This thesis notes that there is a lack of systematic research investigating segregation patterns based on how public space is used and frequented by citizens. In order for understanding of urban segregation to reach beyond residential segregation, the extent to which public space facilitates co-presence between social groups is a key issue. The main concern in this thesis is to arrive at a deeper understanding of the critical role urban form plays in terms of co-presence in public space and in extension for social segregation. The argument builds on knowledge from other fields, arguing that co-presence is of utmost importance for societal processes: by sharing space and being co-present with others, which does not necessarily imply focused interaction, we gain information and knowledge from our fellow citizens and participate in processes that negotiate social structures, acceptable behaviours and identities. The sharing of space thus becomes a central part of ‘being in society’. It is furthermore through public space that material urban resources are accessible, an access that is dependent on both the location of the amenities in space but also the distribution of space, as structured and shaped by urban form, which creates the actual experience of access through space. Segregation is primarily defined as a social problem. However, in this thesis, it is made clear that it is also a spatial problem. While also broadening the conceptualisation of segregation, the main focus has been upon the role of the built environment. The socio-spatial link builds on social theories. However, these theories are weak when it comes to explaining where co-presence occurs. Addressing the spatial side of the problem, the thesis primarily builds on the architectural theory of space syntax that exactly aims to study the space-society relationship from the viewpoint of space and provides empirical evidence for the correspondence between urban form – as it is shaped by urban design and architecture – and the creation of co-presence as well as variations in its intensity and its constitution. In addition, key questions such as what people may have access to ‘just around the corner’ in terms of human resources or other urban amenities are elaborated. The distinct variations found between neighbourhoods are argued both to enrich the discussion on social exclusion and unequal living conditions and inform future urban planning and design. The thesis demonstrates that specific configurational properties have great impact on the pattern of co-presence. More specifically, it is found that a segregation of public space, a limited spatial reach and an uneven distribution of spatial centrality appears not to favour an exchange between neighbourhoods or access to urban resources across the city – findings that are highly critical for the urban segregation issue. Detailed configurational analysis of Stockholm reveals the performative aspects of different urban layouts related not only to local circumstances and character but, more importantly, to the further context of such layouts. Increased knowledge of how spatial configuration relates to social practices offers new insight into how different neighbourhoods and urban layouts perform socially and increases understanding of the social implications of spatial configuration. The findings of this study are argued to open up theoretical developments that address the social and political dimension of urban design with greater precision. Not least, this knowledge can influence public debate. The knowledge produced can furthermore be used in urban design practice and anti-segregation initiatives, identifying whether spatial interventions can make a contribution and if so, what physical interventions respond to the social ends in question, where the ultimate aim is an urban design that not only builds cities but societies too. / <p>QC 20131108</p>

The study is concerned with the conceptual structure and content of the framework for characterising user-product interaction, proposed under the title – ‘Product Semantics’. The sources for the critique of design, from which the framework is derived, are identified and analysed, and the substantive theoretical and methodological content given initial consideration in terms of the deployment of the central concept of ‘meaning’, and the principal theoretical approaches adopted in the analysis of meaning and semantic concepts generally. The commitment to a cognitive and experiential approach to user-interaction is established and the concepts central to the framework, and requiring more detailed analysis, are identified. The core of the study consists in an analysis of the sequence of concepts and contexts that are chiefly used in the theoretical articulation of the framework, including - function, affordance, categorisation, artefacts, meaning and expression - of which the concept of affordance is central to the structure. On the basis of the initial consideration of the structure and content of the scheme, and in the light of the analysis of concepts, the explanatory structure of the framework is established. It is argued that the core commitment to an experiential and cognitive account, and the form of the explanatory structure, are jointly incompatible with the conceptual content of the framework, particularly in respect of the pivotal role of the concept of affordance. Proposals are advanced for an alternative interpretation which addresses the central issues of consistency and coherence, and which suggests an alternative approach to the conceptual characterisation of the framework and the form of the explanatory hierarchy. The implications of the framework, and the proposed alternative interpretation, are considered in respect of their application in shaping approaches to the development of design theory and methodology, and the experiential aspect of semantics and cognition.

Dagens elever möter texter som består av många olika delar, så kallade multimodala texter. Dessa texter kombinerar verbal text, bilder, diagram, film med mera. I denna undersökning skriver tre elever berättelser i appen Book Creator för iPad. Syftet med studien är att undersöka tre elevers texter utifrån forskningsfrågorna: vilka semiotiska modaliteter använder eleverna och på vilket sätt synliggörs elevernas multimodala textkompetens. I studien ingår även en reflektion över appen Book Creator utifrån vilka semiotiska modaliteter appen erbjuder, vilka områden i LGR11 appen kan stödja och vilket svenskämne den lägger upp till. Undersökningen är genomförd i undersökarens egen klass. Appen Book Creator valdes efter en förfrågan på olika nätforum. Grunden i undersökningen är Kress och van Leeuwens sociosemiotiska analysteori för texter och i undersökningen används begreppen komposition, funktionell specialisering, funktionell tyngd och multimodal affordance. Tre elevers texter analyseras utifrån dessa begrepp. Texterna visar att eleverna har kunskaper om när de ska använda de olika modaliteterna och vilken modalitet som passar bra att använda. Som många forskare i den tidigare forskningen visar är det viktigt att läraren väljer rätt uppgift och vet vad han/hon vill ha ut av den. Undersökningen visar även att lärare behöver mera kunskap om hur multimodala texter ska analyseras och även hur man ska undervisa om dem. Skolan behöver ändra fokus från den verbala texten till den multimodala

In this thesis, we reviewed the affordance concept for autonomous robot control and proposed that invariant features of objects that support a specific affordance can be learned. We used a physics-based robot simulator to study the reachability affordance on the simulated KURT3D robot model. We proposed that, through training, the values of each feature can be split into strips, which can then be used to detect the relevant features and their characteristics. Our analysis showed that it is possible to achieve higher prediction accuracy on the affordance support of novel objects by using only the relevant features. This is an important gain, since failures can have high costs in robotics and better prediction accuracy is desired.