Syftet med vår kvalitativa studie är att undersöka några förskollärares resonemang kring arbetet med lärmiljöers utformning, samt studera lärmiljöer ur ett tillgänglighetsperspektiv. Genom semi-strukturerade intervjuer med verksamma pedagoger och observationer på deras respektive avdelningar kunde datamaterial samlas in. Detta material har vidare analyserats med hjälp av tematisk analys och de valda teoretiska perspektiven – systemteoretisk perspektiv och The Theory of Affordances. Det som framkommit av det analyserade datamaterialet är att struktur både kan gynna och hämma barns handlingsmöjligheter i lärmiljöerna. Ur ett systemteoretiskt perspektiv påverkar miljön barnen som vistas i den. Tillgängligheten bör anpassas efter de barn som vistas i lärmiljöerna, vilket i sin tur ska ge barn en känsla av självtillit. Däremot kan pedagoger, genom sin barnsyn och sitt sätt att utforma lärmiljöerna, sänka barns självförtroende om inte kraven balanseras. Lärmiljöers tillgänglighet kan påverka barns kreativitet beroende på vad för material och hur materialet erbjuds och presenteras. Därmed spelar det roll i vilken utsträckning förskolorna får ekonomiska resurser för att köpa in material, men även investera i kompetensutveckling för pedagogerna. Kompetensen kring specialpedagogik och inkluderingsarbetet är av största vikt i utformningen av tillgängliga pedagogiska lärmiljöer, då barnen enligt lag och riktlinjer har rätt till en tillgänglig och god lärmiljö. Vi har kunnat identifiera att flertalet förskolor använder sig av pedagogisk dokumentation som en strategi för att kartlägga barns individuella behov och de handlingsmöjligheter som lärmiljöerna erbjuder, för att kunna justera lärmiljön på det mest optimala viset för barngruppen. Dock sker inte detta på ett systematiskt sätt, utan en enda förskola arbetar kontinuerligt med att reflektera över lärmiljön och göra justeringar i utformningen då arbetet med lärmiljöer enligt forskning bör vara föränderlig. Slutligen har vi kunnat studera att tydliggörande pedagogik är en strategi som används på samtliga förskolor på ett eller annat sätt och att det krävs mer forskning om bildstöd i förskolan, då det är ett outforskat område. Många barn är inskrivna i förskolan idag och det ställs höga krav på förskolepedagoger i förskolan idag att möta varje barns unika behov, men det krävs även att resurser och kunskap går i linje med de kriterierna.

Syftet med studien är att bidra med mer kunskap om hur förskollärares och barnskötares val av resurser i undervisningen kan påverka barns meningsskapande i lärandet. Tidigare studier visar att det finns en problematik i att kunna anpassa undervisning efter varje barns behov, vilket kan kopplas till brist på engagemang och kompetens bland personal samt stora barngrupper. Därför är intentionen med denna studie att undersöka detta vidare med fokus på resurser i undervisningen. Studien som genomförts är en kvalitativ studie med deltagande observationer som metod. Empirin som insamlats genom de deltagande observationerna har analyserats utifrån perspektivet design för lärande och de fyra tillhörande begreppen meningserbjudande, resurser, affordance och tecken på lärande. Resultatet av studien visar att tillgängligheten av de resurser som barn erbjuds är avgörande för hur de skapar mening i sitt lärande. Det är tillgängligheten av resurserna som avgör vad barnen kan göra med resurserna och om de transformerar dem till något annat kopplat till deras erfarenheter. Barnen visar tecken på lärande på olika sätt under och efter undervisningen genom både verbala och icke-verbala uttryck. Sammanfattningsvis är det förskolepersonalen som styr vilka resurser som ska vara tillgängliga för barnen i lärmiljön både under och efter undervisning.

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This study is about applying narrative theory into the media classrooms. Can a teacher create wonder and curiosity in his or her classroom by using classic storytelling techniques? The use of compelling storytelling has been used throughout history. With today’s media climate and the endless amount of streaming entertainment that surrounds us, makes us feel, fantasize, become inspired, and forget about time and space, how can we as teachers not imagine applying that sense of wonder into the classroom? This study´s main focus is on cliffhangers as an educational tool in the classroom and examines the teachers’ point of view on the subject of cliffhangers and the use of narrative techniques. How can a teacher apply classical narrative techniques to keep or even inspire to wonder, curiosity, and the will to learn more in the media classroom? Does a cliffhanger motivate the student to learn more? Do professional teachers see possibilities or restrains by using narrative techniques, such as cliffhangers in their classroom? Lastly, how can a cliffhanger contribute to a more creative classroom climate? This paper tries to find the answers to these questions. This paper examines the concept of cliffhanger, how to construct one, how it is used in normal context within film and television, and how it can be used as a creative tool in the classroom. I create two cliffhangers for two teachers and observe their performance in the classroom. Supported by previous research concerning the importance of film pedagogy in school and media education, the concept of affordance, narrative theory, achieving a sense of wonder, and the importance of a creative teaching practice. The reason for this study is to inspire and awake new ideas in other teachers to how one can practice a creative classroom and to hopefully stimulate the students to their own creativity and wonder. The result points to the importance of keeping the cliffhanger relevant to the assignment and subject, the teacher’s performance, and a general positive outlook on narrative techniques in the classroom. With the major theme cliffhanger and narrative theory in education, this study is summarized and presented with a 3D structure of the literally word cliffhanger in a cliffhanger situation. Will the creative teacher save the day? To be continued…

Information systems and information technology are rapidly evolving, and the usage of it at the same pace. In different fields, predictive analysis is used daily. Within the area of e-retail, referring to online retailing, it is used for personalisation and as decision support. There’s a lot of research on how to increase the accuracy of the predictions and different methods for this, however, there’s a lack of research regarding the actions an organisation can take given different predictions. Hence, this master’s study researches what factors affording or constraining value are in relation to the usage of predictive tools given different organisational roles. This thesis is made by a case study with a qualitative approach, following the interpretivism paradigm. The data used in this research comes from document analysis followed by semi-structured interviews to gather additional information about what the document analysis or previous research has not covered. The empirical findings were analysed using thematic analysis and are then discussed in relation to the research questions and theoretical framework, together with what’s previously been stated in the literature. The research questions for this thesis are the following: RQ1: How do different organisational roles affect the actions taken on information from predictive analysis in e-retail? and RQ2: What are the key factors affording or constraining value generation in predictive analysis within e-retail? The empirical findings resulted in six themes, where three are relevant to each research question. The findings suggests that there are four major categories of roles that have similar affordances of predictive analysis, these are customer-, sales and financial operations-, management-, andlastly supply chain and inventory related. When several roles within an organisation use the same prediction tool, there are positive effects such as less biased decisions and improved communication through collaboration. Several factors, both constraining and affording value were found. The main constraining factors are related to technological knowledge and interpreted value as well as trustworthiness. The affording factors are instead the allowance of tying predictions to certain KPIs and the ability to be able to slice into the data to show what’s relevant for the individual. In addition to these factors, some desires for functionality were found. These were, among others, a confidence score of the predictions, prediction for certain goals, and predicted optimal send times for emails in the future. My suggestion for future research is to approach the same problem using another theoretical framework to further enhance a novel field, as well as involving participants with different backgrounds than was used in this thesis.

Rapid technological advances in artificial intelligence (AI), data analytics, big data, the semantic web, the Internet of Things (IoT), and cloud and mobile computing have given rise to a new generation of AI-driven recommendation agents (RAs). These agents continue to evolve and offer potential for use in a variety of application domains. However, extant information systems (IS) research has predominantly focused on user perceptions and evaluations of traditional non-intelligent product-brokering recommendation agents (PRAs), supported by empirical studies on custom-built experimental RAs that heavily rely on explicit user preference elicitations. To address the lack of research in the new generation of intelligent RAs (RAs 2.0), this dissertation aims to study consumer responses to AI-driven RAs using an affordance perspective. Notably, this research is the first in the IS discourse to link RA design artifacts, RA affordances, RA outcomes, and user continuance. It examines how actualized RA affordances influence user engagements with and evaluations of these highly personalized systems, which increasingly focus on user experiences and long-term relationships. This three-essay dissertation, consisting of one theory-building paper and two empirical studies, conceptually defines "RAs 2.0," proposes a comprehensive theoretical framework with testable propositions, and conducts two empirical studies guided by smaller carved-out models to test the validity of the comprehensive framework. The research is expected to enrich the IS literature on RAs and identify potential areas for future research. Moreover, it offers key implications for industry professionals regarding the effective system development of the new generation of intelligent RAs. / Doctor of Philosophy / Rapid technological advances in artificial intelligence (AI), data analytics, big data, the semantic web, the Internet of Things (IoT), and cloud and mobile computing have given rise to a new generation of AI-driven recommendation agents (RAs). These agents continue to evolve and offer potential for use in a variety of application domains. This three-essay dissertation, consisting of one theory-building paper and two empirical studies, conceptually defines "RAs 2.0," proposes a comprehensive theoretical framework with testable propositions, and conducts two empirical studies guided by smaller carved-out models to test the validity of the comprehensive framework. The research is expected to enrich the IS literature on RAs and identify potential areas for future research. Moreover, it offers key implications for industry professionals regarding the effective system development of the new generation of intelligent RAs.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the alignments in the use of theory, principles and guidelines in instructional design books and popular books on design. The review of literature was conducted in three parts. The first part of the literature review was a general review of literature and it was conducted on cognitive information processing, cognitive load theory, affordance theory and text display. The second part of the literature review extracted the theories, principles and guidelines from four books on instructional design and technology. Six theories were extracted. The six theories extracted from these four books of instructional design and technology were cognitive information processing theory, cognitive load theory, multimedia theory, perception theory, minimalism theory and motivation theories. The third part of the review of literature was on content analysis, the different definitions of content analysis and the historical background of content analysis. Two sets of books were used in the study. The first set of books was instructional design and technology textbooks. These books were referred to as the scholarly books. The second set of books was selected by systematic sampling. These second set of books were the ten most positively reviewed books on web design from Amazon.com Inc. These ten books were pruned down to four books by a panel of experts. This second set of books was referred to as the popular books. A content analysis was conducted on the scholarly and the popular books. The theories, principles and guidelines extracted from the four scholarly books were aligned with the codified themes, word phrases and word sense from the four popular books. The results were tabulated under categories identified. The results showed that two of the popular books did not address theory in their content. The two other popular books addressed guidelines and principles applicable to the theories extracted in the scholarly books. The scholarly books gave theoretical foundations for their guidelines while the popular books did not give a theoretical foundation for their guidelines. / Ph. D.

The study investigated how distinctions in perception might affect emotional responding to a change in an affordance. There is evidence that Europeans tend to perceive salient objects in the foreground, while East Asians tend to perceive holistically. Due to sensitivity to focal objects, European Americans (EA) were hypothesized to respond negatively with increased HR variance on perceiving loss of connection when playing Cyberball. EA would also feel sadness more intensely, in terms of decreased heart rate and increased RSA, at an earlier time during a sad clip. Chinese Americans (CA) were predicted to show no difference in affect from controls. ECG, fEMG, respiration and self-report data were acquired from 51 subjects (38 EA, 13 CA, 25 male, mean age 21.1) in a between-subjects design. 26 subjects (19 EA, 6 CA) received 2 out of 48 balls tossed and the controls received 10. 88% in the experimental condition reported a negative emotion (e.g. anger). Control subjects reported mainly neutral affect. ANOVA analyses revealed HR variance had an interaction effect (time x condition, p=0.009) and RSA had a main effect (condition, p=0.033). Both experimental groups had increased heart rate variance and increased RSA. Facial coding revealed EA expressed more negative emotion. CA in the experimental condition showed correlation across measures: HR variance, RSA and respiration, suggesting automatic regulation to perceiving loss contained its expression. Most subjects reported feeling sad during the clip. fEMG of the corrugator muscle revealed EA activated higher peak intensity 5.5 seconds earlier than CA (increased 1.571 vs 0.844). EA also had decreased HR and increased RSA, a sign of withdrawal in sadness, earlier. Evidence suggests exposure to loss had stronger effect on EA to increase their arousal and sensitivity thereafter. / M.S. / The study investigated how differences in perceiving a change in social connection might affect emotional responses. There is evidence that Europeans tend to perceive salient objects in the foreground, while East Asians tend to perceive holistically. Due to sensitivity to focal objects, European Americans (EA) were hypothesized to respond negatively with increased heart rate variance on perceiving loss of connection when playing Cyberball, a ball-tossing video game. EA would also feel sadness more intensely, in terms of decreased heart rate and increased vagal activation, at an earlier time during a sad clip. Chinese Americans (CA) were predicted to show no difference in affect from controls. ECG, fEMG, respiration and self-report data were acquired from 51 subjects (38 EA, 13 CA, 25 male, mean age 21.1) in a between-subjects design. 26 subjects (19 EA, 6 CA) received 2 out of 48 balls tossed and the controls received 10. 88% in the experimental condition reported a negative emotion (e.g. anger). Control subjects reported mainly neutral affect. Unexpectedly, both experimental groups had increased heart rate variance. CA in the experimental condition showed correlation across physiological measures: heart rate variance, vagal activation and respiration, suggesting automatic regulation to perceiving loss during Cyberball. These correlations were not observed in the EA, but as predicted, EA in the experimental condition had decreased heart rate and increased vagal activation, a sign of withdrawal in sadness, earlier during a sad clip. Evidence suggests exposure to loss had stronger effect on EA to increase their arousal and sensitivity thereafter.