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In the fall of 1996, the Computer Science Department at Virginia Tech initiated a joint project with a local school district, to determine how ready access to networked computing in the fifth grade would affect students. Called the PCs for Families (PCF) project, its goal was to learn what could be achieved if technology access, support, and curriculum integration could be eliminated as obstacles or constraints in the classroom and at home. A technology-rich classroom was created, with the classroom teacher trained in constructivist teaching practices and technology integration by a master teacher. Network computers were found on every desktop, with scanners, digital cameras, and other technologies scattered throughout the room. A computer was sent home with each child and teacher, and as much support as necessary was provided to all program participants, including parents. As part of this research, a yearlong field experiment was undertaken to explore the effects of the PCF intervention on the third cohort of students participating in the project. Macroergonomics served as the theoretical framework for the experiment, which focused on the in-depth, systematic assessment of those quantitative changes that resulted from exposure to the PCF fifth-grade network classroom. Students participating in the field research were randomly selected from the larger pool of students eligible for the PCF project at the school. Selected students were randomly assigned to either to the PCF fifth-grade classroom or the standard fifth-grade classroom, which served as a control group. To first-time visitors walking into the PCF network classroom, the classroom bore little resemblance to its more traditional counterparts. However, the functioning of the PCF classroom was in many ways indistinguishable from that of its traditional counterparts. The yearly average for computer use in the PCF classroom was 4.275 hours, with computer use in the PCF classroom exceeding the three hours of computer laboratory time allotted to the control class only during the last 12 weeks of school. When used, the technology functioned as an electronic replacement for materials commonly found in traditional settings. Observers reported the pedagogy remained steadfastly teacher-centered and didactic. Despite limited utilization of the computer during classroom hours, analysis of individual, academic measures indicated PCF students made significantly greater gains than control students only on standardized writing tests. PCF students also performed significantly better than control students on measures related to technology skills. Boys in the PCF classroom also made greater improvements in their attitudes towards school than boys in the control classroom. At home, PCF students were found to interact with computer technology more often than their control counterparts. Despite lower overall home use, control students reported spending more time playing computer games than PCF students. Correlational analyses indicated significant linear relationships between changes in student performance, student entry characteristics, and home computer use variables. Student previous achievement was by far the strongest predictor of student SOL test performance, with computer use only linked to student standardized test performance on the writing and mathematics sections. As the number of email messages sent by the student increased, their writing performance increased with email usage accounting for almost ten percent of the total variance in the writing score. The only other computer use measure significantly associated with test performance was student self-reports of computer use, which accounted for less than four percent of the total variance in mathematics test performance. Computer use was associated more strongly with changes in student motivation. Student self-reports of home computer use accounted for fully 30 percent of the variance in changes on the school motivation survey. Analyses of data from the PCF proxy server suggest that student web browsing overshadows other home Internet activities, with email taking precedence over chat. Further, unlike chat or email, family web usage was sustained long after students left the PCF classroom. Over 68 percent of family web usage each week was attributable to student, not family, characteristics suggesting students play a large role in determining family usage. Academic information finding provides a plausible explanation for these results, with family web usage declining somewhat during summer months when students were not in school. Stability of both web and email use was relatively high among students. In keeping with critical mass theory, student email use increased when other students used email. However, social variables were not found to have a significant effect on web usage. Girls were found to make greater use of email than boys, with this research suggesting highly visual students used email more often. The field research also found a significant increase in student self-reports of musculoskeletal problems among the PCF students. A year-end examination of workstation fit found seat and monitor heights an average of two inches higher than the corresponding student dimensions. A participatory design study was used to elicit conceptions of computer workstations from PCF students, teachers, and parents. Children were interested in gaining greater control over the workstation, both in terms of individual technology and adjustability of furniture. Parents, however, focused on improving the richness of an individual student's workspace and de-emphasized collaborative work. Teacher opinions diverged more than other groups with designs strongly influenced by pedagogic beliefs. Results from the field study provide evidence that macroergonomic methodologies for analysis and design of work systems are extensible to classroom systems, and provide a systematic framework for examining issues related to the introduction of classroom computing technology. A critical element of any successful effort to integrate technology into the curriculum is access to adequate classroom technology and support; however, as this research illustrates, they are not sufficient to ensure successful integration. This research demonstrates other forces are at work, and in keeping with macroergonomic theory, key to the success of such an effort is the "fit" between the new technology and the characteristics of the classroom system, especially those of the teacher who effectively functions as the gatekeeper for the technology. / Ph. D.

The usage of autonomous vehicles is starting to appear in several different domains and the domain of public safety is no exception. Wallenberg Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Systems and Software Program (WASP) has created a research arena for public safety (WARA-PS) to explore experimental features, usages, and implementation of autonomous vehicles within the domain of public safety. Collaborating in the arena are several companies, universities, and researchers. This thesis examines, in collaboration with Combitech, a company partnered in WARA-PS, how the implementation of autonomous vehicles affects the sociotechnical system of a search and rescue operation during a drifting boat with potential castaways. This is done by creating a case together with domain experts, analyzing the sociotechnical system within the case using cognitive work analysis and then complementing the analyses with the unmanned autonomous vehicles of WARA-PS. This thesis has shown how the WARA-PS vehicles can be implemented in the case of a drifting boat with potential castaways and how the implementation affects the sociotechnical system. Based on the analyses and opinions of domain experts’ future guidelines has been derived to further the work with sociotechnical aspects in WARA-PS. / WARA-PS

Ces dix dernières années, plusieurs centaines de web-documentaires ont été publiés sur Internet. Si ce format émergent connaît un succès d’estime important auprès des professionnels des médias, son design ne va pas de soi. Dès lors, comment les théories du cinéma documentaire et des médias informatisés éclairent-elles les métamorphoses médiatiques caractéristiques de ces « nouvelles écritures » ? Quels sont les enjeux ontologico-esthétiques et communicationnels d’un documentaire interactif ? Quel rôle et quel pouvoir l’instance d’énonciation doit-elle octroyer à un « spectateur-actant » ? Afin de répondre à ces questions, un état des lieux de la production francophone permet tout d’abord d’établir une typologie des différents modes d’interaction. Ensuite, une approche ethnographique, fondée sur une observation participante du design de B4, fenêtres sur tour, au sein de France Télévisions, interroge l’ensemble des controverses socio-techniques et sémio-pragmatiques qui jalonnent les six mois de conception. Une analyse par théorisation ancrée met en exergue les différentes dimensions d’un Utilisateur Modèle négociées, de manière plus ou moins implicite, par l’ensemble des acteurs. Enfin, les usages supposés du web-documentaire sont confrontés à une évaluation de l’expérience utilisateur. Les jonctions et disjonctions entre les figures d’un Utilisateur Modèle, Statistique et Empirique contribuent in fine à mieux appréhender le design de ce format hybride et non stabilisé. / In the last few years, several hundred interactive documentaries (i-docs) have been published on the Internet. If many media professionals prize the i-doc format, its design remains a challenging feat. Given this, what light do film documentary theories and digital media shed on the mediated metamorphoses that typify the “New Writings” movement? What are the communicational and ontologico-aesthetic issues of i-docs? What role and what power should an instance of enunciation accord to the “actant-spectator”?In response to these questions, our study of the current state of the French-speaking production scene brought to the fore a typology of interaction modes. Following this observation, an ethnographic approach, based on a participant observation method, questioned the overall sociotechnical and semio-graphic issues that marked the six-month design process of an i-doc called B4, fenêtres sur tour for the State-run France Télévisions. A Grounded Theory analysis of the data highlighted the different dimensions of a more or less implicit negotiated Model User used by the actors. Finally, the purported uses of i-docs were questioned in evaluating users’ experience. The junctions and disjunctions involving the interaction of the User, Statistical and Empirical Models contributed to a better grasp of the designing of the hybrid and non-stabilised i-doc format.

Denna avhandling belyser forskarstött förändringsarbete, inom ”Servicenätet Posten”, den division inom Posten Sverige AB som ansvarar för postdistribution till kunderna. Förändringsarbetet har handlat om att förbättra arbetssituationen för 15 000 brevbärare. Den teoretiska grunden utgörs av ett systemtänkande där konceptet ”Människa-Teknik-Organisation” (MTO), används för att granska interventionsprocessen. Det övergripande syftet med denna avhandling är att bidra till kunskapsutveckling-en om forskarstött förändringsarbete utifrån följande delsyften: 1) att illustrera hur ett systemtänkande i förändringsarbete påverkar förståelsen för hur systemkomponenterna Människa, Teknik och Organisation (MTO) interagerar i praktiken, 2) att exemplifiera hur den kunskapen kan omsättas i praktiken genom utveckling och implementering av MTO-anpassade lösningar i samverkan mellan forskare och praktiker, 3) att empiriskt exemplifiera hur former för participation kan bidra till framgångsrikt förändringsarbete genom analys och syntes av process och resultat. Forskningsprojektet har bedrivits med en interaktiv ansats. Den interaktiva ansatsen har gjort det möjligt att belysa samverkan mellan forskare och praktiker på ett verklig-hetsnära och realistiskt sätt under fyra projektfaser fördelade över en femårsperiod. Den inledande projektfasen innebar en diagnostisering av problematiken. Ett antal åtgärdsförslag presenterades av forskargruppen och ledde vidare till ett forskarstött ut-vecklingsarbete under en andra projektfas då ett underlag till olika förbättringsåtgärder arbetades fram. Detta inbegrep utveckling av såväl teknisk som arbetsorganisatorisk ka-raktär för att åstadkomma effektiva och hälsosamma arbetsprocesser för brevbärare inom postutdelningsverksamheten. I en tredje projektfas testades och utvärderades hela åtgärdspaketet genom implementering på ett pilotkontor. I en fjärde och sista projektfas implementerades förbättringsåtgärderna på samtliga 602 postutdelningskontor i landet och forskarna gjorde en utvärdering. Resultaten visar hur man genom att anlägga ett MTO-perspektiv i förändringsarbete ökar möjligheterna att få klarhet i vilka faktorer som påverkar effektiviteten i ett pro-duktionssystem i sin helhet. Den tvärvetenskapliga forskningssatsningen i kombination med samverkan forskare/praktiker visade sig vara en förutsättning för att skapa förståel-se för interaktionen mellan M-T-O-komponenterna. Avhandlingen visar vidare hur olika former för participation i praktiken kan bidra till framgångsrikt förändringsarbete både vad gäller process och resultat. Den utförliga redogörelsen för interventionsprocessen, forskarrollens skiftande karaktär samt hindrande och främjande faktorer för forskarstött förändringsarbete, utgör andra viktiga kunskapsbidrag. / This dissertation illuminates researcher-supported work for change within the “Postal Service Network”, the division within Posten Sverige AB with responsibility for mail distribution to customers. The intervention has been concerned with improving the work situation of 15,000 postmen. The theoretical foundation consists in a form of systems thinking in which the con-cept of Man-Technology-Organisation (MTO) is employed to scrutinise the intervention process. The overall aim of this dissertation is to contribute to the development of know-ledge in the arena of researcher-supported work for change. It proceeds on the basis of the following objectives 1) to illustrate how systems thinking in the change process influences understanding of how the system’s Man-Technology-Organisation (MTO) components interact in practice, 2) to exemplify how this knowledge can be transformed in practice through the development and implementation of MTO-adapted solutions into collaboration between researchers and practitioners, 3) to exemplify empirically how forms for participation can contribute to a successful change process through the analy-sis and synthesis of both process and results. The research project has been conducted interactively. The interactive approach has made it possible to illuminate collaboration between researchers and practitioners in a down-to-earth and realistic manner during four project phases spread over a five-year period. The introductory project phase involved diagnosis of the problem. A number of proposals for action were presented by the research team, which led on to researcher-supported developmental work during a second project phase when a basis for various improvement measures was created. This involved development of both a technical and work-organisational nature to achieve efficient and healthy work processes for postmen in mail distribution. At a third project phase the entire package of measures was tested and evaluated through implementation in a pilot office. At the fourth and final phase of the project the improvements were implemented in all 602 postal distribution offices in Sweden, and the researchers performed an evaluation. The results show how adopting an MTO perspective on work for change increases opportunities to obtain clarity with regard to which factors influence efficiency in a pro-duction system as a whole. The cross-disciplinary research approach, in combination with researcher/practitioner collaboration, proved to be a prerequisite for creating un-derstanding of the interaction between the MTO components. Further, the dissertation shows how different forms of participation in practice can contribute to successful work for change with regard to both process and results. The extensive reporting of the inter-vention process and accounts of the shifting nature of the researcher’s role and of hin-dering and promoting factors in researcher-supported work for change constitute other important contributions to knowledge.

The Swedish ecological breakthrough of the late 1960’s and the early 1970’s entailed a rapid proliferation of competing perspectives on the environment, on man’s relation to it, and on the possible – dystopian or utopian – futures that lay ahead. By drawing on the theoretical concept of sociotechnical imaginaries as defined by Sheila Jasanoff and Sang-Hyun Kim, this thesis aims to explore the critical role played by these perspectives, and by these visions of the future, during this formative period of the emerging environmental consciousness and of early Swedish environmental politics. With this purpose in mind, the thesis examines the sociotechnical imaginaries mobilized in three Swedish books on environmental politics written by politically concerned scientists, as well as the two first environmental manifests published by the ruling Social Democratic Party in 1968 and 1972. By comparing the imaginaries mobilized in each text, the thesis then argues that the party incorporated certain elements of the critical perspectives into the dominant paradigm, but that they never wavered in their commitment to industrial development. The thesis also shows how these environmental imaginaries were used to legitimize political power, as well as the social democratic hegemony.

For a person who has been diagnosed with a disability at some point in their life, their ability to be an active democratic citizen in our information society changes. This thesis examines what kind of challenges the Swedish public libraries and librarians faces in their day-to-day work connected to the specific group of users with vision-related disabilities and discusses and analyze public librarians' perception of what digital skills means to them.  In the combination of people with visual impairments and their digital needs and competence development and on the actual conditions and challenges existing at the Swedish public libraries regarding digital services for people with visual impairments, the study identifies several challenges for both parties. The study results present an insecurity among librarians regarding the expectations to adjust and help with digital guidance, when they still are feeling insecure about what kind of digital competence expects of them.  During the qualitative interviews, a shared experience of anxiety, uncertainty, and an uneven level among the library staff regarding basic digital competences and where the "boundary" is revealed. The uneven level of digital competence is highlighted as problematic, as the patrons are assumed to be treated differently on repeated visits to the public library. The study identifies several challenges that would further encourage both the individual, the profession, the institution as well as society and research to study further. New knowledge in a library context has been identified and needs to be studied in a broader and more comprehensive research study.

Air traffic services (ATS) play an important role for flight safety. Remote air traffic services (RATS) represent a novel, more digitalized, ATS solution. In some aspects, RATS can be argued to outperform conventional ATS. However, as it entails various sociotechnical obstacles, making RATS the dominant solution for ATS is challenging. An inadequate awareness of such sociotechnical obstacles potentially impedes the competitiveness of RATS in general and the RATS providers in particular. This study intends to - from a sociotechnical perspective - identify main obstacles as faced by RATS when aspiring to become the dominant solution for ATS. In order to identify such obstacles, an abductive case study has been conducted. Empirical data was primarily gathered by semi-structured interviews with 10 key stakeholders involved, directly or indirectly, with RATS. The study is delimited to principally gather empirics from Sweden and the United Kingdom. Theoretical concepts of Large Technical Systems (LTS) and the Multilevel Perspective (MLP) are employed to understand and analyze the empirical data. The identified obstacles faced by RATS are mapped into the different levels of the MLP. Obstacles have been identified in all levels of the MLP. The most prominent obstacles seem to lay in social aspects of change processes, a proposition-perception gap, and connectivity infrastructure dependency. / Flygtrafiktjänster (ATS) spelar en viktig roll för flygsäkerhet. Fjärrstyrda flygtrafiktjänster (RATS) representerar en ny, i högre grad digitaliserad, lösning för ATS. I vissa avseenden kan RATS anses prestera bättre än konventionellt utförda flygtrafiktjänster. Vägen mot ett tillstånd där RATS är den dominerande lösningen för RATS är dock kantad av olika sociotekniska utmaningar. En otillräcklig medvetenhet om dessa utmaningar kan potentiellt minska konkurrenskraften för RATS i allmänhet och för utvecklare av RATS i synnerhet. Denna studie syftar till att, från ett sociotekniskt perspektiv, identifiera utmaningar som RATS står inför i, en situation där RATS ämnar ta steg mot att bli den dominerande lösningen för ATS. För att identifiera sådana utmaningar har en abduktiv fallstudie utförts. Empirisk data samlades huvudsakligen in genom semi-strukturerade intervjuer med 10 intressenter, direkt eller indirekt involverade, i RATS. Studien är avgränsad till att huvudsakligen samla in empirisk data från Sverige och Storbritannien. Teoretiska ramverk och begrepp beträffande Large Technical Systems (LTS) och Multilevel Perspective (MLP) används för att förstå och analysera empirisk data. De identifierade utmaningarna kopplas till de olika nivåerna i MLP. Utmaningar har identifierats i alla nivåer av MLP, och de mest framstående utmaningarna tycks ligga i sociala aspekter av förändringsprocesser, ett gap mellan proposition och perception, samt ett beroende av uppkopplingsinfrastruktur.

Sweden has the ambition to be the world leading country leveraging the opportunities of digitalization in the healthcare sector. In parallel, the Swedish Research Council highlights that conducting more clinical studies is essential to improve the healthcare. Henceforth, considering the need for increased operational efficiency as an enabler for increased clinical activity, a digital transformation of the industry was identified as a potential catalyst. The study thus utilizes a cognitive work analysis framework to investigate the potential benefits and risks of digitizing the functional operations at a contract management department for clinical studies at a Swedish university hospital. The aim is thereafter to determine the appropriate properties necessary to consider managing a digital transformation. The analysis identified three key benefits from a digitization. 1) transparent data sharing, 2) standardized contract management and 3) efficient operations. These three aspects are currently insufficient at the department hindering the objective of increasing the clinical activity. The study found that a digital transformation would be suitable in order to mitigate these insufficiencies and consequently facilitating the achievement of the objectives. Thereafter, the study found the key properties to consider managing a digital transformation to be interoperability, quality, adaptability and usability. In addition, safety was found critical to be considered in the transformation as the contract management department acts under rigid laws and regulations on ethics and patient security with which digitized processes must comply. The results contribute to the field of cognitive systems engineering. However, the study has limitations regarding the reliability and generalizability of the results. The findings are based on a single case study, which may not be representative for the industry in general nor for university hospitals in particular. In addition, since no actual digitalization effort was performed at the organization during the study, appropriate properties key to consider in the digital transformation are speculative by design. Consequently, it is necessary to study an actual implementation process in future research and whether the proposed considerations are sufficient in order to realize the suggested benefits of such a digitalization. / Sverige har ett övergripande mål att vara det ledande landet när det gäller att dra nytta av digitaliseringens möjligheter inom sjukvården. Dessutom understryker Vetenskapsrådet att det är centralt för förbättrad sjukvård att öka antalet kliniska studier i landet. Följaktligen, med tanke på behovet av en ökad operativ effektivitet, identifierade författarna det av intresse att studera digitalisering av branschen. Studien tillämpar således ett kognitivt ramverk för arbetsanalys i syfte att undersöka de potentiella fördelarna eller riskerna med att digitalisera den funktionella verksamheten hos en kontrakthanteringsavdelning för kliniska studier vid ett stort svenskt universitetssjukhus. Målsättningen är därefter att ta fram lämpliga egenskaper som är nödvändiga att beakta vid hanteringen av den digitala transformationen. Kontrakthanteringsavdelningen fanns att inneha brister i sina arbetsprocesser gällande transparens, effektivitet och standardisering vilket hindrar målet avseende ökad klinisk aktivitet. Studien visade att en digital transformation skulle vara nödvändig för att motverka dessa brister, samt för att möjliggöra en uppskalning av organisationen. Ett annat specifikt förbättringsområde som skulle underlättas av en digital transformation visade sig vara förbättrad synkronisering mellan arbetsprocesser. Vidare fann studien att de mest kritiska egenskaperna nödvändiga att beakta, vid hantering av en digital transformation, skulle vara interoperabilitet, kvalitet, anpassningsförmåga och användbarhet. Dessutom är säkerhet en egenskap som visat sig vara kritisk att beakta vid digitalisering då kontrakthanteringsavdelningen lyder under stränga lagar och föreskrifter beträffande etik och patientsäkerhet. Resultaten bidrar till forskningsområdet cognitive systems engineering. Studien har dock vissa begränsningar gällande tillförlitlighet och generaliserbarhet. Resultaten är baserade på en enfallstudie, som eventuellt inte är representativ för branschen i allmänhet eller för universitetssjukhus i synnerhet. Dessutom, då ingen digitaliseringsinsats utfördes under studien är de viktiga egenskaperna att beakta i den digitala transformationen enbart spekulativa. Således är det i framtida forskning viktigt att studera en faktisk implementation och då studera om föreslagna beaktanden är tillräckliga för att utnyttja digitaliseringens möjligheter.

Kompetenzzellenbasierte (regionale) Netze stellen besondere Anforderungen an die Modellierung, Planung und Gestaltung der Logistikstrukturen. Für die Logistikstrukturmodellierung werden ein generischer Beschreibungsrahmen für produktionslogistische soziotechnische Systeme, Definitionen u.a. zum zentralen Begriff Logistikstruktur sowie ein 3-Ebenen-Modell und Strukturtypen für eine vertiefende Materialflussanalyse und -synthese bereitgestellt. Für die Logistikstrukturplanung wird darauf aufbauend mit der Methode der Integrativen Prozess- und Systemstrukturierung (IPSS) eine Methode zur Behandlung von Strukturierungsproblemen konzipiert, die sowohl speziell für kompetenzzellenbasierte Netze als auch allgemein für Produktions- und Logistiksysteme angewandt werden kann. Für die Logistikstrukturgestaltung werden unter Modell- und Methodenverwendung Szenarien sowie Gestaltungs- und Vorzugslösungen für den Materialfluss abgeleitet. / Competence-cell based (regional) networks put special requirements on the modelling, planning and design of logistics structures. For the modelling of logistics structures, a generic description framework for production logistic sociotechnical systems, definitions for, amongst others, the central term logistics structure as well as a 3-layer-model and structure types for a more detailed material flow analysis and synthesis are provided. For the planning of logistics structures, the Method of Integrative Process and System Structuring (IPSS) is developed as a method for handling structuring problems. It can be applied especially to Competence-cell based networks as well as generally to production and logistics systems. For the design of logistics structures, scenarios as well as design and preference solutions for the material flow are derived.