Standardizing interaction design education

The objective of this paper is to which extend the didactic format of studio-based group-work is applicable for creating a common-ground for Interaction Design Education in European Perspective. The current debate on design education shows us a landscape of different initiatives. So far difficulties have arisen in the area of accreditation and validation of interaction design as an educational field. This in contrast to all the EU agreements and strategies. In this paper we will closely look at these difficulties from the perspective of the intensive EU-funded summer-course on Interaction Design with four participating institutes coming from four different EU countries. The course facilitated learning through the usage of the didactic format of studio-based group-work. This approach enabled blended learning and provided a commongroud for intercultural learning through design. A qualitative assessment conducted on the learning format by the 40 multi-cultural group of students and staff provided insightful guidelines into the appreciation and value of the format. The evaluation results showed that the studio-based group-work is an efficient method to overcome cultural differences in design methodology, teamwork and personal skills.     

Learning to collaborate in multi-organizational projects

Behavior in multi-organizational projects has the characteristics of a social dilemma. In a social dilemma parties choose between the non-cooperative strategy of pursuing their own interests and the cooperative strategy of pursuing the collective interests. All parties are better off when they all cooperate than if they all defect, but individually they are better off if they defect. The possibility to realize a collaboration strategy depends on how those involved in the project define their interests. We propose that these interests are socially constructed. In an empirical study of multi-organizational projects in the Dutch shipbuilding industry we inductively explore the relationships between social constructions of interests and the capability to learn to collaborate more effectively. By identifying mechanisms at both the organizational and the project level our study makes a first step towards the articulation of a theory of social construction of interests in the context of multi-organizational projects.     

Quantitative characterisation of processed phlogopite ore from Silver City Dome District, Kansas, USA, by automated mineralogy

Historically, phlogopite and olivine have been mined in the Silver City Dome District in Kansas, USA, from lamproite ultra-potassic igneous rock for use as a supplement in cattle feed. Micro-Lite LLC is now evaluating processing techniques for recovery of phlogopite to be used for reinforcement in plastics, high temperature applications, and electrical insulators, which requires a higher grade phlogopite product. To determine the purity of the processed ore, QEMSCAN^® was utilised to identify and quantify phlogopite and impurities, including olivine, pyroxenes, feldspars, titanium phases (mainly titanite and perovskite), apatite, magnetite, chromite, and other phases. Samples were prepared and analysed in a manner to decrease or eliminate preferred orientation of phlogopite to provide accurate quantitative results. The results show that the flotation product has a higher concentration of phlogopite at 87% (by mass), compared to 78% in the hydrosizer product. The main impurity phase in both products is olivine (10% in the flotation product and 18% in the hydrosizer product). In the hydrosizer product, 15% of the sample consists of liberated phlogopite particles, while in the flotation product 58% of the sample occurs as pure, liberated phlogopite particles.     

Self-interest and other-orientation in organizational behavior: Implications for job performance, prosocial behavior, and personal initiative.

In this article, the authors develop the self-concern and other-orientation as moderators hypothesis. The authors argue that many theories on work behavior assume humans to be either self-interested or to be social in nature with strong other-orientation but that this assumption is empirically invalid and may lead to overly narrow models of work behavior. The authors instead propose that self-concern and other-orientation are independent. The authors also propose that job performance, prosocial behavior, and personal initiative are a function of (a) individual-level attributes, such as job characteristics when employees are high in self-concern, and (b) group-level attributes, such as justice climate when employees are high in other-orientation. Three studies involving 4 samples of employees from a variety of organizations support these propositions. Implications are discussed for theory on work behavior and interventions geared toward job enrichment and team-based working. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)