S e b l o g g i n g

Funding granted for course design project

I have just learned that Hariduse Infotehnoloogia Sihtasutuse (HITSA) will financially support my course design project “Field research methods in HCI” under their Tiger University Programme. The proposed course will eventually become part of the newly formed Master Degree Programme “Human Computer Interaction” (in English) at the Institute of Informatics, Tallinn University, Estonia.

2nd Multidisciplinary Summer School on Design and Inquiry

Looks like I will be participating in the 2nd Multidisciplinary Summer School on Design and Inquiry in Helsinki in June. The summer school is organized by the ERASMUS-LLP-Project “Creating Knowledge through Design & Conceptual innovation” and is hosted at the Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Sciences. The organisers describe the focus of the event in the following words:

This year’s Summer School is devoted to the design challenge of “How to design spaces that encourage active engagement?” Whether we want to learn, discuss, care for each other & our surroundings, or simply have fun, the respective social encounters are enabled but also shaped by the spaces available to us. Space is not limited to physical space, but includes mental, social, cultural… as well as virtual space. We see ourselves as creators of space as well as influenced by the culturally evolved space and its underlying practices.

In the Summer School we would like to approach the design challenge from different perspectives, bringing together ideas from practitioners, teachers, students and researchers. This allows us to collaboratively work through all phases of Design as Inquiry in order to experience and reflect the approach…

[Knowlege through design Website]

Dr. Emanuele Bardone with whom I am in the process of developing a research collaboration at Tallinn University is going to be one of the key-note speakers in Helsinki. Nice. I guess this means I won’t have to ride that Helsinki ferry alone…

Paper accepted for the PLE 2013 conference

Our paper “Personal learning environments: A conceptual landscape revisited” has been accepted for the PLE Conference 2013 in Berlin, Germany and Melbourne, Australia. Co-authored by Dr. Terje Väljataga the paper will try to provide an overview of the conceptual developments and different strands of research around Personal Learning Environments. We basically focus on what has happened since we presented our paper “Personal learning environments: concept or technology?” at PLE Conference 2010 in Barcelona. That paper was finally published as “Fiedler, S., & Väljataga, T. (2011). Personal learning environments: concept or technology? International Journal of Virtual and Personal Learning Environments, 2(4), 1-11″. Apparently its PLE Conference 2010 version is still accessible, too.

Paper accepted for WCCE 2013

Our paper “Networked narrative accounts of personal learning projects: An instrument for systemic intervention research in higher education” has been accepted for 10th World Conference on Computers in Education (WCCE 2013) in Torun, Poland. This paper is co-authored with Dr. Terje Väljataga from the HTK Centre for Educational Technology at Tallinn University.

Research Fellowship gets funded

The Estonian Research Council (Eesti Teadusagentuur) has granted me a PostDoc Research Fellowship under their Mobilitas/ESF programme.
The Fellowship will be hosted by the HTK Centre of Educational Technology at the Institute of Informatics, Tallinn University.

I will soon write more about the actual project that I proposed to carry out.

Co-teaching at Tallinn University

I will be co-teaching the course New Interactive Environments with Dr. Terje Väljataga this semester. The course is part of the Interactive Media & Knowledge Environments (IMKE) programme at the Institute of Informatics at Tallinn University, Estonia.

[Sebastian H.D. Fiedler]

Faculty board accepts dissertation

Today the Board of the Faculty of Education at the University of Turku (Finland) has officially accepted my doctoral dissertation “Emancipating and developing learning activity: Systemic intervention and re-instrumentation in higher education”.

I guess it is Dr. Sebastian H.D. Fiedler now. :-)

[Sebastian H.D. Fiedler]

Tags: dissertation, Turku

Presentation at OST’12 conference

On Tuesday, July 31st, Dr. Terje Väljataga will present our paper Challenging Learning Myths Through Intervention Studies in Formal Higher Education at the OST’12: Open and Social Technologies for Networked Learning Conference at Tallinn University, Estonia.

[Sebastian H.D. Fiedler]

Tags: conference, Tallinn

Disputation of my thesis

The disputation of my Ph.D. thesis is scheduled for Monday, 18.06.2012 at the University of Turku (Turun Yliopisto) in lecture hall 2 of the Educarium building (T47).

My thesis titled “Emancipating and developing learning activity: Systemic intervention and re-instrumentation in higher education” is published in the Annales Universitatis Turkuensis serial.

The work was carried out under the supervision of Academy Professor Erno Lehtinen (Centre for Learning Research, University of Turku, Finland) who will serve as the “custos” at the disputation. My opponent will be Professor Juha Suoranta (School of Education, University of Tampere, Finland).

[Sebastian Fiedler]

Open Here Festival – June 28 – July 1, 2012 – Dublin, Ireland

CTVR / The Telecommunications Research Centre, in collaboration with the Dublin Art and Technology Association (D.A.T.A) present Open Here, a four day festival that addresses social, technological and cultural issues surrounding the notion of the digital commons.
What does it mean to be open today?

If we speak of ‘the commons’ today as a general phenomenon, this has a lot to do with the modes of production, consumption and distribution that have emerged over the last two decades around information and communication technologies. This period has seen a growing emphasis on the social and juridical implications of sharing in the online domain, where a range of nonmarket and non-proprietary activities such as open source software, remix culture and commons-based peer production have lead some to propose the advent of a ‘digital socialism’. However, as sharing and openness become the watchwords of the new corporation – as the commons is increasingly central to capitalism – such positions are no longer straightforward.

Open Here will bring together a transdisciplinary community of critical theorists, engineers, artists, designers and industry professionals to expand debates surrounding the digital commons. Key points of discussion will include the conflictive spaces of the digital commons, tactical media, net-art, digital policy, disruptive wireless practices, alternative spectrum ownership models, next-generation networks and the political economy of infrastructure.

This festival take the form of talks, presentations, workshops, discussions and screenings. It will be held in The Science Gallery and in CTVR headquarters in Trinity College and runs from June 28th to July 1st, 2012.

[via Open Here Website]

This sure looks like an interesting event. The programme holds a good mix of talks, workshops and panels. Check it out.

[Sebastian Fiedler]