Publikationen

In society and politics, there is a rising interest in considering ethical principles in technological innovation, especially in the intersection of education and technology. We propose a first iteration of a theory-derived framework to analyze ethical issues in technology-enhanced learning (TEL) software development. The framework understands ethical issues as an expression of the overall socio-technical system that are rooted in the interactions of human actors with technology, so-called socio-technical interactions (STIs). For guiding ethical reflection, the framework helps to explicate this human involvement, and to elicit discussions of ethical principles on these STIs. Prompts in the form of reflection questions can be inferred to reflect on the technology functionality from relevant human perspectives, and in relation to a list of fundamental ethical principles. We illustrate the framework and discuss its implications for TEL

There are many web-based tools like social networks, collaborative writing, or messaging tools that connectorganizations in accordance with web 2.0 principles. Slack is such a web 2.0 instant messaging tool. As per developer, itintegrates the entire communication, file-sharing, real-time messaging, digital archiving and search at one place. Usage inline with these functionalities would reflect expected appropriation, while other usage would account for unexpectedappropriation. We explored which factors of web 2.0 tools determine actual usage and how they affect knowledgemanagement (KM). Therefore, we investigated the relation between the three influencing factors, proposed tool utility fromdeveloper side, intended usage of key implementers, and context of application, to the actual usage in terms of knowledgeactivities (generate, acquire, organize, transfer and save knowledge). We conducted episodic interviews with keyimplementers in five different organizational contexts to understand how messaging tools affect KM by analyzing theappropriation of features. Slack was implemented with the intention to enable exchange between project teams, connectingdistributed project members, initiate a community of learners and establish a communication platform. Independent of thecontext, all key implementers agreed on knowledge transfer, organization and saving in accordance with Slack’s proposedutility. Moreover, results revealed that a usage intention of internal management does not lead to acquisition of externalknowledge, and usage intention of networking not to generation of new knowledge. These results suggest that it is not thecontext of application, but the intended usage that mainly affects the tool's efficacy with respect to KM: I.e. intention seemsto affect tool selection, first, explaining commonalities with respect to knowledge activities (expected appropriation) and,subsequently, intention also affects unexpected appropriation beyond the developers’ tool utility. A messaging tool is, hence,not only a messaging tool, but it is ‘what you make of it!’

Barcamps are events for open knowledge exchange. They are generally open to everyone, irrespective of background or discipline, and request no attendance fee. Barcamps are structured by only a small set of common rules and invite participants to an interactive and interdisciplinary discourse on an equal footing. In contrast to scientific conferences, the program is decided by the participants themselves on-site. Barcamps are often called un-conferences or ad-hoc conferences. Since barcamps are typically attended by people in their spare time, their motivation to actively engage and benefit from participating is very high. This paper presents a case study conducted at the annual Barcamp Graz in Austria. Within the case study, two field studies (quantitative and qualitative) and a parallel participant observation were carried out between 2010 and 2014. In these investigations we elaborated on the differences of the barcamp to scientific conferences, inferred characteristics of barcamps for knowledge generation, sharing and transfer in organizations and propose three usages of barcamps in organizations: further education of employees, internal knowledge transfer and getting outside knowledge in. Barcamps can be used as further education for employees enabling not only knowledge sharing, generation and transfer via the participating employees, but also for informally promoting a company’s competences. With respect to internal knowledge transfer, hierarchical boundaries can be temporarily broken by allowing informal and interactive discussion. This can lead to the elicitation of ‘hidden’ knowledge, knowledge transfer resulting in more efficient teamwork and interdepartmental cooperation. Finally, external stakeholders such as customers and partners can be included in this process to get outside knowledge in and identify customer needs, sketch first solutions and to start concrete projects. As a result of the case study, we hypothesise as a step towards further research that organisations can benefit from utilising this format as knowledge strategy.