The education in ICT, Learning, and Collaboration contains in part theoretical work in understanding ICT’s mediating role in learning and collaboration processes and in par practical work with exploring the many different systems who offer themselves as a support for learning processes. In this knowledge area we are particularly interested in exploring and contributing to the “open source/open content” movement due to the democratising user perspectives connected to it. Furthermore the possibilities that new networking technologies offer, like social software, Web 2.0, and virtual 3D worlds like “Second Life” are explored. We are interested in both how ICT-systems contribute to new ways to organise learning processes through “networked learning” and how ICT is used for knowledge construction and sharing in organisations, educational organisations or in informal networks.

The education is closely linked to our research projects, which for example can be about development of ICT-based procedures of education with interested parties, both nationally and internationally. Furthermore, students are included in conferences, networks and so on within the area.

The design education on Human Centered Informatics contains the following topics: Design as problem solving/rational design, design as space arrangement/phenomenological design, material science, function and style, context forces, systems, patterns and learning, benchmarking and test, collaboration with users, tools and techniques in design, business models and risk assessments, work forms, project leading, and project control.

The education is adapted in level and scale for each group, and is typically done as workshops in three-hour modules, where a concrete and authentic case is worked on. For instance we have worked with interaction design on the homepage of Aalborg Carnival, and designed online information for consumers about their electricity consumption, which was attached to the Feedback Project.

Each module is aimed at getting a concrete output for the students’ portfolios and is divided into a preparation part with reading of relevant literature, a lecture from the educator about the main points from said literature, then exercises where the students work with techniques and tools related to the subject, and ending with a common reflection on the module.

The education in human-computer interaction on Human Centered Informatics contains:

1. Interaction paradigms, meaning different frameworks to understand interaction with computers depending on if you understand the computer as a machine, a tool, a text, or a structure.

2. Usability where we work with mostly empirical methods for use in both laboratory and field work.

3. ICT Adoption, which is about theories and methods for studying work (tasks, processes, structures, roles) and the role computer artefacts play in this.

4. Technological mediation where the terms for interaction are discussed on a more fundamental level.

There is a focus on analysis, evaluation, and implementation. The education is done as lectures with exercises and tasks.

The education in “Knowledge and Formalising” is about methods to and problems with transforming human knowledge into a form that can be used in ICT-systems. Formal methods in knowledge representation and concept logic are introduced and examined, and these modern methods are put in an ideahistoric, philosophic, rhetorical, narratological and ethical perspective. In particular formal narratology, persuasive design, and representations of temporality are examined.

Within the field, there is a great interest in the relations between natural and formal languages – especially from a language philosophical point of view. This results in both practical and theoretical interest in text databases.

The practical side of working with “knowledge and formalising” is supported in the education through exercises connected to the research at “Knowledge Lab”. In general, most of the education is closely linked to the research projects in the area. Read more about these below:

• Persuasive Design
• Conceptual Graphs
• IT-Ethics (In Danish)
• The A.N. Prior site
• The Kaj Munk Research Center