Why are people change averse?: Dealing with complexity in post industrial work settingsDr Kate Crawford Tuesday 20 July 2004 at 11am AbstractKey features of the emerging post industrial work settings are continuous change, unpredictability, complexity and imperatives to create new responses to with unexpected outcomes. Recent research in knowledge management and mobilization indicates that, in such settings, people are learning to communicate and collaborate most effectively in teams rather than at the organizational or individual level. Further, there is some evidence that intuitive as well as analytic thinking styles of thinking are important. For people in changing and creative contexts, the opportunitities to learn, communicate, collaborate, critique, consult, and co-invent are often perceived as essential for survival. The seminar will discuss recent work investigating the dynamics of collaborative contexts, how they can interface with traditional institutional organizations and a technical application to enable people to design virtual environments to support such activities. Short resumeDr Kate Crawford has researched learning in technologically rich environments for 15 years. Her doctorate research investigated social experience and problem solving from a psychological perspective. She has extensive international experience in networked learning projects including cooperative projects with Digital Equipment Corporation, AT&T Research, the Community of explorers Project (with the then BBN Laboratories), and the New Directions in Distance Learning project (with Dr S. Crichton) in British Columbia. Most recently she has been working with researchers in six countries in Europe in a cooperative network to explore user representations of digital technology in the education sector. She is the director of the Novae Research Group based at the Australian Technology Park, Sydney, and works cooperatively with scientific and technical innovators to conduct developmental research on the dynamics of human aspects of innovation and learning in technologically rich environments. Kate has a particular interest in applications of theoretical insights, from a systems activity perspective, to the design of user-centered technologies and the dynamics of networked socio-cultural systems to enable learning. The group has research and development expertise on on-line courses at university level, in Education. Science and Arts, and a large postgraduate research program. Dr Crawford has recently been appointed as a board member for the Higher Education Knowledge and Technology Exchange group (www.hekate.org) and will take a leadership role in support of development projects sponsored by HEKATE. |