The Ergonomics of Socio-Technical Systems and Reflective Practice

Description

With increasing digitisation, purposeful reflection about the potential influence of current and foreseeable developments in socio-technical systems on cognition, meaning making and decision making in education and professional life has become ever more important. In the area of tertiary education, new technology and applications are often introduced with too little consideration of the needs and objectives of the intended users.

Findings from translation and writing process research indicate that quick and easy solutions that are found through the ready and apparently ergonomic access to digital information can actually impair judgment and block emergent thinking.

This project develops and tests digital, individualised didactic approaches that focus on reflective practice in order to mitigate limitations imposed by more machine-oriented social-technical systems. The findings are expected to be generalisable to other disciplines and contexts.