How engineers perceive the importance of ethics in Finland

Success in complex and holistic engineering practices requires more than problem-solving abilities and technical competencies. Engineering education must offer proficient technical competences and also train engineers to think and act ethically. A technical ‘engineering-like’ focus and demand have made educators and students overlook the importance of ethical awareness and transversal competences. Using two Finnish surveys, conducted in 2014 and 2016, we examine how engineers perceive working life needs regarding ethics. The data consider different age groups. We research whether an engineer’s age affects their perception of the importance of ethics in their work and if there are differences between young experts and young managers in their use of ethics within work. The results indicate that practising engineers do not consider ethical issues important in their work. This especially applies to younger engineers; the older an engineer, the more important they consider ethics. No statistically significant difference was found between young engineering experts and managers.     

UNIVERSITY STUDIES AS A LIFE‐CYCLE STAGE

This article is based on a series of studies of students at the University of Jyväskylä conducted by the author in 1981, 1984, and 1986. The series focussed on the life‐stages of students, asking such questions as what the basic life‐world structures of students are, how the ability of students to think scientifically develops, and what characterizes the period of university studies as a stage of life. The data were collected by interviewing a total of 204 students who had reached different stages in their studies and represented different disciplines. The method used was that of the semi‐structured thematic interview; the data were analysed using both qualitative and quantitative methods.

The life‐styles of students and their problems change during the courses of their individual academic experiences. A freshman's problems centre around the loosening of home ties and the learning of independent responsibility. During the next two years, the studies themselves and student‐life assume a central position, while questions relating to the founding of a family, entering work‐life, and the risk of experiencing financial difficulties come to the fore at the end of the undergraduate period. The development of the scientific thinking of students lines up with the life‐stages sketched above. The initial emphasis on the learning of facts gives way to a relativistic and critical way of appraising science and research. This more sophisticated approach to knowledge can lead to a personal theoretical point of view and to individual commitments at the end of the academic experience.     

Max Scheler and the Idea of a Well Rounded Education

The German philosopher Max Scheler defines the human person as a value-oriented act structure. Since a person is ideally a free being with open possibilities, the aim of education is to help human beings develop their potential in various directions. At the centre of Scheler's educational philosophy is the idea of all-round education, which aims towards a developed capacity for assessment, an ability to make choices and an ability to focus on the objective nature of things.     

The Use of Social Media for Artist Marketing: Music Industry Perspectives and Consumer Motivations

This research addresses the question of why consumers use social media especially in relation to music consumption and how music industry companies could improve their social media efforts by matching company strategies with consumer motives. Four case studies and four focus groups with 28 participants were conducted. As a result, this study found five motives for social media participation: (1) access to content, (2) sense of affinity, (3) participation, (4) interaction, and (5) social identity, in decreasing order of effect. For managers this study set out a detailed social media strategy that corresponds with components of consumer motives for participation at decreasing levels of effect.     

跨学科课程发展与交换学生项目：日本和美国两所高中教育可持续发展项目研究

从2010年开始至今,日本北海道札幌市大通高中和美国路易斯安娜州立大学实验学校的学生,以及两校12个学科34位教师,联合开展了一项跨学科课程发展与交换学生研究项目。日、美两国师生通过视频、网络、电子邮件、DVD光盘和书信等各种媒体交换观点。尽管日本的学校面临着应试压力,但是该项目的实施表明了跨文化理解教育对于两国学生来说十分必要。通过对国内、国际和平以及民族、文化多样性特征的理解,项目提升了两国学生的跨文化理解力,也有助于培养他们的批判性思维能力、审视自己和社会的能力。     

Towards a framework for creative online collaboration: A research on challenges and context

The OnCreate project was initiated by ten universities with expertise in collaborative work in online-based learning environments and explores the specific challenges of implementing university courses in creative disciplines in such an environment. The first research phase comprises a literature search on creativity and its contextual factors in online collaboration in an educational setting. From this research a first set of possible key challenges and contextual key factors has been selected and applied to categorize the results of interviews and surveys on current good practice in creative online collaboration among experienced online teachers from the partner universities. From the key findings we formulate hypotheses to guide future research towards a framework for creative online collaboration. At the same time, the results can serve as inspiration for the educational practice. Notable observations of the good practice research among the partner universities are that they realise innovative collaboration concepts usually on mashed-up environments of state-of-the-art web services rather than on the omnipresent learning management systems (such as Moodle or Blackboard). Also, they show a paradigm shift from teaching to coaching and promotion of an open peer-review culture among the students.