Catálogo de publicaciones - libros

This chapter comments on the concept and process of gaming (including role playing), leading to the perception of gaming and role playing as tools for creativity training. In these introductory remarks, we comment on the history and diverse roles of gaming in the era of knowledge civilisation and the time of virtual reality. We turn then to trends observed in the development of three interrelated fields: gaming, negotiations, and game theory, with their tendency to increasing specialisation, and comment on the need for an interdisciplinary, open, and informed systemic synthesis. Next we discuss the increasingly broad and intensively developed field of gaming applications used today for the purpose of training business managers; we postulate that the goal of such training is to accelerate the formation of business intuition and thus can be considered as creativity training. We turn then to the possibility of using gaming and negotiations for problem solving and idea formation, exploiting the strong motivation provided by role playing, on an example of simulated negotiations and the related theory of coalition games. The chapter is summarised by conclusions.

This chapter returns to the issues of knowledge acquisition for creativity support addressed in Chap. 4, this time from a more theoretical, mathematical perspective. The chapter is organised as follows. In these introductory remarks, we discuss diverse types of knowledge and the need for knowledge representation; then we turn to a discussion of formal models of knowledge representation. Then several meanings of the concept of knowledge integration are presented, distinguishing expert-based intuitive integration from computer-based automatic integration. Examples of existing approaches to the integration of knowledge are given. In particular, multiple criteria approaches to knowledge acquisition and integration, including new trends and solutions, are presented.

This chapter first discusses the concepts of distance and electronic learning and teaching and their historical background, then addresses the role of such learning and teaching in the new knowledge civilisation era: to alleviate regional development disparities and as well as on one hand and to change the recording medium of the intellectual heritage of humanity on the other. The interdisciplinary and information science aspects of distance and electronic learning are reviewed. Current achievements and trends in electronic learning (called also e-learning) are presented, together with an integrated learning model concept especially focused on practical applications in business organisations. The impacts of market development on these trends and achievements, as well as problems that might escape market development but nevertheless should be addressed, are discussed. Current trends and problems with multimedia technology when applied to the record of academic activities and to electronic books are reviewed. As a more specific illustration or case study, the developments of intelligent learning support, together with current trends and problems of individualising teaching and learning, are discussed in more detail. The chapter ends with concluding remarks: Broadening the field of electronic teaching applications to include creativity support in electronic and distance learning is suggested.

This chapter describes the concept of management of technology (MOT) and the attempts to apply this concept in academic research, to support research and education in the university laboratories at the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST).

The concept of MOT became popular in European countries and the United States starting in the 1980s, and has made rapid strides in Japan since 2002. MOT can have diverse definitions, but here we examine it as an education programme aimed at enhancing the management abilities of technologists responsible for research and development in corporations; such a programme is usually taught at graduate schools in the management and engineering areas. These MOT courses and programmes are mainly targeted at corporate employees, and their primary mission, as recognised by faculty members in charge of them, is to respond to the needs of research and development divisions in profit-making organisations.

Knowledge is regarded as one of the key determinant factors of a firm's, industry's, or country's survival and growth in the knowledge age. Unlike Drucker, who considered knowledge as key resource, we now believe other factors, such as the business environment or political factors are just as important as knowledge to firms, industries, and countries. As a matter of fact, we believe that the configuration of various factors as a whole determines the performance of a firm or industry. Or in systems terms: A whole can be greater than, equal to, or perhaps lesser than the sum of its parts. Therefore, knowledge management requires an interdisciplinary study to “” “” , to pursue the notion that a whole is greater than the sum of its parts from the perspective of critical systems thinking (Jackson 2000, 2003, 2005; Gao et al. 2003). To do so, chief knowledge officers (CKOs) and knowledge-related practitioners must also understand the meaning of knowledge and the

This chapter presents a reflection on the role of technology in the era of knowledge civilization. Diverse perceptions of this era, the concepts of three civilization eras vs. three waves, of a conceptual platform vs. an episteme of a civilization era, of the major changes at the end of industrial civilization era are recalled. The deepening separation of the three spheres of technology, hard science, and social science/humanities is discussed. Upon reflection, it is shown that this separation results from the widely diverging episteme of these three cultural spheres. The contemporary philosophy of technology is briefly reviewed; it is shown that some of its writings disregard the opinions of technologists even when it comes to defining technology. The danger of misunderstandings resulting from such diverging opinions is stressed.

As we begin this chapter let us recall the distinction between the and in science, as discussed in Chap. 1 of this volume and in the book (Wierzbicki and Nakamori 2006a). As we know, there is no direct connection in time between revolutionary changes in technology and macro-changes in science. For example, Guttenberg's printing technique or Watt's development of the steam-engine, both revolutionary from a technological point of view, did not require any simultaneous revolutionary change in science. However, it would not have been possible to develop modern digital computer technology without previous macrochanges in science, such as the emergence of quantum mechanics. Also, it would not have been possible to make an expedition to the Moon without the prior Copernican or Newtonian scientific revolutions.

This chapter is the concluding part of this book and is organised in three substantive sections. We deal first with a summary of the diverse contributions to the theory of knowledge creation processes and to the development of creative environments supporting such processes presented in Parts I, II, III and IV of the book. Then we turn to the basic epistemological issue arising from these contributions and from the discussions in Part IV: the divergence of the episteme of the three cultural spheres of hard and natural sciences, technology and social sciences with humanities implies . Finally, we add some concluding remarks.