Technology Assessment in Practice and Theory

Technology Assessment in Practice and Theory
Author: Armin Grunwald
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2018-11-08
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0429809697

Technological advance affects almost all areas of human life. Rapid digitization, increased mobility, new biotechnologies, and nanotechnology deeply influence, amongst others, industrial production, entertainment, work, military affairs, and individual life. Besides overwhelmingly positive effects on wealth, comfort, innovation, and development, this also raises questions of unintended effects, of tensions with democracy, of the role of citizens, and of its sustainability facing environmental issues. Tools and procedures are needed to cope with this challenging situation. Technology assessment (TA) has been developed more than fifty years ago to enable science, the economy, and society to harvest the potential of new technology to the maximum extent possible and to deal responsibly with possible adverse effects. It was developed more than 50 years ago in the U.S. Congress and has diversified considerably in the meantime. Parliamentary TA in many European states and at the international level, participatory TA at the local and regional levels worldwide, and TA as part of engineering processes are the most relevant fields today. Technology assessment is a growing field of interdisciplinary research and scientific policy advice. This volume (a) gives an overview of motivations of TA, its history and its current practices, (b) develops a fresh theoretical perspective on TA rooted in social theory and philosophy, and (c) draws conclusions from the theoretical perspective for the further development of TA’s practices. It provides the first comprehensive view on the growing field of TA at the international level.

Theory and Practice of Technology-Based Music Instruction

Theory and Practice of Technology-Based Music Instruction
Author: Jay Dorfman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2022-01-28
Genre: Educational technology
ISBN: 0197558984

Technology is an increasingly popular part of music education in schools that attracts students to school music who might not otherwise be involved. In many teacher preparation programs, music technology is an afterthought that does not receive the same extensive treatment as do traditional areas of music teaching such as band, orchestra, choir, and general music. This book helps to establish a theoretical and practical foundation for how to teach students to use technology as the major means for developing their musicianship. Including discussions of lesson planning, lesson delivery, and assessment, readers will learn how to gain comfort in the music technology lab. Theory and Practice of Technology-Based Music Instruction also includes "profiles of practice" that dive into the experiences of real teachers in music technology classes, their struggles, their successes, and lessons we can learn from both. In this second edition, new profiles feature Teachers of Color who use technology extensively in their varied types of music teaching. This edition encourages readers to think about issues of inequity of social justice in music education technology and how teachers might begin to address those concerns. Also updated are sections about new standards that may guide music education technology practice, about distance and technology-enhanced learning during the global pandemic, and about ways to integrate technology in emerging contexts.

Assistive Technology Research, Practice, and Theory

Assistive Technology Research, Practice, and Theory
Author: DaCosta, Boaventura
Publisher: IGI Global
Total Pages: 342
Release: 2014-01-31
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1466650168

"This book presents cutting-edge research in the field of assistive technologies, including both theoretical frameworks and empirical research to benefit individuals with motor and cognitive disabilities"--Provided by publisher.

Ethics and Technology Assessment: A Participatory Approach

Ethics and Technology Assessment: A Participatory Approach
Author: Matthew Cotton
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 178
Release: 2014-06-11
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 3642450881

Whether it is nuclear power, geo-engineering or genetically modified foods, the development of new technologies can be fraught with complex ethical challenges and political controversy which defy simple resolution. In the past two decades there has been a shift towards processes of Participatory Technology Assessment designed to build channels of two-way communication between technical specialists and non-expert citizens, and to incorporate multiple stakeholder perspectives in the governance of contentious technology programmes. This participatory turn has spurred a need for new tools and techniques to encourage group deliberation and capture public values, moral and choices. This book specifically examines the ethical dimensions of controversial technologies, and discusses how these can be evaluated in a philosophically robust manner when the ones doing the deliberating are not ethicists, legal or technical experts. Grounded in philosophical pragmatism and drawing upon empirical work in partnership with citizen-stakeholders, this book presents a model called “Reflective Ethical Mapping” - a new meta-ethical framework and toolbox of techniques to facilitate citizen engagement with technology ethics.

Technology Assessment in Health Care: from Theory to Practice

Technology Assessment in Health Care: from Theory to Practice
Author: Joshua Shemer
Publisher:
Total Pages: 177
Release: 1995
Genre:
ISBN:

Most of the material in this book was presented to an international symposium on technology assessment in health care which took place in Jerusalem in january 1994. Each country has its own health care system, its own philosophy, history, values and even code of ethics. The purpose of this book is to display the way health technology policy operates today in different countries, with emphasis on disparities and similarities. It concentrates on the practical aspects of applying technology assessment in health care, at both local and national levels. The book is divided in four sections: 1) The role of technology assessment in health care reform. How should technology be used? national perspectives. 2) The diffusion of medical technology: methodological differences. 3) The role of providers and insurers in technology assessment. 4) The role of professional organizations, universities and research centers in technology.

Assistive Technology Assessment Handbook

Assistive Technology Assessment Handbook
Author: Stefano Federici
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 556
Release: 2017-11-23
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1351230883

Assistive Technology Assessment Handbook, Second Edition, proposes an international ideal model for the assistive technology assessment process, outlining how this model can be applied in practice to re-conceptualize the phases of an assistive technology delivery system according to the biopsychosocial model of disability. The model provides reference guidelines for evidence-based practice, guiding both public and private centers that wish to compare, evaluate, and improve their ability to match a person with the correct technology model. This second edition also offers a contribution to the Global Cooperation on Assistive Technology (GATE) initiative, whose activities are strongly focused on the assistive products service delivery model. Organized into three parts, the handbook: gives readers a toolkit for performing assessments; describes the roles of the assessment team members, among them the new profession of psychotechnologist; and reviews technologies for rehabilitation and independent living, including brain–computer interfaces, exoskeletons, and technologies for music therapy. Edited by Stefano Federici and Marcia J. Scherer, this cross-cultural handbook includes contributions from leading experts across five continents, offering a framework for future practice and research.

Cost Effectiveness Modelling for Health Technology Assessment

Cost Effectiveness Modelling for Health Technology Assessment
Author: Richard Edlin
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2015-08-11
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 3319157442

This book provides an introduction to decision analytic cost-effectiveness modelling, giving the theoretical and practical knowledge required to design and implement analyses that meet the methodological standards of health technology assessment organisations. The book guides you through building a decision tree and Markov model and, importantly, shows how the results of cost-effectiveness analyses are interpreted. Given the complex nature of cost-effectiveness modelling and the often unfamiliar language that runs alongside it, we wanted to make this book as accessible as possible whilst still providing a comprehensive, in-depth, practical guide that reflects the state of the art – that includes the most recent developments in cost-effectiveness modelling. Although the nature of cost effectiveness modelling means that some parts are inevitably quite technical, across the 13 chapters we have broken down explanations of theory and methods into bite-sized pieces that you can work through at your own pace; we have provided explanations of terms and methods as we use them. Importantly, the exercises and online workbooks allow you to test your skills and understanding as you go along.

Health Economics from Theory to Practice

Health Economics from Theory to Practice
Author: Simon Eckermann
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 339
Release: 2017-03-20
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3319506137

This book provides a robust set of health economic principles and methods to inform societal decisions in relation to research, reimbursement and regulation (pricing and monitoring of performance in practice). We provide a theoretical and practical framework that navigates to avoid common biases and suboptimal outcomes observed in recent and current practice of health economic analysis, as opposed to claiming to be comprehensive in covering all methods. Our aim is to facilitate efficient health system decision making processes in research, reimbursement and regulation, which promote constrained optimisation of community outcomes from a societal perspective given resource constraints, available technology and processes of technology assessment. Importantly, this includes identifying an efficient process to maximize the potential that arises from research and pricing in relation to existing technology under uncertainty, given current evidence and associated opportunity costs of investment. Principles and methods are identified and illustrated across health promotion, prevention and palliative care settings as well as treatment settings. Health policy implications are also highlighted.

Risk Assessment

Risk Assessment
Author: Marvin Rausand
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 784
Release: 2020-03-31
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 1119377234

Introduces risk assessment with key theories, proven methods, and state-of-the-art applications Risk Assessment: Theory, Methods, and Applications remains one of the few textbooks to address current risk analysis and risk assessment with an emphasis on the possibility of sudden, major accidents across various areas of practice—from machinery and manufacturing processes to nuclear power plants and transportation systems. Updated to align with ISO 31000 and other amended standards, this all-new 2nd Edition discusses the main ideas and techniques for assessing risk today. The book begins with an introduction of risk analysis, assessment, and management, and includes a new section on the history of risk analysis. It covers hazards and threats, how to measure and evaluate risk, and risk management. It also adds new sections on risk governance and risk-informed decision making; combining accident theories and criteria for evaluating data sources; and subjective probabilities. The risk assessment process is covered, as are how to establish context; planning and preparing; and identification, analysis, and evaluation of risk. Risk Assessment also offers new coverage of safe job analysis and semi-quantitative methods, and it discusses barrier management and HRA methods for offshore application. Finally, it looks at dynamic risk analysis, security and life-cycle use of risk. Serves as a practical and modern guide to the current applications of risk analysis and assessment, supports key standards, and supplements legislation related to risk analysis Updated and revised to align with ISO 31000 Risk Management and other new standards and includes new chapters on security, dynamic risk analysis, as well as life-cycle use of risk analysis Provides in-depth coverage on hazard identification, methodologically outlining the steps for use of checklists, conducting preliminary hazard analysis, and job safety analysis Presents new coverage on the history of risk analysis, criteria for evaluating data sources, risk-informed decision making, subjective probabilities, semi-quantitative methods, and barrier management Contains more applications and examples, new and revised problems throughout, and detailed appendices that outline key terms and acronyms Supplemented with a book companion website containing Solutions to problems, presentation material and an Instructor Manual Risk Assessment: Theory, Methods, and Applications, Second Edition is ideal for courses on risk analysis/risk assessment and systems engineering at the upper-undergraduate and graduate levels. It is also an excellent reference and resource for engineers, researchers, consultants, and practitioners who carry out risk assessment techniques in their everyday work.

Organizational Diagnosis and Assessment

Organizational Diagnosis and Assessment
Author: Michael Harrison
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Total Pages: 497
Release: 1998-07-23
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1452212848

Organizational Diagnosis and Assessment presents sharp-image diagnosis, a distinctive approach to organizational consultation and planned change, that reflects current research and theorizing about organizational change and effectiveness. The authors draw on multiple analytical frames to produce empirically grounded models of sources of ineffectiveness and forces for change, showing how consultants, managers, and applied researchers can break free of unproductive practices and ways of thinking to avoid uncritical adoption of management fads. They offer workable solutions to critical problems and demonstrate ways to meet organizational challenges like market downturns, technological change, and alliances with other organizations. Organizational Diagnosis and Assessment covers diagnosis and assessment of work groups, organizations, and whole systems. This volume develops analytical approaches for problem solving and strategy formation in both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. Diagnosis of public policy issues, like assessments of the effectiveness of health systems, is also addressed. Many of the models and techniques contribute to assessing the changing nature of the workplace, examining organizational decline and other life-cycle transitions; gendering; change and diversity in organizational culture and in workforce composition; the spread of new forms of work organization, including teams, flat hierarchies, and networks; new uses of information technology; and mergers and alliances among organizations. Organizational Diagnosis and Assessment will be invaluable to advanced students, consultants, and applied behavioral scientists in social sciences, management, social work, organizational and industrial psychology, organizational sociology, nursing, and public administration.