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HBO/WO

MBO

June 19, 2022

Design for critical reflection on Social Media Platforms

This exercise uses a value-sensitive design approach towards redesigning social media platforms for a different purpose: from being predominantly spaces of entertainment, social media platforms can become spaces of epistemic engagement with information in a fruitful manner by fostering the user’s critical reflection in engaging with information found on social media. The exercise challenges students to redesign user interactions on social media platforms in such a way that explicitly fosters reflective thinking for users about the information that they find online. Note: this exercise can be used in a suite of exercises on social media platform design, together with the Fake news exercise and the Design for information quality exercise.

Document

Lavinia Marin

June 5, 2022

Design for informational quality on social media platforms - Teacher version

This exercise uses a value-sensitive design approach towards redesigning social media platforms from spaces of entertainment to spaces of epistemic engagement with information in fruitful manner. The exercise introduces students to the idea of informational quality, elaborates on the parameters to look for in the design of existing platforms and then stimulates the reflection and imagination by asking students to redesign some features of these platforms in view of making the platforms truth-conducive and knowledge-building.

Document

Lavinia Marin

2023

Critical Thinking in Legal Education (article & toolkit) - by Bart van Klink

Critical thinking is generally considered to be one of the central goals – if not the ultimate goal – of education. Critical thinking, as part of liberal learning, is done primarily for its own sake, for the sheer pleasure of thinking against the grain, exploring new ideas and thereby contributing to the development of scientific knowledge. The liberal conception of critical thinking is under threat, since education is nowadays turned into some form of social engagement. Increasingly, academic education is conceived in instrumental terms as a means to achieve some non-academic end: to create responsible ‘academic citizens’, who are committed to the values of diversity and inclusion and who are engaged in solving contemporary social problems. Against this tendency, this article defends a liberal conception of critical thinking in academic legal education and addresses three questions: (i) what is critical thinking? (ii) why do we need critical thinking? and (iii) how can we, as teachers, promote critical thinking in our students? Finally, it raises the question of whether a liberal conception of critical thinking rules out any kind of social engagement as pursued by universities in the present day.

Document

B.M.J. van Klink

June 20, 2022

Tinkering with healthcare technologies. Interactive redesign of bio-medical artefacts from a crip techno-science perspective

In this exercise, students will engage with ethical issues in the design and innovation of healthcare technologies through a hands-on interactive tinkering workshop. Using a wide variety of scrap materials, students collaborating in small groups will alter existing healthcare technical artefacts in an effort to promote the values of inclusivity, accessibility, and social justice, and to question ableist assumptions surrounding medical artefacts. The interactive hands-on workshop is deepened through an engagement with stakeholder testimonials as well as crip techno-science and Warm Technology theories.

Document

Janna van Grunsven, Samantha Marie Copeland, Trijsje Franssen, Lavinia Marin, Cristina Richie

November 7, 2025

Carlos - Using Worldviews to Explore Ethics

A short explainer on the Biotechnology Dilemma Game, a role-playing exercise developed to bring more ethics and social responsibility discussion into the classroom. Students take on assigned roles, each with their own values, fears, and hopes, and work together to resolve an ethical dilemma related to biotechnology.

Video

edumedia@wur.nl

January 28, 2025

Combating Crises From Below

Through an exploration of multiple types of crises in a variety of geographical settings in Europe, the chapters compiled in this book offer fresh insight into how particular groups of people work to combat polycrises ‘from below’. How can the convergence of multiple cascading crises create a broader disruptive reality of ‘polycrisis’ in society? How do specific social groups and communities develop purposeful responses to the distinctive forms of insecurity and suffering generated by an enduring polycrisis? Through an exploration of multiple types of crises in a variety of geographical settings in Europe and the United Kingdom, the chapters compiled in this book offer fresh insight into how particular groups of people work to combat polycrises ‘from below’. Cumulatively, the chapters offer an interdisciplinary look at the notion of ‘crisis’ by considering how multiple kinds of crisis (ecology, health, economy, democracy, spirituality, etc.) intersect in concrete social settings to produce localized situations of polycrisis characterized by distinctive ‘geometries’ of crises within crises. The book’s first segment offers some novel conceptual approaches to the inter-disciplinary study of crisis politics ‘from below’. The second part offers a thematically cohesive series of case studies that shed light on the question of how different sets of actors in particular settings across Europe and the United Kingdom have engaged with entrenched polycrisis. The cases range from single mothers, migrants and gentrifying neighbourhoods on the one hand to social movement activists and new age spiritualist groups on the other. Maastricht, June 2023 Kai Heidemann (editor) is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at University College Maastricht in the Netherlands.

Open (Access) Text Book

Kai Heidemann

2025

Introduction to Criminology: An Equity Lens

Introduction to Criminology provides a foundation for understanding the origins, evolution, and current status of criminological theories. This textbook explains the field of criminology and influential theories in context, with real-life examples and activities. All content is delivered through a lens of equity, diversity, and inclusion. Each chapter includes bold-faced key terms with definitions and cross-references that link backward and forward to important concepts. Students can also engage with the content through discussion questions and supplemental resources at the end of each chapter. And is a collaboration between: Southern Oregon University, Western Oregon University and Portland State University. This open textbook is enriched with assignments. Table of Contents About this Book Chapter 1: Introduction to Criminology Chapter 2: Measuring Crime Chapter 3: Origins of Criminology Chapter 4: Biological and Psychological Understandings of Criminal Behavior Chapter 5: Social Structural and Strain Theories Chapter 6: Social Learning, Interactionist, and Subcultural Theories Chapter 7: Social Control and Life Course Theories Chapter 8: Critical and Feminist Approaches to Criminology Chapter 9: The Future of Criminology Glossary

Open (Access) Text Book

Jessica René Peterson, Taryn VanderPyl, Mauri Matsuda, Jennifer Moreno, Curt Sobolewski

November 4, 2017

Smart Grids and Citizens

A transition towards a smart and decentralized energy system involves changes in terms of infrastructures and technologies as well as changes in social and political areas. Robin Smale will explain this and show how citizens are involved in co-creating a more sustainable energy system. LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Obtain a general understanding of how citizens engage within smart grids. Design policies; governance arrangements and coordination structures for resilience planning and response addressing policy-making; public private partnerships and civic engagement. DURATION: 1 short video (~5 min long)

Website

Robin Smale

2023

Community based learning in health literacy

Community-Based Learning (CBL) is an educational approach that emphasizes the integration of meaningful community service with academic instruction, promoting civic engagement, and social responsibility. Because of the methodology of teaching and learning that provides context for building academic and work-readiness skills is community-based learning, also called service learning. Despite the diversity of definitions and theories related to CBL, some common criteria have been identified in the literature (Flecky, 2011): Service/community based projects are grounded in real and relevant community needs and challenges. Projects involve students in a constructive research process that addresses community issues. Students lead and carry out projects with guidance and support from educators and community partners. Projects take place over an extended period, typically weeks or months, allowing for meaningful engagement with community stakeholders. CBL promotes students' understanding of community issues, collaboration in working teams, responsibility in project design, implementation, and final product delivery, and reflection on project process and outcomes.

Document

Janneke Luiken, Angelique Hagen

September 25, 2017

Co-creation of Sustainable Cities: Overview

Co-creation of sustainable cities is a broad topic. In this video, Gert Spaargaren will introduce you to the key concepts that will be studied during the course. The importance of social and technological innovations, the fact that citizens are not alone as co-creators and the different forms of co-creation are introduced in a global, inter- and trans-disciplinary setting. These concepts are essential in understanding the transition processes from today’s cities to the envisioned sustainable cities of the future. LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Design policies; governance arrangements and coordination structures for resilience planning and response addressing policy-making; public private partnerships and civic engagement. DURATION: 1 short video (~6 minutes long)

Website

Gert Spaargaren