Website van de Erasmus plus samenwerkingspartnerschap IGNITION "European Digital Literacy Coalition for Inclusion, Collaboration and Innovation in Higher Education"
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In today’s technological world, human intertwinement with the rest of nature hasbeen severely diminished. In our digital culture, many people hardly have any direct experience of and sense of connection with “the real” of the natural world. The author assumes that when we want to find ways to mend this gap, arts-based environmental education (AEE) can play a meaningful role. In AEE, artmaking is regarded as itself a way of potentially gaining new understandings about our natural environment. As a reflective practitioner, the author facilitated three different AEE activities, at several times and at diverse locations. On basis of his observations, memories, written notes, audio-visual recordings and interviews with participants, teachers and informed outsiders, he interpreted the experiences both of participants and himself. To this end he employed interpretative phenomenological analysis paired with autoethnography.The artmaking activities researched here aimed to bring about a shift in focus. Participants were encouraged to approach natural phenomena not head-on, but in an indirect way. Moreover, the artmaking process aspired to heighten their awareness to the presence of their embodied self at a certain place. The research questions that the author poses in this study are: (1) What is distinctive in the process of the AEE activities that I facilitate?; (2) Which specific competencies can be identified for a facilitator of AEE activities?; and (3) Does participating in the AEE activities that I facilitate enhance the ability of participants to have a direct experience of feeling connected to the natural world?In this explorative study, the author identifies facilitated estrangement through participating in AEE as an important catalyst when aiming to evoke such instances of transformative learning. In undergoing such moments, participants grope their way in a new liminal space. Artmaking can create favorable conditions for this to happen through its defamiliarizing effect which takes participants away from merely acting according to habit (on “autopilot”). The open-ended structure of the artmaking activities contributed to the creation of a learning arena in which emergent properties could become manifest. Thus, participants could potentially experience a sense of wonder and begin to acquire new understandings – a form of knowing that the author calls “rudimentary cognition.” The research further suggests that a facilitator should be able to bear witness to and hold the space for whatever enfolds in this encounter with artistic process in AEE. He or she must walk the tightrope between control and non-interfering.The analysis of the impacts of the AEE activities that were facilitated leads the author to conclude that it is doubtful whether these in and of themselves caused participants to experience the natural environment in demonstrable new and deep ways. He asserts that most of their awareness was focused on the internal level of their own embodied presence; engagement with place, the location where the AEE activity was performed, seemed secondary. The findings show that AEE activities first and foremost help bring about the ignition and augmentation of the participants’ fascination and curiosity, centered in an increased awareness of their own body and its interactions with the natural world. The present study can be seen as a contribution to efforts of envisaging innovative forms of sustainable education that challenge the way we have distanced ourselves from the more-than-human world.
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Europa wil in 2050 volledig klimaatneutraal zijn, en zet in op waterstof als energiedrager die een hoofdrol zal spelen in die transitie. Nederlandse bedrijven die dieselaggregaten produceren zetten voor de volledige reductie van de CO2-emissie van hun producten nu voornamelijk in op het vervangen van fossiele door zogenaamde groene diesel. Recent zijn diverse studies verschenen die aantonen dat de ontwikkeling en inzet van waterstofmotoren, zeker voor toepassingen in wegtransport, zowel technisch als economisch zinvol is. Dergelijk productontwikkeling zou ook bij generatorsets een versnelling van de energietransitie mogelijk maken en bovendien kunnen functioneren als een brugtechnologie tot het ogenblik dat brandstofcellen voldoende goedkoop en duurzaam zijn geworden. Doel van dit project is om de economische en technische haalbaarheid van een dergelijke productontwikkeling in kaart te brengen. Bijzonder is daarbij dat het hierbij gaat om een retrofit van bestaande motoren die massaal geproduceerd worden voor automotive doeleinden. Omdat voorlopig gebruik zal worden gemaakt van componenten die ontwikkeld zijn voor de huidige aardgasmotoren voorziet het project ook in versneld duurproefonderzoek van deze componenten. In dit project wordt samengewerkt tussen Fontys Hogeschool Engineering, NPS Diesel B.V., H2Trac B.V., Prins Autogassystemen B.V. en TNO.
IGNITION (European Digital Literacy Coalition for Inclusion, Collaboration and Inclusion in Higher Education) is an Erasmus funded Cooperation Partnership and its main goal is to enhance digital literacy and inclusion for teachers, faculty staff, students and life-long learners in external organizations that partners collaborate with. IGNITION aims to increase awareness of and competence development in digital literacy of all people involved in digital transformation of higher education institutions through the project’s outcomes: A Common Digital Agenda that gives direction to our activitiesan Online Self-assessment tool to learn from and with each other; the Digital Challenge Innovation Learning Lab (DChiLL),the transnational Community of Practice for Digital Literacy and Inclusion (CoP), and the Toolkit for engaging with external stakeholders through digital mediaPartners are Hanze University of Applied Sciences (The Netherlands), South East Technological University (Ireland), Hochschule Bremen (Germany), Polytechnic Institute of Braganza (Portugal).
The drive to reduce the carbon intensity of the energy system has generated much interest in applying carbon-free fuels such as ammonia (NH3) in combustion systems. The high hydrogen density and well-established production processes make NH3 a valuable chemical energy carrier to address and sustain the energy shift toward renewable energy source integration. However, some difficulties can be highlighted in the NH3 practical application. The combustion of NH3 is prone to producing harmful nitric oxides. In addition, NH3 has lower reactivity than most hydrocarbon fuels, which makes ignition challenging. Also, admixing NH3 with highly reactive fuels such as DME will facilitate ignition. The partnerships of this proposal are very interested in applying renewable NH3 as fuel in combined heat and power engines, and this research proposal suggests simulating a dual-fuel engine with NH3 as its primary fuel. The results of this research will help determine the optimum operating conditions for performing an experimental study.
