Abstracts - Earli

on whether it is possible to illustrate real world complexity in an authentic way in a simulationenvironment without making the learning experience cognitively too demanding.Professional development in virtual communities of practicePäivi Poyry, Helsinki University of Technology, FinlandThe continuously changing business environment is creating growing requirements for fast andeffective renewal of employees’ competencies and knowledge. Furthermore, the work is more andmore often done in virtual co-operation with remote colleagues located in different countries. Thusknowledge sharing with remote colleagues in virtual co-operation and communities has become acentral issue in many organizations. This paper reports a case study focusing on the success factorsand the challenges in communication context when sharing work-related knowledge in virtual cooperation.Altogether 19 thematic interviews in three business cases were conducted and theinterviews were analyzed with qualitative content analysis techniques. The results of the casestudy are presented as a semantic map comprising the success factors and as an interaction modelpresenting the actors and artefacts in the communication context. Several elements affecting thesuccessfulness of virtual knowledge sharing were identified in this case study. These includefactors such as shared work practices, feeling of community, and attitudes towards knowledgesharing. In addition, the results indicate that the challenges of communicating and sharingknowledge in virtual communities of practice are related to the communication artifacts, to theICT mediated ways to interact, and to the current work processes and practices.Geographical Information Systems and the reshaping of geography learningLene Moller Madsen, University of Copenhagen, DenmarkGeographers have through time used a variety of artefacts such as maps, globes, planimeters etc.as professional tools. Each of these artefacts has in different ways shaped our ways of beinggeographers. Not only have they shaped how we learn but also what we learn. How and with whateffect this shaping has taken place is not explicit or shared common knowledge but an integratedpart of the lived experience as a geographer, and part of the professional development of becominga geographer. New artefacts are constantly introduced into the profession and some have moreprofound effects than others. One of the latest has been the introduction of a GeographicalInformation System (GIS), which is a computer-based programme to analyse and visualiseinformation that can be spatially defined. This artefact has revolutionised the way we see andanalyses the world, not only for geographers, but for the society at large through available analysesof, e.g., satellite imagery. The introduction and perception of GIS within geographical studies isthe focus of this presentation. The presentation gives a view of the development of GIS as anartefact within the geographical profession and how it has been imported into the learningenvironment and educational system. The analysis is based on an empirical example from theDepartment of Geography, University of Copenhagen. Further the presentation discusses theeffects of introducing the artefact of GIS for the ways we as geographers develop as professionals.– 801 –