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TECHNOLOGY IMPACT ON STUDENT'S GENDER AND AGE FOR REAL-TIME

Author(s): Chaman Verma,Zoltán Illés,Viktoria Bákonyi,Veronika Stoffová / Language(s): English Issue: 02/2021

The evaluation of the student's demographic features towards the institution's technology is challenging. The detailed statistical analysis may lead to a focus on selected human ecology in the institution. The present paper evaluated the technology's impact on students' demographic features (age and gender). The present study was conducted with both differential and inferential analysis using statistical parametric and non-parametric tests. We collected 331 primary samples from two country universities and, considering assumptions (data normality, homogeneity of variance, data independence), each test applied carefully. The evaluation was performed in software IBM SPSS Statistic 25. A self-structure instrument in Google-Form has been designed with focused four major technology parameters as Development, Usability, Benefit, and Attitude. The reliability of the used instrument was tested with Cronbach alpha. The authors applied inferential analysis to explore students' age and gender with technology parameters using the Student T-test, Kruskal-Wallis H test, Mann-Whitney test. The reliability of samples was tested with the Cronbach's Alpha test and found acceptable for the examination. The research results may help the university administration understand technology awareness among students based on gender and age. We recommend our proposed significant statistical models to be deployed online on the university website to automate impact estimation to overcome traditional measurement. The paper results are useful to the university administration and technical support department to know the current situations about technology access. The specific group of students may emphasize who found lagged in technology awareness.

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USING VIDEO-TOOLS TO MAXIMIZE CLASSROOM TIME AND LEARNING EXPERIENCES

Author(s): Cristina Tripon / Language(s): English Issue: 02/2021

The use of digital resources to increase education quality is on the rise and the pandemic COVID-19 helps us understand, more than others, when and how to use tech in a better changer. In this situation, all students and teachers get exposure to technologies that can level the best content and improves learning performance in different ways than in traditional activities. Online learning encourages teachers to implement digital learning environments in critical ways but students reporting that their responsibility about their education change. So, the importance of using tech (video-tools) to addressing a problem from different disciplinary perspectives becomes a strategy to invest time and energy in teaching students. More and more teachers are asked children to use the information that they have stored in their brains, to use it in everyday life, to manage the own process of thinking, and to help students achieve their highest potential. In this article, we`ve analyzed the need to have a holistic education that goes beyond subjects and the use of teachers and students thinking critically about using video-tools to maximize classroom time and learning experiences. In the new learning spaces (online), the mobility and responsibility of students should focus on better skills. The research findings that there is a correlation between using video- tools and the development of personalized learning experiences. This one can be an encouraging strategy for teachers practices to introduce video- tools in the classroom, early students use them to make individual learning easier, even if they do not use video- tools with the teachers' support.

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STUDENTS' OPINIONS ON DIGITAL LIBRARIES IN EDUCATION - LITERATURE REVIEW

Author(s): Dragana Pavlović / Language(s): English Issue: 02/2021

In modern times, the flow of scientific information is significantly conditioned by the development of modern digital technologies. In that context, the digitalization of university libraries is especially important, which, along with the changes in higher education, has introduced significant changes in the promotion of scientific knowledge. Compared to traditional, digital libraries have a number of advantages for sharing scientific data, especially when it comes to accessibility. This was most pronounced during the Covid-19 pandemic, when physical access to libraries was difficult for many scientists and students. Accordingly, an increasing number of research papers appear in the relevant literature in which significant attention is paid to the research of attitudes towards digital libraries. The aim of this paper is to provide a systematization of papers based on research studies that examine the relationship of students to digital libraries and to point out various aspects of studying this topic. Accordingly, the paper presents the issues that the authors dealt with in the research: the level of information and communication competencies of students for adequate use of digital libraries, i.e. information literacy; different types of resources that students use in digital libraries; student perceptions of the usefulness of digital library resources, as well as mobile learning and digital libraries. In the concluding part of the paper, it is stated that digital libraries have a significant role in the process of modern study, that they represent a valuable source of scientific information for students. The conclusion is that the topic of students' attitudes towards digital libraries is very current and that with the development of new digital technologies, it will be increasingly important for researchers of different fields and orientations.

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THE ROLE OF EMOTIONS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF ANXIETY SYMPTOMS: AN EDUCATIONAL PERSPECTIVE RELATED TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Author(s): Simona Alexandra Pascal,Sebastian Blidaru / Language(s): English Issue: 01/2021

Given the worldwide pandemic period, fear of COVID-19 and negative emotions represented a relatively new research interest in the anxiety disorders literature. Specifically, individuals who experience a high level of negative emotional states (disgust, fear, negative affect) and perceive them as being harmful, have an increased risk of developing anxiety symptoms. In the past year, studies were conducted also within the educational system, their purpose being to find out the student perspective on online education, daily life and socioeconomic effects, risky behaviours, mental health conditions, coping strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, the objective of the present study was to identify possible associations between emotional states and fear of COVID-19, amongst students. Moreover, to test whether the relationship between disgust and anxiety symptoms is explained by fear of COVID-19, a mediation analysis was conducted. In the present research, 119 students filled in four scales for the following constructs: anxiety, disgust, fear of COVID-19, and positive and negative effect. Results showed significant relationships between emotional states and fear of COVID-19. Additionally, the mediation analysis emphasized that fear of COVID-19 explains the relationship between disgust and anxiety symptoms. These preliminary findings suggest that disgust may influence the occurrence and maintenance of a high level of anxiety amongst students. Given the pandemic period, these results could be a preliminary step for clinical practice to improve the anxiety symptoms assessment by targeting disgust and fear of COVID-19 as important emotions. Also, this study discussed other clinical and theoretical implications, limitations, and future research directions.

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THE MOODLE SYSTEM IN FL DISTANCE LEARNING DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Author(s): Olesya V. Kisel,Anna V. Butova,Angelina I. Dubskikh,Sergey A. Sarbulatov / Language(s): English Issue: 01/2021

At present, all over the globe, great changes are taking place in every area of life, which have affected the entire world population. The COVID-19 pandemic has become a sudden fitcheck not only for global health community: educational institutions almost all over the world were forced to switch to a new format of distance learning. Such a rapid transition to distance learning has become a difficult challenge for many universities. Difficulties and inconsistencies of both technical and psychological nature arose. Since there was not and there is no single scheme of distance learning in higher educational institutions, each university had to find its own answer to the urgent questions that arose. The article draws attention to the stability of higher education in the current situation. The transition to distance learning in universities did not catch the majority of teachers by surprise. In many universities there was a distance education system that successfully complemented the traditional classroom work, but did not replace it completely. The teachers were given the goal of implementing a continuous distance educational process in new conditions and the main task was to search for teaching technologies. The study deals with the immediate problem of using distance learning technologies and methods of their adaptation in relation to higher education. Particular attention is paid to the problems of a technical, organizational, psychological and everyday nature that arise during distance learning. The purpose of the article is to consider the means and opportunities offered by the Moodle distance learning system for the development and modernization of online courses for learning a foreign language at a technical university. It is concluded that despite the shortcomings of forced distance education, in a critical situation, temporary distance learning is an excellent alternative to traditional education. An effective tool for the development of distance courses is the Moodle system, since the courses based on the system contain a large amount of material, there is the possibility of switching between separate parts of the course, and there is often no need to go to third party sites to study the content. The Moodle platform is great for adapting e-learning courses to distance learning. The article used a set of theoretical and empirical research methods: theoretical analysis of literature on the topic, observation of the results of students' work in the electronic educational environment Moodle.

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DIGITALIZATION AND LEVELS OF QUALIFICATION

Author(s): Cătălin Ionuţ Silvestru,Vasilica-Cristina Icociu,Tiberiu-Gabriel Dobrescu,Nicolae Postăvaru / Language(s): English Issue: 01/2021

The article is based on an analysis of current documents issued at European level, by the European Commission, CEDEFOP, USA-Department for Labor and also at national level, on digital education and establishing the necessary competencies at different levels of education. For the first time, a correlation is made between the qualification levels in the National Qualifications Framework and the competences / skills currently existing in the specialized literature as a narrative. This classification comes to the aid of education specialists to show them what needs to be taught to pupils and students according to their mental capacity in what we call digital education. We must take into account the development of the minds of young people, in conjunction with the taught elements of digital education, in order to be consistent with the educational profile and the curriculum aims. The aspects presented in this article refer to young people of medium level of development for whom a digital education strategy is made and those underdeveloped. For the digital age, it is clear that a national strategy for digital education is needed. This must include the competencies and learning outcomes specific to each qualification level in the education system, including teacher training, and the technology required. In this paper we show that at European level important steps have been taken in this direction, there is an Action Plan based on a recommendation of the Council, supplemented with competencies and related levels. Thus, we are presenting a proposal for coordination between the levels of digital skills and those of education and qualifications, which should come to the aid of those entitled to regulate the situation of digital education.

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INTEGRATION OF ONLINE EDUCATION TO TOURISM EDUCATION: CROSS CULTURAL STUDENT VOICES

Author(s): Mehmet Altinay / Language(s): English Issue: 01/2021

Covid-19 pandemics had great impacts both in the manufacturing and service industries. Tourism is one of the service industries that had been affected in all its dimensions. Tourism services were heat as all modes of transport to a great extend have stopped after covid-19, but education continued by introducing on line systems all over the world including tourism education. Just before covid-19 the developments in tourism contributed to foreign exchange earnings, growth of the economies and also to employment. This paper aims to evaluate perceptions of tourism education students on online education. Self-reflection task was conducted to gather data from 98 tourism students. It is revealed that students had difficulty in using technological facilities, coping with project-based activities and in using new modes of teaching and learning. As a result of covid-19 higher education systems together with tourism and hospitality education has moved to non-traditional tourism education such as hybrid and online education from traditional classroom settings. The resent changes have significantly changed the way instructors teach and engage students to this education environment. Innovative, cooperative strategies and technologies are needed to remove barriers on online education. This study aims to answer the questions on the perceptions of students regarding online education from students that have different cultures and also shed a light on the challenges and opportunities of online education in tourism. Qualitative research design was used for reflection report. Despite student life has become difficult online education contributed a lot to the student’s academic life for personal development.

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USING ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS IN ACHIEVING ELEARNING IMPROVEMENT. BEST PRACTICES AND LESSONS LEARNED DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Author(s): Hortensia Gorski,Ghiţă BÂRSAN,Ilie Gligorea / Language(s): English Issue: 01/2021

Being faced with the lockdown policies, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, has forced the impelled acceleration of the process of digitization and the adoption of immediate solutions by educational institutions and their leadership. The need for sudden, unplanned and unprepared changes revealed serious problems related to the phenomenon of digitalization of education. This paper is based on qualitative research, which allowed describing in detail the many aspects related to the quality of the eLearning process in terms of the main stakeholders directly and indirectly involved. Root cause analysis, addressed by the authors in this paper, as part of a larger project that aims to continuously improve online teaching and learning in the “Nicolae Bălcescu” Land Forces Academy in Sibiu, allowed identifying and understanding the causes and sub-causes. In order to visualize them as user-friendly as possible, we used the facilities of the MindManager program. Following the analysis, a more complete picture of what happened in the eLearning process in the context of COVID-19 pandemic was obtained. The information collected through the qualitative research, based on the tools highlighted in the paper, allowed identifying best practices and lessons learned, which would later be shared internally – within the Academy - and externally - with partners. The paper ends with a series of solutions that can contribute to the continuous improvement of eLearning.

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DEVELOPING REFLECTIVE SKILLS IN E-LEARNING: A CASE STUDY BASED ON THE FLIPGRID PLATFORM

Author(s): Emanuele Isidori,Angela Magnanini,Alessandra Fazio,Irina Leonova,Mario De Martino,Iosif Sandor / Language(s): English Issue: 01/2021

Flipgrid is a free app and platform that allows students to record short video responses. These videos are usually reflections or responses to specific topics/prompts asked by their teachers. This study aims to deepen the potentiality and effectiveness of Flipgrid in virtual learning environments for university students. Moreover, it aims to understand whether such a platform is really beneficial for developing reflective skills, meets students interests and gets their approval. To deepen these issues, we have analyzed the results of a case study conducted at the University of Rome Foro Italico, Italy, where Flipgrid was used as a support for delivering a course on education and European values and getting students to reflect in a deeper way on the topics and issues entailed. The data were collected through three principal phases. In the first one, within the framework of an exploratory study, a survey questionnaire containing items based on the Likert scale was administered to a general sample of University of Rome Foro Italico students. In the following phase, a focus group was conducted with a small group of students attending the course mentioned above, and in the third one, the students from the course were in-depth interviewed. The data were processed by statistical and text analysis software. The data were then interpreted and compared. The data results allowed us to obtain information and a map to understand the Flipgrid app/platform's effectiveness. From the data collected, at the end of the study, we were able to sketch a model for using the new app in a way so that it can help students develop reflective skills in e-learning in the most effective way.

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THE FLIPPED LEARNING AT UNIVERSITY BY SOCIAL NETWORKS: A CHALLENGE FOR E-LEARNING

Author(s): Emanuele Isidori,Angela Magnanini,Alessandra Fazio,Irina Leonova,Irina Petrova,Mario De Martino,Iosif Sandor / Language(s): English Issue: 01/2021

Nowadays, Flipped Learning and social networks as a means for E-Learning represent a challenge for contemporary higher education. The recent literature written on social networks as tools to enhance education has highlighted the relevance of these learning environments to achieve higher education's fundamental goals in colleges and universities. Most of the investigations confirm that Facebook, along with other social networks, media, and E-communication tools, can enable the university classroom's extension in a new way and support and enhance the Flipped Learning. Therefore, this paper aims to deepen and grasp the relationship between social networks and Flipped Learning in university education by drawing on the topics' primary scholarly literature. To better examine and understand this relation, we have conducted a case study and shown its results. This case study concerned the experience of using a methodology of teaching the sports humanities based on Flipped Learning enhanced by social networks in an Italian University. In order to collect the data, we have used qualitative-quantitative research methodologies. The data were obtained from interviews and survey questionnaires administered to a sample of students attending the online courses of Sports Humanities in an Italian University. Statistical and text analysis programs have processed the data. The programs have shown frequencies, knots, created word trees, lists, and concept maps regarding students' opinions on Facebook as a virtual learning environment to boost the Flipped Classroom. This analysis aimed to understand and grasp, by comparing data, how and whether the use of Social Networks has favored the development of a real Flipped Classroom in the course delivered and, together with it, the Flipped Learning in students. Finally, we used the research data to build an effective Flipped Classroom application model for university education in the sports humanities' scholarly domain.

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AN EDUCATION SPACES FRAMEWORK TO DEFINE INTERACTIVE AND COLLABORATIVE PRACTICES OVER THE PHYSICAL-HYBRID-VIRTUAL CONTINUUM

Author(s): Robin Støckert,Piet Van Der Zanden,Veruska de Caro-Barek / Language(s): English Issue: 01/2021

A new industrial revolution is slowly affecting our social, political, economic, and cultural lives. A fusion of technologies and research is emerging within several fields such as robotics, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, genetics, and biology. Our current education system runs behind these complex interactions and needs students to be aware and skilled to cope with fast and disruptive changes. Universities need to find new strategies that enable them to play an active role within the global society, delivering relevant education for students to be ready for their future work-life. Adaptation and redesign of the conventional education model with AV-IT technologies are now opportune; physical and online practices are bridged through the hybrid domain. However, the primary goal must be pedagogy, focusing on student-active learning, communication and collaboration, and other 21st -century skills. The largest technical universities in the Netherlands and Norway, respectively Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) and Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) are continuously optimizing their campus facilities, teaching practices, and technological infrastructure. Although their prerequisites and approaches differ (2), they still experience the same challenges, especially after COVID-19. The Pandemic has rapidly pushed the universities into a scattered digital landscape, exposing sedimented university structures, vulnerabilities, shortcomings, and the need to transform attitudes, pedagogy, spaces, and technology. It has been clear that taking shortcuts from existing onsite practices with technology and digital solutions is not the solution for permanent implementation within the hybrid domain. Experiences need to be consolidated to get a clearer picture of the challenges that come forward when entering the hybrid domain. How can we find common factors and the proper affordances to act as guidelines for a new technological and pedagogical framework that merges the continuum from the physical over the hybrid up to the virtual spaces? This paper describes the ways of work of NTNU and TU Delft. It introduces an Education Spaces Framework with definitions for three levels of increasing interactive or collaborative education practices on the vertical axis and the three onsite, hybrid, and online domains on the horizontal axis. It examines the design of technological-pedagogical prerequisites and barriers when moving or even transforming a practice from one into the other. The combined experiences and related discussion propose the Education Spaces Framework for further study and structure the future initiatives.

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AN ACADEMIC APPROACH TO THE PHUBBING BEHAVIOUR ANALYSIS: A CASE OF STUDENTS

Author(s): Nazime Tuncay,Burcu Toker / Language(s): English Issue: 01/2021

In 21st Century, 'Phubbing' became a phenomenon that threatens belongingness, self-esteem, meaningful existence and control not only for adults' lives but also teenagers' lives. Although, the term "Phubbing" has been defined in various ways as modern communication in which a person snubs another in a social setting by concentrating on their phone instead of having a conversation, it still is not known by many people. Smartphones are widely used by adults as well as students. More than positive aspects of Smartphones we have lots of negative outcomes as a result of over usage of smartphones and interacting in the virtual world conversations instead of the real-world ones. They represent a real harm to face-to-face conversations. Students school life and social life is widely affected from the Smartphones. Over usage of Smartphones cause problems in their courses, they start to ignore people around them and thus they start to have problems in social life. In this research, a self determined questionnaire is prepared and distributed online to 138 randomly selected to students who are between the ages of 13-19 and to 138 randomly selected students who are between the ages of 18-22 with the aim of finding the difference among them in terms of the actions of being Phubbed and Phubbing. This study aims to find the difference between the phubbing and being phubbed tendencies of the students in the category teenager, between 13-19 years old, and the adolescent students, who are between 18-22 years old. The results are sure to provide good quid for the Technology-Enhanced Learning and will help to improve quality of life of students.

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THE SIGNIFICANCE OF GAME, AS A PRACTICE, FOR EDUCATION: STUDENTS' MOTIVATION FOR GAMING AND TENDENCY TO GAMES

Author(s): Dušanka Slijepčević,Branko Crnogorac,Ivan Šijaković,Braco Kovačević,Biserka Košarac,Aleksandra Hadžić,Ewa Dąbrowska-Prokopowska / Language(s): English Issue: 01/2021

The scientific goal is to explore (describe, understand and explain) socio-psychological aspects, i.e. the influence of sex, material status of the family, level of studies, success during studies and the type of study programs agency, on knowledge and attitudes towards the game, as a practice, of its meaning and functions, of motivation for gaming, and of propensity to games among students of social sciences and humanities at the University of Banja Luka and Istocno Sarajevo respectively (The Republic of Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina), in the 21st century. The definitions of the game and its significance and function are presented through the prism of modernist and postmodernist views, that is, sociological and psychological theories about the game. Motivation for participation in games is elaborated by means of the theory of self-determination, and the connection between motivation and inclination towards endless and final games is explained by Habermas' theory of communicative action. In addition to general scientific methods, a survey method is used to collect data utilising an online questionnaire (with a semi-closed answer system), an instrument created through the Google Forms application. Measurement, typology, and statistical method (processing of data by SPSS), along with a comparative method for interpretation of results, are used for arranging and presenting data. The sample formed is random and stratified, consisting of 221 examinees from the student population. With regard to the initial three hypotheses, two of them are fully confirmed, while the third one is only partially confirmed, with scientific description, scientific understanding, and scientific explanation having been realised in the former, the latter featuring only scientific description. The results indicate that most students: 1) have an excellent knowledge (familiarity) and positive (postmodernist) attitudes towards the game, its importance, and functions; 2) participate in the game for intrinsic motives, because they come from CRSP, in order to connect and communicate with others, so the socialiser's motive is the most dominant one; 3) participate in endless (affiliative, assertive) games. So it is encouraging that their awareness of and their being informed on the matter are at a very high level, that is, in the spirit of postmodernist discourse on the developmental potentials of the game for effective applications in a wide range of activities, especially in terms of life-long learning. Hence, we point out the importance of recognising and applying the principles of the game in higher education, more precisely the innovation of (electronic) game-based learning (gamification).

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Comunicarea didactică în mediul online

Author(s): Mirela Fărăgău,Sorina Dârjan,Ioana Roman / Language(s): Russian Issue: 2/2021

This qualitative study was focused on higher education and learning through online didactic communication. Using an approach of mixed data collection methods, such as: essay, focus group technique and oral questioning, the research aimed to identify how online communication can be streamlined. The role is to identify different components of the learning environment that may affect the learning experience. These components could have a major impact on efficient communication of higher education (students cohort is N = 98). Results have shown that students had well-defined opinions regarding didactic communication in the virtual environment. They had a positive learning experience and efficient communication only if they were involved in activities and if they were not distracted by other actions or sounds of the environment.

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How Do Students Read on the Internet in the New Technological Era?

Author(s): Carolina Girón-García / Language(s): English Issue: 17/2014

The principal focus of this investigation is to discuss how EFL students read on the Internet after completing a Cybertask. Our main concern is to find out how students read on the Internet in the new technological era. Nowadays we are going through a great technological revolution that makes us being concerned about the English Language as a Foreign Language education. For this reason, we deem necessary to apply our knowledge during the reading process (Schmar-Dobler, 2003) and promote the reading capacity of texts (Luzón & Ruiz-Madrid, 2008; Luzón, Ruiz-Madrid & Villanueva, 2010; GirónGarcía & Gaspar, 2012). Furthermore, this paper focuses on two features: (a) how students handle the great amount of information they find on the Web; and (b) how they select the most appropriate information according to their task objectives. In order to get relevant results, a group of university students of the English Studies degree at ‘Universitat Jaume I’ (Spain) worked on an English task-based activity (i.e. ‘Cybertask’) during their class regular time. They also took into account a number of Websites provided by the teacher and following they completed a Self-Assessment Questionnaire in order to evaluate both their task process and task result. Finally, the main aim is to analyse how students read (‘Reading Modes’) in a digital context when they face task-based activities (Girón-García, 2013). However, our study goes beyond the classification of Internet users (‘Knowledge Seekers’, ‘Feature Explorers’, and ‘Apathetic Hypertext Users’) (Anderson-Inman & Hoerney, 1993; Bowdish et al., 1994; Lawless & Kulikowich, 1996).

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Metaphorical Models, Cybergenres and User Strategic Modes in Virtual Space

Author(s): Carolina Girón-García,Ignasi Navarro i Ferrando / Language(s): English Issue: 19/2015

In recent decades, new technologies have evolved so rapidly that the use of computers and the Internet has resulted in the appearance of a new type of genre, i.e. Cybergenre (Shepherd & Watters, 1998; Shepherd, Watters & Kennedy, 2004). The medium used by these new genres, their social role, their purpose, their audiences and kinds of skills required to their users differ from those of old genres, and therefore, cybergenres cannot be measured or characterized by means of the same parameters as traditional written (paper format) genres. On the other hand, some authors have described three types of “Reading Modes”, such as ‘Navigating’, ‘Browsing’, and ‘Reading’ (Girón-García, 2013), regarding different Internet users’ strategies. Our hypothesis is that the type of reading mode –or user strategic mode- not only has to do with types of users and their tendencies but also with the cybergenre itself, its configuration and the types of cognitive frames that it activates in users. Each particular genre activates certain metaphorical models –made apparent through metaphorical expressions– that configure the necessary paths for users to succeed in its adequate processing. In this context, our purpose here is to identify idiosyncratic metaphorical expressions that may guide the movement of the user thought texts precisely because they activate cognitive models. In turn, we provide descriptions of metaphorical models and try to explain and illustrate their coherence within particular genres. Therefore, our procedure consists firstly in selecting genres, such as on-line dictionaries and market sites, secondly identifying metaphorical expressions, and finally describing the models they activate, so that we can elucidate different user strategic modes (reading modes) for each genre type. We claim that different guiding metaphors of topological character (spatial) prompt different users’ techniques or strategies. In addition, we suggest that these metaphors provide internal coherence to the genres, as such.

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Skaitmeninės atskirties veidai: formaliojo ugdymo dalyvių požiūris į skaitmeninę atskirtį ir jo kaita nuotolinio ugdymo laikotarpiu pandemijos sąlygomis

Author(s): Jovita Žėkaitė,Vaiva Schoroškienė,Ieva Adomaitytė-Subačienė,Erika Speičytė-Ruschhoff / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 47/2021

With formal education moving online during the COVID-19 pandemic in Lithuania, issues related to digital literacy and digital exclusion have become more visible. Especially concerning is the growing digital exclusion of those social groups in the society which before the pandemic were already affected by social and economic problems, or other special needs. Further, the shift of formal education online created new challenges around digital exclusion. Recent literature dealing with the subject of digital exclusion, such as the study by Beaunoyer et. al. (2020), suggests that digital exclusion can be caused by a lack of digital literacy skills. Thus, even people with good technological equipment might experience difficulties to fully partake in online education, correctly understand information, or make full use of technologies involved in the online learning process because of a lack of knowledge, missing competencies, or motivation. Other scholars involved in researching digital exclusion argue that this binary approach in understanding the phenomenon is not sufficient (i.e., when the causes for it are seen only in insufficient technical equipment or missing skills). A third aspect of the social, cultural and economic context has to be added. In this article, digital exclusion will be analysed according to the three levels classification as suggested by Scheerder et al. (2017, 2019): (1) lack of technical equipment, (2) missing digital literacy skills, and (3) differences caused by sociodemographic and socioeconomic factors. During the months of June to December 2020, qualitative research was conducted in which pupils from 5th–8th grades, their parents, the teachers of the primary and secondary schools, and the school administration have been interviewed. The research consisted of two stages: the first one in relation to the first COVID-19 wave in Lithuania in June–July 2020, the second one – in relation to the second COVID-19 wave in October–December 2020. The data was collected via focus groups, both during face-to-face meetings and online. Research has shown that at the beginning of the online education process, the main focus of the schools was to tackle the first level difficulties (technical equipment), but the main challenges were related to the third level (sociodemographic and socioeconomic differences). In solving problems related to technical equipment, both school communities and parents have been mobilized. This depended on parents being able to ensure that their children had a proper enough computer and sufficient internet connection to ensure appropriate online learning at home. The teachers sometimes also felt individually responsible for tackling technical equipment and internet connection problems related to single pupils or their own classes. Many more difficulties were caused by the challenges related to the second level of problems involving digital literacy for all participants in online learning. Since there was not a sufficient level of open and coordinated communication during the period of distance learning, some groups within the school communities (including teachers) felt “left out” or accused of not having the necessary digital skills. The accumulated experience led to a realisation that the emerging problems here should not be seen and dealt with individually (i.e., only as the issues and responsibilities of separate pupils or teachers) but could be much more effectively tackled with the involvement of the whole school community (including the school administration and parents). During the first COVID-19 wave, school communities struggled most with the third-level difficulties of digital exclusion: it was very challenging to appropriately integrate pupils with special needs or at-risk children into the distance learning process. This was already the case before the pandemic, but distant learning created an additional edge to the existing problem of social exclusion for those groups. The lack of special needs professionals in formal school education, missing expertise and skills for working online with special needs pupils, insufficient collaboration between educational specialists and social work professionals – these problems became significant factors in the social exclusion of certain pupils during the periods of distance learning. Therefore, an understanding of digital exclusion as a complex, multi-layered phenomenon is significant in creating effective systemic strategies for tackling it, in which all participants of the school community are included and collaborate with each other.

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Robotics for children: national policies and initiatives in three European countries

Author(s): Christine W. Trueltzsch-Wijnen,Anca Velicu,Vilmantė Liubinienė / Language(s): English Issue: 24/2021

This article explores the issue of introducing children between six and ten years of age ‎to robotics and investigates the use of robots in schools and in extracurricular activities. The central ‎questions are 1) whether and how the introduction of robotics is addressed in political strategies and‎ educational policies (RQ1), and 2) what the main actors in the introduction of robots in educational‎ settings are (RQ2). Therefore, a pilot study in three European countries (Austria, Lithuania, Romania)‎was conducted, which included an analysis of national policy strategies, as well as interviews with three‎ stakeholders per country. The article illustrates the specificities of the investigated countries presented as ‎case studies and discusses them in a comparative way. The findings show that the investigated countries’‎ educational policies aim at mirroring the Digital Agenda for Europe and that two opposite approaches ‎to implementation of robotics (bottom-up vs. top-down) can be identified.‎

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Digitalized Life During the Pandemic in Anthropocene Epoch

Author(s): Tomas Nemunas Mickevičius / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2022

The article overviews and introduces the current issue of Filosofija. Sociologija. The topics include contemporary problems concerned with the integration of knowledge of Anthropocene and related issues into educational practices as well as how to reach authentic communication in technologically mediated education during the pandemic. The issue also covers the influence of computer and internet technologies on understanding of identity, as well as epistemic issues concerning the creation of artificial knowledge-producing systems, among other themes.

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THE VIRTUAL SCIENCE TEACHER AS A HYBRID SYSTEM: COGNITIVE SCIENCE HAND IN HAND WITH CYBERNETIC PEDAGOGY

Author(s): Boris Aberšek,Bojan Borstner,Janez Bregant / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2014

The findings of cybernetic pedagogy and didactics developed in the 1970s, which were in those times limited due to poor technological capabilities, are taken as a starting point in this research. A revised version of cybernetic pedagogy is proposed and is used to develop the hybrid cognitive model presented. It is not based purely on the symbolic notation of the teaching algorithm alone, as done in the past, but also on the connectionist model of our cognition, which draws on the brain’s characteristics and their physiological and functional structure, such as parallel data processing, content associative memory and divided presentations. The learning process algorithm can be, on the basis of this idea, re-defined as a hybrid cognitive model, i.e. a combination of a symbol system and a neural network, and named mRKP. The article concludes that an intelligent artificial tutor can independently, i.e. without the need for reprogramming, accommodate the learning process to the needs and possibilities of an individual student if it uses mRKP as its basis, and can eventually replace a human tutor in some situations, but a human teacher must decide where and when it should be used.

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