Viability of Using Digital Games for Improving Team Cohesion: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Author(s): Juraj Kovalčík,Magdaléna Švecová,Michal Kabát / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

Team cohesion, teamwork and team building are important constructs regarding teams and their performance in various organizations and environments. In this review, we summarize the current state of research on the influence of digital games on team cohesion and related constructs. We found a total of 7 studies that fit the criteria, resulting in 18 outcomes. Among the 18 outcomes that improved throughout the intervention, 15 reported significant improvement from the intervention and 3 reported no significant differences. Specifically, team communication, task delegation, atmosphere, trust, team flow, team performance and goal commitment were the most improved sub-constructs by team building video gaming interventions. The majority (n = 9) of those with significant improvements post-test were from randomly controlled trials (RCTs) with single or two control groups. Overall, we found that team video gaming may be effective in supporting team cohesion or team building; however, to enhance the understanding of the relationship between digital games and team cooperation, it is recommended to extend or vary gameplay intervention times, prioritize diverse outcome measures, address reporting biases, conduct follow-up assessments, include diverse populations and report demographics, and recognize the specific effects of different game features on outcomes.

From Fossils to Pixels: Palaeontologists Playing and Streaming Digital Games

Author(s): Caitlin Syme,Jake Atterby,Victor Monnin / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

Interview with Jake ATTERBY and Caitlin SYME by Victor Monnin

Soul hackers 2

Author(s): Miroslav Macák / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

Review of: ATLUS: Soul Hackers 2 (PlayStation 5 version). [digital game]. Tokyo : Sega, 2022.

The Effectiveness of Using Digital Books on the Problem-Solving Ability of High School Students in Physics Learning

Author(s): Nova Allysa Qotrunnada,Binar Kurnia Prahani / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2023

Problem-solving ability is one of the essential skills needed in the 21st century. Therefore, there has to be learning media that supports students' problem-solving abilities in physics lessons. One teaching material that is very suitable for the digital era is a digital book, commonly called an ebook. This study aims to determine the effectiveness of digital books in improving problem-solving over the past five years, 2018-2022 taken. This study uses a literature study method that includes reputable international and national journals. From the study results, it was found that during the last five years of the 30 journals we have reviewed, 98% that use of digital books was effective in improving problem-solving skills. This digital book can also improve some of the skills needed in the 21st century. Digital books have many advantages, including lots of pictures, graphs, phenomena, and animations that are relevant to learning physics, making learning physics more fun, and developing students' creativity in exploring and learning physics. Besides that, the drawback of digital books is that they can tire your eyes because you have to linger in front of your cell phone or laptop.

Populist Counterframing of the Climate Movement: The Case of the Hungarian Incumbent Right

Author(s): Dániel Mikecz,Balázs Böcskei,Zoltán Vasali / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2023

The paper’s aim is to understand how the populist right in Hungary answered the challenge of the climate movement, which became a significant issue in the year 2019. The paper answers the research question whether the Hungarian populist right’s narrative reactions differed from non-incumbent populist parties and movements, and to what extent the populist discourse defined these reactions. The paper analyses the content of the conservative, nationally circulated daily newspaper Magyar Nemzet and the government’s press releases between the 2018 general election and November 2020, the onset of the second wave of the Covid-19 in Hungary. The analyses of the identified frames (N = 171) demonstrate that the climate movement was interpreted as the new left, and political interests were suspected of supporting the movement in the background. The accusation of serving hidden political and economic interests and being a new form of the political left served the effort to discredit the climate movement. The results also indicate that the narrative reaction of the Hungarian populist right followed the general communication and policy agenda of the Hungarian government, rather than the inherent discursive patterns of populism. It could be rightly assumed that this interrelation is the consequence of the incumbency and strong centralization of the populist right in Hungary.

Учебно–възпитателният процес в контекста на периода „Рубикон“ според валдорфската педагодика и Рудолф Щайнер

Author(s): Velyana Penkova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2023

This article is about one of the ego or I crises that the growing young person at the age of nine goes through on his or her way to maturity. This is the time when childhood ends and that is why fear, anxiety and uncertainty appear in the children. Each and every one of us goes through this period when we lose the childish relationship and connection to the world. Later on when we grow up we have the chance to decide whether we want to gain it again but consciously or not. The more informed the teachers and the parents are about what happens to the children during this critical period that they go through, the calmer, more adequate and more useful they can be for them. And when the authorities of the children are aware what to do, what methods to apply, what subjects to teach the students and what behavior to have in front of them, the easier the children will pass through this unavoidable part of their development and the more fully they will develop and grow, receiving wonderful conditions to fully realize their potential and talents. The answers to these questions are sought in Waldorf pedagogy and Rudolf Steiner's ideas on the subject.

Finding a Dead Dove in the Refrigerator. The Anti-Shippers’ Call for Exclusion of Sensitive Content as a Means of Establishing Position in the Field of Fan Production

Author(s): Agnieszka Urbańczyk / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2022

The author of this paper uses Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory to discusses the anti-shipper movement and its call for exclusion of problematic content from online repositories of fanwork. Anti-shippers, who oppose indiscriminate inclusion of potentially harmful content and its creators in the field of fan production, are a relatively new and vocal faction inside the field. While the research on antis has focused on their methods of harassment and its effects on fan community, this paper discusses the conditions inside the field before the movement’s emergence, focusing on the affordances and terms of service of online fanwork repositories. The author proposes to treat the question of exclusion of sensitive content and its creators as one concerning the field’s autonomy, and presents the anti controversy as a way for newcomers to establish their position in the field and change its problematic.

Irritability (Need) and An-irritability (Fatigue): A Disorder of Rhythms – the Ontological Burnout

Author(s): Marina Christodoulou / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2023

In this paper, I propose to bring forward the symptom of fatigue, and/or exhaustion and burnout, brought up by the social-cultural speeds, rhythms, and acceleration, that manifests not only as quotidian tiredness and fatigue but also as what I will call an ontological burnout, that is, as an exhaustion of being as being. I will also refer to the concept of irritability and how I associate it with need, and to the concept of an-irritability (the absence of irritability) and how I associate it with fatigue. In other words, how over-irritability or excessive irritability, mostly as encountered in humans, is a disorder of (bio)-rhythms, and how the constant, intensive satisfaction of need(s) leads to fatigue.

From Braille Code to Smart Book Readers: Technology as a Tool for Reading Emancipation of the Visually Impaired Persons

Author(s): Kamila Albin / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2022

This paper illustrates how, over the course of the last two centuries, the autonomous access of the visually impaired to reading material has expanded. The author coins the term “reading emancipation” to describe these processes. She illustrates it by referring to her own research involving in-depth interviews with the visually impaired readers regarding the use of various forms of books, such as books printed in Braille, talking books and e-books. The author also traces the historical background of the transformation of alternative book formats, from the development and spread of Braille code to digital books. The description of the evolution of book formats is set against the background of the transformations taking place in Europe with a strong emphasis on the impact of these transformations on Poland.

“Tedious by Design.” Institutionalized Labor of Content Creators in the Game as a Service Model: The Path of Exile Case Study

Author(s): Mateusz Felczak / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2022

This study investigates the work of content creators in relation to developers and fans, focusing on digital platforms in a case study of the video game Path of Exile which functions in the game as a service (GaaS) model. The analysis was based on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with a diverse group of aspiring content creators and on the assessment of data extracted from distribution, streaming, and social digital platforms. The institutionalized labor of content creators, which is subjugated to the live service model curated by the developers, could be characterized by the notions of transactional play, aspirational boredom, and gaming the markets. These three elements stand for the commodification of play time, substituting actual play with broadcasted footage, and actively shaping the in-game economy, respectively. The study acknowledges the rising importance of content creators as contributors to the financial well-being of a game employing the GaaS model, while raising awareness of the cultural, economic, ethical and health issues associated with it.

“Too Easy” or “Too Much”? (Re)imagining Protagonistic Enhancement through Machine Vision in Video Games

Author(s): Ragnhild Solberg / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2022

This article explores how video games that valorize techno-masculine imaginaries of superhuman domination also present humans as depending on computational and non-human agencies to succeed. Through close readings of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Infinity Ward 2007) and Cyberpunk 2077 (CD Projekt Red 2020), I illustrate the close connection between machine vision and militarized visions of domination and agency. The analyses show how beyond-human vision enhances player characters and players, complicating the human-machine relationship in the process. Video games can build on and feed into anthropocentric and masculinist narratives. This article demonstrates how even when the technology appears to support these fantasies of human control, there are moments when it takes over or otherwise disrupts the god-like interventions of the human. By analyzing failures, glitches, and the consistent machine participation in the assemblage, I unpack explicit cases of machine agency as part of a broader assemblage, revealing a more complex power dynamics than those that are initially presented to the player. In doing so, this article demonstrates how the superhuman machine vision was never exclusively human to begin with. Understanding vision and agency as shared with machines both enables and complicates fantasies of dominance in video games.

Със или без отелеснено присъствие във виртуалната класна стая. Саморефлексия на преподавателското присъствие в синхронния езиков час онлайн

Author(s): Polina Emanuilova / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 1/2023

In a broader, non-scholarly context, teaching presence is manifested through the instructor’s ability to build rapport with their students, which, in turn, is reported to have a positive effect on students’ engagement with the content, the environment and the community. The article explores the author’s teaching pattern online, or the way her presence and persona compensate for the lack of physical space and belonging, and provide the social and cognitive circumstances needed for learning to take place, according to the constructivist stance. It intends to find an answer to the question “How does one build a teaching persona to feel comfortable within online?” Through a qualitative narrative self-inquiry, a reflective framework on teacher presence is designed to serve as a positive prompt for efficient professional help.

Съвременен поглед към особеностите на българския национален характер („Щрихи от българския национален характер…“)

Author(s): Diana Blagoeva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2023

Student Perspective on Teaching and Learning in Real Science and Humanities: A Comparative Study

Author(s): Ghiță Adelina Iulia / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2022

A current issue is the finality of education. Many teachers in pre-university education limit themselves in the instructive-educational process to strictly following the school programs, creating personal portfolios, and omitting to pay attention to the quality of the process itself. The relationship between the three types of curriculum taught-learned-evaluated- raises an alarm signal regarding the informational baggage that students are left with at the end of a lesson, a cycle, or a level of schooling. Currently, education aims to achieve the educational ideal which presupposes: “the free, integral, and harmonious development of the human individual, in the formation of an autonomous personality and the assumption of a system of values necessary for personal fulfillment and development, for the development of an entrepreneurial spirit, for active citizenship participation in society, for social inclusion, and employment on the labor market” (LEN no.1/2011, art. 2, para.3). In this sense, it is necessary to reconsider the role that teachers hold in the development of an individual who conforms to the desired societal model. Moreover, the perception that students have concerning certain subjects is projected onto the teacher's image.

Barack Obama i Donald Trump w Polsce – obraz medialny wizyt amerykańskich prezydentów w polskiej prasie codziennej

Author(s): Monika Góra / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2022

Visits by American presidents in Poland are important, socio-political and media events. This fact was the motivation to conduct research on media presentation of the visits of two American presidents – Barack Obama in 2011 and Donald Trump in 2017 – to Poland which were presented in Polish daily newspapers. The content analysis was based on opinion-forming titles: “Gazeta Wyborcza”, “Rzeczpospolita” and “Dziennik Gazeta Prawna”, and tabloids: “Fakt” and “Super Express”. The aim of the paper is to show the differences in how selected dailies cover two visits and explain where these differences might come from. The research hypothesis assumes that the ideological profile of chosen daily press determines media image of the American presidential visits in Poland, and that the significance of press materials may impact the formation of readers’ views and opinions about leaders of the USA. The author tried to answer the following questions: do the selected titles show bias against any of the presidents?, is the narration of daily newspapers similar to the tabloid press?, and do they undergo tabloidization? The article consists of five parts. The first part discusses the special relationship between Poland and the USA and the perception of American presidents’ visits to Poland. The second section describes agenda-setting, which is the theoretical framework for this study. The third part of the article describes the research methodology, which is based on content analysis. The fourth section is a description of the study of materials published in Polish daily press. The article ends with a summary of the study results. The bias was demonstrated in “Gazeta Wyborcza” (numerous articles, critical of Donald Trump), “Fakt” (numerous articles with positive attitude towards Barack Obama and Donald Trump) and “Super Express” (numerous satirical articles about Barack Obama). In the context of the discussed issues, daily newspapers did not make their narration similar to tabloid press and did not succumb to the tabloidization of media.

Komunikowanie rządowe w Polsce w pierwszym roku pandemii koronawirusa – wybrane aspekty

Author(s): Waldemar Sobera / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2022

This article presents selected tools and communication channels used by the Polish government during the crisis management related to the SAR S-CoV-2 pandemic in Poland. The aim of the research was to analyze the most popular tools used in the crisis communication, their characteristics and an evaluation of their effectiveness. Crisis communication during the fight against a pandemic is especially important because its purpose is to preserve the health and life of citizens. Mixed research methods and techniques were used in the study, such as desk research, content analysis and comparative analysis. The methods and techniques allowed for answering the research questions, for example: adaptation of communication tools to the different age of recipients; the channels and forms of communication used; changes in the methods of communication related to restrictions; using new technologies. The comparison of the used methods of reaching the audience, visual creations, and costs incurred helps to assess the effectiveness of communication of the authorities in the first year of the pandemic.

Komercjalizacja edukacji jako narzędzie kształtowania bezpieczeństwa społecznego. Analiza koncepcji programowych Platformy Obywatelskiej w okresie rządów (2007–2015)

Author(s): Arkadiusz Lewandowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2022

The purpose of the article was the analysis of the educational concepts of the Civic Platform from the period when the party was a part of the government coalition. Research questions, which were posed within the framework of the text, concerned the following issues: Do the political concepts of the Civic Platform in the area of education take up the issue of its commercialization as a tool to raise the level of social security? Within the article, theoretical assumptions were proposed concerning both the phenomenon of commercialization of education as well as social security, and then there was conducted an analysis of authorship educational concepts carried out by the Civic Platform. The findings made it possible to define that the concepts of the Civic Platform to a large extent fit into the neoliberal model of commercialization and economization of education. At the same time, in the discussed assumptions, there can be found elements which relate to the issues of social security, understood both narrowly (the problem of students’ living conditions), and in a broad sense (school as an institution that gives opportunities for self-realization, development and success in professional life).

Budżet obywatelski / partycypacyjny w kontekście budżetów miast wojewódzkich

Author(s): Ambroży Mituś / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2022

The subject of the study is a theoretical and legal analysis of the participatory/civic budget in the context of budgets of voivodeship cities in order to show regulatory shortcomings. The formulated hypothesis boils down to the claim that the participatory budget institution, despite the legal changes already made, requires further regulatory improvements. The content of the article has been divided into four parts. The first two present the essence and legal framework of the participatory budget and indicate regulatory shortcomings. The third part contains the results from the comparison of selected elements of civic budgets of voivodeship cities. The fourth part, presenting legal instruments/institutions similar to the participatory budget, complements the analyzed issues. The analysis uses methods appropriate to the social sciences, and in particular to the legal sciences, such as the dogmatic, historical and comparative method.

Образованието като ценност в обществото на преход

Author(s): Daniela Kovacheva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 4/2013

In our country, education is no longer a value, but rather something mandatory, the responsibility for which is being transferred between parents, teachers and the government. The victims are the youth of the nation. The main goal of this study is to determine the importance of education for our children. Jacob Bronowski once wrote: “Science is based on human values, but is also a value by itself.” Are we going to take this great value away from the generations of tomorrow? In order to preserve education as a value, we have to demonstrate with our behavior that it is a part of our values. If this happens, the teacher by himself/herself would be a value, respected by the students and the whole society.

"En nombre del gobierno", o algo diferente sobre la guerra en los Andes. Ponciano del Pino y la perspectiva polaca acerca de sus estudios sobre la violencia política

Author(s): Joanna Pietraszczyk-Sękowska / Language(s): Spanish Issue: 1/2022

El tema del artículo es la investigación de Ponciano del Pino sobre las actitudes de la población andina en el conflicto armado peruano de 1980–2000, con particular énfasis en la perspectiva utilizada por el investigador en el estudio de caso titulado “En nombre del gobierno”. El objetivo del texto es mostrar el influjo que pueda ejercer el interés de P. del Pino por los microcontextos de guerra, en forma de rivalidades inter e intraaldeanas, sobre los logros alcanzados en la investigación acerca del terror en los Andes y, por ende, el tratamiento de los actos de la violencia política como resultado de procesos históricos. En el artículo asumo que el método de reconstrucción de los hechos bélicos utilizado por el investigador permite conocer uno de los mecanismos más tabuizados del conflicto peruano, es decir, el terror de los civiles contra los civiles. El artículo fue elaborado a partir del análisis de las consecuciones de P. del Pino en cuanto a publicaciones seleccionadas en el campo de los estudios sobre la violencia bélica en los Andes, confrontándolo con los resultados de mi trabajo de campo en las provincias de Huanta y La Mar en 2005–2010 y 2015–2019.