Ethics and Marketing of Social Integration in Cultural, Heritage and Educational Contexts

In the current situation, Covid-19 has highlighted inequalities in all parts of the planet, demarcating a gap between the pandemic framework and social relationships, which require ethics and care in the distance scenario. In this sense, there is an urgent need to proceed with the ethics of care, both in terms of knowledge and action, and it is opportune to reflect on the link between health and education, in a systematic way. Therefore, in this article, the objective is to analyze the systems of acquisition of peace, education and health, aiming to highlight a culture based on the stimulation of conscience, in favour of integration and peaceful transposition of life in society. It is believed that the ethics of care is an element of social integration, based on moral feelings and the human ability to responsibly care for others. From this perspective, it appears that adequate support guarantees the continuity of learning and helps to reduce socio-educational gaps. In this way, it is necessary to defend a social experience in which differences can be recognized, valued and used, in line with the fulfillment of human rights, and the equality of conditions for all, especially those that allude to the containment of the recent pandemic. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Digitalization and Its Dimensions in a Social and Educational Context

The aim of the article is to show the role of digital skills and literacy as a consequence of the processes of digitalization, but also as a prerequisite for conducting online learning in educational systems. The different dimensions of digitalization and the formation of digital skills by people of different ages and professions are analysed. The methodology is based on various surveys, including an online survey conducted by the authors of the article among the Bulgarian population on the state of digitalization and online learning. An important place in the study is occupied by online education in secondary and higher education in the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic. Views and assessments of the participants in the learning process and their readiness for mobile learning are shown. The main conclusion of the article is that in Bulgarian society there is a relatively good availability of digital skills, which are important for modern processes. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Coping with the COVID-19 Pandemic: Comparative Case Study of Coping and Resilience in Children From Different Educational Contexts in Colombia

In 2020, humanity experienced one of the most complex situations in history: The COVID-19 pandemic, which caused significant social, economic, and educational consequences. Nevertheless, countries and people generally survived. Why? Resilience and the ability to cope are fundamental elements in human, community, and national survival. This study compared the situations experienced by six children from different social and educational backgrounds in Colombia during the COVID 19 pandemic using a collective analysis of cases. Interviews with children's families, as well as observations of the participants and a narrative instrument from the BASIC Ph resiliency model (Lahad, 2016) are used to describe the context, the promoting factors of resilience, and the so-called coping "channels” of each case. Results showed that (a) the difficulties perceived by families during the pandemic were different from those perceived by the children, and (b) the predominant coping channels had an important relationship with factors that promote resilience. Finally, although it is not clear from the present study whether the children developed resilience, they exhibited factors that determine their future development. © 2023 The Author(s).

African Diaspora Engineering Education Student Experiences in the US: A Collaborative Autoethnographic Study

The number of students of African origin traveling abroad for postgraduate engineering education has increased over the last 30 years. Studying abroad provides unique experiences and benefits for African students and the host country. These experiences place international scholars in an ideal position to reflect on the different experiences between the practices, attitudes, social diversity, and competency development they find in their new study destinations and hence can make suggestions for improvement in their home and host countries. This paper explores the experience, reflections, and adaptation of African scholars to their international educational context during the COVID pandemic, using a collaborative autoethnography methodology. Elements of the theoretical frameworks of acculturation theory and adaptability theory were used in the collection, analysis, and discussion of the paper to address the following research questions: 1) What are the experiences and perspectives of African Diaspora graduate scholars in undertaking engineering education studies in the US? 2) What improvements are suggested for the study environments in their home countries and in the US? The findings raise provocative thoughts about the culture of and the philosophies behind the present nature of instruction, assessment, student supervision, experiences, and workload in the US and African countries. We argue for a need to disrupt several realities that have become a norm for African diaspora students and suggest how this can be done drawing from our own experiences within these unique environments. © 2022 IEEE.

Social Factors Linked to Uncertainty in the Online Educational Context Infirst-Year Engineering Students

Virtual emergency education has been characterized by a lack of contact and directsocial interaction. In first-year students, who experience a process of social integration at the university, this aspect can be linked to a greater perception of uncertainty, complicating their effective integration. The present study sought to evaluate the relationships between variables linked to social integration and the perceived uncertainty during emergency virtual education. For this, a brief instrument was constructed and evaluated to assess the perceived uncertainty in the educational context. An associative-predictive design was used with 459 first-year engineering students to whom a virtual survey was applied to achieve both objectives. The results showed evidence of validity and reliability for the instrument.Inaddition, they showed statistically significant relationships between the different included social integration variables and uncertainty with effect sizes ranging from moderate to small.Based on these results, it is possible to conclude the existence of a relevant link between the social integration of students and the uncertainty perceived during the period of admission to the university. In this way, having social support, feeling that they belong and not being socially isolated can be protective factors against the perception of uncertainty. © 2022 IEEE.

Teachers’ emotions, technostress, and burnout in distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Distance Learning (DL) supported teachers and students, allowing them to have a virtual educational context in which continuing to teach, study, and interact. However, several difficulties were reported by teachers in using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), which in turn negatively influenced their emotional state and contributed to technological stress (technostress) and burnout onset. In this study, we wanted to investigate whether experiencing negative emotions while using DL, the instruction delivery mode (i.e., online;face-to-face;blended), and the risk of technostress could predict teachers' burnout;whether active technical support from participants' institutions could represent a protective factor against burnout;if there is a difference between female and male participants in experiencing technostress. Results confirmed that negative emotions and technostress, but not the instruction delivery mode, predict burnout;support from institutions may represent a protective factor;there were no differences between male and female teachers in experiencing anxiety linked to technostress. Possible explanation for these results and implications for practice are discussed. © 2020 Copyright for this paper by its authors.

A Virtual Reality Serious Game for Children with Dyslexia: DixGame

Children with reading and writing difficulties, such as dyslexia, have been directly affected by the Covid-19 situation because they could not have the teacher’s face-to-face support. Consequently, new devices and technological applications are being used in educational contexts to improve the interest of learning. This paper presents the design of a Virtual Reality Serious Game called DixGame. This game is a pedagogical tool specifically oriented to children between 8 and 12 years old with dyslexia. Two immersive mini-games are included in this game: a Whack-a-mole and a Memory, which try to improve different skills keeping the children focused on tasks. Whack-a-mole aims to work on the attention and visual and reading agility by recognizing correct letters and words. Memory aims to improve memory and attention ability by pairing letter-cards. The mini-game structure permits to incorporate new levels or games and the progressive increment of difficulty allows the autonomous treatment. © 2022, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Understanding the influence of Teachers’ Beliefs and Professional Dispositions on Technology use in South African Secondary Schools before and during COVID

Those advocating for technology integration within education claim that teachers need to reform their pedagogic practices to make learning more engaging and relevant. While educational technology researchers claim teachers are primarily responsible for these failures, it seems teachers do not embrace technology unquestionably. This paper aims to develop an understanding of how teachers’ beliefs and professional dispositions (PDs) influence technology use within different social and educational contexts. A set of three interviews were conducted at four South African secondary schools with vastly different social contexts, over different periods of time (before and during COVID) with cross-case analyses. Findings show that the provision of technology does not guarantee integration as use varies amongst teachers within technology-rich schools, with teachers who hold more positive Internal Beliefs (IBs) of technology not only focusing less on External Structure (ES) barriers, but also utilising technology in more varied ways, even to enhance and transform their pedagogic practices. Furthermore, teachers’ PDs seem to exist on a continuum and do not appear to be the sole influencer of technology use, with the context alongside the school’s technology policy and related technology structures influencing teachers’ IBs and resulting technology use. In addition, while mandatory use of technology during COVID led to more positive IBs as teachers understood the value of the technology, this only appears to be true if external structures (ESs) supported the learners as well. Moreover, all teachers expressed their belief that technology is no replacement for face-to-face teaching. Finally, the rich data from the interviews underlined the intricacies of factors influencing the use of technology in classrooms, indicating a need for a meta-theory to gain a holistic understanding of technology use by teachers. © 2022, EasyChair. All rights reserved.

The dilemma of online gamified learning in Malaysian educational context: A qualitative study on Malaysian university students' perspective

The situation of the Covid-19 pandemic had prompted the educational sector to conduct teaching and learning online, but such a learning environment affects students in various ways including motivation, engagement and more. Gamification, a term coined by Nick Pelling in 2002 is the concept of applying game elements and game mechanics in a non-game situation in hope of changing a person's behaviour. The use of gamification in the learning environment by previous researchers had shown the possibility of overcoming such problems. However, with the failure of technological infrastructure in the context of Malaysia, multiple dilemmas arise. This study is done by interviewing 30 university students from the School of Educational Studies and the analysation of data is done using an inductive approach of thematic analysis. The study further discussed the dilemma faced by educators from the perspectives of students. Thus, hoping to provide certain new insight to educators and other researchers. © 2022 IEEE.

Appropriation of the Maker methodology to stimulate Invisible Learning in high school students in times of Covid-19

The current educational context is facing new educational challenges due to the worldwide proliferation of Covid-19. For this reason, it was necessary to generate a digital literacy oriented from a creative and innovative perspective, in this regard it was decided to apply the Maker methodological style, to high school students from the Arequipa region in Peru. Likewise, considering that education is being developed in homes under the E-learning modality, it was necessary to stimulate invisible learning, because its application offers many possibilities to develop skills, abilities, capacities, competencies that are not formally established in the curriculum and that are necessary for life;starting from learning by doing, promoting creativity and taking the context into consideration. The main objective of this study was to analyze the appropriation of the Maker methodology in the educational field to determine the impact it may have. The applied research methodology was mixed, and a survey was applied to 350 students, of both sexes, at the secondary level, whose ages are between 14 and 17 years old. This research study allowed to conclude that the Maker methodology, applied in times of pandemic, is effective to improve the learning and motivational level of students starting from learning by doing, experimenting, playing, creating, researching, and innovating, where the initiative and strengths of the students they are the driving forces for this development. © 2021 IEEE.

Redesigning Educational Innovation in the Post-COVID- 19 Era

The context of the COVID 19 pandemic has accelerated the processes of innovation in education, radically modifying the pedagogical practice of teachers and the learning processes of students, in addition to the precariousness of the equipment that in many cases has been shown to hinder the normal development of the educational process. In this edition of CITIE, the variety of educational contexts explains the importance of contextualization in educational innovation processes. © 2020 for this paper by its authors.

COVID-19 and the Educational Area: Emotional Management and Well-Being in Teachers

The pandemic caused by COVID-19 had and still has implications in the social relationship between human beings and at the school level and families with school-age children and young people. The school had to quickly conceive an effective intervention plan regarding learning. Teachers, some with more, others with less training in Educational Technology, had to, in record time, modify their entire methodological plan of intervention with their students. This research team decided to study the implications of this pandemic in the educational context in the teaching community. This research focuses on the repercussions of the pandemic on teachers' emotional management and psychological well-being through an online questionnaire (Google Forms) administered between the beginning of the school term in September 2020 and March 2021. © 2021 ACM.