Academic reading as a social practice in higher education

In this study, an undergraduate teacher education course is used to explore whether and how academic reading seminars reflect the theoretical notion of academic literacies and provide a learning environment for developing academic and professional learning and engagement. The data analyzed in this article are transcribed recordings of small group activities where students discuss scientific articles based on a template. First, our empirical analysis shows that the use of the template facilitated dialogical discussions and the development of a cognitive skillset and disciplinary categories when used in a social setting. Second, we found that the most challenging part of designing a reading practice related to the academic literacies tradition was fostering a dialogical environment for discussing the validity of findings across different contexts and provide for discussions encompassing complexity, nuances, and meaning making. We found traces of such discussions in all the transcripts;however, many examples were in a premature stage. The paper concludes with a discussion on, and some suggestions for, further development of the template used in the reading seminars. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Higher Education (00181560) is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Building a risky-safe-space: Using refllective pedagogies and values to support writing development in work based learning

The concepts of 'graduateness' and graduate attributes became contested terrain before COVID-19 destabilised even the most assured of shared learning constructions. Indeed, for those of us immersed in the delivery of work-based learning (WBL), this has long been the case. Promotion of reductive notions of 'skills' acquisition to comply neatly with an employability agenda holds little relevance for those students already engaged in full time careers, and with a wealth of professional experience. What can hold influence and interest, however, is the opportunity to engage in meaningful, agentic, professionally-aligned reflective practices as a scaffolded route to promoting self-awareness and developing confidence in mapping competences from the professional domain to the academic (and vice versa).This paper shares an account of taking an embedded approach to supporting the development of academic literacies amongst work-based learners in one UK HEI. In particular, it will consider the use of reflective pedagogical tools and values in supporting work-based learners to become confident and adaptable writers. Discussion considers how work-based pedagogies and approaches may have far-reaching relevance in a post-pandemic landscape, where reskilling and professional agility are likely to become more prolific aspects of education and work. Writing itself is framed as an integrated communication practice that encompasses literature retrieval, reading, evaluation, synthesis and articulation of argument. The paper will describe pre-pandemic academic support activities and share qualitative survey data in which students consider their confidence as both professional and academic writers. It concludes with consideration of how some of the approaches outlined may have relevance for the wider academic community.

Multimodal literacies and critical refllexivity: Digital storytelling as a 21st century tool for Learning Developers

Digital storytelling (DS) is a multimedia storytelling technique that has become an efficacious educational tool in tertiary environments. Individual students, supported by other students in a facilitated "Story Circle", create short videos using digital devices, still images, and a cloud-based video editor in response to a targeted story prompt. The DS process aligns closely with an emerging trend in universities to instil in their students both critical reflection skills and strong digital, media, and visual literacies to enable them to thrive in their professional and personal lives. This paper proposes the adoption of DS as an additional and innovative pedagogical strategy by Learning Developers (LDs) within discipline-specific embedded teaching. Embedded teaching is a well-established method of developing student literacies, and LDs already employ this approach to support academics across disciplines. The integration of DS into this practice would further strengthen the capacity of LDs to enhance students' capabilities as they move into post-Covid, 21st-century 'graduateness'.

Teaching presence in students' WhatsApp groups: Affordances for language learning

With the recent COVID-19 pandemic and disruption of campus-based education, the use of mobile social networking applications to supplement formal education has attracted a great deal of attention. Teachers do have opportunities to join students' online groups to share, clarify, and exchange housekeeping information and course-related content with them. Teachers can, in particular, provide English as a foreign language (EFL) students with more sources of linguistic input, interaction, and feedback. Research investigating this potential, however, is still scarce in such contexts. The current study explores the likely affordances of teaching presence in students' WhatsApp groups for designing, facilitating, and guiding cognitive and social processes conducive to their language learning. A mixed-method design was employed to collect both quantitative and qualitative data and information from English-major undergraduates (N = 111) and faculty teachers (N = 8) who joined the same WhatsApp groups for one academic semester at a major university in Oman. Descriptive and thematic analyses of data from a survey with both closed-ended and open-ended questions and semi-structured interviews indicate that the shared WhatsApp groups functioned as small close-knit communities where students were able to constantly access teachers for their assistance, feedback, and clarification of content. Despite these merits, however, the participating faculty believed that the presence of teachers in WhatsApp groups might have consequences for students' tolerance of ambiguity, scaffolding, and autonomous language learning. The paper concludes by discussing several pedagogical implications and directions for future research.

Work in Progress: A Virtual Educational Robotics Coding Club Framework to Improve K-6 Students Emotional Engagement in STEM

Educational robots allow students deepen their knowledge of mathematics and scientific concepts. Educational Robotic coding clubs provide a learning environment for K-6 students that promotes coding through STEM digital literacy. Students in educationally disadvantaged families may not have the educational and financial capital to engage in STEM learning. Closures of schools and afterschool services during the COVID-19 pandemic increased this digital divide. This research proposes a framework for delivering a virtual robotic coding club in an educationally disadvantaged community. The framework develops young people's emotional engagement in STEM through robotic coding. Synchronous online classes were delivered into family homes using Zoom. Results demonstrate that children achieved emotional engagement as reported through high levels of enjoyment and increased interest after participating in the programme. The research shows promise in increasing children's STEM skills and knowledge, and in improving positive attitudes towards STEM for children and parents. © 2023 IEEE.

A qualitative analysis of publicly available Standards and Guidance about Digital Literacies in U.S. States.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, schools had been adopting digital instruction in many parts of the world. The concept of digital literacies has also been evolving in complexity alongside the digital technologies that support it. However, little is known about what guidance available to support various levels of government in supporting digital literacies alongside digital instruction in local schools. The purpose of this study was to determine what guidance for digital literacies U.S. state departments of education had made available through their websites to local schools just prior to the onset of the pandemic. Using qualitative content analysis techniques, digital literacies guidance information was located on U.S. state departments of education websites and analyzed. Most states did not indicate that they used guidance from professional organizations about digital literacies. The 16 states that did have guidance used standards from the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), which have not been positioned by the organization as digital literacies standards, but instead reflect traditional understandings of Information Computing Technology (ICT). Implications of this study highlight potential strategies educational ministries might use to acknowledge and support digital literacies.

Understanding Children's Drawings as Sociomaterial Assemblages of Voice during Pandemic Times

During the COVID-19 pandemic, schools transitioned to online learning. Utilizing sociomaterial assemblages and visual methods alongside interviews to prompt children's voices, we collected drawings from primary students at two Eastern Canadian schools to achieve a multimodal understanding of children's online learning experiences. Younger children's drawings reflected the issues with technology and lack of socialization, while older children depicted their enjoyment with online learning with the agency afforded by learning from home. We found that pedagogical creativity and innovation were essential to successful online learning. This research demonstrates the efficacy of a sociomaterial perspective on children's drawings for eliciting children's agentic voices.

CULTURE TRANSFORMATION - ENCULTURATION TO ACCULTURATION

Enculturation is learning the culture you grow up in and Acculturation is learning a culture different from that in which you grew up. The situation becomes more challenging when you are doing business in a developing country having low literacy rate and high cultural & language barriers. This paper describes the cultural transformation, behavioral systems and improvement initiatives Fatima Fertilizers Limited (FFL) has successfully implemented in past 9 years to improve the safety culture dimensions and to ensure compliance with standards. This resulted in improvement of FFL safety records to world class level. It will also describe the details of implementation process and maturing steps of systems on Behavioral/Cultural aspects and elements such as Process Safety Leadership & Engagement Program, Management Safety Audit Program, Perception Surveys, Operational Discipline & Excellence, Field vigilance & Area audits Program, Line Management Responsibility, Observation Reporting, Analysis & Action Plans and Contractor Safety Management Program etc which resulted in achievement of such remarkable results. The paper also includes the Organizations' vision & future plans on sustaining and further improving process safety culture as per changing & challenging scenarios across the globe especially post COVID-19. © 2022 AIChE Spring Meeting and 18th Global Congress on Process Safety, GCPS 2022. All rights reserved.

Teacher Digital Literacy and Its Influence on Learning Sessions at the Initial Level in Schools in the Context of Covid-19

The objective of this study was to determine the influence of teachers' digital literacy on the development of learning sessions at the early education level in a public school in northern Lima (Peru) in the context of Covid-19. Using a qualitative case study approach, a semi-structured interview was applied to teachers with experience in teaching early childhood education. The results show that digital literacy influences the development and methodology of visual, auditory and kinesthetic learning sessions, since it is known that infants are in the digital era where many of them know how to use a variety of tools and applications. Finally, digital resources are crucial in the performance of teachers and in the cognitive process of children. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Disinformation in Social Networks: A Systematic Review on Fake News in Times of Pandemic

The use of social media, low literacy, fast information sharing and preprint services are identified as the main causes of the infodemic [4] and among its consequences we find that it can promote public health risk behaviors globally. The results of Fake news represents a threat to societies in the context of the pandemic. The aim of this article is to review existing research on fake news in the last 2 years, discussing the characteristics of infodemics, media/digital literacy and its impact on society, as well as highlighting mechanisms to detect and curb fake news on covid-19 in social networks. Thirty articles were analyzed and selected from 1354 open access articles on this subject. The conclusion was that knowledge of fake news should be taken note of due to the harmful effects on society, considering the informational contexts (epistemic, normative and emotional), together with media literacy to increase trust and emphasize public health messages with emotionally relevant and scientifically based content, in order to continue conducting research that allows a 100% effective recognition and elimination of untruthful information on social networks. © 2022 Copyright for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

Cybersecurity Concerns Under COVID-19: Representations on Increasing Digital Literacy in Higher Education

The COVID-19 brought several new challenges for the students and lecturers, particularly in higher education. The conventional physical classroom was almost instantly pushed into a new environment: a remote session class. And this lecturing paradigm shift occurred, necessarily, in a short period of time. The lecturing players suffered the pressure of using different learning tools and methodologies while exposing themselves to, in most part of cases, unexpected cybersecurity threats. The purpose of this article is to clarify all the new menaces that arose during this period. Also, to understand the level of exposure and impacts on the lecturer and student to this quick but necessary paradigm shift. Methodologically: two focus groups were undertook to capture representations of students about uses of computer technology;differences in exposure to threats before and during the pandemic and impacts on society;student's needs regarding the topic and suggestions about strategies for increasing overall knowledge about it. Answers were treated recurring to software webQDA®—Qualitative Data Analysis Software for analysis of qualitative data. Results depict the exposure to cybersecurity issues and some level of knowledge about them, inducing preventive practices when using informatics technology. Sense of increasing insecurity in society is associated with the statement of increasing activity regarding cybercrime, giving way to the assumption of the need of awareness and knowledge of general public regarding this issues, and rise suggestions on teaching approaches directed to the subject. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Literacy Clinics During COVID-19: Voices that Envision the Future

The resiliency of literacy clinics was tested during 2020–2021, as many pivoted from in-person (F2F) to online or 3-way remote learning because of the COVID-19 pandemic. University-based literacy clinics advance teacher education, provide services to K-12 students who may need instructional support, and are a laboratory for research. The purpose of the study was to examine modifications in literacy instruction and assessment as a consequence of the changes in modality. Participants (n = 58) were literacy clinic directors/instructors from multiple states and countries. Data were analyzed in three phases: researchers individually coded;multiple teams cross-checked;a macro team collated across themes. Alterations during the pandemic involved place, time, types of texts, innovative instructional tools, and new ways of operationalizing literacy assessment and instruction. Some clinics used technology to transform instruction and innovate, while for others the goal was to replicate existing practices. Teachers, students in the context of their families, and teacher educators demonstrated resiliency, resourcefulness, and creativity in the face of interruptions and stress. Findings, viewed through the lens of the TPACK framework, can help us understand how transformations in instruction and assessment affect literacy learning not only in the context of clinics, but in school classrooms as well.

Effect of Digital Literacy and IT Service Quality on Tourists' Visit Decision to Marine Attractions During the Covid-19 Pandemic

This study aims to determine the effect of the level of Digital Literacy and the quality of Information Technology on Tourists' Visit Decisions to Lampung marine tourism during the COVID-19 Pandemic. From the results of questionnaires distributed to 106 tourists. All the questions in the given questionnaire were declared 100% valid by comparing the rcount value of each question item, which was more than the rtable value 0.195. The calculation results of the reliability test, all variables X1, X2, and Y have Cronbach's alpha coefficient of more than 0.6. So that all variables are declared reliable. Furthermore, based on the hypotheses testing of H1, H2, and H3, the results can be concluded that Digital Literacy and IT Service Quality individually or simultaneously positively and significantly influence the Tourist Decision to Visit Lampung Marine Attraction during the Covid-19 pandemic. Moreover, the R2 value of 0.631 indicates that the level of Digital Literacy and the IT Service Quality can explain Interest in Decisions to Visit Marine Tourism in Lampung during the COVID-19 pandemic at a percentage of 63.1%. © 2023 IEEE.

Family literacies during the COVID-19 lockdown: Semiotic assemblages and meaning making at home

When home became the primary place for children's learning during the COVID-19 lockdown, a dominant rhetoric emerged about a literacy-skills crisis, especially involving learners from low-income and culturally and linguistically diverse families. By documenting the literacies practiced and the literacy-learning opportunities created in and among households during the lockdown in the spring and summer of 2020, this study turns this deficit-oriented rhetoric on its head. Conducted by parents with their children (aged 2-15), this collective biography found that during the lockdown households were forced into spaces that were physically constrained yet replete with a wide range of semiotic resources. Parents and children used these resources, which included multiple modes, media, and languages, to produce expansive literacies and literacy-learning opportunities. The present study offers suggestions about how to recognize and build on learners' linguistic, cultural, and semiotic repertoires in the creation of literacy curricula. © 2023 Elsevier Inc.

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.

The intermingled meanings of PhoneMe: Exploring transmodal, place-based poetry in an online social network

This research paper explores how preservice teachers engaged with the transmodal place-based poetry on PhoneMe, an educational social media platform for sharing poetry and vocal performances about place. This work is situated in literature on digital place-based education and theoretical scholarship exploring transmodality and the shifting entanglement of meanings and modes. In this paper, we share findings from a research survey conducted with teacher candidates in a core teacher education literacy course that had transitioned online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We discuss how participants engaged with the transmodal poetry in the survey and how their perceived poetic meaning and poetic connections changed with each additional modality. We share the pedagogical implications of our findings as well as ideas gleaned from the data for integrating the PhoneMe platform and pedagogy in secondary school classrooms. In the discussion, we explore how engagement with transmodal place-based digital poetry can be a unique way to draw together place-based education, digital literacies, social media literacies, and poetry pedagogy in a way that is visceral, relational, and highly relevant to contemporary lives and classrooms both on and offline. © 2022 International Literacy Association.

The Use of Digital Tools in French as a Second Language Teacher Education in Ontario

This article discusses a 2021 survey of French as a second language (FSL) teacher candidates (TCs) in faculties of education in Ontario whose practice teaching experiences were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, pivoting them into remote FSL teaching and learning. The survey, which formed a component of a larger mixed method SSHRC-funded research project, was designed to capture the varied practice-teaching experiences of FSL teacher candidates in order to ascertain symmetries and asymmetries in their preferred digital practices, devices, and tools for both social communication and French language teaching and learning. Survey respondents from different teacher education programs in universities across Ontario provided a picture of scattered and fragmented approaches to FSL digital pedagogies and hinted at a persistent reliance on traditional FSL pedagogies in the classroom. Digital preferences for teaching and learning tended to be anchored in common educational tools and platforms that reaffirmed teacher-centred approaches to FSL rather than more innovative, learner-centred, and agentive language teaching and learning. The survey results raise an important question: Has FSL teacher education adequately moved with the communicative changes wrought by wider socio-technical transformations and related pedagogical innovations?

Digital literacy during the coronavirus pandemic in older adults: Literature Review and Research Agenda

Demographic change in the developed world is leading to a higher proportion of older adults and longer life expectancy. Measures to control the coronavirus disease have affected older adults the most. Social isolation and access to remote health services has been a problem for many people. We have used the method of scientific literature review. The selection of articles was made in accordance with the following inclusion criteria: accessibility, scientificity, content relevance and topicality. After selection, the results were analysed by qualitative content analysis. With the content analysis of twenty scientific articles, we gained an insight into digital literacy of older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. Three content categories were identified: (1) poor digital literacy of older adults, (2) inequality in ICT access, (3) use of ICT reduces the negative impact of social isolation. We note that there is a large digital divide in digital literacy and competences among older adults which expanded during the coronavirus disease pandemic. Several factors, including socio-economic status, internet access and the poor adaptation of ICT for older adults affect digital literacy. Rapid development of remote health and social care, poor digital literacy of older adults and the poor adaptation of ICT for older adults dictate that the problem must be tackled systemically. Copyright © 2022 The Authors.

Systemic Dynamics of Digital Education in Foreign Languages Programs

The global pandemic and subsequent quarantine measures and restrictions have posed an array of challenges to the structure and procedure of higher education workflow, which influenced significantly the scope of individual experiences, projected outcomes and estimated quality of higher education in countries across the world. This study focus is the in-depth assessment of the progress in individual digital and hybrid learning experiences by students of different tiers (Bachelor's level, Master's level, Graduate school level) in Oriental (Mandarin Chinese, Japanese) and European (French, Italian, Spanish, English) Languages university level programs at Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University of Ukraine through the span of educational activities in the time-frame of COVID-19 quarantine measures of March 2020 to November 2021. The comparative survey benchmarking and analysis of different e-learning dimensions is used to assess the progress and challenges of individual quality and efficiency of translation of the real life Foreign Languages Acquisition practices into digital and hybrid format, involving activation of interoperable skills and cross-sectorial activities, facilitated by digital tools. Two consecutive online surveys of over 500 students of Oriental and European Languages programs provide for disclosure of progressive dynamics of student satisfaction with digitalized foreign languages education, assessment of systematized individual experiences and changes in quality estimation of e-learning and hybrid learning in the framework of COVID-19 lockdown through the years 2020-2021;assessment of changes in individual experiences and quality of e-learning and hybrid learning in the framework of COVID-19 lockdown as compared to traditional, face-to-face learning formats for foreign languages;individual quality assessment of learning process design, dynamic development of programmed learning outcomes and projected competences for university programs of Oriental and European languages in the framework of 2020-2021 quarantine measures. Copyright 2022. © by the International Institute of Informatics and Systemics. All rights reserved.

Trends and challenges of digital divide and digital inclusion: A bibliometric analysis

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are of great importance in today's society and have permeated different aspects of human life. In fact, access to them is now considered a fundamental right. There exists, however, a gap between individuals and populations who have access to these technologies and those who do not, which has led to social exclusion. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the effects of this disparity. In this regard, digital inclusion, through ICTs, becomes a strategy to close not only technical but also social gaps, thereby bringing well-being to vulnerable groups and favouring compliance with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Given the importance and topicality of this matter, we conducted a bibliometric analysis, which aims to answer what are the main trends in digital inclusion and digital divide studies and what are the challenges facing digital inclusion initiatives in the social context? For this purpose, we applied a search equation in Scopus and used VOSviewer. With this analysis, we were able to identify the evolution of publications over time and the main authors, countries and topics in the field, and the trends and challenges in digital inclusion initiatives. Finally, we conclude that this study can be used to address other research topics, such as the role of ICTs in the promotion of the SDGs through digital inclusion initiatives, the psychosocial aspects of technology adoption and the need for public policies that serve as a platform for digital and social inclusion. © The Author(s) 2023.