Didactic Use Research Articles

Minecraft: A Remote Laboratory for Game-Based Distance Learning

Immersive learning environments are some of the technological and cognitive artifacts that can support active teaching approaches, in which product and process evaluation can sustain significant learning even in remote contexts, if well designed and calibrated for the students in training. The paper delves into the experience of remote laboratory teaching conducted within the MineClass project between 2018 and 2021, during which the pandemic school saw a reduction at a national level of active and collaborative laboratory activities due to social distancing, both in-person and remotely. The study integrates results from case studies, qualitative and quantitative surveys, and semi-structured interviews directed at participants in the experimentation. Within the larger primary sample, a follow-up questionnaire was administered in 2022 with the aim of exploring the didactic use of the video game during the pandemic years; most respondents reported continuing laboratory teaching activities with Minecraft even to support distance learning after the conclusion of the MineClass project. The results show the positive impact of the experimentation in terms of perceived added value by teachers for the development of cross-cutting competences, increased motivation, involvement, and autonomy of their students. Conference organisers' note: This paper was granted the EDEN Best Research Paper Award, in cooperation with The UNESCO Chair in Education and Technology for Social Change. It is a traditional award of EDEN Annual Conferences and Research Workshops. The appointed honourable jury blind selects 8-10 finalists and appoints only 1 Best Research Paper Award that is officially announced during the Gala dinner of the Conference. EDEN Best Research Paper Award competition is based on evaluation results on submission of Full Papers presented to the Annual Conference that follow five standard evaluation criteria: The paper deals with a research question. Rigorous examination/research methods are applied. Findings, results and outcomes are convincingly presented and critically examined. Conclusions are thoroughly discussed (including applicability, transferability, and further research. Literature is reviewed against state of the art. The composition of the honourable jury for the EDEN Best Research Paper Award is composed in cooperation with The UNESCO Chair in Education and Technology for Social Change: Alfredo Soeiro, Chair, University of Porto, Portugal Orna Farrell, Dublin City University, Ireland Maria Rosaria Re, University of Roma Tre, Italy

Engineering professors' habits: didactic use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

Engineering professors' habits: didactic use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

Teachers' digital competence for ICT skills in the 21st century: an assessment of their development

Currently, the role of the teacher in education and its relationship with technological, information, and communication competencies is the subject of much attention in educational contexts. Thus, the objective of this study was to describe the results of concurrent mixed research, which evaluated the digital aptitude of teachers concerning ICT skills from a theoretical perspective established by UNESCO and the MEN. Therefore, the study was conducted with the participation of teachers of the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences of the University of La Guajira, Colombia, to know how they assumed their professional development concerning the technological competencies of the XXI century. The study identifies a very moderate use of active strategies and didactics supported by ICT. Likewise, limitations are found in the classrooms regarding technological infrastructure and connectivity, which hinder the integration of ICTs in the academic and student environment.

Measuring teachers’ competencies for a purposeful use of augmented reality experiments in physics lessons

Nowadays, teachers are facing a more and more digitized world, as digital tools are being used by their students on a daily basis. This requires digital competencies in order to react in a professional manner to individual and societal challenges and to teach the students a purposeful use of those tools. Regarding the subject (e.g., STEM), this purpose includes specific content aspects, like data processing, or modeling and simulations of complex scientific phenomena. Yet, both pre-service and experienced teachers often consider their digital teaching competencies insufficient and wish for guidance in this field. Especially regarding immersive tools like augmented reality (AR), they do not have a lot of experience, although their willingness to use those modern tools in their lessons is high. The digital tool AR can target another problem in science lessons: students and teachers often have difficulties with understanding and creating scientific models. However, these are a main part of the scientific way of acquiring knowledge and are therefore embedded in curricula. With AR, virtual visualizations of model aspects can be superimposed on real experimental backgrounds in real time. It can help link models and experiments, which usually are not part of the same lesson and are perceived differently by students. Within the project diMEx (digital competencies in modeling and experimenting), a continuing professional development (CPD) for physics teachers was planned and conducted. Secondary school physics educators were guided in using AR in their lessons and their digital and modeling competencies for a purposeful use of AR experiments were promoted. To measure those competencies, various instruments with mixed methods were developed and evaluated. Among others, the teachers’ digital competencies have been assessed by four experts with an evaluation matrix based on the TPACK model. Technological, technical and design aspects as well as the didactical use of an AR experiment were assessed. The teachers generally demonstrate a high level of competency, especially in the first-mentioned aspects, and have successfully implemented their learnings from the CPD in the (re)design of their AR experiments.

Jan Erik Vold’s Concrete Poems: a Way to Enhance Students’ Creativity and Grammar Skills in Norwegian

"Jan Erik Vold’s Concrete Poems: A Way to Enhance Students’ Creativity and Grammar Skills in Norwegian. The current paper aims to present the didactic use of the Norwegian concrete poems. The concept of concrete poetry will be approached through Jan Erik Vold’s literary perspective as the promoter of concretism in Norway. In order to prove the effectiveness of these poems in the teaching process, a survey was conducted including a questionnaire with closed-ended and open-ended questions. The respondents were 1st- and 2nd- year students of BA in Norwegian language and literature and a group of 3rd-year students from The Centre for Language Industries, enrolled at the Faculty of Letters, at Babeș-Bolyai University. This research aimed at the effectiveness of using Vold’s concrete poems when teaching specific language structures in Norwegian. Thus, a survey was done at the end of one semester of experiment when I used Jan Erik Vold’s concrete poems for my students during my Norwegian language courses and seminars. The results showed that especially during these seminars students read, analyse and design concrete poems in Norwegian, including grammatical and typographical poems, ready-mades, tongue twisters and nursery-rhymes-like poems, in order to better understand and to revise a specific grammatical, syntactic or lexical structure in Norwegian. Keywords: Norwegian language, concrete poems, Jan Erik Vold, visual poem, grammatical poem "

Colonial rhetoric in cinema for didactic use from a transnational view. The Italian epic film Cabiria (1914) at the Indian Industrial School of Carlisle

ABSTRACT The first silent epic Italian film, Cabiria (1914) by Giovanni Pastrone with the screenplay co-written by the director and the poet Gabriele D’Annunzio was used as an educational tool at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in 1915. The film’s plot unfolds during the Second Punic War (218 to 201 BC). The film’s narrative is pro-empire propaganda for Italy’s recent occupation of Libya (1911–1912). The visual narrative is rich in colonial rhetoric. It shows the viewers the friendship between the enslaved man Maciste, interpreted by a white man wearing blackface, and the Roman soldier and colonizer Fulvio Axilla. This essay analyses the film’s construction of racialized bodies and locates it within the larger context of cultural assimilation through visual technologies applied at the Carlisle school. This analysis focuses on the intermedial imagination of a progressive whitening process in moving pictures, photographs, and lantern slides used at the school.

Statistical Analysis of Professors’ Assessment Regarding the Didactic Use of Virtual Reality: Engineering vs. Health

Virtual reality (VR) has proven to be an efficient didactic resource in higher education after the pandemic caused by COVID-19, mainly in the Engineering and Health Sciences degrees. In this work, quantitative research is carried out on the assessments made by Latin American professors of Health Sciences and Engineering of the didactic use of VR. Specifically, the gaps by university tenure in the assessments given by the professors of each of the two areas of knowledge analyzed are identified. For this purpose, a validated questionnaire has been used, which has been applied to a sample of 606 professors. As a result, it is shown that the professors of Engineering and Health Sciences have similar self-concepts of their digital competence, but the Engineering professors give higher values to the technical and didactic aspects of VR. Moreover, in both areas, professors from private universities rate VR technologies more highly than those from public universities, this gap being wider in Health Sciences. Finally, some recommendations are offered regarding digital training and the use of VR, derived from the results of this study.

Toward an Effective Model for Evaluating Distance Education

Distance education has become popular due to their ability to provide learning from almost anywhere and anytime. COVID-19 forced educational institutions to urgently introduce distance education to ensure pedagogical continuity, so all stakeholders were invited to adapt to this new paradigm. In order to identify strengths and weaknesses, the research focuses on the need to create an effective mechanism for evaluating distance education. The aims of this research were to explore and evaluate the use of digital media in general and official platforms in particular in distance education practices. To this end, we have developed and validated a questionnaire before administering it to a sample of 431 teachers in Morocco. Teachers reported lower knowledge and skills in the didactic use of ICT in the distance education process. In addition, although age and educative experience of the teachers continue to modulate the level of instrumental skills. Therefore, resources (digital resources and infrastructure) and the teachers’ ICT training present serious limitations, which require a training more focused on the distance educational paradigm and educational environments that allow teachers to create educational activities able to promote and facilitate the distance learning process.

La Tabla Periódica de la Equidad en Salud: experiencia de innovación educativa para la construcción colectiva de conocimiento

IntroductionHealth equity is a value linked to the concept of human rights and social justice, which seeks to enable people to develop their highest health potential regardless their social position. In order to articulate specific strategies aimed at health equity for health professionals, it is necessary reform teaching methodology and explore innovations that promote learning, exposing these professionals to community and global health challenges, while promoting understanding and awareness of equity, inequalities and social determinants of health. The overall objective of this paper is to disseminate an experience of educational innovation, which through the construction of collective knowledge, has resulted in a semantic framework around the concept of equity in health. MethodsThe participatory action research methodology was used, mediated by the use of ICTs, framed in the Horizon 2030 recommendations for responsible research and innovation. The data collection instrument was based on the didactic use of metaphor and consisted of a shared document called Periodic Table of Equity in Health. ResultsA sample of 15 students compiled a total of 117 terms related to health equity, grouped under human rights, cultural competence, intercultural mediation and others. ConclusionsIn a health education where the technological rational paradigm continues to prevail, proactive and creative educational innovations are necessary, which should not be articulated unrelated or indifferent to social and civic facets of the practices, especially if they are committed to improvements and transformations that affect people and society.

Impact of the covid-19 pandemic on the use of ICT tools in science and technology education

This article analyzes the self-concept about digital competence in university professors of Sciences, Health Sciences and Engineering and the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) use habits of professors in these areas. For this purpose, a survey designed by the authors was completed by 340 university professors in the aforementioned areas. Based on the answers obtained from this survey, a descriptive quantitative analysis of the assessments of the self-concept of digital competence and training of the participants, of the didactic use of ICT and the frequency of their use before and after the pandemic has been carried out. The results showed that the digital competence of the professors is intermediate, but their training is valued as low, especially in Sciences and Health Sciences. The assessment of ICT is very good. The pandemic has caused a generalized increase in the use of ICT, mainly in Health Sciences, which is the area in which university students were most reluctant to use them. In addition, a gender gap which did not exist before the pandemic has been generated favoring females in the use of ICT in Science and Engineering. An age-based digital gap that existed before the pandemic has also been corrected in Health Sciences.

Numerical Assessment Tool to Measure Realism in Clinical Simulation.

Realism is indispensable in clinical simulation learning, and the objective of this work is to present to the scientific community the methodology behind a novel numerical and digital tool to objectively measure realism in clinical simulation. Indicators measuring accuracy and naturality constitute ProRealSim v.1.0 (Universidad Europea, Madrid, Spain) which allows the assessing of attained realism for three dimensions: simulated participant, scenography, and simulator. Twelve experts in simulation-based learning (SBL) analyzed the conceptual relevance of 73 initial qualitative indicators that were then reduced to 53 final indicators after a screening study evaluating eight medical clinical simulation scenarios. Inter- and intra-observer concordance, correlation, and internal consistency were calculated, and an exploratory factorial analysis was conducted. Realism units were weighted based on variability and its mathematical contribution to global and dimensional realism. A statistical significance of p < 0.05 was applied and internal consistency was significant in all cases (raw_alpha ≥ 0.9698094). ProRealSim v.1.0 is integrated into a bilingual, free, and open access digital platform, and the intention is to foster a culture of interpretation of realism for its better study and didactic use.

Hybrid Events as a Sustainable Educational Approach for Higher Education

The sudden shift of online teaching activities in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused disruption. It has been a challenge for both students and teachers. It has also presented an opportunity for a critical analysis of the subject of the educational process in an era of wide access to information technology. One of the desirable consequences of the analysis is to highlight the didactic usefulness of hybrid events. A collective autoethnographic text about the challenges related to moving teaching activities to an online environment during the pandemic at Transilvania University in Brașov (Romania), and an observation report on a cultural event held in hybrid mode in a Europe for Citizens project, hosted by the same university, support the recommendation to consider hybrid education as a solution that must be available to teachers for the efficient management of future possible crisis situations. The teachers retroactively appreciated the logistical, economic and comfort advantages of online education, but they pointed out the difficulties of conducting the teaching process entirely online. The hosted hybrid event highlighted the utility of being able to quickly transition from offline to online. Hybrid learning is efficient because it can combine the benefits of online and offline learning. Teachers trained to manage hybrid events will feel a reduced impact in future crisis situations.

The integration of audiovisual translation and new technologies in project-based learning: an experimental study in ESP for engineering and architecture

Methodological approaches like project-based learning, the didactic use of audiovisual translation and the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) have attracted the attention of researchers in recent years. These are the three pillars on which the current article rests. It presents an experimental study within the context of project-based learning in which students of engineering and architecture undertake a project to build and sell a sustainable house. In order to succeed in the project, the students have to progress from one stage to the next by completing various tasks that require the didactic use of the audiovisual translation modes of dubbing and subtitling as well as the use of mobile applications and new technologies. This research aims to show how the implementation of the project can contribute to the development of productive and receptive linguistic skills and even be considered an option to provide the framework for the design of the whole syllabus in an English for Specific Purposes subject. The study was carried out in a transversal subject of technical English in which students from different degrees of engineering and architecture converge. As a pilot study, it was proposed to the students as an alternative to replace the part of the subject that focuses on written and oral production in English language. The results will reveal a high motivating component in the activities, achieving the consolidation of knowledge through meaningful learning and a lowering of the levels of anxiety in the affective filter.

Solving Spatial Vision Difficulties Related to the Instruction of Welded Joints by Using PDF-3D

In this work, exploratory quantitative research on the opinion of the students of a course on Geometry of Welded Joints, in an introductory welding course of secondary technical education curriculum, on the didactic use of PDF-3D in the development of the course is carried out. For this purpose, a survey designed by the authors was used, which the students answered once the study of the subject had been completed. As a result, it has been found that the valuations of the virtual tool PDF-3D are very high, mainly in relation to motivation and ease of use. The importance that students attach to the ease of solving the spatial comprehension difficulties inherent to welded joints -and the imperfections linked with them- positively influences the ratings of this educational technology. On the other hand, this study reveals that students prefer a mixed methodology in which the presence of virtual resources is greater than that of the master class. Finally, the results obtained suggest that, given the lack of knowledge on the part of teachers of the potential of PDF-3D in the educational field, it would be advisable to offer specific training on the didactic use of PDF-3D to technical education professors.

Transports of Translation: Creativity and Healing

Along with the numerous cultural, religious or political functions of translation (establishing religious authority or nation-building, for instance, as with the King James Version of the Bible), along with its didactic use in language-learning and its intercultural one in aesthetic transmission and appropriation, translation can also play a healing role. Bi- or plurilingual speakers and language students often experience difficulties of various kinds, including insecurity in one of the languages, unintentional code-switching and “attacks” of awkward, embarrassing untranslatability, or conflicts of loyalty due to the “inferior” status of the mother tongue. Children who cannot translate their experience of school into the language spoken in their home, or their “interior language” (De Mattia-Viviès) for instance, or plurilingual parents unable to translate the symptoms of their child for the psychiatrist, as well as students learning foreign languages, can all benefit from the transports of translation. The polysemy of the term “transport” – both conveyance from one place to another and “an intense exaltation of mind and feelings” that “lifts one out of oneself” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary), will help us conceptualise the pedagogic and therapeutic value of practising translation. This short article will look at creative translation workshops as a means to vindicate all languages, to heal conflicted identities by facilitating and fluidifying movement between languages.

Virtual Reality in Health Science Education: Professors’ Perceptions

Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience in a three-dimensional (3D) computer-simulated world. Recent advances in technology position VR as a multipurpose technology in the healthcare sector and as a critical component in achieving Health 4.0. In this article, descriptive and correlationally quantitative research is carried out on the assessments made by Latin American health sciences university professors on the didactic use of virtual reality technologies. The main objective was to analyze the differences in the perceptions expressed by the public or private tenure of the universities where the professors teach. In addition, gender and age gaps were identified in the assessments obtained from each of the types of universities. The results reveal that Latin American health science professors at private universities have a higher selfconcept of their digital skills for the use of virtual reality in the lectures. This greater selfconcept also leads to a reduction in the gender and age gaps in the participating private universities with respect to the public counterparts. It is advisable to increase both faculty training in the didactic use of virtual reality and funding for its use, mainly in public universities.

Impact of the Digitalization Level on the Assessment of Virtual Reality in Higher Education

This paper conducts quantitative research on the assessment made by university professors of the didactic use of virtual reality technologies according to the level of technological development and digitization of their country. For this purpose, a survey was used, the responses to which were statistically analyzed, and the level of digitalization was differentiated through the country's global innovation index. The results show that the valuations of virtual reality as a teaching tool are high, but the competence for its use of university professors is intermediate. On the other hand, it was found that the higher the country's level of digital development, the more pronounced the gender gap in this study. Similarly, the higher the country's level of digital development, the smaller the age gap.

Instrument for evaluating historical resources in mathematics textbooks

The article describes an instrument consisting of 46 indicators organised under 10 dimensions to assess the presence and educational utility of historical resources in secondary education mathematics textbooks. The instrument was constructed on the basis of previous research on the didactic use of the history of mathematics, existing instruments on the analysis of mathematics textbooks, and mathematics teachers’ assessments of the suitability of the indicators. The instrument can be used as a stand-alone tool or integrated into other procedures addressing textbook analysis more broadly. Its application is illustrated with a sample comparison of two secondary level mathematics textbooks. The instrument has proven to be a useful tool for comparing the historical resources in different publishers’ textbooks, for it enables secondary school mathematics teachers to base their choice of resources on an appraisal of the indicators most relevant to classroom teaching.

Hip Hop Music and 'the Street’ Phenomenon in Nigeria

In Africa, hip hop music is now undoubtedly the fastest growing form of expressive art in terms of availability, dissemination and acceptability. Nigeria not an exception, the genre in recent times has become the mainstream music representing the identity and socio-cultural aspirations of the teeming Nigerian urban youth population. Through incursion into the origin of hip hop, this paper examines the inter-connectivity and the inter-relationship between the street and hip hop music with a comparison of the Nigerian and the American street culture in hip hop music discourse. It is quite evident that hip hop music and the street are inseparable with manifestation which are visibly perceived through the Nigerian rap star- Olamide’s hip hop philosophy, his choice of language for dissemination, message and didactic use of the genre as an alternative and legitimate hustle as opposed to the now common internet fraud becoming a plaque among Nigerian teeming youths.

Improvement in Housestaff Knowledge of Novel Antihyperglycemic Agents Through a Cross-Specialty Beyond Diabetes“Educational Initiative”

Lead Author's Financial Disclosures Nothing to disclose. Study Funding AstraZeneca Pharmaceutical Industry Company. Background/Synopsis Novel antihyperglycemic agents, including sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT2i) and glucagon-like-peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP1-RA), demonstrate significant benefits in select patients with and without diabetes (T2DM). These benefits include improvements in cardiovascular, kidney and metabolic outcomes. Despite these benefits, these medications remain underutilized, attributed in part to a lack of provider knowledge across specialties. Our "Beyond-Diabetes" initiative is a health system-wide, multidisciplinary collaboration to raise awareness and prescriber utilization of these medications through a variety of informatics and educational modalities. Objective/Purpose The goal of this component of our initiative was to assess whether lecture based (grand rounds) and case-based conferences delivered via a virtual platform could improve understanding of SGLT2i and GLP1-RA among residents and fellows as part of their core curriculum. Methods We administered a 6-question electronic survey to assess knowledge of SGLT2i and GLP1-RA before and after a 1-hour, virtual case-based education that highlighted clinical uses, contraindications, dosing, adverse effects, and prescribing barriers. The housestaff were previously offered a grand rounds on the topic. The lectures and pre/post surveys were provided to internal medicine residents, as well as cardiology, nephrology, and endocrinology fellows. Efficacy was measured by analyzing the percent correct between pre/post-test questionnaires by a paired, two-sided t-test. Results After evaluating the pre-test and post-test results of the trainees, we found that among all disciplines (n = 119 pre/63 post), the average increase was 15% correct between pre-test and post-test (p-value <0.01) using random pre-test sampling. Limitations of this data include a low response rate with 28% of trainees completing the pre-test (119/418) and 53% completing the post-test (63/119). Cardiology fellows showed the greatest improvement in their overall scores with a 17% change. Endocrinology fellows had the least improvement, with a difference of 6%, likely attributable to having the highest baseline pre-test questionnaire scores. Analysis of each question showed that there was an increase in the percentage answered correctly, with the exception of one question, which had no change after education. Conclusions Our intervention demonstrates that a 1-hour virtual lecture can improve the knowledge of trainees across four disciplines regarding novel antihyperglycemic medications. This data supports the use of virtual lecture and case-based didactics to enhance provider knowledge regarding SGLT2i and GLP1-RA medications. However, further research into the most effective educational initiatives is warranted. This knowledge is essential to increase the utilization of these effective medications, which have been demonstrated to improve clinical outcomes and reduce healthcare expenditures. Nothing to disclose.