Advances in Mobile Learning Educational Research

Museum and Kindergarten: STEM connections between exhibits and science

Konstantina Tallou — Wed, 25 May 2022 09:52:50 +0800

The present work supports the possibility of connecting exhibits of the Museum of Ali Pasha on the island of Ioannina with the Natural Sciences through an educational scenario in the light of the Theory of Activity and the SciEPIMGI design framework. In this way the educational programs designed for Museums of general interest gain added value by supporting the cooperation of formal and non-formal education. The script was designed during the training program of the University of Ioannina and was implemented in November 2021 by students of the Kindergarten of Ioannina. Through selected exhibits of the Museum, bridges with themes were detected from the Curriculum for Natural Sciences in the Kindergarten, focusing specifically on the theme "water". Theoretically, it is based on the approach of Hein's constructivism, Gardner's multiple intelligences and the active participation of Simon's student, with particular emphasis on the student's individual peculiarities regarding the ways of perceiving reality and the personal meanings he forms. The Museum-pedagogical activities that are designed apply a variety of methodologies such as students' oral expression, visual creations, hidden treasure game, writing, experimentation, creating connections, problem solving, interpretation and expression of crises, etc. Special emphasis was given to of students' senses and in experiential and exploratory learning. The museum space was utilized as a constructed environment for learning and application of museum-pedagogical methods and as an invisible educational framework that allows effective learning processes, mobilizes curiosity, evokes emotions and impressions.

Parents’ and children's paradoxical perceptions of online learning during the Covid-19 pandemic

Ali Maksum, Esa Nur Wahyuni, Rahmat Aziz, M. Samsul Hady, Djoko Susanto — Tue, 17 May 2022 17:19:51 +0800

The current study investigates the reason for parents and children's paradoxical perceptions of online learning, determining factors, and the impact of these differences on their relationships. This research employs qualitative data collection and analysis approaches. Twenty-five parents and their children studying at an elementary school and participating in mentoring activities in Malang, Indonesia, were recruited based on the school principal's recommendation. The data were collected using in-depth interview techniques with parents and their children and observations during the counselling sessions and continuous mentoring sessions. The results show that parents and children perceived online learning paradoxically in three aspects: time, implementation process, and online learning media. Parents tend to perceive online learning negatively, while children perceive it positively. The difference in perception is caused by different expectations and attitudes towards online learning and the family's socioeconomic conditions during the Covid-19 pandemic. The differences in perceptions trigger parent-child conflicts indicated by poor communication, negative labelling, and physical violence. Three policy recommendations are proposed to address the issue during times of crisis, including the Covid-19 pandemic.

Gamification in preschool science education

Aikaterini Xezonaki — Thu, 12 May 2022 13:32:56 +0800

Over the last few years, rapid technological progress has developed our lives in all areas. The adoption of technology in the everyday lives of both adults and children through smart mobile devices has led to the foreseeable integration of digital tools in the educational process. Smart mobile devices and the applications that accompany them have been proven effective in the educational field since they allow students to acquire knowledge through activities with an interactive and playful character. A technique that has gained popularity among technology users in the last decades is gamification. Gamification combines mechanisms and elements of games, enhancing students' learning, motivation, and interest in various educational fields, such as mathematics and science. The usage of game elements in education is not encountered for the first time due to the spread of gamification in technology, but it has been mentioned since the early ancient Greek years. However, technology has reinforced gamification through components and techniques that provide students with all the necessary supplies leading to positive learning outcomes. This bibliographic review presents the literature findings on gamification through smart mobile devices in science teaching in preschool education.

Digital activism in students of a university in central Mexico in the COVID-19 era

Fri, 29 Apr 2022 19:10:26 +0800

The exploration of the dimensions of digital activism was the aim of this work. The first and second non-experimental studies were carried out with a non-probabilistic selection of 100 students, considering their affiliation with student organizations. A four-dimensional structure was set up; technological habitus, computational self-efficacy, diffusion of innovations, and Internet mobilization explained 48% of the total variance, although the design limited the results to the research scenario, suggesting the extension of the study and the inclusion of variables such as; training, socialization and intention to use the devices and networks.

ICT tools for remote teaching and learning mathematics: A proposal for autonomy and engagements

Mon, 11 Apr 2022 14:06:58 +0800

This paper explores the paradigm shift in using ICT tools while teaching mathematics remotely within the TPACK framework. Remote teaching is not only one of the primary modes of teaching and learning in the present context throughout the world but the transition from paper to the digital world, where mathematics teachers struggle to visualize the content concisely and clearly. This paper focuses on promoting pedagogy and learning and learner empowerment by emphasizing autonomy and engagement rather than technology. The ethos of this paper is all about encouraging the mathematics teachers to promote the students for quality engagement while teaching remotely. However, all the remotely leading ICT tools require some techniques and methodologies, thereby the mathematics teachers' skill, experience, and expertise. Those skills, experiences, and expertise will be developed by excelling in mathematics teachers' ICT tools. This paper shall be one of the guiding principles for mathematics teachers (but not limited to) while dealing with the mathematics content remotely and/or in any other mode.

An evaluation of educational apps for preschool-age children in Android and iOS

Anastasia Strataki — Mon, 04 Apr 2022 14:56:54 +0800

Applications (apps) available as educational in digital app stores for preschoolers claim that they offer to learn content on a wide range of basic academic skills, including counting, reading, and pattern recognition. This research aimed to investigate the educational quality of a range of educational applications for Android and iOS Operating Systems aimed at preschool-age children, i.e., children from 3 to 5 years old. The evaluation was done using two scientific tools: the rubrics published by Lee & Cherner entitled "A Comprehensive Evaluation Rubric for Assessing Instructional Apps" and by Papadakis, Kalogiannakis & Zaranis entitled "Designing and creating an educational app rubric for preschool teachers". The research results showed that most proclaimed educational applications did not have a real educational value. Research extensions are discussed.

The teaching of Natural Sciences in kindergarten based on the principles of STEM and STEAM approach

Efrosini Kastriti, Michail Kalogiannakis, Sarantos Psycharis, Denis Vavougios — Mon, 21 Mar 2022 16:39:05 +0800

Across all levels of education, Natural Sciences is a scientific field that is gaining considerable research interest. However, in recent years a growing interest in the introduction of Science in Preschool Education can be seen among scientists, as they realize that the children’s first experiences will be the cornerstone of the relationship they are going to develop with this scientific field in the future. It is accepted that children approach and understand the new knowledge taught in the classroom in the context of what they already know. Their pre-existing beliefs and experiential knowledge are the foundations upon which the new concepts will be merged. Based on these perceptions, children approach, "decode," and understand new knowledge through the interaction of the two cognitive systems, the pre-existing and the taught new enriched cognitive patterns. The kindergarten environment cannot remain isolated and uninfluenced by the developments in a constantly changing world. The goal of Kindergarten is to properly prepare its students to become active citizens of their country by helping them get all the necessary skills. In this way, the STEM and STEAM approach seems to be progressively gaining ground in Preschool Education. Various researchers emphasize the importance and positive outcomes of implementing a STEM education program in Kindergarten, as children can acquire at an early age all the necessary resources that will play a decisive role in their later life. According to the above, this study is a literature and article review with its primary purpose to verify the above assumptions. More specifically, this article showcases the importance of teaching Science in Preschool Education and its practicability at this age group. There is also a presentation of the holistic educational STEAM approach. The main goal of this presentation is to emphasize the contribution of this educational approach towards a more effective teaching of Science in Kindergarten and in-depth learning and understanding of natural concepts by preschoolers.

The web-based behavior of online learning: An evaluation of different countries during the COVID-19 pandemic

Dilkhaz Yaseen Mohammed — Wed, 09 Mar 2022 12:23:44 +0800

COVID-19, a pandemic that the world has not seen in decades, has caused several new obstacles for student learning and education throughout the globe. As a consequence of the worldwide surge of COVID-19 instances, several schools and institutions in almost every region of the globe have closed in 2020 or switched to online or remote learning, which will have a variety of repercussions for student learning. This has led to educators and students spending more time online than ever before, with both groups researching, learning, and familiarizing themselves with information, resources, tools, and frameworks to adapt to online or remote learning. Data mining and analysis are being done to analyze such online activity. For the construction of this dataset, the web-based data in the form of search interests connected to online learning, gathered through Google searches, was mined using Google Trends. Currently, the dataset comprises web-based data related to online learning for the 20 nations that COVID-19 negatively touched at the time of its construction. This project aims to create and evaluate time-series forecasting models of a country's end-of-term performance, explore how the pandemic has influenced the migrations of people throughout the globe, and estimate the nations' future online learning needs. Regression techniques such as linear regression, multilayer regression, and SMO regression are utilized. This is done by looking at previous data, identifying the trends, and creating short-term or long-term projections. The data demonstrate that the approach of SMO regression causes fewer errors with improved accuracy compared to others.

Content manager for serious games: Theoretical framework and digital platform

Anastasios Kristofer Barianos, Alexandros Papadakis, Nikolas Vidakis — Fri, 18 Feb 2022 12:48:31 +0800

In education, digital or traditional, the material studied by students is the basis from which they will achieve knowledge. For this reason, schoolbooks have been meticulously designed to be scientifically correct and pedagogically sound. With the digitization and growth of education, and the shift to adaptive learning methods, educational content is no longer centrally decided and distributed; instead, many professionals are allowed to create and distribute material within their area of expertise, and educators often develop material for their classes. Still, educational games and their material are designed and developed similarly to books, where introducing new material by third parties is not an option. Even though techniques that could assist in the creation of adaptable, customizable gameplay and content are available and are often used in commercial games, their utilization requires technical knowledge that does not allow wide use by educators to create educational material. In this paper, we introduce a framework that will allow educators to create and manage educational content for serious games and create customized versions to cover the needs of their students and unlock the potential of adaptive learning. Towards this goal, we developed a pilot implementation of the framework that provides all the necessary tools to game developers to create adaptable games and retrieve game customizations from a server. Furthermore, a web platform has been developed where educators can browse for customizable games and custom sessions. These games and sessions have educators’ custom created educational content. With our framework and supportive tools and platform, we will elevate the educational value of serious games by including educators in content creation, content manipulation, game customization and thus gameplay personalization.

The mental resilience of employees in special education during the pandemic Covid-19

Thu, 10 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0800

In the present work, an investigation is carried out for the burnout of Special Education Teachers and Special Support Staff, as considered necessary to investigate, to communicate this aspect of the problems caused by the pandemic. The special education teachers' sector did not have to be part of a research interest, which aroused their interest in this work. The questionnaire was made through his platform Google Forms, shared electronically in all country regions, and responded to these seventy-four people as a sample. Given the statistical results, it appeared that positive emotions largely possessed respondents; it was adaptive and optimistic despite the difficulties they faced. To ensure the reliability of the results, a corresponding one was sought content surveys to compare results and see any similarities or differences.