Youthful Connections (Asynchronous Session)
Education in a Violent World: Lessons Learned from American School Violence View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Steve Webb
Research indicates that there are almost a half million acts of violence in American schools annually with over 20% of high school students reporting that they have been bullied. School safety and security in these modern times is more than just policing – it is about connecting with students and parents. Dr. Steve Webb discusses technology implications based on his recent book, Education in a Violent World, twenty-first century school safety issues, and lessons learned from the rash of school violence in America.
Exploring and Sustaining our Identities through New Media: Greek Migrant Youth Perspectives View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Melina Mallos
The widespread proliferation and ease of access to various forms of new media are shaping the way young people communicate, form, and express their identities. The purpose of my paper is to showcase new ways of understanding, being and doing identity work with Greek migrant youths living in a global digital world. Inspired by my first-hand experience of migrating from Greece to Australia, my research design combines a/r/tographic approaches with participatory narrative inquiry. Much of my study’s conceptual framework is built upon Bakhtin’s theories about how an individual develops a sense of self through the other, that is, through sharing experiences, language and dialogue. Visual and verbal narratives collected in the research will describe how Greek migrant youths considered their identities through the guise of others who also migrated to Australia in the last decade. The study reveals some valuable ways the digital space, specifically new media, can be used as a tool for cultural sustainability for Greek migrant youths exploring their sense of self and belonging whilst living in Melbourne.
Using an Equity Mindset to Mediate Social Distancing in Education: Application of Principles to Engage Student Actively in a Learning Environment View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Patricia Backer
The quick move to 100% online instruction among universities in the United States in Spring 2020 brought with it a plethora of articles, essays and “best practices” for online instruction. One can imagine a professor faced to teach online for the first time being overwhelmed with the online teaching experience as well with the advice being offered. The decision to offer a newly online class in a synchronous or asynchronous mode was a complex decision faced for the first time by the majority of teaching faculty. For this study, the instructor implemented strategies of an equity mindset in the online classroom. In their report for the AAC&U, Witham, Malcom-Piqueux, Dowd, and Bensimon (2015) outlined equity minded principles for improving outcomes for students from all backgrounds. Using equity minded strategies in the classroom can change an instructor’s view from blaming the students for non-achievement to actively facilitating students in the classroom during the COVID 19 pandemic.
Keep Me Connected!: No Cost Solutions to Ensure Equal Access to Remote Online Instruction View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Elaine Correa, Alexander Reid
The COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented changes to the way faculty and students were expected to teach and learn. Several vulnerable populations were disproportionately affected by this sudden switch to a online learning environment, given the erroneous assumption that in every home, students had immediate access to electronic devices (computers, iPads, Chromebooks), broadband connectivity (strong remote connection and speed), and the technical skills needed to successfully navigate learning on-line. Many Americans in rural areas, those with lower incomes, less than elementary and/or high school completion and members of the Hispanic community have less access to broadband Internet access at home, and more than a quarter of residents do not have broadband at home and 10 percent of Americans are not online at all (Pew Research, 2019). With COVID-19, the required closure by government mandated “stay-at-home” orders caused massive layoffs for students, disproportionately impacting low-income students who are more likely to be women, members of underrepresented ethnic minority groups, and first-generation college students (Carnevale & Smith, 2018). In response, our efforts to reduce textbook costs revealed unanticipated challenges embedded in the technological design solution we devised to level the playing field. Different levels of digital distress are evident for students who rely heavily on the university campus onsite resources to complete their class assignments. In this paper, I consider challenges and opportunities to keep students connected with no cost solutions to ensure equal access to remote online instruction during a pandemic and after.
After the Pandemic: Reconceptualising Children’s Lifeworlds for Multimodal Learning View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Nicola Yelland, Lorna Arnott
In this paper we advocate a reconceptualization of early learning in the twenty-first century in the form of multimodal lifeworlds. We began our rethinking of young children’s learning prior to the pandemic, but the issues have become more salient during this time as schooling was suspended and teaching and learning moved online. We consider the trajectory of research regarding the role of new technologies for young children’s learning, both in their homes and in educational contexts. We contend that we need to rethink the ways in which digital artefacts can create new contexts for learning. We believe that if we foreground the learning that is possible in contemporary multimodal learning ecologies, deep learning will occur. We raise complex questions and issues that require consideration as we plan for pedagogies that will encourage, support, and transform children’s learning. The paper considers our understandings about new and continually evolving technologies, as artefacts that inhabit the contemporary child’s lifeworld. These resources form part of their suite of learning devices which impact on children’s identities, learning ecologies and how they make meaning of self. Finally, we present a possible conceptualisation, which combines the elements that are relevant for pedagogical planning, discussed in the article, to consider how new technologies, as social, cultural and personal artefacts can contribute to children’s learning ecologies.
Detroit: Become Human - Game-Based EFL View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Alexia Larchen Costuchen
The aim of this study was to develop a motivational English course for a language school located in the Valencian Community of Spain targetting Generation Y learners and taking into consideration the Covid-19 pandemic. Detroit: Become Human (2019) for Microsoft Windows was chosen in correspondence with the EFL Gen Yers´ experiences and expectations, in line with the students´ access to technologies and minding a shift from presential to distance learning. Open-ended and closed-ended surveys, accompanied by online semi-structural interviews provided quantitative and qualitative findings which contributed to this design. The proposal is organised around the two main pillars: teacher-assisted speaking and writing activities in one block and game-assisted reading and listening activities in another block. A pilot version was launched as four trial sessions to volunteered participants. Evaluation rubrics and in-depth interviews helped the researcher to identify the course limitation and make modifications. This research targets Generation Y learners, however, it provides some preliminary findings on Generation X and Generation Z participants.
