Responsible research and innovation in science education: insights from evaluating the impact of using digital media and arts-based methods on RRI values

The European Commission policy approach of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) is gaining momentum in European research planning and development as a strategy to align scientific and technological progress with socially desirable and acceptable ends. One of the RRI agendas is science education, aiming to foster future generations' acquisition of skills and values needed to engage in society responsibly. To this end, it is argued that RRI-based science education can benefit from more interdisciplinary methods such as those based on arts and digital technologies. However, the evidence existing on the impact of science education activities using digital media and arts-based methods on RRI values remains underexplored. This article comparatively reviews previous evidence on the evaluation of these activities, from primary to higher education, to examine whether and how RRI-related learning outcomes are evaluated and how these activities impact on students' learning. Forty academic publications were selected and its content analysed according to five RRI values: creative and critical thinking, engagement, inclusiveness, gender equality and integration of ethical issues. When evaluating the impact of digital and arts-based methods in science education activities, creative and critical thinking, engagement and partly inclusiveness are the RRI values mainly addressed. In contrast, gender equality and ethics integration are neglected. Digital-based methods seem to be more focused on students' questioning and inquiry skills, whereas those using arts often examine imagination, curiosity and autonomy. Differences in the evaluation focus between studies on digital media and those on arts partly explain differences in their impact on RRI values, but also result in non-documented outcomes and undermine their potential. Further developments in interdisciplinary approaches to science education following the RRI policy agenda should reinforce the design of the activities as well as procedural aspects of the evaluation research

Youth and Digital Media: From Credibility to Information Quality

Building upon a process-and context-oriented information quality framework, this paper seeks to map and explore what we know about the ways in which young users of age 18 and under search for information online, how they evaluate information, and how their related practices of content creation, levels of new literacies, general digital media usage, and social patterns affect these activities. A review of selected literature at the intersection of digital media, youth, and information quality -- primarily works from library and information science, sociology, education, and selected ethnographic studies -- reveals patterns in youth's information-seeking behavior, but also highlights the importance of contextual and demographic factors both for search and evaluation. Looking at the phenomenon from an information-learning and educational perspective, the literature shows that youth develop competencies for personal goals that sometimes do not transfer to school, and are sometimes not appropriate for school. Thus far, educational initiatives to educate youth about search, evaluation, or creation have depended greatly on the local circumstances for their success or failure

Pirate plunder: game-based computational thinking using scratch blocks

Policy makers worldwide argue that children should be taught how technology works, and that the ‘computational thinking’ skills developed through programming are useful in a wider context. This is causing an increased focus on computer science in primary and secondary education. Block-based programming tools, like Scratch, have become ubiquitous in primary education (5 to 11-years-old) throughout the UK. However, Scratch users often struggle to detect and correct ‘code smells’ (bad programming practices) such as duplicated blocks and large scripts, which can lead to programs that are difficult to understand. These ‘smells’ are caused by a lack of abstraction and decomposition in programs; skills that play a key role in computational thinking. In Scratch, repeats (loops), custom blocks (procedures) and clones (instances) can be used to correct these smells. Yet, custom blocks and clones are rarely taught to children under 11-years-old. We describe the design of a novel educational block-based programming game, Pirate Plunder, which aims to teach these skills to children aged 9-11. Players use Scratch blocks to navigate around a grid, collect items and interact with obstacles. Blocks are explained in ‘tutorials’; the player then completes a series of ‘challenges’ before attempting the next tutorial. A set of Scratch blocks, including repeats, custom blocks and clones, are introduced in a linear difficulty progression. There are two versions of Pirate Plunder; one that uses a debugging-first approach, where the player is given a program that is incomplete or incorrect, and one where each level begins with an empty program. The game design has been developed through iterative playtesting. The observations made during this process have influenced key design decisions such as Scratch integration, difficulty progression and reward system. In future, we will evaluate Pirate Plunder against a traditional Scratch curriculum and compare the debugging-first and non-debugging versions in a series of studies

Interneti võimalused ja ohud: noorte online-praktikate mõju nende subjektiivsele heaolule

Väitekirja elektrooniline versioon ei sisalda publikatsioone.Teismelised on ühed kõige aktiivsemad internetikasutajad ja internet moodustab loomuliku osa nende igapäevaelust. Kuna internet on siiski suhteliselt uus meedium, mille kasutust ei raamista väga kindlad normid, kuid mille noored on väga kiirelt ja aktiivselt omaks võtnud, ärgitab see küsima, millist mõju internetikasutus noortele avaldab – kas positiivset või negatiivset. Heaolu kontseptsioonist lähtudes on doktoritöös vaatluse all nii internetikasutuse positiivsed kui ka negatiivsed küljed ning nende mõju noorte elukvaliteedile. Viimane aspekt on eriti oluline, kuna teismeiga on üks olulisemaid arenguperioode. Doktoritöös olid vaatluse all noorte online-praktikad – ühelt poolt blogimine kui positiivne ja teiselt poolt ülemäärane internetikasutus kui problemaatiline praktika – ning see, kuidas ja missugustel tingimustel need suurendavad või vähendavad noore heaolu. Nii meediumi valikut kui kasutust kujundavad laiemad kontekstuaalsed tegurid nagu vanus, sugu ja sotsiaalne keskkond (näiteks suhted pere ja eakaaslastega) ning ühiskondlikud tingimused (kultuuriline tasand), milles inimene elab, aga ka meediumi enda või selle rakenduste omadused. Seega võib järeldada, et just kontekst loob ja määrab internetikasutuse võimalikud positiivsed või negatiivsed tulemid. Internetikasutusel võivad olla erinevad tagajärjed. Näiteks avaldavad noored blogides enamasti tõele vastavat sisu, millega nad kujundavad enda identiteeti ja hoiavad sotsiaalseid suhteid, või mis pakub võimalust pälvida tunnustust eakaaslaste hulgas. Samas jagavad noored blogis enda kohta intiimset infot, millel võivad olla negatiivsed tagajärjed. Ülemäärane internetikasutus on seotud nii psühholoogiliste probleemide, internetis veedetava aja kui ka noore digitaalsete oskustega ja sellega, mida ta online-keskkonnas teeb. Ülemäärane internetikasutus võib olla ühelt poolt toimetulekustrateegia, saamaks üle negatiivsetest emotsioonidest, kuna just noortele ekspertkasutajatele pakub internet mitmesuguseid võimalusi meelelahutuseks ja tujutõstmiseks. Teiselt poolt võib see toimetulekumehhanism avaldada pikemas perspektiivis noore heaolule negatiivset mõju.Teenagers have become the most prominent users of the Internet as they effortlessly incorporate the medium into their everyday lives. Due to the newness of the medium, only partially settled norms surrounding usage, and intensity with which the online space was adopted by the youth, much attention has been paid to dwell upon whether the usage of the Internet by the young people brings along positive or negative outcomes. The concept of well-being is used in the thesis to simultaneously look both at the positive and negative aspects of Internet use and to ask how these phenomena are related to young people’s quality of life. The latter question is especially important as adolescence is the formative period in young people’s development. The thesis looked at online practices – blogging as a positive side, and excessive Internet use as a problematic one – and how and in what condition they increase or decrease the well-being of the young. The findings suggest that both media choice and usage, as well as the well-being of the young Internet users, are framed by larger contextual factors – age and gender of the user; social environment (e.g. family and peer influence) and societal (cultural level) conditions individuals live in; and the structural characteristics of the medium or its applications. Hence, the thesis suggests that it is the context which creates and defines the positivity and negativity of certain outcomes of Internet usage. For instance, adolescent bloggers primarily stay truthful to their offline selves in their blogs, and hence the practice could be seen as a mechanism for maintaining one’s identity and social contacts, but also as an opportunity to seek prestige and competence among the peer group. At the same time, revealing intimate details about one’s life in a blog can also lead to possible negative consequences. Excessive Internet use among the young is related to psychological distress and the time spent online but also to one’s digital skills and the activities one engages in online. Hence, on the one hand, excessive Internet use may be a coping strategy, especially for more expert young users of the medium, as it offers a wide range of opportunities for mood management and entertainment; on the other hand, it may have negative outcomes on one’s well-being in the long run

Research on ICT in K-12 schools e A review of experimental and survey-based studies in computers & education 2011 to 2015

International audienceWhat is the role of a journal? Is it to follow the research or lead it? For the former, it is to serve as an archival record of the scholarship in a field. It can serve to permit the research community to engage with each other via the written record. But, for the latter, it can serve the research community by pointing out gaps in the research based on the archival record. This review is intended to do just that

Challenges to Teaching Credibility Assessment in Contemporary Schooling

Part of the Volume on Digital Media, Youth, and CredibilityThis chapter explores several challenges that exist to teaching credibility assessment in the school environment. Challenges range from institutional barriers such as government regulation and school policies and procedures to dynamic challenges related to young people's cognitive development and the consequent difficulties of navigating a complex web environment. The chapter includes a critique of current practices for teaching kids credibility assessment and highlights some best practices for credibility education