An Evidence-Based Approach To Digital Inclusion for Health

This report is the first deliverable of the ?Digital Inclusion and Social Knowledge Media for Health: Frameworks and Roadmaps? project. It discusses the concept of social and digital exclusion and suggests that a focus on the digital mediation of social processes may provide more purchase for public service providers. This focus leads to the consideration of the way in which digital services might support a range of health-related factors which are both directly and indirectly linked to specific health outcomes. The report discusses some examples in the light of a consideration of the specific (and spatial) health needs and priorities of Solihull Care Trust. The report concludes with suggestions for directions for future research and development

The smart city. Critical reading of a multiform phenomenon

Sempre più frequentemente la smart city è al centro dei discorsi delle differenti discipline. Cosa s’intende, però, con l’espressione “città intelligente”? A quali ambiti si riferisce l’intelligenza annunciata? In questo elaborato ci si sofferma specificamente sullo studio della smart city declinata secondo i suoi principali obiettivi sociali, al fine di individuare e sottoporre ad analisi critica le variabili costituenti il rapporto tra città intelligente e intenti annunciati. Come coniugare, cioè, i molteplici obiettivi della smart city? All’interno di quali categorie pensare la relazione tra città intelligente e obiettivi quali l’inclusione e lo sviluppo sociale? Attraverso che tipo di misure raggiungere tali finalità? Ci si sofferma, quindi, sul criterio dell’efficienza come cifra fondamentale della rappresentazione della città intelligente e sulle criticità che l’equazione smart city=efficienza comporta in termini di coesione del tessuto sociale. L’analisi si focalizza, inoltre, sui criteri del bene comune e della relazionalità come possibili categorie in grado di coadiuvare le dinamiche del processo inclusivo

Unmet goals of tracking: within-track heterogeneity of students' expectations for

Educational systems are often characterized by some form(s) of ability grouping, like tracking. Although substantial variation in the implementation of these practices exists, it is always the aim to improve teaching efficiency by creating homogeneous groups of students in terms of capabilities and performances as well as expected pathways. If students’ expected pathways (university, graduate school, or working) are in line with the goals of tracking, one might presume that these expectations are rather homogeneous within tracks and heterogeneous between tracks. In Flanders (the northern region of Belgium), the educational system consists of four tracks. Many students start out in the most prestigious, academic track. If they fail to gain the necessary credentials, they move to the less esteemed technical and vocational tracks. Therefore, the educational system has been called a 'cascade system'. We presume that this cascade system creates homogeneous expectations in the academic track, though heterogeneous expectations in the technical and vocational tracks. We use data from the International Study of City Youth (ISCY), gathered during the 2013-2014 school year from 2354 pupils of the tenth grade across 30 secondary schools in the city of Ghent, Flanders. Preliminary results suggest that the technical and vocational tracks show more heterogeneity in student’s expectations than the academic track. If tracking does not fulfill the desired goals in some tracks, tracking practices should be questioned as tracking occurs along social and ethnic lines, causing social inequality

Consumption, youth and new media: The debate on social issues in Brazil

siirretty Doriast

Money talks: investigating the relationship between linguistic diversity and financial inclusion

Differences in languages spoken within a population can be thought of as transaction costs that make economic activities more difficult. This perspective has motivated a host of academic literature analyzing the linguistic profile of countries in relation to different socio-economic variables. Among these studies, financial inclusion is rarely one of the variables of interest. Language and financial inclusion are sometimes analyzed together in more granular studies of a single country, or even of individuals, but never in a cross-sectional, country-level analysis. However economic growth, which is generally considered to be positively related to financial inclusion, has frequently been studied, with mixed results. Earlier researchers of the question identified negative relationships between economic growth and linguistic diversity, in what became known as the “Fishman-Pool Hypothesis”. Later researchers determined that such a relationship did not exist, or that, in certain contexts, linguistic diversity and economic growth could even be positively related. This study departs from the intuition that financial inclusion's relationship to linguistic diversity may parallel that of economic growth – a relationship that seems intuitively negative but is more ambiguous after analysis. To overcome the broad interpretability of the concepts of interest, this study constructed two dependent variables representing financial inclusion, and four independent variables representing linguistic diversity with cross-sectional data for a sample of 61 countries. The models were estimated by accounting for multicollinearity of the regressors, as well as heteroskedasticity and non-normality in the error terms using the Seemingly Unrelated Regressions models and ordinary least squares estimation techniques. The results indicate that linguistic diversity indicators were all nearly zero, and highly insignificant, despite the strong specification of the models. This suggests that linguistic diversity has no significant relationship – positive or negative – to financial inclusion at a country level. This result was consistent across all the possible combinations of the operationalized variables for both concepts

Scope and limitations in the evaluation of programs for digital literacy in Latin America: A paradigmatic case. The ''Plan CEIBAL''

Este artículo, en primer lugar revisa el estado actual de los instrumentos de monitoreo de los programas de alfabetización digital en la región, y en segundo término, propone, a partir de una mirada crítica sobre las limitaciones que imponen los indicadores cuantitativos para la comprensión del alcance socio cultural de dichos programas, estrategias de evaluación cualitativa que tengan como premisa la recuperación de la perspectiva del actor, y en consecuencia, permitan, elaborar indicadores más comprensivos de la experiencia de apropiación de las TICs entre sus beneficiarios.This article reviews in the fi rst place the state of monitoring instruments for digital education programs in the region and secondly, it evaluates, from a critical perspective, the limitations imposed by quantitative indicators for the comprehension of the socio cultural scope of these programs. Qualitative evaluation strategies that recover the subject’s viewpoint enable the development of more comprehensive indicators of the experience of ICT appropriation for the benefi ciaries of these programs.Fil: Winocur, Rosalía. Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana; MéxicoFil: Aguerre Regusci, Carolina Inés. Universidad de San Andres. Centro de Tecnología y Sociedad; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

SPEC Kit 356 Diversity and Inclusion

Today, diversity is defined beyond racial and ethnic groups and includes gender, sexual orientation, ability, language, religious belief, national origin, age, and ideas. The increase of published literature about cultural competencies, microaggressions, and assessment of diversity issues, as well as the inclusion of social justice movements in libraries, suggests diversity-related activities have increased and evolved over the last seven years. Over this time span, several libraries have obtained funding to support strategies to increase the number of minority librarians on their staff and support their advancement within the organization. There also appears to be an increase in the number of diversity or multicultural groups at the local, state, and national levels. However, these changes have not been consistently documented. Therefore, it is important to re-examine this topic to evaluate the impact of evolving endeavors, to see if more ARL libraries are involved, to see how diversity plans have changed over the years, and to document the current practices of research libraries. The main purpose of this survey was to identify diversity trends and changes in managing diversity issues in ARL libraries through exploring the components of diversity plans and initiatives since 2010, acknowledge library efforts since the 1990s, provide evidence of best practices and future trends, and identify current strategies that increase the number of minority librarians in research libraries and the types of programs that foster a diverse workplace and climate. The survey was conducted between May 1 and June 5, 2017. Sixty-eight of the 124 ARL member institutions responded to the survey for a 55% response rate. Interestingly, only 22 of the respondents to the 2010 SPEC survey participated in this survey, but this provides an opportunity to explore the diversity and inclusion efforts of a new set of institutions in addition to seeing what changes those 22 institutions have made since 2010. The SPEC Survey on Diversity and Inclusion was designed by Toni Anaya, Instruction Coordinator, and Charlene Maxey-Harris, Research and Instructional Services Chair, at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. These results are based on responses from 68 of the 124 ARL member libraries (55%) by the deadline of June 12, 2017. The survey’s introductory text and questions are reproduced below, followed by the response data and selected comments from the respondents. The purpose of this survey is to explore the components of diversity plans created since 2010, identify current recruitment and retention strategies that aim to increase the number of minority librarians in research libraries, identify staff development programs that foster an inclusive workplace and climate, identify how diversity programs have changed, and gather information on how libraries assess these efforts

Systematic review on digital transformation among teachers in public schools

Radical changes across almost all areas, including education, due to the COVID-19 outbreak. One of the rapid transformations is digital learning, also known as e-learning. Digital learning transformation has been taking place for more than a decade. However, little comprehensive analysis of digital transformation in teaching in public schools. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no comprehensive analysis incorporates external and internal barriers and examines the prominent theories to study successful e-learning integration among teachers. The aim of this study was to provide a thematic and theoretical understanding of digital learning transformation among teachers in public schools. The data for the study was acquired from the Scopus databases. The study employed content and comparative analysis and advocated a grounded theory approach to inductively analyze and criticize the theme construction for answering two research questions. Based on a set of criteria to determine whether each derived study should be included or excluded, 42 articles were reviewed between 2010 and 2022. The analysis uncovered 10 themes of antecedents that were constructed as a framework based on the first-second-order barriers. Results also indicated that CHAT, TPACK, TAM, and UTAUT are the most prominent theories used to conduct digital transformation research. The findings offered significant implications for digital transformation and educational technology communities, especially for policymakers to strategize and reflect on the practice they implemented and improvised if necessary for future sustainable education and efficient teachers’ performance in teaching

Empowering Women Through the Use of Technology: A Scoping Review

The achievement of gender equity and equality has been a long-time goal of many international entities. The main indicator for the goal of women’s empowerment, as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), has been to: “enhanc[e] the use of enabling technology by increasing the proportion of women and girls who have access” (United Nations [UN], p. 20). While information and communication technologies (ICTs) were initially thought to be neutral in terms of access and opportunity, emerging trends now indicate that the use of technology within society has significant social implications, specifically related to gender as a determinant of health. Using the Arksey and O’Malley (2005) methodology for scoping reviews, the following question was answered: What is the impact of ICT on the level of women’s empowerment worldwide? Using the stated research question, the primary objective of this scoping review was to identify the extent, range, and scope of evidence involving the impact and influence of ICTs on women’s empowerment. The major themes that emerged from this review included: (a) the means in which ICTs have assisted in building the capacity and tools of women, (b) the manner in which ICTs have been used as an intervention in supporting empowerment; and (c) the approach in which ICTs can act as potential barriers and facilitators to women’s attainment of agency. The evidence from this scoping review supports the innovative use of current and emerging technologies within health care to connect with, engage, and empower women both within the acute and community settings. The extant evidence explores how ICT has played a role in the promotion and support of women’s empowerment as well as supporting the development of health care policies and relevant programs

The Potentials and Challenges of Zoom Live Theatre during Coronavirus Lockdown: Pandemic Therapy and Corona Chicken (Part Two)

This study discusses the potentials and challenges of Zoom theatre performances during the lockdown caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. It examines the utilization and applicability of videoconferencing software Zoom, and other streaming software compatible with it, in creating a viable performance option for theatre practitioners and audiences during mandatory social distancing. Such software can be a strategy for social inclusion, alleviating the adverse effects of extended quarantine. The article also discusses the technical and performative aspects of Zoom theatre, pointing out its pros and cons. It uses a critical and analytical approach to performances of two Zoom plays, Pandemic Therapy and Corona Chicken (Part Two), revealing how the playwright, dramaturg, and actors manage to present a live theatrical experience capable of engaging audiences and promoting social interaction. Khaled Mostafa Karam is an Assistant Professor of English Literature at the Suez University in Egypt and a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Cognitive Science, Case Western Reserve University, USA. He has published eleven articles on the interdisciplinary field of cognitive science and drama. Galal Mohamed Naguib is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Suez University and author of several articles in the fields of demographic analysis and the sociology of art