Minecrafters: An educational model for developing collaboration

In response to significant global events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, educational environments are undergoing a fundamental transformation towards collaborative online spaces and networked learning. Networked learning includes (a) the process of learning with and through other people and resources and (b) the environment (i.e., the internet) and platforms (i.e., YouTube, websites, social media, discussion forums) that support these connections or networks (Hodgson & McConnell, 2019). This shift in how learning is done necessitates a reevaluation of pedagogical methods to foster the development of students' global skills and competencies. These competencies, as defined by the Council of Ministers of Education Canada (CMEC), are recognized as essential for individuals to not only adapt but thrive in our current and future world. This world is characterized by unprecedented simultaneous challenges, often referred to as a 'polycrisis,' and rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (A.I.) that have the potential to reshape every aspect of human existence. Therefore, it is imperative that we delve into a deeper investigation and understanding of innovative pedagogical approaches to ensure students are adequately prepared for the evolving landscape. Collaboration is arguably one of the most important of the global skills and competencies as it underpins many of the essential skills youth need to thrive in educational and non-educational settings. More specifically, collaboration underpins the type of networked learning rising in popularity in formal and informal learning settings (Bülow & Nørgård, 2021). As a result, this exploratory research focuses on Minecraft: Education Edition (M:EE) as a tool for developing collaboration through critical making and team-based learning. Over a five-day spring-break camp, two cohorts of students (grades four to six and grades seven to eight) participated in open-ended design-based learning challenges online (in the virtual meeting platform, Google Meet, and in the virtual world, M:EE). Data analysis revealed that collaboration manifested itself in three primary modes: co-constructing knowledge, peer-teaching, and conflict management. Analysis further revealed that younger versus older students build and collaborate in the online environment very differently, which at times mirrored the 'real world' classroom. These findings have implications for designing age-appropriate online learning experiences to support collaboration in a networked environment, especially within virtual simulation and creation worlds like Minecraft

Wearable Computing for Health and Fitness: Exploring the Relationship between Data and Human Behaviour

Health and fitness wearable technology has recently advanced, making it easier for an individual to monitor their behaviours. Previously self generated data interacts with the user to motivate positive behaviour change, but issues arise when relating this to long term mention of wearable devices. Previous studies within this area are discussed. We also consider a new approach where data is used to support instead of motivate, through monitoring and logging to encourage reflection. Based on issues highlighted, we then make recommendations on the direction in which future work could be most beneficial

Wearables at work:preferences from an employee’s perspective

This exploratory study aims to obtain a first impression of the wishes and needs of employees on the use of wearables at work for health promotion. 76 employ-ees with a mean age of 40 years old (SD ±11.7) filled in a survey after trying out a wearable. Most employees see the potential of using wearable devices for workplace health promotion. However, according to employees, some negative aspects should be overcome before wearables can effectively contribute to health promotion. The most mentioned negative aspects were poor visualization and un-pleasantness of wearing. Specifically for the workplace, employees were con-cerned about the privacy of data collection

Enhance User Engagement using Gamified Ineternet of Things

Gamification is considered as a promising approach to enhance people’s engagement in many social or technical systems, thus is supposed to play an important role in future Internet of Everything (IoE). Although gamification elements have already been reported in various IoT research, there still lacks answers about how gamification may affect user engagement in IoT systems and through what paths. In present work, we are synthesizing and analyzing existing research efforts in these emerging fields to provide implications for future IoE development. The results are categorized into three dimensions by considering cognitive-behavioral outcome, procedural stage and population scale

Smartphones

Many of the research approaches to smartphones actually regard them as more or less transparent points of access to other kinds of communication experiences. That is, rather than considering the smartphone as something in itself, the researchers look at how individuals use the smartphone for their communicative purposes, whether these be talking, surfing the web, using on-line data access for off-site data sources, downloading or uploading materials, or any kind of interaction with social media. They focus not so much on the smartphone itself but on the activities that people engage in with their smartphones

The Relationship Between Motivation, Academic Achievement, and Engagement in Mathematics Using Digital Game-Based Learning: An Explanatory Sequential Mixed Methods Study

Digital game-based learning (DGBL) has unique factors that can engage students in the learning process. It has been shown that incorporating DGBL into mathematics can help bridge the learning gap, differentiate instruction, and engage students (Yang et al., 2018; Hulse et al., 2019; Chen et al., 2012; Naik, 2017). This study examined how students’ prior engagements are related to their academic achievement as well as investigated students’ motivation while utilizing DGBL in mathematics. An explanatory sequential mixed methods design was utilized to collect the quantitative data followed by the qualitative data. There were eighteen middle school participants in grades six through eight who all attended the same school within the Northeastern United States. The self-determination theory (SDT) served as the theoretical framework for examining the results. Data was collected through a pretest, posttest, an open-ended survey, and a closed-ended survey. The results of this study indicated that DGBL can improve academic achievement in mathematics. However, it was determined that students’ prior engagement was not related to their academic achievement. Additional research should be conducted on the motivational aspect of relatedness and DGBL since it was shown that there was a strong correlation between relatedness and the engagement themes of learning with peers and experiences with faculty