Designing connected play: Perspectives from combining industry and academic know-how. In: Chaudron S., Di Gioia R., Gemo M., Holloway D., Marsh J., Mascheroni G., Peter J., Yamada-Rice D. Kaleidoscope on the Internet of Toys - Safety, security, privacy and societal insights, EUR 28397 EN, doi:10.2788/05383

Academics, designers and producers tend to consider the evolving Internet of Toys (IoToys) from within their individual disciplines. On the one hand, academics bring a long history of researching and theorizing play and communication practices to the task of considering young children’s use of connected toys. On the other hand, designers and producers of connected toys have detailed understanding of the possibilities and affordances of technology, as well as the technical mechanics involved in toy production. In other words, they know what it is possible to make, and what it is not possible to make. Industry also has an eye on trends in digital toy production and content, and how these are likely to evolve. This is because the digital play industry track data on technology usage and media consumption, and so on. These are things that academics are often a step behind in understanding because of a tendency to consider children’s use of an end product. However, my work across academia and the commercial toy and digital content industry has taught me that the amount of expertise companies have of child development and theories around play and communication practices is extremely varied and start-up companies in particular have little resource to conduct in-house research. This means that some connected toys are not as well made for young users as they could be. However, these crossovers have also taught me that sometimes academics call for changes to designs that are not easily possible or commercially viable. Therefore, regular collaboration between academia and industry would aid production of the best possible connected toys and content for young children

The Impostor: Exploring narrative game design for learning Korean as a foreign language

In recent years, digital language learning games and applications have proliferated. However, most existing apps employ methods and theoretical approaches that are not designed to teach learners practical language competence. Additionally, commercial apps tend to focus on languages with large markets, leaving smaller languages like Korean unsupported. The objective of this thesis is to explore language learning and second language acquisition (SLA) theories and their practical applications to find teaching methods that are best suited for improving practical language competence of Korean. Having identified such methods grounded in socio-cultural and ecological SLA theory, the thesis further integrates the teaching methods into a conceptual design of a digital language learning game for learning Korean as a foreign language. This thesis demonstrates that a grounding the fundamentally messy digital language learning game design process in SLA theory is not only viable but a good starting point. Key findings indicate that the designers need to identify the targeted learning objectives, learning experiences and game experiences as clear design goals early on, to efficiently guide the inherently messy design process. Furthermore, the thesis highlights that digital language learning game designers need to develop and nurture knowledge both in the target language instructional domain and in game design.Viime vuosina digitaalisten kielten oppimista varten luotujen pelien ja applikaatioiden määrä on lisääntynyt voimakkaasti. Valtaosa olemassa olevista applikaatioista soveltaa kuitenkin käytäntöjä ja teoreettisia lähestymistapoja, jotka eivät opeta käytännön kielitaitoja. Lisäksi kaupalliset applikaatiot keskittyvät lähinnä kieliin, joilla on suuret markkinat ja eivätkä tue pienempiä kieliä kuten Koreaa. Tämän opinnäytetyön päämääränä on tutkia kielten oppimisen ja vieraan kielen omaksumisen teoriaa sekä niiden käytännön sovelluksia ja löytää opetusmenetelmiä, jotka soveltuvat parhaiten käytännöllisen Korean kielen taidon opiskeluun. Työn tuloksena löytyi sosiokulttuurilliseen ja ekologiseen kielten omaksumisteoriaan pohjautuvia menetelmiä, jotka integroitiin osaksi opinnäytetyön osana suunniteltua oppimispelikonseptia. Tämä opinnäytetyö havainnollistaa, että pohjimmiltaan sekavan digitaalisten kieltenopiskelupelien suunnitteluprosessin pohjaaminen kieltenoppimisteoriaan on paitsi mahdollista myös erinomainen lähtökohta suunnittelutyölle. Työn päälöydökset osoittavat, että suunnittelijoiden tulee tunnistaa tavoitellut oppimistavoitteet, oppimiskokemukset ja pelikokemukset ajoissa, jotta suunnittelutyö etenisi tehokkaammin. Lisäksi tämä opinnäytetyö korostaa, että digitaalisten kieltenopiskelupelien suunnittelijoiden tulee perehtyä syvällisesti sekä opiskelun kohteena olevaan kieleen että pelisuunnitteluun

Co-constructing a new framework for evaluating social innovation in marginalized rural areas

The EU funded H2020 project \u2018Social Innovation in Marginalised Rural Areas\u2019 (SIMRA; www.simra-h2020.eu) has the overall objective of advancing the state-of-the-art in social innovation. This paper outlines the process for co- developing an evaluation framework with stakeholders, drawn from across Europe and the Mediterranean area, in the fields of agriculture, forestry and rural development. Preliminary results show the importance of integrating process and outcome-oriented evaluations, and implementing participatory approaches in evaluation practice. They also raise critical issues related to the comparability of primary data in diverse regional contexts and highlight the need for mixed methods approaches in evaluation

Designing and launching a year-long executive education programme at LSE Confucius Institute for Business London: Chinese language and culture for business (CLCB)

This paper focuses on designing and launching the first year-long executive education programme, namely Chinese Language and Culture for Business (CLCB) at LSE (London School of Economics) in London. The essential features of this program include the curriculum design, delivery mode and on-going student support. A blended learning (BL) approach is adopted in the Mandarin teaching, with course delivery and assessment taking place in face-to-face contact hours in class, combined with the use of online learning environment and mobile technology out of class. This combination is used to meet the needs of busy business professionals, to provide them with online and offline support, and thus to maximise their learning outcome. From the intercultural communication perspective, the programme provides intensive training and business master sessions addressing core values of Chinese culture and Chinese business communication styles. The invited guest speakers who hold senior positions in different businesses areas share their live experiences with the students on the unique Chinese business concepts and practice such as ‘hanxu’ and ‘heqishengcai’. Meanwhile, talks and events, from China Business Briefings to Open Business Forum, are organized to provide the students with global networking opportunities. Embedded in this program, a fortnight summer study trip to Tsinghua University enables students to fully immerse themselves in Chinese language and life. The paper addresses some practical considerations and challenges in designing the programme with the hope to shed light on and provide pedagogical implications for other programme leaders and course designers in the field of language teaching for specific purposes

Playing YouTube: How the Nancy YouTuber doll and app position children as aspiring YouTube influencers.

This article analyzes Nancy YouTuber, a popular doll and companion app that is part of a growing trend of children's toys modeled on YouTube influencers. Nancy YouTuber's app is one of the first to provide a fictitious YouTube channel, introducing children to YouTube's affordances. We investigate how the doll and app socialize YouTuber practices, and to what extent the combination of both deepens the commodification of childhood. We use the walkthrough method to analyze the app, and a semiotic approach to study the doll, its accessories and surrounding materials to map the manufacturer's intended use through these discourses. Our research uncovers how children are encouraged to recreate product reviews and internalize commercial digital identity performances. We use Spain, where the doll originates, to contextualize these findings. The article considers how influencer-aspirant toys position children as promotional intermediaries and normalize children's YouTuber aspirations

How and Why to Read and Create Children's Digital Books

How and Why to Read and Create Children's Digital Books outlines effective ways of using digital books in early years and primary classrooms, and specifies the educational potential of using digital books and apps in physical spaces and virtual communities. With a particular focus on apps and personalised reading, Natalia Kucirkova combines theory and practice to argue that personalised reading is only truly personalised when it is created or co-created by reading communities. Divided into two parts, Part I suggests criteria to evaluate the educational quality of digital books and practical strategies for their use in the classroom. Specific attention is paid to the ways in which digital books can support individual children’s strengths and difficulties, digital literacies, language and communication skills. Part II explores digital books created by children, their caregivers, teachers and librarians, and Kucirkova also offers insights into how smart toys, tangibles and augmented/virtual reality tools can enrich children’s reading for pleasure

Digital Personalization in Early Childhood

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Digital personalization is an emerging interdisciplinary research field, with application to a variety of areas including design, education and publication industry. This book focuses on children’s education and literacy resources, which have undergone important changes with the ‘personalization revolution’ in the early 21st century. The author develops original insights from educational research and her own studies concerned with digital and non-digital personalization, to discuss in a clear and critical way the thinking, research issues and practical implications of this new field. She scrutinises the character of technology-based personalized education to substantiate the claim that the current models of personalized education tend to be technology- and business-driven, with little pedagogical understanding of the social value of personalization. Research involving touchscreens, personalized books and 2-8-year olds is interrogated for its impact on children’s development of language, creativity, identity, as well as family dynamics and classroom dialogue. The literature available on digital and non-digital personalization is discussed in relation to five key themes of personalized education, the so-called 5As: autonomy, authorship, aesthetics, attachment and authenticity. It is argued that the 5As need to be anchored in humanist principles for a sustainable pedagogy and practice. Based on the insights from research with typically and atypically developing children, Kucirkova proposes personalised pluralisation, as a pedagogical framework of personalized education for the future. The book aims to help scholars and professionals understand the connections between personalization and literacy, personalization and education, and personalization and wider socio-moral issues

Get yourself connected: conceptualising the role of digital technologies in Norwegian career guidance

This report outlines the role of digital technologies in the provision of career guidance. It was commissioned by the c ommittee on career guidance which is advising the Norwegian Government following a review of the countries skills system by the OECD. In this report we argue that career guidance and online career guidance in particular can support the development of Norwa y’s skills system to help meet the economic challenges that it faces.The expert committee advising Norway’s Career Guidance Initiativ

Presence and agency in real and virtual spaces: The promise of extended reality for language learning

Augmented and virtual realities (together “extended reality”) offer language learners the opportunity to communicate and interact in real and virtual spaces. In augmented reality (AR), users view computer-generated layers added to a phone camera’s view of the world. Virtual reality (VR) immerses users in a 3D environment that might simulate aspects of the outside world or project an entirely imagined reality. This column looks at opportunities and challenges in the use of extended reality (XR) for second language learning. Opportunities include higher learner motivation and personal agency through XR uses that feature collaboration and open-ended interactions, particularly in simulations, games, and learner co-design. That direction offers more alignment with current theories of second language acquisition (SLA)–emphasizing holistic language development and ecological frameworks–than most commercial VR apps currently available. Those posit a linear language development and focus largely on vocabulary learning and language practice within closed role-play scenarios. Offering both AR and VR access, mixed reality may present opportunities to combine the best features of each medium. Advances in generative artificial intelligence (AI) provide additional possibilities for personalized language learning in a flexible and dynamic VR environment