Digital Competence of university students with disabilities and factors that determine it. A descriptive, inferential and multivariate study

Taking into account that 15% of the world population suffers from some type of disability, few investigations have been concerned with knowing the level of digital competenceDigital Competence that students with functional diversity have. This research is based on an initial sample of 17,301 newly enrolled university students from the Andrés Bello University (Chile), of which 650 are selected for having some type of disability. Its main objective is to know the level of self-perception in the digital competenceDigital Competence of university students with disabilities and the variables that explain it. To do this, an evaluation instrument consisting of 6 dimensions (technological literacy, information search and processing, critical thinking, problem solving and decision making, communication and collaboration, digital citizenship, and communication and collaboration) is designed and applied. To calculate the validity of the instrument, the partial least squares (PLS) method is applied through structural equation modeling. Next, data is provided regarding the level of Digital CompetenceDigital Competence of the students and if there are differences between the types of disability. Finally, the data is subjected to a logistic regression to estimate the relationship between the dependent variable (digital competenceDigital Competence) and a set of independent variables (sociodemographic variables). The results reveal that the instrument used shows high levels of reliability, which guarantees its use in students with disabilities. Likewise, the average level of digital competenceDigital Competence is medium low. Finally, tThe factors that affect this variable are discussed and the necessary structuring of digital literacy plans is highlighted. Finally, this paper discusses new techniques for diagnosing students' digital skills

Information and Communication Technologies of Teaching Higher Mathematics To Students of Engineering Specialties At Technical Universities

Excessive anthropogenic pressure on land resources in Ukraine leads to a deterioration of their quality, and consequently they lose their potential. Human impact on the change of land quality can be direct (by involving land lots in use, carrying out economic activities) and indirect (as a result of such activity, enhancing the natural degradation of soils). The tendency of deterioration of the state of land resources requires the subordination of land relations to the main goal – to ensure comprehensive protection of this major national wealth of Ukraine.Legal support for the protection of agricultural land is considered as a single complex of interdependent elements: legal standards for the protection of land, soil, agricultural landscapes, and the mechanism for their implementation – legally significant measures: economic, organizational, scientific and technical. At the same time, it was concluded that the system of legal regulation of the use of agricultural land is not sufficiently saturated with mechanisms for regulating agricultural activity

Information and Communications Technologies in Pre-school settings: a review of the literature

This article reviews the research evidence that relates to the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in pre-school settings. While there is widespread agreement that children should be helped to become confident users of ICT the literature presents a more qualified picture of potential benefits and barriers. The review considers the polarised debate about whether computer use is desirable for young children; the position of ICT as one element in the multi-media mix experienced by children; evidence available about current ICT provision and practice in pre-school settings in the UK and perspectives on the contribution that ICT makes to learning. The need for adults and children to acquire ICT literacy skills is identified, along with a requirement that practitioners should be equipped to make appropriate resource choices. The way in which ICT can play a compensatory and engaging role or further entrench disadvantage (‘the digital divide’) is discussed. The review concludes that the pedagogical imperative must remain with practitioners

Acomodaciones computarizadas para la evaluación de comprensión lectora en estudiantes con limitación visual

A nivel mundial se ha estimado que 285 millones de personas tienen discapacidad visual. La inclusión educativa de personas con limitación visual (LV) resulta compleja ya que el acceso a gran parte de los recursos educativos se obtiene a través del canal visual. Así, es necesaria la implementación de modificaciones en los formatos de presentación de dichos recursos para que resulten accesibles a esta población por medio de canales sensoriales alternativos al convencional. El objetivo general del presente estudio fue comparar el desempeño en comprensión lectora según la acomodación utilizada en estudiantes con y sin limitación visual de la ciudad de Bogotá. Para esto, se implementó un Test Adaptativo Informatizado (TAI) y se emplearon tres tipos de acomodaciones: TAI auditivo, TAI visual y lector humano. No se encontraron diferencias significativas en el desempeño de los evaluados con LV en las modalidades de acomodación auditiva del TAI y la acomodación con lector (p.05). Sin embargo, sí se encontraron diferencias significativas (p.05) en el desempeño en comprensión lectora entre estudiantes con LV que tomaron la acomodación auditiva del TAI y los estudiantes sin LV que tomaron la acomodación visual del TAI, siendo los estudiantes sin LV quienes obtuvieron mayor desempeño. A pesar de que no se comprobaron las hipótesis planteadas, el presente estudio ofrece una primera propuesta metodológica sustentada en evidencia empírica para la implementación de sistemas de evaluación alternativos basados en tecnologías informatizadas que resulten coherentes con las políticas de inclusión educativa y por ende, promuevan la justicia en los procesos de evaluación. Se sugiere para futuros estudios, evaluar la conceptualización del constructo comprensión lectora y recopilar evidencias de validez de las acomodaciones de prueba.Abstract. It has been reported that around 285 million people worldwide have visual impairment. Since access to most educational resources requires vision, educational inclusion of people with visual impairment (VI) is a complex task. Thus, changes in the format of educational resources are needed so that students with VI can access them through alternate senses like hearing. The purpose of this study was to compare reading comprehension performance according to the accommodation in Colombian students with and without visual impairment. A Computerized Adaptive Test (CAT) was used along with three accommodations: audio CAT, visual CAT and human reader. No significant differences (p.05) were found in reading comprehension performance of student with VI between audio CAT and human reader accommodations. However, significant differences were found (p .05) in reading comprehension performance between student with VI who took the audio CAT and students without VI who took the visual CAT. Students without VI had higher performance. Even though research hypothesis were not confirmed, this study offers an alternate methodological approach based on empirical evidence to introduce alternative computer-based assessment systems that are consistent with educational inclusive policies and therefore, promote justice in assessment. It is suggested that future studies assess the theoretical framework of reading comprehension and gather validity evidence of test accommodations.Maestrí

Virtual world affordances for people with lifelong disability

"The findings from this thesis show that virtual worlds offer valuable affordances for people with lifelong disability and identify six affordances offered: communication, mobility, personalization, social inclusion, personal development, and joint activity. The study also concludes that the affordances identified may represent constraints to some people because of their disability

Predictors of successful inclusion for children with vision impairment in early education

The international movement to include children with disabilities in education has resulted in significant legislative and policy change. However some have argued that this has not translated into actual practice and that inclusion (as opposed to integration) is not the usual practice in Australia. There are fears that inclusion, if implemented poorly, will be detrimental to the wellbeing of students with disabilities. Similar concerns exist for students with vision impairment. The quality of their inclusive experiences varies dramatically from school to school, with an isolated few children reaping the expected benefits of inclusion. The variation in these experiences has not yet been explained.The purpose of this research was to determine which, if any, factors predict successful inclusion for children with vision impairment in regular early education in Australia. The research occurred in two phases: (1) a formative, qualitative phase; and (2) a quantitative, longitudinal phase.The aim of Phase 1 was to select factors that stakeholders perceived were important in influencing the inclusive early education of children with vision impairment in Australia. Nominal Group Technique elicited the perception of five stakeholder groups (allied health professionals, visiting teachers, classroom teachers, parents of, and students with vision impairment) (N = 25). The ranked items generated by each stakeholder group were combined using content analysis. These were then ranked overall. The top-ten ranked ‘stakeholder factors’ formed the independent variables for the second phase of the study.Phase 2 had three aims relating to regular early education in Australia: (1) to describe the situation that children with vision impairment are exposed to (i.e. the stakeholder factors identified in Phase 1); (2) to compare the inclusive outcomes (participation, engagement, child interaction, academic and overall) of children with and without vision impairment; and (3) to determine the influence of the stakeholder factors on the inclusive outcomes of children with vision impairment. A prospective, longitudinal cohort design was used; conducted over two years. Twenty children with vision impairment and 37 sighted classmates (mean age 65 months) who attended regular kindergarten to grade one classes in Australia participated.Three aspects were commonly found to be poor in the regular class situations: access to vision aides and equipment, support for staff, and teacher training and experience; however the individualisation and physical environment were adequate. Nonparametric analysis demonstrated that both education staff and parents were more involved with children with vision impairment compared to classmates. The children’s social skills differed only at the end of the second year.Children with vision impairment had significantly poorer inclusive outcomes than classmates. Mann-Whitney U Tests found that children with vision impairment participated significantly less in class activities, were less engaged in tasks and experienced poorer social interaction than classmates at each point during the two years. At the end of the second year, children with vision impairment had significantly poorer academic performance.A three-step process selected the stakeholder factors that had a significant individual influence on the inclusion of children with vision impairment, relative to their classmates. Receiver Operating Characteristic curve analysis then demonstrated that Indices of these combined stakeholder factors predicted successful inclusive outcomes of children with vision impairment up to two years later. Presence of a combination of at least six factors, categorised as Environmental (teacher attitude, teacher training and experience, adult involvement, vision aides and equipment and physical environment); Personal (early intervention); and/or Activity Performance (social skills) significantly improved the likelihood of success.This study demonstrated that a high proportion of children with vision impairment in Australia are exposed to less than adequate situations in early education, and, as such, experience poor quality inclusion. Given the long term effects of early experiences, it is imperative that children have positive early education experiences. This research provided new knowledge of the factors that can improve regular early educational outcomes for students with vision impairment. This can further guide the decisions of policy makers, educators, health professionals and parents concerned with improving the life of children with vision impairment

Multimedia Development of English Vocabulary Learning in Primary School

In this paper, we describe a prototype of web-based intelligent handwriting education system for autonomous learning of Bengali characters. Bengali language is used by more than 211 million people of India and Bangladesh. Due to the socio-economical limitation, all of the population does not have the chance to go to school. This research project was aimed to develop an intelligent Bengali handwriting education system. As an intelligent tutor, the system can automatically check the handwriting errors, such as stroke production errors, stroke sequence errors, stroke relationship errors and immediately provide a feedback to the students to correct themselves. Our proposed system can be accessed from smartphone or iPhone that allows students to do practice their Bengali handwriting at anytime and anywhere. Bengali is a multi-stroke input characters with extremely long cursive shaped where it has stroke order variability and stroke direction variability. Due to this structural limitation, recognition speed is a crucial issue to apply traditional online handwriting recognition algorithm for Bengali language learning. In this work, we have adopted hierarchical recognition approach to improve the recognition speed that makes our system adaptable for web-based language learning. We applied writing speed free recognition methodology together with hierarchical recognition algorithm. It ensured the learning of all aged population, especially for children and older national. The experimental results showed that our proposed hierarchical recognition algorithm can provide higher accuracy than traditional multi-stroke recognition algorithm with more writing variability