‘Managing pieces of a personal puzzle’ — older people’s experiences of self-management falls prevention exercise guided by a digital program or a booklet

Background: Exercise is effective in order to prevent falls in community-dwelling older people. Self-management programs have the potential to increase access and reduce costs related to exercise-based fall prevention. However, information regarding older people's views of participating in such programs is needed to support implementation. The aim of this study was to explore older people's experiences of a self-management fall prevention exercise routine guided either by a digital program (web-based or mobile) or a paper booklet. Methods: This qualitative study was part of a feasibility study exploring two completely self-managed exercise interventions in which the participants tailored their own program, guided either by a digital program or a paper booklet. Individual face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample of 28 participants (18 women), mean age 76yrs. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the data. Results: Self-managing and self-tailoring these exercise programs was experienced as Managing pieces of a personal puzzle'. To independently being able to create a program and manage exercise was described in the categories Finding my own level' and Programming it into my life'. The participants experienced the flexibility and independence provided by completely self-managed exercise as positive and constructive although it required discipline. Furthermore, different needs and preferences when managing their exercise were described, as well as varying sources of motivation for doing the exercise, as highlighted in the category Defining my source of motivation'. The category Evolving my acquired knowledge' captures the participants' views of building their competence and strategies for maintenance of the exercise. It describes a combined process of learning the program and developing reflection, which was more clearly articulated by participants using the digital program. Conclusions: This study provides new knowledge regarding experiences, preferences and motivations of older people to engage in home-based self-managed fall prevention exercise. They expressed both a capability and willingness to independently manage their exercise. A digital program seems to have strengthened the feeling of support while creating their own exercise program and tailoring it to their preferences and circumstances, which might therefore create better opportunities for adoption and adherence in the long term

Missing "the little things that make you human": medical students' experiences of digital teaching and learning

Recent decades have seen a significant global scale-up in the training of doctors with an increased pressure on training resources. This thesis began with a question about how scalable digital materials could be designed to support medical students’ learning of clinical reasoning - the process of making informed judgements about the likely causes and best action to be taken when faced with a clinical problem. My initial research was underpinned by an assumption that it would be possible to design digital tools that students would find as motivating as face-to-face encounters. However, my early empirical work using design research raised doubts about that and caused me to take a step back and examine medical students’ digital learning engagement more generally. In this thesis, I ask the question: why, and in what ways, is digital learning engagement different from face-to-face learning engagement? I test a hypothesis about digital learning engagement that is derived from Silvan Tomkins’ Script Theory, using a series of repertory grid interviews with clinical medical students. I have taken an ontological position on the human mind, arguing that it is an embodied entity that actively scans the environment looking for meaning, and in which learning is driven by curiosity but motivated by the affective response of interest-excitement. Although Tomkins provides my main theoretical framework, I have triangulated his ideas with George Kelly’s Personal Construct Psychology, partly to add extra metaphorical depth, but also because Kelly’s theory offers a logic of enquiry and a method that I did not find in Tomkins. I also draw on Alexander Bain’s ontological description of the embodied mind, but update this with more contemporary ideas about perception and curiosity. My script theoretical hypothesis was not supported by the empirical data, because it was based on a false assumption that students’ engagement with digital learning was superficial. However, several important findings emerged. Medical students, on the whole, appreciate the convenience and safety of digital learning but do not actually enjoy it. Students experience digital learning as lonely and perceptually poor, and they explicitly link this to difficulty in sustaining attention. I contextualise these findings within the idea of the embodied, curious, affect-susceptible mind, and argue that a sense of place is important for learning, as is the real presence of others. Learning in three-dimensional “real” worlds allows students to derive meanings from place and person that support the affective response of interest-excitement. This, in turn, supports sustained attention. I argue that when considering learning media, we should distinguish between the efficient and the human, identifying the contexts in which the efficiency gains of digital media outweigh the de-humanising nature of digital learning, and continuing to value the human attributes of face-to-face teaching and learning

Community in the Elementary Mathematics Classroom: Student Engagement in Face-to-Face and Online Environments

This qualitative study reveals how nineteen students in a grade five classroom engaged in community interactions to solve meaningful mathematics problems. In my experience, students often defer their sense of mathematical authority and autonomy to teachers and textbooks. The rationale for this study stems from an interest to investigate student membership in a mathematical community, both face-to-face and online, as it serves students to assert their own powers. Participants of this study solved two mathematics problems, interacting in a face-to-face and online community of peers. Analyses of teams audiotaped face-to-face negotiations, digital chat field comments and physical as well as virtual solutions were undertaken, as was a discussion of students individual survey comments about their experiences in the two forms of community. These present implications around the negotiation of both social and sociomathematical norms, particularly in the digital environment

Digital Technology and Qualitative Research: A Book Review of Maggi Savin-Baden and Gemma Tombs’ Research Methods for Education in the Digital Age

Maggi Savin-Baden and Gemma Tombs’ Research Methods for Education in the Digital Age is part of an educational series on methodology by The Bloomsbury Research Methods for Education. They wrote their book for qualitative researchers planning to use any form of digital technology such as digital recorders for face-to-face interviews, telecommunications application software (e.g., SKYPE) to conduct interviews, social media websites for data collection, digital imagery, and Computer Assisted/Aided Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS) for their study. Savin-Baden and Tombs also have a chapter that examines the use of digital technology in quantitative research. As a novice researcher, I found this book to be very helpful in my doctoral research journey to understand digital technology terms and the many available research options that digital technology can provide. In this book review, I will cover the salient topics from each of the ten chapters that will help other novice scholars make smart research decisions

ACUTA Journal of Telecommunications in Higher Education

In This Issue Disasters, Emergencies, and Residence Hall Communications GWU\u27s Safety Systems Built Around Telecommunications ln the Face of Disaster Advertorial: Contact 101 : Strategies for Emergency Notification University Approaches to Emergencies and Emergency Communication A Reasoned Response to Crisis Digital Forensics: What ls lt and Why Should I Care? Exploits, Guidelines, and Vulnerabilities: Protecting Digital Resources Classifying Events, lncidents and Disasters President\u27s Message From the Executive Director Here\u27s My Advic

ACUTA Journal of Telecommunications in Higher Education

In This Issue Disasters, Emergencies, and Residence Hall Communications GWU\u27s Safety Systems Built Around Telecommunications ln the Face of Disaster Advertorial: Contact 101 : Strategies for Emergency Notification University Approaches to Emergencies and Emergency Communication A Reasoned Response to Crisis Digital Forensics: What ls lt and Why Should I Care? Exploits, Guidelines, and Vulnerabilities: Protecting Digital Resources Classifying Events, lncidents and Disasters President\u27s Message From the Executive Director Here\u27s My Advic

Using coaching techniques to teach information literacy to first year English undergraduates

This is a report on how I integrated coaching techniques into my teaching of information literacy(IL)to 28 FHEQ Level 4 (Year 1) English undergraduates at Brunel University London, UK, during January 2021-April 2021. This was part of a compulsory module, titled Digital Literacy. During this time, it was held online due to COVID-19 lockdowns and, since restrictions have been lifted, I have started teaching this face to face in a flat classroom on the University campus

Polis in Shanghai: the joy of the irresistable web

My awesome jetlag reminds me that digital has not eliminated distance. And the fact that I can’t Twitter is a slap in the face of an Internet enthusiast, too. You get a little taste of what it is to be Chinese in the 21st Century when you try to Google a few choice items for a talk I gave tonight

Analysing collaborative problem-solving from students' physical interactions

Collaborative problem-solving (CPS) is a fundamental skill for success in modern societies, and part of the most common constructivist teaching approaches. However, its effective implementation and evaluation are challenging for educators. Current inquiries on the identification of the observable features and processes of CPS are progressing at a pace in digital learning environments. However, still, most learning and teaching occurs in physical environments. In my current research, I investigate differences in student behaviours when groups of students are solving problems collaboratively in face-to-face, practice-based learning (PBL) environments in high school and universities. My data is often based on students’ hand position and head direction, which can be automated deploying existing learning analytics systems. Using nonverbal indexes of students’ physical interactivity in PBL, I try to interpret the key parameters of CPS including synchrony, equality, individual accountability, and intra-individual variability. The ultimate aim of my research is to be able to continuously evaluate and support students’ collaborative learning during their engagement with constructivist pedagogies

Circumventing Control

My creative process emerges from the struggle between two contrasting impulses: a habitual desire to control my internal and external environments, and an instinctive need to overcome these constraints. The discoveries I have made in the studio have fostered my desire to confront anxiety and make critical decisions in the face of uncertain outcomes. For me, the process of making has become a mode of thinking. It has become a way of remembering the past, envisioning the future, and experiencing the present moment. I find that working with collage in combined analog and digital formats, allows me to experiment with images and materials in an immediate way. As a result, my studio practice has provided a way for me to circumvent the controlling mind, and to re-examine some of the old, outdated paradigms I have about life and art