Civic Identities, Online Technologies: From Designing Civics Curriculum to Supporting Civic Experiences

Part of the Volume on Civic Life Online: Learning How Digital Media Can Engage Youth.Youth today are often criticized for their lack of civic participation and involvement in political life. Technology has been blamed, amongst many other causes, for fostering social isolation and youth's retreat into a private world disconnected from their communities. However, current research is beginning to indicate that these might be inaccurate perceptions. The Internet has provided new opportunities to create communities that extend beyond geographic boundaries, to engage in civic and volunteering activities across local and national frontiers, to learn about political life, and to experience the challenges of democratic participation. How do we leverage youth's interest in new technologies by developing technology-based educational programs to promote civic engagement? This chapter explores this question by proposing socio-technical design elements to be considered when developing technology-rich experiences. It presents a typology to guide the design of Internet-based interventions, taking into account both the affordances of the technology and the educational approach to the use of the technology. It also presents a pilot experience in a northeastern university that offered a pre-orientation program in which incoming freshman designed a three-dimensional virtual campus of the future and developed new policies and programs to strengthen the relationship between college campus and neighbor communities

Still earning interest: despite online technologies, customers value bank location

Whether she’s logging on to her computer or making a rare trip to the teller’s line, Stephanie Laws has one overarching banking need: convenience. She’s not alone.Banks and banking

Young children (2-13) and digital technologies: a case study of Lithuania

The chapter aims at analysing the role of online technologies and digital devices in young children’s (2-13) lives. The case study of Lithuania contributes with the new insights about the local context and is a continuation of the Lithuanian part of the European Commission Joint Research Center project “Young Children (0–8) and Digital Technologies“. This study builds on the national report presenting findings from the qualitative study on young children and their engagement with digital technologies conducted in Lithuania with ten families with children aged from 2 to 13 years and their parents. The research revealed that most children use online technologies everyday day, but their engagement with online technologies is substantially influen ed by their parents’ attitudes towards online technologies. Children perceive online technologies as entertainment, relaxation, something they can play with. Parents’ views towards the use of online technologies by their children are more diverse. They mediate their children’s use of online technologies in different ways.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

How the internet changed career: framing the relationship between career development and online technologies

This article examines the inter-relationship between the internet and career development. It asks three inter-linked questions: How does the internet reshape the context within which individuals pursue their career? What skills and knowledge do people need in order to pursue their careers effectively using the internet? How can careers workers use the internet as a medium for the delivery of career support? The article develops conceptual architecture for answering these questions and in particular highlights the importance of the concept of digital career literacy

Inclusion and online learning opportunities: Designing for accessibility

Higher education institutions worldwide are adopting flexible learning methods and online technologies which increase the potential for widening the learning community to include people for whom participation may previously have been difficult or impossible. The development of courseware that is accessible, flexible and informative can benefit not only people with special needs, but such courseware provides a better educational experience for all students

Church Sustainability: Exploring Online Technologies through the Lens of System Dynamics

Online technologies such as social media and videoconferencing platforms have changed the way church leaders access information and communicate with congregants. The paper investigates the value of online technologies in creating church sustainability using system dynamics. Exploring Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) as the case study, the researchers interviewed 12 religious leaders. The results showed that church leaders were using online technologies to create online communities within their congregations which were crucial for addressing the communication and informational needs of various church leaders as well as aiding the retention of church members. The study concludes that online technologies have the potential to sustain religious organisations. The study provides insight to the church leaders regarding the value of online technologies in church sustainability

Building online employability: a guide for academic departments

This guide will help academic departments to support students to think about their careers and to use the online environment wisely. Used badly the array of social media and online technologies can seriously disadvantage a students’ career development, but if used well they can support students to find out about and transition into their future career.This work was funded by the University of Derby’s Research for Teaching and Learning programme

Would Kitty Genovese have been murdered in Second Life? Researching the "bystander effect" using online technologies

The increasing use of online technologies, including &lsquo;virtual worlds&rsquo; such as Second Life, provides sociology with a transformed context within which to ply creative research approaches to ongoing social issues, such as the &lsquo;bystander effect&rsquo;. While the &lsquo;bystander effect&rsquo; was coined following a real-life incident, the concept has been researched primarily through laboratory-based experiments. The relationship between &lsquo;virtual&rsquo; and &lsquo;real&rsquo; world environments and human behaviours are, however, unclear and warrant careful attention and research.In this paper we outline existing literature on the applicability of computer-simulated activity to real world contexts. We consider the potential of Second Life as a research environment in which &lsquo;virtual&rsquo; and &lsquo;real&rsquo; human responses are potentially more blurred than in real-life or a laboratory setting. We describe preliminary research in which unsolicited Second Life participants faced a situation in which they could have intervened. Our findings suggest the existence of a common perception that formal regulators were close at hand, and that this contributed to the hesitation of some people to personally intervene in the fraught situation. In addition to providing another angle on the &lsquo;bystander effect&rsquo;, this research contributes to our understanding of how new technologies might enable us to conduct social research in creative ways.<br /

Online Learning: Best Practices and Online Technologies

This session seeks to provide a forum for discussing online technologies and best practices in online learning. Session seeks to provide an opportunity for faculty to discuss what strategies have worked well in their online classes and what obstacles they have encountered while teaching online. Session will also foster discussion about online technologies that faculty prefer to use and the benefits they gain from these technologies. Overall, session will help faculty learn more about how to be successful in the online classroom

Online technologies and digital solutions in educational sphere

The author статьи focuses attention on modern speedy development of the reality in all spheres of human life. It makes science and educations correspond to the requirements of the society, be one step ahead of other fields of the world economic managementАвтор статьи акцентирует внимание читателя на современном скоростном развитии действительности во всех сферах жизнедеятельности человека, что вынуждает науку и, соответственно, образование соответствовать запросам общества, идти на «шаг впереди» других отраслей мирового хозяйствовани