Information Uses and Learning Outcomes During Guided Discovery in a Blended E-Learning Game Design Program for Secondary Computer Science Education

This study investigates middle school and high school students’ online information uses and social constructivist engagement during a blended e-learning program of game design for computer science education. Students use a learning management system (LMS) pre-populated with curriculum and resources, participating in an in-school class, daily for credit and a grade for a year, with non-expert teachers. This blended e-learning model aims to contribute to scaling of CS education, towards meeting the needs of teacher shortages in this domain. The study draws on Google Analytics data to describe student activity patterns and investigate relationships between measured patterns and learning outcomes. Findings show two activity factors emerging in student resource uses (less advanced, more advanced), and correlations between uses of more advanced resource, and outcomes. Further, student uses of the “team page,” the locus of their social constructivist game design engagement online, are highly correlated with outcomes. The research offers some support for effectiveness of such blended learning approaches in supporting CS education in this age group through knowledge-building, while also showing areas for improvement in instructional design, including direct scaffolding of information literacy instruction in such contexts

Connecting student information resource uses to learning outcomes in guided discovery-based game design

This research study investigates middle school and high school students’ use of a wiki-based learning management system as a coordinating representation in the context of their guided discovery-based game design work. The study aims to (a) consider/validate the quality of Google Analytics page read data as a source of insight for research; (b) describe activity patterns; (c) investigate possible relationships between measured activity patterns and student learning outcomes; and (d) consider implications for practice, such as enhanced teacher training, program improvements, and even development of LMS information system diagnostic tools. Findings indicate positive relationships between resource uses and game quality outcome scores (a measure of student knowledge-building), across as several LMS curriculum page types including social media pages (Profile pages and Team pages) and information resource pages (Intro, Unit 3, and Actionscript tutorials). The research supports effectiveness of guided discovery-based learning in supporting knowledge-building, and holds local pragmatic implications for optimization of the e-learning system under investigation, as well as methodological and theoretical implications for the bridging fields of information and learning sciences

Child participation in the design of media and information literacy interventions: A scoping review and thematic analysis

The article presents findings from a review of scientific articles about media and information literacy interventions targeted at children and adolescents. More specifically, the review centers on the quantity and quality of child participation in the design of such interventions. The findings indicate that designs with high levels of child participation constitute a minority in the sample. Most of them aim at “behavior-relevant” outcomes, e.g., reduce smoking or obesity. Interventions aimed at “media-relevant” outcomes, e.g., helping children to become competent media users, seem less widespread. Based on these findings, we argue that top-down initiatives to the promotion of media and information literacy among children and adolescents run the risk of becoming irrelevant to the target group, and that child participation in the design of such interventions should be seen as an end in itself, at least if we subscribe to the idea of children’s rights in the digital age

Editorial: Recent advances on searching as learning: An introduction to the special issue

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/147348/1/Hansen and Rieh JIS Special Issue Editorial 2016.pd

An Analysis of the Scientific Attitudes of Fifth Graders through Guided Discovery Learning

This study is aimed to investigate the effect of guided discovery learning (GDL) on the fifth graders’ scientific attitudes. A teaching intervention was planned based on GDL which was then practiced in the two science classes (each class with n = 17) at Public Primary School (PPS). The data were collected through questionnaires and were analyzed by comparing the scores of initial and final scientific attitudes of the control and experimental group using independent-samples T-test and the categorization table. The research results show that GDL positively affected the fifth graders’ scientific attitudes. There is a significant difference in the students’ final scientific attitudes scores [t(32)= -3.591;p &lt; 0.05]. This finding implies that GDL is an alternative learning scheme that can be accommodated to foster students’ scientific attitudes. Fostering scientific attitudes builds students’ resilience to cope with today’s and tomorrow’s hoaxes and misconceptions.</p

Advising a Model United Nations club: A scaffolded youth-adult partnership to foster active participation and political engagement

Model United Nations is one of the world\u27s most popular civic education programs, but there has been little research on how adult advisors of such programs support students\u27 participation and political engagement. This study begins to address this research gap through a case study of one Model UN club. By analyzing data from over 150 hours of observation and from interviews with advisors and students, the author found that advisors facilitated the club as a scaffolded youth-adult partnership and provided three major types of support: intellectual, administrative, and personal. Findings have implications for various extracurricular and classroom-based educational programs

The current state of using learning analytics to measure and support K-12 student engagement: A scoping review

Student engagement has been identified as a critical construct for understanding and predicting educational success. However, research has shown that it can be hard to align data-driven insights of engagement with observed and self-reported levels of engagement. Given the emergence and increasing application of learning analytics (LA) within K-12 education, further research is needed to understand how engagement is being conceptualized and measured within LA research. This scoping review identifies and synthesizes literature published between 2011-2022, focused on LA and student engagement in K-12 contexts, and indexed in five international databases. 27 articles and conference papers from 13 different countries were included for review. We found that most of the research was undertaken in middle school years within STEM subjects. The results show that there is a wide discrepancy in researchers' understanding and operationalization of engagement and little evidence to suggest that LA improves learning outcomes and support. However, the potential to do so remains strong. Guidance is provided for future LA engagement research to better align with these goals

The student-produced electronic portfolio in craft education

The authors studied primary school students’ experiences of using an electronic portfolio in their craft education over four years. A stimulated recall interview was applied to collect user experiences and qualitative content analysis to analyse the collected data. The results indicate that the electronic portfolio was experienced as a multipurpose tool to support learning. It makes the learning process visible and in that way helps focus on and improves the quality of learning. © ISLS.Peer reviewe

Youth Developing Political Efficacy through Social Learning Experiences: Becoming Active Participants in a Supportive Model United Nations Club

Prior research indicates that individuals are more likely to take political action (e.g., vote, contact representatives, protest) when they have higher levels of political efficacy, the belief that one’s actions can influence political processes. In this mixed methods longitudinal study, I draw on Wenger’s and Bandura’s theories of social learning to examine how adolescents’ political efficacy developed during their experiences in a Model United Nations club. Through analyses of data from questionnaires, interviews, and observations, I found that students’ political efficacy increased as they became active club participants. Supportive relationships with club peers and advisors encouraged regular involvement, which in turn provided participants repeated opportunities to prepare for and practice authentic political tasks—experiences that supported their political efficacy. These findings enhance our understanding of successful democratic education and have useful implications for educators and researchers interested in political engagement