The Mobile Senior University

With the rapid development of technology, social networking is no longer just a face-to-face connection between people and traditional methods of contact are becoming less and less dominant. During the COVID-19 pandemic, isolation pushed us further apart, but connection through new media has also brought us closer together. Compared with the young, the elderly are generally less familiar with how to use this connection to strengthen each other\u27s social interaction and enjoy the convenience of contact over space. This thesis proposes an architectural approach to bridge this gap and design a mobile university for seniors, focusing on new media and technologies that would help them keep pace with a changing society. Shanghai was the first city in China to enter the aging process, and it is also the city with the highest aging rate in China. In order to be able to provide services more evenly across as much space as possible in the city, I propose combining fixed stations with mobile transportation facilities, in order to provide services to a larger area of seniors. This system will allow seniors to travel and learn freely around the city. Seniors can take the bus to the fixed site, be taken by bus to travel to the suburbs, or be brought back to their starting station, in which case the bus is their classroom and the whole city is their campus. They can learn and socialize on the bus, becoming familiar with connection through new media while the mobile university provides a venue and participants for traditional socializing. The fixed site is set on the Huangpu Riverfront in an adapted 1920s sugar factory, which is not only a terminus for the mobile bus system, but also a place to provide further services for the senior university. This scheme retains only the skeleton of the original sugar factory, allowing a high degree of freedom in design. Circular modules are inserted within the skeleton with different functions to provide services for the elderly, such as classrooms, lounge areas, medical service, restrooms, cafe, office and so on. The modular and adaptable design concept used for the mobile and fixed sites complement each other, providing enhanced services to senior citizens in the city. This senior university can serve as a prototype for replication in other cities, helping seniors enter the digital age

Effectiveness if traditional games compared with technological games in classroom climate and student's performance in the EFL classroom : a quasi-experimental research

Tesis (Pedagogía en Inglés)The present study intended to corroborate the hypothesis that both technological and traditional games can help school students in their learning process and that traditional games unlike technological ones, also help in the creation of a better classroom climate. Through a quasi-experiment in three different educational settings, control groups and experimental ones were going to be measured both in students’ performance expressed in marks and in classroom climate measured with a sociometric test. Chile’s current national contingency has prevented this study to be concluded as expected. As an alternative outcome, the researchers carried out a perception study that compared student’s acceptance of both technological and traditional games. The result of this study shows that current students, who are digital natives, showed a slight preference for traditional games over the technological ones, defying the common belief that students only react positively to technology.El presente estudio pretende corroborar la hipótesis de que tanto los juegos tecnológicos como los tradicionales pueden ayudar a los alumnos en su proceso de aprendizaje y que los juegos tradicionales a diferencia de los tecnológicos pueden ayudar, además en la creación de un mejor clima de aula. A través de un cuasi-experimento en tres diferentes establecimientos educacionales, en los grupo de control y experimentales se iba a medir tanto el rendimiento de los estudiantes expresado a través de sus calificaciones, como el clima de aula medido a través de un cuestionario sociométrico. La actual contingencia nacional de Chile ha impedido que este estudio concluya según lo previsto. Como alternativa, los investigadores llevaron a cabo un estudio de percepción que comparó la aceptación de los estudiantes hacia los juegos tecnológicos y tradicionales. El resultado de este estudio muestra que los estudiantes, siendo nativos digitales. mostraron una ligera preferencia por los juegos tradicionales por sobre los tecnológicos, desafiando la creencia general de que los estudiantes solo reaccionan positivamente ante la tecnología

Examining the role of smart TVs and VR HMDs in synchronous at-a-distance media consumption

This article examines synchronous at-a-distance media consumption from two perspectives: How it can be facilitated using existing consumer displays (through TVs combined with smartphones), and imminently available consumer displays (through virtual reality (VR) HMDs combined with RGBD sensing). First, we discuss results from an initial evaluation of a synchronous shared at-a-distance smart TV system, CastAway. Through week-long in-home deployments with five couples, we gain formative insights into the adoption and usage of at-a-distance media consumption and how couples communicated during said consumption. We then examine how the imminent availability and potential adoption of consumer VR HMDs could affect preferences toward how synchronous at-a-distance media consumption is conducted, in a laboratory study of 12 pairs, by enhancing media immersion and supporting embodied telepresence for communication. Finally, we discuss the implications these studies have for the near-future of consumer synchronous at-a-distance media consumption. When combined, these studies begin to explore a design space regarding the varying ways in which at-a-distance media consumption can be supported and experienced (through music, TV content, augmenting existing TV content for immersion, and immersive VR content), what factors might influence usage and adoption and the implications for supporting communication and telepresence during media consumption

Citizens' Self-in-Community and Ubiquitous Social Media Use: Disentangling Modern Local Community Experience

The present research project aims at shedding further light on how citizens experience their local communities (that is, neighborhoods and cities) in modern times. It specifically deepens the interplay between citizens' self-in-community – that is, their experience of and ties to their local community meant as a relational entity and to its places – the physical and social features of their communities, and their use of modern ubiquitous, locative, social media with community-related aims. Indeed, on the one hand, local communities have become increasingly spatially and socially closed, with consequences in the opportunities citizens have to experience their social dimensions. Nevertheless, on the other hand, the spread of ubiquitous, locative, social media has produced a more complex social ecosystem and opportunities that have become easily available to citizens. In light of the above, the community-related use of two different mainstream platforms (Instagram and dating People-Nearby Applications), which have sprung up spontaneously regardless of the stated aims of these platforms, have been deepened as potential strategies users could have played out to take advantage of the possibilities offered by ubiquitous, locative, social media and sustain their SoC when more traditional paths were not feasible due to their community spatial and/or social features. Thus, the present research project will address Instagram and dating People-Nearby Applications community-related uses to deepen (a) the needs underlying these uses, and (b) which are the paths through which these uses can enhance users' tie to their local community. It comprises four studies, as the two research questions are tackled with reference to the two considered social media community-related uses. As to the first research question, multilevel models were run in order to take into account individual and community features that could encourage citizens in using these social networks with reference to their local community. As to the second research question, multiple sequential mediation models have been run with Structural Equation Modeling to disentangle how the considered uses associated with users' local social experience and Sense of Community. Overall, the results from these studies highlight the complexities related to modern local community experience and suggest that social media could provide relevant contributions to this as tools providing citizens with new opportunities and resources to be activated. Becoming aware of these complexities and of the implications deriving from them allows opening new perspectives with reference to both further research questions and innovative practices and interventions to be implemented

The Role of Buzzers in Social Media in Guiding Public Opinion Regarding Political Choices

The use of social media platforms by various groups has made Buzzer known to social media users. The existence of a buzzer with all its advantages and disadvantages has become a phenomenon. The buzzer was originally just a person/individual who sells or/or services (product marketing), after that it was converted and used as a tool of power/authority holder (propaganda tool) to encourage and lead public opinion for certain purposes and people's political choices. Apart from this phenomenon, this study is intended to describe the contribution of the buzzer in the formation of people's views on social media. This study was carried out using a literature review research method that can support the text analysis method. From this study, it was found that the buzzer has a relevant contribution to the formation of public views on social media. At the same time in the creation and management of content or issues, the buzzer has a structured work hierarchy. Therefore, in responding to the presence of a buzzer, it should be viewed wisely. The conclussion is buzzer work does not run spontaneously, and cannot be separated from the wants and needs of a definite group

Digital games based language Learning for Arabic literacy remedial

Digital gameplay is becoming increasingly prevalent. Its participant-players number in the millions and its revenues are in billions of dollars. As they grow in popularity, digital games are also growing in complexity, depth and sophistication. This paper presents reasons why games and gameplay matter to the future of education. Drawing upon these works, the potential for instruction in digital games is recognized. Previous works in the area were also analyzed with respect to their theoretical findings. Hence, the authors in this study propose some existing Arabic language learning games intended for education of children. The analysis result shows that the majority of Arabic language learning games are limited to alphabet content. The overall presentation lacks of quality in terms of graphics, animations, colors and voice-over