Affective issues in learning technologies: emotional responses to technology and technology's role in supporting socio-emotional skills

This paper focuses on some of the author's research studies over the past thirty years and places these in a wider context to reflect on research into affective issues in learning technologies over this period, and to consider whether and how the issues uncovered by research have changed as technologies have developed over time. Three issues are given particular attention: firstly the reasons for learners' use or lack of use of technologies for their learning; secondly adult learners' attitudes towards using technology for learning and thirdly how technology might support socio-emotional development and expression in children. The discussion of these issues is framed by two of the author's research projects. For the first two issues this is an early study of students' perceptions and attitudes towards using computers for tutorial learning in 1980. The factors that influenced the students' use of the computer tutorials are discussed (including access, assessment and anxiety about using computers) and also the extent to which some of these factors persist for many learners using (or not using) technologies today. The discussion of the third issue draws on a series of studies conducted in the 1990s to investigate whether educational technology could support children and young people's emotional expression and communication and development of socio-emotional skills. Finally the paper considers how these kinds of issues have been taken forward and how they are represented in contemporary research and suggests that trust is an important factor in using learning technologies

Affective issues in learning technologies: emotional responses to technology and technology's role in supporting socio-emotional skills

This paper focuses on some of the author's research studies over the past thirty years and places these in a wider context to reflect on research into affective issues in learning technologies over this period, and to consider whether and how the issues uncovered by research have changed as technologies have developed over time. Three issues are given particular attention: firstly the reasons for learners' use or lack of use of technologies for their learning; secondly adult learners' attitudes towards using technology for learning and thirdly how technology might support socio-emotional development and expression in children. The discussion of these issues is framed by two of the author's research projects. For the first two issues this is an early study of students' perceptions and attitudes towards using computers for tutorial learning in 1980. The factors that influenced the students' use of the computer tutorials are discussed (including access, assessment and anxiety about using computers) and also the extent to which some of these factors persist for many learners using (or not using) technologies today. The discussion of the third issue draws on a series of studies conducted in the 1990s to investigate whether educational technology could support children and young people's emotional expression and communication and development of socio-emotional skills. Finally the paper considers how these kinds of issues have been taken forward and how they are represented in contemporary research and suggests that trust is an important factor in using learning technologies

Two computer-based learning environments for reading and writing narratives

In this brief paper, two computer-based educational tools are described. They are designed to support children learning the literacy skills of narrative comprehension and creation. We give an overview of these tools, and then discuss the educational hypotheses that we are planning to use them to test

Social networking and digital gaming media convergence : classification and its consequences for appropriation

Within the field of Information Systems, a good proportion of research is concerned with the work organisation and this has, to some extent, restricted the kind of application areas given consideration. Yet, it is clear that information and communication technology deployments beyond the work organisation are acquiring increased importance in our lives. With this in mind, we offer a field study of the appropriation of an online play space known as Habbo Hotel. Habbo Hotel, as a site of media convergence, incorporates social networking and digital gaming functionality. Our research highlights the ethical problems such a dual classification of technology may bring. We focus upon a particular set of activities undertaken within and facilitated by the space – scamming. Scammers dupe members with respect to their ‘Furni’, virtual objects that have online and offline economic value. Through our analysis we show that sometimes, online activities are bracketed off from those defined as offline and that this can be related to how the technology is classified by members – as a social networking site and/or a digital game. In turn, this may affect members’ beliefs about rights and wrongs. We conclude that given increasing media convergence, the way forward is to continue the project of educating people regarding the difficulties of determining rights and wrongs, and how rights and wrongs may be acted out with respect to new technologies of play online and offline

A Narrative Inquiry into the Experiences of Children and Parents with Technology: What Are Real and Unreal Worlds?

We always think of play as something of more of an organic interaction. What if play was considered in terms of technology. This inquiry attended to children and their parents' stories and experiences to find out what is the definition of play from their perspectives and how young children experience technology in terms of real and unreal. Many adults find the technological world quite different from children's perspectives; however, children in some cases consider technology-based games and natural play as the same world. This narrative inquiry attempted to understand what the participants feel, think, and perceive from the concepts of natural play and technology-based games for facilitating the process of learning, and how participants recognized and differentiated between these two worlds. Following the narrative inquiry tradition, I shared my lived experiences and stories with the participants, explained the research questions, and then asked participants to share their stories. Four participants, two mothers and their children attended three research conversations each, for a one-hour duration over three months. They narrated their stories regarding their understanding of the concept of play alone, with friends, or in parallel. Participants also shared their stories about boundaries between two worlds. The experiences and opinions of the participants were similar in some of their stories and different in others. Their stories give the reader and the researcher a deep insight into the perspectives of parents and their children on the concept of play and the world of technology

Exploring Inclusive Design and Digital Humanities: Enabling Bilingual Digital Narratives for Deaf Children

The collaboration between designers and digital humanists has indeed gained increasing significance in crafting effective projects, with design serving as a centralizing force in the realm of digital humanities by establishing interfaces for individuals to engage with technological resources. Therefore, design's methodological practices, encompassing various research and experiential facets, play a pivotal role in enhancing the usability and accessibility of digital resources within the social sphere. This study aims to expand the discourse on the characteristics and potential of the interplay between inclusive design and digital humanities practices, with a specific focus on the development of bilingual digital narratives (utilizing Brazilian Sign Language and Portuguese). The research adopts a collaborative, qualitative approach, encompassing processes of evaluation, validation, and enhancement. Digital visual narratives are presented as a facilitating tool for integrating LIBRAS and Portuguese, thereby aiding in language acquisition for deaf children. The article contributes to the discussion of the humanistic approach to design, emphasizing the values of empathy, ethics, and social responsibility in the creation of inclusive and accessible projects

Aesthetics of the beautiful: Ideologic tensions in contemporary assessment

Pedagogy is an uncertain art. Yet by its very nature, contemporary teaching and learning practice typically suggests that the expert teacher must come to know their student well enough to plan and predict for educational challenges that will expand and extend their thinking. In many countries, this process is underpinned by bureaucratic ideology that has persuasively developed an agenda for assessment as accountability for pedagogy. As a result assessment practice in these educational institutions is very public, highly accountable and heavily prescribed through curriculum documents that claim to encompass societal agendas. In some cases, such practices are even legislated. Assessment practice is now seen as integral to the pedagogical process since it is through assessment that the teacher purportedly comes to understand the learner; thus providing a rationale for the teaching approaches and strategies that are applied in order to progress learning. In this chronotopic location I suggest there is little room for uncertainty, since the quest to capture the "essence" of the learner and mould them towards societal goals is as much a political agenda of accountability as it is pedagogical

Boxes of poison: baroque technique as antidote to simple views of literacy

Rich and complex meaning making experiences, such as those associated with virtual play, sit uneasily with the view of literacy reflected in and sustained by current systems of accountability in education. This article develops a baroque perspective as a way of destabilising the ‘regime of truth’ associated with simple models of literacy - models that have emerged through educational reform. Building on poststructural approaches, we suggest that a baroque sensibility can help assert the messiness of educational experience and the contingent nature of meaning making that lie at the heart of literacy and learning. We draw on 6 techniques of the baroque exemplifying their use in an original methodological approach that we call ‘stacking stories’. These stories offer different accounts of actions and interactions in and around a virtual world visited by 9 and 10 year-old children in a UK classroom. The stories, together with the gaps, contradictions, continuities and discontinuities between them, read together through a baroque lens, trouble the taken-for-granted. They evoke the affective intensities produced through interactions between body, text and place as they infuse each other in multiple acts of meaning making. This baroque approach disturbs ways in which meanings are represented in both research and practice adding to poststructural accounts that foreground multiplicity and complexity. We suggest that such an approach provokes generous, ebullient and vivid accounts of literacy that are elided by simple models of literacy

Improving the mental health and mental health support available to adolescents in out-of-home care via Adolescent-Focused Low-Intensity Life Story Work: a realist review

Objectives: Life Story Work (LSW) is used to promote the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents living in out-of-home care. LSW should be offered to all but is conventionally delivered in high-intensity ways. Low-intensity approaches are more accessible but there is significant variation and little guidance for supporting adolescents. We aimed to create guidance for Adolescent-Focused Low-Intensity LSW. // Design: Realist review. // Data sources: MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, Sociology Collection (ProQuest), CINAHL, CDAS, Web of Science (SCIE, SSCI), Social Care Online and grey literature sources. Searches were performed between December 2021 and March 2022. // Eligibility criteria: Documents on children and adolescents in care, LSW and/or low-intensity interventions to improve mental health were included. Documents focusing on parenting style and contact with birth family were excluded. // Analysis: Documents were analysed using a realist logic of analysis. In consultation with Content Expert Groups (comprising professionals and care leavers), we developed an initial programme theory. Data relating to and challenging the initial programme theory were extracted and context-mechanism-outcome-configurations developed, critiqued and refined in an iterative fashion. Interpretations were drawn from context-mechanism-outcome-configurations to enhance the programme theory. // Results: 75 documents contributed to the analysis. Generally, studies were small-scale and lacked in-depth methods and evaluation descriptions. Findings indicated important factors contribute to the development of high-quality Adolescent-Focused Low-Intensity LSW. Adolescent-Focused Low-Intensity LSW should be person-centred, begin in the now, involve co-construction, record everyday positive life events and be supported by trained carer(s). Context-mechanism-outcome-configurations relating to these themes are reported. // Conclusions: Using this knowledge we developed initial practice guidance to support social care to deliver better quality Adolescent-Focused Low-Intensity LSW more consistently. To address gaps in our knowledge about the impact of Adolescent-Focused Low-Intensity LSW, further primary research is needed to strengthen understandings of how this intervention works (or not) in different contexts. // PROSPERO registration number: CRD42021279816

reStAGEactivist art/disruptive technologies

In this article, I explore, with you, artists’ socio-political disruptions with communication technologies to inspire political action and social change, and how such art can be environmentally and socially useful. How does art function politically? What is activist art? What non-violent forms of dissent or disruptions to harmful practices are possible today with digital technologies, and how do artists manifest political perspectives in their practice