Digital Literacy Learning In Higher Education Through Digital Storytelling Approach

It is necessary to develop digital literacy skills with which students can communicate and express their ideas effectively using digital media. The educational sectors around the world are beginning to incorporate digital literacy into the curriculum. Digital storytelling, one of the possible classroom activities, is an approach which may help engage and motivate students to learn digital literacy skills. To investigate this approach, the present small-scale study employs the methods including interviewing and analysing the artefacts of three students selected from a purposive sample on a multimedia course. The findings indicate that the three students have improved in terms of three aspects of digital literacy skills, namely, digital competence, digital usage and digital transformation regardless of their prior knowledge and levels of digital literacy.postprin

Do reading practices make a difference? The analysis of PIRLS data for Hong Kong and Taiwan fourth-grade students

Symposium 2 - What can international comparative studies tell us about reading and math skills?The Conference program's website is located at http://www.triplesr.org/conference/archive/2013/13conf.phpPURPOSE: The study set out to examine the difference in reading attainment levels between Hong Kong and Taiwan fourth-grade students in the PIRLS 2006 assessment and to examine the reason that caused the difference by evaluating the relative contribution of various factors (i.e., reading attitudes, home educational resources and reading practices) to reading achievement among Hong Kong and Taiwan students. Specifically, we asked two research questions, i.e., whether students' and parents' reading attitudes, home educational resources and students' reading practices were significantly related to Hong Kong and Taiwan fourth-grade students' reading attainment and if yes, whether the relationship of the variables to reading performance differed across the two groups of students. METHODS: The Hong Kong and Taiwan portions of data from the PIRLS 2006, a large-scale international assessment, which was designed to measure fourth-grade students' reading literacy and its home, school and national contexts, were used for secondary analysis in this study. Reading scores from 4712 students from Hong Kong and 4589 from Taiwan together with indexes and variables derived from the student, home and teacher questionnaires were used for multilevel analysis. RESULTS: The results show that independent reading in school made a unique contribution to the reading performance of Hong Kong and Taiwan students after controlling for the effect of students' and parents' reading attitudes, home educational resources and other types of reading practices (i.e., outside-school informational reading and in-class reading aloud). Outside-school informational reading was found to be negatively associated with reading attainment of Hong Kong and Taiwan students and this association was moderated by homework reading, while a negative association between in-class reading aloud and reading attainment was found in Taiwan students. CONCLUSIONS: It was concluded that independent reading was responsible for Hong Kong students' better reading attainment and reading aloud responsible for Taiwan students' poorer reading attainment.link_to_OA_fulltex

The effectiveness of nurse-led continence care services for primary care patients with LUTS

Free Paper Competition – Abstracts of Poster Presentation - Poster Presentation no. 20INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a primary care nurse-led continence care service for adult patients with LUTS. METHODS: A prospective longitudinal study was conducted. An intervention group of 360 primary care patients enrolled into the Nurse and Allied Health Clinic (NAHC) Continence Care services of the Hospital Authority were recruited by consecutive sampling. Patients enrolled in the programme received an initial assessment such as uroflowmetry, pelvic floor muscle strength and post-void residual urine estimation. Subsequent interventions were protocol-based and included conservative measures which were tailored to each patient according to the type of LUTS being experienced. Interventions included pelvic floor muscle exercise, diet modification, bladder training and urethral massage for male patients. A control group of 360 primary care patients with LUTS identified by screening were recruited from the waiting rooms of General Out-patient Clinics. Both groups were monitored at baseline and at 12 months. Outcome measures included International Prostate Symptom Score, Incontinence Impact Questionnaire-7, Patient Enablement Instrument and Global Rating of Change Scale. RESULTS: Independent t-test showed that, at 12 months, the intervention group had greater improvements in LUTS severity (P<0.05) and HRQOL (P<0.05) than the controls. Chi-square test showed that a higher proportion of the intervention group subjects reported increased self-efficacy (43.48% vs. 66.83%, P<0.05) and improved general health (17.74% vs. 41.5%, P<0.05). DISCUSSION: Our findings support that the NAHC Continence Care services are effective in alleviating symptoms, improve HRQOL, and enhancing self-efficacy and general health in patients with LUTS