Students’ Experiences of Emotional Connection with Pedagogical Agents

Online chatbots (also known as pedagogical agents or virtual assistants) are becoming embedded into the fabric of technology, both in educational and commercial settings. Yet understanding of these technologies is inchoate and often untheorised, influenced by individuals' willingness to trust technologies, aesthetic appearance of the chatbot and technical literacy, among other factors. This paper draws upon data from two research studies that evaluated students' experiences of using pedagogical agents in education using responsive evaluation. The findings suggest that emotional connections with pedagogical agents were intrinsic to the user's sense of trust and therefore likely to affect levels of truthfulness and engagement. They also indicate that the topic of the pedagogical agent-student interaction is key to the student's experience. The implications of these studies are that truthfulness, personalisation and emotional engagement are all vital components in using pedagogical agents to enhance online learning

Developing Cultural Competence in an Occupational Therapy Program in a Border Institution in South Texas

While strong consensus exists for preparing culturally competent occupational therapists as the national minority population grows, scholarship in this area continues to evolve. Conversations and explorations of best practices and perspectives add the practical component related to this phenomenon. Perspectives will be shared for leveraging culture to promote respect within communities from asset-based ideologies from the vantage point of a Latino clinician in a predominately Latino underserved community. The authors provide a brief review of the related literature, unpack the definitions of cultural competence, and discuss the pedagogical approach used by an occupational therapist educator. Framing the conversation from an asset-based pedagogical perspective, the use of culture as resources will be depicted. By honoring community values, beliefs, and assets for developing cultural competence, the authors explore the use of culturally relevant pedagogical approaches in a Hispanic-serving university graduate program situated in the border region of South Texas

Mobile Game Based Learning: Can it enhance learning of marginalized peer educators?

This paper describes an investigatory project to pilot an SMS based game to enhance the training of peer educators of MSM (Males having Sex with Males) groups in India. The objective of this research was to increase the efficacy of the MSM peer educators by bridging the gap between the training needs and their real life experiences. An SMS based game was designed using participatory approaches as a learning support, upholding their real life experiences in game form. The game was designed on an existing platform which provides text role-play games accessed through SMS messages. This paper examines the learning benefits. The findings show that after the intervention the peer educators had better understanding of peer education and organizational support. They also learnt to think critically

Myth Busting: Low-Income Latinx Immigrant Parental Involvement

This longitudinal qualitative study, involving low-income parents and children, tutorial-agency staff, and one college student (all Latinx), took place in a city along the U.S./Mexico border. Data sources included field notes through participant observation, questionnaires, and interviews. The authors asked, “How are parents involved in their children\u27s education? What limitations or barriers do they express?” Using a social justice framework and grounded-theory data analysis, these types of parental involvement emerged: academic, social skills, school volunteerism, extracurricular activities, community, and college enrollment. Conversely, parents expressed involvement obstacles. Implications relate to changing the deficit discourse regarding low-income, immigrant parents\u27 involvement. Collaborating with families to create equitable educational outcomes for minoritized children is imperative