A Digital Storytelling Laboratory to Foster Second Language Acquisition in Higher Education: Students’ Perspectives and Reflections

Today’s technology-suffused society is inevitably changing and transforming the learning process as the role of technology in our lives is progressively increasing, thus making 21st Century teachers and educators face the challenge of both learning and understanding how to best integrate technology into the classroom and equipping students with the skills necessary to live and work in our digitized world. These skills, described by the Framework for 21st Century Learning are especially critical thinking, learning motivation, information literacy, media literacy, and language competence, considered as key competences for lifelong learning. In particular, as “The Council Recommendation on a comprehensive approach to the teaching and learning of languages" has recently stated, nowadays the lack of language competences represents a barrier in increasing productivity and collaboration across borders. As a consequence, to attain contemporary educational objectives, second language pedagogy needs to be integrated by the use of today’s digital tools that should not be considered as replacement of the traditional teaching method but as powerful, active support in fostering Second Language Acquisition (SLA). Specifically, Digital Storytelling (DST) is progressively emerging as an innovative instructional tool to enhance SLA together with students’ motivation, collaboration, reflection, and academic achievement. In fact, by combining traditional storytelling with digital multimedia, DST perfectly embodies the constructionist idea of learning by making, thus making students active participants in their learning process instead of passive agents as in face-to-face learning. Although various researches describe the use of DST in primary and secondary language education, to the best of our knowledge, very few studies have been conducted on the use of Digital Storytelling in Higher Education, especially in Italy where DST is a major innovation. As a consequence, a Digital Storytelling Laboratory has been enacted at “L’Orientale” University of Naples starting March 2019. It was addressed to 24 Bachelor’s students in the second year of their course in English Language and Linguistics. Firstly the students have been introduced in the field − almost completely new to them − and then involved in a Digital Storytelling Process that required the assimilation and completion of goal-oriented tasks, finally resulting in the production of a series of Digital Stories. This paper aims at exploring the impact of DST on academic development, learning motivation and collaboration of University students learning English as a second language. To that end, quantitative data were collected describing students’ perspectives and reflections about the effectiveness of DST in learning

Phrasal-Quest: Designing a Game-Based Storytelling Approach to Teach English Verbal Multi-Word Expressions.

This paper presents the experiences from both students and coaches of a project between Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences (Porvoo Campus, Finland) and NHL StendenUniversity of Applied Sciences (Emmen Campus, Finland) and 50 students from the universities and 20 companies. Year one, saw the project focused on implementing pedagogical approaches of Haaga-Helia and NHL Stenden (inquiry learning and problem-based learning) and on developing the meta-competences in the students, including ability to work in teams, leadership, project management, intercultural competences, peer teaching etc. However, during this edition, it was felt these competences were not sufficient, the 21st Century Skills were not fully represented.The project created an international business environment where the majority of communication was virtual. The focus was on empowering students to design and lead project tasks and to be responsible for their project outcomes in the form of a reflective learning diary. Two project managers were chosen democraticall by the students, after a pitch to fellow students to lead the project. To give a setting for the students to work on transversal skills, students met at Porvoo campus to finalise and present their project. Once the project got underway the students also became aware of the challenges of online communication: miscommunication, lack of courtesy in some cases or even no-shows leading to holdups in the research process. However, the project also showed that online communication can be efficient in international business once the different parties commit to following a mutual agenda. With the introduction of digital tools, the need of physical meetings was seen to be decreasing, however, once a physical meeting is organised, it should bring extra value in terms of human interaction. This question was also addressed in the project and this paper looks at these outcomes. During the period of physical meeting students were involved in a variety of lectures, visits and practical sessions. This paper will look at how the introduction of “Business Ballet” introduced presentation skills and body language interpretation to students. Using Erasmus+ mobility funding, for industrial partners, the opportunity to collaborate with ExpLearn, a company that was known to them for developing and delivering exemplary bespoke experiential learning activities arose. ExpLearn also assisted in the feedback session on the student company research projects which proved invaluable for the students greater understanding of what will be demanded of them in the business environment. The Experiential Learning activity delivered on several different levels, which we shall explore in this paper and show where collaboration with external partners can create a learning environment that cannot be achieved through conventional Teacher/Student interaction. This paper explores the importance of reflective learning diaries in delivering on Transversal Skills through innovative learning activities including Business Ballet and Experiential Learning

Histomorphological analysis of the variability of the human skeleton: forensic implications

One of the fundamental questions in forensic medicine and anthropology is whether or not a bone or bone fragment is human. Surprisingly at times for the extreme degradation of the bone (charred, old), DNA cannot be successfully performed and one must turn to other methods. Histological analysis at times can be proposed. However, the variability of a single human skeleton has never been tested. Forty-nine thin sections of long, flat, irregular and short bones were obtained from a well-preserved medieval adult human skeleton. A qualitative histomorphological analysis was performed in order to assess the presence of primary and secondary bone and the presence, absence and orientation of vascular canals. No histological sections exhibited woven or fibro-lamellar bone. Long bones showed a higher variability with an alternation within the same section of areas characterized by tightly packed secondary osteons and areas with scattered secondary osteons immersed in a lamellar matrix. Flat and irregular bones appeared to be characterized by a greater uniformity with scattered osteons in abundant interstitial lamellae. Some cases of “osteon banding” and “drifting osteons” were observed. Although Haversian bone represent the most frequent pattern, a histomorphological variability between different bones of the same individual, in different portions of the same bone, and in different parts of the same section has been observed. Therefore, the present study has highlighted the importance of extending research to whole skeletons without focusing only on single bones, in order to have a better understanding of the histological variability of both human and non-human bone

Katana and Grand Guru: a Game of the Lost Words (DEMO)

International audienceWe present here a prototype of a role playing game which allows to both i) crowdsource lexical units (including idioms) for a language and ii) help the player improve their knowledge of the language. Our implementation of the game is focused on non-standardized languages, for which the intergenerational transmission is not as efficient as it used to be. In order to address this, we incentivize the participation of a "Grand Guru", from whom the player needs help to fulfill their mission

Histomorphometric analysis of the variability of the human skeleton: forensic implications

In the last decades, the histomorphometric analysis of bone tissue has been utilized to develop equations for species discrimination of fragmentary bone. Although this technique showed promising results, its main limitation concerns the lack of knowledge on the histomorphometric variability which may exist between different bones of the skeleton. In a previous study, we demonstrated a significant histomorphological variability in different bones of the same individual and even in different sections of the same bone. The present study aimed at investigating the extent of intra-individual variability in bone histomorphometry throughout the human adult skeleton and areas of a single bone. Samples were taken along an entire medieval male adult human skeleton (aged between 26 and 45 years), including long, flat, irregular and sesamoid bones for a total of 49 cross-sections. The histomorphometric analysis revealed that the size of both Haversian systems and Haversian canals were statistically significantly larger in long and irregular bones compared to flat bones. Moreover, osteons were generally bigger in the diaphysis compared to the proximal and distal metaphyses, whereas Haversian canals showed a higher uniformity in the different portions of each bone. The present study has highlighted the importance of conducting similar studies on both human and nonhuman skeletons at different stages of skeletal maturity in order to shed light on the extent of variability in the size of osteons and Haversian canals. This, in fact, represents an important prerequisite to develop reliable histological methods for species discrimination of fragmented bone

Mindfulness meditation styles differently modulate source-level MEG microstate dynamics and complexity

BackgroundThe investigation of mindfulness meditation practice, classically divided into focused attention meditation (FAM), and open monitoring meditation (OMM) styles, has seen a long tradition of theoretical, affective, neurophysiological and clinical studies. In particular, the high temporal resolution of magnetoencephalography (MEG) or electroencephalography (EEG) has been exploited to fill the gap between the personal experience of meditation practice and its neural correlates. Mounting evidence, in fact, shows that human brain activity is highly dynamic, transiting between different brain states (microstates). In this study, we aimed at exploring MEG microstates at source-level during FAM, OMM and in the resting state, as well as the complexity and criticality of dynamic transitions between microstates.MethodsTen right-handed Theravada Buddhist monks with a meditative expertise of minimum 2,265 h participated in the experiment. MEG data were acquired during a randomized block design task (6 min FAM, 6 min OMM, with each meditative block preceded and followed by 3 min resting state). Source reconstruction was performed using eLORETA on individual cortical space, and then parcellated according to the Human Connect Project atlas. Microstate analysis was then applied to parcel level signals in order to derive microstate topographies and indices. In addition, from microstate sequences, the Hurst exponent and the Lempel-Ziv complexity (LZC) were computed.ResultsOur results show that the coverage and occurrence of specific microstates are modulated either by being in a meditative state or by performing a specific meditation style. Hurst exponent values in both meditation conditions are reduced with respect to the value observed during rest, LZC shows significant differences between OMM, FAM, and REST, with a progressive increase from REST to FAM to OMM.DiscussionImportantly, we report changes in brain criticality indices during meditation and between meditation styles, in line with a state-like effect of meditation on cognitive performance. In line with previous reports, we suggest that the change in cognitive state experienced in meditation is paralleled by a shift with respect to critical points in brain dynamics

Creación y Simulación de Metodologías de Análisis, Clasificación e Integración de Nuevos Requerimientos a Software Propietario

La priorización de nuevos requerimientos a implementar en un software propietario es un punto fundamental para su mantenimiento, la conservación de la calidad, observación de las reglas de negocio y los estándares de la empresa. Aunque existen herramientas de priorización basadas en técnicas probadas y reconocidas, las mismas requieren una calificación previa de cada requerimiento. Si la empresa cuenta con solicitudes provenientes de varios clientes de un mismo producto, aumentan los factores que afectan a la empresa, las herramientas disponibles no contemplan estos aspectos y hacen mucho más compleja la tarea de calificación. Este trabajo de investigación abarca la realización de un relevamiento de los métodos de priorización y selección de nuevos requerimientos utilizados por empresas de la zona de Rosario, y la definición de una metodología para la selección un nuevo requerimiento, que implica el análisis y evaluación de todas las implicaciones sobre el producto de software y la empresa, respetando sus reglas de negocio. La metodología creada conduce a la definición de los procesos para la construcción de una herramienta de calificación y priorización de nuevos requerimientos en software propietario que tiene solicitudes de varios clientes al mismo tiempo, con instrumentos de calificación que consideran todos los aspectos relacionados, proveerá técnicas de priorización actuales y emitirá informes personalizados según diferentes perspectivas de la empresa.Eje: Ingeniería de SoftwareRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

A Digital Storytelling Laboratory to Foster Second Language Acquisition in Higher Education: Students’ Perspectives and Reflections

Today’s technology-suffused society is inevitably changing and transforming the learning process as the role of technology in our lives is progressively increasing, thus making 21st Century teachers and educators face the challenge of both learning and understanding how to best integrate technology into the classroom and equipping students with the skills necessary to live and work in our digitized world. These skills, described by the Framework for 21st Century Learning are especially critical thinking, learning motivation, information literacy, media literacy, and language competence, considered as key competences for lifelong learning. In particular, as “The Council Recommendation on a comprehensive approach to the teaching and learning of languages” has recently stated, nowadays the lack of language competences represents a barrier in increasing productivity and collaboration across borders. As a consequence, to attain contemporary educational objectives, second language pedagogy needs to be integrated by the use of today’s digital tools that should not be considered as replacement of the traditional teaching method but as powerful, active support in fostering Second Language Acquisition (SLA). Specifically, Digital Storytelling (DST) is progressively emerging as an innovative instructional tool to enhance SLA together with students’ motivation, collaboration, reflection, and academic achievement. In fact, by combining traditional storytelling with digital multimedia, DST perfectly embodies the constructionist idea of learning by making, thus making students active participants in their learning process instead of passive agents as in face-to-face learning. Although various researches describe the use of DST in primary and secondary language education, to the best of our knowledge, very few studies have been conducted on the use of Digital Storytelling in Higher Education, especially in Italy where DST is a major innovation. As a consequence, a Digital Storytelling Laboratory has been enacted at “L’Orientale” University of Naples starting March 2019. It was addressed to 24 Bachelor’s students in the second year of their course in English Language and Linguistics. Firstly, the students have been introduced in the field – almost completely new to them – and then involved in a Digital Storytelling Process that required the assimilation and completion of goal-oriented tasks, finally resulting in the production of a series of Digital Stories. This paper aims at exploring the impact of DST on academic development, learning motivation and collaboration of University students learning English as a second language. To that end, quantitative data were collected describing students’ perspectives and reflections about the effectiveness of DST in learnin