The dynamics of the relationship between just-for-fun online harassment and perceived school safety

[EN] Based on previous analysis needs, our expert team has implemented the project Keeping youth safe from Cyberbullying financed by Erasmus+ KA2, focusing on the in-depth dynamics analysis of the cyberbullying phenomenon that unfortunately has become more and more present in youth online environments. Our team has designed an online questionnaire with the purpose of collecting descriptive data about youth participants, general perception about the cyberbullying particularity incidents, perceived safety of the educational setting and perceived parental support, and lastly a selfrating evaluation scale on self-efficacy perceptions. A total of 92 participants voluntarily responded to. Present research’s focus is the analysis of the association between just-for-fun online harassment type of cyberbullying and youth perceived school safety. Our team has used a curvilinear regression analysis for depicting curvilinear effects, in order to test the hypothesis assuming the curvilinear relationship between youth perceived school safety and just-for-fun online harassment type of cyberbullying. Results confirm the curvilinear relationship, implying the fact that the weaker and as well as the stronger educational context safety is perceived, just-for-fun online harassment type of cyberbullying is present in school; a medium/normal school safety perception triggers a lower just-for-fun online harassment type of cyberbullying incidence in youth. Authors further discuss the implications of these findings, in terms of cyberbullying prevention strategies.Rad, D.; Roman, A.; Dughi, T.; Demeter, E.; Rad, G. (2020). The dynamics of the relationship between just-for-fun online harassment and perceived school safety. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 381-388. https://doi.org/10.4995/INN2019.2019.10233OCS38138

Digital Technology Supporting Children's Speech Therapy

Considering that all children are attracted to technology and spend a lot of time using digital technology, it would be advisable to use IT support for education and/or therapy. The advantage is that the speech therapist may start with face-to-face therapy sessions and ensure continuity remotely from home in a familiar and comfortable environment. Language gives the child autonomy and the possibility to socialize better. Acquiring from the preschool age the ability to communicate with persons around her/him, to express thoughts, ideas, and impressions, the child forms a basis for school activity and for later social life. In the instructional-educational process, language represents a fundamental mean of communication, but also an important mean of facilitating knowledge. Through knowledge, the children's horizons are broadened with new representations. This work presents the professional evaluation of 10 speech therapists and the perception from 60 parents with children participating in speech therapy using an application to improve the language behavior of children with speech disorder. The results of the interviews show that speech therapists are open to use digital applications as a tool in speech therapy. Using this type of tool in speech therapy engages the children more in the activity. The interview results show that 88.3% of parents agree to use digital apps at home, between face to face speech therapy sessions coordinated by speech therapist, and 75% of parents agree to use them several days a week. 68.3% of parents believe that digital applications would increase children’s motivation and commitment to speech therapy. Almost forty-seven parents take into consideration interactive apps, instructional videos, educational games and digital books as useful digital resources: 21.7% prefer educational games, 16.7% interactive apps, 8.3% instructional videos and 6.7% digital books. Using these types of applications may provide multiple benefits for children and speech therapists, having a high degree of customization to children's specific needs

A Preliminary Investigation of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) in Early Childhood Education and Care

The technology acceptance model (TAM) is a well-known postmodern idea that explains how humans adopt and use new technologies. The model focuses on variables that impact behavioral intention to use new technology from the perspective of the end user. The purpose of this study was to construct a viable questionnaire for assessing preschool teachers' technology acceptability in online instruction in ECEC, based on data collected from 182 Romanian preschool instructors, using the theory of planned behavior framework. Our application of theory of planned behavior in technology adoption in ECEC is extraordinarily good, with 66 percent explained variance of actual usage of technology in class. The research literature supports the findings that the intention to use technology and a good attitude toward technology are the most significant determinants of actual technology usage. Although more research is needed in larger and more complex samples to confirm these findings, there is compelling evidence that the prediction methodology can be used to predict preschool teachers' level of technology acceptance and assist educational decision-makers in designing timely interventions that improve the chances of success. The study's major findings point to crucial variables that might help national educational decision-makers improve technology adoption in ECEC.</em

Statistical Properties of a New Social Media Context Awareness Scale (SMCA)—A Preliminary Investigation

In the Internet of Things era, or in the digitalization and mediatization of everything paradigm, where context awareness computing is on the rise, people are also facing a new challenge, that of being aware of the digital contexts, in all situations when surfing the internet&rsquo;s ocean of row information. The emerging social media context awareness competency refers to a new emerging skill regarding the trust load people give to a specific social media context they encounter. Since it is an emergent competence, it cannot be understood as standalone. If the digital context would not be available, we would not develop such a competence. Being a competence, it must be defined by three core elements: Knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Consequently, we have operationalized the competence of social media context awareness in terms of social media literacy, social media communication process understanding, social media content impact awareness, and social media confidence. An online questionnaire was created under the Erasmus+ project Hate&rsquo;s Journey, addressing a convenience sample of 206 online youth respondents from Turkey, Spain, Latvia, and Romania. Our team has computed a reliability analysis on the social media context awareness scale designed with four items referring to social media literacy (m = 3.79, SD = 1), social media communication process understanding (m = 3.77, SD = 0.9), social media content impact awareness (m = 3.88, SD = 1), and social media confidence (m = 3.45, SD = 1). Cronbach&rsquo;s alpha coefficient and the Exploratory Factor Analysis demonstrated the acceptable reliability of the SMCA scale, &alpha; = 0.87. Conclusions, implications, and limitations are discussed in the context of social sustainability

Schadenfreude and Life Satisfaction: Effect of Anger and Aggressiveness

Many individuals become aggressive in reaction to an actual or potential danger, or it can be a learned behaviour that assists them in meeting their needs. Anger is a natural emotion that everyone feels at different moments. It is, in effect, a normal reaction to a challenge, assisting us in preparing for defence or standing up for ourselves It usually occurs as a response to thoughts or feelings such as pain, irritation, worry, envy, discomfort, rejection, or shame. The purpose of this investigation is to examine effects of trait anger (AN) and aggressiveness (AG) on life satisfaction (LS) of general adult population, as well as to determine whether trait anger (AN) moderates the mediating effect of aggressiveness (AG) in the schadenfreude (SCH) – life satisfaction (LS) relationship. 390 individuals responded to an online investigation, selected via convenience sampling. Trait anger was found to moderate the effect of schadenfreude and life satisfaction. Increased levels of aggressiveness were linked to low levels of life satisfaction. Conditional effects found a stronger association between schadenfreude and aggressiveness for those low in trait anger relative to those high in trait anger. Participants with low scores in trait anger and high scores in schadenfreude had higher levels of aggressiveness than individuals with lows cores in trait anger. Conclusions and implications are discussed

A Network Analysis-Driven Sequential Mediation Analysis of Students&rsquo; Perceived Classroom Comfort and Perceived Faculty Support on the Relationship between Teachers&rsquo; Cognitive Presence and Students&rsquo; Grit&mdash;A Holistic Learning Approach

The interaction between teachers and students is critical to the learning process. Student success and learner satisfaction have consistently improved in educational situations where instructors and students connect frequently and meaningfully. The Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework, as well as the sense of belonging concept, have received a significant amount of attention from researchers investigating online learning since its debut. The current study focuses on the CoI framework in general, and in particular on studies on teaching, social, and cognitive presences in connection to students&rsquo; feeling of belonging and grit enhancement. This research investigated the opinion of 310 students at the Aurel Vlaicu University of Arad regarding their satisfaction with their teachers&rsquo; presences, their academic sense of belonging, and their grit. Our methodology followed an innovative approach. First, we employed a network analysis on all subscales&rsquo; mean scores, and then we performed a sequential mediation analysis based on both the network analysis results and the conclusions from the literature review. We tested whether students&rsquo; perceived classroom comfort and perceived faculty support sequentially mediated the relationship between teacher&rsquo;s cognitive presence and students&rsquo; grit. According to the scientific literature, teacher&rsquo;s cognitive presence consists of four fundamental categories: triggering events, exploration, integration, and resolution, which specifically the validation of knowledge by cooperation and reflection in a community of inquiry. We further tested if sense of belonging might mediate the relationship between teachers&rsquo; cognitive presence and students&rsquo; grit. The results show that students&rsquo; perceived classroom comfort and perceived faculty support partially and significantly sequentially mediate the relationship between teachers&rsquo; cognitive presence triggering events and students&rsquo; grit. The results are then further used to suggest possible recommendations for designing holistic learning environments in Romanian higher education institutions

A Network Analysis-Driven Sequential Mediation Analysis of Students’ Perceived Classroom Comfort and Perceived Faculty Support on the Relationship between Teachers’ Cognitive Presence and Students’ Grit—A Holistic Learning Approach

The interaction between teachers and students is critical to the learning process. Student success and learner satisfaction have consistently improved in educational situations where instructors and students connect frequently and meaningfully. The Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework, as well as the sense of belonging concept, have received a significant amount of attention from researchers investigating online learning since its debut. The current study focuses on the CoI framework in general, and in particular on studies on teaching, social, and cognitive presences in connection to students’ feeling of belonging and grit enhancement. This research investigated the opinion of 310 students at the Aurel Vlaicu University of Arad regarding their satisfaction with their teachers’ presences, their academic sense of belonging, and their grit. Our methodology followed an innovative approach. First, we employed a network analysis on all subscales’ mean scores, and then we performed a sequential mediation analysis based on both the network analysis results and the conclusions from the literature review. We tested whether students’ perceived classroom comfort and perceived faculty support sequentially mediated the relationship between teacher’s cognitive presence and students’ grit. According to the scientific literature, teacher’s cognitive presence consists of four fundamental categories: triggering events, exploration, integration, and resolution, which specifically the validation of knowledge by cooperation and reflection in a community of inquiry. We further tested if sense of belonging might mediate the relationship between teachers’ cognitive presence and students’ grit. The results show that students’ perceived classroom comfort and perceived faculty support partially and significantly sequentially mediate the relationship between teachers’ cognitive presence triggering events and students’ grit. The results are then further used to suggest possible recommendations for designing holistic learning environments in Romanian higher education institutions

On the Technology Acceptance Behavior of Romanian Preschool Teachers

This study investigates how compatibility and perceived enjoyment affect the link between intention to use and actual technology use in Romanian preschool education, building on earlier studies. Methods: 300 participants were invited to participate in this research from 15 Romanian counties. 182 preschool teachers’ questionnaires were utilized for data analysis after the return and screening of responses. A valid and accurate scale evaluating preschool teachers’ behavior towards technology adoption was included in the questionnaire, along with self-reported demographic data, professional identification, and other information. Data was analyzed using SPSS V.16. Results: (1) Intention to use, compatibility, perceived enjoyment, and actual use were positively associated. (2) The effect of compatibility and perceived enjoyment on the link between intention to use and actual technology use was carried out in the following way: Intention to use → Compatibility with technology → Perceived enjoyment → Actual use. We hypothesize that intention to use affects compatibility, compatibility affects perceived enjoyment, and, lastly, perceived enjoyment affects actual use. For a more robust validation of results, we have also modelled this relationship with the Radial Basis Function (RBF) neural network. Conclusion: Compatibility and perceived enjoyment partially mediate the relationship between intention to use and actual technology use in class by Romanian preschool teachers. According to the theory of planned behavior, this study brought to light the intricacy of the relationship between preschool teachers’ intention to utilize technology in the classroom and their actual usage of it. Limitations and implications are discussed