How authentic should a learning context be? Using real and simulated profiles in a classroom intervention to improve safety on social network sites

With the rise of social network sites (SNSs), there is an increasing need for safety education within the current cyber society. To this end, a variety of educational materials have been developed to prepare children to be vigilant when interacting on such sites. However, little is known about the critical design aspects necessary to make these materials effective. In this study, we build on the results of two previous studies, in which we found that general instructional principles drawn from constructivism, such as collaborative learning, are not always appropriate to teach children how to behave safely online. This study therefore focuses on the importance of authentic learning and active learning as critical design features. A quasi-experimental study was conducted in secondary schools in order to compare the impact of two classroom interventions about the risks on SNSs. As part of the intervention, students were presented scaffolds towards different risks related to an SNS-profile through a series of questions. In the control condition, these questions concerned a simulated SNS-profile on paper containing signs of many risks. In the experimental condition, students had to answer the same questions about their own SNS-profile on a computer. It was hypothesized that the simulated profile would not be experienced as realistic, and that students would have difficulties identifying with it. On the other hand, teenagers were expected to be able to recognize more risks on the simulated ‘worst-case scenario’ profile than on their own profile, which would facilitate the scaffolding process in the control condition. The results of the study mostly confirmed these hypotheses. Furthermore, the question arose as to whether the intervention based on the student’s own rea listic profile was educationally more valuable than the intervention based on the simulated profile, but no such added value was found. On the contrary, the scaffolding questions about the simulated profile were found to be more effective in teaching the teenagers about the different categories of risks that were tackled. Based on these findings, the importance of an authentic setting was put into perspective. Within the context of a classroom intervention to promote safety on SNSs, the exercise based on the simulated SNS-profile is put forward as the more effective teaching strategy

Developing educational materials about risks on social network sites: a design based research approach

Nearly all of today’s Western teenagers have a profile on a social network site (SNS). As many risks have been reported, researchers and governments have emphasized the role of school education to teach teenagers how to deal safely with SNSs. However, little is known about the specific characteristics which would make interventions effective. Therefore, the overall objective of this research aims to propose a list of validated theoretical design principles for future development of educational materials about risks on SNSs. This research goal was pursued through a design-based research procedure. Thereby targeting teenagers of secondary education in 8 separate studies, the different steps of the design-based research procedure have iteratively been completed. Firstly, a problem analysis was executed through 3 explorative studies, including an observational study, a theoretical evaluation of existing materials and a survey study. Secondly, initial solutions were developed and evaluated in practice through 5 quasi-experimental intervention studies. Thirdly, we reflected upon all the previous results to produce design principles. Finally, we conclude with an analysis of the design-based research methodology

Son, are you on Facebook? The impact of parental involvement in school interventions about E-safety

Media literacy interventions in secondary education typically have a limited impact on the participants’ behavior. Therefore, we developed a new e-safety intervention using a design-based research methodology. In the current study, it was verified whether involving parents actively in this intervention was helpful to decrease unsafe behavior on social network sites, or at least the intentions to behave unsafely. A quasi-experimental study with pre- and post-test measures in secondary education (n=207) showed that parental involvement was beneficial to change the intentions to engage in certain unsafe behavior, and to reduce existing problematic behavior, particularly for boys. These findings have important implications for research and practice, guiding us toward more effective e-safety interventions

Exploring the Usefulness of School Education about Risks on Social Network Sites: A Survey Study

The growing popularity of social network sites (SNS) is causing concerns about privacy and security, especially with teenagers, since they show various forms of unsafe behavior on SNS. It has been put forth by researchers, teachers, parents, and teenagers that school is ideally placed to educate teens about risks on SNS and to teach youngsters how to use SNS safely. Privacy attitudes also need to be taken into account if we want to decrease the amount of unsafe behavior. However, there is a lack of research that focuses on the role and impact of school education on privacy attitudes or actual safe behavior on SNS. To counter this shortcoming, a survey study was set up with 638 pupils exploring teenagers’ attitudes towards privacy on SNS. The first question was: Do they care about their privacy? Next to that, the extent to which they show unsafe behavior on SNS was questioned. Finally, the impact that school education has on both privacy care and the safety of teenagers’ behavior on SNS was studied. It was found that teenagers do not care much for their privacy, and that a lack of privacy care leads to unsafe behavior on SNS. However, school education has a positive impact on privacy care, and by raising privacy care it also has an indirect positive impact on the safety of pupils’ behavior. Our results suggest, therefore, that more efforts for school education about safer use of SNS are important, especially since the attention for the topic in schools is still found to be extremely limited and not organized in the curriculum. Practical implications are discussed

Unpacking the global apprenticeship agenda: a comparative synthesis of literature from international organisations in the education policy field

Apprenticeships are experiencing ascendency as a global policy idea, yet their promotion by international organisations remains underexamined. This article presents a comparative synthesis of publications on apprenticeships from the EU, ILO, OECD, UNESCO, and World Bank. Analysis demonstrates that IOs advance a diversity of discourses, apprenticeships acting as a polysemic policy object made malleable to organisational identities and priorities. Nonetheless, IOs’ significant, sustained and often coordinated efforts to promote apprenticeships support the notion of a ‘global apprenticeship agenda’. The internal complexity of this agenda compels more fine-grained theorisation of IOs’ individual and collective policy activity, accounting for variation and contestation

Changing unsafe behaviour on social network sites: the role of school education

Because of the emerging popularity of social network sites (SNS) among teenagers, adults’ concerns about privacy and security are increasing. School education has been put forth as a possible solution (Livingstone, Haddon, Görzig, & Olafsson, 2011)). However, although safety interventions regularly have an impact on knowledge and awareness, an immediate impact on attitudes and behaviour is often lacking in media education interventions (Martens, 2010). A possible reason for this lack of impact on attitudes and behaviour is that interventions are often developed following instructional guidelines from recent educational theories, such as collaborative learning (Duffy & Cunningham, 1996). These guidelines might only lead to better knowledge-construction, and might not be adequate to change reputation related behaviour -such as those related to risks on SNS. Following the theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen, 1991) and theories about peer pressure during adolescence (Sumter, Bokhorst, Steinberg, & Westenberg, 2009), it has been hypothesized that interventions with an emphasis on collaborative learning might be less effective in changing attitudes and behaviour than interventions with an emphasis on individual reflection. To test this hypothesis, a quasi- experimental intervention study, implementing two different interventions in a real-life classroom setting using a pretest-posttest design, was set up. It was found that both a course with collaborative learning and a course with individual reflection obtained their goal in raising the awareness about contact risks on SNS. However, only a course with an emphasis on individual reflection had a consistent impact on attitudes and behaviour. Implications of these results are discussed

The tablet for Second Language Vocabulary Learning: Keyboard, Stylus or Multiple Choice

Mobile technologies are increasingly finding their way into classroom practice. While these technologies can create opportunities that may facilitate learning, including the learning of a second or foreign language (L2), the full potential of these new media often remains underexploited. A case in point concerns tablet applications for language practice: while tablets allow writing, as in pen-and-paper exercises, current applications typically offer multiple-choice exercises or fill-in-the-blank exercises that require typing and tapping. This change in medium and practice modality might have an impact on the actual second language-learning. Based on the embodied cognition perspective, this study hypothesizes that, for the learning of French L2 vocabulary, writing leads to better memorization, spelling, and use of diacritics in comparison with typing and completing multiple-choice exercises. This hypothesis is tested in a quasi-experimental classroom-based study in which learners (N=282) practiced French vocabulary on a tablet in one of three modalities: multiple choice, typing, and writing by means of a stylus. Whereas all three practice modalities aided learning, results show that pupils who had practiced vocabulary by writing or typing obtained higher scores on spelling and use of diacritics than the pupils who had practiced by means of multiple choice. Spending more time on learning vocabulary at a higher processing level leads thus to greater vocabulary gains

How safe do teenagers behave on Facebook? An observational study

The substantial use of social network sites by teenagers has raised concerns about privacy and security. Previous research about behavior on social network sites was mostly based on surveys and interviews. Observational research overcomes problems inherent to this research method, for example social desirability. However, existing observational research mostly focuses on public profiles of young adults. Therefore, the current observation-study includes 1050 public and non-public Facebook-profiles of teenagers (13-18) to investigate (1) what kind of information teenagers post on their profile, (2) to what extent they protect this information using privacy-settings and (3) how much risky information they have on their profile. It was found that young people mostly post pictures, interests and some basic personal information on their profile. Some of them manage their privacy-settings as such that this information is reserved for friends’ eyes only, but a lot of information is accessible on the friends-of-friends’ pages. Although general risk scores are rather low, more detailed analyses show that teenagers nevertheless post a significant amount of risky information. Moreover, older teenagers and girls post more (risky) information while there are no differences in applying privacy settings. We found no differences in the Facebook behavior of teenagers enrolled in different education forms. Implications of these results are discussed