Leveraging virtual trips in Google expeditions to elevate students’ social exploration

This paper reports on an exploratory case study on the use of Google Expeditions in the context of an intensive Greek language course for specific academic purposes. Google Expeditions are collections of linked virtual reality content that can enable teachers to bring students on virtual trips to places like museums, human anatomy, surgical processes etc. Thematic analysis of instructors’ field notes, students’ reflections, interviews and focus group was employed aiming at identifying the potential of Google Expeditions for extending the language classroom through virtual trips. The use of Google Expeditions enabled students to extend the borders of the classroom by making virtual walkthroughs in places that would normally be unreachable and trigger social exploration through inter- and extra-VR communication, sharing of ideas, concepts and experiences. This study acts as a pilot with an eye to inform larger-scale investigation of Google Expeditions in the future. © IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2017

Augmented reality in language learning: A state‐of‐the‐art review of 2014–2019

This systematic review study synthesizes research findings pertaining to the use of augmented reality (AR) in language learning. Published research from 2014 to 2019 has been explored and specific inclusion and exclusion criteria have been applied resulting in 54 relevant publications. Our findings determined: (a) devices and software employed for mastering AR; languages and contexts in which AR had been applied; theoretical perspectives adopted for guiding the use of AR; the number of participants in AR activities and benefits from using AR as an educational tool in the language classroom; (b) alignment of the affordances of Augmented Reality with the KSAVE (Knowledge, Skills, Attitudes, Values, Ethics) 21st-century skills framework; (c) future directions in AR research and practice. The main findings from this review demonstrate the popularity of mobile-based AR for supporting vocabulary (23.9%), reading (12.7%), speaking (9.9%) writing (8.5%) or generic language skills (9.9%). Our findings also uncovered areas that merit future attention in the application of AR in language learning – for instance learning theories were not often considered in the implementation of AR. The study concludes with suggestions for future research especially in the areas of instructional design and user experience

Gender-Sensitive Materials and Tools: The Development of a Gender-Sensitive Toolbox Through National Stakeholder Consultations

Book series, vol.13315 LNCS, pp. 485 - 502The values of gender equality are being promoted worldwide. The importance of gender equality for sustainable development is well highlighted by the United Nations Sustainable Goal 5 which notes that the need to end all discrimination against women and girls. Nowadays, most modern scholars argue that the world has made great progress towards gender balance, however, it is far from perfect. For encouraging and empowering women to remain active in every field, it is important to raise awareness about their rights, with emphasis on the vital role of girls and women in the workforce. This is especially important for the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) field where women are still underrepresented. This study aims to report on the materials and tools (digital and traditional) that can be used for sensitizing and raising awareness on issues related to gender-equality and women’s empowerment. On this endeavor, we collected information on existing materials used in different contexts through national consultations in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Spain and Slovenia. The tools and materials collected uncover the various levels of gender equality material available - digital and traditional - taking into account the various facets of gender-equality and provide a comprehensive view to the wider academic and industrial community. This study is expected to provide structured knowledge on a new and rapidly developing topic and add more information to existing contour of knowledge regarding available gender-sensitive materials and tools

Introducing a student-led application of Google Expeditions: an exploratory study

Technology integration in classroom settings has become a popular concept, especially due to the growth of the digital native population of learners and the novelty of technology tools. This exploratory study aimed at introducing a low-cost Virtual Reality kit, Google Expeditions, in a language classroom and explore its potential as a student-led tool for supporting language learning and teaching. The use of Google Expeditions was guided by teach-back, a pedagogical methodology which emphasises communication and comprehension through spoken interaction. Data were collected through interviews, focus groups, questionnaires, observations and video-taped sessions. Findings provide information on the patterns followed when pedagogically implementing Google Expeditions under teach-back. What is more, evidence is provided on how collaboration is encouraged and on the positive learning experiences of the students in the Google Expeditions sessions. Implications for researchers and instructional designers are also provided

Open Educational Resources for Language Education: Towards the Development of an e-Toolkit

The Open Educational Resources (OER) movement is overgrowing over the last 15 years, as many institutions adopt the idea of openness and universal access to educational content. Thus, the research and educational material must be open to everyone interested, including students, adult learners, teachers, professionals, managers, and policymakers. With this in mind, the creation and use of OER is a current educational practice for educators around the world. This manuscript aims to provide an overview of all the core elements for creating, using, and sharing quality multilingual and interactive OERs for Language Education. Specifically, the paper provides an extensive summary of existing language OERs and Open Educational Practices (OEPs), including some important definitions, highlighting the most significant characteristics and challenges in adopting OERs for educational purposes. This review will help language teachers, students, and researchers to create, share, and use quality multilingual and interactive OERs for language learning in their teaching practices

Challenges and good practices in STEM: A systematic review and implications for higher education institutions

This study maps the challenges and good practices applied in the real life of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) professionals. We conducted a systematic review selecting published manuscripts between 2018 and 2021. The search strategy included a systematic search in two well-known online databases which are related to STEM, ProQuest and Scopus. After the application of the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 35 papers were included in the dataset. The review demonstrated the challenges and good practices in STEM careers which include personal challenges and good practices for STEM professionals; challenges and good practices encountered at the workplace; and challenges and good practices at social and public space in general. Findings demonstrate that there are still challenges encountered by professionals, especially women and minorities, in STEM fields, but there are also some good practices that can reduce the barriers and help overcome those challenges. The paper concludes with implications for practitioners and suggestions for future research

Affordances of social technologies as social microworlds

Social technologies such as blogs and wikis have been used extensively in multiple educational settings for diverse purposes. Despite their popularity, their potentiality is not fully exploited, whereas their use is not clearly framed in theory. In this poster we present the potential of social technologies as social microworlds for facilitating groups of learners to construct a shareable artifact. A qualitative study that captures the use of different types of social technologies in three different classroom settings sheds light on the affordances of social technologies to transform the activity of learning across a new culture of computational tools

Exploring the multilingual efficiency of urban online spaces: Implications for culture-centered design

This paper builds up a picture of how multilingualism is supported in various aspects of urban online spaces. The main assumption of this study is that language is an indispensable element of culture; thus, understanding how a multilingual city facilitates multilingualism in terms of provision of and access to information, can deepen our understanding for supporting cross-cultural Human Computer Interaction (HCI). This study explores how multilingualism is supported in urban online spaces of Limassol, a location of increased inward migration and a city that holds a prolonged multilingual character. Data include manifestations of multilingualism or monolingualism in various online contexts, such as official websites and digital media. Findings demonstrate several aspects of multilingualism, as well as implemented policies and practices for promoting a multilingual online locus. As a result of the findings, suggestions for best practices for the online spaces of multilingual cities are put forward, as well as implications for cross-cultural HCI

Doctoral education in Technology-Enhanced Learning: the perspective of PhD candidates and researchers

The ongoing and rapid development in technologies in the last few decades has given rise to a great amount of research in the area of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL). O’Donnell and O’Donnell (2015) state that TEL supports teaching and learning through the use of technology and can carry a similar meaning to e-learning. However, Fominykh and Prasolova-Førland (2019, p. 38) add to this definition by indicating that TEL is not limited to the use of technologies for teaching purposes, being “a research field that explores new ways of learning enabled by technology and designing new technologies that can support learning in new ways.” The term TEL has also been coined as Educational Technology, Digital Education, and Learning Engineering, with the last term implying that this area requires technical competence in order to become involved in learning and development initiatives especially in areas that methodologically depend on data science, Computer Science and Learning Sciences (Pammer-Schindler et al., 2020). However, according to the authors, all terms “recognize the need of epistemic fluency to facilitate interdisciplinary dynamics” (ibid., p. 3), highlighting how the specific field overlaps with a variety of disciplines. This interdisciplinary aspect can become an indicator of the vast amount of research that has been conducted and will be in the future. However, as the knowledge and amount of data and published work in the specific field grows, the requirements with regards to researching TEL become more demanding. Research conducted on the use of technologies to support doctoral students’ learning proves that the affordances of technologies can be beneficial for doctoral students (Boulton, 2019); this applies especially where co-construction of knowledge is a course expectation and in cases where transnational doctoral students wish to share experiences. The appropriate choice of technologies can lead to a richer learning environment, inclusivity, intercultural communication and more engagement. Thus, training and guidance in conducting research and using technologies for learning at a Doctoral level may be a key activity in dealing with the ever-growing requirements in research. In particular, Chen (2012, p. 1) has identified that “due to a lack of formal research training and experience, students can find completing research projects a daunting task. This, coupled with a fear of statistics, can culminate in quite an overwhelming experience for many students”; while Dermo (2009) stated that the key aspect would be to improve the quality of students’ learning experience in higher education. Similarly, Pammer-Schindler et al. (2020), based on the results of the Doctoral Education for Technology-Enhanced Learning (DE-TEL) project, have also identified the need for providing doctoral training in TEL related areas. In particular, the DE-TEL project aimed to improve and innovate the European doctoral education in TEL, by identifying good practices in doctoral education in TEL and developing a new program for doctoral education in TEL and OERs The proposed paper aims at presenting part of the quantitative and qualitative results yielded from an online survey which aimed at collecting information on doctoral education in TEL from PhD candidates and researchers involved in doctoral education or carrying out research in TEL. The survey was designed based on prior secondary research (Pammer-Schindler et al., 2020). The questions of the survey were structured into eight thematic areas: professional background, TEL topics, general PhD education, research methods, learning sources, challenges, supervision and mentorship, and personal background. In the TEL topics, general PhD education and research methods groups, the respondents evaluated the importance and availability of educational resources on the corresponding topics. In this paper, we focus on the results of the two groups of questions: general PhD training topics and research methods. A total of 229 participants from 40 different countries around the globe responded to the survey. In terms of their educational background, 45% (n=103) were PhD candidates, 40.2% (n=92) held a PhD and 11.4% (n=26) a Master’s degree or equivalent, and this is their highest degree. Only 3.5% (n=8) of participants held a degree that is lower than a Master's degree or equivalent. In this study we report on the results of the first two groups. A mixed methods design was employed to analyse the data. Descriptive and inferential statistics were performed using SPSS to analyse the results of the closed-ended questions. Qualitative data analysis was used to analyse the results of the open-ended questions. Findings on the need of courses and educational materials on the general PhD training topics show that both PhD candidates and PhD holders agree on the need for “academic writing” courses as the most relevant course. However, both groups discern in their rank order of preferences for other courses. With regards to research methods, responses indicated that Design-based research is the most common method for both PhD students and Phd holders. An exception are researchers working in the field of ‘Education using technologies’, where experimental research and field qualitative methods are the most reported methods. Regardless of the level of training, the participants reported a need for more training in the research methods they work with. In terms of the learning sources used by the participants, the latter indicated that these were influenced by their educational background, although all tended to choose the academic publications as their primary learning source for TEL topics. For the general PhD-level training topics both PhD candidates and PhD holders selected the supervisor help as their primary learning source. Additionally, the data has also shown that three learning sources seem to be the most used by PhD candidates and PhD holders with regards to research methods: Supervisor help, Academic publications, and courses in the PhD program. The inferential results of the study showed statistically significant differences when it comes to the stage of PhD of students on the availability of courses and learning materials used. Specifically, as PhD students progress to the middle and late stages of their studies, they seem to have access to a wider range of resources and materials in topics related to academic writing (e.g. academic language style, supporting arguments with references, formats of academic journals and conferences) and dissemination of research results (e.g. submitting manuscripts to academic journals, research databases, open data, open science, social media, and reproducibility consideration). All in all, despite the increase in the availability of resources and materials as PhD students move to more advanced stages of their studies, the survey indicated that doctoral students need adequate support and training in academic writing and research methodologies. This has prompted the design and implementation of a training program for doctoral students by the DE-TEL consortium