Search results

Purpose – Teachers should plan instruction that integrates digital tools into instruction in meaningful ways to promote students’ use of multimodalities. Therefore, it is useful for teacher educators to expose pre-service teachers (PSTs) to a systematic approach to integrating a variety of digital tools into their instruction. In this chapter, the authors discuss on the Technology Integration Planning Cycle (TIPC; Hutchison & Woodward, 2014a, 2014b) as one systematic approach for teachers and teacher educators to consider.

Design – This chapter describes the promise of using the TIPC with PSTs to demonstrate and practice how to plan effective literacy instruction to support students’ use of multimodalities. The chapter includes a rich description of how the use of the TIPC might take shape in a literacy methods course based on a composite of courses, students, and activities that the authors have experimented with over time.

Findings – Using the TIPC with PSTs requires a structured approach (Hutchison & Colwell, 2016) that includes modeling and scaffolding of PSTs’ knowledge of technology and pedagogy (Beschorner & Kruse, 2016). Therefore, the Gradual Release of Responsibility (Pearson & Gallagher, 1983) might be valuable to consider as a guiding framework for planning course activities and assignments that utilize the TIPC. This chapter provides an example of this type of instruction.

Practical Implications – There is a significant need to prepare twenty-first century learners to read and write multimodal text. Thus, supporting PSTs to increase their self-efficacy in using technology for instruction and providing the conditions necessary to develop pedagogical beliefs that make it likely for them to be able to integrate technology in meaningful ways is vital (Ertmer, 2005). Using the TIPC in a literacy methods course in the ways that model and scaffold its use, might be one approach to creating these conditions.

To describe how the digital writing experiences of two collaborating second-grade classrooms are representative of a digital writing cycle that includes barriers, bridges, and outcomes. Additionally, this chapter aims to link theory and practice for teachers working with an increasingly younger generation of multimodal learners by connecting teacher reflections to New Literacies perspectives.

The current study is informed by multiple perspectives contributing to New Literacies research. These perspectives blend the traditional disciplines of literacy and technology while recognizing both the growing use of digital tools and the new skills and dispositions required for writing. This chapter uses multiple data points to present (1) how the teachers approached implementation of digital writing tools, (2) how students responded to the use of digital writing tools, and (3) how the digital-related writing experiences aligned with key tenets of New Literacies research.

The authors present student barriers for full participation with corresponding bridges implemented by teachers to help students navigate in the digital writing classroom. Each finding is supported with examples from student and teacher interviews as well as classroom observations and artifacts. The chapter concludes with a “lessons learned” section from the perspective of the teachers in the study with each tenet supporting a New Literacies perspective by addressing key considerations of multimodal environments such as the importance of early opportunities for teaching and learning with new literacies, the need to help inexperienced students bridge technical skill gaps, and the benefit of social relationships in the digital community.

By adapting findings of the study to a digital writing cycle, this chapter discusses how guiding principles of New Literacies research reflects classroom practice, thereby granting current and future teachers a practical guide for bridging theory and practice for implementing digital writing experiences for elementary students in multimodal environments.

Global mass communications and advances in new information and telecommunication technology present a new challenge to the traditional way of conducting international relations. While the mode of conducting diplomacy is changing, diplomats are forced to communicate with many new actors in the international stage through new means of communication. The chapter overviews the existing digital diplomacy research reports. Against this backdrop it presents the outcomes of a 2017–2018 study of communication strategies employed by six countries of the Western Balkans, including Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia. The findings of the study give a first-hand data from the practical point of view on how, which, and to which extent digital tools are utilized as a tool of digital tools are utilized as a tool of digital diplomacy by the official communicators of ministries of foreign affairs (MFA) in the researched region.

Artificial intelligence and augmented reality are two key tools gaining importance in the digital era due to their wide range of applications in different fields and sectors. Industry 4.0 lays emphasis principally on the technology used to help the business remain competitive and sustainable. Sustainable development goals are another important objective of the UN which has laid responsibility for every business to support addressing the global challenges. Purpose: This chapter essentially aims to present the standpoint of artificial intelligence and augmented reality in meeting the sustainability perspective of organizations. Information about the study is gathered through secondary approaches, critically reviewing published literature, scientific reports, and statistical data accessible through business reports, and corporate websites. Further analyzed to present the perspectives of the authors in the study. Globally artificial intelligence market size is predicted to reach $190 billion by 2025, while the funding for startups doubled during the period 2011–2020 globally. The investment in artificial intelligence is going to reach $500 by 2024 resulting in substantial revenue returns. The augmented reality market size could reach $97 billion by 2028. Artificial intelligence today is increasingly used in many fields and is attracting multiple applications in many sectors such as manufacturing, retail, education, IT, and health care and has also contributed to sustainable development the same time by providing energy conservation options, optimization, and reduction of resources, minimizing wastage, offering timely assistance on maintenance schedules, practices which are enabling organizations to reach closer to sustainability and transformation.

On August 26, 1971, OCLC introduced the online union catalog and shared cataloging system. During the 1970s, OCLC focused its efforts on creating and expanding the online cataloging system and telecommunications network. It added an online interlibrary loan system in 1979. In the 1980s, OCLC began adapting distributed computing and microcomputing technologies as its product and service lines expanded to some 60 offerings. The organization also began looking at ways to move beyond bibliography by furnishing information not only to library staffs, but also to library patrons. In the 1990s, OCLC launched a new core business in reference services. (Smith, 1998, pp. 251–252). Now, in the 21st century, OCLC is introducing tools, services and infrastructure to manage the life cycle of digital content in libraries.

Plato and contemporary thinkers including American philosopher Martha Nussbaum have emphasized the need for political consciousness among the youth. Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defence of Reform in Liberal Education by Nussbaum expressed that

It would be catastrophic to become a nation of technically competent people who have lost the ability to think critically, to examine themselves, and to respect the humanity and diversity of others.

It would be catastrophic to become a nation of technically competent people who have lost the ability to think critically, to examine themselves, and to respect the humanity and diversity of others.

Ideologically, it has been proven that advancement in technology can shift social ethos if we use it intelligently and then technology can lead to activism.

Digital activism can be defined as the use of electronic communication devices, for example, social media, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, e-mail, e-blogging, micro-blogging and podcast for different forms of activism. It enables citizens to express ideology and spread information to a large audience regarding human rights. In this context, researchers have explored the level of digital activism among pupil teachers and found very little awareness regarding the same. Findings also reveal that the level of digital activism does not have any significant effect on attitude toward human rights and peace. Although findings reveal that attitude toward peace and human rights is positively correlated with each other. Therefore, on the basis of the findings, an intervention program for digital activism has been suggested at the end of this chapter that can foster digital activism among them.

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education, its importance, and its difficulties have been defined. This chapter seeks to present the digital tools that have been used during the pandemic period and that have been focused on promoting STEM education at different levels. The efforts made by educational organizations worldwide are mentioned. Different regions are shown presenting the best experiences of digital tools that enhance the elements of STEM and can be extended to different levels of education from elementary school to university. On the other hand, successful experiences of the use of technological tools from the teachers' point of view are shown, depicting the tools that have worked the most during the process of adapting to online classes to devise a much better educational plan that continues to take advantage of digital tools for STEM education.

Today’s digitally connected classrooms have the potential to be places for rich and engaged disciplinary learning. This chapter takes two topics that have been identified in the What’s Hot in Literacy 2019 study, digital literacies and disciplinary literacies, and illustrates their intersections and synergies. Both areas have remained hot and very hot as individual topics. In this chapter, the authors explore the powerful opportunities to harness the learning potential of the Internet to engage learners across disciplines. By forging connections between digital literacies for disciplinary learning, the authors examine practices and develop pedagogies that youth deserve.

Purpose – To offer teacher educators a multi-modal approach to include teaching digital literacy practices to pre-service teachers in order to meet the diverse needs of elementary students.

Approach – The chapter is organized by: a) describing inequities and challenges in teacher education regarding teaching digital literacies; b) presenting concrete practices that help foster digital literacy practices in class classrooms; and c) providing resources and reflective opportunities that support pre-service teachers in critically assessing technology’s affordances and constraints for literacy learning.

Findings – Evidence-based multimodal practices and artifacts used in teacher education classrooms are provided to illustrate how they can foster meaningful experiences with all students across all settings. Similarly, educational scholars in the field of incorporating digital literacies are identified.

Practical Implications – This chapter describes practical examples from the everyday literacies of pre-service teachers and elementary students, including apps, websites, tools, and approaches, that foster meaningful experiences with digital literacies. In addition, practical discussions identify strategies that pre-service teachers can use when their internship experience conflicts with methods course content.

Research limitations/implications – The strategies presented in this chapter are based on research and practice, but they focus on elementary pre-service teachers; however, secondary pre-service teacher educators could make adaptations for their learners.

Originality/value of paper – This chapter provides relevant evidence-based information about preparing pre-service teachers to enact digital literacy practices that help K-12 students to think critically, analyze content, and participate fully in 21st century digital cultures.

The chapter discusses pedagogical models of digital learning in the United Kingdom with a focus on online and blended learning, rolled out as a case study in one university. The chapter appraises the effectiveness of the model that implemented and foregrounded the evidence in the wider literature on models of digital learning in higher education. The chapter provides thematic analysis and methodological opportunities for the improvement of practice and presents a set of implementation implications and pitfalls to avoid for higher education institutions in Africa. Furthermore, a number of trends regarding the blending of learning and communication synchrony in digital learning have also been identified.