Research Article
Gulnara M. Kassymova, Saule B. Tulepova, Madina B. Bekturova
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 15, Issue 1, Article No: ep396
ABSTRACT
Digital competence has become a crucial capability in the learning process, in the working place, and in personal communication. The aim of the article is to explore master students’ perceptions of their digital competence by identifying frequency, expertise, and satisfaction in using information communication technologies (ICT) in their learning process when studying at university and teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) in the context of online education. The sample comprised 49 master students who participated in distant evening classes at a private university in Kazakhstan while working simultaneously as teachers of English in various educational institutions during the day. Master students’ perceptions of digital competence is one of the approaches to reveal the gaps in students’ digital competence development necessary for learning and teaching EFL online. The main research tool for data collection was the online survey allowing the master students to measure their level of digital competence. Evident from the results, the majority of respondents are digitally competent; yet there is a cohort of master students who scored low on ICT skills needed for teaching and admitted the necessity of improvement. Also, according to the findings, the respondents’ frequency, expertise, and satisfaction level by their digital competence needed in the learning is higher than that in teaching. This can also imply that even though the frequency and expertise in using digital technologies for learning contributes to the development of the expertise in using them for conducting their own classes, master students need special training on the use of ICT for pedagogical purposes.
Keywords: perceptions, digital competence, ICT, learning, teaching, EFL, online
Research Article
Fatima K. Urakova, Izida I. Ishmuradova, Nataliia A. Kondakchian, Roza Sh. Akhmadieva, Julia V. Torkunova, Irina N. Meshkova, Nikolay A. Mashkin
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 15, Issue 1, Article No: ep398
ABSTRACT
Learning in the digital age is a pervasive idea that encompasses all aspects of a person's life, including work and leisure. As a result of the development of new teaching and learning tools, an increasing number of students are acquiring knowledge on the Internet- connected to the Internet. Therefore, all citizens must develop digital literacy as a lifelong learning skill. Studies have been conducted on students' digital skills in higher education institutions. In this context, this study aimed to investigate the skills of college students. The participants were students from a university in the Kazan region of Russia who volunteered to participate. Three hundred and eighty students completed the questionnaire online. The scale consists of a total of 25 questions and six dimensions. Since our independent variables are binary values, we applied the Bayesian t-test. We obtained the values of the Bayes factor (BF10) for each dimension and the total scale. In general, students' digital skills are well-developed. However, it was found that creating and using digital information requires fewer skills than in other areas. The hypothesis that there is no difference based on student gender was supported to a higher degree but not to a very high degree. The hypothesis that there is no difference based on students' fields of study was supported to a greater extent, but only to a moderate extent.
Keywords: digital skills, higher education, Bayesian analysis, Russia
Research Article
Linda Castañeda, Daniel Villar-Onrubia
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 15, Issue 1, Article No: ep397
ABSTRACT
Digital literacy has moved away from its traditional instrumental conception, to be nourished by critical perspectives that have been increasingly adopted in all areas of the analysis of technology and education. The importance of generating educational models that contribute to the emancipation of people in a post-digital and highly complex world is an increasingly evident challenge. However, it is still difficult to find concrete examples of pedagogical strategies specifically devised to foster digital literacy in line with this much needed emerging critical lens. This paper presents a case study of a set of learning experiences integrated into a compulsory module for students in the 1st year of a degree in education sciences, which leads to the qualification required to teach at primary schools in Spain. The results highlight the importance of providing students with learning opportunities conceived to help them become future teachers ready to have a transversal impact on education for the emancipation of people in the post-digital world, rather than simply training them as operators who use technology to enhance skills.
Keywords: digital literacy, digital competence, teachers’ education, critical digital literacy, digital education
Research Article
Norma Torres-Hernández, María-Jesús Gallego-Arrufat
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 15, Issue 1, Article No: ep399
ABSTRACT
The protection of personal data and privacy are important issues closely related to use of social media, information and communication technologies, and the Internet in the area of education. The treatment of academic information and use of tools and programs for instruction, communication, and learning have revealed the handling of a significant volume of personal data from different sources. It is essential to protect this information from possible privacy violations. This descriptive study, which is of transversal nonexperimental design, focuses on how 384 pre-service teachers’ enrolled in educational technology courses in their education programs view the protection of personal data. The goals are to describe and analyze how these teachers perceive the risks associated with protection of data on the Internet and what they know about protection of data in primary education. We administered a questionnaire within the framework of an educational activity that focused on digital competence in data protection in education. The results show a high perception of risk in topics such as accepting cookies when surfing the Internet or transferring banking information. The knowledge the students claim to have shown a lack of information on the protection of minors’ data in issues related to the development and schooling of primary school students, as well as their health, background, and family environment. Curricular treatment of these areas that includes content, practices on regulations, and adopts a situated, critical, and responsible approach in pre-service teacher education is recommended.
Keywords: data protection, pre-service teacher education, pre-service teachers, primary education, privacy
Research Article
Huong Thi Thu Tran, Nga Thuy Nguyen, Thuy Thi Tang
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 15, Issue 1, Article No: ep400
ABSTRACT
This study investigates factors affecting teachers’ intention to use the Zalo app–a social media with impressive users in Vietnam in recent years. The extended technology acceptance model (TAM) involves subjective norms (SNs) (colleagues, managers, students, and parents) and anxiety as the precursors of user attitude and intention to use as well as perceived ease of use (PEOU) and perceived usefulness (PU) as the key variables in TAM was employed. 1,105 teachers in Vietnam took part in the online survey. The study employed the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to analyze the quantitative data and the relationship among factors. The findings show that colleagues have no impact on PU, and managers have an insignificant influence on PEOU. In contrast, students and their parents positively influence teachers’ PEOU and usefulness. Moreover, managers can increase teachers’ anxiety levels, whereas students’ connection decreases anxiety. These variables accounted for 79.6% of the variance in users’ adoption. The results confirm the impact of SNs on teachers’ intention to use the Zalo app in working. This is the study on issues in Vietnam related to social media used at institutional level–a no way back solution in the new educational context of the modern society.
Keywords: subjective norms, social media acceptance, Vietnamese teachers, PLS-SEM
Research Article
Francisco José Montiel-Ruiz, María-del-Mar Sánchez-Vera, Isabel M. Solano-Fernández
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 15, Issue 1, Article No: ep401
ABSTRACT
Recent research and studies on training plans in physical education agree on the need to incorporate digital technologies in teaching contexts. At the same time, the introduction of active methodologies, such as gamification, has become one of the major trends of recent years. In this paper we present the perception of teachers and students about a gamified proposal for physical education in secondary education that uses social networks as a way for communication, collaboration, and promotion of physical activity among students. Edmodo has been used to carry out this experience because, as a vertical social network, it has an attractive interface for students and protects their privacy by not requiring any personal data.
This is a qualitative research, with a case study methodological design, which has used the focus group and group interview as data collection techniques. The sample consisted of 10 teachers, which represents all the teachers participating in the experience, and 56 students. The results show the positive assessment, both by teachers and students, of the Edmodo social network as a virtual teaching-learning environment for physical education in secondary education, and gamification as an active methodology. Likewise, the influence that the proposal, based on the use of digital technologies and gamification, has had on the promotion of physical activity among pupils has been high.
Keywords: physical education, social networks, gamification, secondary education, digital technologies
Research Article
Bonnie E. Stewart
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 15, Issue 1, Article No: ep402
ABSTRACT
This paper is a critical case study tracing the professional history of a self-professed open educator over more than two decades. It frames the narrative of an individual as a window on the broader arc of the field, from early open learning as a means of widening participation, through the rise of the participatory web at scale, to the current datafied and extractive infrastructure of higher education. It outlines how the field of online education has changed, as the web and the social and societal forces shaping use of the web have shifted. Through these lenses of change, the case study explores the dilemma facing open and participatory education at this juncture: that the current structure of the web threatens privacy, higher education governance structures, and the spirit of open, participatory sharing. The paper explores the problem of the web as one without direct solutions but does consider ways that educators might mitigate their open practice in more critical directions.
Keywords: open education, participatory learning, teacher education, digital literacies, data literacies, the web