Open Access Journals at Aalborg University
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Minecrafters: An educational model for developing collaboration
Get PDFIn response to significant global events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, educational environments are undergoing a fundamental transformation towards collaborative online spaces and networked learning. Networked learning includes (a) the process of learning with and through other people and resources and (b) the environment (i.e., the internet) and platforms (i.e., YouTube, websites, social media, discussion forums) that support these connections or networks (Hodgson & McConnell, 2019). This shift in how learning is done necessitates a reevaluation of pedagogical methods to foster the development of students' global skills and competencies. These competencies, as defined by the Council of Ministers of Education Canada (CMEC), are recognized as essential for individuals to not only adapt but thrive in our current and future world. This world is characterized by unprecedented simultaneous challenges, often referred to as a 'polycrisis,' and rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (A.I.) that have the potential to reshape every aspect of human existence. Therefore, it is imperative that we delve into a deeper investigation and understanding of innovative pedagogical approaches to ensure students are adequately prepared for the evolving landscape. Collaboration is arguably one of the most important of the global skills and competencies as it underpins many of the essential skills youth need to thrive in educational and non-educational settings. More specifically, collaboration underpins the type of networked learning rising in popularity in formal and informal learning settings (Bülow & Nørgård, 2021). As a result, this exploratory research focuses on Minecraft: Education Edition (M:EE) as a tool for developing collaboration through critical making and team-based learning. Over a five-day spring-break camp, two cohorts of students (grades four to six and grades seven to eight) participated in open-ended design-based learning challenges online (in the virtual meeting platform, Google Meet, and in the virtual world, M:EE). Data analysis revealed that collaboration manifested itself in three primary modes: co-constructing knowledge, peer-teaching, and conflict management. Analysis further revealed that younger versus older students build and collaborate in the online environment very differently, which at times mirrored the 'real world' classroom. These findings have implications for designing age-appropriate online learning experiences to support collaboration in a networked environment, especially within virtual simulation and creation worlds like Minecraft
Beyond Stereotypes: Exploring international Chinese students’ experiences of interaction with learning contents in higher education within the networked learning environment
Get PDFThe Chinese government provided a narrow window for Chinese students during the recent COVID-19 pandemic, enabling them to remain in China and enrol in online courses provided by foreign universities. This was not authorised before the pandemic (Ministry of Education [MOE], 2020). As a result, there was limited research focusing on Chinese overseas students’ distance learning experiences before the pandemic (e.g., Kung, 2017). Furthermore, these studies have been criticised for their overuse of monolithic approaches and the underuse of theories, producing stereotypes and misunderstandings about Chinese students (Lee & Bligh, 2019; Xu, 2022). Despite the increasing number of studies on Chinese overseas students conducted during the pandemic, their online learning experiences have been significantly influenced by the unique situation, which may not be applicable in a post-pandemic scenario. Therefore, this qualitative study aims to investigate Chinese overseas students' networked learning experiences in the post-pandemic era.
Building on the ongoing conceptualising effort (NLEC, 2021a), the authors have used learner-content interaction (Moore, 1989) and Berry’s acculturation theory (Berry, 2005) to explore online international Chinese students’ experiences of interaction with learning contents. The focus is on developing a holistic and balanced perspective of these students. Twelve students, enrolled in online graduate degree programmes offered by Western universities while residing in China, were recruited and interviewed. The results of the authors’ thematic analysis of the interview transcripts suggest that online Chinese international students are active agents in their interaction with the learning content and their adaptation to the new settings, in which they bridge a strong connection between Chinese and Western learning content to enrich their understanding of knowledge and promote cultural diversity in both their new environment and their home country. Here, online Chinese international students predominately employ an integration strategy to engage in learning content. Similar to international students from other countries, online Chinese international students encounter challenges due to differences in educational backgrounds, including differences in learning materials and extensive reading requirements. However, online Chinese international students proactively cope with these challenges by integrating knowledge and skills from their home country into their studies, facilitating successful adaptation to the new environment. In addition, the student interaction experience is undermined by a loss of diversity in content provided by Western universities. Therefore, the recommendations are for online educators and universities to take into account the cultural backgrounds of their students and design diverse course content
The transformative potential of Artificial Intelligence for Education
Get PDFEducation today faces a range of challenges, but also unique opportunities, vis-à-vis the evolution of digital technologies. Traditional teaching methods struggle to meet the diverse needs of students, as classrooms comprise learners at different levels. The Education AI project represents an initiative aimed at integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the classroom to address the diversity of students and the challenges faced by traditional teaching methods. The project's core objective is to enhance student learning outcomes by providing an adaptive and personalised learning experience, thereby making education more equitable and effective. This paper evaluates the project's impact on student learning, teacher workload, and its broader applicability in education. The study's methodology combines quantitative and qualitative data, employing a mixed-methods approach to provide a comprehensive analysis of the Education AI system's effectiveness. Preliminary findings indicate a notable improvement in student performance, particularly among low and medium-performing students, with quantitative data revealing an average improvement of 23% in assessments for low-performing students. The system's user-friendly interface, gamified elements, and immediate feedback mechanisms have been well-received, with a majority of students reporting enhanced engagement and understanding of mathematical concepts. Teachers have also reported positive experiences, highlighting the system's role in reducing their workload and facilitating personalised and adaptive teaching and learning. Qualitative feedback from interviews with teachers and students provides further insights into the system's impact, emphasising its varied and engaging question types, adaptivity, and the shift from paper-based to digital learning. The feedback also reveals a desire for expansion to other subjects and enhancements in the system's analytics for more targeted support.The Education AI project demonstrates the transformative potential of AI in the classroom, with significant improvements in student performance and positive reception from both students and teachers. The study highlights the importance of addressing technical challenges and expanding the system's capabilities for broader application. The project offers valuable insights into the future of education, where technology and human expertise converge to create a more personalised, adaptive engaging, and effective learning experience for all students. This initiative, underpinned by the transformative potential of AI for education, aims and informing and guiding future innovations in educational technology
Postcolonial Entry Points into Networked Learning
Get PDFIt would be overly simplistic to assume that these collaborative pedagogical approaches function uniformly across diverse student cohorts. Postcolonial theory can provide a framework to systematically investigate dynamics that potentially generate differentiated experiences or outcomes within networked learning spaces. This research delves into the pervasive influence of Western-centric discourse within online postgraduate education, shedding light on its dual impact of colonising both knowledge and identities. While networked learning promises a collaborative and inclusive educational paradigm, it becomes evident that the dominance of Western cultural norms acts as a powerful agent of colonisation, silencing non-Western perspectives and erasing their voices in the digital realm. This perpetuates historical colonial power imbalances, thus extending colonial legacies into the landscape of networked learning. The study unearths three critical entry points to this discourse, each of which amplifies the nuanced challenges posed by colonial dynamics in networked learning. First, it elucidates the reinforcement of dominant discourses, revealing how networked learning, when devoid of critical oversight, risks sustaining Western-centric narratives and structures, thereby overshadowing subaltern perspectives. This phenomenon mirrors the experiences of participants and exacerbates colonial knowledge hierarchies. Secondly, the research uncovers the marginalisation of subaltern voices within networked learning. Power imbalances within the network, if left unaddressed, can compel subaltern participants to conform to dominant discourse, leading to unequal engagement. These circumstances closely resemble the experiences reported by participants, highlighting the perils of marginalisation and the need for redress. Thirdly, the study illuminates the unsettling imbalance in knowledge sharing, reflecting the concerns raised by participants. Networked learning may inadvertently exhibit knowledge-sharing disparities, with subaltern voices contributing disproportionately while dominant discourses remain unchallenged. This dynamic impedes the network's potential to facilitate a diverse and enriched exchange of knowledge. The research underscores the pressing importance of explicitly addressing these challenges in networked learning practices. Failure to do so risks the unintentional perpetuation of colonial discourses, hindering the transformative potential of networked learning. By acknowledging these postcolonial entry points and enacting measures to rectify them, networked learning can overcome exclusionary dynamics and more effectively challenge and dismantle colonial legacies, thereby advancing a more inclusive, equitable educational landscape for all stakeholders and providing a comprehensive solution to the complex issue at hand
Nurturing creative confidence and learner empathy: Designing for academic staff development
Get PDFAs a contemporary and boundary spanning approach, design thinking is gaining traction in higher education, but it has not yet been established in academic staff development. The aim of this study is to reflect on a recent staff development intervention on blended learning course design, aimed at promoting a ‘design thinking mindset’ among university lecturers. By analysing empirical data gathered through participant interactions, we discuss the implications and potential of design thinking for academic staff development. Data analysis shows an increased awareness of the complex and diverse student body, a recognition for interdisciplinary collaboration, mentoring and reflective thinking. Additionally, it is highlighted that adopting design thinking is not without challenges, which include the need for continued practice, securing departmental buy-in and upscaling initiatives. The findings emphasise the importance of creating a ‘safe’ space to experiment, modelling a designing-on-the-go approach, focusing on the iterative processes of (re)design, providing scaffolding for learning, making design thinking processes explicit, building a community of practice, regular feedback and maintaining the balance between playfulness and reflection. Success of such an intervention will rely on balancing the development of design thinking skills, a design thinking mindset and creative confidence
Situated Readiness and Transformation of Learning Across Situations and Settings
Get PDFThis short paper introduces the concept of Situated Readiness as a set of skills and dispositions required to participate meaningfully across settings and situations, seeing them as networked and intertwined. Following earlier work within the field, networked learning is here understood as learners' connecting of contexts in which they participate, and as their resituation of knowledge and ways of acting across these contexts (Dohn, 2014). The development of the concept of Situated Readiness is based on a conducted study using a Design-Based Research (DBR) approach to investigate, how student teachers at a Danish Teacher Education Program (TEP) transformed knowledge and ways of participation when transitioning between a course and a public-school class. The findings of the study indicate the needs of socio-epistemic skills and dispositions that enable students to resituate, utilise and transform knowledge from known social contexts to new ones e.g. from a learning situation at the TEP to novel situations in school. Situated Readiness is, in this sense, the ability to attune to the specific social and epistemic requirements and demands, also termed "requirement characteristics", pertaining in these new contexts. To aid the analysis of the skills needed to engage in networked situations, an analytical framework of context levels is presented. The framework points out how requirement characteristics at three interacting levels are posed on the learner. The three levels: 1) the life-setting, 2) the activity-internal level and 3) the domain-internal level form a complex whole and as a learner acting competently in a situation, consists of the ability to respond accordingly to this complex whole. The findings of the DBR study points at challenges towards students’ transformation of knowledge between the two settings, suggesting that the development of Situated Readiness on the learners behalf requires educators to design for learning opportunities, that take into account, how settings and situations are networked and that students are given opportunities and support to recognise these temporally connections as part of their learning trajectories. The lack of explicit articulation of the sameness and differences between the setting leaves the students to realize and attune to these by themselves, which the study shows, is a major challenge to students, who have limited experiences with teaching in practice
The Way We Were: Introduction to the Readings
Get PDFOn behalf of the editorial team – Camilla Rams Rathleff, Kathrine Liedtke Thorndal and David Kergel – I have taken it upon myself to write this short introduction to our 2024 Special Issue Essential readings in Problem-Based Learning. Like the contributions in this, very special Special Issue, it has an informal tone driven by a personal narrative
Maintaining Ukraine’s grid reliability under rapid growth of renewable electricity share: challenges in the pre-war, war-time, and post-war periods
Get PDFThe paper deals with the problems of maintaining Ukraine’s grid reliability under high renewable electricity penetration and improving state policy measures to accelerate sustainable energy transition in the post-war period. Promoting renewable energy in Ukraine increased renewable electricity share in the country’s electricity mix to 13.8% in 2021. However, such growth became critical for Ukraine’s electric power system. Due to its inflexibility, the lack of balancing and energy storage capacities, adding significant amounts of renewable electricity to the grid created severe problems. Further renewable energy development required serious reforming policy measures, but the Russian invasion prevented introducing relevant legislative changes. At the same time, the war had an unprecedented impact on the Ukrainian energy sector, resulting in the damage of more than 50% of the energy infrastructure. Considering global trends towards decarbonisation and achieving climate neutrality, reconstructing Ukraine’s electric power sector will be based on the large-scale involvement of renewable energy technologies. Given this, based on the study of the trends in renewable energy development in the pre-war and war-time periods and the analysis of the shortcomings of the state energy policy, the paper examines the required measures for fostering resilient reconstruction of Ukraine's electric power sector
Unlocking synergies: Smart cities and the dynamic business model approach
Get PDFThis interview comprises the opening part of a doctoral defense in which Christian Nielsen acted as Sari Perätalo’s opponent. The defense took place on November 24, 2023, at Oulu Business School, Finland, and the topic was “In search of a business model approach for smart cities.” After the discussion conveyed in this paper, the doctoral defense focused on specific research outcomes, methodologies, and theories and illustrated that the PhD candidate indeed was extremely knowledgeable about the subject and should be awarded the degree of a PhD
Same-same, but different: A mixed-methods approach to enhance the understanding of spatial social science and the impact of neighborhoods
Get PDFDer er opstået talrige tilgange til at omfatte det sociale fænomen, stedet. I søgen efter betydningen af stedet søger forskere ofte enten at skitsere det unikke ved et enkelt kvarter med overvejende kvalitative metoder eller at reducere kompleksiteten af et større antal kvarterer ved hjælp af kvantitative metoder. Det gør de ved at argumentere for, at det unikke er uendeligt komplekst og dermed ej reducerbart eller - som med kvantitative metoder - at der er tilstrækkelig lighed til, at kompleksiteten kan reduceres med statistiske modeller. Vi argumenterer for, at disse ikke udelukker hinanden ved at skitsere en tilgang til at fange det unikke og det generelle.Numerous approaches have emerged to encompass the social phenomenon of place. In the search of the meaning of place, researchers often either seek to outline the uniqueness of a single neighborhood with predominantly qualitative methods or reduce complexity of a higher number of neighborhoods using quantitative methods. They do so by arguing that the uniqueness is infinitely complex and thus irreducible or, as with quantitative methods, that there is enough similarity that the complexity can be reduced by statistical models. We argue that these are not mutually exclusive by outlining an approach to capture the unique and the general