Journals @ Ontario Tech
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Advancing Pedagogical Innovation: Integrating Design Fiction into AI Education
No full textThis paper explores the integration of design fiction as a pedagogical approach in the realm of AI education. Design fiction, a creative and speculative design method that blends design, fiction, and futures studies, is examined for its potential to enrich AI education. The paper delves into the fundamental components and principles of design fiction, emphasizing its alignment with established learning theories, including situated cognition, design-based learning, and narrative learning theory. Subsequently, it presents a conceptual model of design fiction pedagogy along with examples of students’ work in each pedagogical step for implementing design fiction in the context of AI education. This conceptual model may be utilized by educators, students, and researchers interested in integrating design fiction into AI education. The intent is to introduce an AI education approach that not only imparts technical knowledge but also encourages critical reflections and ethical considerations
Examining the Benefits and Challenges of Using Discord in Online Higher Education Classrooms
No full textBuilding community and connection in online courses can be challenging. Discord, a mobile and desktop app popular with gamers, is explicitly designed to stimulate discussion, conversations and community. This paper explored student perceptions of the benefits and challenges of using Discord in two upper-year, undergraduate, online social science courses (n = 45). Key benefits of using Discord included connecting to students or the professor, building community, disseminating course information, increasing engagement, and establishing a casual, informal learning environment. Challenges were reported less often than benefits and included wanting a tutorial to use Discord, needing to check for notifications, and occasional technical issues. Students suggested that a more structured use of Discord might further benefit their learning
Ludic Pedagogy Meets ChatGPT: An Application of Fun, Play, Playfulness, and Positivity to a Technological Context
No full textThis paper explores how Ludic Pedagogy – the incorporation of fun, play, playfulness, and positivity into learning – can address challenges to student disengagement and academic integrity. We use the case of AI predictive text tool ChatGPT to illustrate how intrinsic motivation can come from students\u27 enjoyment and satisfaction with learning. We make two proposals: first, by using Ludic Pedagogy principles and approaching ChatGPT with a sense of curiosity and experimentation, students can engage more actively with their learning, and may be less likely to “cheat” on academic assignments. Second, designing authentic assessments that are completed with a sense of positivity may negate the usefulness of ChatGPT as a tool for academic dishonesty. Adopting a Ludic Pedagogy has implications for learning environments and assessment whereby educators may turn a technological “threat” into a learning opportunity and students may experience heightened engagement
Empowering Autistic Adolescents and Adults through Online Social Engagement: A Systematic Literature Review on Fulfilling Basic Psychological Needs, Understanding Generative Mechanisms and Enhancing Well-being
No full textOnline social environments provide opportunities for authentic social engagement through unique affordances such as increased user control, accessibility, convenience, and access to a larger community. To date, limited research has been conducted on the intentional and independent social engagement of autistic adults. This systematic literature review explores (1) how the intentional and independent online social engagement of autistic adolescents and adults relates to basic psychological needs (BPN) for autonomy, competency and relatedness and (2) the generative mechanisms of the online social engagement for autistic adolescents and adults. Our findings suggest that autistic individuals can actively and effectively engage in online social activities and develop meaningful social relationships, contrary to the assumptions of social deficits associated with autism. Furthermore, the results indicate that an online social environment can fulfill the basic psychological needs (autonomy, competency, and relatedness) of autistic adolescents and adults. The study also identified critical generative mechanisms at the individual, educational, and societal levels that promote feelings of autonomy, competency, and relatedness in an online social context. These mechanisms include agency, purpose, competence, scaffolding, control, authenticity, accessibility, intersubjectivity, and transferability. This review supports the need for a strength-based, holistic approach to understanding the social engagement of autistic individuals that considers the generative mechanisms of their intentional and independent social engagement. Future research should explore the various factors that influence the online social engagement of autistic individuals and how they can be leveraged to enhance their well-being and quality of life
Inaccessible PDF forms Limited Access to the Courts during the Pandemic: A Window into Broader Issues of Inequities and Inaccessibility for People with Disabilities in the United States
No full textThe COVID-19 pandemic forced state courts to fully embrace electronic filing, access to forms, and remote hearings. As a result, individuals navigating the legal system during this transition had to embrace online access to court forms. While the courts have been praised for their ability to adapt, the extent to which online court forms are accessible for individuals with disabilities remains an open question. Through this preliminary study focused on the policy implications of inaccessible court forms, we evaluated the accessibility of PDF divorce forms used in 10 states. The study revealed that that none of the forms were completely accessible, suggesting that individuals with disabilities may find it challenging -- if not impossible -- to independently complete and fill out family law courts forms. While poignant during the pandemic, this ongoing lack of accessibility is more than a technical issue, as it also raises concerns about “accessibility to justice.
Constructing Accessible Technology Policy in a University Setting During COVID
No full textThe University College London’s Moving to Online Teaching and Homeworking (MOTH) project used this data to mobile and advocate for improved accessibility in remote meetings during the pandemic. We conducted a survey running from March to June 2020 with UCL’s staff. As part of the survey, staff who took part in teaching and research shared challenges and opportunities, as well as images that communicated their experience. The focus of our study was on how working from home impacted teaching and research, rather than asking staff members to report on their disability. Nonetheless, many staff members took the opportunity to write comments regarding disability implications in our open-ended qualitative questions. From the responses, it was clear that disabled people experience both challenges and opportunities from working at home. This paper reports that data and discusses the rapid responses to disseminate the data and make recommendations to ameliorate the situation. Rather than using a top-down approach led by literature, we worked with disabled activists as part of UCL’s Disability Equality Steering Group to act on the findings based on lived experience. We present our data and recommendations here modeling best practices for acting on research findings led by the disabled community in the spirit of “nothing about us without us”
Letter from the Editors : Internationalism in Opposition to Nationalism: Sharing the Global Realities and Expressions of Disability
No full textLetter from members of the Editorial Board 
Developing a Rubric to Describe Learner Activity in Digital Construction Tasks
No full textThis study examined the development of technical skills through a combination of research process frameworks and constructionist creation tasks. This two-phase study utilized a mixed-methods methodology by using a pre-task survey that collected digital competency information, a live construction task where participants created a digital brochure and a post-task questionnaire that allowed participants to self-assess their brochure and the task experience. The pre-task survey used the previously designed and validated Digital Competency Profiler (DCP) to determine participant digital skill levels over four competency orders. A coding rubric was developed to describe the participant\u27s behaviour. This study found that participants who spent more time creating learning objects seemed likelier to self-report technological skill development. Most participants relied on pre-existing skills to find solutions for problems in the creation process. Changes to the task design to allow for greater learner autonomy and multiple reflection opportunities were recommended for future studies
Educating for a Just World: Empowering K-12 Students as Global Democratic Digital Citizens
No full textGiven the incredible growth in online activity since the global pandemic, there is a need for an updated approach to digital citizenship education that positions students as critical designers and producers who use their learning to inform, to support, and to offer opportunities for change in their communities. In this paper, we examine some of the recent conceptualizations of digital citizenship, human rights education, and global citizenship to identify their intersections and move toward the development of a Global Democratic Digital Citizenship framework for K-12 education. We argue that current frameworks target distinct skills and competencies that enable individualistic performance of global and digital citizenship actions but neglect the development of democratic characteristics and the ways in which these are mediated by digital technologies. Students must understand how to engage respectfully with others, make their voice heard, become interculturally intelligent, and act responsibly and democratically online. Citizenship entails participation in representative democracy; therefore, citizenship education must empower youth to actively engage in local and global democratic processes through both physical and digital channels
Six-Fingered Queen – Elizabeth of Poland, Queen of Hungary, Through the Lens of Disability
No full textIn 1330, the Hungarian royal family was attacked in the palace of Visegrád. This attack wounded the King and severed four fingers off the right hand of the Queen, Elizabeth of Poland. Queen Elizabeth lived another fifty years as a partial amputee. While she is mostly known for her artistic patronage and her religious pilgrimages, thus far the question of her status as a partial amputee has not been explored. This article thus aims to discuss not only how disability was depicted in fourteenth century Hungary, but even how Elizabeth herself is depicted in various media. Ultimately, sculpture depicting the Queen shows that rather than emphasizing her wounded right hand, her advanced age seems to be more of a defining and unique feature.