bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Exploring EFL Teachers’ Perspectives on the Role of Social Media for Building Trust in the Workplace
Authors: Alharkan Abdulwahed Nasser M , Wolny-Abouelwafa Edyta , Althowibi Ashwaq , Alhumaid Hana Khalid , Alharbi Amera , Alghamdi Haifa , Zahra Shahla Abu
Published: July 2024

The role of social media in the educational landscape has evolved significantly during the past two decades, particularly amid the COVID-19 pandemic. However, a significant gap exists in understanding the impact of social media on developing trust among English as Foreign Language (EFL) teachers in their professional environments. Therefore, this qualitative study investigated the perceptions of experienced EFL teachers regarding using various social media platforms to cultivate trust in the workplace. The study employed a qualitative research approach, utilizing semi structured interviews as the primary data collection method. Interviewees include fourteen experienced EFL teachers from the Saudi universities. Thematic content analysis was conducted using Nvivo software to analyze the transcribed data. The findings revealed seven main themes with corresponding subthemes: enhancing collaboration, building trust through emotional connections, concerns about privacy and trust, professional growth and development, nurturing trust through positive online interactions, motivating peers, and fostering goal achievement. The findings demonstrated that social media platforms are critical in enhancing collaboration and trust among EFL teachers in the workplace. The implications of social media usage on trust development among experienced EFL teachers have been illustrated.
One Word and Multiple Senses: John Locke’s Philosophy of Abuse of Language
Authors: Zeb Shaista , Ajmal Muhammad , Pavlikova Martina , Alam Sohaib , Ahmad Farhan , Banu Sameena
Published: July 2024

This paper aims at examining the impotence of language or what is famously referred to as the phenomenon of inconsistency of language through the philosophy of John Locke on the abuse of language and with specific reference to the Eighth Edition of the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary authored by Hornby (2010). Locke as well stated that adequate signs which he also referred to as words are lost or corrupted especially when a word is given many meanings. By discussing selected entries of the dictionary, the present research intends to demonstrate how polysemanticity and the use or a word in different contexts can cause what Locke called language misuse. Illustrating in the case of particular examples, the study shows the potential consequence of this process for the language learners and users, stressing on the necessity to enhance the meticulousness of the language one will opt to use. The research concludes that there is need to resolve discrepancies that grow from these ambiguities for language teachers and lexicographers to improve meaning and communication, an idea supported by Locke’s goal of enforcing the correct usage of language among English speakers. Results imply that teachers should draw students’ attention to the fact that words’ meanings cannot be understood separately from their contexts. Language educators are advised to introduce the students to the different meanings of words and contexts of their use.
Emerging Networks
Authors: Hachmann Roland , Kjærgaard Thomas , Rasmussen Hanne Fie
Published: July 2024

This paper discusses findings from an investigation of students’ experiences from and participation in different learning networks during the Covid19-lockdown. The investigation is based on empirical data in the form of 32 interviews with students from a variety of University College Programmes (business-, administration-, construction-, technology-, health-, pedagogy- and teacher education). The interviews were collected as part of a larger study, where data also consisted of responses to surveys from, potentially, 84000 students. In the interviews, the students shared their experiences regarding learning and teaching online, respectively. Three cases were singled out aiming to maintain a high degree of complexity and maximum variation. Through the contemporary theories within the field of Networked Learning, we aim to show examples of how the students were networked during the Covid-19 shutdown and the implications that emerging networks had on their participation in online educational activities. Furthermore, we wish to make a suggestion for the use of the applied categorisation of networks for analyzing how students are networked. These categories, presented in this paper, are proposed by researchers within the field. The main findings suggest that online teaching during the lockdown required students to establish new patterns of participation, thus, establishing new structures and ways to collaborate. This led to emerging networks supporting different aspects of their life setting as students and creating opportunities for engaging in new social configurations and learning.
University Teachers’ Learning Experiences During Emergency-Remote-Teaching Through a Networked Learning Lens
Authors: Acuyo Cespedes Alejandro , Lee Kyungmee
Published: July 2024

This paper presents part of the preliminary findings of an investigation into higher education (HE) teachers’ perceptions of personal learning networks in the context of the recent emergency-remote-teaching (ERT) scenario caused by Covid19. Technology had been increasingly permeating HE long before the pandemic, blurring the lines between online and offline spaces as students and teachers engaged across both mediums in a complex web of connections to people and online resources. The pandemic induced ERT period has magnified university teachers’ use of learning networks, as many have been forced to increasingly rely on them throughout this unexpected interruption of the HE status quo. With an absence of a coherent institutionalized approach to ERT and teachers’ professional development, there has been a great diversity of teachers’ networked learning experiences during that period. This phenomenography, therefore, explores the perceptions of 18 Academic English instructors at a leading English-instruction university in Kazakhstan that was, like many other institutions worldwide, forced to abruptly go online. The semi-structured interviews targeted the teacher’s diversified views on the benefits and challenges of network use and how these networks can be used to connect to others and online resources, using the Networked Learning lens. The present paper includes some of the preliminary findings from the ongoing research project focusing on several interlinked aspects of teachers’ perceptions and experiences of networked learning during the ERT period. The results thus far show that Academic English instructors perceive the core benefits of their network use at least in four different ways as enabling flexible access to online resources, enabling flexible access to others, facilitating personalised and focussed one-to-one pedagogical interactions (both with their colleagues and students), and maintaining and developing a sense of belonging to different academic communities (removing temporal-and-spatial barriers). The authors expect to provide more comprehensive (if not final) findings and insights during the presentation.
Networked aspects of lifelong work-integrated learning
Authors: Lindqvist Marcia Håkansson , Olofsson Anders D. , Mozelius Peter
Published: July 2024

The increasingly digitalised and continuously changing working life needs a continuous lifelong professional development that preferably is networked and work-integrated. This this study builds upon university teachers' and course participants’ experiences from a technology enhanced project called BUFFL A pilot project that combines truly work-integrated learning with lifelong learning, in a strive to address the contemporary need for continuous professional development. The important aim in the BUFFL project is to develop a model for collaborative, flexible, and lifelong professional development. A new and interesting concept in the BUFFL project was to involve concept of Bringing Your Own Data for activities in course modules. The aim of this study is to describe and discuss the lifelong work-integrated learning in the BUFFL project from a networked learning perspective. Data were gathered from e-mail interviews with teachers, e-mail conversations between teachers, facilitators and course participants, and from course evaluations. Results from the data sources have been grouped into three main themes in an inductive thematic analysis. Findings show that in academia, in industry, and in the in between a potential is found in the form of collaborative learning. A networked collaboration that should involve the theories from academia, combined with real-world-problems in the workplace, to achieve a fruitful meeting between academia and the industry
Game-based Networked Learning
Authors: Castañeda Linda , Villar-Onrubia Daniel , Haba-Ortuno Inmaculada , Postigo-Fuentes Ana Yara , Arnab Sylvester
Published: July 2024

Designing and analyzing learning experiences in non-formal contexts can be challenging, even for those with educational training. The challenge is more significant if the priorities include educational ideological bases or an specific type of educational vision. The DALI project (Data Literacy for Citizens) has the primary goal of offering Data Literacy learning experiences specifically designed for adults in non-formal educational contexts. With this goal in mind, and considering the social and material realities of the target participants –their needs, diversity, interests and cultures– the project combines two of the most promising pedagogical approaches nowadays: networked learning and playful learning.
This short paper outlines the pedagogical vision underpinning our efforts to integrate both approaches into a set of strategies and resources, in other words, the principles and ideas driving the design of what is called in the project: Game-based Networked Learning (GBNL) experiences. In particular, we draw on both the Activity Centred Analysis and Design (ACAD) framework and the Transdisciplinary Model for Developing Game-Based Interventions. After reviewing key aspects of the theoretical grounds that define our understanding of educational uses of technology and game-based learning, the paper addresses critical considerations underpinning the adaptation of the ACAD framework in the planning of playful learning experiences. Thus, the paper outlines the main principles guiding the design of DALI experiences, dividing them into the three design areas established by ACAD: set design, epistemic design and social design.
The ambition of this approach is to serve as a pedagogical and educational statement to guide valuable actions to improve other adult learning approaches.
Studying spaces in networked learning
Authors: Lei Yuhong , Oztok Murat
Published: July 2024

As universities are making huge efforts on newly emerged learning spaces to accommodate the technologies involved in networked activities (Boys, 2014), it is important to know what students’ practical preference of the study spaces on campus are. This paper found four types of study spaces on campus that international postgraduate researchers preferred, including university libraries, university postgraduate researchers’ offices, student accommodations, and university cafés. However, due to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, in the United Kingdom, higher educational institutions had to move almost all the learning activities online. This paper concerned international postgraduate researchers’ learning experience during the lockdown in 2020 in the UK. At that time, many international postgraduate researchers often faced difficulties of lacking both learning resources and learning connections in the community and losing access to the study space they preferred previously on campus. This paper found students have different learning experiences during this period. While isolation brought negative impacts on some international postgraduate researchers’ learning experience and connections with others in the community, others have not been influenced by it or even have benefited from it. These contrary learning experiences were mainly associated with students’ different preferences for study spaces, ways of communication, and methods of having connections with others in the community on campus. Finally, the authors suggest that universities should change postgraduate students’ offices and accommodations to enhance students’ learning outcomes.
Machine (network) learning in K-12 classrooms
Authors: Sperling Katarina
Published: July 2024

In times when machine learning (ML) and other artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are expanding the role and definition of network learning in schools, this short paper reports from a practice-centred research project that explores how K-12 teachers affect and are affected by educational technologies with AI. Accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, data-driven and decision-making systems with ML are already entering various educational policy and practice realms, often underpinned by promises of automation and personalization. A growing number of research, drawing from the theoretical orientations and empirical approaches from Science & Technology Studies is increasingly unpacking such promises as well as addressing controversies directly related to the constitutions of ML AI in education. Still, little research explores the adoption of data-driven AI technologies in classrooms from a socio-material, networked learning stance. This short paper introduces such work (in progress) drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Sweden. Guided by the ontological and methodological approaches of Actor-Network-Theory (ANT), the study focuses on the interactions in K-12 classrooms between commercial ML technologies and teachers. Methodologically this means engaging with both human and non-human actors through ethnographic approaches striving for very specific descriptions of interactions within the actor-network and its enacted realities. Preliminary findings from the first of two envisaged case studies in which a ML-based teaching aid in mathematics was tried out in 22 classrooms indicate how compensatory and contradictory actions and accounts emerge within the network of heterogeneous actors. Human actors seem to compensate for the algorithmic actions of the specific educational technology with ML. This is however not a fait accompli but a continuous and unsettled process in the making between humans and the (non-human) technology. Preliminary results also suggest how controversies of ML algorithms in teaching aids, such as their lack of transparency and algorithmic “governance” play out in authentic learning contexts. In conclusion, the paper argues that theoretical and methodological principles of ANT grant for non-deterministic narrative of the heterogeneous nature of educational practice and have the potential to open the black-box of machine learning in the emerging networked learning settings of K-12 classrooms.
Data stories: speculative methods for researching digital surveillance in higher education
Authors: Ross Jen , Wilson Anna
Published: July 2024

Higher education systems have always involved monitoring through data collection, assessment, and evaluation, shaping the intellectual work, and tracking the bodies and activities of students and teachers. However, surveillance in many higher education settings has become increasingly pervasive and fine-grained as monitoring and data-gathering technologies grow in sophistication and as the quantification and measurement of everything from outcomes to student satisfaction to engagement is increasingly valued in universities. Concerns are growing about negative impacts on learning relationships, exploitative commercial uses of collected student data, discriminatory practices, and even political, social, or physical harm inflicted because of surveillance and monitoring. At the same time, the complex surveillance cultures of higher education make it difficult to disentangle personal and collective responsibility, understand the gap between intentions and impacts, or navigate the significant risks that can come, for some, with speaking about these matters. In 2020, a research project was funded to develop a 'data stories tool to support people working and studying in higher education, particularly learning technologists, to develop anonymous speculative stories about what the future of surveillance in higher education might look like, and to draw out themes, concerns about and hopes for that future. The methodology used to design this tool drew from speculative and co-design approaches. This paper discusses how these approaches were mobilised to produce a space for people to make new meanings around surveillance, and to share these with others in a networked environment, in the form of Participatory Speculative Fictions. It discusses a few of the stories produced, and how they shed light on the potential of speculative methods for working with  and possibly reconfiguring networked learning futures.
Envisioning scenarios in designs for Networked Learning
Authors: Jensen Camilla Gyldendahl , Riise Clausen Nicolaj , Dau Susanne , Brogaard Bertel Lykke , Ryberg Thomas
Published: July 2024

This article presents an application of a design methodology to envision implicit value hierarchies in the design process of a digital learning platform meant to encompass learning processes and activities conducive to experiential collaborative learning (ECL). The authors argue that many technologies for the field of education fall short of their purposes and neglect intended underpinning pedagogy and didactics. Previous research efforts in networked learning have primarily focused on conceptual critiques of the implementation of EdTech and warned of technological euphoria undermining relevant caution. This means, that when a design team tries to conceptualize technological artefacts into a script the more ethical and value-oriented parts of the learning process tend to be ignored.  While we agree with the conceptual critiques, our approach has instead been to engage with the design process and implement appropriate methodologies in an attempt to highlight implicit value hierarchies in the underlying learning theory. When using technologies in Networked learning we thus emphasize that both designers and stakeholders should engage in a systematic discussion and reflection of values and related judgements while constructing a value hierarchy.
Through a Value-based design methodology based on semantic zooming we thus present 7 interconnected envisioning scenarios developed in the UnFoLD project to demonstrate how it is possible to operationalize values into detailed design briefs or technological scripts. This article will through presented experiences from a design process, show how the methodology of envisioning scenarios can be applied to mitigate the risks of implementation technology in a learning situation. We argue that an awareness and mapping of values as a part of the design process is essential and that an increased focus on the ethical and moral responsibilities of designers and involved researchers are important as technologies should not be seen as isolated, value-neutral, or uncomplicated translations of analogue teaching activities. The purpose of the article is to inspire other researchers and designers to implement value hierarchies, envisioning scenarios, or other similar methods to ensure that pedagogical and didactic priorities are not lost in accommodating marketability, practicalities, or technological constraints.
Tracing the social project of Networked Learning
Authors: Bligh Brett , Lee Kyungmee
Published: July 2024

This paper provides an outline of Networked Learning as a social project. Using a theoretical framework derived from activity theory, the paper reconstructs the existing narratives in key texts on a principled basis and traces the project through three phases whose core concepts, in turn, are educational openness, connections between network elements, and connections for particular purposes. Against the backdrop of an ongoing discussion of the meaning and nature of Networked Learning, the aim is to show how concepts of networked learning respond to social predicaments and are used as the basis for institution building, and to illustrate the kind of dynamics that have led to change in the past — as a potential guide to addressing upcoming challenges.
The Role of Power Relations and Identification in Collaborative Knowledge Construction at Single Gender Online Forum
Authors: Aljared Alyaa , Oztok Murat
Published: July 2024

This short paper describes a research project that aims at exploring how identification and power relations contribute to learners’ knowledge construction in single gender online forum. This multiple case studies take place at five online classes in two female universities in Saudi Arabia. Data is collected from semi-structured interviews and group discussions. Qualitative content analysis of online discussions is used to investigate the extent in which collaborative knowledge construction was achieved by participants utilizing Gunawardena et, al. 1997 tool. In addition, Foucault discourse analysis is used to explore learners’ power relations and identification.
The initial findings of the pilot study suggest that learners have imposed several power relations strategies in the discussion’s forum such as maintaining norms of online discussions; (2) maintaining norms of a good classmate; (3) criticizing, comparing and assessing each other's posts; (4) displaying personal information; (5) checkingothers' intellectual activities and messages; (6) comparing between oneself and others' actions and ways of thinking; (7) categorizing oneself and others ; and (8) excluding and including others. These behaviors were organized under three themes: normalisation, surveillance, and classification. Initial findings also showed that participants revealed parts of their identities while interacting with each other. The research will continue to investigate how these practices are influenced by the social and cultural settings and how this contributes to the quality of knowledge construction in online discussion forum.
Networked learning in a postdigital-biodigital age
Authors: Jandri´ć Petar , Hayes Sarah
Published: July 2024

Networked Learning has developed predominantly in university / research settings and communities, yet much of the research across decades can be shown to have implicit links with current popular and much broader global concepts, such as bioinformation, biodigitalism, postdigitalism, and viral modernity. In this paper we explore these implicit connections as an important and perhaps less unrecognized part of Networked Learning. We therefore seek to surface some postdigital-biodigital challenges in Networked Learning by revisiting relevant histories, concepts, and definitions and also noticing where there are parallels and connections, particularly when Networked Learning and Postdigital Science and Education have developed in the same Zeitgeist. Despite radically different histories, these areas of research seem to have resulted in different, yet often overlapping theories, research approaches, and ethos. After taking time to look into a number of these cross-cutting areas of interest, we ask the question of why a focus towards postdigital-biodigital challenges in Networked Learning is worthwhile, and indeed, why now? Based on our explorations we perceive Networked Learning to implicitly hold a long history of deep and successful engagement with postdigital-biodigital challenges in theory and through the concept of convergence. The role of convergence is an important and sustained concept in Networked Learning that can help in breaking down perceived barriers to developing cross-cutting research in any of the areas discussed throughout this paper. It is therefore timely to bring to light explicitly such connections, to help us to focus our research efforts on Networked Learning in a postdigital-biodigital age.
What kinds of social network groups do teachers find useful?
Authors: Kelly Nick , Dawes Les , Whiteford Chrystal , De Laat Maarten , Corbett Genevieve , Robertson Amanda
Published: July 2024

This paper presents results from a survey of teachers describing their two most useful Facebook groups (n=108 teachers). It addresses a gap in the literature, in that many studies investigate teachers within certain Facebook groups, but little is known about the types of groups that teachers-who-use-Facebook find to be most useful. Analysis of the survey results looks at the privacy, thematic focus, and regional focus of groups that teachers report to be useful. The study also addresses the question of “what kinds of peer support do teachers find within these useful Facebook groups?” The results show that useful Facebook groups tend to be private, positioned at a state/jurisdiction/national level, and have a clear thematic focus. Results also show that within these useful Facebook groups teachers report high levels of pragmatic support, with lower levels of modelling of practice, reflection and feedback, meaningful connections, and emotional support (in that order). The paper discusses the significance of these findings with respect to issues of policy, design, and facilitation of Social Network Sites (SNSs) as well as teacher preparation for competencies to thrive within SNSs.
Surveillance and datafication in higher education
Authors: Gourlay Lesley
Published: July 2024

It has become a commonplace in educational research and policy discourses to state that digital technology has ‘transformed’ the nature of higher education, and even the university itself, leading to what is claimed to be more interactive or less hierarchical formats and engagement, in which traditional modes of teaching such as the lecture, are claimed to be obsolete. These narratives, arguably, express a widespread desire for ‘transformation’ in the university. In terms of digital education, this has been expressed variously in the apparently benign ideologies of ‘active learning’, ‘connectivism’, and ‘the flipped classroom’, all of which share common values, those which prize student interaction, and observable engagement, both online and in the face-to-face setting. Although these constructs appear to be ‘student centred’ and progressive, critics (e.g. Macfarlane 2017) have pointed out that an emphasis on student performance of a particular form of engagement and identity in higher education may in fact threaten the fundamental values of academic freedom. In parallel, regimes of audit concerning academic performance have become more prevalent in higher education, with metrics measuring publications and impact becoming more influential on academic careers. I have argued elsewhere (Author 2020) that this tendency is greater in the context of digital education, where performativity, surveillance and regulation are intensified via digital technologies, as part of a broader ‘culture of surveillance’ in society (Lyon 2018). As recent commentators have argued (e.g. Williamson 2017a), the increased use of big data to track and monitor student activity, has the effect of ‘datafying’ them as human subjects; the same could be said for the technology of the h-index for academics. In this paper I will combine insights of digital education research, science and technology studies and information science in order to interrogate the nature and effects of this increased ‘datafication’ of higher education, looking at two examples; learner analytics and the author publication metric h-index. I will argue that these two digitally-mediated ‘documenting’ practices share several features; they have a supervisory or surveilling function, they are underpinned by particular ideologies, and they carry normative force regarding the nature of ‘desirable’ subjectivities and practices. I conclude that there is a need to sustain a critical agenda of research around these technologies of surveillance and documentation, particularly in the current context in which ‘discourses of inevitability’ surrounding digitisation of higher education prevail.
Tipping the canoe: What can be learned from a postdigital analysis of augmented and virtual reality in networked learning?
Authors: Koole Marguerite , Beaumier Annie
Published: July 2024

In this paper, the authors use a postdigital lens to examine augmented (AR) and virtual reality (VR) as potentially effective tools for networked learning. The postdigital perspective suggests that the ‘digital’ is so pervasive that it is no longer considered novel or noteworthy; rather, it is so embedded in our day-to-day lives that it now evades notice. This examination draws upon the concepts of analogue and digital to explore ontological and epistemological characteristics of AR and VR as well as how media and materials may shift on a continuum or manifest both characteristics concurrently. Two vignettes are used to create a shared context and atmosphere from which to consider the pedagogical use of these technologies. One vignette describes a VR app that invites the learners into a canoe where they are immersed into a lesson about Indigenous constellations; the second describes an AR app in which the learners direct their smartphones up at the sky also to learn about constellations. While the learning goals are similar, the experiences are differently nuanced. The paper offers a discussion of considerations that may be useful in designing learning experiences with these technologies. The authors discuss the analogue and digital characteristics as well as the freedoms and constraints relative to sites of learning, activities, learner configurations, and representations of learning. A postdigital analysis benefits from ‘shifting work’; that is, much can be learned from shifting between analogue and digital. Such shifting may surface failures, depletion of resources, and the emergence of new entities. The value of examining the digital, analogue, ontology, and epistemology of AR and VR is that it helps to make the human-technology relationship more perceptible. In becoming more aware of the taken-for-granted aspects of learning technologies, it is possible to more effectively design for learning.
Students’ Basic Psychological Needs in Blended Teacher Learning Groups During COVID-19
Authors: De Vocht Ann , Vrieling-Teunter Emmy , Hebing Rosanne , Sins Patrick , Vermeulen Marjan
Published: July 2024

Teacher Learning Groups (TLGs) are social configurations in which student teachers (henceforth: students) learn together with peers, teacher trainers and teachers through social interactions (Doppenberg et al., 2012). Due to the restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, blended education has developed quickly. Blended education combines contact learning with distance learning ((Müller & Mildenberger, 2021). This workshop aims to shed light on how blended meetings interfere with the fulfilment of students’ basic psychological needs in TLGs. We also want to find out how to facilitate TLGs to support students’ basic psychological needs in times when social distancing is necessary or when blended education is convenient (e.g., to enhance the accessibility of education).
Symposium 2: DIGIFLEX - from flexible and digital courses to an overall networked learning perspective on digital course design
Authors: Lundgren Lena , Ottestig Ann
Published: July 2024

The digital two-way communication that society expects today can be said to blur the boundaries between the universities and the surrounding society. As the campus becomes more of an open network, the gap between formal and informal learning narrows. One can see a shift towards a perspective of lifelong learning with a more social and global perspective. Seen in that perspective, higher education has a greater value for people, than just specific skills or a specific degree. How people in society interact with various groups and organizations on social media also demonstrates this development and it challenges how we traditionally view learning. It also affects how the university conducts course design. Students and educators have come to expect the use of new digital tools. Many of these tools contribute to interaction between educators and students in collaborative learning. In a societal perspective we see a two-way exchange of meanings and needs, which makes it possible to create solutions that neither the university nor organizations in society could have adopted on their own. The focus of this paper is the course design process of a commissioned education course, DIGIFLEX.  The practice meanings from students, colleagues and a reference group are referred to as feedback loops. These feedback loops continuously drove the course design and development forward and clearly indicated the need for an adaption to a more societal context. The design process is described via three stages and two feedback loops. The first stage focused on finding a modern digital design with lots of audiovisual elements for short and flexible courses. In the first feedback loop, we gained inspiration via a learning technology conference, which led to sessions with reverse brainstorming where the project group further challenged the standard norm for course design. In step two, the pilot course was implemented with the new elements generated from the first feedback loop. We received support from a reference group with expertise in networked learning and the students evaluated the course. Our findings show a need for more dialogue and informal structure as complement to the existing digital course design. This insight was confirmed by the experiences and lessons learned from distance education during the pandemic. There is a need for a networked learning perspective in this kind of digital course design. More frequent reconciliations, evaluations of needs and expectations from the surrounding society is important for the success of similar projects in the future.
Symposium 4: The Networked Learning Forum 2021: Early researchers’ expectations and experiences
Authors: Calleja James , Cutajar Maria
Published: July 2024

Early researchers (ERs) benefit from opportunities to present, discuss and develop their research work. A typical professional learning experience that may support ERs is their active participation in conferences. In this paper, we report on the expectations and experiences of five ERs who participated in the Networked Learning (NL) Forum 2021 by presenting their research and then having opportunities to gain feedback and insights from one-to-one interactions with more knowledgeable others and the larger community within the event itself.
We draw on qualitative research with our main data sources being a pre- and a post-event online survey. We were interested to explore the extent to which the experiences described by the five ERs participants met their pre-event perceived views and expectations. While the pre-event survey delved into the participants’ professional background, motivations for participation and expectations, the post-event survey targeted participants’ perceptions about their learning and potential takeaways.
Findings indicate that the five ERs saw their participation as an opportunity for their professional development and as an avenue to make and create professional connections with others in the same field of research. Most notably, they expected feedback from the NL Forum 2021 community and their interactions with field experts (referred to also as knowledgeable others) as support that could help them gain new and deepened insights for developing their research ideas and work. In describing their experiences (post-event), participants highlight opportunities for one-to-one conversations with experts, discussions in small groups, individual and collective reflections, connections with other ERs and the possibilities for expanding their professional learning networks. These findings highlight the importance of design features when offering events specifically targeted for ERs. In particular, findings indicate that creating an intimate, interactive and safe environment is essential for ERs to feel confident to present their research, critically analyse new perspectives and knowledge shared by others, and eventually acquire new knowledge.
Symposium 4: Reflections on Hybridity in the Malta Networked Learning Forum 2021
Authors: Lister Pen , Cutajar Maria , Calleja James
Published: July 2024

This paper discusses the practicality, successes and possible failures of the Malta Networked Learning (NL) Forum held in May 2021. The forum was held in a hybrid synchronous face-to-face and virtual context, with a wide range of international participants, planned at short notice due to continuing uncertainty of Covid-19 restrictions. The paper outlines contexts and understandings of hybridity in both events and pedagogical approaches, noting varying definitions and concepts that may utilise this term to indicate forms of barrier breaking, overcoming limitation or supporting flexibility. Further context highlights recent literature concerning other digitally hybrid conference events, the need for which have been accelerated in light of the Covid-19 pandemic and additional considerations of climate change for reducing the carbon footprint of academic communities. Discussion leads to the type of hybridity implemented for the Malta NL Forum in May 2021, where pandemic international travel restrictions, local regulations and participant planning uncertainty required the adoption of a face-to-face and virtual synchronous event. The local organising team (authoring this paper) provides commentary to critically reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of the modality adopted. Emphasis is placed on designing for hybridity in future events, to improve planning and organisation for flexible and agile awareness to support the full range of participants in hybrid contexts and activities. The paper attempts to support those whose role is to convene and host similar events aiming to foster rewarding engagement for those participating, both presenting as well as attending.
Symposium 5: How can Networked Learning promote student-directed learning at AUT?
Authors: Winters Annemie , Chanane Nawal , Eberhard Sally , Kehrwald Benjamin , Nguyen Nhung , Sim Kwong Nui
Published: July 2024

Auckland University of Technology (AUT) is a young university in Aotearoa New Zealand, focusing on the student experience. This paper looks at the learning environment in that context and questions where networked learning principles could contribute to the strategic goal of student-directed learning. The paper explores central notions in networked learning as strengths and weaknesses, and redefines student-directed learning for the context of AUT.
Symposium 1: Networking between school organizers - supporting the advanced use of digital technologies in the educational system
Authors: Reis-Andersson Jussara
Published: July 2024

This paper aims to describe and analyse how school organizers network to expand the access and use of digital technologies in the educational system. The digitalization of the educational system requires digital competence since digital technologies develop fast. It involves a holistic view and a lifelong learning perspective. Change processes that digitalization brings make school organizers network and share challenges and successes. The data have been collected in the framework of a project between three municipalities. Thematic analysis and practice architecture have been used to categorize and analyse the data. When school organizers describe and analyse the network to expand digital technologies in the educational system, they talk about the importance of learning from each other and spreading knowledge, keeping updated with new digital technologies, thinking from a holistic perspective, and communicating digitalization plans. They also discuss the importance of support and collaboration between technology administration and schools.
Symposium 1: Relationality, Networked Learning and Árbediehtu- traditional Sámi knowledge
Authors: Parfa Koskinen Katarina
Published: July 2024

The purpose with this paper is firstly to investigate whether an Indigenous, multidimensional, relationally intertwined onto-epistemology is present in a policy document regarding árbediehtu, traditional Sámi knowledge. The policy identify knowledge claims the Sámi parliament in Sweden wants to pass on to future generations, and is the closest to a Sámi produced curriculum we get in a Swedish context. A four-dimensional relational framework where relationality is unpacked through resonance theory by Hartmut Rosa is utilised as an analytical tool. Secondly, implications for Networked Learning, especially as occurring in remote Sámi language education, are elaborated on. The findings show that the framework can be helpful for understanding and describing a multidimensional relational onto-epistemology as relationships in the policy can be identified on three of the four dimensions in the framework. The last dimension involves the self and is mainly a reflexive tool. However, as the discussion initiated in the concluding section indicates, implications for Networked Learning and remote Sámi language education is not the only take-away. An unpacked understanding of relationality offers a glocalised as-well-as theoretical approach, which is important both locally and globally as issues of sustainability call for the development of a new social contract. According to resonance theory, resonant relationships are transformational, leading to the conclusion that a relational approach can lead to an increased understanding of learning and knowing, and a sense of self-efficacy and a stronger identity, all important aspects in transformational education. Further, the study is an example of how a national graduate school, GRADE, can offer epistemic space when researching digital technologies in education.
Evaluation of Selected Ayurvedic Proprietary Medicine: Senna tablet
Authors: Kankva Divyesh , Patel Sonal , Prajapati Parixit
Published: July 2024

The research investigates the pharmacological properties and formulation characteristics of Senna (Cassia Angustifolia), a medicinal plant known for its laxative effects due to the presence of active ingredients like Sennoside A and Sennoside B. Given the growing interest in herbal medications, understanding the solubility, purity, and formulation parameters of Senna is crucial for its pharmaceutical application.
The study utilized HERBAL HILLS senna tablets and a range of laboratory equipment including a weighing balance, UV Spectrophotometer, HPLC, UV cabinet, pH meter, hot plate, Friability tester, Digital tablet disintegration tester, LC-MS system, column chromatography. Various chemicals and reagents such as Methanol, Ethanol, Dimethyl sulfoxide, Chloroform, Glacial Acetic acid, n-hexane, Propanol, Acetonitrile, water, Pet ether, and Ethyl acetate were employed for analysis.
The investigation yielded comprehensive insights into the pharmacological and formulation characteristics of Senna (Cassia Angustifolia). Solubility testing across various solvents demonstrated the compound's favorable dissolution behavior, while Bontrager assays confirmed the presence of Sennoside. Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) further characterized the compound, with column chromatography facilitating the separation of calcium sennoside. UV-visible spectrophotometry and HPLC analysis affirmed the concentration and presence of sennosides, with an observed absorbance of 18.77%. Quality assessment of senna tablets revealed adherence to pharmaceutical standards, encompassing organoleptic properties, hardness, thickness, diameter, weight uniformity, friability, disintegration time, and content uniformity. The study underscores the significance of safety and quality in the global acceptance and utilization of Ayurvedic herbal medications, as advocated by regulatory bodies such as the WHO and various Pharmacopoeias. Additionally, liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) proved effective in detecting Sennoside, providing valuable insights into the compound's pharmaceutical potential.
LOCAL FEATURE SELECTION USING THE WRAPPER APPROACH FOR FACIAL EXPRESSION RECOGNITION
Authors: BOUKHOBZA Fatima , GHARBI Abdenour , ROUABAH Khaled , RAVIER Phillipe
Published: July 2024

Automatic Facial Expression Recognition (FER) systems provide an important way to express and interpret the emotional and mental states of human beings. These FER systems transform the facial image into a set of features to train a classifier capable of distinguishing between different classes of emotions. However, the problem often posed is that the extracted feature vectors sometimes contain irrelevant or redundant features, which decreases the accuracy of the induced classifier and increases the computation time. To overcome this problem, dimensionality must be reduced by selecting only the most relevant features. In this paper, we study the impact of adding the "Wrapper" selection approach and using the information provided by different local regions of the face such as the mouth, eyes and eyebrows, on the performance of a traditional FER system based on a local geometric feature extraction method. The objective here is to test and analyze how this combination can improve the overall performance of the original traditional system. The obtained results, based on the Multimedia Understanding Group (MUG) database, showed that the FER system combined with the proposed feature selection strategy gives better classification results than to the original system for all four classification models, namely, K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) classifier, Tree classifier, NB classifier and Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA). Indeed, a considerable reduction (up to 50%) in the number of features used and an accuracy of 100%, using the LDA classifier, were observed, which represents a significant improvement in terms of computation time, efficiency and memory space. Furthermore, the majority of relevant features used are part of the "eyebrows region", which proves the importance of using information from local regions of the face in emotion recognition tasks.
Gender estimation using machine learning algorithms from computed tomography images of clivus
Authors: Yilmaz Nesibe , Secgin Yusuf , Atay Ilayda , Keskin Nevin
Published: July 2024

The clivus, which is involved in the formation of the skull base, is an important material in gender prediction with its fusion structure. The aim of this study is to predict the gender of adult individuals using Machine Learning (ML) algorithms and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) with parameters obtained from Computed Tomography (CT) images. The study was performed on CT images of 349 individuals aged 18-65 years. Clivus length, 1/3 upper, middle, and lower 1/3 width were measured on CT images and used in ML entry. As a result of the study, it was found that the clivus length, 1/3 upper, middle, and lower width had a significant difference in terms of gender, and ML algorithms showed accuracy up to 0.74. An accuracy of 0.67 was obtained with the ANN model. The study shows that clivus is a bone material that is open to research in terms of gender estimation and can be obtained with high accuracy. In this respect, we believe that it will guide the studies in forensic sciences.