Smart Pedagogy for Technology-Enhanced Learning

The progress of technology has raised challenges to the educational environment, so it is necessary to search for answers to the questions: How can one teach better? How can one scaffold the student in the learning process? What kind of competencies should be developed? What competencies do teachers need? What kind of technology should be used or not be used? This chapter analyses the role of pedagogy for education and outlines the risks for cognitive development that may result from the introduction of technology without an understanding of pedagogical principles. These risks are defined as a centrifugal effect that can be mitigated by integrating technology into the educational process us…

Promotion of Positive Behaviour and Social Emotional Development in Institutional Care

Personnel working in institutional care have the important role of providing for the development of children who have experienced the trauma of being separated from their families. Personnel need to be emotionally responsive, able to form consistent, trusting, and long-term relationships with children, believe in them, support them in continuing education, and have high expectations for them. Despite these facts, there is no Latvian legal requirement for personnel working in institutional care to have a pedagogical education. This article describes the implementation of two professional in-service training programs: “Promotion of Positive Behaviour in Children with Institutional Care Experi…

Meaningful time for professional growth or a waste of time?: a study in five countries on teachers' experiences within master's dissertation/thesis work

The relationship between master’s thesis work and teachers’ professional development has rarely been explored empirically, yet. Drawing upon a larger study, this paper investigates how teachers who were studying for or who have recently graduated from Master of Education programmes offered in five countries – Poland, Portugal, England, Latvia, Romania – perceive the usefulness of dissertation/thesis work for their professional development and how they attempt to use their MA research results in their (future) teaching practice. Results suggest that although most respondents recognized their MA dissertation/thesis work as having a positive impact on their professional development by enhancin…

Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) in Higher Education

As technologies become more exciting, interactive, and reachable, various technological solutions are used in higher education. On the one hand, there is the conviction that technologies are indispensable, both for improving learning and for making learning process more effective, both in terms of learning outcomes and in terms of costs. Additionally, technology and technological solutions can provide sustainability of knowledge because students develop the competences that they will need in their future professional work. This chapter summarises the systematic literature review (SLR) carried out by the authors in analysing research that has been done on the impact of technology-enhanced le…

The role of parents in the engagement of young children with digital technologies: Exploring tensions between rights of access and protection, from ‘Gatekeepers’ to ‘Scaffolders’

This study investigates the role played by parents as mediators of young children’s access and engagement with digital technologies. In Belgium, Germany, Latvia and Portugal, qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with 10 families in each country, including one child between 6 and 7 years old. Our findings show that parents of young children mainly play the role of ‘gatekeepers’ when it comes to facilitating and constraining access to and use of digital technologies. Parents’ perceptions of the efficacy of digital technologies as responsible entertainment and as educational tools influence the technologies available at home and accessible to the child. These perceptions in turn impa…

Virtual and Augmented Reality in Medical Education and Training

Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR & AR) with its various computer-based virtual simulations and teaching aids have already begun to transform the medical education and training. The use of virtual labs and anatomy lessons including the use of Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) as in the delivery of lectures and surgery operations are explored. The purpose of this chapter is to promote the role of VR & AR in the context of medical education as an innovative, effective, and cost-reasonable solution for the provision of better and faster practical training. This chapter overall investigates and explores the potential of VLEs in terms of the necessary concepts and principles that allo…

INFLUENCE OF THE PROJECT “QUALITATIVE INCLUSIVE EDUCATION FOR SPECIAL NEEDS CHILDREN” ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF INCLUSIVE EDUCATION IN THE PROJECT SCHOOLS

The study „Evaluation of the project influence on the development of inclusive education in project schools” was implemented from 2009 till 2011 in the project “Qualitative inclusive education for special needs children” (Education initiative centre, State Education content centre, Soros Foundation Latvia, more information in: http://www.iic.lv) with the aim to find out whether the project results brought changes in defined inclusive education indicators. The article analyzes how the cooperation of school’s pedagogues in promoting inclusive education in general comprehensive school has improved as a result of the project.

Sustainable Higher Education and Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL)

The field of education is not immune to advances in sophisticated information and communication technology (ICT). Going beyond the ICT-hype, the objective of this paper is to examine to what extent and how technology-enhanced teaching and learning (TEL) can enhance teaching and learning and, hence, turn them into levers of sustainable socio-economic growth and development. To address these questions, a multidimensional survey was developed and distributed internationally to lecturers/professors active in the field of higher education. The initial point of departure for this study was consistent with the well-referenced in the literature thesis that TEL has profound value added in view of en…

Epistemological Approaches to Digital Learning in Educational Contexts

Designing an Online Escape Room as an Educational Tool

In this chapter, online escape rooms are assessed as part of game-based learning (GBL) that can be used as a free educational tool for teachers to enrich their remote classes. This study was created to test the possibilities that an escape room can provide in a remote learning environment. The benefits and the downsides are explored to understand the design process and the results from the different mechanisms used. The results can give an insight into future possibilities for making escape rooms for classes or for using this format as a prototype for an escape room application. An online escape room for Latvia’s Independence Day was developed for this purpose based on flexible learning iti…

SMART Pedagogy

In this chapter, the authors would like to discuss topical issues in pedagogical science related to the learning process in a technology and media-enriched environment, opening up discussions on the development of pedagogical science's sector – smart pedagogy to promote a synergy between technology and pedagogy in the context of higher education. The authors' ideas on the concept of smart pedagogy, opened discussion on domains of teachers'role in the discourse of smart pedagogy. and domains of smart pedagogy as a new branch of pedagogy are discussed.

Pedagogies of Digital Learning in Higher Education

Learning Platforms: How to Make the Right Choice

Learning through online platform opportunities is one way of organizing a technology-enhanced learning process. This chapter provides an overview of the place and role of learning platforms in the pedagogical process, defines the differences between learning platforms and learning management systems and offers a toolkit for evaluating learning platforms. The toolkit includes 22 criteria divided into 43 sub-criteria, which can be evaluated at 3 levels. This tool can help teachers, school administrators and other stakeholders to make a pedagogically based choice when it comes to choosing which learning platform solutions to use to scaffold student learning in a transformed learning process th…

An Overview on Effectiveness of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL)

It is necessary to introduce changes in teacher education in order to include the acquisition of competences necessary for the technology-enhanced learning process both organizing the learning process and developing new and innovative didactic means that promote learning as well as using digital technologies that nowadays has become an integral part of any teacher's and university lecturer's competence in the learning process to perform qualitatively their work. Despite the fact that teaching/learning methods used in the education system in the world have been explored, different studies on advantages and shortcomings of these methods have been performed there still are no serious reviews o…

Educational Robotics for Reducing Early School Leaving from the Perspective of Sustainable Education

Early School Leaving (ESL) is a problem for many countries and some have pledged to reduce the number of children leaving school early to below 10% by 2020. Between October 2015 and September 2017, Italy, Greece and Latvia implemented an Erasmus+ project that used robotics to reduce the risk of ESL. The effectiveness of the teaching and learning materials developed during the project and the pedagogical strategies used were examined in groups at high-risk of ESL and in the work of the teachers participating in the project. In this paper, the use of robotics to reduce the risks of early school leaving is analysed from the perspective of sustainable education. Mixed methods were used to evalu…

Activities with Educational Robotics: Research Model and Tools for Evaluation of Progress

The use of robots in the learning process has been popular since S. Papert developed his LOGO Turtle idea and argued that students can construct their own knowledge, test their constructive solutions and be motivated to learn if they use robotics in the learning process. Today, the idea of using elements of robotics in the learning process is no longer new and innovative but there are still elements that can be developed and issues that should be discussed. In this chapter, the authors provide the research model and five research tools (structured observation protocol, evaluation of the possible risks of early school leaving to be filled in by teachers before and after activities, students’…

Children with Special Needs in Latvia. Legislative Frame

<p><em>The analysis of the legislative regulation which determines the rights of children with special needs and regulates their guarantee leads to the conclusion that, on the one hand, defining equal rights to all children to receive education but failing to ensure these rights to children with special needs in a place that is as much as possible close to their dwelling place, their rights to live in the family, to choose education that corresponds to their desire as well as the possibility to socialize with children who have no special needs are violated. Why such statements? They are based on the analysis of the legislative acts of the Republic of Latvia and the education pos…

The narrow line between photographer and FoMOgrapher. The “fear of missing out” (FoMO) of young professionals

On the Way to Smart Education and Urban Society

This chapter summarizes the development and transformation of the International Journal of Knowledge Society Research (IJKSR) into a new form called the International Journal of Smart Education and Urban Society (IJSEUS). In the chapter, there is used literature review methodology to analyze the 199 articles published in 32 issues from 2010 to 2017. The obtained results allow us to ascertain what were the emerging topics published in the journal, which types of research article are published more often, and which countries are represented. The aggregated data also allow us to identify future directions in developing a journal and promoting its visibility and citation. The descriptive analys…

Developing and Comparing Indices to Evaluate Community Knowledge Building in an Educational Research Course

This paper implements a novel approach to analyzing the degree of Collective Cognitive Responsibility (CCR) in a Knowledge Building community, based on socioeconomic and scientometric measures. After engaging in Knowledge Forum (KF) discussions for one semester, 36 students identified impactful ideas in their portfolios, which were then used to develop their impact scores. These scores were then transformed and plotted along the Lorenz Curve and the Gini coefficient to visualize the degree of equidistribution of recognition in the community and, by extension, the degree of collective responsibility shared by members of the community. Additionally, students were classified into member roles …

Beyond the ICT- and sustainability hypes: A case for quality education

Mācību disciplīna kā pusaudžu attieksmes izpausme pret mācībām

Mācību disciplīna kā pusaudžu attieksmes izpausme pret mācībām Promocijas darbs izstrādāts Latvijas Universitātes Pedagoăijas un psiholoăijas fakultātes Pedagoăijas nodaĜā laika posmā no 2003. gada septembra līdz 2008. gada augustam. Problēma Mūsdienās skolotājam galvenais uzsvars darbā ar nepieĦemamas darbības novēršanu liekams uz pozitīvas attieksmes pret mācībām veicināšanu, pašregulētas mācību darbības veicināšanu un sociālo konvenciju pieĦemšanu sadarbībā ar pusaudžiem, tādējādi veicinot mācību disciplīnas ievērošanu. Jaunās paaudzes mācīšanās veicināšana nevar būt veiksmīga, ja skolēni nespēj pašregulēti darboties un ievērot sociālās konvencijas, tātad ievērot mācību disciplīnu. Izstr…

Students’ Perception of Cell Phones Effect on their Academic Performance: A Latvian and a Middle Eastern University Cases

This study is unique in its attempt to combine the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) with external variables and the Information System Continuance Theory, in the context of mobile learning. It extends TAM with the external variables perceived mobility and perceived enjoyment. Mainly, students’ perception of cell phones effect on their academic performance is investigated. The study was conducted at two different universities—in Europe and the Middle East. Cell phone usage is analyzed from the perspective of mobile learning. The data in this study were collected from 103 students from the University of Latvia and 106 students from a Middle Eastern private American University. This study sho…

Editorial: Robot-Assisted Learning and Education

(Re)Defining Smart Education

In the increasingly interconnected world, the relationship among learning and teaching, innovation and innovativeness, entrepreneurship, business development, as well as sustainable and inclusive socio-economic growth and development, requires a multidimensional interdisciplinary analysis. Importantly, information systems and advancements in sophisticated information and communication technologies (ICTs) are consequential for the potential inherent in education to be exploited. This edited volume opens discussion on ways and strategies of exploiting opportunities and synergies, which the maturing relationship between smart education and information systems offers. In this context, the objec…

PROJECT AS AN INNOVATIVE SOLUTION FOR CHANGES IN HIGHER EDUCATION

<p>The article analyzes project as a method of innovative solution in higher education which may result in introducing gradual changes in the institutions of higher education. There is a universal opinion that universities are conservative institutions where changes are slow or they are not at all. Nowadays the emphasis of action changes and higher education institutions (hereafter in the text HEI) look for cooperation possibilities with the employers and the possible applicants; they try to get closer to the society by participating in social and economic changes that take place in the society and participate in developing the education policy and decision making. Implementation of p…

The Role of Parents for Developing Digital Literacy of 0-5 Year Olds

The digitalization of the world has brought with it changes in the mutual relationship of parents and children, upbringing traditions, and challenged the parents' role. Parents' attitudes towards the digital world could be described as “fear and fascination,” where a fraction treats the possibilities provided by the digital environment with uncritical adoration, while another fraction is convinced that the digital environment poses a variety of risks, which is why children should be deterred from the use of digital media for as long as possible. None of the approaches is productive in helping the development and growth of children born in the digitalization era. That is why an objective for…

Wrong Hand, Wrong Children? The Education of Left-Handed Children in Soviet Latvia

Left-handers have always been surrounded by stigma and controversy, and attitudes toward this group have always been rooted in the ideas and traditions of power relations existing in a given society. Thus, the goal of this study is to describe the retraining of left-handers as it was conducted in Soviet education. The impact of political power on an individual’s body-mind interaction is a significant problem in research on the creation of the “New Soviet Man.” The teaching of left-handed children in the Soviet Union is a noteworthy example of the totalitarian regime’s illusionary endeavors to change human nature. The Soviet education envisaged neither a special attitude nor any particular p…

Empowering education professionals with twenty-first century skills through master's of education dissertation/thesis work

This paper aims to explore the potential role of Master’s of Education dissertation/thesis work in developing twenty-first century skills. A total of 600 education professionals studying Master’s of Education programmes in five countries – Poland, Portugal, England, Latvia, and Romania – were surveyed. The findings have revealed that participants recognise the usefulness of twenty-first century skills for their (future) professional practice, and perceive dissertation/thesis work as a valuable foundation for developing these skills. This study offers practical implications for designers of Master’s of Education programmes and contributes to our understanding that this assignment is not only…