January 7, 2022

ARTICLE | Communication Overload in Online Communities in Higher Education: A Case Study by João Batista, Helena Santos and Rui Pedro Marques

The article “Communication Overload in Online Communities in Higher Education: A Case Study” by João Batista (DigiMedia member), Helena Santos and Rui Pedro Marques was published in the International Journal of Technology and Human Interaction (IJTHI) 18(1).

Abstract:

This paper presents part of a research project on the use of information technology by students and teachers to communicate with each other in online community contexts of higher education institutions. The part of this project which investigated whether the number of messages exchanged, and the effort required to process them are a source of communication overload is the focus of the paper. The research was conducted at a Portuguese university, was supported by an analysis model, and data were collected through an online questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and inference tests were used to analyse a validated data sample of n = 570 students and n = 172 teachers. The results show that students and teachers generally perceive communication overload when using communication technologies to communicate with each other. This perception is particularly relevant when using email, and inference tests show that it is higher for teachers than for students

Citation:

Batista, J., Santos, H. & Marques, R. P. (2022).Communication Overload in Online Communities in Higher Education: A Case Study. International Journal of Technology and Human Interaction (IJTHI), 18(1). https://doi.org/10.1145/3486011.3486508

More information available HERE

January 7, 2022

ARTICLE | Developing peer mentors’ collaborative and metacognitive skills with a technology-enhanced peer learning program by Ana Raquel Carvalho and Carlos Santos

The article “Developing peer mentors’ collaborative and metacognitive skills with a technology-enhanced peer learning program” by Ana Raquel Carvalho (DigiMedia PhD Student) and Carlos Santos (DigiMedia member) was published in the Journal Computers and Education Open., volume 3

Abstract:

Learning in the 21^st century is influenced by a new paradigm regarding the human relationship with knowledge. The change from knowledge transmission to knowledge construction assumes a central role for the development of 21^st century key competencies. Despite this, more evidence is required regarding the impact of active learning approaches on the development of such skills, especially metacognitive and collaborative skills. The present study reports findings on the impact of a technology-enhanced peer learning program on the promotion of upper secondary English as a Foreign Language student mentors’ metacognitive and collaborative skills as well as on how digital technologies (social media, multimedia production and collaborative online tools) contributed to their participation. 47 mentors from three Portuguese K-12 schools integrated the sample. Developed within the scope of Educational Design Research, the study follows a mixed-methods approach and combines quantitative and qualitative data from two self-report measurement tools and a survey by questionnaire. Data were analyzed by means of descriptive and inferential statistics and content analysis. Study findings confirmed that participation in the peer learning program had a positive impact on mentors’ metacognitive awareness and on the development of communication and collaboration skills related competencies – interaction and sharing with technologies, adding new evidence of the effectiveness of an innovative peer learning program design as to the deployment of 21^st skills on secondary education. Study findings also indicated that the role of digital technologies was critical to supporting mentors’ collaborative work and interaction with their peers while participating in the program.

Citation:

Carvalho, A. R. & Santos, C. (2022). Developing peer mentors’ collaborative and metacognitive skills with a technology-enhanced peer learning program . Computers and Education Open, 3, 100070. https://doi.org/10.1145/3486011.3486508

More information available HERE

December 22, 2021

ARTICLE | Has Covid-19 emergency instruction killed the PLE? by Luís Pedro and Carlos Santos

The article “Has Covid-19 emergency instruction killed the PLE?” by Luís Pedro and Carlos Santos (DigiMedia members) was published in the Proceedings of TEEM’21: Ninth International Conference on Technological Ecosystems for Enhancing Multiculturality (TEEM’21).

Abstract:

In this article we will explore recent studies that reveal that the use of technologies for educational purposes has never been so intense as during the Covid-19 pandemic. The successive confinements imposed by governments around the world resulted in the increased use of technologies to keep basic educational tasks flowing and millions of teachers and learners adapted their teaching and learning practices to the use of technologies to communicate, teach and learn. Despite that we argue that the imposition of learning technologies, of predetermined educational practices and the prioritization of basic teaching and learning functions has potentially jeopardized the ingenuity that underlies the construction of a personal learning environment, hopefully in a non-permanent way.

Citation:

Pedro, L. and Santos, C. (2021). Has Covid-19 emergency instruction killed the PLE? In Ninth International Conference on Technological Ecosystems for Enhancing Multiculturality (TEEM’21) (TEEM’21). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 518–521. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1145/3486011.3486508

More information available HERE

December 22, 2021

ARTICLE | Smart logos: a user’s dashboard for the visualisation of meaningful brand experience data by Catarina Lelis

The article “Smart logos: a user’s dashboard for the visualisation of meaningful brand experience data” by Catarina Lelis (DigiMedia member) was published in Infodesign v. 18 n. 3 (2021): Special Edition: Data Visualization from the point of view of Information Design.

Abstract:

Logos have long been transporting the brand promise, which is confirmed by the carefully defined experiences the audiences have with brands. However, the new paradigms of interaction brought by social media, machine learning and big data have been shifting the power to the audiences, who are increasingly demanding less massified content and more hyper-personalised experiences. Brands have been adapting with flexible approaches, some of them made visible through their dynamic visual identities in which the logos transmogrify in some of their components, rather than being consistently static. In this research, the possibility of dynamic logos becoming smart logos — through which the brands’ audiences/users can define their experiences by visualising personally meaningful brand-related data — is explored. Five creative workshops with users from three university campuses based in the United Kingdom were organised. The created outputs were analysed, and they evidence what is both considered meaningful content and the most natural logo variation mechanisms for data to be displayed and consumed. Finally, a heuristic to support the design of smart logos is proposed and the conceptual model that underpins it and that allows answering the research question is presented.

Citation:

Lelis, C. (2021). Smart logos: a user’s dashboard for the visualisation of meaningful brand experience data. InfoDesign – Revista Brasileira De Design Da Informação, 18(3). https://doi.org/10.51358/id.v18i3.892

More information available HERE

December 17, 2021

DigiMedia members participate in the webinar for public presentation of the NAVESAFETY project

The WEBINAR for the presentation of the Project “NAVSAFETY – Emerging remote sensing technologies in real-time support for safe navigation in port areas ” will be held on December 20, at 10 am. The project is developed in a partnership between the University of Aveiro, Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, Port of Figueira da Foz, Simbiente and DGRM – Direção Geral de Recursos Naturais, Segurança e Serviços Marítimos. Jorge Ferraz de Abreu and Telmo Silva coordinate the Aveiro team.

December 17, 2021

DigiMedia participates in the celebration of the Dia Nacional da Imprensa

Nelson Zagalo, DigiMedia Scientific Coordinator, participate in a round table on the topic Human Resources Training for the Digital Transition, along with Pedro Jerónimo from MediaTrust Lab (UBI), with moderation of Claudia Maia, Vice-President of Associação Portuguesa de Imprensa and Editorial Manager of Deco Proteste. The event took place in the PCI- Creative Science Park.

The Press Day was celebrated on the 16th December 2021 and was marked by the signing of the protocol for the launch of the Aveiro Media Competence Centre.

The recordings of the sessions are available HERE

December 17, 2021

DigiMedia Dialogs#5 | Students@DigiMedia: what we need to know about it

The DigiMedia Dialogs#5 took place on December 17 with an interesting session on the design process of the initiative, the implementation and main results of the pilot study #00 and the expectations for the future of the Students@DigiMedia project. The team of the pilot edition – Carlos Santos, Liliana Costa, Mónica Aresta, João Batista, Tânia Ribeiro, Francisco Regalado, Lorena Sousa e Maria Clara Rodrigues – proposed a task at the end that helped the DigiMedia members to get familiar with the form opened for proposals’ registration and that promoted team work and cohesion.

December 17, 2021

DigiMedia researchers present the G4N project results at the ECIU SMART-ER webinar on Citizen Science

DigiMedia researchers Pedro Beça and Mónica Aresta presented the main results of the Gamers4Nature (G4N) project at the SMART-ER webinar on Citizen Science .

Taking place on the 13th December, the webinar “Water, Environment and Community Engagement Through Citizen Science” had as main goals to boost a strong Community on Citizen Science within the ECIU Consortium and to identify potential lines of collaboration between projects and foster the creation of SMART-ER trans-national pilots in Citizen Science.

The DigiMedia researchers introduced the Gamers4Nature project and its goals, and shared examples of digital games developed by students along the project.

December 17, 2021

BOOK CHAPTER | A Profile on Twitter Shadowban: An AI Ethics Position Paper on Free-Speech by Francisco S. Marcondes, Adelino Gala, Dalila Durães, Fernando Moreira, José João Almeida, Vania Baldi and Paulo Novais

The article “A Profile on Twitter Shadowban: An AI Ethics Position Paper on Free-Speech” by Francisco S. Marcondes, Adelino Gala, Dalila Durães, Fernando Moreira, José João Almeida, Vania Baldi and Paulo Novais was published in Intelligent Data Engineering and Automated Learning – IDEAL 2021. IDEAL 2021.

Abstract:

Concerns have been expressed lately about content verification algorithms on social media platforms, resulting in data being presented to users or omitted from them. Twitter is one of those platforms that use this strategy, giving censorship strategies for specific content. The shadowban or practice of limiting content distribution without user acknowledgement is a current practice in online social networks, especially on Twitter. So, this paper is an AI Ethics position paper willing to expand the reflection about the impacts of programming artefacts on individual liberties in enterprise’s Online social networks (OSN) to the computer science public. The conclusion to be drawn is that the limits of speech are to be imposed by the state after a properly democratic process took place. The concern then turns into an international relations issue as it would be a threat for national sovereignty that one state, even inadvertently, regulates the actions of a communication enterprise on foreign states. Finally, the use of smart contracts is suggested as an alternative to be used by the base state for enforcing regulations on foreign OSNs.

Citation:

Marcondes F.S. et al. (2021) A Profile on Twitter Shadowban: An AI Ethics Position Paper on Free-Speech. In: Yin H. et al. (eds) Intelligent Data Engineering and Automated Learning – IDEAL 2021, pp. 397-405. IDEAL 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13113. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91608-4_39

More information available HERE

December 17, 2021

ARTICLE | Mechanics or Mechanisms: defining differences in analog games to support game design by Micael Sousa, Nelson Zagalo e Ana Patrícia Oliveira

The article “Mechanics or Mechanisms: defining differences in analog games to support game design” by Micael Sousa, Nelson Zagalo (DigiMedia member) and Ana Patrícia Oliveira (DigiMedia member) was published in 2021 IEEE Conference on Games (CoG).

Abstract:

This research intends to clarify the difference between game mechanisms and mechanics. We propose the reinforcement of game mechanisms as building blocks for game design. After analyzing Board Game Geek (BGG) mechanisms databases and crossing it with the literature review and game examples, we provide a new classification for board game mechanisms. Departing from the Mechanics-Dynamics-Aesthetics (MDA) framework, we propose the Mechanisms, Mechanics, Dynamics, and Experience (MMDE) approach to fit the different concepts of mechanics and mechanisms to analog game systems. These findings should clarify the concept of mechanisms as building blocks for analog game design, which is also useful for hybrid and digital game design.

Citation:

M. Sousa, N. Zagalo and A. P. Oliveira, “Mechanics or Mechanisms: defining differences in analog games to support game design,” 2021 IEEE Conference on Games (CoG), 2021, pp. 1-8, doi: 10.1109/CoG52621.2021.9619055

More information available HERE

News

ARTICLE | Communication Overload in Online Communities in Higher Education: A Case Study by João Batista, Helena Santos and Rui Pedro Marques

ARTICLE | Developing peer mentors’ collaborative and metacognitive skills with a technology-enhanced peer learning program by Ana Raquel Carvalho and Carlos Santos

ARTICLE | Has Covid-19 emergency instruction killed the PLE? by Luís Pedro and Carlos Santos

ARTICLE | Smart logos: a user’s dashboard for the visualisation of meaningful brand experience data by Catarina Lelis

DigiMedia members participate in the webinar for public presentation of the NAVESAFETY project

DigiMedia participates in the celebration of the Dia Nacional da Imprensa

DigiMedia Dialogs#5 | Students@DigiMedia: what we need to know about it

DigiMedia researchers present the G4N project results at the ECIU SMART-ER webinar on Citizen Science

BOOK CHAPTER | A Profile on Twitter Shadowban: An AI Ethics Position Paper on Free-Speech by Francisco S. Marcondes, Adelino Gala, Dalila Durães, Fernando Moreira, José João Almeida, Vania Baldi and Paulo Novais

ARTICLE | Mechanics or Mechanisms: defining differences in analog games to support game design by Micael Sousa, Nelson Zagalo e Ana Patrícia Oliveira

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