scholarly journals Tool Criticism and the Computational Turn. A “Methodological Moment” in Media and Communication Studies

2021 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-64
Author(s):  
Karin van Es ◽  
Mirko Tobias Schäfer ◽  
Maranke Wieringa
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Digital Tools ◽  
Academic Field ◽  
Accountability Measures ◽  
Science Wars ◽  
Institutional Contexts ◽  
Digital Methods ◽  
Humanities And Social Sciences ◽  
Media And Communication

As ever more data becomes available to work with, the use of digital tools within the humanities and social sciences is becoming increasingly common. These digital tools are often imported from other institutional contexts and were originally developed for other purposes. They may harbour concepts and techniques that stand in tension with traditions in the humanities and social sciences. Moreover, there are many easy-to-use tools for the collection, processing and analysis of data that require no knowledge of their limitations. Problematically, these tools are often assigned such values as reliability and transparency when in fact they are active mediators caught up in the epistemic process. In this paper, we highlight the need for a critical, reflexive attitude toward the tools we use in digital methods. It is a plea for what we call “tool criticism” and an attempt to think through what this mode of criticism would entail in practice for the academic field. The need for tool criticism is contextualised in view of the emerging ideological and methodological critique toward digital methods. Touching on the so-called science wars we explore knowledge as a construction and consider the importance of accounting for knowledge claims. These considerations open up an assessment of the accountability measures that are being discussed and developed in our field by individuals and institutions alike. In conclusion, we underscore the urgency of this endeavour and its vital role for media and communication scholars.

scholarly journals STUDENTS' OPINION ON THE IMPORTANCE OF DIFFERENT APPROACHES IN GERMAN LANGUAGE TEACHING FROM THE ASPECT OF DIGITAL MEDIA

2021 ◽  
Vol XII (35) ◽  
pp. 329-354
Author(s):  
Mirela Müller ◽  
Silvija Ugrina
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Digital Tools ◽  
German Language ◽  
Final Grade ◽  
Humanities And Social Sciences ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Academic Year

The research in this paper aims to determine different approaches in teaching German, the influence of digital tools and to determine the differences between first and second-year undergraduate students at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Split and Osijek; to identify links between the impact of the teaching approach, and metalanguage awareness, and the final grade at the end of the semester or academic year; to determine the connection between the influence of different digital tools as auxiliary tools and easier mastering of student obligations, understanding, and finally to determine the connection between teachers and/or lecturers and mastering the German language during studies. The research was conducted on N = 106 students of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Split and Osijek. It was conducted during the summer semester of the academic year 2019/2020 in February. The results of the research will provide an overview of the importance of different approaches to teaching German, the importance of the type of metalanguage awareness, the importance of the influence of certain digital media, and the importance of the role of teachers/lecturers as factors influencing the learning and teaching of German as a foreign language. The scientific contribution of this paper is in understanding the new methodology of studying the German language. The research could be an example for the development of new educational paradigms in teacher education, and in particular, it can serve as an example for strengthening the impact of those approaches in language teaching at undergraduate and graduate level as well as more meaningful use of digital tools as e-mentors in order to improve the methodology of foreign languages in higher education institutions.

Searching for ‘Digital Asia’ in its Networks: Where the Spatial Turn Meets the Digital Turn

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 57-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Higher Education ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Digital Tools ◽  
Spatial Turn ◽  
Digital Methods ◽  
New Challenges ◽  
Do So

This article examines how digital methods can provide a way to search for ‘Digital Asia’ in its networks, interfaces, and media contents. Using the example of higher education institutions in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Taipei, the paper explores how search engines, institutional homepages, and hyperlink networks provide access into the workings and representations of academia online. The article finds that even a seemingly cosmopolitan endeavour such as academia exists in rather parochial spheres, and that users that enter those spheres do so in highly biased ways. Further reviewing the digital tools that lead to these findings, the article also argues that while digital methods promise to bring together the ‘digital turn’ and the ‘spatial turn’ in the humanities and social sciences, they also pose new challenges. These include theoretical concerns, like the risk of implicitly reproducing views of neoliberal modernity, but also practical concerns related to digital literacy.

RELEVANCE OF PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION TO CURRICULUM THEORY AND DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 256-261
Author(s):  
Zaka Rauf ◽  
MUSA YUSUF
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Educational System ◽  
National Curriculum ◽  
Philosophy Of Education ◽  
Curriculum Theory ◽  
Best Interest ◽  
Humanities And Social Sciences

Attempts of undue separation of the philosophy of education and curriculum theory and development in the teaching of systematic functional education have been seriously criticized. This has been so because it is not in the best interest in the teaching of an intelligent and national curriculum which forms the bedrock to the development of a truly vibrant educational system in Nigeria. This paper, therefore, is an attempt to investigate the relevance of the philosophy of education to the development of an intelligent curriculum which is imperative to the teaching of functional education in the technical, the sciences, the humanities and social sciences towards the revitalization of the Nigerian educational sector. 

Objectivity of Scientific Research as an Ethical and Political Position (Book Review: P.P. Tolochko. Ukraine between Russia and the West: Historical and Nonfiction Essays. Saint Petersburg: Saint Petersburg University of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2018)

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (11) ◽  
pp. 144-153
Author(s):  
Alexander S. Zapesotsky
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
The West ◽  
Full Member ◽  
Saint Petersburg ◽  
Political Position ◽  
Humanities And Social Sciences ◽  
Nonfiction Essays ◽  
The Impact

Book Review: P.P. Tolochko. Ukraine between Russia and the West: Historical and Nonfiction Essays. Saint Petersburg: Saint Petersburg University of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2018. - 592 pp. ISBN 978-5-7621-0973-4This author discusses the problem of scientific objectivity and reviews a book written by the medievalist-historian P.P. Tolochko, full member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU), honorable director of the NASU Institute of Archaeology. The book was published by the Saint Petersburg University of Humanities and Social Sciences in the autumn of 2018. The book presents a collection of articles and reports devoted to processes in Ukraine and, first of all, in Ukrainian historical science, which, at the moment, is experiencing an era of serious reformation of its interpretative models. The author of the book shows that these models are being reformed to suit the requirements of the new ideology, with an obvious disregard for the conduct of objective scientific research. In this regard, the problem of objectivity of scientific research becomes the subject of this review because the requirement of objectivity can be viewed not only as a methodological requirement but also as a moral and political position, opposing the rigor of scientific research to the impact of ideological, political and moral systems and judgments. It is concluded that in this sense the position of P.P. Tolochko can be considered as the act of profound ethical choice.

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