Fully Extending the Learning Ecosystem Analogy

The biological ecosystem is a common conceptual model used to describe the organization and interplay of elements in many systems, including learning systems. However, the analogy is rarely fully extended to all components of the original biological model. This chapter fully extends the ecosystem analogy for use in describing a modern learning ecosystem, including those parallels most often left absent. It also provides examples as to how extending these analogies can aid learning engineers and scholars to better understand, diagnose, and design effective learning models. Throughout, this modern learning ecosystem analogy will be applied to an online public school learning model.

“Where am I?” A Critical Discourse Analysis of Religious Representation in Indonesia

Diversified learning is the path to supplement students’ needs in the contemporary generation. These students’ lives have revolved around technology since birth; as such, the role of technology cannot be ignored. Furthermore, this was prevalent during the lockdown imposed by the global pandemic which compelled the incorporation of educational technology into student’s lives. As gamification harnesses the power of game elements, identifying how gamified learning affects a student’s game player traits will be vital in identifying whether specific learning methods can invoke, change and cultivate better learning outcomes. This quasi-experimental study involving two groups of students learning computer science in Malaysia was carried out over eight weeks. Findings revealed that most prevalent player traits changes were evident in the primary construct of social player traits, followed by subconstructs of customization, relationship, socializing, and mechanics. These changes are attributed to the need to reach out, communicate, and collaborate with their peers and look into how the system works for them individually, within the context of the learning and explorative needs of students. As such, gamified learning has not only managed to offer a new paradigm into the learning ecosystem but has also shown that positive changes can be cultivated based on these conditions.

Effects of Gamified Learning on Students of Different Player Traits in Malaysia

Diversified learning is the path to supplement students’ needs in the contemporary generation. These students’ lives have revolved around technology since birth; as such, the role of technology cannot be ignored. Furthermore, this was prevalent during the lockdown imposed by the global pandemic which compelled the incorporation of educational technology into student’s lives. As gamification harnesses the power of game elements, identifying how gamified learning affects a student’s game player traits will be vital in identifying whether specific learning methods can invoke, change and cultivate better learning outcomes. This quasi-experimental study involving two groups of students learning computer science in Malaysia was carried out over eight weeks. Findings revealed that most prevalent player traits changes were evident in the primary construct of social player traits, followed by subconstructs of customization, relationship, socializing, and mechanics. These changes are attributed to the need to reach out, communicate, and collaborate with their peers and look into how the system works for them individually, within the context of the learning and explorative needs of students. As such, gamified learning has not only managed to offer a new paradigm into the learning ecosystem but has also shown that positive changes can be cultivated based on these conditions.

Ecosistemas locales de aprendizaje ante la globalización tecnológica. Retos de los modelos educativos digitales pospandemia

La educación frente a la covid-19 ha puesto en práctica una infinidad de respuestas, todas urgentes, tentativas, generadas por ensayo y por error, y todavía pendientes de validación. Para comprender mejor el impacto de estas respuestas, el presente artículo defiende, partiendo de la teoría de los ecosistemas de aprendizaje, la necesidad de investigar cómo han influido las tecnologías de ámbito global en la construcción de experiencias locales de aprendizaje. Además, pone de manifiesto la necesidad de estudiar qué tipo de apoyo tanto teórico como práctico se requiere para reconducir los posibles efectos nocivos de la introducción de la tecnología de emergencia. A tal efecto, se describen las consecuencias de fenómenos globalizadores, como el tecnocentrismo, el solucionismo tecnológico, la plataformización y la economía de datos, proponiendo la reflexión, la concienciación para la transformación y la acción desde los ecosistemas locales de aprendizajes como vía imprescindible para la conceptualización de nuevos modelos educativos digitales pospandemia. El artículo también resume las aportaciones principales de los otros trabajos que forman parte de la monografía. Education has offered multiple, urgent, and tentative responses to Covid-19, generated by trial and error and still pending validation. To understand the impact of these responses, this article advocates for the study of how global technologies have influenced the pursuit of local learning experiences. In addition, the article emphasizes the need to investigate what kinds of theoretical and practical support are required to counterbalance the possible negative effects of emergency technology responses. Accordingly, it describes the consequences of globalizing phenomena, such as technocentrism, technological solutionism, platformization and data economy, and suggests that the reflection, critical consciousness engaged in transformation and action from within each local learning ecosystem are necessary to conceptualize new post-pandemic educational digital models. The article also summarizes the main contributions of the works included in this special issue.

CompAIRR: ultra-fast comparison of adaptive immune receptor repertoires by exact and approximate sequence matching

Adaptive immune receptor (AIR) repertoires (AIRRs) record past immune encounters with exquisite specificity. Therefore, identifying identical or similar AIR sequences across individuals is a key step in AIRR analysis for revealing convergent immune response patterns that may be exploited for diagnostics and therapy. Existing methods for quantifying AIRR overlap do not scale with increasing dataset numbers and sizes. To address this limitation, we developed CompAIRR, which enables ultra-fast computation of AIRR overlap, based on either exact or approximate sequence matching. CompAIRR improves computational speed 1000-fold relative to the state of the art and uses only one-third of the memory: on the same machine, the exact pairwise AIRR overlap of 104 AIRRs with 105 sequences is found in ~17 minutes, while the fastest alternative tool requires 10 days. CompAIRR has been integrated with the machine learning ecosystem immuneML to speed up various commonly used AIRR-based machine learning applications.

Effect of Backward Design With Virtual Learning Ecosystem to Enhance Design Thinking and Innovation Skills

The backward design with virtual learning ecosystem aims to enhance design and innovative ideas as an application that simulates a virtual learning environment where students can interact with the simulated environment using their smartphones and digital goggles. This approach allows continuous, limitless self-learning based on cloud computing and social network, a guideline for the 21st century skill training that focuses on the learner, and enhance design and innovative ideas. This research aims were to (1) develop a backward design with virtual learning ecosystem to enhance design thinking and innovation skills, (2) study posttest learning achievement after application of the backward design with virtual learning ecosystem to enhance design thinking and innovation skill, (3) study design thinking skills assessment of students after using the backward design with virtual learning ecosystem to enhance design thinking and innovation skills, and (4) study posttest innovation of students after using backward design with virtual learning ecosystem to enhance design thinking and innovation skills. The sample group in this study is divided into 2 groups, i.e., (1) the seven experts in design and development of information technology media and technology digital media selected from various educational institutes, and (2) the 20 undergraduates from Digital Media Technology Program, Faculty of Industrial Technology, Muban Chombueng Rajabhat University currently enrolled in the DMT60711 Development of Mobile Application course.

Vulnerable Medical Student Ecosystems: Transdisciplinary Learning Sciences Interventions, Maximizing Student Learning and Promoting Mental Health

Medical students (MS), as a focus of investigation, are usually the last group that would be considered as suffering from mental health issues. However, the literature shows otherwise; MS suffer debilitating anxiety and depression which worsen with the progression of their studies. The literature also highlights the medical school curriculum as a significant cause of the elevated stress, anxiety, and depression levels within the MS population. This article explores the vulnerable nature of MS by focusing on the nature of the medical school’s hidden curriculum and culture, highlighting its impact on the entire medical education ecosystem and the MS. This article, then, investigates the three dominant epistemological belief frames in medical school which impact the vulnerable nature of MS. Finally, this article presents potential interventions, targeting the need for cultural change that may contribute to the creation of a more compassionate learning ecosystem to build the MS’ mental resilience in medical school and create a stronger medical workforce.

Open For All: The OERu’s Next Generation Digital Learning Ecosystem

This paper describes the functionality, scalability, and cost of implementing and maintaining a suite of open source technologies, which have supported hundreds of thousands of learners in the past year, on an information technology infrastructure budget of less than US$10,000 per year. In addition, it reviews pedagogical opportunities offered by a fully open digital learning ecosystem, as well as benefits for learners and educators alike. The Open Education Resource universitas (OERu) is an international consortium made up of 36 publicly funded institutions and the OER Foundation. The OERu currently offers first-year postsecondary courses through OER-based micro-courses with pathways to gain stackable micro-credentials, convertible to academic credit toward recognised university qualifications. The OERu, adhering to open principles (Wiley, 2014b), has created an open source Next Generation Digital Learning Ecosystem (NGDLE) to meet the needs of learners, consortium partners, and OERu collaborators. The NGDLE—a distributed, loosely coupled component model, consisting entirely of free and open source software (FOSS)—is a global computing infrastructure created to reach learners wherever they are. All OERu services are hosted on commodity FOSS infrastructure, conferring significant advantages and creating opportunities for institutions adopting any of these services to enhance education opportunities at minimal cost. The NGDLE can also increase technological autonomy and resilience while providing exceptional learning opportunities and agency for learners and educators alike.