Advocating Digital Literacy: Community-Based Strategies and Approaches

As the pandemic waves hit the world, digital literacy becoming more profoundly essential than ever as the world shifts its daily life towards digitalization. In addition, digital literacy skill plays a big role in the teaching and learning process. In this study, the future strategies for enhancing digital literacy for educational purposes through community development programs are being discussed. The authors analysed and reviewed diverse sources of articles, reports and documents from previous researches and works of literature. It is found that there are six main community-based strategies to enhance digital literacy to improve the learning experience, which are improving and maximizing the usage of digital infrastructure in rural areas, providing necessary digital facilities and devices for underprivileged citizens, offering attractive benefits to boost participation, conducting engaging activities and learning modules of digital literacy programs, well-trained teachers and instructors in educational institutions, and role of effective community leaders. Moving forward as the education sector moves towards digitalization, digital literacy skills will become the key role toward effective learning experience. It is recommended to all levels of community members to take part in advocating the next generations with digital literacy. Received: 28 September 2021 / Accepted: 16 November 2021 / Published: 3 January 2022

The implementation of a data learning series focused on clinical development teams in a contract research organization

Effective management of a clinical trialrequires having real time access to information that provides useful insightsinto trial progress and that lends itself to collaborative decisionmaking.  Data visualizations using datafrom multiple source systems employed during the conduct of a clinical trialhave become an essential tool in the recent past as support for collaborativedecision making by project teams. Having the ability to access, analyze, read,work with, and present data to support an argument are  important skills that ensure datavisualizations fulfill their purpose in clinical trial management. There is anexpectation that members of the clinical trial team either possess or developthe data literacy skill sets necessary to collaborate on the successfulexecution of a clinical drug development trial. Here we describe thedevelopment of a Data Learning Series program targeted to increase the data literacyskills within a Contract Research Organization in support of the digitalevolution of the drug development industry.

PENGARUH PENGGUNAAN APLIKASI WATTPAD TERHADAP PENINGKATAN KEMAMPUAN LITERASI PEMUSTAKA UPT PERPUSTAKAAN UIN RADEN FATAH PALEMBANG

This study discusses influence of the use of Wattpad application on literacy ability improvement of UIN Raden Fatah Palembang library users. The purpose of this study is to find out what is the influence of the use of Wattpad application on literacy skill improvement of UIN Raden Fatah Palembang library users. This research is of quantitative descriptive research. The population of this study was library visitor in August 2020 - August 2021. The sample in this study was determined using Slovin formula with an error rate of 10%, so the sample in this study was 100 users who were users of Wattpad application. The results of respondents' answers calculation indicate that the average total value of variable X can be categorized as high because it was on an interval scale of 3.4 - 4.2, which was 3.98. And the results of respondents' answers calculation show that the average total value of variable Y can be categorized as high because it was on a scale of 3.4 - 4.2, which was 3.84. And on the T test, it was found that there was a positive effect of using Wattpad application on literacy ability of UIN Raden Fatah Palembang library users with the results of the calculation of rcount 7.035 rtable 1.98447, which stated that there was an effect of using Wattpad application on literacy ability.

Examination of the Correlation Between 8th grade Students’ Cyber Bully/Victim Behaviors and their Self-confidence Values

In the study, the correlation between cyberbullying and cyber victimization, which is included in the digital literacy skill in the Social Studies Curriculum, and self-confidence value was examined. From this point of view, the research aims to determine the degree and direction of the correlation between 8th grade students cyberbully/victim behaviors and their self-confidence value. As a data collection tool; The CyberBully/Victim Scale developed by Ayas and Horzum (2010); The Self-Confidence Scale developed by Akin (2007), and the Personal Information Form developed by the researcher were used to access personal information. The research sample consists of a total of 455 students studying at the 8th grade of public and private schools in the Nilufer, Yildirim, and Kestel districts of Bursa. Spearman’s Rho Correlation analysis was used in the analysis of the data. As a result of the study, a statistically significant moderate-level inverse correlation was found between students cyberbully/victim status and their tendency levels of self-confidence.

Individual Learning Accounts: A Comparison of Implemented and Proposed Initiatives

Access to lifelong learning opportunities has long been discussed in terms of the economic benefits conferred by access to and engagement in further education by members of the labor force, particularly within the global knowledge economy. However, equitable access to lifelong education opportunities, particularly for low-skilled adults in the labor force, has been lacking. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) identified three models for funding adult learning: (1) individual learning accounts, (2) individual savings accounts, and (3) training vouchers. The current study discusses examples of these models, either proposed or implemented, across four countries or economic blocks—France, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In addition, to understand the importance of providing funding for education and training to adults with low levels literacy skills, we use data from the Program for the International Assessment for Adult Competencies (PIAAC) to compare participation in adult education and training (AET) by literacy skill levels. In all countries examined, adults with low literacy skills participated in AET at lower rates than those with middle and high levels of literacy skills. To be successful in reaching adults most in need of skill upgrading, financing models need to provide adequate funds for meaningful skill upgrades, have well-structured information sources (e.g., websites) that are easily navigated by the target population, and include policies to screen educational providers for program quality.

Home literacy environment mediates the relationship between socioeconomic status and white matter structure in infants

The home literacy environment (HLE) in infancy has been associated with subsequent pre-literacy skill development and HLE at pre-school age has been shown to correlate with white matter organization in tracts that subserve pre-reading and reading skills. Furthermore, childhood socioeconomic status (SES) has been linked with both HLE and white matter organization. It is also important to understand whether the relationships between environmental factors such as HLE and SES and white matter organization can be detected as early as infancy, as this period is characterized by rapid brain development that may make white matter pathways particularly susceptible to these early experiences. Here, we hypothesized (1) an association between HLE and white matter organization in pre-reading and reading-related tracts in infants, and (2) that this association mediates a link between SES and white matter organization. To test these hypotheses, infants (mean age: 9.2 +/- 2.5 months, N = 18) underwent diffusion-weighted imaging MRI during natural sleep. Fractional anisotropy (FA) was estimated from the left superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF) and left arcuate fasciculus using the automated fiber-tract quantification method. HLE was measured with the Reading subscale of the StimQ and SES was measured with years of maternal education. Self-reported maternal reading ability was also quantified and applied to all statistical models to control for confounding genetic effects. The Reading subscale of the StimQ positively related to FA in left SLF and mediated the association between maternal education and FA in the left SLF. Taken together, these findings underscore the importance of considering HLE from the start of life and may inform novel prevention and intervention strategies targeted at low-SES families to support developing infants during a period of heightened brain plasticity.

MEASURING STUDENT’S LOGICAL REASONING SKILLS OF CHINESE SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL USING RASCH MEASUREMENT MODEL

This study aims to develop an evaluation tool to evaluate the overall logical reasoning core literacy skill and understand the differences in logical reasoning skills between students of different classes and genders. The quality of the developed evaluation tool is tested and optimized based on the Rasch model. The measured sample data are processed and analyzed by winsteps software and SPSS software. 122 senior three students from different classes were evaluated by the developed logical reasoning literacy level evaluation tool with good reliability and validity. It was found that the overall logical reasoning skills of senior high school students was concentrated in Level II, and some students could reach Level III; there are obvious differences in the level of logical reasoning skills between the experimental class and the ordinary class. The overall level of the experimental class is higher than that of the ordinary class; there is little difference in the distribution of male and female at the low level, but compared with male, female' literacy Level Is obviously limited after reaching a certain level, so it is difficult to break through and rise to the third level.

Graphic Novel Development as a Reading Media for Increasing Literacy Skill of 8th Grade Junior High School Students

This research believes that junior high school students in eighth grade need suitable and interesting reading material to develop their literacy skills which one way to achieve it is to design graphic novels of learning material on it. This research designed in the form of design and development (D&D) model proposed by Richey and Klein (2007). The development model used in this research was Richey and Klein’s (2007) ADDE model. The result was a graphic novel as an attractive literacy media that was developed for assisting eighth grade junior high school students’ literacy skills. Based on the content validity judgement, the graphic novel was highly relevant to the twelve criteria of a good graphic novel with minor revision. The quality judgment was utilized to determine whether or not the graphic novel was already qualified to serve as a good literacy source by using expert judgement. There were two expert judges and twelve users who took role in judging the quality of the graphic novel. Based on the quality judgement, the graphic novel was categorized as excellent media. Thus, the graphic novel was categorized as excellent media for assisting eighth grade students’ literacy skills.

K-12 ESL Writing Instruction: A Review of Research on Pedagogical Challenges and Strategies

Writing is an important early literacy skill for English as a Second Language (ESL) students’ academic success, underlining the importance of effective ESL writing instruction at the K-12 level. However, there is little empirical research on ESL writing instruction in school settings. The goal of this systematic literature review is to examine the extant empirical evidence of the challenges teachers encounter in teaching ESL writing and the strategies that can be adopted to help teachers overcome the challenges. Our search yielded 49 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters published between 2010-2019. A content analysis (Stan, 2009) of these materials indicated that teachers encounter the following challenges in teaching K-12 ESL writing: (a) lack of pre-service training in ESL writing, (b) lack of writing pedagogy skills, (c) lack of time, (d) lack of professional development opportunities, (e) standardized tests, and (f) unique L1 influences on L2 students’ text production. The content analysis also revealed the following strategies that can be recommended for addressing these challenges: (a) incorporating an ESL writing course into teacher education programs, (b) creating opportunities for writing pedagogy support by mentor teachers and researchers, (c) incorporating integrated skills development in the writing classroom, (d) providing students with opportunities to write more, (e) adopting explicit writing instruction, and (f) creating professional development opportunities for teachers. Based on our findings, we discuss implications and recommendations for ESL writing instruction in K-12 schools.