Peer support for adolescent girls living with scoliosis: finding a digital community

Introduction : Scoliosis in a condition where a curve develops in the spine. Adolescent girls affected by scoliosis are significantly more likely to require treatment such as bracing or surgery than their male counterparts. Curvy Girls is a peer support group for adolescent girls with scoliosis that allows them to engage with each other in a safe environment. Objectives : This study endeavours to explore the experiences of adolescent girls living with scoliosis who are Curvy Girls members and understand how this peer support group has affected their experience. Approach : Sixteen participants were recruited through a senior board member of Curvy Girls. Data was gathered through semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using an applied philosophical hermeneutic approach, a practice of uncovering insights from transformational conversation. Findings : We found that the participants’ sense of belonging to Curvy Girls did not depend on their level of involvement with the group. Whether they were leaders in their in-person local group, or simply following the organization on social media, seeing themselves represented allowed the participants to feel like they belonged to the group. Future Directions : These findings may help clinicians, healthcare professionals, and peer support organisations deepen their understanding of the perspectives of this specific population. This transformed understanding could lead to the instauration of care and services that are better adapted to this population’s needs, resulting in lessening the burden of the condition on the individual and their support system.

A Study on the Contribution of a Digital Community towards the Parental Ecosystem Transformation

A research study was conducted to identify digital communities' role and sphere of influence in a parenting ecosystem. This report provides an overview of the target segment needs assessment and digitalization of their physical communities and support systems. Primary research was done via telephonic calls and zoom interviews of pregnant and new mothers and couples. Forty participants took part in the study to share their experiences and pain points. In addition to this, a WhatsApp group of 350 participants was created to observe the engagement on a digital medium. The study helped us validate the need for a social support system beyond the existing physical network of the participants to reach out to others with similar or better parenting approaches. 70% of the participants have expressed their willingness to join digital parental communities. The findings have been helpful to understand the role of a digital society, which can enhance the offerings of parenting facilitators and support parents in implementing better parenting practices. Of the last 10-12 years, there has been a steady increase in regional parenting networks. As a result, we picked the impact and influence of digital parental networks on these women's lifestyles and how they have aided in the growth of a conscious and good parenting style as our research topic. The conclusion outlines the impact of these communities and the significant concerns that have arisen due to their increased use.

Digital Placemaking for Urban Regeneration: Identification of Historic Heritage Values in Taiwan and the Baltic States

The active use of modern technology has affected the relationship between people and place. The “digital environment” and the “digital community” are becoming an increasingly important factor in people’s daily life, leading to a loss of belonging to a place, an entire neighbourhood, and a community. In the long run, this poses risks to the unification of values and the loss of identity. In this context, the involvement of the local community in the identification and preservation of historical heritage and defining the specific values of each site is particularly important. Thus, both the attraction of the local community to specific places and the revealed potential of local tourism are promoted. Digital placemaking enters urban regeneration as a logical approach to mixing digital and physical environments and involving the local community. Several GIS-based platforms and other tools are used to identify heritage values, both tangible and intangible. Although digital placemaking is emerging worldwide, its manifestations are closely related to specific local circumstances. The article focuses on the key characteristics and configurations of the digital placemaking tools within particular communities. The study tests digital placemaking practice in the historical districts of three cities: Taipei (Taiwan), Riga (Latvia), and Kaunas (Lithuania).

Analizing Teens an Analysis from the Perspective of Gamers in Youtube

(1) Gamers are a new social phenomenon on YouTube whose success is based on their humour and social identity. The aim of this research is to deepen the understanding of the behaviour of the 100 gamers with the largest numbers of fans worldwide by studying their channels on YouTube; (2) Methods: This is a longitudinal research study from 20 August 2019 to 20 August 2020. The methodology consists of three techniques: social media analysis, opinion mining or sentiment analysis, and qualitative semantic analysis; (3) Results: The results of regression and KPI analysis confirm that the most popular contents have high levels of humour, positive polarity, irony, and subjectivity. In addition, the jargon of the digital community is used, focusing on group identification; (4) Conclusions: We conclude that teenagers use YouTube to search content that is cheerful, fun, and with high doses of humor and irony, in which gamers narrate their own vision of reality. Understanding these characteristics makes it possible to adapt educational channels to the interests of the adolescent community. At the same time, it allows us to understand how group identity is constructed in the virtual community, being able to establish lines of intervention from the educational and family orientation.

Dynamics of educational activity of students under the influence of digitalisation

Introduction. The relevance of the study is due to the aggravation of the complex of student problems caused by the sharp acceleration of digitalisation and the destruction of the established complex of social interactions under the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic, both within the student community, and between the student body and other educational communities. The fixation of qualitative changes in educational activity in non-standard conditions, along with the development of a theoretical basis for the digital educational community of students, is necessary for making qualified managerial decisions.The aim of the present research was to identify the factors and dynamics of students as a digital educational community in the context of self-isolation and online learning.Methodology and research methods. This study is based on the use of specific approaches to industry-specific sociological knowledge (youth and education): community, system, structural-functional, institutional, temporal, thesaurus, network, panoramic (pedagogical science). The current research employs the results of a mass survey conducted among students (N = 1825, 19 universities of the Sverdlovsk region) according to the authors’ method. A mixed survey was carried out through a representative quota-target sample using traditional and electronic forms, implemented on the CAWI (Computer Assisted Web Interview) platform. Data processing was implemented using the VORTEX application package. Data verification was carried out using materials from the secondary data analysis of the VII stage of the regional student survey in 2016.Results. In the course of the study, the general forming characteristics of traditional, virtual and digital educational communities of students were clarified. The transition from traditional to digital community has been fixed. The key terms of the educational community of students in the digital age were defined. The indicators of educational activity were identified and investigated: effect of self-isolation regime on educational activity, features of online education, dynamics of the educational time budget, self-assessment of knowledge gained online, etc. The factors that determine educational activity were examined: motivation, sources of information, material and technical support, and organisational and technological consulting. On the basis of empirical materials, qualitative changes in the importance of digital information and digital material and technological support for successful studying were revealed. Insufficient digital competence of students is shown. Positive and negative aspects of online education were revealed, including under the influence of physical and psychological changes associated with the regime of complete self-isolation. The main reason for the desire of students to continue their education in a traditional or mixed form is substantiated – a decrease in the quality of education due to the exacerbation of the contradiction between the classical university and “everyday digital” educational culture.Scientific novelty lies in the development of the concept of the digital educational community of students, concretisation of its general-forming characteristics, clarification of the terminological range of the digital community and the educational activity of students; obtaining and systematising new empirical information about the state of students in the Sverdlovsk region as a major scientific and educational region of the country.Practical significance. The materials obtained provide grounds for clarifying the process and results of digitalisation of the educational space, assessing the state of the student community in extraordinary conditions of self-isolation and learning experience in a full online learning mode. Developed tools can be applied for further monitoring student learning. The obtained quantitative data can be used for the advancement of teaching and learning in digital and mixed formats, as well as for scientific substantiation of management decisions.

Omani EFL learner perceptions and motivation toward online learning

In early 2020, with the breakout of COVID-19, almost all the world institutions shifted to online learning and teaching. Besides the shortcomings, new learning and teaching method was introduced globally. 48 Omani participants of this study were the first batch of learners who have experienced online learning and teaching for the first time in their life. Therefore, this study tried to understand their levels of motivation and perceptions of online learning. The study also tried to find out the gender difference and the motivational level among the participants. Participants were sent two questionnaires through the Google form, and their responses were analyzed accordingly. The study revealed that Omani students were motivated to exchange learning and teaching materials through online platforms, and the female ones showed slightly more interest in online classes. In addition, the students showed positive perceptions toward and willingness to continue using online platforms for the learning process. Since they are the first group of students with online learning experiences, the study can motivate the teachers to focus on more digital contexts of their study, help them to focus on the design and preparation of materials for the digital community, and curriculum developers can introduce more practical learning and teaching techniques suitable for online education.

Learning Ecologies in the Digital Era: A Challenge for Primary Education in Low-Income Contexts

This research focused on the study of learning ecologies utilizing digital technology. The qualitative methodology used has allowed the analysis of the interactions children establish with digital technologies and the manner in which they construct a learning ecology. A total of 46 12-year-olds, their families, and their teachers participated in this study. The children’s schools and homes were in neighborhoods where structural situations of poverty and social and cultural marginality concurred. The children integrated researchers into their digital community, which allowed access to the events that the community was developing through digital technologies for two years. This information was complemented by the development of systematic observations and interviews with each participant. The participants’ multimodal linguistic and literacy practices were analyzed using a social semiotics approach. The results of the research describe and interpret the interactions that took place between participants and digital technologies. The research has identified the processes of recontextualization, transduction, and transcontextualization of the discourses developed in the frame of the participants’ learning ecologies. Digital ethnography has been revealed as an adequate method for studying learning ecologies.