Educational Technology

A research group has analyzed the digital ecosystem of 11- to 12-year-old children across the Basque Autonomous Community, and concluded that two out of three own a smartphone. They use smartphones mainly to talk to family and friends. The researchers also point out that, at that age, access to social media mainly focuses on watching videos and not on generating content.

A new comprehensive literature review of the benefits and challenges of integrating haptics-enhanced virtual reality training, or VR-haptics for short, in dental education curricula highlights the transformative potential of VR-haptics in dental education.

A new study has shown that employees are experiencing mental and physical techno-strain due to being 'hyperconnected' to digital technology making it difficult for people to switch off from work.

Digital health tools, such as patient portals, treatment apps and online appointment schedulers, are increasingly common. But not everyone is equally at home using them.

People who started playing video games at an early school age developed problematic gaming more quickly compared to those who started playing a few years later.

It turns out gaming is good for you! New research indicates massive multiplayer online gamers learn by gaming and their skills in the workplace are enriched by those seemingly endless hours previously thought of as frittering away time.

Physical cash not only influences how much we spend but also fosters a profound sense of psychological ownership that digital payments cannot replicate, according to new research.

A new study by learning analytics researchers presents key considerations for generative AI (GenAI) educational tools so they are carefully developed to support, rather than replace, human learning.

A cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) app has been found to significantly prevent increases in depression in young people who are at high risk -- and could be implemented as a cost effective public mental health measure.

An experiment tested six generative large language models against students in an online introductory biomedical and health informatics course. The models scored higher than as many as three quarters of the real-world students in the class.

Researchers developed a new smartphone-based digital holographic microscope that enables precision 3D measurements. The highly portable and inexpensive microscope could help bring 3D measurement capabilities to a broader range of applications, including educational uses and point-of-care diagnostics in resource-limited settings.

A study has found that improved artificial intelligence (AI) training is required when developing nutrition apps that are used to track food intake or manage weight.

A new study on the causal relationship between video gaming and mental well-being challenges commonly held views about the effects of gaming.

Swiping through online videos to relieve boredom may actually make people more bored and less satisfied or engaged with the content, according to new research.

Researchers have uncovered a more nuanced view of what makes an 'ideal' computer science student, challenging long-held stereotypes of geeky, clever, detail-oriented men, who lack social skills.

Eye-tracking allows studying aspects that cannot be seen, for example, the thinking processes of a student solving a mathematical problem. Researchers have integrated eye-tracking into education and are using the technology to radically improve the teaching of mathematics.

Researchers have developed the chatbot Iris, which offers informatics students personalized assistance with programming assignments. A study has now confirmed the chatbot's success: Iris improves the understanding of programming concepts and represents a valuable complement to human tutors.

Researchers have come up with exciting and sophisticated new mapping technology enabling future generations to get involved in creating their own future built landscape. They say that planners are missing a real trick when it comes to encouraging and involving the public to help shape their own towns, cities and counties for the future. They also say that games platforms can be used to plan future cities and also help the public immerse themselves in these future worlds.

Experienced exam markers may struggle to spot answers generated by Artificial Intelligence (AI), researchers have found.

Boys are good at math, girls not so much? A study has analyzed the social mechanisms that contribute to the gender gap in math confidence. While peer comparisons seem to play a crucial role for boys, girls' subjective evaluations are more likely to be based on objective performance.

Cultivating creativity in schools is vital for a future driven by artificial intelligence (AI). But while teachers embrace creativity as an essential 21st century skill, a lack of valid and reliable creativity tests means schools struggle to assess student achievement. Now, a new machine-learning model is providing teachers with access to high-quality, fit-for-purpose creativity tests, that can score assessments in a fraction of the time and a fraction of the cost.

Cybersecurity programs vary dramatically across the country, a review has found. The authors argue that program leaders should work with professional societies to make sure graduates are well trained to meet industry needs in a fast-changing field. A research team found a shortage of research in evaluating the instructional approaches being used to teach cybersecurity. The authors also contend that programs could benefit from increasing their use of educational and instructional tools and theories.

New research finds that, while an increasing number of minors are using virtual reality (VR) apps, not many parents recognize the extent of the security and privacy risks that are specific to VR technologies. The study also found that few parents are taking active steps to address those security and privacy issues, such as using parental controls built into the apps.

A new study sheds light on the role that new and traditional media play in promoting and affecting character development, emotions, prosocial behavior and well-being (aka happiness) in youth.

A computer game helped upper secondary school students become better at distinguishing between reliable and misleading news.

Sure, ChatGPT can write a poem about your pet in the style of T.S Eliot, but generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots have a potentially more useful role to play in idea generation according to a new study.

Researchers have painstakingly taken computed topography (CT) scans of more than 13,000 individual specimens to create 3D images of more than half of all the world's animal groups, including mammals, fishes, amphibians and reptiles.

Intelligent tutoring systems for math problems helped pupils remain or even increase their performance during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new study. Researchers analyzed data from five million exercises done by around 2,700 pupils in Germany over a period of five years. The study found that particularly lower-performing children benefit if they use the software regularly.

A new study reveals that passive video use among toddlers can negatively affect language development, but their caregiver's motivations for exposing them to digital media could also lessen the impact.

A teacher's gender and comfort with technology factor into whether artificial intelligence is adopted in the classroom, as shown in a new report.

Researchers have developed a weeklong high school curriculum that helps students quickly grasp concepts in both color chemistry and artificial intelligence -- while sparking their curiosity about science and the world around them.

Time spent watching television or playing computer games has measurable and long-term effects on children's brain function, according to a review of 23 years of neuroimaging research, which while showing negative impacts also demonstrates some positive effects.

The changing information technology industry, latest artificial intelligence applications, high demand for IT professionals, and evolving need for learning are leading to the search for innovations in education that will allow current and future employees to acquire knowledge in a contemporary and accessible way. This is particularly relevant in the field of programming, where the complexity of the process often creates learning difficulties. Researchers are now proposing to gamify this process.  

Young people (24 years and younger) spend an average of six hours a day online, primarily using their smartphones, according to new research. Older people (those 24 years and older) spend 4.6 hours online.

A new study looks at how college students react to being accused of using ChatGPT to cheat on assignments.

Parents are spending considerable amounts of energy thinking about and mitigating the risks associated with their kids using mobile phones and the internet.

Legal restrictions placed on the amount of time young people in China can play video games may be less effective than originally thought, a new study has revealed.

A new study finds unsupervised, online exams can provide a valid and reliable assessment of student learning, but instructors should be aware of potential weak spots.

Researchers created a new audio chatbot, Self-Talk with Superhero Zip, aimed to help children speak positively to themselves. This chatbot is 'a 'Sesame Street' experience for a smart speaker.'

Board games based on numbers, like Monopoly, Othello and Chutes and Ladders, make young children better at math, according to a comprehensive review of research published on the topic over the last 23 years.

Encouraging adolescents to feel capable and purposeful -- rather than just happy -- could improve their academic results as well as their mental health, according to new research which recommends changing how wellbeing is supported in schools. The study involved over 600 teenagers from schools in England and examined two aspects of wellbeing: life satisfaction (which roughly equates to how happy a person is) and 'eudaimonia', which incorporates feelings of competence, motivation, self-esteem and of 'functioning well'. Students with higher eudaimonia consistently outperformed peers in GCSE-level assessments, especially Maths. The study's lead author suggests that attention to these aspects of wellbeing could improve some pupils' Maths scores 'by a couple of grades'. There was no link between academic performance and life satisfaction. Despite this, life satisfaction -- helping children to feel 'happy' and suppress negative thoughts -- remains the focus of wellbeing education in English schools.

Children do better at maths when music is a key part of their lessons, an analysis of almost 50 years of research on the topic has revealed.

Students are positive towards AI tools such as ChatGPT in education, but 62 percent believe that using chatbots during exams is cheating. However, where the boundary for cheating lies is highly unclear.

Privacy and security features that aim to give consumers more control over the sharing of their data by smartphone apps are widely misunderstood, shows new research from the University of Bath's School of Management.

Listening to music could reduce the dizziness, nausea and headaches virtual reality users might experience after using digital devices, research suggests. Cybersickness -- a type of motion sickness from virtual reality experiences such as computer games -- significantly reduces when joyful music is part of the immersive experience, the study found. The intensity of the nausea-related symptoms of cybersickness was also found to substantially decrease with both joyful and calming music.

ChatGPT faced off against students on accounting assessments. Students scored an overall average of 76.7%, compared to ChatGPT's score of 47.4%. On a 11.3% of questions, ChatGPT scored higher than the student average, doing particularly well on AIS and auditing. But the AI bot did worse on tax, financial, and managerial assessments, possibly because ChatGPT struggled with the mathematical processes required for the latter type.

People around the globe are so dependent on the internet to exercise socio-economic human rights such as education, healthcare, work, and housing that online access must now be considered a basic human right, a new study reveals.

In a new study, researchers had 28 high school students create their own machine-learning artificial intelligence (AI) models for analyzing data. The goals of the project were to help students explore the challenges, limitations and promise of AI, and to ensure a future workforce is prepared to make use of AI tools.

A new study finds that high school students identify more with math if they see their math teacher treating everyone in the class equitably, especially in racially diverse schools. While the relationship between teacher equity and math identity was evident across races, there was an interesting exception. Black students, in general, had strong math identities, regardless of their teacher's actions.  Learning about the factors that affect student math identity is important because a student's attitude towards the subject influences the courses that they take as well as their future career selections. This study suggests that teachers may have a larger role to play in helping students develop a positive math identity than previously recognized.

Engineering researchers are successfully using a robot to help keep children with learning disabilities focused on their work.

Despite old fears that bad effects follow excessive video game playing or questionable game choices, researchers found those factors mattered little, if any, in children's brain health. The bad news? Video games assumed to be effective learning tools showed no meaningful effects, either.

Researchers have found that, although more screen time at 2 years of age is associated with poorer communication and daily living skills at age 4, time spent playing outdoors can mitigate these effects on daily living skills. Outdoor play is a promising target for reducing the negative effects of screen time in young children and should be encouraged where possible.

Psychologists had people learn words from two phonetically similar languages in virtual reality environments. Those who learned each language in its own unique context mixed up fewer words and were able to recall 92% of the words they had learned. In contrast, participants who had learned both sets of words in the same VR context were more likely to confuse terms between the two languages and retained only 76% of the words. Regardless of group, those participants who felt immersed in the VR world remembered more than those who did not feel immersed.

Online gaming behavior can encourage gamers to gain a variety of soft skills which could assist them with training to support their career aspirations, according to new research.

Researchers have highlighted how lack of access to a computer was linked to poorer mental health among young people and adolescents during COVID-19 lockdowns.

Music and arts classes are often first on the chopping block when schools face tight budgets and pressure to achieve high scores on standardized tests. But it's precisely those classes that can increase student interest in school and even benefit their math achievement, according to a new study.

Texts used in second language (L2) classrooms have traditionally been simplified manually. With recent technological advances, text can be simplified automatically through artificial intelligence-enabled software. A new study investigated the effectiveness of an automatic text simplification (ATS) software and found that it made text comprehensible for L2 learners with a certain level of reading proficiency, highlighting the need for additional development of these tools for them to become effective for all learners.

A study of U.S. middle and high school students shows that about 17 percent were cyberbullied in 2016 and 2019, but that proportion rose to 23 percent in 2021. Notably, 19 percent of Asian American youth said they had been cyberbullied, and about 1 in 4 (23.5 percent) indicated they were victimized online because of their race/color. Asian American youth were the only racial group where the majority (59 percent) reported more cyberbullying since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2019, Asian American youth were the least likely to have experienced cyberbullying.

Two researchers have published a study that asked students if they see themselves as a math or science person, then followed up with them several times in following years. Results showed those who said yes in ninth grade were much likelier to major in STEM subjects and work in related fields after college. The results show the importance of helping students have positive math and science experiences early and could be a way to help address equity gaps in STEM.

Helping children become more 'digitally resilient' needs to be a collective effort if they are to learn how to 'thrive online', according to new research. Digital resilience is the capability to learn how to recognize, manage and recover from online risks -- such as bullying and inappropriate content -- and has the potential to buffer how these experiences may impact young people's wellbeing.