Search

Background: There is limited understanding of the concept of the digital identity of young children created through engagement on social networking sites. Objective: The objective of this scoping review was to identify key characteristics of the concept of digital identity for children from conception to the age of 8 years on social networking sites. Methods: This scoping review was conducted using the PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews) guidelines. The key databases searched were EBSCO, Web of Science, ProQuest ERIC, and Scopus. Gray literature sources (National Grey Literature Collection, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, and Google Scholar) were also searched to identify unpublished studies. Articles were selected if they were published in English and reported data on the digital identity of children in relation to social networking sites. Results: The key terms used in the literature were sharenting, followed by digital footprints and children’s identities. Our study revealed 2 approaches to the creation of digital identity: social digital identity and performative digital identity. The articles in this review most commonly used the term sharenting to describe the behavior parents engage in to create digital identities for children on social networking sites. Motivations to post information about children differed among parents; however, the most common reasons were to share with friends and family and create digital archives of childhood photos, termed social digital identity. The second motivation was categorized as performative digital identity. The risk of digital kidnapping and identity theft associated with the creation of digital identities also influenced parents’ behaviors. Conclusions: The creation of a digital identity for children is an emerging concept. Our review develops a deeper understanding of sharenting behaviors that can be used to better support parents and their chil

Executive functions and problem solving are important skills for success in school and life. Measuring executive functions and problem solving with child-friendly tools that can be applied outside the traditional clinical settings remains a challenge. The overall aim of this PhD project was to design a new child-friendly online assessment tool (eFun) to better understand relationships among executive function constructs, problem solving and academic outcomes. The assessment tool eFun was developed in collaboration with designers, software developers, and researchers to ensure validity and usability. eFun measures problem solving ability and the core executive function constructs working memory, inhibition, and cognitive flexibility on an iPad. This PhD thesis addresses two major gaps in the executive function literature. Firstly, it introduces the development and evaluation of new cognitive tasks for children. Secondly, it addresses the relationship between executive functions, problem solving and academic outcomes. This research adds to the current limited evidence base by investigating children’s evaluation of game-based executive function and problem solving assessments and by exploring new approaches to measuring cognitive functions and validating executive function tasks for children. Furthermore, the thesis extends the literature by examining intercorrelations among the newly developed cognitive tasks and academic achievement, and compares results with existing theories. Findings indicate that children enjoy playing the newly developed eFun tasks, especially the inhibition task. Overall, low to medium associations were found between the performance scores of individual executive functions and between executive functions and problem solving. Furthermore, executive functions were found to be a predictor of academic success (grades), whereas the association between problem solving and academic outcomes was less clear. The eFun problem solving task was enjoyed mor

Cognitive assessments can be expensive, lengthy and fatiguing for students and are often conducted in an artificial clinical context. In an effort to make the assessments more fun, researchers have started to introduce game elements to traditional cognitive tasks and training. This comes with a number of challenges. The main challenge is to develop an engaging tool that at the same time reliably assesses cognitive constructs in students. To address these challenges, this research aims to improve cognitive assessment with a new game-based assessment app that has been designed and developed in collaboration with researchers, teachers, students, and software engineers based on established cognitive theories, and subsequently validated through iterative testing in real world settings. The iterative development process is based on design-based research and includes cycles of design explorations, testing, analyses, redesign, and evaluation with students in authentic educational settings. The knowledge gained from the iterative process of designing a valid cognitive function app can inform other researchers who are aiming to develop cognitive assessment tools in an educational context.

Interest in measurement of children’s executive functions has shown a major increase over the past two decades. The present study evaluates two new apps (EYT and eFun) for measuring executive functions in children. The results of this study show that children (aged 5–8) enjoy executive function assessment in the form of games on an iPad. However, only one executive function, EYT working memory, showed significant positive correlations with several types of grades (e.g., English and maths) in primary school students. New, self-assessed, child-friendly executive function measurement tools have the potential to provide future possibilities for teachers to integrate information on cognitive ability into student learning plans.

Deciphering the evolution of cancer cells under therapeutic pressure is a crucial step to understand the mechanisms that lead to treatment resistance. To this end, we analyzed whole-exome sequencing data of eight chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients that developed resistance upon BCL2-inhibition by venetoclax. Here, we report recurrent mutations in BTG1 (2 patients) and homozygous deletions affecting CDKN2A/B (3 patients) that developed during treatment, as well as a mutation in BRAF and a high-level focal amplification of CD274 (PD-L1) that might pinpoint molecular aberrations offering structures for further therapeutic interventions.

Berg, V. (2021). A game-based online tool to measure cognitive functions in students. International Journal of Serious Games, 8(1), 71-87. https://doi.org/10.17083/ijsg.v8i1.410

Berg, V., McMahon, M., Rogers, S., Garrett, M., & Manley, D. (2019, June). The eFun app: A new tool to measure executive functions to support learning in a child-friendly, valid and engaging way. In EdMedia+ Innovate Learning (pp. 76-85). Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). https://www.learntechlib.org/p/209992/