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Within many First Nations communities, storytelling, led by Elders recognized as knowledge holders, is a deeply valued aspect of teaching and learning history, language, place, culture, and Indigenous Knowledge. The purpose of this study was to design and evaluate the first iteration of an intergenerational digital storytelling workshop that brought Elders and school children from a First Nations community in Canada together to co-create digital stories and share local Indigenous Knowledge. Using a community-based participatory research approach, the research team, school, and community members designed and implemented a ten-session program held during a six-week period. Thirty-one grade six and seven students were paired with thirteen Elders. Elders told a range of stories including personal experiences, legends, and local knowledge of hunting and medicine. Students created a digital version of the stories, adding images, sound, and music. Students learned about local knowledge, built connections with Elders, and increased their digital literacy. Future recommendations included expanding the program over the full year and integrating it with other classes such as having Carrier language as a key component of the digital stories and incorporating art and music created by the students.

This paper addresses a relatively unexplored area in the field of learning analytics: how analytics are taken up and used as part of teaching and learning processes. Initial steps are taken towards developing design knowledge for this "middle space," with a focus on students as analytics users. First, a core set of challenges for analytics use identified in the literature are compiled. Then, a process model is presented for conceptualizing students' learning analytics use as part of a self-regulatory cycle of grounding, goal-setting, action and reflection--the "Student Tuning Model." Finally, the "Align Design Framework" is presented with initial validation as a tool for pedagogical design that addresses the identified challenges and supports students' use of analytics as part of the tuning process. Together, the framework's four interconnected principles of "Integration, Agency, Reference Frame and Dialogue / Audience" provide a useful starting point for further inquiry into well-designed learning analytics implementations.

This paper describes an application of learning analytics that builds on an existing research program investigating how students contribute and attend to the messages of others in asynchronous online discussions. We first overview the E-Listening research program and then explain how this work was translated into analytics that students and instructors could use to reflect on their discussion participation. Two kinds of analytics were designed: some "embedded" in the learning environment to provide students with real-time information on their activity in-progress; and some "extracted" from the learning environment and presented to students in a separate digital space for reflection. In addition, we describe the design of an intervention though which use of the analytics can be introduced as an integral course activity. Findings from an initial implementation of the application indicated that the learning analytics intervention supported changes in students' discussion participation. Five issues for future work on learning analytics in online discussions are presented. One, unintentional versus purposeful change; two, differing changes prompted by the same analytic; three, importance of theoretical buy-in and calculation transparency for perceived analytic value; four, affective components of students' reactions; and five, support for students in the process of enacting analytics-driven changes.

Theoretical models of collaborative learning through online discussions presuppose that students generally attend to others' posts. However, a succession of studies over the last decade has shown this assumption to be unwarranted. Instead, research indicates that learners attend to others' posts in diverse and particular ways--an activity we have conceptualized as online "listening." In this study, we take an important step forward in developing a robust theory of online listening by examining the relationship between how learners "listen" (access existing posts) and "speak" (contribute posts) in online discussions. Ten variables indexing four dimensions of students' listening (breadth, depth, temporal contiguity and revisitation) and five variables indexing three dimensions of students' speaking (discursiveness, depth of content and reflectivity) were calculated for 31 students participating in 6 week-long online discussions as part of an undergraduate educational psychology course. Multi-level mixed-model linear regressions indicated that responsiveness of students' posts was positively predicted by how often they revisited previously read peer posts, and negatively related to a greater number of posts in the discussion overall. The depth of posts' contents was predicted by the percentage of posts viewed that students actually read (as opposed to scanned). An exploratory follow-up analysis indicated that these listening-speaking relationships manifest differently over time for distinct subsets of learners (e.g., a decrease in variable pairs versus corresponding fluctuations around stable levels). Put together, results suggest that when students take the time to read and re-read their peers' posts there are related benefits in the quality of the posts they contribute.

Sixty-seven undergraduates taking either a Blended Business Course (BBC) or an Online Education Course (OEC) were surveyed about factors influencing their "listening" behaviors in asynchronous online course discussions. These are the ways they attend to the posts made by others: which posts they open, how they engage with open posts, and which posts they choose to respond to. Goal-orientations were also assessed. Results indicate that student decisions about which posts to open relied strongly on discussion reply-structure and message timing; authorship was important only to BBC students. Once open, OEC students often scanned posts to decide whether to read in-depth. In the BBC, similar triage strategies were used by work-avoidant students, while mastery students read posts thoroughly. In deciding which posts to reply to, BBC students favored posts that agreed with them while OEC students favored those that disagreed. Course and student characteristics that may account for these differences are discussed and implications for research and practice are presented. (Contains 4 tables.)

Ageism is an ongoing pervasive issue that can be difficult to challenge. The aims of this study were to co-design alternative frames about aging in a workshop and to explore the process participants went through using these to challenge ageism in their communities over a three-month period. Participatory action research combined with co-design were used. Full-day workshops involving 27 participants across urban and regional Australia introduced participants to the concept of ageism, framing, engaging with community, and co-designing alternative frames of aging. An online group allowed participants to support each other and continue exploring ideas as they challenged ageism in their communities. After 3 months, follow-up debrief sessions involving activities and semi-structured interviews were conducted. Data from workshops (activities, recordings), online posts, and debrief sessions were analyzed. Participants found the reframing process useful for challenging aging stereotypes in the community. Over the three months they developed an increased awareness of ageism (in self, others, society) and challenged these in different ways, including changing their internal dialogue, challenging others' views on aging, and actively defying stereotypes. Five alternative frames emerged: diversity and human rights; empowerment and support; value/contributions; lifelong learning; intergenerational. The process of creating alternative frames was important and allowed participants to bring their own values andnarratives to the experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives Older adults' self-perceptions of aging and being older can influence well-being and quality of life. This systematic scoping review aimed to map out current research on older adults' self-perceptions of aging and being older. Research Design and Methods The scoping review followed Arksey and O'Malley's methodological framework. A total of 5,037 records were identified (duplicates removed). After screening, a final 148 papers were included. Descriptives, including year of publication, methodology, age, gender, and location of participants, were calculated. Thematic analyses were conducted examining ways in which the topic was conceptualized. Results The most frequent method used in the research was quantitative. Participants were from 38 different countries. There were more female participants than male. Seven themes representing the main research emphasis emerged: attitudes towards one's own aging (n = 48), aging well (n = 23), aging stereotypes, self-stigma (n = 23), construction of aging identities (n = 22), subjective age (n = 18), the aging body (n = 8), and future self-views (n = 6). Discussion and Implications The research within these themes approach self-perceptions of aging using varying points of reference for what participants compare their age to. The methods used to illicit aging perspectives held their own assumptions about aging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital storytelling provides older adults with an opportunity to become digital producers, connect with others through story and explore their life history. The authors report on the results of a digital storytelling project for older adults. The study investigated the experiences and perceived benefits of older adults who created digital stories during a ten-week course and explored the reactions of story viewers to the digital stories they viewed during a special sharing event. Eighty-eight older adult participants in Metro Vancouver who attended one of 13 courses offered were included in the study. Most of the participants were female and over half were immigrants. Results from the focus group interviews demonstrated a rich array of reported social and emotional benefits experienced through the process of creating a digital story within the course. Three main themes emerged: social connectedness through shared experience and story, reminiscence and reflecting on life, and creating a legacy. Viewers who attended a 'Sharing Our Stories' event reported that the stories were meaningful, well constructed and invoked a range of emotions. The researchers conclude that digital storytelling may help digital storytellers increase connectedness to others and to self. Additionally, this connectedness may extend over time through the process of examining the past to create a digital story that can serve as a legacy to connect to future generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research study investigated whether playing a digital game, Wii Bowling, with others can enhance the social life of older adults. Our research used a mixed-methods approach. Results showed that players’ levels of social connectedness increased and loneliness declined over an 8-week period. Qualitative results described participants’ perceptions of their interactions with others, conversations with family and friends, social connections, and the team experience relating to playing in the multiweek, multilocation Wii Bowling tournament. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]