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New MCL publication

New MCL publication: “Investigating the Processes of Teacher and Researcher Empowerment and Learning in Co-design Settings”.

MCL announces a new publication by Eleni A. Kyza and Andria Agesilaou, titled “Investigating the Processes of Teacher and Researcher Empowerment and Learning in Co-design Settings”. The paper is part of the special issue “Teacher-Researcher Collaborations as Contexts of Learning”, edited by Susan R. Goldman, Cindy E. Hmelo-Silver, and Eleni A. Kyza. The special issue is published in Cognition and Instruction’s first issue of 2022 (Volume 40, Issue 1).

Wednesday Webinars on Teacher Education in Digital & Media Literacy in Europe

The Media & Learning Association (MLA) announces a webinar series titled Wednesday Webinars on Teacher Education in Digital & Media Literacy in Europe.

Associate Professor Eleni Kyza will participate in the first webinar, which will take place on Wednesday, 23/2/2022 from 14:00-15:15 CET. The webinar is titled “Teacher Education in Digital & Media Literacy – the challenges in Initial Teacher Education”. You can register for free here: https://media-and-learning.eu/event/teacher-education-digital-and-media-literacy-the-challenges-in-initial-teacher-education/

Webinar description

Teacher training colleges all over Europe are facing an increasing demand to ensure they put in places digital and media literacy programmes for their student teachers. This comes on top of the many demands they already face in preparing teachers for the ever-changing educational system. During this webinar we will be hearing from a variety of researchers and teacher educators about their views and experiences of tackling this challenge. Should digital and media literacy be part of the formal programme in all teacher training colleges? what are the best ways to introduce and evaluate such programmes? Who should be responsible for introducing such programmes and then evaluating their success.

Speakers will include:

JOUREDIS Workshop 1

Workshop 1: Journalism in action: Developing competencies for mobile journalism

Date: 24 February 2022, 16:00-18:00 (online)
Guest speaker: Dr Nikolas Dietis, Assistant Professor of Pharmacology at the Medical School, University of Cyprus
Trainer: Christiana Varda, Research Associate and PhD Student at the Department of Communication and Internet Studies, Cyprus University of Technology

Registration

The pandemic has laid bare the value and relevance of accurately reporting science in the media, especially for controversial topics that may be prone to misinformation (e.g., COVID-19 vaccinations, climate change). This is not without its challenges, considering that journalists often need to translate complex scientific findings into comprehensible stories that a general, lay audience can understand. This workshop will look at the common challenges that journalists face when reporting on socio-scientific issues and will focus on a journalist’s most accessible asset: their mobile device. Participants will explore how to make the most of their mobile devices to deliver “social-first” stories that can be shared with audiences directly and that create new forms of storytelling to engage with online users. The workshop will also present best practices for communicating science effectively, and ways in which misinformation can more effectively be corrected on social media. Finally, participants will have the opportunity to explore a tool that allows drafting, scheduling and monitoring engagement on threaded social media posts on Twitter.

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New MCL publication: Whose data are they

New MCL publication: Whose data are they? Elementary school students’ conceptualization of data ownership and privacy of personal digital data

The work of MCL members, Andria Agesilaou Dr. Eleni Kyza, has been recently accepted for publication in the International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction.

The paper is titled “Whose data are they? Elementary school students’ conceptualization of data ownership and privacy of personal digital data”. In this work the authors discuss children’s awareness of their digital data, issues of online privacy and issues of data uses by others. They also examine how students comprehend data ownership of their digital data and how they decide to concede this ownership to others. Evidence of students’ conceptualization of data ownership is scarce in the literature. Τhe authors, through this work, provide some initial findings about data ownership, and discuss how the community can better understand children’s disclosure or privacy protection attitudes, by further unpacking this construct.

The paper is part of the Special Issue “Smart Toys, Smart Tangibles, Robots and other Smart Things for Children” which is edited by Cristina Sylla, Alejandro Catala, Arzu Güneysu Özgür, Katriina Heljakka.

The pre-proof of the paper can be accessed online here.

AERA Conference 2022: Symposium Acceptance

MCL researchers, Andria Agesilaou and Dr. Eleni A. Kyza will be participating in a symposium presentation at AERA 2022 (April 21 to 26). Their contribution is titled “Fostering awareness of big data through a quantified-self approach: Designing for critical data literacy” and it will be part of the symposium “Data Literacy in Context: Culturally Oriented and Place-Based Learning through Data”. The symposium was submitted to Division C – Learning and Instruction/Division C – Section 3a: Learning Environments and will take place on April 21.

Symposium abstract

This symposium responds to calls for increased focus on data literacy in education and specifically how context, culture, and place impact what and how people learn through data. The 11 studies aim to highlight: 1) Real-world issues that are investigated through data; 2) How place-based learning is enabled (e.g., what technologies and resources are used); 3) How identity, historical narratives, and local or cultural knowledge are engaged; and 4) Methods, analyses, and evaluation of learning and/or participation. This set of studies highlight the ubiquity of data literacy goals for a range of learners (e.g., youth to adults), a range of disciplinary applications (e.g., art to bioinformatics), and a range of contexts (e.g., rural to urban).

Chairs

Susan A. Yoon & Katherine M. Miller, University of Pennsylvania

Discussant

Andee Rubin, TERC

Contributions

  1. Place-Based Air Quality Inquiry in U.S. Rural Contexts
    Joseph L. Polman, Trang Chau Tran, Daniel W. Knight,
    University of Colorado Boulder
  2. Hyperlocal Expertise: Schoolyards as Rich and Complex Contexts for Developing Children’s Data Practices
    Kathryn Lanouette, College of William and Mary
    Victor R. Lee, Stanford University
  3. Learning Bioinformatics Through a Justice-Centered Design: Developing Student Relationships With Data in Urban Communities
    Susan A. Yoon, Jooeun Shim, Katherine Miller, Amanda Cottone, Noora Fatima Noushad, Thomas Richman, Amin Marei, Blanca Himes, Ryan Urbanowicz, University of Pennsylvania
    Michael Gonzalez, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
  4. Seeing ourselves in the data: Situating data literacy in theory building and action-taking by youth
    Bodong Chen, University of Minnesota
    Leanne Ma, Ben Peebles, University of Toronto
  5. A framework for exploring self, community, histories, and futures through data
    Michelle Hoda Wilkerson, Meg Elena Escudé, Edward Rivero, Kris D. Gutiérrez, University of California, Berkeley
    David J. Stokes, Hollylynne Stohl Lee, North Carolina State University
    Emily V. Reigh, Stanford University
  6. No learning lost here: Youth critical data practices in the COVID-19 multi-pandemic
    Angela Calabrese Barton, Day W. Greenberg, Chandler Turner, Devon Riter, Leslie R. Herrenkohl, Elizabeth A. Davis, Tammy Quinn Tasker
    University of Michigan
  7. The role of data literacy in convergence and divergence of reasoning criteria between social groups
    Ilana Dubovi, Tel Aviv University
    Iris Tabak, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
  8. Cultivating identities of care in the science classroom using complex systems data and modeling
    Veronica Cassone McGowan, University of Washington Bothell
    Philip L. Bell, University of Washington
  9. Place-making practices with COVID-19 data
    Joshua L. Radinsky, University of Illinois-Chicago
    Iris Tabak, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
  10. Postcards from the Bronx: Students redefine what a healthy place is through justice-oriented data art
    Anna Amato, Camillia Matuk, Kayla DesPortes, Marian Tes, Ralph Vacca, New York University
    Veena Vasudevan, University of Pittsburgh
    Megan Silander, Educational Development Center
    Peter J. Woods, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  11. Fostering Awareness of Big Data Through a Quantified-Self Approach: Designing for Critical Data Literacy
    Andria Agesilaou, Eleni A. Kyza, Cyprus University of Technology

JOUREDIS

The Media, Cognition and Learning (MCL) research group of the Department of Communication and Internet Studies at the Cyprus University of Technology announces a series of workshops focused on addressing misinformation through digital journalism.

JOUREDIS is a one-year program (2021-2022) and is funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund (AEIF). The project is realized by the Media, Cognition and Learning Research Group at the Department of Communication and Internet Studies of the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT), in collaboration with the non-profit organization Media What and theCyprus International Institute for Environmental and Public Health also at CUT.

PROJECT AIMS

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a heightened demand for news articles that concern health, and has increased people’s daily contact with scientific issues. Even though there are more journalists reporting on public health issues today, the easy access to online information, regardless of credibility, has highlighted the dangers that lurk in relation to the spread of misinformation. JOUREDIS is a project that aims to support journalists’ efforts to resist misinformation through the use of digital journalism tools.

The series is aimed at journalists and journalism or communication studies students and will take place between February and May 2022. The first workshop will take place online, on 24 February 2022, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Participation is free of charge, after pre-registration. Seats are limited.

Participants will have the opportunity to take part in workshops that will provide them with skills needed to engage with mobile journalism, writing for social media, live blogging and fact-checking.

You can express your interest to participate in the workshops by completing this form.

The project will culminate with the creation of a series of learning modules which will be accompanied with short explainer videos.

For more information visit https://jouredis.cut.ac.cy

 

Focus: To support journalists’ efforts to resist misinformation through the use of digital journalism tools

Funding: U.S. Department of State’s Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund (AEIF)

Status: Completed

Related Publications

Varda, C. & Kyza, E. A. (2024, June 10-14). Reflective considerations: The theoretical and practical issues of applying the AIR framework on social media. In C. Chinn, S. Barzilai (Organizers), Understanding and Promoting Epistemic Growth: Applying the AIR and Apt-AIR Frameworks. [Symposium]. Presented at the 2024 Annual Meeting of International Society for the Learning Sciences (ISLS). Buffalo, USA.

Varda, C., Kyza, E. A. & Chinn, C. (2024, June 10-14). Capturing epistemic engagement on social media. Poster presented at the 2024 Annual Meeting of International Society for the Learning Sciences (ISLS). Buffalo, USA.

Varda, C. & Kyza, E. A. (2023, June 12-15). Climate change encounters online: Epistemic engagement and emotions on social media. In Proceedings of the 17th International Conference of the Learning Sciences – ICLS 2023. Presented at the 2023 Annual Meeting of the International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS). Montreal, Canada.

Kyza, E. A. & Varda, C. (2023, June 12-15). What influences epistemic actions on social media? In Proceedings of the 17th International Conference of the Learning Sciences – ICLS 2023. Presented at the 2023 Annual Meeting of the International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS). Montreal, Canada.

Back to Projects

JOUREDIS: Digital journalism against misinformation

The Media, Cognition and Learning (MCL) research group of the Department of Communication and Internet Studies at the Cyprus University of Technology announces a series of workshops focused on addressing misinformation through digital journalism.

JOUREDIS is a one-year program (2021-2022) and is funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund (AEIF). The project is realized by the Media, Cognition and Learning Research Group at the Department of Communication and Internet Studies of the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT), in collaboration with the non-profit organization Media What and the Cyprus International Institute for Environmental and Public Health also at CUT.

PROJECT AIMS

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a heightened demand for news articles that concern health, and has increased people’s daily contact with scientific issues. Even though there are more journalists reporting on public health issues today, the easy access to online information, regardless of credibility, has highlighted the dangers that lurk in relation to the spread of misinformation. JOUREDIS is a project that aims to support journalists’ efforts to resist misinformation through the use of digital journalism tools.

The series is aimed at journalists and journalism or communication studies students and will take place between February and May 2022. The first workshop will take place online, on 24 February 2022, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Participation is free of charge, after pre-registration. Seats are limited.

Participants will have the opportunity to take part in workshops that will provide them with skills needed to engage with mobile journalism, writing for social media, live blogging and fact-checking.

You can express your interest to participate in the workshops by completing this form.

The project will culminate with the creation of a series of learning modules which will be accompanied with short explainer videos.

For more information visit https://jouredis.cut.ac.cy

Fighting MisInformation: Joint actions by and for young people in Cyprus

The “ANTIbodies to MISinformation” and the “Co-creating Media Literate Youth” teams presented a very special event, marking the successful completion of the projects on Misinformation and Media Education.

Where: Cyprus University of Technology, Tassos Papadopulos Building ·
When: Sunday, November 28, 2021
Time: 10:00 – 15:00

The projects were promoted and implemented by the Open University of Cyprus and the Cyprus Youth Council and funded by the US Embassy through the Cyprus University of Technology in the framework of the European Horizon 2020 “Co-Inform Project”, in collaboration with the Pedagogical Institute of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports and Youth.

The event was open to the public and targeted primarily all students aged 12 and above, teenagers and adult learners, youth workers, youth organisations, journalists, and various educational stakeholders including teachers and parents.

Watch the welcome addresses and the panel discussion of the event:

The participants actively took part in workshops and discussions, informed about the lessons learnt and celebrated the achievements of the “Antibodies in Misinformation” and “Co-creating Media Literate Youth” projects.

For more information visit https://medialiteracy.cut.ac.cy/fightingmisinformation

ISLS Best Design Paper Award 2021

We are happy to announce that Andria Agesilaou and Dr Eleni Kyza’s submission “Empowering students to be data literate: The design and implementation of a learning environment to foster critical data literacy” has received the Best Design Paper Award at the 2021 Annual Meeting of the International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS 2021).

The theme of the Conference was “Reflecting the Past and Embracing the Future” and it took place virtually from June 7-11, 2021. The submission was presented as a full paper.

Download and read the submission in the ISLS 2021 conference proceedings here (p. 458-465).

Co-inform & ICA event 29-30 September 2021

With the culmination of our work for Co-Inform, the European-funded H2020 project that our Research Group has been involved in, we invite you to join two online events that will take place on 29 and 30 September 2021, online, and will present the work we have completed in the context of our three-year research project, as well as key findings and implications for policymaking and future research and on misinformation. 

You can register for a first-hand experience of the tools we have developed to support citizens, journalists and policymakers when faced with misinformation by completing this form

Following the demo, we also invite you to join the 55th ICA Conference themed: The New Normal: ” A radical leap to digital,one giant step for digital society” during which Co-Inform will share the project’s main insights from the tools’ evaluations and discuss future directions concerning misinformation research and policy implications for combating misinformation on social media. You can view the agenda here, and register for the event here

The Co-Inform project included top universities and SMEs from 7 European countries and reached its conclusion in July. The project aimed to co-create tools that would foster critical thinking and media and information literacy for a better-informed society. These tools stemmed from the needs and misinformation challenges of citizens, journalists and policymakers; they were iteratively designed and evaluated with policymakers, journalists, and citizens in three different EU countries (Austria,Greece, Sweden).