What Students Should Really Learn to Be Successful Crowdfunders

Crowdfunding is an increasingly important competency and we seek to determine the key skills a student needs in order to run a successful campaign. We conducted meta-analysis of the literature where we identified each skill or core concept identified as a key to running a successful campaign. Next, we created skill clusters—groups of similar skills that operate on a common theme. We then either correlated each of the skills in a skill cluster with a concept or construct used in entrepreneurial classes or business classes in general. We also provide a list of educator resources for teaching crowdfunding

Creation of open educational resources (OER) and digital and media competences of future teachers

The digital and media competencies of future teachers are foundational for driving positive change in education. Recognizing this, and addressing the gaps in new media proficiency among pre-service teachers, a pedagogical experiment was designed to enhance their creative use of new technologies. In the 2023/2024 academic year, a new initiative was introduced at Jagiellonian University, Poland, aimed at improving pre-service teachers' knowledge and skills in creating open educational resources (OER). Leveraging the theoretical and diagnostic framework of the international REMEDIS project, a series of activities were conducted over multiple sessions, enabling pre-service teachers to develop their own original OER using video tutorials. Quantitative research conducted during this experiment revealed the following insights: 1) The proposed training model has significantly enhanced teachers' digital competence and shows promise for long-term implementation; 2) However, one area needing improvement is the dissemination of OER (e.g., via YouTube). While YouTube is widely used, this does not necessarily mean that all participants are proficient in uploading videos to popular platforms; 3) As age increases, there is a noticeable decline in digital competence among teachers in certain areas; 4) An effective training program should have highly focused learning objectives related to the essential skills for creating, editing, and sharing OER; 5) Overloading the program with additional digital and media skills does not effectively improve teachers' competence in OER creation

A study on the digital competence of teachers in the use of YouTube as a teaching resource according to gender, age, and years of teaching experience

The purpose of this study was to describe the teacher's self-perceived level digital competence in the use of YouTube as a learning resource. As specific objectives, the level of competence was compared across the variables gender, age, and years of experience. For this, a non-experimental, quantitative, and ex post facto design was used. Data collection was carried out in the last quarter of 2022, with a sample of 2,157 respondents. The results showed that the self-perceived level was high in relation to the ability to search and share information, although it was medium-to-low for the creation of content. Regarding gender, significant differences were found in favor of the male teacher. Regarding age and years of teaching, significant and negative correlations were found, with an inverse relationship between the increase in age and experience and the decrease in digital competence

How to shape digital competences among pre-service teachers : a global expert analysis

The article explores how to shape digital competences among pre-service teachers within the university education system. It addresses the challenges posed by the rapid development of the information society and the growing digitisation of education, necessitating the redefinition of existing teacher education models. Using the Delphi method, 36 media education experts from six continents were interviewed between June and August 2022. They identified 12 versatile solutions to enhance the effectiveness of digital competence formation in academia. These solutions aim to improve the content, methods, and forms of teacher education, ensuring future pedagogical staff are better prepared to integrate ICT into education. Additionally, the article highlights the multidimensional opportunities for fostering digital competences, which are essential skills in K12 and university education and integral to lifelong learning. The study underscores the global significance of equipping pre-service teachers with these competencies to meet the demands of contemporary education systems

The digital competence of the rural teacher of primary education in the mentoring process : a study by teaching speciality and gender

Purpose : to know the digital competence of rural teachers to carry out the tutoring process with members of the educational community through digital resources (teacher-student, teacher-families and teacher-teaching team). As specific objectives, gender, teaching specialties, interaction between gender*teaching speciality, and significant predictors were analysed. Design/methodology/approach : the research was quantitative, with a non-experimental, cross-sectional, descriptive and inferential design. Findings : the results showed an explorer-expert teacher, where the generalist teachers had a superior competence compared to the rest of the specialties. Gender and teaching speciality were significant predictors in the communication that the teacher has with all the agents involved, while the interaction of both predictors was only significant between the teacher-teaching team and teacher-families. Research limitations/implications : another issue worth considering relates to the development of the classification tree for the use of digital resources in tutorial action. Due to lack of space, the proposal has focused on gender and particular subjects, but it would be interesting to focus on the dimensions of the instrument with regard to tutorial action with the different agents (students, teaching staff and families). Originality/value : after reviewing the literature, the authors can conclude that very little quantitative research is focused on the level of self-perception of digital competence of teachers in rural schools. Furthermore, the teaching speciality of teachers has up until now hardly been taken into account as a variable that can determine the levels of digital competence. Not many studies have analysed the use of digital resources to communicate with the different members of the educational community

Teaching digital competence in the use of YouTube and its incidental factors: Development of an instrument based on the UTAUT model from a higher order PLS-SEM approach

The increasing use of digital resources has changed the way of teaching, where platforms such as YouTube offer large repositories of educational videos. There are many theoretical studies that analyse the digital competences of teachers, but to a lesser extent on the behaviours and use that the teacher makes of this multimedia platform. Thus, the purpose of this study is the development of an instrument in which it is analysed how the behavioural intention of teachers on YouTube impacts their digital competence to search and select information, share information, and interact with other users of the platform, and create educational material. To achieve this, following the partial least squares (PLS) method of structural equation models, a higher-order causal model was proposed based on an adaptation and extension of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). The study was carried out with a sample of 2157 teachers from all over Spain. The main result was that behavioural intention explained 22.70% of the true variance of teachers' digital competence. In addition, it has been possible to verify the reliability, convergent and discriminant validity of the established causal relationships, determining a model with acceptable goodness-of-fit. These findings show that it is a valid and reliable instrument to measure teachers' digital competences on YouTube, behavioural intention, and the system of relationships between factors.Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málaga/CBU

Tunable electron-electron interactions in LaAlO3/SrTiO3 nanostructures

The interface between the two complex oxides LaAlO3 and SrTiO3 has remarkable properties that can be locally reconfigured between conducting and insulating states using a conductive atomic force microscope. Prior investigations of sketched quantum dot devices revealed a phase in which electrons form pairs, implying a strongly attractive electron-electron interaction. Here, we show that these devices with strong electron-electron interactions can exhibit a gate-tunable transition from a pair-tunneling regime to a single-electron (Andreev bound state) tunneling regime where the interactions become repulsive. The electron-electron interaction sign change is associated with a Lifshitz transition where the dxz and dyz bands start to become occupied. This electronically tunable electron-electron interaction, combined with the nanoscale reconfigurability of this system, provides an interesting starting point towards solid-state quantum simulation.Comment: 25 pages, 7 figure

Understanding variation in salamander ionomes: A nutrient balance approach

Ecological stoichiometry uses information on a few key biological elements (C, N, and P) to explain complex ecological patterns. Although factors driving variation in these elements are well-established, expanding stoichiometric principles to explore dynamics of the many other essential elements comprising biological tissues (i.e., the ionome) is needed to determine their metabolic relationships and better understand biological control of elemental flows through ecosystems. 2. In this paper, we report observations of ionomic variation in two species of salamander (Ambystoma opacum and A. talpoideum) across ontogenic stages using specimens from biological collections of two wetlands sampled over a 30-year period. This unique data set allowed us to explore the extent of ionomic variation between species, among ontogenic stages, between sites, and through time. 3. We found species- and to a lesser extent site-specific differences in C, N, and P along with 13 other elements forming salamander ionomes but saw no evidence of temporal changes. Salamander ionomic composition was most strongly related to ontogeny with relatively higher concentrations of many elements in adult males (i.e., Ca, P, S, Mg, Zn, and Cu) compared to metamorphic juveniles, which had greater amounts of C, Fe, and Mn. 4. In addition to patterns of individual elements, covariance among elements was used to construct multi-elemental nutrient balances, which revealed differences in salamander elemental composition between species and sites and changes in elemental proportions across ontogenic development. These multi-elemental balances distinguished among species-site-ontogenic stage groups better than using only C, N, and P. 5. Overall, this study highlights the responsiveness of consumer ionomes to life-history and environmental variation while reflecting underlying relationships among elements tied to biological function. As such, ionomic studies can provide important insights into factors shaping consumer elemental composition and for predicting how these changes might affect higher-order ecological processes