eLSE 2017 Could technology support learning ...

eLSE 2017 Editor

Ion ROCEANU

Florica MOLDOVEANU

Teodora CHICIOREANU

Carmen HOLOTESCU

Alin MOLDOVEANU

Nicoleta LITOIU

Gabriela GROSSECK

Daniel BELIGAN

Maria DASCALU

Dragos BARBIERU

Could technology support learning efficiency? Volume II

eLearning and Software for Education Conference Bucharest, April 27 – 28, 2017

_______________________________ Publisher: “CAROL I” National Defence University Publishing House Director: Alexandru STOICA Panduri Street, 68-72 Bucharest Phone: +40213194880 _______________________________

ISSN 2066-026X ISSN-L 2066-026X ISSN CD 2343 - 7669

Further information on all eLearning and Software for Education – eLSE – events can be found at: www.elseconference.eu

All the papers published in this book were verified for plagiarism using the Turnitin Originality Check software provided by TURNITIN

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage on databanks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the Romanian Copyright Law of March 14, 1996 in its current version, and permission for use will always be obtained from Carol I National Defence University. Violations are liable for prosecution under the Romanian Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of the specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for the general use. Administrative & Technical Committee Daniel BELIGAN, Gheorghe ANGHEL, Ștefanel ROSCAN, Catalin RADU, Gabriel DOBRESCU, Roxana ELSAHAT,

"Carol I" National Defense University, Romania, "Carol I" National Defense University, Romania "Carol I" National Defense University, Romania "Carol I" National Defense University, Romania "Carol I" National Defense University, Romania "Carol I" National Defense University, Romania

Technical editor Gabriela CHIRCORIAN, "Carol I" National Defense University, Romania

eLSE 2017 The 13th International Scientific Conference “eLearning and Software for Education”

Could technology support learning efficiency?

Volume II

Conference Chairman: Professor Dr. Ion ROCEANU, “Carol I” National Defence University, Bucharest, Romania Scientific Committee: Dr. Sae SCHATZ, Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Initiative, USA Dr. Adrian CURAJ, Centre for Strategic Management and Quality Assurance in Higher Education, Romania Dr. Gheorghe CALOPAREANU, Rector "Carol I" National Defence University, Romania Dr. Romita IUCU, Vice-Rector, University of Bucharest, Romania Dr. Vasilica GRIGORE, Vice-Rector, National University of Physical Education and Sport Bucharest, Romania Dr. Eng. Florica MOLDOVEANU, University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest, Romania Dr. Lucian Ion CIOLAN, Dean, Faculty of University of Bucharest, Romania Dr. Jannicke BAALSRUD HAUGE, Bremer Institut fur Produktion und Logistik (BIBA), Germany Dr. Doina BANCIU, National Institute for Research & Development in Informatics Bucharest, Romania Dr. Dragos BARBIERU, "Carol I" National Defence University, Romania Dr. Diana ANDONE, "Politehnica" University Timisoara, Romania Dr. Mirela BLAGA, "Gheorghe Asachi" Technical University of Iasi, Romania Dr. Daniel BELIGAN, "Carol I" National Defence University, Romania Dr. Adrian ADASCALITEI, "Gheorghe Asachi" Technical University of Iasi, Romania Dr. Carmen Elena CIRNU, National Institute for Research & Development in Informatics Bucharest, Romania Dr. Anca Daniela IONITA, University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest, Romania Dr. Anca Cristina COLIBABA, "Grigore T.Popa" University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Iasi, Romania Dr. Stefan COLIBABA, "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University of Iasi, Romania Dr. Calin CORCIOVA, "Grigore T.Popa" University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Iasi, Romania Dr. Sara DE FREITAS, Serious Games Institute, Coventry University Technology Park, United Kingdom

Dr. Malinka IVANOVA, Technical University of Sofia, Bulgaria Radu JUGUREANU, Siveco Romania, Romania Dr. John FISCHER, Bowling Green Ohio State University, Ohio Dr. Theo LIM, Heriot-Watt University, UK Dr. Bogdan LOGOFATU, University of Bucharest Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Romania Dr. Grzegorz MAZURKIEWICZ, Jagiellonian University, Poland Dr. Alin MOLDOVEANU, Politehnica" University Bucharest, Romania Dr. Catalin RADU, ADL Romania Association, Romania Dr. Laura MURESAN, Academy of Economic Studies Bucharest, Romania Dr. Michela OTT, Institute for Educational Technology, CNR, Italy Dr. Knud ILLERIS, Aarhus University, DenmarkDr. Cristina MIRON, University of Bucharest, Romania Dr. Florin POPENTIU -VLADICESCU, Academy of Romanian Scientists, Romania Dr. Cristina NICULESCU, Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence "Mihai Draganescu", Romanian Academy, Romania Cosmin HERMAN, SC eLearning & Software SRL, Romania Dr. Stefan TRAUSAN-MATU, "Politehnica" University Bucharest, Romania Dr. Neculai Eugen SEGHEDIN, "Gheorghe Asachi" Technical University of Iasi, Romania Dr. Valeriu PATRICIU, Military Technical Academy, Romania Dr. Dragos Marian POPESCU, University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Craiova, Romania Dr. Virgil POPESCU, University of Craiova, Romania Dr. Mireille RADOI, "Carol I" Central University Library, Romania Dr. Emanuel SOARE, University of Pitesti, Romania Ioana STEFAN, ADL Romania Association, Romania Dr. Monica STANESCU, National University of Physical Education and Sport of Bucharest, Romania Dr. Veronica STEFAN, "Valahia" University of Targoviste, Romania Dr. Teodora Daniela CHICIOREANU, "Politehnica" University Bucharest, Romania Dr. Katheryna SYNYTSYA, IRTC ITS, Ukraine Dr. Marius TURNEA, "Grigore T Popa" University of Iasi, Romania Dr. Maria-Iuliana DASCALU, University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest, Romania Dr. Marin VLADA, University of Bucharest, Romania

Dr. Alessandro GLORIA, University of Genoa, Italy Dr. Gabriela GROSSECK, West University of Timisoara, Romania Dr. Christian GLAHN, Open University of the Netherlands, Netherland Dr. Carmen HOLOTESCU, "Politehnica" University Timisoara, Romania Dr. Phil ICE, American Public University System, West Virginia, USA Dr. Olimpius ISTRATE, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Switzerland

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CONTENTS GEOGRAPHIC VISUALIZATIONS OF THE E-LEARNING USAGE IN ROMANIA .............11 Ștefan-Lucian BUCUR, Florica MOLDOVEANU LEVEL OF STUDENTS’ CRITICAL THINKING ENGAGEMENT IN AN ONLINE INSTRUCTIONAL MULTIMEDIA DEVELOPMENT SCENARIO-BASED DISCUSSION FORUM ...................................................................................18 Siti Nazleen ABDUL RABU, Baharuddin ARIS, Zaidatun TASIR INTEGRATION OF EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES IN UNIVERSITIES AND STUDENTS' PERCEPTION THEREOF ...............................................................................26 Armenia ANDRONICEANU, Sorin BURLACU INTELLIGENT SYSTEM FOR ASSESSMENT AND GRADING BASED ..................................33 ON DOCIMOLOGIC TESTS Armenia ANDRONICEANU, Sorin BURLACU AN ADAPTIVE MULTIMODAL INTERFACE TO IMPROVE ELDERLY PEOPLE'S REHABILIATION EXERCISES ...............................................................41 Imad Alex AWADA, Andra CODREANU, Irina MOCANU, Adina Magda FLOREA, Mihaela APOSTU WEBRTC BASED ELEARNING PLATFORM ...............................................................................48 Titus BALAN, Alexandra STANCIU, Florin SANDU, Stefania SURARIU OPEN SOURCE TECHNOLOGIES IN TEACHING INTERNET OF THINGS .........................56 Ioana CULIC, Alexandru RADOVICI IT'S REALLY FACEBOOK AN E-LEARNING INSTRUMENT? ................................................62 Razvan DINA, Mihaela DOBREA, Bogdan Cristian ONETE EVOIPEAZY: ELEARNING TOOL FOR UNDERSTANDING ADVANCED VOIP CONCEPTS .......................................................................................................68 Cristina-Loredana DUTA, Alexandru-Ion BACIU, Laura RUSE, Nicolae TAPUS CRITICAL CONSIDERATIONS ABOUT THE ADOPTION OF TECHNOLOGY-INTEGRATED TEACHING METHODS IN HIGHER EDUCATION .................................................................................................................77 Manuela EPURE, Lorena Clara MIHĂEȘ VIRTUAL LABORATORY FOR TRAINING IN THE FIELD OF DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSING .................................................................84 Tsvetozar GEORGIEV, Georgi KRASTEV, Elitsa IBRYAMOVA HTML5 BASED SYSTEM FOR MOBILE LEARNING .................................................................90 Tsvetozar GEORGIEV, Hristo DIMITROV, Evgeniya GEORGIEVA ONLINE COURSE CUSTOMIZATION USING ONTOLOGIES .................................................98 Oana Sorina LUPȘE, Mihaela CRIȘAN-VIDA, Lăcrămioara STOICU-TIVADAR USING VPYTHON PROGRAMMING FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY LEARNING AND PROBLEM SOLVING ......................................................................................106 Daly MARCIUC, Cristina MIRON

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PROPOSING A SECURE FRAMEWORK FOR ELEARNING PLATFORMS USING ATTRIBUTE BASED ENCRYPTION.....................................................114 Stefania Loredana NITA, Marius Iulian MIHAILESCU SKY OBSERVATIONS IN THE PHYSICS CLASS – DETECTION OF ARTIFICIAL SATELLITES USING A SMARTPHONE..............................120 Marin OPREA THE USE OF SMARTPHONES IN THE PHYSICS CLASS: DISTANCE MEASUREMENTS ......................................................................................................128 Marin OPREA CURRENT TRENDS IN THE USE OF ICT IN TEACHING. CASE STUDY - BUCHAREST UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMIC STUDIES ..............................136 Monica Elisabeta PADURARU, Alexandru Robert MIHAILA ‘THEORY OF INVENTIVE PROBLEM SOLVING’ (TRIZ) METHODOLOGY APPLIED IN ELEARNING PROCESS ........................................................144 Gabriela Dana PETROPOL-SERB, Ion PETROPOL-SERB DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF AN ONLINE LEARNING APPLICATION TO STUDY A VIRTUAL E-BANKING SYSTEM ............................................150 Valentin PUPEZESCU, Radu RĂDESCU, Sever PAŞCA ENHANCING THE SECURITY LEVEL OF THE NEW VERSION OF THE EASY-LEARNING ONLINE PLATFORM ....................................................................158 Radu RĂDESCU, Sever PAŞCA ULTRA SLOW MOTION INTELLIGENT TRAINING – ONE YEAR TRAINING RESULTS. A CASE STUDY .................................................................164 Petre RĂDESCU, Silvia TEODORESCU, Iulian BĂBĂLAU COMPUTERISED LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT: LIMITATIONS AND OPPORTUNITIES .......................................................................................173 Tatiana RASSKAZOVA, Anna MUZAFAROVA Julia DAMINOVA, Anna OKHOTNIKOVA FACE RECOGNITION FOR EDUCATION IN THE CLOUD ....................................................181 George-Alex STELEA, Cristinel GAVRILĂ, Sorin ZAMFIR, Radu CURPEN CREATING A LEARNING SPACE FOR COLLABORATION, COMMUNICATION AND INTERACTION ..................................................................................189 Robin STØCKERT, George Adrian STOICA PeLe – A TOOL TO SUPPORT LEARNING THROUGH IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK ..............................................................................................................197 George Adrian STOICA, Raoul Pascal PEIN, Robin STØCKERT VIRTUALIZED VIDEO AND CLOUD COMPUTING FOR EFFICIENT ELEARNING......................................................................................................205 George SUCIU, Muneeb ANWAR, Roxana MIHALCIOIU USE OF LIQUID CARGO HANDLING SIMULATOR FOR TRAINING OF MARINE CADETS AND OFFICERS ........................................................211 Alecu TOMA, Alexandru COTORCEA, Dinu ATODIRESEI

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COGNITIVE LOAD SHORT TERM MEMORY EVALUATION BASED ON EEG TECHNIQUES.....................................................................................................217 Florina UNGUREANU, Corina CÎMPANU, Tiberius DUMITRIU, Vasile Ion MANTA A REVIEW OF EDUCATIONAL CONTENT FOR ADULTS WITH CYSTIC FIBROSIS ...............................................................................................................225 Tamara VAGG, Sabin TABIRCA, Joeseph EUSTACE, Barry PLANT LUDIC-EVALUATION AND STUDENT ENGAGEMENT IN ENGINEERING: THE CASE OF THERMODYNAMICS COURSE.........................................................................234 Julian YEPES-MARTINEZ EXPERIENCES IN ONLINE COLLABORATIVE LEARNING WITH AUGMENTED REALITY ....................................................................................................239 Diana AND ONE, Mark FRYDENBERG TRENDS IN BLENDING UNIVERSITY COURSES WITH MOOCS ........................................247 Razvan BOGDAN, Huseyin BICEN, Carmen HOLOTESCU HOW MOOCS ARE BEING USED FOR CORPORATE TRAINING? .....................................254 Razvan BOGDAN, Carmen HOLOTESCU, Diana AND ONE, Gabriela GROSSECK GENERIC ONLINE ALGORITHM INTERPRETER WITH DYNAMIC DATA VISUALIZATIONS. CASE STUDY ON SORTING ALGORITHMS .............................................................................262 Ciprian-Bogdan CHIRILA, Remy RAES TOWARDS THE ENHANCEMENT OF AGLOS WITH SCORM AND XAPI .........................268 Ciprian-Bogdan CHIRILA ACTING LIKE A HISTORIAN IN A TECHNOLOGY BASED CLASS ...................................275 Nicolae HURDUZEU, Dana CRĂCIUN PEDAGOGY ISSUES IN MOOCS. CHALLENGES IN ASSESSMENT IN ONLINE ECONOMICS COURSES ...........................................................................................283 Maria Liana LĂCĂTUȘ, Camelia STĂICULESCU, Corina CACE TECHNOLOGY USE AND THE NEEDS OF LEARNERS .........................................................289 Giles PEPLER BIG DATA TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION. OPPORTUNITIES, OFFERINGS AND CHALLENGES ...................................295 Livia STEFAN OPEN ONLINE COURSES FOR BUSINESS: THE M-COMMERCE CASE ...........................304 Radu VASIU, Muguras MOCOFAN, Andrei TERNAUCIUC, Silviu VERT I AM A TEACHER IN THE DIGITAL ERA. WHAT TO CHOOSE: GOOGLE CLASSROOM OR MOODLE? .....................................................................................310 Teodora Daniela CHICIOREANU, Ioana COSMA HOW THE POTENTIAL OF ICT IS INTEGRATED IN COUNSELLING AND GUIDANCE THROUGHOUT ROMANIA ...........................................................................316 Angela ANDREI, Andreea-Diana SCODA COMMITMENT AT THE WORKPLACE – IMPLICATIONS AT PERSONAL AND ORGANISATIONAL LEVEL ...................................................................324 Ramona Cristina BALANESCU

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TRAINING WITH REAL TIME SIMULATOR FOR SMART SPECIALIZATION ...............331 Vasile CALOFIR, Ioana FAGARASAN, Nicoleta ARGHIRA, Iulia STAMATESCU, Grigore STAMATESCU, Sergiu Stelian ILIESCU, Daniela HOSSU REFLECTIONS ON THE RESULTS OF EXPLOITING A DIGITAL TOOL IN MONITORING THE CONVERGENCE OF UNIVERSITY WITH THE LABOUR MARKET ....................................................................................................337 Venera-Mihaela COJOCARIU, Iulia DĂMIAN CLUSTER COMPETITVENESS PLATFORM .............................................................................345 Daniel Alexandru COȘNIȚĂ, Neculai Eugen SEGHEDIN DEVELOPING PRE-SERVICE SCIENCE TEACHERS TPACK CONFIDENCE THROUGH WEB BASED COMICS....................................................................................................................352 Dana CRĂCIUN, Mădălin BUNOIU COUNSELING TECHNICAL EDUCATION STUDENTS FOR THE TEACHING PROFESSION ...........................................................................................360 Elena Oliviana EPURESCU ARCHITECTURE FOR RESEARCH, TRAINING AND EDUCATION IN CONTROL ENGINEERING ......................................................................................................365 Daniela HOSSU, Ioana FAGARASAN, Sergiu Stelian ILIESCU, Andrei HOSSU, Grigore STAMATESCU, Iulia STAMATESCU, Nicoleta ARGHIRA, Vasile CALOFIR ONLINE FEEDBACK IN LEARNING. STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS .....................................371 Maria Gratiela IANOS MOODLE PLATFORM IN LEARNING: STUDENT’S VOICE .................................................379 Maria Gratiela IANOS, Gabriela Carmen OPROIU ICT’s AS RESOURCES FOR EMPOWERING VULNERABLE YOUNG ADULTS FACING LABOUR MARKET CHALLENGES ...........................................387 Nicoleta LITOIU DOES THE INTERNET SHAPE OUR MIND? THE CASE OF VIRTUAL EMPATHY IN FUTURE TEACHERS ..................................................................397 Loredana MANASIA, Teodora Daniela CHICIOREANU METHODOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF DESIGNING ONLINE TEACHING ACTIVITIES ...............................................................................................405 Gabriela Carmen OPROIU SOCIAL MEDIA COMPETENCES IN EDUCATIONAL FRAMEWORK ...............................411 Daniela POPA, Liliana ROGOZEA SOCIAL MEDIA AND DIGITAL INTERACTIONS USING CLOUD SERVICES FOR ORIENTING YOUNG PEOPLE IN THEIR CAREERS .....................................................419 George SUCIU, Muneeb ANWAR, Radu CONU INSIGHT TESTTOOLKIT – A MULTIDIMENSIONAL ONLINE APPROACH TO STUDENTS’ CAREER COUNSELING AND GUIDANCE ...........................425 Elena UNGUREANU BEHAVIORAL PATTERNS IN SMART LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS TO ENHANCE EMPLOYABILITY ................................................................................................430 Roxana POSTELNICU, Maria-Iuliana DASCALU, Elena Laura TRIFAN, Elisabeth LAZAROU, Constanta-Nicoleta BODEA

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ESTABLISH - LINK BETWEEN RESEARCH AND EDUCATION ..........................................438 Ana-Maria BALDEA, Mihaela GARABET OCULUS RIFT USED TO ASSESSMENT AND REHABILITATION OF POSTURE AND GAIT ................................................................................................................444 Mihaela Ioana BARITZ INTERNET OF THINGS IN EDUCATION: A CASE STUDY FOR LEARNING AGRICULTURE ................................................................................................450 Jullia BIRSAN, Diana STAVARACHE, Maria-Iuliana DASCALU, Ionel Bujorel PAVALOIU, Ana Maria NEAGU TROCMAER TREATING ACROPHOBIA WITH THE HELP OF VIRTUAL REALITY .............................458 Călin COSMA, Oana BĂLAN, Alin MOLDOVEANU, Anca MORAR, Florica MOLDOVEANU, Cristian TASLITCHI BIOMETRIC DATA IN LEARNING ANALYTICS: A SURVEY ON EXISTING APPLICATIONS ....................................................................................................465 Viviana Elena DINU, Dalia PAPUC, Alexandru GHEORGHIU, Maria-Iuliana DASCALU, Alin MOLDOVEANU, Florica MOLDOVEANU THE MATH OF PROGRAMMING - INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH ...........................473 Roxana DRAGANOIU, Alin MOLDOVEANU, Adriana BRAESCU POKÉMON GO, A FINANCIAL STRATEGY OR A MODERN FIGHT AGAINST SEDENTARY LIFESTYLE? .........................................................................................482 Corina IVAN A SERIOUS GAME FOR IMPROVING ELDERLY MOBILITY BASED ON USER EMOTIONAL STATE ......................................................................................487 Irina MOCANU, Ovidiu Andrei SCHIPOR TRAINING BASED ON VIRTUAL SIMULATORS. CASE STUDY FOR IMPROVING PARKING SKILLS .........................................................................................495 Nicholas Uzoma MUOH, Imad ABDUL-KARIM, Stefan Octavian ROSU Maria-Iuliana DASCALU, Iulia-Cristina STANICA SOCIAL MEDIA AND VIRTUAL PLATFORMS FACILITATOR'S FOR INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE ...........................................................................................502 Ana-Maria NEAGU, Bujor Ionel PĂVĂLOIU, Liviu Mihail MATEESCU EMERGENT TECHNOLOGIES FOR LEARNING ANALYTICS .............................................509 Ioan Cosmin RADU MODELLING CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS USING ONLINE PLATFORMS ..................515 Cristina SAVIN, Călin COJOCARU Florica MOLDOVEANU, Alin MOLDOVEANU ENVIRONMENTAL SENSING AND LEARNING HUMAN BEHAVIOR USING CLOUD COMPUTING AND BIG DATA TO ACT FOR A BETTER QUALITY OF LIFE AND SMART HEALTH ...............................................................................523 George SUCIU, Alexandru VULPE, Adrian PASAT, Robert COANCA INSTRUCTOR SOCIAL PRESENCE: A NEGLECTED COMPONENT OF THE COMMUNITY OF INQUIRY ..........................................................................................531 Jennifer C RICHARDSON, Patrick LOWENTHAL

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COMPARATIVE STUDY ON STUDENTS' PERCEPTION RELATED TO THE EFFICIENCY OF eEDUCATION ...................................................................................537 Olga Maria Cristina BUCOVETCHI, Radu D. STANCIU, Olga ANCHUGOVA SOCIAL MEDIA- AN ALTERNATIVE WAY WITH VARIOUS FORMS OF EDUCATION................................................................................................................543 Maria Magdalena POPESCU EXERCISING CRITICAL THINKING IN THE ONLINE ENVIRONMENT...........................550 Ruxandra BULUC APPLYING A GENERATIONAL-ORIENTED AND FLEXIBLE ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION FRAMEWORK TO DELIVER HIGHLY PERSONALIZED AND EFFICIENT LEARNING ACTIVITIES................................................................................556 Bryan D. ELDRIDGE, Cameron STEVENS SOCIAL MEDIA – THE PATH TO MILLENNIALS AND THE Y GENERATION ................564 Andrei GĂITĂNARU GENDER DIFFERENCES IN THE MOTIVES OF USING ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKS BY UNIVERSITY STUDENTS................................................................570 Dragoș Daniel IORDACHE TRANSCULTURAL CONTEXTS: NETWORKS OF LITERARY TRANSLATIONS ............578 Ramona MIHĂILĂ PATHWAYS FOR POSITIVE SOCIAL IMPACTS THROUGH DESIGNING COMMUNICATION STRATEGY AND TOOLS WITHIN ELEARNING PROJECTS ..........585 Andreea OGREZEANU, Anca Alexandra PURCĂREA, Andrei OGREZEANU TOWARDS AN ACCESSIBLE RESPONSE SYSTEM .................................................................593 Raoul Pascal PEIN, George Adrian STOICA ACCELERATED TEACHING AND LEARNING: ROLES AND CHALLENGES FOR LEARNERS AND TUTORS ....................................................................................................601 Dana RADLER, Irina BOCIANU ROMANIA AND THE E-LEARNING MUSICAL EDUCATION SYSTEMS............................609 Felician ROŞCA, Cristina Deiana STRUȚA, Mădălina DORGO ARE CURRENT MODELS OF TECHNOLOGY ACCEPTANCE EXPLANATORY ENOUGH? AN ANALYSIS OF POTENTIALLY UNDEREXPLOITED PSYCHOLOGICAL CORRELATES OF TECHNOLOGY ACCEPTANCE .............................616 Dorin STANCIU AGE DIFFERENCES AND PREFERENCES IN ONLINE BEHAVIOR. HOW AGEING AND DIGITAL CONNECTEDNESS ARE REFLECTED IN CURRENT RESEARCH REGARDING THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA ............................624 Dorin STANCIU VIDEOS, CULTURE AND SIGNIFICANT LEARNING: COLOMBIAN STUDENTS SPEAK ................................................................................................632 Iryna ZHYRUN INDEX OF AUTHORS ......................................................................................................................641

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The 13th International Scientific Conference eLearning and Software for Education Bucharest, April 27-28, 2017 10.12753/2066-026X-17-163

EXERCISING CRITICAL THINKING IN THE ONLINE ENVIRONMENT Ruxandra BULUC “Carol I” National Defense University, Sos.Panduri, 68-72, Bucharest, Romania [email protected]

Abstract: Critical thinking is a reflective mechanism that helps students to evaluate the information and knowledge that they acquire during classes or that they come into contact with in their everyday lives. Critical assessment aids students to ascertain the extent to which these concepts are relevant for and applicable to their lives, careers, purposes and personal experiences. Critical thinking requires students not solely to assimilate information but also to interact with it actively, to evaluate it, to understand whether or not it is accurate, to determine its role and the goal it may serve. Traditional classroom settings foster the development of critical thinking skills through interaction between students engaged in group activities as well as through careful prompting by the instructors. However, this traditional setting is no longer sufficient and does not assist students in developing these skills for the virtual world. This article suggests that the transfer of critical thinking skills to the online environment can be done in several ways in the e-learning process. The possible activities that incorporate these skills could be either individual (the student can interact with the problem or situation on his/her own) or they could be directed towards an already existing or newly formed learning community, in which students interact not only with the given task but also with each other and they stimulate each other to apply critical thinking skills. These types of interactive exercises could be adapted to suit the study domain of almost any student, since the formats are quite flexible and the instructor simply needs to incorporate the specific situation/case/scenario. Keywords: critical thinking; learning community; scenario; online environment.

I.

INTRODUCTION

Critical thinking has been deemed an essential component in the development of tertiary skills and competences that prepare graduate students for their future positions as well as for what may be considered the most important position, that of citizens who need to make discerning and informed decisions which impact and reflect their democratic roles. Critical thinking requires students to actively interact with the information they come into contact with and to draw informed conclusions relying on the light that their judgements shed on the facts they are presented with. Critical thinking is considered to be the most efficient tool in countering prejudice, bias and foregone conclusions and in promoting innovation, creativity and objective reasoning. However, the concept of critical thinking is still quite ambiguous even though the literature that has been dedicated to it is impressive. Moreover, there seems to be an endless debate on the best ways and approaches to teaching critical thinking, as although most instructors would agree on is importance they have not reached a consensus on the best methods to practice it. The discussion is further complicated by the fact that the on-line environment has started to take over the educational process and critical thinking needs to be adapted and incorporated into the curricula that is developed for this brave new digital world. The aim of the present paper is, firstly, to delve into what critical thinking actually is and what skills and competences is comprises and, secondly, to ascertain how the on-line environment could be utilized to promote the development of critical thinking.

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II. WHAT IS CRITICAL THINKING? The challenge behind defining and categorizing critical thinking resides in the plurality of fields that have tackled this issue, from logic to philosophy, from medical studies to political sciences. Each field has come up with a set of skills and competences that are considered relevant to foster the development of critical reasoning in that particular area of expertise. However, upon closer inspection, it becomes evident that the core should be similar as the thought processes and activities reside in the same area of the brain. Therefore, we shall attempt to tackle this somewhat controversial terrain and put forth a clear image of what critical thinking is and what it actually does. The reason logic is not sufficient when it comes to analysing arguments and other thought products is that it presupposes that thought follows a linear and clearly traceable path, that everything is explicit and that it can be judged in terms of right or wrong [20: 142]. Logical operations will produce a valid conclusion, which cannot be challenged. However, in real life, thinking activities are rarely this neatly organized and easily interpretable, nor are situations clear-cut so that they could be moulded into the dyadic form of deductive arguments that formal logic puts forth. Contemporary researchers into critical thinking no longer refer to formal logic. They focus on those cognitive processes that form and inform it. Michael Scriven and Richard Paul presented the following definition at the 8th Annual International Conference on Critical Thinking and Education Reform, in the summer of 1987 “Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action” [21]. As it can be noticed from this definition critical thinking presupposes a series of mental processes, used simultaneously or in turns but under the direct supervision of intellectual discipline and self-discipline. Or as Bloom [6] explained it is a manipulation of knowledge in that it combines the various processes of understanding, analysis, synthesis, evaluation. One more aspect that can be discerned from these definitions is that critical thinking is actually a two-fold process: on the one hand, it involves the observation, analysis, reflection on and evaluation of the cognitive products of others, while, on the other hand, it entails reasoning, experience, evaluation and communication of one’s own thoughts. As Sinnott-Armstrong & Fogelin explain, arguments are meant “to establish a definite proposition” [18: 3], but in order to do this, they need to be justified. Therefore, critical thinking comes in to establish whether an affirmation (of any kind, not necessarily in the form of an argument) is well justified and in order to do this, the skills above-mentioned skills are required. This is, in the authors’ opinion, more so the case when dealing with inductive arguments, i.e. arguments that are never either true or false, but are only as strong as the justifications and evidence they provide. Moreover, in both instances, of understanding others’ arguments and of producing one’s own, Moon [12: 26-7] explains that we are dealing with a further duality of critical thinking. It is both an activity and a representation of that activity, since we cannot directly communicate our mental processes, but we can only transmit to others representations of those activities, and those results could be called judgements or arguments. “Critical thinking is a capacity to work with complex ideas whereby a person can make effective provision of the evidence to justify a reasonable judgement” [12: 126]. What is worth retaining from this definition is the importance of the judgement in critical thinking. Judgement is not referred to in this case with its negative connotations, of passing judgement, sometimes rashly, on others’ beliefs or ideas. On the contrary, it refers to the act of taking one’s time and judging the information presented on its merits, while respecting and heeding the context in which it was produced, with a view to enhancing understanding, facilitating learning, improving the social context. “The idea of effective judgement implies effectiveness in the thinking, reasoning and argumentation and in the quality of the representation of the thinking in writing, speech, etc.” [12: 126]. This search for effective critical thinking entails a metacognitive level, that presuppose an active endeavour to think not only in order to produce or to assess a statement or information but also to examine the very mental processes that lead to this production or assessment. In order to produce such high level thinking skills, a very important component is flexibility and the ability or willingness to approach a situation from various perspectives depending on the context one finds oneself in. As de Bono has proven in Six Thinking Hats [10], the judgement one makes depends on the situation one finds oneself in and on the aspects one chooses to focus on.

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Context and personal beliefs influence the judgements we produce via rational means. One aspect that de Bono insisted on, and that other theoreticians [16], [9], [7] in the field of critical thinking have also focused on is emotion. Emotion, or better said, an awareness of pervasive emotionality in reasoning is quintessential in understanding and emitting sound judgements. Emotions influence thinking under many guises: beliefs, assumptions, values, personal experiences, they all have an emotional component that is generally left unchallenged and that surfaces, albeit unconsciously, both in the interpretation as well as in the production of arguments and judgements. One other aspect of critical thinking that researchers insist on is the ability to use language skilfully, since the representations of the cognitive process need to be coated in a linguistic forms. Clarity, cohesion and coherence and the three Cs that mark the beginning of good linguistic representation of critical thinking. A good judgement or argument needs to be expressed in as unambiguous terms as possible, the ideas it encompasses need to logically derive one from the other and this internal logicality needs to be expressed at the linguistic level as well. In order to better understand what critical thinking is, what the critical thinker needs to do and so to be able to project the types of activities that would foster the development of the necessary skills in the online environment, we shall summarize the features we have presented thus far. According to researchers [17], [12], [3], [5], [18], critical thinking is based on several skills:  Differentiating between facts and opinions;  Assessing the reliability and relevance of a source of information;  Assessing the factual accuracy of a statement;  Appraising the relevancy of information, claims, reasons;  Managing biases;  Awareness of unstated assumptions, beliefs and values;  Identifying ambiguous judgements or claims;  Recognizing reasoning fallacies;  Appreciating the strength of an argument. To these we would also add:  Identifying ambiguous formulations;  Understanding the actual claims that are made;  Analyzing the mental processes as well as their representations. A good critical thinker, consequently, needs to:  Keep an open-mind;  Adopt different perspectives in evaluating an argument or a judgement;  Accept the limitations of his/her knowledge;  Recognize the situations in which further documentation is needed;  Realize the importance of context;  Questions ambiguous or unclear statements;  Try to avoid emotional involvement or recognize when it occurs;  Maintain focus on the issue under analysis;  Address the issue in its totality. Given these two series of skills and abilities that form the basis for efficient, skilful and thoughtful critical thinking, the other issue that needs to be addressed is how these could be developed through teaching, first of all, and secondly, how the online environment could enhance their progress and prepare the next generation of critical thinkers for the challenges that an acephalous medium, such as the Internet, could pose to an accurate understanding and production of judgements and arguments. There are certain principles of pedagogy that can be applied to the development of critical thinking. First and foremost, there needs to a thorough shift from the simple absorption and retention of knowledge to contextual understanding and employment of concepts so that they become tools that create knowledge and understanding and not simply information stored and never utilized. Secondly, assessment can no longer remain a simple and shallow description or rendering of facts and information; it must move to in-depth analysis of causes, reasons, consequences, results, to an understanding of the mechanisms that organize knowledge, not simple memorization. Thirdly, links must be created between the information presented, the context that produced it and the particular context of the students. Relevancy increases interest and interest fosters greater and more in-depth

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interaction with the information presented. Moreover, the students need to understand that critical thinking serves them, is a useful compound skill that will assist them in life. Fourthly, flexibility needs to be encouraged, as students need to put themselves in different situations and understand the information they are presented with from various angles, especially when a critical judgement is required of them, or when they need to propose an argument themselves. A development of flexibility needs to take into account the beliefs, assumptions, values and biases that are inherent in discourse. Flexibility also leads to creativity since when perspectives shift, new light could be thrown onto a situation and new avenues of thought could be revealed. And finally, students must be encouraged to think about thinking. Critical thinking is, as we argued before, a compound skill as well as a metaskill. It investigates its subject matter while, at the same time, keeping its own processes under scrutiny. Given that these are the abilities that need to be developed, there are several types of activities that could achieve these results, all of which could be transferred to the on-line environment as the following section will demonstrate. III. WHAT CAN THE ON-LINE ENVIRONMENT DO FOR CRITICAL THINKING? First of all, it must be made clear that in the brave new digital world, critical thinking has become more important than ever. Massive amounts of information circle the Internet every second, information that could decide destinies, make or break careers, promote or threaten social or democratic values, endanger people’s very lives. In this overwhelming context, critical thinking could become a guiding light to the core issues, to a deeper understanding and management of judgements and beliefs, it could be the best defense for citizenship. As Scriven & Paul explain, “in its exemplary form, [critical thinking] is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness” [21]. As we will further argue, starting from this very definition and from the principles of democracy, critical thinking can be seen to play a major role in the shaping of a society in which individuals are able to make coherent and productive judgements on the actions of their representatives, as well as to make informed and accurate demands for governmental measures as they see themselves as integral parts of government and citizenry. As the United Nations [1] and the European Commission [2] push more and more for e-governance and digital economies as a means of obtaining and managing transparency in governmental affairs and as a way of promoting economic interests, citizens need to be more and more responsible for their own interpretations of the actions that shape their society and they need to make informed decisions about their representatives as well as put forth well-documented and argued proposal for matters, economic or otherwise, that concern them. As Stanley [19] explains, critical thinking is also seen as “essential to citizenship in a democratic society where citizens are confronted by persistent and complex social problems”. Along the same lines, Banks and Banks [4] explain that citizenship education also needs to promote understanding and appreciation of the multiple perspectives vital to a democratic society. A pluralistic democratic society can work only when its diverse groups really believe that they and those around them are an important part of the institutions and social structure in which they are immersed. Given its vital role for citizens in the 21st century, it is important to look at the ways in which using the very resources the Internet puts at the instructors’ disposal, different types of activities can be created that develop critical thinking. The first step in creating on-line activities that promote critical thinking is to develop communities of thoughtfulness, or, as Balcaen & Hirtz propose “thoughtful e-learning communities” [3: 173], meaning communities that encourage collaborative yet reflective processes of e-learning which have great potential for facilitating the development of critical thinking. In these communities, students are presented with opportunities to think critically in the guise of challenging questions that reflect the pedagogical principles presented above, as well as with “intellectual tools” [3: 174-5] to help them tackle those given questions. These intellectual tools are: the criteria for judgement; background knowledge; critical thinking vocabulary that reflects the activities the students need to get involved in; thinking strategies that help students apply critical thinking; and habits of mind that help students develop the questioning frame of mind that helps them identify the underlying assumptions,

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beliefs, biases and well as foster open-mindedness, empathy, circumspection. Moreover, students need to be made aware of the means of assessment of competence that they will be subjected to [3: 175]. Once such a community is organized, there are several types of activities that can be designed to put into practice [8], [14], [3]:  Scenarios rely of problem-based learning, meaning that the students are confronted with a real-life situation that is context sensitive and is of interest to them and they are assigned specific roles. The fact that the scenario unfolds on-line means that they need to have access to a platform such as google hangouts that allows the students to connect in real time. The activity can be timelapsed, meaning that the students receive the scenario some time before the on-line activity is scheduled to take place, allowing for better documentation on-line and for a chance to practice their critical thinking skills in the process of sifting through the information available on-line in order to select the most relevant aspects. The activity could also be done immediately after it is assigned, thus requiring the extra skill of brainstorming and allowing students to interact with one another more freely, fostering more creativity, as they are not conditioned by previously done research;  Mysteries or puzzles are, in a way, similar to scenarios, with one notable difference: all the students are given the same information and they are asked to uncover a solution from the facts as well as from their own research on-line. Moreover, clues could be hidden on several sites and students might be asked to find them, meaning that they would also practice their abilities to recognize useful information. The debate that ensues on-line as to the best solution to the mystery or puzzle will provide the students with the opportunity of practicing their own argumentproduction abilities as well as their skill to judge their peers’ arguments;  Blogs could be seen as both an individual form of critical thinking practice and as a group activity. In the first case, each student designs his/her own blog in which they are required to post reflections, analyses, evaluations, syntheses of different situations that the instructor assigns. To eliminate the solitariness of the activity, students could be asked to interact on each other’s blogs. Blogging could also be made into a group activity, with the instructor posting the situation/argument/judgement/information/fact and with students then employing the abovementioned intellectual tools to debate as a community and to reach a joint, well thought out conclusion if possible. If blogging is a group activity then it incorporates some aspects pertaining to debates;  Webinars could be used not only to give lectures, but also as a platform for real-time debates using video conferencing software. Students are presented with a problem and they each have to form an informed opinion on it that they present to the group for analysis. Critical thinking skills are thus employed both in the production and in the assessment of each student’s output. Moreover, using the other facilities that the software offers, materials can be shared, presentations can be made, videos can be viewed jointly, thus making webinars a much more integrative form of debating;  The concept of the Create-A-Problem exercise, as Bruning [8] proposed it, could be applied to many subjects. It involves students creating a problem themselves, not being presented with one by the instructor, based on whatever subject they have just studied, and using the principles of critical thinking. Each student then receives a problem to solve, either randomly or in pairs (depending on the way the instructor organizes the activity). As Bruning [8] explains, “This allowed the students to relate the problem to their life and incorporate the fundamentals of problem solving into a story problem that another student would answer” and it also avoids a possible drawback of instructor-suggested and driven activities, namely the level of difficulty or interest is either not sufficient or too high;  In order to support the students in their on-line searches, the instructor could comprise an online resource library for self-guided exploration that could at least indicate a few sites that students could start with, not limiting, but rather encouraging them to search on-line more extensively. All these activities can be developed in the thoughtful e-learning communities and they can help to create stronger bonds between the members of that community. But, more importantly, as Kellner so well puts it, they assist in the development of information literacy, which requires “learning how to distinguish between good and bad information, identifying misinformation, malinformation, messed-up information, and mostly useless information” [11: 253] As Kellner further details,

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information literacy is nowadays an integral part of education itself because it is important to learn “where information is found, how to produce knowledge and understanding, and how to critically evaluate and interpret information sources and material. It also raises questions of power and knowledge, concerning who decides that privileged information is, who gets to produce and valorize various modes of information, and whose ideas get circulated and discussed, and who gets marginalized” [11: 253]. This is what empowers students and turns them into active, interested, informed citizens who know that critical thinking is their strongest tool in promoting their interests and in understanding the world around them. IV. CONCLUSIONS The purpose of this article has been to better map out the concept of critical thinking, what a critical thinker needs to do, what the process entails, what contexts could foster the development of this compound skill, and how principles of pedagogy can be adapted to teaching critical thinking. Living in a digital world, the challenge that the amount of unprocessed information that is available on-line could not have been neglected and, therefore, the second part of the article has dealt with ways in which critical thinking could be taught using this environment which is where most of the students undertake most of their study and work related activities. Learning how to discern between types of information, how to produce arguments and judgements, how to uncover the mechanisms in others’ cognitive activities proves to be a critical tool in order to promote citizenry in the twenty-first century. References Text and Citations [1]*** United Nations e-government survey 2016. E-government in support of sustainable development, downloaded from https://publicadministration.un.org/egovkb/en-us/Reports/UN-E-Government-Survey-2016, 12.01.2017. [2]*** European Commission Use of Internet, Digital Agenda Scoreboard 2016, downloaded from https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/use-internet, 12.01.2017. [3] Balcaen, P.L & Hirtz, J.R., 2007. Developing Critically Thoughtful e-Learning Communities of Practice, Electronic Journal of e-Learning, vol.5, issue 3, pp. 173-182. [4] Banks, C., and J. Banks., 1993. Social Studies Teacher Education, Ethnic Diversity, and Academic Achievement. International Journal of Social Education 7, no. 3, pp. 24–38. [5] Beyer, B., 1985. Critical Thinking: What Is It? Social Education 49, no. 4, pp. 270–76. [6] Bloom, B., 1956. A Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Longmans Green, New York. [7] Browne, M.N. & Keeley, S.M. 2007. Asking the Right Questions. A guide to Critical Thinking. Pearson, Prentice Hall, New York, 8th edition. [8] Bruning, K. The Role of Critical Thinking in the Online Learning Environment. Available at http://www.itdl.org/Journal/May_05/article03.htm, updated in May 2005. [9] Cottrell, S., 2005. Critical Thinking Skills. Developing effective analysis and argument. Palgrave Macmillan Dhand, H., 1994. Critical Thinking: Research Perspective for Social Studies Teachers. Canadian Social Studies 28, pp. 149–54. [10] De Bono, E., 1986. Six Thinking Hats. Viking, England. [11] Kellner, D., 2006. Technological Transformation, Multiple Literacies, and the Re-visioning of Education in International Handbook of Virtual Learning Environments. Springer, pp. 241-268. [12] Moon, J., 2008. Critical Thinking. An exploration of theory and practice. Routledge, London & New York. [13] Newmann, F.M., 1988. The Curriculum of Thoughtful Classes. In Higher Order Thinking in High School Social Studies: An Analysis of Classrooms, Teachers, Students, and Leadership, edited by F.M. Newmann, vol. 1, part 2. Madison: University of Wisconsin, National Center on Effective Secondary Schools. [14] Pappas, C. Online Group Collaboration Ideas To Include In Your Next eLearning Course. Available at https://elearningindustry.com/online-group-collaboration-ideas-next-elearning-course, updated 10.09.2016. [15] Paul, R., A.J.A. Binker, K. Jensen, and H. Kreklau., 1987 Critical Thinking Handbook: 4th–6th Grades. Rohnert Park, Calif.: Center for Critical Thinking and Moral Critique, Sonoma State University. [16] Ruggiero, V.R., 2012. Beyond Feelings. A guide to critical thinking. McGraw Hill, New York, 9th edition. [17] Shiveley J.M. & Vanfossen, P.J. (2001) Using Internet Primary Sources to Teach Critical Thinking Skills in Government, Economics, and Contemporary World Issues, Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut, London. [18] Sinnott-Armstrong, W. & Fogelin. R. 2010. Understanding Arguments. An introduction to informal logic, Wadsworth Cengage Learning. [19] Stanley, W., 1991. Teacher Competence for Social Studies. In Handbook of Research on Social Studies Teaching and Learning, edited by J. Shaver. New York: Macmillan. [20] Wittgenstein, L., 2012. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Editura Humanitas, Bucuresti, 2nd edition. [21] http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-critical-thinking/766 , accessed 10.02.2017.

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