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Background: Over recent years, interest towards the use of immersive technologies has grown in parallel with the lowering of equipment costs: educators have started embedding them into their teaching practices at different levels of the educational system, from primary school to higher education. In general, immersive technologies are seen as suitable tools to live vicarious experiences, when the reality is hardly accessible, for instance due to safety issues. Objectives: In this paper, we focus on 360° videos with the aim of developing a more systematic and evidence informed approach to the understanding of the educational uses of 360° in different educational contexts. Methods: A scoping literature review approach has been adopted in order to obtain a comprehensive insight based on objective, replicable and transparent procedures. Results and conclusions: The review includes studies published from 2016 onwards. According to the findings, 360° videos are more suitable for disciplines requiring careful observation of how knowledge is transferred into practice and where practical scenarios are involved: 360° videos have positive effects on learning, especially referring to motivation, attentiveness, information retention and transfer of knowledge. However, as for learners' reactions, physical discomfort is reported, mainly associated with the use of HMD. In addition, challenges, and barriers to the educational use of 360° video should be further analysed, since up to now logistical constraints have limited the studies to a very small sample population, without the possibility of providing suggestions for a wider adoption at organisation and institution level. Implications: As 360° videos are reported to be promising in fostering learning processes, students' engagement, and information retention, further studies are recommend to cover the current gaps in the literature, particularly focusing on drawbacks and organizational challenges. Lay Description: What is currently known about the subject matter?: Immersive technologies are knowing increased use in recent years.Some evidence on their positive influence on learning emerged.Empirical research on the pedagogical affordances of 360° video is still limited. What the paper adds?: It identifies the most common teaching methods combined with 360° video.It provides a systematic understanding of 360° video learning gains.It helps catching possible drawbacks of 360° video. Implications of study findings for practitioners: It encourages an aware use of 360° video to increase students' engagement.It may inspire the design of effective learning experiences.It focuses on suitable solutions when physical experiences are not possible—as in a pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social Media tools are seen by many authors as powerful drivers of change for teaching and learning practices, in terms of openness, interactivity and sociability. However, extensive surveys about actual use that are carried out with large samples at a national level are rare. This study reports the results of a survey addressed to the Italian academic staff, with the aim of identifying the uses of Social Media in the field of university teaching practices. The response rate was 10.5%, corresponding to 6139. The respondents were asked to identify frequency of use, motivations, teaching practices and obstacles related to the use of a number of tools: generic social network sites (Twitter, Facebook), professional and academic networking services (LinkedIn, ResearchGate and Academia.edu ), tools to write and comment (blogs, wikis) and to archive and retrieve content material for lectures and group work (podcasts, YouTube and Vimeo, SlideShare). Analyses of data tested which socio-demographic variables mostly affected frequency of use, and the relationships between motivations, ways of use, barriers to use and the scientific discipline. The results show that Social Media use is still rather limited and restricted and that academics are not much inclined to integrate these devices into their practices for several reasons, such as cultural resistance, pedagogical issues or institutional constraints. However, there are differences among academics in the ways they use Social Media or perceive them, mostly depending on the scientific discipline of teaching. Overall, the results emphasise ambivalent attitudes towards the benefits and challenges of Social Media in the context of higher education with obstacles prevailing over advantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses an action-research study focused on developing participatory attitudes and the self-expression skills of a group (N = 15) of second-generation immigrant adolescents who live in an urban suburb in Italy. The research study was based on mobile storytelling, a practice of personal multimedia storytelling conducted through mobile devices in connection with social networking services. The findings reveal that encouraging certain uses of the media can have positive effects on the expression of identities and collaborative practices, particularly for marginalised groups. At the same time, a certain laconicism and misspelling tends to characterise the mobile stories created by the teens, which reveals their difficulties in linguistic communication. From this perspective, it is evident that the use of digital media can reinforce pre-existing divisions and therefore there is now a need for public education to play a more active role in balancing inequalities with the development of technical, social and linguistic skills. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: Over the last decades, the issue of digital divide has received particular attention from international bodies and researchers in Western countries. One of the main reasons for this growing interest is related to the implications that digital inequalities have for social development and particularly for education. Despite the relevance of the issue, there are still few studies on the digital divide in China and even less on Chinese K-12 schools'' students. This paper aims at exploring the digital divide issues among Chinese children from an educational and social perspective. Four schools were selected, involving 658 students aged 10–14. Nine hypotheses on Internet inequality indicators (DiMaggio & Hargittai, 2001) and their possible outcomes were tested. The study found that: (1) students'' Internet access at home is better than that at school; (2) compared with parents, teachers have more positive influence on students'' Internet behaviour; (3) students from rural or migrant schools score lower on all the Internet inequality indicators (digital access, autonomy of use, social support, Internet use and self-efficacy) and are therefore more disadvantaged in Internet usage status than their urban peers; (4) there are no significant gender differences; (5) the more education parents have received, the better the conditions of their children according to the listed Internet inequality indicators; (6) the dimensions of the Internet inequality indicators (technical apparatus, autonomy of use, availability of social support, variation of use) are significantly correlated to students'' Internet self-efficacy; (7) there is high correlation between students'' Internet self-efficacy and their exploring behaviours of Internet use and their academic performance. Overall, these results are consistent with data from OECD countries and confirm that the digital divide represents a big social challenge, revealing that schools still have to develop effective strategies to balance social and learning opportunities among students. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Digital competences amongst the younger generations and the role of schools faced with the spread of new youth practices are topics of increasing interest. Some commentators state that, thanks to the intensive use of digital media, young people are developing significant competences that also correspond to important cognitive processes and new learning styles. However, other authors emphasize that there is no evidence about the positive impact of new technological practices on the development of significant cognitive abilities. In this paper we present a research study carried out in Italian schools on adolescents’ (aged 14–16) digital competence. On the basis of a preliminary theoretical model, a digital competence questionnaire was formulated and subsequently administered to a sample of secondary school students. The aim was to verify whether adolescents’ digital skills are limited to simple technical aspects or expand beyond them including a range of more significant knowledge and skills related to a conceptual understanding of technology, socio-relational knowledge and high-order cognitive skills. Like other studies, this research shows that when attention is shifted from strictly technical aspects to critical cognitive and socio-ethical dimensions involved in the use of technologies, students’ knowledge and competences result inadequate. The authors conclude that the optimistic portrayal of younger generations’ digital competences is poorly founded. Furthermore, it is pointed out that understanding students’ digital competence levels through fast assessment tools is a fundamental opportunity for schools to analyse deficiencies and prepare adequate intervention strategies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]