Paula Alexandra Silva

Breaking is a physically demanding street dance, which is highly creative and historically rooted in urban culture. Studies about Breaking are scant, and the role of technology in the modality, e.g., smartphones, while potentially relevant according to a previous technology review, is still unknown. This study is a first step into understanding the role of technology in Breaking. Drawing on observations of 35 training sessions and 15 interviews with Non-Professional to Olympic-level Breakers, we found that smartphones act as digital scaffolds for Breaking. Smartphone use supports training structure, movement arsenal management, performance improvement and creativity, and peer feedback and community engagement. Our contribution is two-fold: we first contribute a detailed understanding of how smartphones mediate Breaking, a form of appropriating the smartphone which has not been previously described; then, we outline design opportunities for future systems aimed at Breaking and other modalities, which are non-hierarchical, heavily rooted in culture, and turn to peer-to-peer expertise exchange to develop complex physical practices.

Women are under-represented in academia, either because they do not consider an academic career as an option or because they drop out of the pipeline too soon. In this chapter, we examine the main challenges that women in ITC/Informatics/STEM face in advancing academic careers, and we propose concrete actions to address these challenges focusing on three main directions that have been shown to foster women’s advancement: build a supportive environment, build career development initiatives, and establish mentoring programs. We argue that the prevailing culture in many academic institutions is not supportive towards women and outline concrete actions to implement a culture change. We highlight the varied career paths that exist in academia and propose career development recommendations relevant to all career stages, and ones tailored towards key career junctures. We also provide step-by-step actions to set up successful mentoring programs and address different mentoring needs. This chapter is aimed at both managers and individual women. It can help managers start taking action towards supporting female students and faculty, and it can guide women who work in non-supportive environments or are just looking to understand the system.

Background and Objectives: “Successful aging” concerns the process of growing older while maintaining physical, cognitive, and social well-being, emphasizing independence for overall satisfaction and quality of life. We investigate the impact of eHealth literacy on reducing loneliness and sustaining well-being during the pandemic, comparing middle- and high-income countries. Research Design and Methods: Online surveys were conducted between April 4, 2020, and September 30, 2021, collecting responses (N = 2,091) from medium- and high-income countries in Europe, Asia, and North America. T-tests and ANOVAs were used to test how sociodemographic predictors were associated with differences in e-Health literacy, loneliness, and well-being. Results: Respondents from high-income countries reported significantly higher well-being scores than those from middle-income countries and respondents from high-income countries had significantly higher e-HEALS (e-Health literacy) scores compared to middle-income countries. No significant difference was observed in loneliness scores between high-income and middle-income country respondents. Well-being is associated with age, with younger adults (18–29 years) and those aged 40+ reporting higher levels. Higher education and income are linked to greater well-being. Gender differences are observed, with females and those with a partner reporting higher well-being. In middle-income countries, higher education levels are more linked to loneliness, while in higher-income countries, loneliness is observed across education levels. Discussion and Implications: Future interventions by governments and policymakers should consider intersectionality in e-Health planning and offer digital literacy and digital skills training to those with lower education levels.

As Digital Transformation and innovation driven by Information and Communication Technology (ICT) continue to mark the evolution of society, ethics emerges as a central concern not only in terms of the outcomes and implications of technological systems but also throughout the activities carried out through the development of those systems. Power dynamics have been identified as a recurrent ethical challenge in the design and development process. As designers, participants, and project stakeholders engage in the process, potential conflicts, power imbalances, and ethical challenges emerge. This requires that awareness is raised on these imbalances and that teams proactively act on them. To address this issue, we propose the Participant-Designer Journey Map (PDJM), a tool to assist designers in conducting an ethical design process, aware of power imbalances. The proposal for the PDJM was evaluated, based on a set of criteria derived from the literature, by three design professionals, against nine other alternative tools. The PDJM was identified as the tool with the most potential to facilitate a structured approach to navigating ethical dilemmas, particularly those related to power dynamics.

Rhythmic Gymnastics is an Olympic sport that demands an exceptional level of expertise. From early age, athletes relentlessly practise exercises until they can flawlessly perform them before an audience and a panel of judges. Technology can potentially support rhythmic gymnasts’ training by monitoring gymnasts’ exercises and providing feedback on their execution. However, the limited understanding of the training nuances in Rhythmic Gymnastics restricts the development of technologies to support training. Drawing on the observation of training sessions and on interviews with athletes and coaches, this paper uncovers how coaches personalise feedback timing, type, form, format, and quantity, to adapt it to the gymnasts’ skill level and type of exercise. Taking stock of our findings, we draw out five implications that can inform the design of systems to support feedback in Rhythmic Gymnastics training.