Alberto Parola

This article intends to present the educational experience in relation to the transition from the face-to-face education oriented to the writing and audiovisual production to distance education, carried out during the lockdown in the winter 2020/21, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The impossibility of carrying out the activity in presence has dictated unpublished conditions not only about the selection of the arguments to be deepened, but also with reference to the different phases of video production, which in this article is conceived as a form of epistemic writing, or an interweaving of languages that allows children to express ideas, to represent their school and extrascolastic reality and to vary their way of observing and interpreting their existences. Due to the new circumstances, the project was adapted. However, it can be considered satisfactory, although the school was not yet ready to host types of remote training with the simultaneous presence of different classes. In this context, it was not easy to manage the process of involvement of the students. The atypical role of the teacher facilitator has led to an on time learning path, which has also provided for the creation of work groups with flexible activities, partly at school and partly at home.

Postural instability as a symptom of progressing Parkinson’s disease (PD) greatly reduces quality of life. Hence, early detection of postural impairments is crucial to facilitate interventions. Our aim was to use a convolutional neural network (CNN) to differentiate people with early to mid-stage PD from healthy age-matched individuals based on spectrogram images obtained from their body movement. We hypothesized the time-frequency content of body sway to be predictive of PD, even when impairments are not yet manifested in day-to-day postural control. We tracked their center of pressure (COP) using a Wii Balance Board and their full-body motion using a Microsoft Kinect, out of which we calculated the trajectory of their center of mass (COM). We used 30 s-snippets of motion data from which we acquired wavelet-based time-frequency spectrograms that were fed into a custom-built CNN as labeled images. We used binary classification to have the network differentiate between individuals with PD and controls (n=15, respectively). Classification performance was best when the medio-lateral motion of the COM was considered. Here, our network reached an average predictive accuracy of 98.45 % with a receiver operating characteristic area under the curve of 1.0. Moreover, an explainable AI approach revealed high frequencies in the postural sway data to be most distinct between both groups. Our findings suggest a CNN classifier based on cost-effective and conveniently obtainable posturographic data to be a promising approach to detect postural impairments in early to mid-stage PD and to gain novel insight into the subtle characteristics of impairments at this stage of the disease.

Background Disruptions in language and speech are considered promising markers of affective and psychotic disorders. However, little is known about the mechanisms and confounders underlying such communicative atypicalities. Medications might have a crucial, relatively unknown role both as potential confounders and relatedly offering an insight about the mechanisms at work. The integration of regulatory documents with pharmacovigilance techniques could provide a more comprehensive picture to account for in future investigations of communication-related biomarkers. Objectives Our aim was to identify a list of drugs potentially associated with speech and language atypicalities within psychotic and affective disorders. Methods To structure a search for potential drug-induced communicative atypicalities on the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS, updated June 2021), we developed a query using the Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA). We performed a Bonferroni corrected disproportionality analysis (Reporting Odds Ratio) on three separate populations: psychotic, affective, and non-neuropsychiatric disorders, to account for the confounding role of different underlying conditions. Unexpected drug adverse event associations, which were not already reported in the SIDER database of labeled adverse drug reactions, were subjected to further robustness analyzes to account for expected biases. Results We identified a list of 291 expected and 91 unexpected potential confounding medications. We corroborated known/suspected associations: e.g., corticosteroids-related dysphonia and immunosuppressant-related stuttering. We also identified novel signals: e.g., domperidone-associated aphasia or VEGFR inhibitors-related dysphonia. Conclusions We provide a list of medications to account for in future studies of communication-related biomarkers in affective and psychotic disorders. The methodological tools here implemented for large scale pharmacosurveillance investigations will facilitate future investigations of communication-related biomarkers in other conditions and provide a case study in more rigorous procedures for digital phenotyping in general.

Many attempts have been made to introduce robotics into curricular activities, although these have largely been occasional and discontinuous experiences. These experiments are often organized to teach specific know-how, enormously devaluating the technology’s potential. Furthermore, they might be placed in the hands of experts who are not on the school’s staff, and who conduct the entire project mostly without the involvement of teachers. Our research project is directed at lower secondary schools. Our aim is to try to move past the dictates of “teaching robotics” towards the less controversial vision of “teaching with robotics”. Following the lead of Datteri and Zecca (Metodi e tecnologie per l’uso educativo e didattico dei robot. Mondo digitale 75, editorial (2018)) we propose robots as a mediation instrument for normal learning and for transversal competencies in the school setting. The proposed research is a three-year program within the host school’s normal curricular subjects and timetable, in which our approach facilitates the learning process. The topics extend beyond coding, robotics, and STEAM in general, and aim to improve experiences in liberal arts subjects such as language, literature, and geohistory.

Resumen Esta investigación realizó un estudio comparativo entre tres países muy impactados por el coronavirus a partir del análisis de las reflexiones de docentes sobre la enseñanza virtual universitaria durante la etapa de confinamiento. El estudio, de carácter descriptivo, exploratorio y explicativo, aplicó 196 encuestas, entre marzo y abril de 2020, a docentes de periodismo, comunicación y educación de la Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona (España), Universidad de Torino (Italia) y Universidad Técnica de Machala (Ecuador). Como resultado, los docentes, de forma mayoritaria, valoran negativamente el paso a la virtualidad, pues este se asocia, de forma recurrente, con un incremento del trabajo. Además, demandan competencias digitales básicas en los jóvenes universitarios y capacitaciones, de parte de sus instituciones, en el componente tecnológico y pedagógico-digital. A modo de conclusión, los docentes encuestados reconocen que es necesaria la promoción del pensamiento crítico y reflexivo vinculado a la gestión estratégica de las TIC.

The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed training processes. The transition from face-to-face to virtuality has affected the entire educational process favoring one of the open innovation key features in the higher education institutions: the ability to manage knowledge flow. Open innovation in this crisis situation will encourage universities to deal with difficulties and embrace opportunities to enhance knowledge production. In this regard, the main objective of this work is to analyze how universities have managed knowledge flow during lockdown situation. The research presents a comparative study between three countries highly impacted by the coronavirus (Spain, Italy and Ecuador) based on perceptions from teachers and students on a convenience sample of 573 individuals. The study, of a descriptive and exploratory nature, applied surveys between March and April 2020 to students and teachers of Journalism, Communication. The survey had 2956 responses, collecting 65,032 pieces of evidence from students and 6468 from teachers. Teachers and students show their preference for being present, but they recognize the justification for the change of scenery and identify positive elements in virtuality. According to the findings obtained, the absence of presence has not generated an increase in the meetings between teachers and students. In addition, the tutorials have been shorter and sporadic. Added to this is a scant commitment to the variety of resources and options offered by the Internet. The predominance of textual material collides with the demand from students for a mixture of training resources, a greater role for the podcast and, especially, a typology of assessment tests that pass the traditional exams.

Il Progetto di Ricerca presentato è frutto della collaborazione tra la scuola secondaria di primo grado dell’I.C. Pacinotti di Torino, che ha ospitato la ricerca durante le ordinarie lezioni di Tecnologia ed un gruppo di ricercatori del Centro di Ricerca Cinedumedia dell’Università degli Studi di Torino, che ha messo a disposizione competenze e risorse. La metodologia didattica implementata è stata creata appositamente per il Progetto ed è incentrata su quattro pratiche pedagogiche: 1) Cooperative Learning, 2) Think-Make-Improve, 3) utilizzo del metodo scientifico tradizionale per stimolare la motivazione all’apprendimento, 4) Competenze Mediali come obiettivi trasversali. Il caso studio presentato riporta i risultati ottenuti in seguito al primo anno di lavoro di un percorso triennale.

Introducción. Esta investigación realizó un estudio comparativo entre tres países muy impactados por el coronavirus a partir del análisis de las reflexiones de docentes y estudiantes sobre la enseñanza virtual universitaria durante la etapa de confinamiento. Metodología. El estudio, de carácter descriptivo, exploratorio y explicativo, aplicó encuestas, entre marzo y abril de 2020, a estudiantes y docentes de Periodismo, Comunicación y Educación de la Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona (España), Universidad de Torino (Italia) y Universidad Técnica de Machala (Ecuador). La encuesta tuvo respuestas de 300 estudiantes (100 por país) y 196 docentes. Resultados. Los estudiantes, de forma mayoritaria, valoran negativamente el paso a la virtualidad, pues este se asocia, de forma recurrente, con un incremente de la carga lectiva. La teleformación ha contribuido a impactar negativamente en la visión del alumnado sobre sus formadores, mientras que en estos últimos demandan competencias digitales básicas en los jóvenes universitarios. Discusión. Según los hallazgos obtenidos, los docentes, en el escenario de la teleformación, deben mostrar conocimientos no solo sobre el contenido de la materia, sino también conocimiento tecnológico y pedagógico-digital. Conclusiones. El docente tiene que ser capaz de innovar, reflexionar y transformar sus propuestas didácticas para responder a las demandas sociales que vive el mundo en medio de una crisis sanitaria, a la vez que se alcancen los objetivos curriculares propuestos al inicio del curso. Por otro lado, los docentes encuestados reconocen que es necesario la promoción del pensamiento crítico y reflexivo vinculado a la gestión estratégica de las TIC.