This book explores approaches to developing and using postdigital humans and the impact they are having on a postdigital world. It presents current research and practices at a time when education is changing rapidly with digital, technological advances. In particular, it outlines the major challenges faced by today's employers, developers, teachers, researchers, priests and philosophers. The book examines conceptions of postdigital humans and studies the issue in connection with ethics and employment, as well as from perspectives such as philosophy and religion.

What is research in education? And what is it for in a digital age? Reflecting upon these questions, this engaging introduction provides critical discussion about the dilemmas of researching education in the digital age and ways forward for research in this complex area. Research Methods for Education in the Digital Age begins by outlining forms of education that are seen as digital, such as virtual, blended, immersive learning and examining the extent to which these are different or just adapted versions of earlier methods and approaches to education. Maggi Savin-Baden and Gemma Tombs explore current practices in research, identifying the successful adoption and adaption of theories and present practical guidance on new and emerging methodologies, methods, and analytical practices for undertaking educational research. New methodologies discussed include digital arts-based inquiry and digital visual methodologies, as well as adaptations of widely used methodologies such as ethnography, for the specific needs of researching digital teaching and learning. The book outlines the major challenges faced by today's digital researchers, exploring approaches to digital ethics, the relationship between qualitative and quantitative data in the digital age, digital data representations and portrayal and suggests helpful ways of dealing with the complexities and ethical challenges of undertaking research in and for digital spaces. Using case studies, research tips, a glossary and annotated further reading, the authors take a step by step approach from conceptualizing the research ideas, selecting the appropriate method to the dissemination of the findings. At a time when education is changing rapidly with digital and technological advances, Research Methods for Education in the Digital Age is essential reading for researchers wanting to undertake sound and rigorous research in the digital domain.

Rethinking Problem-based Learning for the Digital Age provides grounded, evidence-based strategies for teaching faculty, academic developers, and educational technologists who are changing their problem-based learning modules and programmes from face-to-face to online. Given today’s rapid advancements in learning and curriculum development specific to online and blended modes, there is considerable potential to introduce new forms of problem-based learning in higher education. This book applies fundamental and cutting-edge research, including original scholarship by the authors, toward innovative PBL practices and realistic tasks that can be brought to life through digital environments, teamwork, and resources. Whether recontextualizing PBL practices for newly online/blended instruction or seeking fresh PBL approaches for existing digital education environments across disciplines, readers will be guided to construct active, highly motivating, learner-centered experiences using simulations, games, virtual reality, multimedia, and other complex innovations.

Narrative Inquiry of Displacement: Stories of Challenges, Change and Resilience describes a variety of displacement experiences in different cultures and contexts. The text uses narrative methodologies to share participant stories and explore the nature and effects of displacement. Each chapter examines and theorises the narrative approach used to show the link between the data collection and the story, illustrating research decisions and analysis in action. The book presents a range of displacement stories, including migration, immigration, social and political displacement. The chapters also provide stories of adoptions, diaspora communities and people affected by apartheid and the Holocaust. This volume is recommended for those working in qualitative inquiry and scholars of migration and refugee studies, providing immediate and theoretically nuanced accounts of displacement experiences globally.

Qualitative Research: The Essential Guide to Theory and Practice provides a one-stop resource for all those approaching qualitative research for the first time, as well as those revisiting core concepts and issues. It presents a comprehensive overview of this rapidly developing field of inquiry, cleverly combined with practical, hands-on advice on how to conduct a successful qualitative study. Written in an engaging and accessible style, the authors break through difficult terminology to guide readers through the choices they will face during research design, implementation, and beyond. Each chapter is then brought to life by an array of relevant, real-life examples from expert researchers around the globe. Divided into seven sections, this unique text covers: Considering perspectives Acknowledging a position Framing the study Choosing a research approach Collecting data Working with data and findings Writing about the research From the foundations of the subject through to its application in practice, Qualitative Research: The Essential Guide to Theory and Practice is an indispensable companion for qualitative researchers worldwide. VAT will be charged on this product for UK customers only. VAT is charged at standard rate on a part of this product only.

Narrative Inquiry of Displacement: Stories of Challenges, Change and Resilience describes a variety of displacement experiences in different cultures and contexts. The text uses narrative methodologies to share participant stories and explore the nature and effects of displacement. Each chapter examines and theorises the narrative approach used to show the link between the data collection and the story, illustrating research decisions and analysis in action. The book presents a range of displacement stories, including migration, immigration, social and political displacement. The chapters also provide stories of adoptions, diaspora communities and people affected by apartheid and the Holocaust. This volume is recommended for those working in qualitative inquiry and scholars of migration and refugee studies, providing immediate and theoretically nuanced accounts of displacement experiences globally.

Examines how digital media and the creation of digital immortals may affect religious understandings of death and the afterlife; Understands the impact of digital media on those living and those working with the bereaved; Explores the impact of digital memorialisation post death; Looks at the ways in which digital media may be changing conceptions and theologies of death

Examines how digital media and the creation of digital immortals may affect religious understandings of death and the afterlife; Understands the impact of digital media on those living and those working with the bereaved; Explores the impact of digital memorialisation post death; Looks at the ways in which digital media may be changing conceptions and theologies of death

Rethinking Problem-based Learning for the Digital Age provides grounded, evidence-based strategies for teaching faculty, academic developers, and educational technologists who are changing their problem-based learning modules and programmes from face-to-face to online. Given today’s rapid advancements in learning and curriculum development specific to online and blended modes, there is considerable potential to introduce new forms of problem-based learning in higher education. This book applies fundamental and cutting-edge research, including original scholarship by the authors, toward innovative PBL practices and realistic tasks that can be brought to life through digital environments, teamwork, and resources. Whether recontextualizing PBL practices for newly online/blended instruction or seeking fresh PBL approaches for existing digital education environments across disciplines, readers will be guided to construct active, highly motivating, learner-centered experiences using simulations, games, virtual reality, multimedia, and other complex innovations.

Aims to be broad in scope yet practical in approach, so that it can serve the needs of several different audiences, including researchers, teachers, developers, and theologians; Covers a wide variety of issues which have been neglected in other research texts; Studies the impact of creating a digital immortal on relatives and friends, the consequences of persistent digital legacies, and ways digital media are currently being used to expand the possibilities of commemorating the dead and managing the grief of those left behind; Analyzes the extent to which digital media are complementing or replacing the well-established formal structures and religious rituals; Explores the legal and ethical impact of creating a digital immortal.

Providing a comprehensive guide for understanding, interpreting and synthesizing qualitative studies, An Introduction to Qualitative Research Synthesis shows how data can be collated together effectively to summarise existing bodies of knowledge and to create a more complete picture of findings across different studies

The authors describe qualitative research synthesis and argue for its use, describing the process of data analysis, synthesis and interpretation and provide specific details and examples of how the approach works in practice.

This accessible book:

Helping researchers to understand, make meaning and synthesize a wide variety of datasets, this book is broad in scope yet practical in approach. It will be beneficial to those working in social science disciplines, including researchers, teachers, students and policy makers, especially those interested in methods of synthesis such as meta-ethnography, qualitative meta-analysis, qualitative meta-synthesis, interpretive synthesis, narrative synthesis, and qualitative systematic review.

A ONE STOP SHOP of accessible information for all early years students to help you succeed in your degree, increase your employability skills and develop as an ethical and critically reflective practitioner. Part one gives guidance for students about learning in HE specifically in the context of early childhood education and care, including course requirements, academic skills and core knowledge. Chapters cover students' roles and responsibilities, safeguarding, understanding policy, and professionalism and ethical practice. The second part of the book looks explicitly at applying this knowledge and understanding in the workplace before tackling the final research project.

"This is a book that I am going to have to own, and will work to find contexts in which to recommend. It cuts obliquely through so many important domains of evidence and scholarship that it cannot but be a valuable stimulus" -Hamish Macleod, University of Edinburgh Digital connectivity is a phenomenon of the 21st century and while many have debated its impact on society, few have researched relationship between the changes taking place and the actual impact on learning. Rethinking Learning in an Age of Digital Fluency examines what kind of impact an increasingly connected environment is having on learning and what kind of culture it is creating within learning settings. Engagement with digital media and navigating through digital spaces with ease is something that many young people appear to do well, although the tangible benefits of this are unclear. This book, therefore, will present an overview of current research and practice in the area of digital tethering, whilst examining how it could be used to harness new learning and engagement practices that are fit for the modern age. Questions that the book also addresses include: Is being digital tethered a new learning nexus? Are social networking sites spaces for co-production of knowledge and spaces of inclusive learning? Are students who are digitally tethered creating new learning maps and pedagogies? Does digital tethering enable students to use digital media to create new learning spaces? This fascinating and at times controversial text engages with numerous aspects of digital learning amongst undergraduate students including mobile learning, individual and collaborative learning, viral networking, self-publication and identity dissemination. It will be of enormous interest to researchers and students in education and educational psychology.

This book is about the relationships between technologies and the content of religious belief and practice. A number of models are now starting to emerge, but each of these depends on the theological or philosophical framework within which the debate is set. At at the same time, there are dilemmas operating at different ends of the spectrum. For example, at one end there is a tendency towards subsuming the digital within the divine, and at the other an instrumental stance relating to how technology is deployed. Either of these stances could be said to ignore rather than acknowledge that the human itself is being changed as a result of the interactions with the digital. The book explores the following areas: * Where is God to be found or present in the postdigital condition? * What are the implications of the postdigital condition for spirituality and indeed for the activity of God through the Holy Spirit? * How do concepts of transhumanism or posthumanism effect understandings of the incarnation? * Does the doctrine of the Trinity need revisiting in the light of the digital as medium of relationship? * Does Creation now include the postdigital? * What of the Kingdom of God now that the kingdom of the Tech giants is so powerful all-consuming?

What is artificial intelligence (AI)? How does AI affect death matters and the digital beyond? How are death and dying handled in our digital age? AI for Dying and Death covers a broad range of literature, research and challenges around this topic. It explores ethical memorisation, digital legacies and bereavement, post death avatars and AI and the digital beyond. It also analyzes religious perspectives on AI for death and dying, and planning for death in a digital age.

Qualitative research has seen a surge of growth during the past decade. This is in large part because positivist approaches have not yielded the kinds of results that had been anticipated, and more researchers are seeking alternative perspectives to understand phenomena. The number of researchers using qualitative approaches continues to grow, yet there are few up-to-date guides to assist thinking broadly about qualitative research as a field of inquiry. Over the decades the range of approaches has increased, which has led to an even greater lack of certainty about how to think about doing qualitative research. In considering key issues while offering practical guidance on how to work within the face of uncertainty, this book will be a valuable resource to this next generation of researchers. New Approaches to Qualitative Research offers: a clear understanding of the range of issues related to researcher stance, the way that researchers position themselves in relation to their subjects, their participants, and their own belief systems, and the way in which they locate themselves across the qualitative paradigm an overview of some of the most cutting-edge qualitative techniques in use today: from the exploration of visual texts to the concept of inquiry to synthesis methods, this section lays out the state of the art in methodology specific information regarding processes of data analysis, synthesis and interpretation that are employed in these various approaches. In this book, the authors take the stance that qualitative research is a broad approach that encompasses and even encourages difference and uncertainty, and here at last they provide a route-map to this uncertain but fruitful line of inquiry. This vital text is ideal for professional researchers and postgraduates in a range of subject areas.

Qualitative research has seen a surge of growth during the past decade. This is in large part because positivist approaches have not yielded the kinds of results that had been anticipated, and more researchers are seeking alternative perspectives to understand phenomena. The number of researchers using qualitative approaches continues to grow, yet there are few up-to-date guides to assist thinking broadly about qualitative research as a field of inquiry. Over the decades the range of approaches has increased, which has led to an even greater lack of certainty about how to think about doing qualitative research. In considering key issues while offering practical guidance on how to work within the face of uncertainty, this book will be a valuable resource to this next generation of researchers. New Approaches to Qualitative Research offers: a clear understanding of the range of issues related to researcher stance, the way that researchers position themselves in relation to their subjects, their participants, and their own belief systems, and the way in which they locate themselves across the qualitative paradigm an overview of some of the most cutting-edge qualitative techniques in use today: from the exploration of visual texts to the concept of inquiry to synthesis methods, this section lays out the state of the art in methodology specific information regarding processes of data analysis, synthesis and interpretation that are employed in these various approaches. In this book, the authors take the stance that qualitative research is a broad approach that encompasses and even encourages difference and uncertainty, and here at last they provide a route-map to this uncertain but fruitful line of inquiry. This vital text is ideal for professional researchers and postgraduates in a range of subject areas.

Providing a comprehensive guide for understanding, interpreting and synthesizing qualitative studies, An Introduction to Qualitative Research Synthesis shows how data can be collated together effectively to summarise existing bodies of knowledge and to create a more complete picture of findings across different studies

The authors describe qualitative research synthesis and argue for its use, describing the process of data analysis, synthesis and interpretation and provide specific details and examples of how the approach works in practice.

This accessible book:

Helping researchers to understand, make meaning and synthesize a wide variety of datasets, this book is broad in scope yet practical in approach. It will be beneficial to those working in social science disciplines, including researchers, teachers, students and policy makers, especially those interested in methods of synthesis such as meta-ethnography, qualitative meta-analysis, qualitative meta-synthesis, interpretive synthesis, narrative synthesis, and qualitative systematic review.

Virtual Humans provides a much-needed definition of what constitutes a 'virtual human' and places virtual humans within the wider context of Artificial Intelligence development. It explores the technical approaches to creating a virtual human, as well as emergent issues such as embodiment, identity, agency and digital immortality, and the resulting ethical challenges. The book presents an overview of current research and practice in this area, and outlines the major challenges faced by today's developers and researchers. The book examines the possibility for using virtual humans in a variety of roles, from personal assistants to teaching, coaching and knowledge management, and the book situates these discussions around familiar applications (e.g. Siri, Cortana, Alexa) and the portrayal of virtual humans within Science Fiction. Features Presents a comprehensive overview of this rapidly developing field Provides an array of relevant, real-life examples from expert practitioners and researchers from around the globe in how to create the avatar body, mind, senses and ability to communicate Intends to be broad in scope yet practical in approach, so that it can serve the needs of several different audiences, including researchers, teachers, developers and anyone with an interest in where these technologies might take us Covers a wide variety of issues which have been neglected in other research texts; for example, definitions and taxonomies, the ethical challenges of virtual humans and issues around digital immortality Includes numerous examples and extensive references

What is artificial intelligence (AI)? How does AI affect death matters and the digital beyond? How are death and dying handled in our digital age? AI for Dying and Death covers a broad range of literature, research and challenges around this topic. It explores ethical memorisation, digital legacies and bereavement, post death avatars and AI and the digital beyond. It also analyzes religious perspectives on AI for death and dying, and planning for death in a digital age.

This book explores approaches to developing and using postdigital humans and the impact they are having on a postdigital world. It presents current research and practices at a time when education is changing rapidly with digital, technological advances. In particular, it outlines the major challenges faced by today's employers, developers, teachers, researchers, priests and philosophers. The book examines conceptions of postdigital humans and studies the issue in connection with ethics and employment, as well as from perspectives such as philosophy and religion.

Virtual Humans provides a much-needed definition of what constitutes a 'virtual human' and places virtual humans within the wider context of Artificial Intelligence development. It explores the technical approaches to creating a virtual human, as well as emergent issues such as embodiment, identity, agency and digital immortality, and the resulting ethical challenges. The book presents an overview of current research and practice in this area, and outlines the major challenges faced by today's developers and researchers. The book examines the possibility for using virtual humans in a variety of roles, from personal assistants to teaching, coaching and knowledge management, and the book situates these discussions around familiar applications (e.g. Siri, Cortana, Alexa) and the portrayal of virtual humans within Science Fiction. Features Presents a comprehensive overview of this rapidly developing field Provides an array of relevant, real-life examples from expert practitioners and researchers from around the globe in how to create the avatar body, mind, senses and ability to communicate Intends to be broad in scope yet practical in approach, so that it can serve the needs of several different audiences, including researchers, teachers, developers and anyone with an interest in where these technologies might take us Covers a wide variety of issues which have been neglected in other research texts; for example, definitions and taxonomies, the ethical challenges of virtual humans and issues around digital immortality Includes numerous examples and extensive references

Aims to be broad in scope yet practical in approach, so that it can serve the needs of several different audiences, including researchers, teachers, developers, and theologians; Covers a wide variety of issues which have been neglected in other research texts; Studies the impact of creating a digital immortal on relatives and friends, the consequences of persistent digital legacies, and ways digital media are currently being used to expand the possibilities of commemorating the dead and managing the grief of those left behind; Analyzes the extent to which digital media are complementing or replacing the well-established formal structures and religious rituals; Explores the legal and ethical impact of creating a digital immortal.

Problem based learning online is a burgeoning area, crying out for support in all the disciplines, but particularly health, medicine, education and social care that are already advanced users of problem-based learning in higher education.

This book provides highly grounded research based ways for those wanting to change problem-based learning modules and programmes from face to face to online approaches, as well as those who have developed e-learning components but who want to adopt problem-based methods.

Providing an overview of the current state of problem based learning online, it examines why wea (TM)re moving from fact to face to online provision, considers existing forms of provision, outlines common mistakes and strategies to avoid future problems, and shows how to effectively facilitate learning.

Illustrated by mini case studies and examples of international projects, it provides guidance on effective design, online collaboration and group dynamics, and explores the common, and complex, decisions faced when choosing which form of problem based learning to adopt.

Including practical information and resources for games and activities, scenarios of problem based learning in the different disciplines, advice for supporting staff and students, and effectively evaluating the tools, skills and pedagogy needed for learning, this book is an essential guide for all practitioners involved in the design and delivery of problem based learning online.

Problem based learning online is a burgeoning area, crying out for support in all the disciplines, but particularly health, medicine, education and social care that are already advanced users of problem-based learning in higher education.

This book provides highly grounded research based ways for those wanting to change problem-based learning modules and programmes from face to face to online approaches, as well as those who have developed e-learning components but who want to adopt problem-based methods.

Providing an overview of the current state of problem based learning online, it examines why we????????re moving from fact to face to online provision, considers existing forms of provision, outlines common mistakes and strategies to avoid future problems, and shows how to effectively facilitate learning.

Illustrated by mini case studies and examples of international projects, it provides guidance on effective design, online collaboration and group dynamics, and explores the common, and complex, decisions faced when choosing which form of problem based learning to adopt.

Including practical information and resources for games and activities, scenarios of problem based learning in the different disciplines, advice for supporting staff and students, and effectively evaluating the tools, skills and pedagogy needed for learning, this book is an essential guide for all practitioners involved in the design and delivery of problem based learning online.