The ICDCITMM 2021 was held from November 18th-19th. The conference was entirely virtual, and designed to bring together some of the most prominent academics in their respective fields to exchange ideas and strategies for dealing with some of the key issues in the Information Age.
Digital Humanities in Oman
Kirsten Hemmy, Sandhya Rao Mehta and Maryam Alhinai of Sultan Qaboos Univeristy in Oman presented this topic at the conference. Hemmy, Mehta and Alhinai have assessed that Oman is currently unable to meet the needs of it’s citizens. Their proposal is to devise a methodology to help expand Oman’s digital infrastructure, and encourage the development of skills and expertise. The successful integration of digital humanities research into Oman’s nation-building could provide a roadmap for other countries to follow.Â
The Use of Augmented Reality and Image Recognition in Cultural Education
Led by Polish independent researcher Marek Maruszczak, this debate highlighted the case of the Sintra Palace Treasure Hunt. This is a virtual reality app which allowed young students to discover more about the history of the National Palace of Sintra in Portugal via an interactive treasure hunt. As virtual reality becomes more prevalent in everyday life, this teaching method may well end up becoming one of the dominant forms of education for the schoolchildren of the future.
Comparison Study of Conversion from Offline Teaching to Online TeachingÂ
Put forward by Dr Yit Yan Koh and Dr Yaw Long Chua, this experiment used a private university in Malaysia and Singapore to analyse the effects of switching from offline to online teaching. While the results have not been published, this is an area of increasing relevance and importance. Strategies for digital connection and sharing used during COVID will open up new possibilities for distance learning post-pandemic.
Design and Implementation of a Platform for Adaptive Online Learning
Budoor Al Abid of the Informatics Institute for Post Graduate Studies in Iraq discussed how he applied machine learning techniques to improve the evaluation of students by adaptive learning systems. Data mining was used to classify a large bank of question and answers for prospective students in order of difficulty, thus creating a more efficient way of assessing their abilities and providing feedback. With AI and the use of data coming under ever-increasing scrutiny, this type of technology will surely be integrated into existing educational formats very soon, which will prompt further elements of controversy and debate.
Health Communication and the Diabetes Narratives of Social Media Influencers in the UK
King’s College London PhD student Zhaozhang Sun presented this topic as part of her doctorate course. Her study of influencers using social media platforms to dispense positive health information underlines how Instagram and Facebook have almost entirely usurped official outlets as the go-to source of advice for many- she found that people in the UK are more likely to search on social media (49%) than to see their doctors (11%) when they have healthcare problems.