Scientific papers (IVDF)

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  • Publication
    A multidimensional approach to support training activities in the digital era
    (2020)
    Gilberto Marzano
    ;
    Svetlana Usca
    ;
    Velta Lubkina
    The digital revolution is producing changes that require continuous learning interventions. Accordingly, there is an increasing demand for lifelong learning that requires new teaching–learning approaches applicable to a large number of learners. A transformative learning is argued to be a powerful approach to tackle the online learning issues, providing trainees with the opportunity to learn, confront, engage, reflect and explore new learning modalities. In this paper, we present an ongoing research aimed to employ online learning for different student needs. It has been carried out within the scope of an applied research project, DocTDLL. We illustrate the multidimensional approach that has been developed to support the online training activities of Ph.D. students, integrating both the transformative learning and social learning paradigms. We also report the data that emerged from a survey conducted in Latvia on a sample of 260 people to explore the attitudes and expectations regarding digital learning.
  • Publication
    A Review of Telerehabilitation Solutions for Balance Disorders
    (2017-02-08)
    Velta Lubkina
    ;
    Gilberto Marzano
    In the last few years, there has been an increase in telerehabilitation research that shows a large variability in terms of technical solutions, methodological approaches, intervention protocols, and outcome measures. This paper provides an overview of the current literature on telerehabilitation solutions for balance disorders.
    Scopus© Citations 7
  • Publication
    ADULT LEARNING AND SOCIALIZATION PROCESSES: RTA EXPERIENCE
    (2020-06-16)
    Velta Lubkina
    ;
    Gatis Stafeckis
    ERASMUS+ Strategic Partnership project Adult Self-Learning: Supporting Autonomy in a Technology-Mediated Environment/ ASL (Ref. No. 2019-1-TR01-KA204-076875) co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme, Key Action 2: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices – Strategic Partnerships for adult education. The project aims at teaching learners to acquire new skills and competences using learning innovative practices and digital technologies as well as developing a functioning collaborative learning environment to help them identify skills gaps and needs and to collaborate locally and independently for joint capacity-building. The ASL project is expected to produce three main results corresponding to three primary European priorities:1. Supporting the setting up of, and access to, up skilling pathways (priority: adult lifelong learning);2. Improving and extending the supply of high quality learning opportunities tailored to the needs of individual low-skilled or low-qualified adults (priority: social inclusion/further education opportunities);3. Open education and innovative practices in a digital era (priority: adults' professionalization/empowerment).
  • Publication
    Building Social Telerehabilitation Services
    (2015-01-01)
    Velta Lubkina
    ;
    Gilberto Marzano
    This paper focuses on the use of ICT in social rehabilitation, reporting on the research activity of the Latvian national science program VPP INOSOCTEREHI, a new three year multidisciplinary project on social telerehabilitation, conducted by four Latvian Universities (Rezekne University, Latvia University, Riga Technical University, and Liepaja University). The general project objective is presented, and the activities aimed at the creation of a portable, inexpensive balance disorder assessment system are illustrated.
    Scopus© Citations 4
  • Publication
    CAPITALISATION ERRORS IN WRITTEN WORKS OF LEARNERS OF LATVIAN AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
    (2021)
    Kļavinska, Antra 
    Capitalisation in writing is usually determined by tradition. Different written languages can have their own grammatical, conceptual or stylistic capitalisation rules. Orthographies exist which do not have the division into capital and small letters. The aim of the article is to find out what problems with capitalisation foreign students in Latvian higher education institutions have during the acquisition of writing skills in Latvian as a foreign language. The research source are the essays written by learners of the Latvian language (foreign students studying in Latvian higher education institutions): the data of the Latvian language learner text corpus being created in the Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science of the University of Latvia were used. The requirements for the acquisition of capitalisation in the context of language learner competences are analysed in the study; the most typical capitalisation errors and possible reasons for them are analysed; and the author’s practical experience teaching the Latvian language to foreign students is revealed.
  • Publication
    CityBook: A Mobile Crowdsourcing and Crowdsensing Platform
    (2019-02-01)
    Gilberto Marzano
    ;
    Velta Lubkina
    Digital technology allows an individual to simultaneously interact with a multitude of people and with smart objects, namely intelligent devices and electronic programs. As a consequence, new modalities for involving citizens in participatory processes can be applied.Applications can be created with the goal of collecting data as well as ideas, suggestions, and opinions from the multitude of citizens at large, but citizens need to be motivated to participate and be able to trust that their privacy will be respected. In this article, we propose a mobile platform, called Citybook, that aims to provide citizens with a personal smart diary that includes itineraries, automatic generated searches, repositories for images and videos, and functions for sharing personal feelings, opinions, and suggestions with other users and with public services.We present the functional structure of this platform, which has been conceived in a perspective of smart and connected communities. It should also be able to integrate crowd sensing with existing data repositories via an OpenData approach.
    Scopus© Citations 4
  • Publication
    Collocations and contextual semantics of the ethnonyms leiši and lietuvieši ‘Lithuanians’ in the text corpus of modern Latvian language
    (2021)
    Kļavinska, Antra 
    The aim of this paper is, by using Computational linguistics method to analyse collocations of ethnonyms leiši and lietuvieši ‘Lithuanians’ in “Balanced Corpus of Modern Latvian” (Līdzsvarots mūsdienu latviešu valodas tekstu korpuss), compare contextual semantics of both ethnonyms. Comparing the frequency of use of the lexemes lietuvieši and leiši ‘Lithuanians’ in the modern Latvian language text corpus, the prevalence of the ethnonym lietuvieši is evident, therefore, the ethnonym leiši, regardless of its use as synonymic designation (sometimes in one and the same text), can be considered as an obsolete word. The desemantisation cases of the ethnonym leiši, detected in the corpus, show its oldness and varied functionality in Latvian language. The evidences to prove the statement of the “Modern Latvian Language Dictionary” (Mūsdienu latviešu valodas vārdnīca) that the lexeme leiši nowadays “carries slightly pejorative stylistically expressive colouring” were not found in the text corpus. In general, the image of a Lithuanian reflected in the modern Latvian language text corpus is rather positive – mostly in historical, language, culture and sports contexts, yet in the context of economics and emigration rather negative impression of Lithuanians is expressed.
  • Publication
    CONCEPTUAL MODEL FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF TEACHERS’ DIGITAL COMPETENCE
    (2021)
    Janis Dzerviniks
    ;
    Svetlana Usca
    ;
    Velta Lubkina
    ;
    Janis Poplavskis
    ;
    Aija Vindece
    The COVID-19 pandemic contributed to the fact that distance learning became a reality and the traditional school began to transform into an online and virtual school. The introduction of distance learning further raised the issue of the need for teachers to continuously improve their digital competences. In Latvia, digitization processes in general education are under development. A modern vision is a pupil, who is able to identify reliable information, cite sources, protect his/her intellectual property, express attitudes and ethical values, create his/her digital resources, and reflect on his/her learning and development. Digital transformation in education is an important process of change, which is based on the change of content, organizational forms, methods, teaching aids for work in the digital educational environment. Both the teacher's knowledge and skills and a positive attitude are important in the implementation of changes. Continuous professional development is important for teachers' digital growth, which includes the acquisition of knowledge and skills in the use of digital technologies in the initial study process, practice, starting professional activities, improving professionalism in the workplace in cooperation with colleagues, participation in competitiveness and personal development activities, as well as acquiring professional competence development programs. The paper analyzes the content of teachers' digital competence and describes a conceptual model for the development of teachers' digital competence in the cultural environment of Latvia.
  • Publication
    CYBERBULLING AND REAL REALITY
    (2015)
    Gilberto Marzano
    ;
    Velta Lubkina
    There are various risks tied to cyberspace. Some of them are social risks because they are cultural risks, being related to new forms of relationships and interactions among people. In the last decade, toxic evils like cyberbullying and other malicious cyber violence are growing, and the search of antidotes is becoming a common concern for governments, educational authorities, teachers, parents and children alike. The available data shows clear evidence that the number of persons affected by cyber violence is increasing (Shariff e Churchill, 2009; U.S. Department of Education, 2011; Dilmac, 2012; Catalano, 2012): a Google search of the word “cyberbullying” finds more the 11 million of items. Despite the popularity of the word, there is a limited knowledge of this issue and many of the first conceptual formulations about it continue to be spread in literature, such as that the characteristics of bullies who act face-to-face and those who do so in cyberspace are very different. The paper analyzes the classic model of cyberbullying behavior, as described in literature, introducing a new element to be considered. It is that, especially for young people, Web and physical world are more and more becoming a whole: virtual-web and real reality are a continuum that we could define as an e-real-reality. Analyzing two of the most known cases of cyberbullying and considering some other evidences emerged by recent researches, we are theoretically convinced that a better understanding of this element could lead to the development of more effective strategies for combating cyberbullying.
  • Publication
    Delivering Social Telerehabilitation Services
    (2015)
    Gilberto Marzano
    ;
    Velta Lubkina
    ;
    Lorita Rizakova
    Telerehabilitation is an emerging method of delivering rehabilitation services, which uses information and communication technologies to minimize distance and time barriers. Telerehabilitation is often considered a specialization of the wide field of tele-medicine; most of telerehabilitation services fall into three categories: clinical assessment (patient’s functional abilities in his or her environment), diagnosis and clinical therapy. Researches have recently underlined the potential of social media, mobile phones, and the Internet in general for improving mental health, supporting positive outcomes on addiction issues, sexual health, and homelessness. This paper analyses the issues and implications tied to the development of social telerehabilitation services in Latvia, and reports on the first step of National science program VPP INOSOCTEREHI, a new three years multidisciplinary project on social rehabilitation, which is conducted by four Latvian Universities, and focuses on the use of mobile technologies in rehabilitation scope.
  • Publication
    DEVELOPING PRACTICES FOR ADULT EDUCATORS ’ EVALUATION
    (2015)
    Gilberto Marzano
    ;
    Velta Lubkina
    ;
    Svetlana Usca
    In recent years, there have been significant changes in the field of adult education. These changes have brought new opportunities for adult educators, expanding the types of programs offered to adult learners. The increasing role and spreading of adult education has given rise to the issue of adult educators' evaluation, because of overarching goal of evaluation is to improve the quality of the work of an institution. This paper focuses on EduEval (Evaluation for the Professional Development of Adult Education Staff), an EU funded project which is grounded in an action-research based on the active involvement of practitioners engaged in adult educators’ evaluation. The project aims at investigating the issue of adult educators' evaluation in some European countries (which are: Latvia, Italy, Poland, Spain and Greece). Thus paper illustrates the project objectives, and reports from the scientific approach which is used by Personality Socialization Research Institute (PSRI) of Rezeknes Augstskola (Latvia) to conduct an explorative survey on evaluation practices in the specific scope of adult social educators.
  • Publication
    Development of Teachers' Digital Competence: Problems and Solutions in Latvia
    (2021)
    Svetlana Usca
    ;
    Janis Dzerviniks
    ;
    Velta Lubkina
    ;
    Aija Vindece
    ;
    Janis Poplavskis
    The data obtained from the Latvian National research programme “Life with COVID-19: Evaluation of the coming coronavirus crisis in Latvia and recommendations for social resilience in the future (CoLife)” show that the successful implementation of remote learning requires the improvement of teachers' digital competence. The professional development courses organized before the COVID-19 pandemic (their content, form) do not meet the needs of the real situation. It is necessary to look for new forms so that the content of professional development courses meets the needs of current general education teachers, including not only general skills characterizing digital competence, but also specific ones related to the level of education (age of learners) and field of study. The aim of the research: to identify the needs of general education teachers for the development of digital competence and to prepare proposals for the implementers of professional competence development courses. Research methods: online survey of 559 teachers, survey of 6 experts, quantitative data processing in SPSS program, content analysis of qualitative data. The research concluded that teachers' professional competence development courses should be practice-oriented, as close as possible to the technical capabilities of an educational institution, as well as considering the current needs of teachers, the field of subjects taught and the level of education at which they work.
  • Publication
    DEVIANCE IN LATGALIAN FOLK-TALES: GENDER ASPECT
    (2017)
    Juško-Štekele, Angelika 
    The aim of the paper is to identify deviant patterns of behavior between wife and husband in Latgalian household folk-tales by rising those characteristic and action strategies, which in accordance with the public assessment are recognized as non-compliant for traditional gender roles. The empirical source of the research is Latgalian household folk-tails, which thematically cover a variety of relationship models peculiar for a family (husband and wife). For the analysis of a deviant feature developed in a story the author applied theory of social action established by the sociologist Talcott Parsons. In the context of a fairy-tale, the actors (a husband and a wife) should not be regarded as individuals in a sense of a separate person, but instead as representatives of the given gender. Therefore, the nature of their actions is not individual as well, but instead more culturally-historically determined, which in accordance with the folk theory proposed by Richard Dorson is “real situation and local environment”. Deviant behavior scenarios in fairy-tales allow to evaluate developmental tendencies of a family as an institute for a period starting with 20th century, when folk-tales chosen for the empirical source were written, up to nowadays, when in the form of strategic documents are raised such problems of family institutes as significant decline in the amount of registered marriages and increase of divorced marriages.
  • Publication
    DOCTORAL STUDENT’S RESEARCH COMPETENCE
    (2020)
    Irena Zogla
    ;
    Velta Lubkina
    Uncertainties in conceptualizations of research skills and competences draw heavily on the changing process of the development of these qualities in education and the relative importance of employment at different education levels that follow the completed by students programs; these also have to meet the uncertainties in competence structure and development. While the shift to competence approach in education is thus more complex than many accounts suggest, it does have major implications for important aspects of studies and teacher and educator work. These include: skill and competence definitions, structure, developmental dynamic and kinds of activities that ensure a stage-by-stage enhancement of these qualities. Research is among the most complicated activities at universities that students and educators have to cover; doctoral studies and the acquired competences are of a special concern. The aim of this article is to trace different approaches and classifications of the 21st Century competences, define research skills and researcher competence, as well as to provide a structure and development of a doctoral student’s competence in the area of education inquiry.
  • Publication
    ETHNONYMS IN THE SYSTEM OF PROPER NAMES OF LATGALE
    (2013)
    Kļavinska, Antra 
    Proper names, including ethnonyms (folk, tribal and other ethnic community names), is an essential component of any language lexis, which particularly brightly reveals a variety ofextralinguistic processes. The aim of the paper is to analyze the conformity of ethnonym transonymization (the change of proper name class) and deonymization (the change of proper name into appellative) in the culture of Latgale, and linguistic techniques and extralinguistic factors. Linguo-culturological approach has been used in the research, and the link between cultural-historical and social processes in the research of linguistic processes has been taken into account. Determining the origin of ancient ethnonyms, the researchers of the Baltic languages acknowledge a transonymization model typical to the Balts: hydronym → name of region→ ethnonym (Zinkevičius 2005, 186–187). This paper attempts to reveal various ethnonym (denoting mostly foreigners) transonymization models in the system of proper names of Latgale, nominating motivation, and the types of word-formation. It seems that the ethnonyms that denote the neighbouring nations (Estonians, Lithuanians, Russians) most frequently turn into other proper names. Transonymization models have been identifi ed as follows: 1) ethnonym → anthroponym → oikonym (or ethnonym → oikonym → anthroponym), for example, l ī t a u n ī k i ‘the Lithuanians’ → L ī t a u n ī k s ‘a surname’ → L ī t a u n ī k i ‘a village in Preiļi county’; 2) ethnonym → microtoponym, for example, ž y d i ‘the Jews’ → Ž y d a p ū r s ‘a marsh in Vārkava county’; 3) ethnonym → anthroponym, for example, č y g u o n i ‘the Roma people’ →Č y g u o n s ‘a nickname for a dark-haired man’; 4) ethnonym (→ oikonym) → ergonym, for example, l a t g a ļ i ‘The Baltic tribe’ → “L a t g a ļ i” ‘a farm in Mērdzene rural municipality of Kārsava county’. Transonymization of ethnonyms in the culture of Latgale is motivated by historical and social processes. Transonymization processes present the evidence of Latgalians’ stereotypical perception of foreigners, compact settlement of different ethnic groups in Latgale, and historical events. Various types of word-formation are used in the transonymization process: 1) semantic, i.e., only the meaning changes, the morphemic system of lexeme is notchanged, for example, ethnonym p o ļ a k i → oikonym P o ļ a k i (→ surname P o ļ a k s (the male singular form of the ethnonym)); 2) morphological, typically suffixes are added to ethnonyms (sometimes phonetic changes in the root occur), for example, i g a u n i ‘the Estonians’ → surnames I k a u n ī k s (ikaun-+-nīk-s); I g o v e n s (igov-+ - en-s); 3) syntactical, forming compound words, for example, the ethnonym k r ī v i ‘the Russians’ has motivated the oikonym K r ī v a s o l a <Krīva sola ‘Russian Village’, K r ī v m a i z e s < Krīvu maizes ‘Russian bread’; 4) formation of analytical forms, where one of the components has ethnonymic semantics and the second component is a nomenclature word (hill, meadow, marsh, lake, etc.), for example, Ž y d a p ū r s ‘Jew’s marsh’, an attributive adjective, for example, a village M a z i e L ī t a u n ī k i ‘small Lithuanians’, a substantive of other semantics, for example, a meadow Č i g o n e i c a s j ū s t a ‘Gypsy’s belt’. Proper names of foreign origin motivated by ethnonyms have taken their stable place in the system of proper names of Latgale, for example, L a t i š i, a village in Pušmucova rural municipality of Cibla civil-parish (in Russian латыши ‘the Latvians’). Proper names of ethnonymic semantics, used to name various phenomena and realities, are often included in the lexicon of various dialects of Latvian and even other languages. If to assume the fact that ethnonyms are proper names, then it can be concluded that the appellatives mentioned above have appeared in deonymization process: ethnonym → appellative. Moreover, the material of Latgalian dialects confirms the existence of deethnonymic proper names, for example, a lot of different realities are associated with the ethnonyms denoting Roma people: č y g u o n i ‘participants of masquerade parade’; č y g o n k a 1) a sort of winter apples, the apple of this sort (dark green and red); 2) the railroad; 3) achimenes (flower, Achimenes); 4) mushrooms: wild champignon (Rozites caperata) or ugly milkcap (Lactarius necator); č y g u o n a s a u l e ‘the moon’. Appellativeness of ethnonyms has an associative character. The names are reflecting the Latgalians’ stereotypical perception of appearance, occupation, character traits, and traditions of foreigners as alien and different, however, acceptable and assimilable phenomena.
  • Publication
    Exploring technology attitudes and personal–cultural orientations as student readiness factors for digitalised work
    (2020-09-02)
    Todd J. B. Blayone
    ;
    Ihor Romanets
    ;
    Svetlana Usca
    ;
    Mykhailo Oleksiiv
    ;
    Āboliņa, Anda 
    ;
    Olena Mykhailenko
    PurposeEmerging forms of digitalisation are placing new demands on workforce entrants around the globe. This study, catalysed by innovation programs in Ukraine and Latvia, conceptualises, measures and compares key facets of dispositional readiness of university students in two post-Soviet nations for digitalised work.Design/methodology/approachSurvey data, addressing technology attitudes and personal–cultural orientations (PCO), were collected by project teams at universities in Ukraine and Latvia and delivered to the authors for analysis. The authors defined three characteristics of digitalised work, conceptually positioned five of the measured constructs as readiness factors and generated readiness profiles for the two national student cohorts. Investigation of significant differences between the groups was conducted using an Independent Samples T-Test. A composite profile was produced for comparing the overall dispositional readiness of both groups for digitalised work.FindingsThe factor-level profiles showed similar patterns of dispositional alignment and misalignment with digitalised work. For example, technology optimism and learning interest were reported by large percentages of Ukrainians and Latvians and tolerance for unstructured work by small percentages. However, significant differences were found in group levels of technology optimism, technology anxiety, ambiguity intolerance and empowered decision-making. In each case, the Ukrainian profile appeared more strongly aligned with the target.Practical implicationsThe global digitalisation of work requires students, educators, human resource professionals and business leaders to rethink workforce readiness assessment and adapt (re)training programs. Technology enthusiasm and learning interest should be regarded as crucial measurable attitudes motivating technical skills development. Also, cultural orientations should be positioned alongside personality traits and digital skills as factors shaping successful human–computer interaction.Originality/valueThis study initiates a new sociotechnical and cross-cultural trajectory of technology readiness research from data generated in two post-Soviet contexts. Moreover, it positions several measurable dispositions as factors influencing student readiness for digitalised work.
    Scopus© Citations 7
  • Publication
    FOLKLORE COMPETENCE IN THE REPRESENTATION OF CULTURAL IDENTITY IN SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ESSAYS
    (2021)
    Juško-Štekele, Angelika 
    The article, using the theory of conceptual analysis and the principles of SOLO (Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes) taxonomy, analyses the manifestations of folklore competence in the essays of secondary school students, available in the corpus of essays www.korpuss.lv. The levels of folklore competence were determined by analysing the use of lexemes belonging to the semantic field of folklore in secondary school students’ essays. Out of 157 (or 34%) essays containing lexemes belonging to the semantic field of folklore, the majority (i.e. 43%) show the lowest level of folklore competence with domination of the naming function without further elaboration, or is limited to a broader elaboration of just one element without any perceived correlation with a broader folklore context. At the second level of folklore competence that can be observed in 45 essays (29%), secondary school students show the ability not only to name but also to classify into simpler systems 2- 3 realia belonging to the semantic field of folklore. At the third level of competence represented in 9 essays (or 6%), secondary school students show the ability to reason, analyse, explain causes, integrate, infer and identify problems using 4-6 lexemes belonging to the semantic field of folklore. The overview of the essays written in 2018 shows that most of the secondary school pupils’ folklore interests are related to the events dedicated to Latvia’s centenary, in particular Latvian Song and Dance Festival, which is typologically connected with the folk songs and Cabinet of Dainas (‘dainu skapis’) collected by Krisjanis Barons. In terms of genres, secondary school pupils have mostly stayed in the genre of fairy tale, which dominates at the first level of folklore competence (43 out of 100 essays), but it often merges with the understanding of the literary fairy tale and is subject to a formal application of genres. The study shows that folklore competence at its highest possible levels is more convincingly demonstrated by pupils from minority schools, which may be explained by the socio-cultural competence building content included in the minority school curricula.
  • Publication
    Formation of Collaborative Skills of Adolescents who have Functional Disorders
    (2014)
    Olga Urtane
    ;
    Svetlana Usca
    ;
    Velta Lubkina
    One of the main prerequisites of successful social development is collaborative skills. Study focuses on adolescents with functional disorders, whose collaborative skills are underdeveloped. There has been raised the issue on how to promote the development of those skills within boarding school educational process, applying a project method to encourage adolescents with functional disorders to use the obtained knowledge and skills in practice, to understand the significance of process, to take an active role in problem-solving process, and gain to positive experience of cooperation. The research was conducted in Latvia, in two boarding schools. Results have been processed in SPSS and AQUAD 6 environment. It is concluded that the usage of the project method while working with adolescents with functional disorders provides an individual and differentiated approach and the opportunity to work at all cognitive levels and to participate in problem-solving and decision-making processes thus promoting active living position and developing collaborative skills in boarding school conditions.
  • Publication
    Human balance function diagnostic and improvement model within social telerehabilitation system
    (2017)
    Aleksandrs Gorbunovs
    ;
    Atis Kapenieks
    ;
    Velta Lubkina
    Very often persons with disabilities are faced with several obstacles such as lower level of services, limitations and inadequate access to education, health care, information and communication technology resources, unsuitable buildings entrance and workplaces equipment. Existing e-health models are rather general. The aim of this paper is to propose new social telerehabilitation system supportive human balance function diagnostic and improvement model which would enhance inclusion process.