[Systematic review of digital technology acceptance in older adults. Perspective of TAM models]

In this study, a systematic review of researches published about the determining factors in the intention of the use of devices and digital technology in older adults has been carried out. The technology acceptance model is the framework used. The main result of the analysis of 60 scientific articles published between 2010 and 2020 has been summarized after a bibliographic research and a subsequent selection process in the most important bibliographic databases: Web of Science (n=45), Scopus (n=66) and Google Scholar (n=224). It has been proved the predominance of quantitative studies with a prevalence of study factors that associate the intention to use technology with: Facilitating conditions, experience, health, social support, emotions, perceived enjoyment, perceived satisfaction in using technology, anxiety, perceived risk, motivation, cost, subjective norm and social influence. The results of the systematic review allow us to conclude the urgent need to incorporate new research on the identification and influence of these factors that stand between older adults and technology, as possible barriers or facilitators of use.

Information society and its impact on personality development

The purpose of the study is to develop and test the original model which illustrates the development of personality in the information society. The study involved two Russian universities, higher educational institutions of the Arab Emirates and Kazakhstan. A total of 400 students participated in the research. The experiment consisted of three stages: introductory, experimental, and final. At the introductory stage of the study, the influences of the information society on the development of human personal qualities were analyzed. At the experimental stage, the original model which illustrates the development of personality in the information society was developed and implemented. At the final stage, the students were surveyed in accordance with the original methodology for the use of the capabilities and resources of the information society for personality development. After the implementation of the model, the number of students using the capabilities of the information society for personal development, the development of professional skills, and maintaining and strengthening health increased by 18.5%, 18.7%, and 10%, respectively. The practical value of the scientific research results relates to the possibility of using the questionnaires and models of personality development in the context of the information society in the higher education system of Russia, the Arab Emirates, Kazakhstan, and other countries. The model described in the study is relevant in the context of the transfer of the educational process in higher education to a distance format and the growing social isolation of an individual caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Digital literacy and e-learning experiences among the pre-service teachers data

The data show different issues connected with the digital literacy of pre-service teachers. The data were collected in 2019 among 450 teachers of pedagogical studies in Poland. The research was conducted in the biggest Polish university that trains educational staff, the Pedagogical University of Cracow. The data describe issues related to the self-evaluation of digital literacy in using text editors, spreadsheets, and presentation and graphic software. They also describe experiences with e-learning: participation in obligatory online classes, searching for information on the Internet, participation in paid and free e-learning courses, and participation in informal study groups.

A paradigm shift for the Great Bifurcation

This paper is an attempt to achieve an understanding of the situation the evolution of humanity is confronted with in the age of global challenges. Since global challenges are problems of unprecedented complexity, it is argued that a secular paradigm shift is required away from the overemphasis on allegedly neutral standpoints, on a mechanistic picture of the world and on deductive logics towards accounts of emergence, of systemicity, informationality and conviviality, building upon each other and providing together a transdisciplinary edifice of the sciences, in the end, for, and by the inclusion of, citizens. Viewed from such a combined perspective, the current social evolution is punctuated by a Great Bifurcation similar to bifurcations other emergent systems have been facing. On the one hand, humankind is on the brink of extinction. It is the world occurrence of the enclosure of commons that is detrimental to sharing the systemic synergy effects and thus to the cohesion of social systems. On the other hand, humanity is on the threshold of a planetary society. Another leap in integration would be the appropriate response to the complexity confronted with. Humans and their social systems are informational agents and, as such, they are able to generate requisite information and use it to catch up with the complex challenges. They can establish convivial rules of living together in that they disclose the commons world-wide. By doing so, they would accomplish another evolutionary step in anthroposociogenesis. The concept of the Global Sustainable Information Society describes the framework of necessary conditions of conviviality under the new circumstances.