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To what extend online education impacted mental well-being?
What do we know about it? The coronavirus pandemic has forced students and educators across all levels of education to rapidly adapt to online learning. This shift has disrupted daily rhythms, reshaped learning opportunities, and refined social connections with peers and teachers. This rapid change has been affected well-being of children and young people. Several studies have shown both students and teachers experienced ambivalence and diverse changes in well-being, generated by the flexibility, burdens, and disruptions of school-from-home. Therefore, my third research idea is to find out to what extend online education affected well-being of young students during time of pandemic? What makes it urgent? In my opinion, it is crucial to…
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Design Thinking and the Failure in the Process of Design or Why don’t We Eat Bugs?
As a result of mass consumption over a time since human beings exists, the emergence of Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humanities’ demand for ecological resources and services will exceed the actual amount Earth can generate that year. Once the Overshoot Day is due, the impact of this event can be unpredictable and sadly demolishing for the planet. Starting with extreme weather events and continue to impact the climate change. As a response to slow down the due date, our group joined the movement #MoveTheDate of Earth Overshoot Day. The goal of this movement is to provide sustainable solutions for countries and businesses to move the date in…
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A ‘zip crit’ on MOFT Z on Kickstarter
The 4-in-1 invisible sit-stand laptop desk produced by MOFT is an ergonomic device which allows users to use their laptops in both sitting and standing position and helps to improve their posture. The MOFT Z device developed based on “origami principle” which also makes it easy to assemble and fold. However, according to product description it takes approximately 10 seconds to fully assemble the device. The product USPs are also including easy to carry and use in places like home, office and cafe. As a creator claims, MOFT Z produced with reusable and recyclable materials, such as PU leather and fiberglass. There is no…
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Why The Darknet is Not that “Dark”?
The Darknet tends to be known as a space for irregulated criminal activity such as drug distribution, child pornography and trafficking. In the last few years, it became one of the main topics in the cyber security sector as well as in mass media. Various news media portray Darknet as an environment of the natural flourishing of the criminal activities, which often include usage of one of the main browsers Tor (Mirea et al., 2018). But what is the Darknet? The Darknet is a collection of thousands of websites that use anonymity tools such as Tor and I2P to hide their IP address (Greenberg, 2014). The Darknet is…
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The Online Challenges of Creative Workers
Since the moment I have created my first account on a social media platform and has become an active user, the internet has developed with extreme speed. Afterwards, my profession became closely related to the digital world, and I became highly concerned about my online presence. Further, I will describe various concepts, which help to reflect on my online presence and how independent professionals present themselves in the digital environment. In order to analyze my involvement in the digital environment, I will use the concept of “visitors” and “residents” introduced by White (2008). With the former, he describes individuals who use network as a tool, in order to solve particular tasks such…
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Why Maastricht?
I discovered Maastricht by coincidence, while me with my partner were still living in Hungary. Few years back he had an important meeting and got invited to Maastricht to spend the weekend where I accompanied him. From the moment we left Maastricht train station and had a short walk from Wyck until our hotel we realized how beautiful this city was. Totally different from anything we have ever seen. Especially we noticed a lot of stylish and beautiful people. At the end of our weekend we went back home but with a feeling that we would definitely go back to Maastricht once. We did not wait for very long. Suddenly…
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Information flood
The rapid development of the Internet and Digital World have created different kinds of metaphors which help us to understand what the Internet is in general. Since decades, the metaphors related to Digital World have evolved. At the beginning of the very first internet platforms and communities it had promising kind of metaphors. I found the perfect metaphor which fits my future vision. I am imagining the Internet as a “information flood” (Felt, 2014, p. 186). The reason why I chose this metaphor is because the Internet has a constant output of different kind of information, it is like a liquid coming from everywhere and you cannot stop it, and…
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Studying at MU
The last time I have been in education was 6 years ago. There must have been some insignificant changes in the Belarusian educational system but I am pretty sure it stays quite similar to what I have been experienced before. After I finished High School I went to the Belarusian State University of Arts and Culture for a year. Before I applied to my program at Maastricht University I went to the Open day and also attended the Experience day where I could practice and get familiar with the Problem Based Learning. The difference between University and the high school I have been studying in is that in the latter…
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The Social Dilemma
The popular Netflix show The Social Dilemma left me with several questions. It is certainly worthy to watch as the show gives a well structured insight about how social media works, how it benefits from our data, how it is manipulating us and what damage it can cause in terms of mental health and addiction. The former employees of companies such as Facebook, Google, Twitter gathered together and revealed us the truth behind of Social Media and the stories of teenagers’ social media addiction. I found The Social Dilemma a bit too dramatic. I even heard about people who suddenly removed their Facebook pages after watching a show. I do…
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Low Battery
Speaking of digital world it has certainly changed our perception of life. Especially in our every day life. For example time to time I catch myself talking about “low battery” in terms of tiredness or exhaustion. There is no connection between me and anything digital. I obviously do not have a battery attached or insert to my body. By saying “I have a low battery” I described my physical and mental state meaning that I am unable to do anything anymore and simply need to have a rest or sleep. Same as I would say that I need to “recharge” or “charge” myself.