Due to successive technological advancements, developments and innovations, the global industrial landscape has drastically transformed over the last years. The fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) aims at transforming traditional industries into intelligent ones by incorporating innovative technologies. Industry 4.0 enables physical assets to be integrated into intertwined digital and physical processes thus creating smart factories and intelligent manufacturing environments. Internet of Things (IoT) is a rapidly growing technology that has drastically contributed to the Industry 4.0 realization. IoT pursues to pervade our everyday environment and its objects, linking the physical to the digital world and allowing people and “things” to be connected anytime, anywhere, with anything and anyone ideally using any network and service. IoT is regarded as a dynamic and global network of interconnected “things” uniquely addressable, based on standard and interoperable communication protocols and with self-configuring capabilities. Despite still being at an early development, adoption and implementation stage, Industry 4.0 and IoT can provide a multitude of contemporary solutions, applications and services. Hence, they can improve life quality and yield significant personal, professional and economic opportunities and benefits in the near future. This study scrutinizes IoT in the Industry 4.0 context. More specifically, it presents related studies, describes the IoT concept and explores some of the numerous IoT application domains. Moreover, it presents and analyzes the concept of Industry 4.0 and the benefits it offers as well as the relevant key technologies (e.g. industrial internet of things (IIoT), cyber-physical systems (CPSs), cloud computing, big data and advanced data analytics). Furthermore, it describes the concept of intelligent manufacturing and highlights the main IoT and Industry 4.0 challenges and open research issues. Finally, the need for innovation in the industrial domain and the impact and benefits that IoT and Industry 4.0 provide to everyday life and industries is described.

Due to its immersive and interactive nature, 360-degree video is becoming ever more popular. However, little is known about the public’s viewpoints and attitudes regarding the use of this emerging technology in educational contexts. This study reviews the research evidence for 360° video, virtual learning environments and social media and presents related studies. Moreover, the methodology, the tools and the analysis process used to comparatively analyze social media data are presented and the results that arose are showcased. The use of 360° video in education is discussed and directions for future research are given. Based on the data from the last 10 years, the main findings of the study show that 360° video and its use in educational settings are recognized positively by the public who mostly express anticipation, trust and joy when referring to it. Nonetheless, teachers are unfamiliar with 360° video and do not have the necessary technical skills to develop educational material using it or incorporating it into teaching activities. Finally, 360° video is proven to be an effective educational tool which satisfies the emerging educational needs, enriches the teaching and learning process and promotes students’ motivation, active participation and engagement, rendering, thus, learning more effective.

Social media have become an integral part of everyday life and are used in numerous domains. Hence, it is essential to comprehend how and why users use and engage themselves in social media. Personality traits are patterns of thinking, feeling or behaving that could potentially affect an individual’s social media use. This paper aims at enhancing the understanding of the role that personality traits play in the psychological dynamics underlying social media use and engagement. Therefore, this paper conducts an extensive literature review regarding personality, trait theory and personality traits taxonomies and puts emphasis on Big Five Personality Traits – Five Factor Model (FFM). Furthermore, it presents a literature review of recent studies regarding the impact of personality traits on social media use and compares their results. Based on the findings, there is a close interconnection between social media use and engagement and personality traits with some traits affecting it more drastically. Openness and extraversion emerged as the two most significant positive predictors of social media use while conscientiousness, agreeableness and neuroticism were also considered important but at a lesser degree. Consequently, it was concluded that personality traits have an immense impact on social media use and engagement.

This study presents a systematic review regarding the use of augmented reality and virtual reality in exergaming by analyzing studies published during 2010–2025. This study focuses on providing an overview of the field and on examining and synthesizing the findings of related studies to identify the contexts, applications, and domains in which extended reality exergames are being used and the related implications, benefits, and challenges. Based on the results, augmented reality and virtual reality exergames offer immersive, enjoyable, engaging, and personalized experiences that support physical, cognitive, and emotional well-being, while enhancing physical performance, cognitive functioning, psychological outcomes, and mental health. They promote motivation, active lifestyles, and sustainable health behaviors across diverse populations, including older adults, individuals with disabilities, and neurological groups, as well as the general adult and youth populations. Although emphasis is placed on their use in physical and cognitive rehabilitation and treatment, they also show great potential to be effectively used in different domains, including education. Among the technologies examined, the significant majority of studies focused on virtual reality exergames, a limited number of studies involved augmented reality, and only a few studies examined mixed reality, extended reality, and the metaverse. Finally, nine main topics were identified through topic modeling, providing a clear representation of the core themes within the literature.