Is culture considered to be our past, our roots, ancient ruins, or an old piece of art? Culture is all the factors that define who we are, how we act and interact in our world, in our daily activities, in our personal and public relations, in our life. Culture is all the things we are not obliged to do. However, today, we live in a mixed environment, an environment that is a combination of “offline” and the online, digital world. In this mixed environment, it is technology that defines our behaviour, technology that unites people in a large world, that finally, defines a status of “monoculture”. In this article, we examine the role of technology, and especially big data, in relation to the culture. We present the advances that led to paradigm shifts in the research area of cultural informatics, and forecast the future of culture as will be defined in this mixed world.

Educational data mining (EDM) is a novel scientific area that focuses on developing and applying methods to analyze datasets generated within educational settings. This paper outlines the evolution, significance, and applications of EDM. With the increasing popularity of e-learning in web-based educational systems, EDM has expanded to include a variety of analytical methods and data sources. Some key methodologies addressed include classification, regression analysis, clustering techniques, association rule mining, and Natural Language Processing, among others. Additionally, this paper looks at how EDM can facilitate data-driven decision-making among other areas such as curriculum development and customization of learners’ experiences. It also touches on issues related to the challenges of the scientific field. Finally, some projections about EDM’s future trends are made, especially concerning its integration into AI technologies and development trends like augmented reality or virtual reality, which imply greater possibilities for changes than any other series witnessed before within this sphere.

This study proposes a methodological approach that allows educational robotics to be used in order to develop collaboration skills in educational settings. Educational robotics is a promising educational tool that has the potential to become a platform for the development of a range of skills. However, there is a scarce amount of empirical case studies that present detailed information on the way it is implemented within formal primary school education. On the other hand, even though collaboration skills are considered vital for future school graduates, it is rarely discussed as the main focus of educational robotics. Most commonly collaboration or teamwork skills are viewed as a byproduct of the robotics activities. This work views collaboration skills as the main outcome. The methodological approach that this work proposes has been implemented during a period of three years in one pilot and two case studies. This research measures the reflection of the robotics tasks paired with the methodological approach to the development of collaboration skills. In order to measure the development of collaboration skills, the ATC21S^TM framework was used. The results showed activation of the indicators that comprise collaboration skills. Additionally, observations, which were gathered during unsupervised and unrelated to educational robotics, non-context-driven social interactions, showed improvements in students’ social behavior.