This article finds that the new virtual learning environments comprise more spaces and practices in which digital resources, tools, and applications are used. The article introduces how digital storytelling can create virtual learning environments when it is used for learning 21 st-century skills and competencies needed in students' future working life. The study describes how students (n = 319) in three countries and their teachers (n = 28) value digital storytelling and what they think students have learned. Their experiences are analyzed using a theoretical conceptualization of the global sharing pedagogy that sets categories of processes or tools as mediators: 1) learner-driven knowledge and skills creation, 2) collaboration, 3) networking, and 4) digital literacy. Analyses have been quantitative and qualitative. The article describes students' experiences when they created their digital stories and how they engaged in learning. The major findings are that students enjoyed creating their stories, and they were very engaged in their work. They learned many 21 st-century skills when creating their digital stories.

Pesticides leaching from soil to surface and groundwater are a global threat for drinking water safety, as no cleaning methods occur for groundwater environment. We examined whether peat, compost-peat-sand (CPS) mixture, NHNO, NHNO with sodium citrate (Na-citrate), and the surfactant methyl-β-cyclodextrin additions enhance atrazine, simazine, hexazinone, dichlobenil, and the degradate 2,6-dichlorobenzamide (BAM) dissipations in sediment slurries under aerobic and anaerobic conditions, with sterilized controls. The vadose zone sediment cores were drilled from a depth of 11.3-14.6m in an herbicide-contaminated groundwater area. The peat and CPS enhanced chemical atrazine and simazine dissipation, and the peat enhanced chemical hexazinone dissipation, all oxygen-independently. Dichlobenil dissipated under all conditions, while BAM dissipation was fairly slow and half-lives could not be calculated. The chemical dissipation rates could be associated with the chemical structures and properties of the herbicides, and additive compositions, not with pH. Microbial atrazine degradation was only observed in the Pseudomonas sp. ADP amended slurries, although the sediment slurries were known to contain atrazine-degrading microorganisms. The bioavailability of atrazine in the water phase seemed to be limited, which could be due to complex formation with organic and inorganic colloids. Atrazine degradation by indigenous microbes could not be stimulated by the surfactant methyl-β-cyclodextrin, or by the additives NHNO and NHNO with Na-citrate, although the nitrogen additives increased microbial growth.

Biographical notesVilhelmiina Harju M.A. (Ed), is a doctoral student at the Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki. Her main research interests are lifelong learning, teachers' professional development, non-formal learning environments, and learning and teaching with digital technologies.

This study investigates principals' viewpoints on the support needs of newly qualified teachers. As pedagogic leaders, principals play a central role in organizing support activities for new teachers at local level and can offer insights into new teachers' situation and support needs. On that basis, we investigated how Finnish principals (N = 104) prioritized and described the support needs of newly qualified teachers. Data were collected by means of a questionnaire that included both closed and open-ended questions. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and principal component analysis, and responses to open-ended question were analyzed using deductive content analysis. The study revealed that new teachers need particular support in working outside the classroom, cooperating with parents and colleagues and enhancing holistic support for students. The results contribute to knowledge of salient issues in planning and organising schoolbased support for new teachers, as well as in initial teacher education.

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