MDD vs. traditional software development: a practitioner’s subjective perspective

Context: Today’s project managers have a myriad of methods to choose from for the development of software applications. However, they lack empirical data about the character of these methods in terms of usefulness, ease of use or compatibility, all of these being relevant variables to assess the developer’s intention to use them. Objective: To compare three methods, each following a different paradigm (Model-Driven, Model-Based and Code-Centric) with respect to their adoption potential by junior software developers engaged in the development of the business layer of a Web 2.0 application. Method: We have conducted a quasi-experiment with 26 graduate students of the University of Alicante. The application developed was a Social Network, which was organized around a fixed set of modules. Three of them, similar in complexity, were used for the experiment. Subjects were asked to use a different method for each module, and then to answer a questionnaire that gathered their perceptions during such use. Results: The results show that the Model-Driven method is regarded as the most useful, although it is also considered the least compatible with previous developers’ experiences. They also show that junior software developers feel comfortable with the use of models, and that they are likely to use them if the models are accompanied by a Model-Driven development environment. Conclusions: Despite their relatively low level of compatibility, Model-Driven development methods seem to show a great potential for adoption. That said, however, further experimentation is needed to make it possible to generalize the results to a different population, different methods, other languages and tools, different domains or different application sizes.

An overview of the Applications of Natural Language to Information Systems

This introduction provides an overview of the state-of-the-art technology in Applications of Natural Language to Information Systems. Specifically, we analyze the need for such technologies to successfully address the new challenges of modern information systems, in which the exploitation of the Web as a main data source on business systems becomes a key requirement. It will also discuss the reasons why Human Language Technologies themselves have shifted their focus onto new areas of interest very directly linked to the development of technology for the treatment and understanding of Web 2.0. These new technologies are expected to be future interfaces for the new information systems to come. Moreover, we will review current topics of interest to this research community, and will present the selection of manuscripts that have been chosen by the program committee of the NLDB 2011 conference as representative cornerstone research works, especially highlighting their contribution to the advancement of such technologies.

Towards automatic tweet generation: A comparative study from the text summarization perspective in the journalism genre

In recent years, Twitter has become one of the most important microblogging services of the Web 2.0. Among the possible uses it allows, it can be employed for communicating and broadcasting information in real time. The goal of this research is to analyze the task of automatic tweet generation from a text summarization perspective in the context of the journalism genre. To achieve this, different state-of-the-art summarizers are selected and employed for producing multi-lingual tweets in two languages (English and Spanish). A wide experimental framework is proposed, comprising the creation of a new corpus, the generation of the automatic tweets, and their assessment through a quantitative and a qualitative evaluation, where informativeness, indicativeness and interest are key criteria that should be ensured in the proposed context. From the results obtained, it was observed that although the original tweets were considered as model tweets with respect to their informativeness, they were not among the most interesting ones from a human viewpoint. Therefore, relying only on these tweets may not be the ideal way to communicate news through Twitter, especially if a more personalized and catchy way of reporting news wants to be performed. In contrast, we showed that recent text summarization techniques may be more appropriate, reflecting a balance between indicativeness and interest, even if their content was different from the tweets delivered by the news providers.

Facebook in teaching: strengths and weaknesses

Purpose – The use of online social networks has experienced a vertiginous increase in the last few years, and young people appear as the key players in this trend. Immersed, educated and raised in the middle of technology, the new student generation is one of digital natives. Instead, lecturers are digital immigrants, but the authors have the responsibility to turn a technology which can be a distraction into a teaching tool. Facebook is an example of Web 2.0 technology that owns a huge potential in the field of education. The purpose of this paper is to show the teaching experience with the Facebook social network in human resource management degree subjects, for the purpose of highlighting its strengths and weaknesses. Design/methodology/approach – A survey was carried out among university students in order to reach the goal. A total of 191 students were asked to give their opinion about the use of Facebook in teaching, achieving 125 valid answers. Findings – Facebook can positively impact on the performance of students, who are satisfied with the experience and think that the information obtained in Facebook can improve their training. More negative attitudes towards Facebook appeared among those students who had not used it. Originality/value – The paper summarises the strengths and weaknesses of Facebook through a literature review and assesses them via a survey.

Spanish Nursing Students' Practical Experience of Computer Applications in Nursing

This study aimed to determine the level of computer practical experience in a sample of Spanish nursing students. Each student was given a Spanish language questionnaire, modified from an original used previously with medical students at the Medical School of North Carolina University (USA) and also at the Education Unit of Hospital General Universitario del Mar (Spain). The 10-item self-report questionnaire probed for information about practical experience with computers. A total of 126 students made up the sample. The majority were female (80.2%; n=101). The results showed that just over half (57.1%, n=72) of the students had used a computer game (three or more times before), and that only one third (37.3%, n=47) had the experience of using a word processing package. Moreover, other applications and IT-based facilities (e.g. statistical packages, e-mail, databases, CD-ROM searches, programming languages and computer-assisted learning) had never been used by the majority of students. The student nurses' practical experience was less than that reported for medical students in previous studies.

Redes sociales de lectura: del libro de caras a la LIJ 2.0

Entre las múltiples posibilidades que nos ofrecen los distintos servicios de redes sociales y microblogging, algunos objetivos fundamentales para su uso didáctico pueden ser el fomento de la lectura y el desarrollo de la competencia lectoliteraria. Contrariamente a lo que muchas voces plantean, que las ven como una distracción frente a la lectura tradicional, las redes sociales son un espacio de conversación y lectura donde, con dinámicas adecuadas, se puede trabajar la comprensión lectora desde muy distintas perspectivas, siendo un espacio central de lo que se ha definido como LIJ 2.0 (Literatura y Lectura Infantil y Juvenil en la Web Social).

Evaluación de necesidades y expectativas ante la construcción de un espacio interactivo de comunicación, información y aprendizaje histórico-educativo

Conscientes de las posibilidades pedagógicas, participativas y de colaboración científica de la Web 2.0, los autores del presente artículo se plantean la detección de las necesidades y expectativas hacia la creación de una plataforma virtual delimitada por un espacio interactivo o red social para la Historia de la Educación y el Patrimonio Histórico-educativo. Gracias a la evaluación mediante un cuestionario en el que han participado un grupo de expertos docentes e investigadores de Historia de la Educación, se han obtenido una serie de conclusiones a tener en cuenta respecto a determinados aspectos (conocimiento y uso, expectativas, componentes, etc.) que orientarán la construcción ad hoc de dicha plataforma. Es relevante el poco conocimiento y uso de las redes sociales tanto genéricas como específicas, así como otro tipo de aplicaciones web. Destaca, por otro lado, que la edad de los participantes no ha condicionado la importancia percibida sobre las capacidades de las TIC para el desarrollo en la docencia y la investigación.

TextMess 2.0: las tecnologías del lenguaje humano ante los nuevos retos de la comunicación digital

El objetivo general de este proyecto se centra en el estudio, desarrollo y experimentación de diferentes técnicas y sistemas basados en Tecnologías del Lenguaje Humano (TLH) para el desarrollo de la próxima generación de sistemas de procesamiento inteligente de la información digital (modelado, recuperación, tratamiento, comprensión y descubrimiento) afrontando los actuales retos de la comunicación digital. En este nuevo escenario, los sistemas deben incorporar capacidades de razonamiento que descubrirán la subjetividad de la información en todos sus contextos (espacial, temporal y emocional) analizando las diferentes dimensiones de uso (multilingualidad, multimodalidad y registro).

EmotiBlog: a finer-grained and more precise learning of subjectivity expression models

The exponential growth of the subjective information in the framework of the Web 2.0 has led to the need to create Natural Language Processing tools able to analyse and process such data for multiple practical applications. They require training on specifically annotated corpora, whose level of detail must be fine enough to capture the phenomena involved. This paper presents EmotiBlog – a fine-grained annotation scheme for subjectivity. We show the manner in which it is built and demonstrate the benefits it brings to the systems using it for training, through the experiments we carried out on opinion mining and emotion detection. We employ corpora of different textual genres –a set of annotated reported speech extracted from news articles, the set of news titles annotated with polarity and emotion from the SemEval 2007 (Task 14) and ISEAR, a corpus of real-life self-expressed emotion. We also show how the model built from the EmotiBlog annotations can be enhanced with external resources. The results demonstrate that EmotiBlog, through its structure and annotation paradigm, offers high quality training data for systems dealing both with opinion mining, as well as emotion detection.

Uso de redes sociales para mejorar el rendimiento de los alumnos con diferentes estilos de aprendizaje

Debido a los cambios que el Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior introduce al potenciar las horas de trabajo no presencial, se hacen necesarios nuevos mecanismos para posibilitar una mejor comunicación y cooperación en el proceso de aprendizaje. Las redes sociales, como Facebook, pueden suministrar estos mecanismos, pero su uso satisfactorio para la docencia puede verse afectado en gran medida por el estilo de aprendizaje de los alumnos. Este artículo plantea la necesidad de estudiar la influencia de los diferentes estilos de aprendizaje en la docencia no presencial mediante el uso de redes sociales con el fin de incrementar el rendimiento de los alumnos. Cabe destacar que este artículo describe el proyecto “Las redes sociales y su relación con los estilos de aprendizaje” a realizar dentro del programa de Redes de Investigación en Docencia Universitaria del Instituto de Ciencias de la Educación de la Universidad de Alicante.

Attitudes towards disability in education through the SSCI (2000-2011): a topical and bibliometric analysis

Introduction. The purpose of this study is to describe and characterize the international sci-entific output relating to “attitudes towards disability in education”, using a battery of bibliometric indicators that make it possible to analyze and monitor international scientific activity. Method. This ex post facto retrospective study analyzed 925 papers published in the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) database during the period 2000-2011. Results. The number of publications increased steadily between 2006 and 2010. The results reported here include the most productive authors, the journals that deal with this topic, and the articles cited most often. An analysis of research types showed a tendency toward empiri-cal studies. A total of 18 categories were identified when considering article content, and the distribution of the research studies across stages of education was found to be uneven. Discussion and Conclusion. The results reveal a topic that is highly current in today’s scien-tific community, and offer us a view of the traits that have characterized research on "attitudes towards disability in education" for the last eleven years.

Blogs para la enseñanza de literatura infantil y juvenil en español: espacio central de la LIJ 2.0

Para analizar la recepción de las obras de literatura infantil y juvenil en internet, los blogs continúan siendo un espacio fundamental para la opinión crítica, la reflexión académica y la práctica docente configurándose como eje central del concepto LIJ 2.0. Después de analizar dicho concepto, se presentarán en primer lugar los principales blogs de la LIJ en castellano, donde encontramos espacios de escritores e ilustradores, propuestas de animación a la lectura, repositorios de obras y crítica literaria, centrándonos más en la parte de difusión y animación a la lectura que en la de creación literaria. Posteriormente se presentarán el recorrido didáctico realizado a lo largo de cinco años en la Universidad de Alicante para explotar dichas herramientas en distintos niveles educativos.

Competències mediàtiques a l’IES Dr. Balmis d’Alacant

La introducció de les TIC en l’ensenyament (les TAC) planteja molts interrogants entre els membres de la comunitat educativa, especialment entre el professorat. L’atracció del mitjà per als aprenents, la manca de reflexió en l’ús, tant per part del professorat com de l’alumnat, la necessitat d’una formació específica, l’adequació de les infraestructures al concepte i a les possibilitats que ofereix el web 2.0 i la incorporació de les aplicacions TAC en les programacions d’aula són alguns aspectes que mereixen una atenció específica i una anàlisi detinguda. La base de gran part de les respostes rau en una planificació eficaç de la formació del professorat que satisfaça les expectatives de tothom. Els projectes de centre, la utilització de plataformes educatives com Moodle i l’autoformació són sendes que ens acosten envers les solucions. En aquest treball, hi centrem l’atenció en les valoracions, les pràctiques habituals, les actituds i els coneixements relacionats amb la competència mediàtica o digital del professorat de l’IES Dr. Balmis d’Alacant. Ens basem en una enquesta realitzada en línia que aplega aquests continguts en una combinació d’ítems de resposta tancada i d’altres de resposta oberta.

De las tabletas a los MOOC en la LIJ 2.0 y la didáctica de lengua y literatura

Según los Informes Horizon 2013 y 2014 para la educación superior y para la etapa escolar, la programación en la nube, los cursos masivos abiertos en línea y el trabajo con tabletas y aplicaciones móviles serán las tendencias principales de los próximos años en tecnología educativa. Las tabletas y sus aplicaciones han entrado en todos los niveles educativos y ya es habitual verlas en cualquier clase por lo que es imprescindible conocer sus posibilidades para sacarles el máximo rendimiento. Además la Universidad de Alicante se ha convertido en referente en el diseño de MOOC con Unimooc como modelo pionero y XarxaMOOC como buque insignia en el ámbito lingüístico. Desde el área de didáctica de la lengua y la literatura y para reforzar el concepto LIJ 2.0 (lectura y literatura infantil y juvenil en la web social) queremos profundizar en ambos conceptos, presentar una breve panorámica y hacer un resumido estudio de casos para proponer una serie de ejemplos y herramientas que nos sean útiles en el futuro.

Discussing the physical meaning of the absorption feature at 2.1 keV in 4U 1538–52

High resolution X-ray spectroscopy is a powerful tool for studying the nature of the matter surrounding the neutron star in X-ray binaries and its interaction between the stellar wind and the compact object. In particular, absorption features in their spectra could reveal the presence of atmospheres of the neutron star or their magnetic field strength. Here we present an investigation of the absorption feature at 2.1 keV in the X-ray spectrum of the high mass X-ray binary 4U 1538–52 based on our previous analysis of the XMM-Newton data. We study various possible origins and discuss the different physical scenarios in order to explain this feature. A likely interpretation is that the feature is associated with atomic transitions in an O/Ne neutron star atmosphere or of hydrogen and helium like Fe or Si ions formed in the stellar wind of the donor.