Find the difference! : eye tracking study on information seeking behavior using an online game

With the advent of digital era web applications have become inevitable part of our lives. We are using the web to manage even the financially or ethically sensitive issues. For this reason exploration of information seeking behavior is an exciting area of research. Current study provides insight on information seeking behavior using a classic ‘Find the Difference’ game. 50 university students between the age of 19 and 26 participated in the study. Eye movement data were recorded with a Tobii T120 device. Participants carried out 4 continuous tasks. Each task included two pictures side by side with 7 hidden differences. After finishing the tasks, participants were asked to repeat the game with the same picture set. This data collection methodology allows the evaluation of learning curves. Additionally, participants were asked about their hand preference. For the purpose of analysis the following metrics were applied: task times (including saccades), fixation count and fixation duration (without saccades). The right- and left-hand side on each picture was selected as AOI (Area of Interest) to detect side preference in connection with hand preference. Results suggest a significant difference between male and female participants regarding aggregated task times (male 58.37s respectively female 68.37s), deviation in the number of fixations and fixation duration (apparently female have less but longer fixations) and also in the distribution of fixations between AOIs. Using eyetracking data current paper highlights the similarities and differences in information acquisition strategies respectively reveals gender and education (Arts vs. Sciences) dependent characteristics of interaction.

B-Learning no Ensino Superior: as perceções dos estudantes sobre o ambiente de aprendizagem online

Este trabalho teve por objetivo avaliar as perceções dos estudantes sobre o ambiente de aprendizagem online utilizado na instrução, em regime de b-learning e foi desenvolvido no contexto de duas unidades curriculares da área dos sistemas de informação do 1º ciclo de uma instituição de Ensino Superior portuguesa onde não existia experiência anterior da utilização de e-learning. Foi construído um ambiente de aprendizagem, suportado nas plataformas de comunicação assíncrona Moodle e síncrona Cisco WebEx, tendo a conceção da instrução privilegiado as estratégias orientadas para a aprendizagem centrada no estudante. Para responder às questões de investigação utilizou-se a técnica de inquérito por questionário. Os resultados revelam que os estudantes têm perceções positivas sobre o ambiente de aprendizagem online. Verificou-se uma forte correlação entre os aspetos relacionados com a conceção do ambiente de aprendizagem e o feedback, a interação, a gestão do tempo e a disponibilidade para o ensino online. A larga maioria dos estudantes (83,3%) indicou ainda que no futuro prefere optar por instrução em regime de b-learning. O desenvolvimento deste trabalho passa pelo aprofundamento do estudo, através da utilização de uma amostra mais representativa e da sua extensão aos professores de modo a percecionar como encaram a introdução do e-learning na instituição.

O Ensino Superior e o alargamento a novos públicos: as perceções dos estudantes sobre os cursos online

Este trabalho teve por objetivo identificar as perceções dos estudantes do ensino superior sobre o ensino online, tentando-se perceber como é que encaram o e-learning para a continuação dos estudos. Os resultados obtidos revelam que os estudantes manifestam algumas reticências sobre o ensino online mas, ao mesmo tempo, estão disponíveis para no futuro virem a optar por esse tipo de ensino, reconhecendo o impacto positivo que poderá ter na melhoria das suas qualificações e no desenvolvimento da sua carreira profissional. Concluiu-se que os estudantes valorizam, em primeiro lugar, a redução de custos e a flexibilidade na gestão do tempo.

Fifty Years After Angicos : Paulo Freire, Popular Education and the Struggle for a Better World that is Possible

The main thesis of this paper is that Freire’s original experience in Angicos anticipated a grand design for social transformation of educational systems. As such it brought together two key concepts that formulated the basis of his educational system: popular culture as an counter-hegemonic project and popular education, more particularly what was later called citizen schools or public popular education as keystone of his new educational system. I use the term Paulo Freire System to show that his original attempts were not only to challenge pedagogical the prevailing banking education system that was so pervasive in Brazil and Latin American at the time. In challenging the hegemony of banking education, its narrative, theoretical foundations, epistemology and methodology, Freire and his team sought to create a new system that could replace the old one. They saw banking education not only as obsolete in terms of modernization of systems but also oppressive in gnoseological, epistemological and political terms. In the conclusion of this paper I will discuss the twins obsessions of Freire, already present in the Angicos experience and that will stay with him throughout his life: the relationship between democracy, citizenship and education, and education as a postcolonial ethical act of social transformation. I would like to emphasize therefore that the Paulo Freire system, as conceived in the Angicos experience and its aftermath was a much larger and comprehensive system that originally considered, even by his critics.