Teaching and learning mathematics using moodle

This paper summarizes a project that is contributing to a change in the way of teaching and learning Mathematics. Mathematics is a subject of the Accounting and Administration course. In this subject we teach: Functions and Algebra. The aim is that the student understand the basic concepts and is able to apply them in other issues, when possible, establishing a bridge between the issues that they have studied and their application in Accounting. As from this year, the Accounting course falls under in Bologna Process. The teacher and the student roles have changed. The time for theoretical and practical classes has been reduced, so it was necessary to modify the way of teaching and learning. In the theoretical classes we use systems of multimedia projection to present the concepts, and in the practical classes we solve exercises. We also use the Excel and the mathematical open source software wxMaxima. To supplement our theoretical and practical classes we have developed a project called MatActiva based on the Moodle platform offered by PAOL - Projecto de Apoio Online (Online Support Project). With the creation of this new project we wanted to take advantage already obtained results with the previous experiences, giving to the students opportunities to complement their study in Mathematics. One of the great objectives is to motivate students, encourage them to overcome theirs difficulties through an auto-study giving them more confidence. In the MatActiva project the students have a big collection of information about the way of the subject works, which includes the objectives, the program, recommended bibliography, evaluation method and summaries. It works as material support for the practical and theoretical classes, the slides of the theoretical classes are available, the sheets with exercises for the students to do in the classroom and complementary exercises, as well as the exams of previous years. Students can also do diagnostic tests and evaluation tests online. Our approach is a reflexive one, based on the professional experience of the teachers that explore and incorporate new tools of Moodle with their students and coordinate the project MatActiva.

How to teach mathematics with MOODLE

The aim of this article is to present a Project in the Oporto’s Institute of Accounting and Administration, which pretends to contribute for a change in the way of teaching and learning Mathematics. One of the main objectives of this project is to innovate the teaching and learning processes, exploring technologies as a pedagogical resource and to induce higher motivation to students, improve the rate of success and make available to students a set of materials adapted to their needs. This concern is justified due to the fact that students have a weak preparation, without consolidated basis. Since the year 2007/2008 the courses were adjusted to the Bologna process, which requires several changes in teacher’s and student’s roles, methodologies and assessment. The number of weekly classes has been reduced, so it was necessary to develop new strategies and methodologies to support the student. With the implementation of the Bologna Process in the Accounting degree, we felt a great need to provide other types of activities to students. To complement our theoretical and practical classes we have developed a project called MatActiva based on the Moodle platform offered by PAOL - Projecto de Apoio On-Line (Online Support Project). Moodle allows us to use the language TEX to create materials that use mathematical symbols. Using this functionality, we created a set of easy to use interactive resources. In MatActiva project, the students have access to a variety of different materials. We have followed a strategy that makes the project compatible with the theoretical and practical subjects/classes, complementing them. To do so, we created some resources, for instance multiple-choice tests, which are the most accessed by the students. These tests can be realized and corrected on-line and for each wrong answer there is a feedback with the resolution. We can find other types of resources: diagnostic tests, theoretical notes. There are not only the pre-requirements for subjects mathematics, but also materials to help students follow up the programs. We also developed several lessons. This activity consists of a number of pages, where each page has contents and leads to other pages, based on the student's progress. The teacher creates the choices and determines the next page that the student will see, based upon their knowledge. There is also an area of doubts, where the students can place all the mathematical doubts they have, and a teacher gives the answers or clues to help them in their work. MatActiva also offers an area where we can find some humour, curiosities, contests and games including mathematical contents to test the math skills, as well as links to pages about mathematical contents that could be useful for the study. Since ISCAP receives ERASMUS students and some of them attend mathematics, we developed some materials in English, so they can also use MatActiva. The main objectives of our project are not only to bring success in the subjects of mathematics, but also to motivate the students, encourage them to overcome theirs difficulties through an auto-study giving them more confidence and improve their relationship with the mathematics as well as the communication between students and teachers and among students.

The active mathematics project at ISCAP

This paper summarizes a project that is contributing to a change in the way of teaching and learning Mathematics. Mathematics is a subject of the Accounting and Administration course. In this subject we teach: Functions and Algebra. The aim is that the students understand the basic concepts and is able to apply them in other issues, when possible, establishing a bridge between the issues that they have studied and their application in Accounting. As from this year, the Accounting course falls under in Bologna Process. The teacher and the student roles have changed. The time for theoretical and practical classes has been reduced, so it was necessary to modify the way of teaching and learning. In the theoretical classes we use systems of multimedia projection to present the concepts, and in the practical classes we solve exercises. To supplement our theoretical and practical classes we have developed an active mathematics project called MatActiva based on the Moodle platform offered by PAOL - Projecto de Apoio Online (Online Support Project). In the last versions of Moodle, it is possible use the TeX language to create math questions. Using this tool we created a set of interactive materials. With the creation of this new project we wanted to take advantage already obtained results with the previous experiences, giving to the students opportunities to complement their study in Mathematics. One of the great objectives is to motivate students, encourage them to overcome theirs difficulties through an auto-study, giving them more confidence and the opportunity to seeing others perspectives of the mathematics subjects. In the MatActiva project the students have a big collection of information about the way of the subject works, which includes the objectives, the program, recommended bibliography, evaluation method and summaries. It works as material support for the practical and theoretical classes, the slides of the theoretical classes are available, the sheets with exercises for the students to do in the classroom and complementary exercises, as well as the exams of previous years. Students can also do diagnostic tests and evaluation tests online. Our approach is a reflexive one, based on the professional experience of the teachers that explore and incorporate new tools of Moodle with their students and coordinate the project MatActiva.

Becoming a teacher: student teachers´ experiences and perceptions about teaching practice

In an attempt to build a more comprehensive and holistic understanding of the complexity, dynamics and idiosyncrasies involved in becoming a teacher, this study focussed on the experiences of 295 student teachers. Their feelings, cognitions and perceptions regarding teaching practice were analysed using the short version of the Inventory of Experiences and Perceptions of the Teaching Practice. Results emphasise some of the difficulties experienced during this period (e.g., stress, sense of weariness and ‘vulnerability’), as well the positive perceptions of these student teachers regarding their growing knowledge and skilfulness, as well as their sense of efficacy, flexibility and spontaneity in their performance and interactions. Their perception of their accomplishments in achieving reasonable levels of acceptance and recognition within the school community and their positive evaluation of the guidance and support provided by their supervisors are also emphasised. Differences were found – in terms of gender and graduate course background – in the way these student teachers experienced some aspects of teaching practice.

Organization knowledge management change from a complex adaptive systems perpective with ability for ambidexeterity

We are working on the confluence of knowledge management, organizational memory and emergent knowledge with the lens of complex adaptive systems. In order to be fundamentally sustainable organizations search for an adaptive need for managing ambidexterity of day-to-day work and innovation. An organization is an entity of a systemic nature, composed of groups of people who interact to achieve common objectives, making it necessary to capture, store and share interactions knowledge with the organization, this knowledge can be generated in intra-organizational or inter-organizational level. The organizations have organizational memory of knowledge of supported on the Information technology and systems. Each organization, especially in times of uncertainty and radical changes, to meet the demands of the environment, needs timely and sized knowledge on the basis of tacit and explicit. This sizing is a learning process resulting from the interaction that emerges from the relationship between the tacit and explicit knowledge and which we are framing within an approach of Complex Adaptive Systems. The use of complex adaptive systems for building the emerging interdependent relationship, will produce emergent knowledge that will improve the organization unique developing.

A web-based intelligent tutoring system on teaching and learning electrical project

The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) provide new strategies for disseminating information and new communication models in order to change attitudes and human behaviour concerning to education. Nowadays the internet is crucial as a means of communication and information sharing. To education or tutorship will be required to use ICT, supported on the internet, to establish the communication of teacher-student and student-student, disseminating the content of the subjects, and as a way of teaching and learning process. This paper presents an intelligent tutor that aims to be a tool to support teaching and learning in the field of the electrical engineering project.

Paul Auster and the music of change: building new stories

In the work of Paul Auster (Newark, 1947 - ), we find two main themes: the sense of loss and existential drift and the loneliness of the individual fully committed to the work of writing, as if he had been confined to the book that commands his life. However, this second theme is clearly the dominant one because the character's space of solitude may include its own wandering, because this wandering is also often performed inside the four walls of a room, just like it is narrated inside the space of the page and the book. Both in his poetry, essays and fiction, Auster seems to face the work of writing as an actual physical effort of effective construction, as if the words that are aligned in the poem-text were stones to place in a row when building a wall or some other structure in stone.

Alright: a distinctive pathway of change from the 18th century to the present day

The origins of the vast majority of the words we use in contemporary English go back as far as Old or Middle English. In contrast, alright and all right in their present-day application appear to be the result of a more recent evolution, as there is no evidence of their use, not even in the two-word form, in the published fiction before the 18th century. Furthermore, there are not in the research literature, at least to my knowledge, any previous linguistic studies on this specific subject matter. The present article is simply an attempt to describe the various processes of diachronic change that brought about the emergence of alright.

Relatório de estágio em Educação Pré-Escolar

Mestrado em Educação Pré-Escolar

Uniprocessor EDF scheduling with mode change

Consider the problem of scheduling sporadically-arriving tasks with implicit deadlines using Earliest-Deadline-First (EDF) on a single processor. The system may undergo changes in its operational modes and therefore the characteristics of the task set may change at run-time. We consider a well-established previously published mode-change protocol and we show that if every mode utilizes at most 50% of the processing capacity then all deadlines are met. We also show that there exists a task set that misses a deadline although the utilization exceeds 50% by just an arbitrarily small amount. Finally, we present, for a relevant special case, an exact schedulability test for EDF with mode change.

A autoavaliação: um pilar para o sucesso dos alunos

Mestrado em Ensino Precoce do Inglês

Using remote labs to serve different teacher's needs a case study with VISIR and RemotElectLab

Remote Laboratories are an emergent technological and pedagogical tool at all education levels, and their widespread use is an important part of their own improvement and evolution. This paper describes several issues encountered on laboratorial classes, on higher education courses, when using remote laboratories based on PXI systems, either using the VISIR system or an alternate in-house solution. Three main issues are presented and explained, all reported by teachers that gave support to students use of remote laboratories. The first issue deals with the need to allow students to select the actual place where an ammeter is to be inserted on electric circuits, even incorrectly, therefore emulating real world difficulties. The second one deals with problems with timing when several measurements are required at short intervals, as in the discharge cycle of a capacitor. And the last issue deals with the use of a multimeter in DC mode when reading AC values, a use that collides with the lab settings. All scenarios are presented and discussed including the solution found for each case. The conclusion derived from the described work is that the remote laboratories area is an expanding field, where practical use leads to improvement and evolution of the available solutions, requiring a strict cooperation and information sharing between all actors, i.e. developers, teachers and students.

Comparison of contaminant removal effectiveness and air change efficiency as indicator of air diffusion quality.

The ventilation efficiency concept is an attempt to quantify a parameter that can easily distinguish the different options for air diffusion in the building spaces. Thirteen strategies of air diffusion were measured in a test chamber through the application of the tracer gas method, with the objective to validate the calculation by Computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Were compared the Air Change Efficiency (ACE) and the Contaminant Removal Effectiveness (CRE), the two indicators most internationally accepted. The main results from this work shows that the values of the numerical simulations are in good agreement with experimental measurements and also, that the solutions to be adopted for maximizing the ventilation efficiency should be the schemes that operate with low speeds of supply air and small differences between supply air temperature and the room temperature.

E-assessment in mathematics courses with multiple-choice questions tests

With the implementation of the Bologna Process several challenges have been posed to higher education institution, particularly in Portugal. One of the main implications is related to the change of the paradigm of a teacher centered education, to a paradigm that is student centered. This change implies the change of the way to assess courses in higher education institutions. Continuous and formative assessments emerged as the focus, catalyzed by electronic assessment, or e-assessment. This paper presents a case of the implementation of an e-assessment strategy, implemented in order to allow continuous, formative assessment in numerous mathematics classes using multiple-choice questions tests implement in Moodle open-source learning management system. The implementation can be considered a success.