Information Visualization to support decision making in the context of distance learning: A study with VLE TelEduc

Digital data sets constitute rich sources of information, which can be extracted and evaluated applying computational tools, for example, those ones for Information Visualization. Web-based applications, such as social network environments, forums and virtual environments for Distance Learning, are good examples for such sources. The great amount of data has direct impact on processing and analysis tasks. This paper presents the computational tool Mapper, defined and implemented to use visual representations - maps, graphics and diagrams - for supporting the decision making process by analyzing data stored in Virtual Learning Environment TelEduc-Unesp. © 2012 IEEE.

Desenhos sobre aprendizagem e não aprendizagem: a construção do conhecimento social sob o enfoque piagetiano

The article presents preliminary data of a survey that aimed to investigate the beliefs of children and adolescents about not learning. A total of 80 students, aged 6 to 16 years participated of the study. Among the participants, 20 are 6 years old, 20 are 9, 20 are 12 and 20 are 16 years old. As methodological tool, it was asked the participants to draw a person that learns and another one that doesn’t learn. Data was analyzed according to the Piagetian perspective for the construction of social knowledge. The main results indicate that a significant part of the participants tend to blame the students for the result of no learning. This indicates that students are able to consider the amplitude of different dimensions of social phenomena only partially. When considering the level of understanding of social reality, it was observed that, even at older ages, participants have a very basic notion of the social world.