Digital proficiency and digital inclusion: Comparison between students of computer science, public relations and engineering

New information and communication technologies may be useful for providing more in-depth knowledge to students in many ways, whether through online multimedia educational material, or through online debates with colleagues, teachers and other area professionals in a synchronous or asynchronous manner. This paper focuses on participation in online discussion in e-learning courses for promoting learning. Although an important theoretical aspect, an analysis of literature reveals there are few studies evaluating the personal and social aspects of online course users in a quantitative manner. This paper aims to introduce a method for diagnosing inclusion and digital proficiency and other personal aspects of the student through a case study comparing Information System, Public Relations and Engineering students at a public university in Brazil. Statistical analysis and analysis of variances (ANOVA) were used as the methodology for data analysis in order to understand existing relations between the components of the proposed method. The survey methodology was also used, in its online format, as a research instrument. The method is based on using online questionnaires that diagnose digital proficiency and time management, level of extroversion and social skills of the students. According to the sample studied, there is no strong correlation between digital proficiency and individual characteristics tied to the use of time, level of extroversion and social skills of students. The differences in course grades for some components are partly due to subject 'Introduction to Economics' being offered to freshmen in Public Relations, whereas subject 'Economics in Engineering' is offered in the final semesters of Engineering and Information Systems courses. Therefore, the difference could be more tied to the respondent's age than to the course. Information Systems students were observed to be older, with access to computers and Internet at the workplace, compared to the other students who access the Internet more often from home. This paper presents a pilot study aimed at conducting a diagnosis that permits proposing actions for information and communication technology to contribute towards student education. Three levels of digital inclusion are described as a scale to measure whether information technology increases personal performance and professional knowledge and skills. This study may be useful for other readers interested in themes related to education in engineering. © 2013 IEEE.

Televisão digital nos espaços públicos: promoção da hospitalidade social

Pós-graduação em Televisão Digital: Informação e Conhecimento - FAAC

Abordagem técnica sobre os aspectos de uma rede social colaborativa

With the advancement of the gaming industry in the market, became evident the need for professionals working in this area. With this in mind, this paper attempts to create an environment where aspirants and professionals in creating games can interact. To get to this point, was built one system based on current technologies, and parad igms of software engineering system. So throughout this monograph the process of the system development is studied, using different technologies, and showing how it can work, the exchange of information and knowledge among the games creation lovers

Estudo comparativo dos programas de habitação social nas cidades de Franca/Brasil e Praia/Cabo Verde: convergências e discrepâncias

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Multidimensional Projections for Visual Analysis of Social Networks

Visual analysis of social networks is usually based on graph drawing algorithms and tools. However, social networks are a special kind of graph in the sense that interpretation of displayed relationships is heavily dependent on context. Context, in its turn, is given by attributes associated with graph elements, such as individual nodes, edges, and groups of edges, as well as by the nature of the connections between individuals. In most systems, attributes of individuals and communities are not taken into consideration during graph layout, except to derive weights for force-based placement strategies. This paper proposes a set of novel tools for displaying and exploring social networks based on attribute and connectivity mappings. These properties are employed to layout nodes on the plane via multidimensional projection techniques. For the attribute mapping, we show that node proximity in the layout corresponds to similarity in attribute, leading to easiness in locating similar groups of nodes. The projection based on connectivity yields an initial placement that forgoes force-based or graph analysis algorithm, reaching a meaningful layout in one pass. When a force algorithm is then applied to this initial mapping, the final layout presents better properties than conventional force-based approaches. Numerical evaluations show a number of advantages of pre-mapping points via projections. User evaluation demonstrates that these tools promote ease of manipulation as well as fast identification of concepts and associations which cannot be easily expressed by conventional graph visualization alone. In order to allow better space usage for complex networks, a graph mapping on the surface of a sphere is also implemented.

Software Engineering Education Needs More Engineering

To what extent is “software engineering” really “engineering” as this term is commonly understood? A hallmark of the products of the traditional engineering disciplines is trustworthiness based on dependability. But in his keynote presentation at ICSE 2006 Barry Boehm pointed out that individuals’, systems’, and peoples’ dependency on software is becoming increasingly critical, yet that dependability is generally not the top priority for software intensive system producers. Continuing in an uncharacteristic pessimistic vein, Professor Boehm said that this situation will likely continue until a major software-induced system catastrophe similar in impact to the 9/11 World Trade Center catastrophe stimulates action toward establishing accountability for software dependability. He predicts that it is highly likely that such a software-induced catastrophe will occur between now and 2025. It is widely understood that software, i.e., computer programs, are intrinsically different from traditionally engineered products, but in one aspect they are identical: the extent to which the well-being of individuals, organizations, and society in general increasingly depend on software. As wardens of the future through our mentoring of the next generation of software developers, we believe that it is our responsibility to at least address Professor Boehm’s predicted catastrophe. Traditional engineering has, and continually addresses its social responsibility through the evolution of the education, practice, and professional certification/licensing of professional engineers. To be included in the fraternity of professional engineers, software engineering must do the same. To get a rough idea of where software engineering currently stands on some of these issues we conducted two surveys. Our main survey was sent to software engineering academics in the U.S., Canada, and Australia. Among other items it sought detail information on their software engineering programs. Our auxiliary survey was sent to U.S. engineering institutions to get some idea about how software engineering programs compared with those in established engineering disciplines of Civil, Electrical, and Mechanical Engineering. Summaries of our findings can be found in the last two sections of our paper.

Climate Engineering: gesellschaftliches Konfliktpotenzial und öffentliche Partizipationsmöglichkeiten

Aufbauend auf den Ergebnissen einer Literatur- und Medienanalyse wurde erstmals zum Thema Climate Engineering ein sogenanntes Gruppen-Delphi durchgeführt, um aktuelle und argumentativ fundierte Einschätzungen von Experten zu den möglichen sozialen und kulturellen Folgen von Climate Engineering, insbesondere auch in Deutschland, zu erhalten. Die Ergebnisse dieser diskursiven Form der Expertenbefragung zeigen deutlich, dass die Verfahren des Climate Engineering differenziert betrachtet und bewertet werden müssen. Auf Akzeptanzprobleme stoßen vor allem Maßnahmen, bei denen hohe Unsicherheit über die potenziellen Nebenwirkungen besteht. In der Literatur und unter den Experten besteht Einigkeit darüber, dass es bereits jetzt, in der Frühphase der Entwicklung von Climate Engineering-Strategien, notwendig sei, die Bürger über diese Technologien und Strategien aufzuklären.

Self-disclosure and privacy calculus on social networking sites: the role of culture

Social Networking Sites (SNSs) have become extremely popular around the world. They rely on user-generated content to offer engaging experience to its members. Cultural differences may influence the motivation of users to create and share content on SNS. This study adopts the privacy calculus perspective to examine the role of culture in individual self-disclosure decisions. The authors use structural equation modeling and multi-group analysis to investigate this dynamics. The findings reveal the importance of cultural dimensions of individualism and uncertainty avoidance in the cognitive processes of SNS users.

Stakeholder analysis combined with social network analysis provides fine-grained insights into water infrastructure planning processes

Environmental policy and decision-making are characterized by complex interactions between different actors and sectors. As a rule, a stakeholder analysis is performed to understand those involved, but it has been criticized for lacking quality and consistency. This lack is remedied here by a formal social network analysis that investigates collaborative and multi-level governance settings in a rigorous way. We examine the added value of combining both elements. Our case study examines infrastructure planning in the Swiss water sector. Water supply and wastewater infrastructures are planned far into the future, usually on the basis of projections of past boundary conditions. They affect many actors, including the population, and are expensive. In view of increasing future dynamics and climate change, a more participatory and long-term planning approach is required. Our specific aims are to investigate fragmentation in water infrastructure planning, to understand how actors from different decision levels and sectors are represented, and which interests they follow. We conducted 27 semi-structured interviews with local stakeholders, but also cantonal and national actors. The network analysis confirmed our hypothesis of strong fragmentation: we found little collaboration between the water supply and wastewater sector (confirming horizontal fragmentation), and few ties between local, cantonal, and national actors (confirming vertical fragmentation). Infrastructure planning is clearly dominated by engineers and local authorities. Little importance is placed on longer-term strategic objectives and integrated catchment planning, but this was perceived as more important in a second analysis going beyond typical questions of stakeholder analysis. We conclude that linking a stakeholder analysis, comprising rarely asked questions, with a rigorous social network analysis is very fruitful and generates complementary results. This combination gave us deeper insight into the socio-political-engineering world of water infrastructure planning that is of vital importance to our well-being.

Comunicología e ingeniería comunicológica del cuerpo y del deporte. Configurando una nueva intersubjetividad de la vida social

El texto está configurado en cuatro partes. Primera. Subjetividad y cuerpo. Proyecto social y vida del cuerpo. Historia conceptual cultural del cuerpo y del deporte. Se presentan elementos históricos culturales sobre los proyectos subjetivos sociales del cuerpo. Segunda. La Educación Física y el cuerpo. El proyecto social gremial institucional del cuerpo y del deporte. Se presentan algunos elementos de la historia del proyecto subjetivo social de la Educación Física. Tercera. La Comunicología, la Ingeniería Comunicológica, el cuerpo y el deporte. El movimiento hacia una nueva intersubjetividad de la vida social. Se presenta una lectura sobre la Educación Física, el deporte y el cuerpo, desde la Comunicología. Se propone un programa de trabajo sobre la Ecuación Física, el deporte y el cuerpo, como caso ejemplar, desde la Ingeniería Comunicológica, poniendo énfasis en la figura de la intersubjetividad sobre la de la subjetividad del cuerpo. Cuarta. Bibliografía seleccionada para complementar la información

Comunicología e ingeniería comunicológica del cuerpo y del deporte. Configurando una nueva intersubjetividad de la vida social

El texto está configurado en cuatro partes. Primera. Subjetividad y cuerpo. Proyecto social y vida del cuerpo. Historia conceptual cultural del cuerpo y del deporte. Se presentan elementos históricos culturales sobre los proyectos subjetivos sociales del cuerpo. Segunda. La Educación Física y el cuerpo. El proyecto social gremial institucional del cuerpo y del deporte. Se presentan algunos elementos de la historia del proyecto subjetivo social de la Educación Física. Tercera. La Comunicología, la Ingeniería Comunicológica, el cuerpo y el deporte. El movimiento hacia una nueva intersubjetividad de la vida social. Se presenta una lectura sobre la Educación Física, el deporte y el cuerpo, desde la Comunicología. Se propone un programa de trabajo sobre la Ecuación Física, el deporte y el cuerpo, como caso ejemplar, desde la Ingeniería Comunicológica, poniendo énfasis en la figura de la intersubjetividad sobre la de la subjetividad del cuerpo. Cuarta. Bibliografía seleccionada para complementar la información

Comunicología e ingeniería comunicológica del cuerpo y del deporte. Configurando una nueva intersubjetividad de la vida social

El texto está configurado en cuatro partes. Primera. Subjetividad y cuerpo. Proyecto social y vida del cuerpo. Historia conceptual cultural del cuerpo y del deporte. Se presentan elementos históricos culturales sobre los proyectos subjetivos sociales del cuerpo. Segunda. La Educación Física y el cuerpo. El proyecto social gremial institucional del cuerpo y del deporte. Se presentan algunos elementos de la historia del proyecto subjetivo social de la Educación Física. Tercera. La Comunicología, la Ingeniería Comunicológica, el cuerpo y el deporte. El movimiento hacia una nueva intersubjetividad de la vida social. Se presenta una lectura sobre la Educación Física, el deporte y el cuerpo, desde la Comunicología. Se propone un programa de trabajo sobre la Ecuación Física, el deporte y el cuerpo, como caso ejemplar, desde la Ingeniería Comunicológica, poniendo énfasis en la figura de la intersubjetividad sobre la de la subjetividad del cuerpo. Cuarta. Bibliografía seleccionada para complementar la información

Generic competences in engineering field: a comparative study between Latin America and European Union

In this work, a comparison between the competences codes in the CDIÓs* curriculum, the ones defined for the Tunning Project and the International Project Management Association (IPMA) is made. The goal is to define the most appropriate competences codes for the engineering education in Latin America. The CDIO code is obtained from the engineering practice, and responds to the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) standards of accreditation. The Tuning competences are the ones defined for Latin America and the IPMÁs are international competences for project management. It is the first time that the competences defined in ABET accreditation standards in the engineering field are compared with the international competences according to IPMÁs model. The results give evidence that, in first place, there is a need to apply holistic models in the definition of an engineering curriculum. Second, the pertinence of these models in the definition of engineering programs in Latin America.

Local relevancy evaluation in the accreditation bodies for engineering master's programs

Accreditation models in the international context mainly consider the evaluation of learning outcomes and the ability of programs (or higher education institutions) to achieve the educational objectives stated in their mission. However, it is not clear if these objectives and therefore their outcomes satisfy real national and regional needs, a critical point in engineering master's programs, especially in developing countries. The aim of this paper is to study the importance of the local relevancy evaluation of these programs and to analyze the main models of quality assurance and accreditation bodies of USA, Europe and Latin America, in order to ascertain whether the relevancy is evaluated or not. After a literature review, we found that in a free-market economic context and international education, the accreditation of master’s programs follows an international accreditation model, and doesn´t take in account in most cases criteria and indicators for local relevancy. It concludes that it is necessary both, international accreditation to ensure the effectiveness of the program (achievement of learning outcomes) and the national accreditation through which it could ensure local relevancy of programs, for which we are giving some indicators.