Adaptive computer assisted assessment of free-text students answers : an approach to automatically generate students' conceptual models.

Las formas de evaluación basadas en el uso de tests no pueden identificar muchos errores conceptuales de los estudiantes. Esta investigación tiene como objetivo facilitar un nuevo procedimiento capaz de generar los modelos conceptuales de los estudiantes de forma automática a partir de respuestas en texto libre.. Este trabajo se organiza en tres apartados. En primer lugar, se procede a la revisión del estado de la cuestión. A continuación se describen el procedimiento para generar automáticamente los modelos conceptuales de los estudiantes y los sistemas que implementan dicho procedimiento. Por último se ofrecen: una explicación de los experimentos realizados y sus resultados, las conclusiones obtenidas y las líneas de trabajo futuro. Además se proporciona información para aplicar el procedimiento en otro idioma y/o área de conocimiento.. Se propone un procedimiento para generar automáticamente modelos conceptuales de cada estudiante y de una clase a partir de las respuestas facilitadas al sistema de evaluación automático y adaptativo. Estos sistemas son la evolución de los actuales de evaluación de respuestas en texto libre, que evalúan respuestas en texto libre automáticamente y de forma adaptada al modelo de cada estudiante..

An introduction to bilingualism.

Durante la última década se han logrado importantes avances en nuestra comprensión del bilingüismo. En este libro se ofrece una revisión exhaustiva de sus aspectos más importantes, desde el punto de vista individual y social, para ello se examinan cuestiones teóricas y prácticas. Esta obra puede ser valiosa para estudiantes de lingüística, psicolingüística y sociolingüística, pero también para profesores, padres, trabajadores sociales y todos aquellos que, sin conocimiento previo del tema, están en contacto con niños y adultos bilingües.

An introduction to human geography : issues for the 21st century.

Este recurso proporciona a los alumnos de los cursos de licenciatura en Geografía y de disciplinas afines a las ciencias sociales una visión global de los temas más importantes de la geografía humana a principios del siglo XXI. Así, se incluyen temas como los recursos, la población, economía y desarrollo, geopolítica y territorio, cultura, sociedad, ciudades, medio ambiente y ecologismo, desigualdad, agricultura y medio rural, y globalización.

Child's play : an introduction to children's literature for teachers of English as a foreign language. 'Juego de niños : una introducción a la literatura infantil para profesores de inglés como lengua extranjera'.

Se establece la definición de niño y de literatura infantil. Se analizan las características y contenidos de la literatura infantil además de estudiar a los potenciales usuarios de dicha literatura. Se hace mención a la literatura para adolescentes y a la literatura gay y lesbiana para niños. Se describen y analizan los diferentes géneros existentes dentro de la literatura infantil: poesía oral y escrita, canciones, cuentos populares, ficción, teatro y comics. Se hace un repaso histórico de la literatura infantil inglesa desde la Edad Media hasta el siglo XXI. Finalmente, se presenta una serie de actividades para la utilización de la literatura infantil en las aulas: preparación de las clases, actividades orales, actividades de teatro, uso de canciones, actividades lecto-escritoras y actividades de animación a la lectura.

An international experiment with eRubrics : an approach to educational assessment in two courses of the early childhood education degree

Resumen basado en el de la publicaci??n

An approach to coded structured light to obtain three dimensional information

The human visual ability to perceive depth looks like a puzzle. We perceive three-dimensional spatial information quickly and efficiently by using the binocular stereopsis of our eyes and, what is mote important the learning of the most common objects which we achieved through living. Nowadays, modelling the behaviour of our brain is a fiction, that is why the huge problem of 3D perception and further, interpretation is split into a sequence of easier problems. A lot of research is involved in robot vision in order to obtain 3D information of the surrounded scene. Most of this research is based on modelling the stereopsis of humans by using two cameras as if they were two eyes. This method is known as stereo vision and has been widely studied in the past and is being studied at present, and a lot of work will be surely done in the future. This fact allows us to affirm that this topic is one of the most interesting ones in computer vision. The stereo vision principle is based on obtaining the three dimensional position of an object point from the position of its projective points in both camera image planes. However, before inferring 3D information, the mathematical models of both cameras have to be known. This step is known as camera calibration and is broadly describes in the thesis. Perhaps the most important problem in stereo vision is the determination of the pair of homologue points in the two images, known as the correspondence problem, and it is also one of the most difficult problems to be solved which is currently investigated by a lot of researchers. The epipolar geometry allows us to reduce the correspondence problem. An approach to the epipolar geometry is describes in the thesis. Nevertheless, it does not solve it at all as a lot of considerations have to be taken into account. As an example we have to consider points without correspondence due to a surface occlusion or simply due to a projection out of the camera scope. The interest of the thesis is focused on structured light which has been considered as one of the most frequently used techniques in order to reduce the problems related lo stereo vision. Structured light is based on the relationship between a projected light pattern its projection and an image sensor. The deformations between the pattern projected into the scene and the one captured by the camera, permits to obtain three dimensional information of the illuminated scene. This technique has been widely used in such applications as: 3D object reconstruction, robot navigation, quality control, and so on. Although the projection of regular patterns solve the problem of points without match, it does not solve the problem of multiple matching, which leads us to use hard computing algorithms in order to search the correct matches. In recent years, another structured light technique has increased in importance. This technique is based on the codification of the light projected on the scene in order to be used as a tool to obtain an unique match. Each token of light is imaged by the camera, we have to read the label (decode the pattern) in order to solve the correspondence problem. The advantages and disadvantages of stereo vision against structured light and a survey on coded structured light are related and discussed. The work carried out in the frame of this thesis has permitted to present a new coded structured light pattern which solves the correspondence problem uniquely and robust. Unique, as each token of light is coded by a different word which removes the problem of multiple matching. Robust, since the pattern has been coded using the position of each token of light with respect to both co-ordinate axis. Algorithms and experimental results are included in the thesis. The reader can see examples 3D measurement of static objects, and the more complicated measurement of moving objects. The technique can be used in both cases as the pattern is coded by a single projection shot. Then it can be used in several applications of robot vision. Our interest is focused on the mathematical study of the camera and pattern projector models. We are also interested in how these models can be obtained by calibration, and how they can be used to obtained three dimensional information from two correspondence points. Furthermore, we have studied structured light and coded structured light, and we have presented a new coded structured light pattern. However, in this thesis we started from the assumption that the correspondence points could be well-segmented from the captured image. Computer vision constitutes a huge problem and a lot of work is being done at all levels of human vision modelling, starting from a)image acquisition; b) further image enhancement, filtering and processing, c) image segmentation which involves thresholding, thinning, contour detection, texture and colour analysis, and so on. The interest of this thesis starts in the next step, usually known as depth perception or 3D measurement.

An examination of the appropriateness of the CID grammatical analysis of elicted language as an instrument to compare language acquisition in deaf children enrolled in cued speech vs. oral and signed english programs

This paper discusses a study to compare test results of the CID GAEL test among hearing impaired children who are enrolled in cued speech vs. oral vs. signed english programs.

Latin American critical (‘Social’) epidemiology: new settings for an old dream

The present paper offers a fresh perspective from the South about the relevance of progressive Latin American public health (termed ‘collective health’) by highlighting a number of its hard scientific contributions which, unfortunately, remain almost unknown to mainstream medical and public health researchers outside Latin America. An armed form of structural greed has now placed the world on the brink of destruction. At the same time, however, fresh winds blow in the continent. This paper is an invitation to confront the menacing forces producing our unhealthy societies and an opportunity to form fraternal partnerships on the intercultural road to a better world, where only an epidemiology of dignity and happiness will make sense.