Teaching with Moodle in higher education

Nowadays, with the use of technology and the Internet, education is undergoing significant changes, contemplating new ways of teaching and learning. One of the widely methods of teaching used to promote knowledge, consists in the use of virtual environments available in various formats, taking as example the teaching-learning platforms, which are available online. The Internet access and use of Laptops have created the technological conditions for teachers and students can benefit from the diversity of online information, communication, collaboration and sharing with others. The integration of Internet services in the teaching practices can provide thematic, social and digital enrichment for the agents involved. In this paper we will talk about the advantages of LMS (Learning Management Systems) such as Moodle, to support the presential lectures in higher education. We also will analyse its implications for student support and online interaction, leading educational agents to a mixing of different learning environments, where they can combine face-to-face instruction with computer-mediated instruction, blended-learning, and increases the options for better quality and quantity of human interaction in a learning environment. We also will present some tools traditionally used in online assessment and that are part of the functionalities of Moodle. These tools can provide interesting alternatives to promote a more significant learning and contribute to the development of flexible and customized models of an evaluation which we want to be more efficient.

Planifica����o de um sistema de informa����o para a unidade de forma����o cont��nua e avan��ada da Escola Superior de Educa����o do Instituto Polit��cnico do Porto

Projecto apresentado ao Instituto Superior de Contabilidade e Administra����o do Porto para a obten����o do Grau de Mestre em Assessoria de Administra����o

Effective teaching and optimal experiences: possible link

ISME, Thessaloniki, 2012

Avalia����o da percep����o do risco associado �� seguran��a por parte dos profissionais de educa����o em jardins-de-inf��ncia

O estudo que ora se apresenta avalia a percep����o de risco por parte dos profissionais de educa����o em jardins-de-inf��ncia do concelho da Maia. A avalia����o da percep����o foi realizada atrav��s de inqu��rito por question��rio. No question��rio s��o abordados temas como a forma����o que os inquiridos obtiveram, a tipologia dos acidentes ocorridos com as crian��as, as condi����es estruturais do jardim-de-inf��ncia, os recreios, materiais e equipamentos, riscos el��ctricos e organiza����o de emerg��ncia. O grupo referente �� seguran��a, higiene e sa��de nos jardins-de-inf��ncia, que se encontra no question��rio, foi estruturado com base na legisla����o e documenta����o de refer��ncia. A amostra recolhida diz respeito a 8 jardins-de-inf��ncia, tendo sido respondido por 34 educadoras de inf��ncia e 34 auxiliares de ac����o educativa. Constitu��ram objectivos deste estudo, verificar a percep����o de risco por parte das educadoras de inf��ncia e das auxiliares de ac����o educativa; verificar diferen��as de percep����o de risco entre as educadoras de inf��ncia e as auxiliares de ac����o educativa sobre os diferentes temas; analisar a influ��ncia da forma����o recebida, idade, experi��ncia profissional e categoria profissional na percep����o do risco; Identificar qual o tema em que a amostra demonstra menos dom��nio. Ap��s a an��lise dos resultados verificou-se que percep����o das educadoras de inf��ncia e auxiliares de ac����o educativa era elevada, n��o se verificando diferen��as significativamente entre as duas categorias profissionais, nem entre quem teve forma����o com n��o teve.

Knowledge and technologies in innovative information systems

7th Mediterranean Conference on Information Systems, MCIS 2012, Guimaraes, Portugal, September 8-10, 2012, Proceedings Series: Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, Vol. 129

The Role of lifelong learning in creation of a european knowledge-based society

The dominant discourse in education and training policies, at the turn of the millennium, was on lifelong learning (LLL) in the context of a knowledge-based society. As Green points (2002, pp. 611-612) several factors contribute to this global trend: The demographic change: In most advanced countries, the average age of the population is increasing, as people live longer; The effects of globalisation: Including both economic restructuring and cultural change which have impacts on the world of education; Global economic restructuring: Which causes, for example, a more intense demand for a higher order of skills; the intensified economic competition, forcing a wave of restructuring and creating enormous pressure to train and retrain the workforce In parallel, the ���significance of the international division of labour cannot be underestimated for higher education���, as pointed out by Jarvis (1999, p. 250). This author goes on to argue that globalisation has exacerbated differentiation in the labour market, with the First World converting faster to a knowledge economy and a service society, while a great deal of the actual manufacturing is done elsewhere.

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.

Inser����o profissional: os desafios nos primeiros anos de ensino

A problem��tica da inser����o profissional dos novos professores tem sido largamente estudada sob v��rias perspetivas das quais destacamos, as dificuldades enfrentadas no in��cio do seu desempenho como docentes (Alen y Sardi, 2009) Krichesky y Merodo (2009), o vinculo entre inser����o e identidade profissional (Martineau y Portelance, 2005), o desenvolvimento da compet��ncia ��tica nos novos professores (St. Vincent 2011) e as trajet��rias de emprego, entre outras.Os resultados destas pesquisas t��m revelado o tipo de problemas enfrentados pelos novos professores �� entrada na carreira docente e confirmado que nem todos os percursos se iniciam de modo tranquilo e sereno. �� esta a problem��tica que serve de base ao objeto de estudo desta disserta����o, pretendendo-se mais precisamente, centrar a nossa pesquisa no percurso profissional de seis professores diplomados pela Escola Superior de Educa����o de Lisboa h�� dois anos. O objetivo geral do estudo ��, assim, descrever e compreender o desenvolvimento profissional desses professores, identificar as dimens��es mais relevantes, os fatores que o condicionam e os contextos que o limitam ou facilitam. Tendo em conta o objeto de estudo identificaram-se as seguintes quest��es: 1) Quais as implica����es da forma����o inicial no desempenho da profiss��o? 2) Quais as principais dificuldades / problemas com que se defrontaram os novos professores na inser����o na profiss��o?; 3) Como atuam os professores principiantes?; O que mudam nas suas pr��ticas, o que perdura?; 4) Como se incrementa o sentimento de perten��a ao novo grupo profissional?; 5) Quais as particularidades dos contextos de trabalho em que estes professores se encontram integrados que se revelam facilitadoras e/ou constrangedoras da sua inser����o profissional? Para o efeito recorremos a uma metodologia qualitativa, e privilegi��mos como t��cnica de recolha de dados a entrevista semiestruturada. Para o tratamento dos dados sustent��mo-nos na an��lise de conte��do seguindo os passos recomendados para a an��lise de conte��do (Bardin, 2009). Os resultados do estudo permitiram identificar os constrangimentos experimentados por estes professores �� entrada da profiss��o, assim como os modos como os ultrapassaram. Destes, destacam-se dificuldades relacionadas com a falta de autonomia, com aspetos de natureza metodol��gica, ao n��vel da organiza����o e desenvolvimento curricular e de relacionamento com os elementos da dire����o das institui����es nos contextos de trabalho.Abstract The issue of employability of new teachers has been widely studied from various perspectives. Research has revealed the sort of problems faced by new teachers at the beginning of their career. It confirms that frequently it is not a peaceful and serene start. We highlight the following difficulties: the link between integration and professional identity (Alen y Sardi, 2009; Krichesky y Merodo, 2009), the development of ethical competence in new teachers (y Portelance Martineau, 2005), and the professional path (St. Vincent 2011). This is the hypothesis explored in this thesis. Specifically, we focus our research on the career of six graduate teachers by the Lisbon School of Education. The main objective is to describe and understand the professional development of these teachers. For that we identify the most relevant dimensions, the factors that constrain and contexts that limit or facilitate their development. A qualitative methodology was used throughout the study. Semi structured interviews were the main data collection process. Data treatment followed the recommended framework for content analysis (Bardin, 2009). The following research questions were put forward: 1) What are the impacts of base level of knowledge in the professional performance? 2) What are the main difficulties / problems that new teachers face? 3) How do novice teachers perform? What changes in their methods, what endures? 4) What increases the feeling of belonging to the new professional group? 5) What are the peculiarities of work contexts that act as facilitators and/or barriers to professional acceptance? The results allowed identifying the constraints experienced by teachers at the beginning of their careers, and the ways to surpass them. We highlight the difficulties related to: lack of autonomy; methodologies; curricular organization and development; and the relationship with the directors at their workplace.

Knowledge extraction from medium voltage load diagrams to support the definition of electrical tariffs

With the electricity market liberalization, distribution and retail companies are looking for better market strategies based on adequate information upon the consumption patterns of its electricity customers. In this environment all consumers are free to choose their electricity supplier. A fair insight on the customer��s behaviour will permit the definition of specific contract aspects based on the different consumption patterns. In this paper Data Mining (DM) techniques are applied to electricity consumption data from a utility client���s database. To form the different customer��s classes, and find a set of representative consumption patterns, we have used the Two-Step algorithm which is a hierarchical clustering algorithm. Each consumer class will be represented by its load profile resulting from the clustering operation. Next, to characterize each consumer class a classification model will be constructed with the C5.0 classification algorithm.

Symbolic Knowledge Extraction from Trained Neural Networks Governed by Lukasiewicz Logics

This work describes a methodology to extract symbolic rules from trained neural networks. In our approach, patterns on the network are codified using formulas on a Lukasiewicz logic. For this we take advantage of the fact that every connective in this multi-valued logic can be evaluated by a neuron in an artificial network having, by activation function the identity truncated to zero and one. This fact simplifies symbolic rule extraction and allows the easy injection of formulas into a network architecture. We trained this type of neural network using a back-propagation algorithm based on Levenderg-Marquardt algorithm, where in each learning iteration, we restricted the knowledge dissemination in the network structure. This makes the descriptive power of produced neural networks similar to the descriptive power of Lukasiewicz logic language, minimizing the information loss on the translation between connectionist and symbolic structures. To avoid redundance on the generated network, the method simplifies them in a pruning phase, using the "Optimal Brain Surgeon" algorithm. We tested this method on the task of finding the formula used on the generation of a given truth table. For real data tests, we selected the Mushrooms data set, available on the UCI Machine Learning Repository.

Forma����o cont��nua e supervis��o pedag��gica: o impacto do Programa Nacional do Ensino do Portugu��s no desenvolvimento profissional de professores do 1�� Ciclo do Ensino B��sico

Este estudo pretende descrever e compreender o processo formativo dos professores do 1�� ciclo do Ensino B��sico, no contexto do Programa Nacional de Ensino do Portugu��s (PNEP), as suas dimens��es mais relevantes e como �� percecionada a supervis��o nesse processo de forma����o cont��nua. A metodologia adotada nesta investiga����o foi de natureza qualitativa e baseou-se num conjunto de entrevistas semi-diretivas realizadas a formandos que frequentaram o PNEP entre 2008/2010. Dos resultados obtidos foi poss��vel verificar o impacto positivo que esta modalidade de forma����o cont��nua teve no desenvolvimento profissional dos professores preparando-os para a implementa����o do novo programa de portugu��s e permitindo-lhes desmistificar o papel do supervisor atrav��s da participa����o numa experi��ncia de supervis��o. O trabalho colaborativo entre professores emergiu durante este processo formativo fomentando a constru����o de saber em colabora����o. A pr��tica pedag��gica dos professores apresentou mudan��as que pretenderam repercutir-se no aproveitamento dos alunos na ��rea da l��ngua portuguesa. - Abstract This study aims to comprehend and describe the formative process and practice of teachers in Basic education (1st Cycle), in the context of the National Programme for the Teaching of Portuguese Language (PNEP), its most relevant dimensions, the factors which affected it and how supervision was perceived by the teachers involved. A qualitative approach was used, based on semi-directed interviews done to teachers that attended the PNEP, from 2008 to 2010. The impact of this type of continuing training on teachers��� professional development was positive. They felt prepared for the implementation of the new Portuguese Language Programme. They also demystified the role of the supervisor through the participation in an experience of supervision. The teachers��� collaborative work emerged during this formative process, promoting the construction of knowledge among teachers. Added to this, teachers��� pedagogical practice also improved reflected on the students��� proficiency in the Portuguese language.

Perspetivas das educadoras de inf��ncia de uma institui����o particular de solidariedade social sobre o contributo da colabora����o para o seu desenvolvimento profissional

Disserta����o apresentada �� Escola Superior de Educa����o de Lisboa para obten����o de grau de mestre em Ci��ncias da Educa����o, especialidade em Supervis��o em Educa����o

Conce����es e pr��ticas dos professores de l��ngua portuguesa em rela����o ao ensino e �� aprendizagem da gram��tica: um estudo explorat��rio no 2.�� ciclo do ensino b��sico

Disserta����o apresentada �� Escola Superior de Educa����o de Lisboa para obten����o do grau de Mestre em Did��tica da L��ngua Portuguesa no 1.�� e no 2.�� Ciclos.

O fim de um ciclo? A coconstru����o da articula����o curricular entre o 1.�� e o 2.�� Ciclos do Ensino B��sico

Disserta����o Apresentada �� Escola Superior de Educa����o de Lisboa para obten����o de grau de mestre em Ci��ncias da Educa����o - Especialidade Supervis��o em Educa����o

Pr��ticas de inclus��o de alunos com perturba����o do espectro do autismo no 1�� Ciclo

Disserta����o apresentada �� Escola Superior de Educa����o de Lisboa para obten����o de grau de mestre em Ci��ncias da Educa����o, especialidade Educa����o Especial ��� Problemas Cognitivos e Multidefici��ncia