Social Networks for learning : wikis, blogs and tagging in education

Fast developments in information and communications technologies and changes in the behaviour of learners demand educational institutions to continuously evaluate their pedagogical approaches to the learning and teaching process, both in face-to-face and virtual classrooms.

Learning 2.0 : concepts and experiences

E-learning arises in all educative contexts and levels with the use of information and communication technologies and massive access to internet connected computers. On the other hand, the fast development of social networking tools and web 2.0 technologies are producing an evolution of e-learning towards what is called a learning 2.0 paradigm. In this short paper weshall present the main technologies and pedagogical issues related to that new way of learning and how we can use them to improve the acquisition of competences and new knowledge.

Learning 2.0 : concepts and experiences with social networks and software

Peer-reviewed

Combining Generic Programming and Service-Oriented Architectures for the Effective and Timely Development of Complex e-Learning Systems

Peer-reviewed

Identidad, percepción de vitalidad etnolingüística y comunicación intergrupal en Cataluña: An identity and ethnolinguistic perception vitality study in Catalonia

Catalan has drawn considerable attention given its impressive institutional support and increased usage since the restoration of the Generalitat of Catalonia. We report a study on 112 Catalan-speaking students who were administered the"subjective vitality questionnaire". Results show (and these are compared with reports 20 years ago) that it continues to gain momentum and status, even with the International stature of Spanish. The theoretical and pragmatic significance of these findings are discussed in terms of vitality"s role in shaping Language choices (Catalan vs. Castilian) in everyday communication as well as the societal level in forging Language policies for communicating in Catalan in business, political, educational, and media arenas

Modeling the transport phenomena within arterial wall: porous media approach

The transport of macromolecules, such as low-density lipoprotein (LDL), and their accumulation in the layers of the arterial wall play a critical role in the creation and development of atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis is a disease of large arteries e.g., the aorta, coronary, carotid, and other proximal arteries that involves a distinctive accumulation of LDL and other lipid-bearing materials in the arterial wall. Over time, plaque hardens and narrows the arteries. The flow of oxygen-rich blood to organs and other parts of the body is reduced. This can lead to serious problems, including heart attack, stroke, or even death. It has been proven that the accumulation of macromolecules in the arterial wall depends not only on the ease with which materials enter the wall, but also on the hindrance to the passage of materials out of the wall posed by underlying layers. Therefore, attention was drawn to the fact that the wall structure of large arteries is different than other vessels which are disease-resistant. Atherosclerosis tends to be localized in regions of curvature and branching in arteries where fluid shear stress (shear rate) and other fluid mechanical characteristics deviate from their normal spatial and temporal distribution patterns in straight vessels. On the other hand, the smooth muscle cells (SMCs) residing in the media layer of the arterial wall respond to mechanical stimuli, such as shear stress. Shear stress may affect SMC proliferation and migration from the media layer to intima. This occurs in atherosclerosis and intimal hyperplasia. The study of blood flow and other body fluids and of heat transport through the arterial wall is one of the advanced applications of porous media in recent years. The arterial wall may be modeled in both macroscopic (as a continuous porous medium) and microscopic scales (as a heterogeneous porous medium). In the present study, the governing equations of mass, heat and momentum transport have been solved for different species and interstitial fluid within the arterial wall by means of computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Simulation models are based on the finite element (FE) and finite volume (FV) methods. The wall structure has been modeled by assuming the wall layers as porous media with different properties. In order to study the heat transport through human tissues, the simulations have been carried out for a non-homogeneous model of porous media. The tissue is composed of blood vessels, cells, and an interstitium. The interstitium consists of interstitial fluid and extracellular fibers. Numerical simulations are performed in a two-dimensional (2D) model to realize the effect of the shape and configuration of the discrete phase on the convective and conductive features of heat transfer, e.g. the interstitium of biological tissues. On the other hand, the governing equations of momentum and mass transport have been solved in the heterogeneous porous media model of the media layer, which has a major role in the transport and accumulation of solutes across the arterial wall. The transport of Adenosine 5´-triphosphate (ATP) is simulated across the media layer as a benchmark to observe how SMCs affect on the species mass transport. In addition, the transport of interstitial fluid has been simulated while the deformation of the media layer (due to high blood pressure) and its constituents such as SMCs are also involved in the model. In this context, the effect of pressure variation on shear stress is investigated over SMCs induced by the interstitial flow both in 2D and three-dimensional (3D) geometries for the media layer. The influence of hypertension (high pressure) on the transport of lowdensity lipoprotein (LDL) through deformable arterial wall layers is also studied. This is due to the pressure-driven convective flow across the arterial wall. The intima and media layers are assumed as homogeneous porous media. The results of the present study reveal that ATP concentration over the surface of SMCs and within the bulk of the media layer is significantly dependent on the distribution of cells. Moreover, the shear stress magnitude and distribution over the SMC surface are affected by transmural pressure and the deformation of the media layer of the aorta wall. This work reflects the fact that the second or even subsequent layers of SMCs may bear shear stresses of the same order of magnitude as the first layer does if cells are arranged in an arbitrary manner. This study has brought new insights into the simulation of the arterial wall, as the previous simplifications have been ignored. The configurations of SMCs used here with elliptic cross sections of SMCs closely resemble the physiological conditions of cells. Moreover, the deformation of SMCs with high transmural pressure which follows the media layer compaction has been studied for the first time. On the other hand, results demonstrate that LDL concentration through the intima and media layers changes significantly as wall layers compress with transmural pressure. It was also noticed that the fraction of leaky junctions across the endothelial cells and the area fraction of fenestral pores over the internal elastic lamina affect the LDL distribution dramatically through the thoracic aorta wall. The simulation techniques introduced in this work can also trigger new ideas for simulating porous media involved in any biomedical, biomechanical, chemical, and environmental engineering applications.

The effects of ICT on school: teachers’ and students’ perspectives

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of information and communication technology (ICT) on school from teachers’ and students’ perspectives. The focus was on three main subject matters: on ICT use and competence, on teacher and school community, and on learning environment and teaching practices. The study is closely connected to the national educational policy which has aimed strongly at supporting the implementation of ICT in pedagogical practices at all institutional levels. The phenomena were investigated using a mixed methods approach. The qualitative data from three cases studies and the quantitative data from three statistical studies were combined. In this study, mixed methods were used to investigate the complex phenomena from various stakeholders’ points of view, and to support validation by combining different perspectives in order to give a fuller and more complete picture of the phenomena. The data were used in a complementary manner. The results indicate that the technical resources for using ICT both at school and at homes are very good. In general, students are capable and motivated users of new technology; these skills and attitudes are mainly based on home resources and leisuretime use. Students have the skills to use new kinds of applications and new forms of technology, and their ICT skills are wide, although not necessarily adequate; the working habits might be ineffective and even wrong. Some students have a special kind of ICT-related adaptive expertise which develops in a beneficial interaction between school guidance and challenges, and individual interest and activity. Teachers’ skills are more heterogeneous. The large majority of teachers have sufficient skills for everyday and routine working practices, but many of them still have difficulties in finding a meaningful pedagogical use for technology. The intensive case study indicated that for the majority of teachers the intensive ICT projects offer a possibility for learning new skills and competences intertwined in the work, often also supported by external experts and a collaborative teacher community; a possibility that “ordinary” teachers usually do not have. Further, teachers’ good ICT competence help them to adopt new pedagogical practices and integrate ICT in a meaningful way. The genders differ in their use of and skills in ICT: males show better skills especially in purely technical issues also in schools and classrooms, whereas female students and younger female teachers use ICT in their ordinary practices quite naturally. With time, the technology has become less technical and its communication and creation affordances have become stronger, easier to use, more popular and motivating, all of which has increased female interest in the technology. There is a generation gap in ICT use and competence between teachers and students. This is apparent especially in the ICT-related pedagogical practices in the majority of schools. The new digital affordances not only replace some previous practices; the new functionalities change many of our existing conceptions, values, attitudes and practices. The very different conceptions that generations have about technology leads, in the worst case, to a digital gap in education; the technology used in school is boring and ineffective compared to the ICT use outside school, and it does not provide the competence needed for using advanced technology in learning. The results indicate that in schools which have special ICT projects (“ICT pilot schools”) for improving pedagogy, these have led to true changes in teaching practices. Many teachers adopted student-centred and collaborative, inquiry-oriented teaching practices as well as practices that supported students' authentic activities, independent work, knowledge building, and students' responsibility. This is, indeed, strongly dependent on the ICT-related pedagogical competence of the teacher. However, the daily practices of some teachers still reflected a rather traditional teacher-centred approach. As a matter of fact, very few teachers ever represented solely, e.g. the knowledge building approach; teachers used various approaches or mixed them, based on the situation, teaching and learning goals, and on their pedagogical and technical competence. In general, changes towards pedagogical improvements even in wellorganised developmental projects are slow. As a result, there are two kinds of ICT stories: successful “ICT pilot schools” with pedagogical innovations related to ICT and with school community level agreement about the visions and aims, and “ordinary schools”, which have no particular interest in or external support for using ICT for improvement, and in which ICT is used in a more routine way, and as a tool for individual teachers, not for the school community.

Utilización de software de corrección automática en el campo de las ciencias de la salud

We live in an era of profound changes in university education. The implementation of Bologna plan has led us to raise new teaching methodologies, to review the role of the student, competency assessment, the incorporation of ICT. Unthinkable acts, one or two decade ago. The TIC concept is very broad and is attributed to the media, processes and content usage. Inside the supports and platforms, we stress tools that allow automatic correction of exercises, because they are instruments of great educational value because instantly they assess students and provide instant feedback about the knowledge that they have either as message support or note. If the power of these tools, we add the Internet, using e-learning environment, the results allow us to work, edit, evaluate, resolve doubts, and so on, anywhere, anytime. We present part of a platform and the results of its use in the field of health sciences

Análisis del proceso de adquisición del código audiovisual y de la intervención de los agentes que forman a los ciudadanos en el conocimiento de los medios

The research group Gre‐TICE (Grupo de investigación en tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación en Educación) has the acquisition of the multimedia language and their use as a form of expression as one of their lines of research. During the academic year 2002‐ 2003, following previous work in the use of ICT in Education, commenced upon the project: “The acquisition of visual and sound codes and the processes related to the visual media”. The intention of this project is to study how formal or non‐formal education context can help young adults and children to acquire visual and sound codes to become ‘critical consumers’ with the media and to use the tools in a creative way. To achieve this objective, the project team has developed a partner group which includes professional from different European regions; including teachers and managers from across the age spectrum, government institutions and cultural organisations. Whilst the project will call upon qualitative analysis of the previous projects / research, it will seek to develop ‘Good Practice’ guides and other resources/ materials to be disseminated to project partners (and others) to build innovative actions throughout the European region

Social Presence Approach Within the Question and Answering eLearning Model: An Experiment with a Multi-Agent System

The model of Questions Answering (Q&A) for eLearning is based on collaborative learning through questions that are posed by students and their answers to that questions which are given by peers, in contrast with the classical model in which students ask questions to the teacher only. In this proposal we extend the Q&A model including the social presence concept and a quantitative measure of it is proposed; besides it is considered the evolution of the resulting Q&A social network after the inclusion of the social presence and taking into account the feedback on questions posed by students and answered by peers. The social network behaviorwas simulated using a Multi-Agent System to compare the proposed social presence model with the classical and the Q&A models

Project «Water and Environment»: Improving educational practices in the aquatic environment

The project "Water and Environment"for the improvement of educational practices in the aquatic environment, is a research project led by four members of the Research Group of Physical Education at the University of Vic (GREF) experts in water activities. The aim is to train the technicians who teach swimming during school hours. The training is based on improving water treatment practices and competence to face a contradictory scene where clubs develop educational content and where schools transfer to clubs part of its educational activity to contribute significantly and positively to water activities fitting the educational curriculum.