Teaching accounting and management through business simulation

Everyday accounting and management teachers face the challenge of creating learning environments that motivate students. This chapter describes the Business Simulation (BS) experience that has taken place at the Polytechnic Institute of Porto, Institute of Accounting and Administration (IPP/ISCAP). The chapter presents students��� perceptions about the course and the teaching/learning approach. The results show that pedagogical methods used (competency-oriented), generic competencies (cooperation and group work), and interpersonal skills (organisational and communication skills) are relevant for future accounting professionals. In addition, positive remarks and possible constraints based on observation, staff meetings, and past research are reported. The chapter concludes with some recommendations from the project implementation

BIWiki - Using a Business Intelligence Wiki to Form a Virtual Community of Practice for Portuguese Master's Students

Web 2.0 software in general and wikis in particular have been receiving growing attention as they constitute new and powerful tools, capable of supporting information sharing, creation of knowledge and a wide range of collaborative processes and learning activities. This paper introduces briefly some of the new opportunities made possible by Web 2.0 or the social Internet, focusing on those offered by the use of wikis as learning spaces. A wiki allows documents to be created, edited and shared on a group basis; it has a very easy and efficient markup language, using a simple Web browser. One of the most important characteristics of wiki technology is the ease with which pages are created and edited. The facility for wiki content to be edited by its users means that its pages and structure form a dynamic entity, in permanent evolution, where users can insert new ideas, supplement previously existing information and correct errors and typos in a document at any time, up to the agreed final version. This paper explores wikis as a collaborative learning and knowledge-building space and its potential for supporting Virtual Communities of Practice (VCoPs). In the academic years (2007/8 and 2008/9), students of the Business Intelligence module at the Master's programme of studies on Knowledge Management and Business Intelligence at Instituto Superior de Estatistica e Gestao de Informacao of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal, have been actively involved in the creation of BIWiki - a wiki for Business Intelligence in the Portuguese language. Based on usage patterns and feedback from students participating in this experience, some conclusions are drawn regarding the potential of this technology to support the emergence of VCoPs; some provisional suggestions will be made regarding the use of wikis to support information sharing, knowledge creation and transfer and collaborative learning in Higher Education.

Aplica����o criativa do e-learning �� arte floral

Trabalho de Projecto apresentado para cumprimento dos requisitos necess��rios �� obten����o do grau de Mestre em Gest��o de Sistemas de E-learning

Interactional strategies between terminologist and domain specialist. Putting order into our universe: the concept of Blended Learning

A presente comunica����o visa discutir as mais-valias de um desenho metodol��gico sustentado numa abordagem conceptual da Terminologia aplicado ao exerc��cio de harmoniza����o da defini����o do cen��rio educativo mais promissor do Ensino Superior actual: o blended learning. Sendo a Terminologia uma disciplina que se ocupa da representa����o, da descri����o e da defini����o do conhecimento especializado atrav��s da l��ngua a ess��ncia deste dom��nio do saber responde a uma necessidade fundamental da sociedade actual: putting order into our universe, nas palavras de Nuopponen (2011). No contexto descrito, os conceitos, enquanto elementos da estrutura do conhecimento (Sager, 1990) constituem um objecto de investiga����o de complexidade n��o despicienda, pois apesar do postulado de que a l��ngua constitui uma ferramenta fundamental para descrever e organizar o conhecimento, o princ��pio isom��rfico n��o pode ser tomado como adquirido. A abordagem conceptual em Terminologia prop��e uma vis��o precisa do papel da l��ngua no trabalho terminol��gico, sendo premissa basilar que n��o existe uma correspond��ncia un��voca entre os elementos atom��sticos do conhecimento e os elementos da express��o lingu��stica. �� pela raz��es enunciadas que as op����es metodol��gicas circunscritas �� an��lise do texto de especialidade ser��o consideradas imprecisas. Nesta reflex��o perspectiva-se que o conceito-chave de uma abordagem conceptual do trabalho terminol��gico implica a combina����o de um processo de elicita����o do conhecimento t��cito atrav��s de uma negocia����o discursiva orientada para o conceito e a an��lise de corpora textuais. Defende-se consequentemente que as estrat��gias de interac����o entre termin��logo e especialista de dom��nio merecem aten����o detalhada pelo facto de se reflectirem com expressividade na qualidade dos resultados obtidos. Na sequ��ncia do exposto, o modelo metodol��gico que propomos sustenta-se em tr��s etapas que privilegiam um refinamento dessa interac����o permitindo ao termin��logo afirmar-se como sujeito conceptualizador, decisor e interventor: (1) etapa explorat��ria do dom��nio-objecto de estudo; (2) etapa de an��lise onamasiol��gica de evid��ncia textual e discursiva; (3) etapa de modeliza����o e de valida����o de resultados. Defender-se-�� a produtividade de uma sequ��ncia c��clica entre a an��lise textual e discursiva para fins onomasiol��gicos, a interac����o colaborativa e a introspec����o.

Learning sustainability by developing a solar dryer for microalgae retrieval

The development of nations depends on energy consumption, which is generally based on fossil fuels. This dependency produces irreversible and dramatic effects on the environment, e.g. large greenhouse gas emissions, which in turn cause global warming and climate changes, responsible for the rise of the sea level, floods, and other extreme weather events. Transportation is one of the main uses of energy, and its excessive fossil fuel dependency is driving the search for alternative and sustainable sources of energy such as microalgae, from which biodiesel, among other useful compounds, can be obtained. The process includes harvesting and drying, two energy consuming steps, which are, therefore, expensive and unsustainable. The goal of this EPS@ISEP Spring 2013 project was to develop a solar microalgae dryer for the microalgae laboratory of ISEP. A multinational team of five students from distinct fields of study was responsible for designing and building the solar microalgae dryer prototype. The prototype includes a control system to ensure that the microalgae are not destroyed during the drying process. The solar microalgae dryer works as a distiller, extracting the excess water from the microalgae suspension. This paper details the design steps, the building technologies, the ethical and sustainable concerns and compares the prototype with existing solutions. The proposed sustainable microalgae drying process is competitive as far as energy usage is concerned. Finally, the project contributed to increase the deontological ethics, social compromise skills and sustainable development awareness of the students.

Decision Support for Energy Contracts Negotiation with Game Theory and Adaptive Learning

This paper presents a decision support methodology for electricity market players��� bilateral contract negotiations. The proposed model is based on the application of game theory, using artificial intelligence to enhance decision support method���s adaptive features. This model is integrated in AiD-EM (Adaptive Decision Support for Electricity Markets Negotiations), a multi-agent system that provides electricity market players with strategic behavior capabilities to improve their outcomes from energy contracts��� negotiations. Although a diversity of tools that enable the study and simulation of electricity markets has emerged during the past few years, these are mostly directed to the analysis of market models and power systems��� technical constraints, making them suitable tools to support decisions of market operators and regulators. However, the equally important support of market negotiating players��� decisions is being highly neglected. The proposed model contributes to overcome the existing gap concerning effective and realistic decision support for electricity market negotiating entities. The proposed method is validated by realistic electricity market simulations using real data from the Iberian market operator���MIBEL. Results show that the proposed adaptive decision support features enable electricity market players to improve their outcomes from bilateral contracts��� negotiations.

Relat��rio de est��gio em educa����o pr��-escolar e ensino do 1�� ciclo do ensino b��sico

O presente relat��rio de est��gio de qualifica����o profissional surge como forma de explanar o trabalho desenvolvido ao longo da pr��tica pedag��gica, pois o per��odo de est��gio apresenta-se como uma oportunidade fulcral para o desenvolvimento e experimenta����o de m��todos e estrat��gias que colocam, muitas vezes, em quest��o conce����es e preconceitos inerentes ao processo de ensino-aprendizagem. Sendo que os estagi��rios necessitam de oportunidades que contribuam ���para a constru����o da sua pr��pria aprendizagem��� (Portugal, 2012, p. 100). Este cont��m an��lises e reflex��es das pr��ticas desenvolvidas e op����es tomadas durante o est��gio, tendo por base uma metodologia de investiga����o-a����o na medida em que o trabalho realizado direcionou-se para a necessidade de transforma����o social. Neste sentido fomentou-se o questionamento reflexivo para melhoramento das pr��ticas. Este est��gio foi realizado em d��ade e apoiado em estrat��gias como as narrativas colaborativas, as planifica����es semanais, a avalia����o reguladora e a supervis��o. O presente encontra-se dividido em duas componentes, uma mais te��rica, �� qual se convoca autores e documentos legais para fundamentar a componente seguinte que �� mais pr��tica, onde se analisa as pr��ticas desenvolvidas ao longo do ano letivo.