e-learning in the classroom?

As teachers, we are challenged everyday to solve pedagogical problems and we have to fight for our students’ attention in a media rich world. I will talk about how we use ICT in Initial Teacher Training and give you some insight on what we are doing. The most important benefit of using ICT in education is that it makes us reflect on our practice. There is no doubt that our classrooms need to be updated, but we need to be critical about every peace of hardware, software or service that we bring into them. It is not only because our budgets are short, but also because e‐learning is primarily about learning, not technology. Therefore, we need to have the knowledge and skills required to act in different situations, and choose the best tool for the job. Not all subjects are suitable for e‐learning, nor do all students have the skills to organize themselves their own study times. Also not all teachers want to spend time programming or learning about instructional design and metadata. The promised land of easy use of authoring tools (e.g. eXe and Reload) that will lead to all teachers become Learning Objects authors and share these LO in Repositories, all this failed, like previously HyperCard, Toolbook and others. We need to know a little bit of many different technologies so we can mobilize this knowledge when a situation requires it: integrate e‐learning technologies in the classroom, not a flipped classroom, just simple tools. Lecture capture, mobile phones and smartphones, pocket size camcorders, VoIP, VLE, live video broadcast, screen sharing, free services for collaborative work, save, share and sync your files. Do not feel stressed to use everything, every time. Just because we have a whiteboard does not mean we have to make it the centre of the classroom. Start from where you are, with your preferred subject and the tools you master. Them go slowly and try some new tool in a non‐formal situation and with just one or two students. And you don’t need to be alone: subscribe a mailing list and share your thoughts with other teachers in a dedicated forum, even better if both are part of a community of practice, and share resources. We did that for music teachers and it was a success, in two years arriving at 1.000 members. Just do it.

Enhancing reflexivity and technology in translation learning: case study on the use of ePortfolio as a training environment

In this paper we describe a casestudy of an experiment on how reflexivity and technology can enhance learning, by using ePorfolios as a training environment to develop translation skills. Translation is today a multiskilled job and translators need to assure their clients a good performance and quality, both in language and in technology domains. In order to accomplish it, for the translator all the tasks and processes he develops appear as crucial, being pretranslation and posttranslation processes equally important as the translation itself, namely as far as autonomy, reflexive and critical skills are concerned. Finally, the need and relevance for collaborative tasks and networks amongst virtual translation communities, led us to the decision of implementing ePortfolios as a tool to develop the requested skills and extend the use of Internet in translation, namely in terminology management phases, for the completion of each task, by helping students in the management of the projects deadlines, improving their knowledge on the construction and management of translation resources and deepening their awareness about the concepts related to the development and usability of ePorfolios.

Building a knowledge and learning society in Portugal: adult students in technological schools and higher education institutions

Lifelong learning (LLL) has received increasing attention in recent years. It implies that learning should take place at all stages of the “life cycle and it should be life-wide, that is embedded in all life contexts from the school to the work place, the home and the community” (Green, 2002, p.613). The ‘learning society’, is the vision of a society where there are recognized opportunities for learning for every person, wherever they are and however old they happen to be. Globalization and the rise of new information technologies are some of the driving forces that cause depreciation of specialised competences. This happens very quickly in terms of economic value; consequently, workers of all skills levels, during their working life, must have the opportunity to update “their technical skills and enhance general skills to keep pace with continuous technological change and new job requirements” (Fahr, 2005, p. 75). It is in this context that LLL tops the policy agenda of international bodies, national governments and non-governmental organizations, in the field of education and training, to justify the need for LLL opportunities for the population as they face contemporary employability challenges. It is in this context that the requirement and interest to analyse the behaviour patterns of adult learners has developed over the last few years

Towards a knowledge-based society: the need for a continuous lifelong

IRMA International Conference under the theme Managing Worldwide Operations and Communications with Information Technology, May 19-23, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Learning to manage in knowledge based organizations: the role of portfolios

Paper presented at the 8th European Conference on Knowledge Management, Barcelona, 6-7 Sep. 2008 URL: http://www.academic-conferences.org/eckm/eckm2007/eckm07-home.htm

The role of Lifelong Learning in the creation of a knowledge-based society for Europe: european policies

Link do editor: http://www.igi-global.com/chapter/role-lifelong-learning-creation-european/13314

The European challenge of KMN and innovation: a skills and competence portfolio for knowledge worker in SME's

Versão editor: http://www.isegi.unl.pt/docentes/acorreia/documentos/European_Challenge_KM_Innovation_2004.pdf

Knowledge magement: a rewarding challenge for SME's?

Paper presented at Information Resources Management Association International Conference, in Philadelphia (PA), 18-21 May 2003

Modalidades síncronas e assíncronas no ensino da radiologia do sistema nervoso: estilos e resultados de aprendizagem

Lidar com as problemáticas da saúde, implica um domínio dos processos cognitivos (raciocínio, resolução de problemas e tomada de decisão) e de desempenhos práticos, o que obriga a afectação de um conjunto de atitudes e comportamentos específicos. Este estudo, implementou e avaliou o impacto de experiências pedagógicas desenvolvidas com os estudantes da unidade curricular Radiologia do Sistema Nervoso (RSN) da Escola Superior de Tecnologia da Saúde de Lisboa (ESTeSL). Aplicaram-se metodologias de ensino mistas (presenciais e virtuais) utilizadas na leccionação teórica e prática no ano curricular 2008/2009. Para a avaliação do perfil de aprendizagem dos estudantes foi aplicado o método de Honey & Munford e para a avaliação e monitorização dos conhecimentos aplicaram-se check list baseadas nos conteúdos programáticos. A monitorização das ferramentas da plataforma moodle complementaram a restante informação. Verificou-se uma progressão de aprendizagem positiva para um grupo de estudantes maioritariamente do estilo reflexivo (média=10,6 estudantes). As conclusões apontaram para um impacto positivo quanto à aplicação das metodologias híbridas com maior índice de sucesso para a metodologia assíncrona. Verificou-se também mais flexibilidade no acesso aos conteúdos porém com algumas limitações tais como residência inicial por parte dos estudantes, maior carga de trabalho para os docentes, falta de terminais para acesso à plataforma e pouca experiência de todos os envolvidos no domínio e manipulação da plataforma. ABSTRACT - This study focused on the role of cognitive processes (reasoning, problem solving and decision making) and performance practice in the formation of attitudes and behaviours relating to health issues. It was conducted to evaluate the effects of pedagogical experiences on students who participated in the course in radiography in the Nervous System Imaging Unit (RSN) of the Lisbon Health School of Technology. Mixed (face-to-face and virtual) teaching methodologies were used in theory and practice sessions. Honey and Munford’s method was used to evaluate the learning profile of students. To monitor and evaluate students’ knowledge acquisition, check lists based on program topics were applied. Other information was supplied through the learning platform of Moodle. The student group with mostly a reflective learning style increased their knowledge. The asynchronous method was shown to produce a higher success rate and more flexibility in accessing content but also registered some limitations such as resistance by students, increased workload for teachers, lack of access to the platform and inexperience of all involved in handling the platform.

ePortfolios in translators’ training and assessment

Translator’s training and assessment has used more and more tools and innovative strategies over the years. The goals and results to achieve haven’t changed much, however: translation quality. In order to accomplish it, the translator and all the tasks and processes he develops appear as crucial, being pre-translation and post-translation processes equally important as the translation itself, namely as far as autonomy, reflexive and critical skills are concerned. Finally, the need and relevance of collaborative tasks and networks amongst virtual translation communities, led us to the decision of implementing ePortfolios as a tool to develop the requested skills and extend the use of Internet in translation. In this paper we describe a case-study of a pilot experiment on the using of e-portfolios as a translation training tool and discuss their role in the definition of a clear set of objectives and phases for the completion of each task, by helping students in the management of the projects deadlines, improving their knowledge on the construction and management of translation resources and deepening their awareness about the concepts related to the development of eportfolios.

Multiple-choice tests: a tool in assessing knowledge

The purpose of this paper is to analyse if Multiple-Choice Tests may be considered an interesting alternative for assessing knowledge, particularly in the Mathematics area, as opposed to the traditional methods, such as open questions exams. In this sense we illustrate some opinions of the researchers in this area. Often the perception of the people about the construction of this kind of exams is that they are easy to create. But it is not true! Construct well written tests it’s a hard work and needs writing ability from the teachers. Our proposal is analyse the construction difficulties of multiple - choice tests as well some advantages and limitations of this type of tests. We also show the frequent critics and worries, since the beginning of this objective format usage. Finally in this context some examples of Multiple-Choice Items in the Mathematics area are given, and we illustrate as how we can take advantage and improve this kind of tests.

A checkpointing-enabled and resource-aware Java Virtual Machine for efficient and robust e-Science applications in grid environments

Object-oriented programming languages presently are the dominant paradigm of application development (e. g., Java,. NET). Lately, increasingly more Java applications have long (or very long) execution times and manipulate large amounts of data/information, gaining relevance in fields related with e-Science (with Grid and Cloud computing). Significant examples include Chemistry, Computational Biology and Bio-informatics, with many available Java-based APIs (e. g., Neobio). Often, when the execution of such an application is terminated abruptly because of a failure (regardless of the cause being a hardware of software fault, lack of available resources, etc.), all of its work already performed is simply lost, and when the application is later re-initiated, it has to restart all its work from scratch, wasting resources and time, while also being prone to another failure and may delay its completion with no deadline guarantees. Our proposed solution to address these issues is through incorporating mechanisms for checkpointing and migration in a JVM. These make applications more robust and flexible by being able to move to other nodes, without any intervention from the programmer. This article provides a solution to Java applications with long execution times, by extending a JVM (Jikes research virtual machine) with such mechanisms. Copyright (C) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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