J. Enrique Agudo

Playing Games on the Screen: Adapting Mouse Interaction at Early Ages

Technology is changing the way today’s children learn. Based on our experience in the development of educational software for children, it is our belief that computer interaction should consider the factors that affect children´s cognitive abilities and take an active part in the realm of the methodological process of hypermedia design. Departing from the results of a preliminary study with pre-school children, serious difficulties regarding mouse interaction when playing computer games are detected, mainly in the movements requiring more complex psychomotor abilities, such as double click and interactions leading to dragging the cursor. The evaluation reports on the need to adapt the mouse interaction to children´s cognitive development, from point-and-click to drag-and-drop, and the suitability of introducing intermediate variations adapted to young learners’ needs.

COMPETENCIAS TRANSVERSALES: PERCEPCIÓN DE SU DESARROLLO EN EL GRADO EN INGENIERÍA EN DISEÑO INDUSTRIAL Y DESARROLLO DE PRODUCTOS

Resumen Se realizo una investigacion con estudiantes del Grado en Ingenieria en Diseno Industrial y Desarrollo de Productos de la Universidad de Extremadura en Espana durante dos anos consecutivos para evaluar la adquisicion de competencias transversales. El estudio se enmarca en el contexto del nuevo sistema de ensenanza basado en competencias que reta a los docentes a buscar estrategias para ensenar y evaluar dichas competencias. Los datos fueron analizados estadisticamente tras un proceso de remuestreo, Bootstrap. En general, el alumnado de segundo curso presenta una mejor percepcion del desarrollo de las competencias transversales que el de primero, especialmente en las competencias de trabajo en equipo, conocimiento de las caracteristicas personales y aptitudes profesionales y capacidad para conseguir los objetivos programados. La principal aportacion de este estudio consiste en emplear herramientas para evaluar al alumnado universitario de forma integral, considerando las competencias transversales como parte fundamental del proceso de formacion.

Adaptive learning for very young learners

The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is spreading inside the classrooms at all educational levels. As this integration has extended to young learners (3 to 5 years), the authorities have recommended their use so that children can acquire knowledge and dexterities they will use all their lives. Keeping in mind that it is at this age when very young learners acquire abilities and basic dexterities at their own pace, the more personalized the better. From all the premises above, we can claim that whereas other computer assisted language learning systems do not account for differences in children’s cognitive development when designing computerized applications, the introduction of AHS (Adaptive Hypermedia Systems) is aimed at adapting and personalizing content to children’s needs and abilities.

Everything Matters: Development of Cross-Curricular Competences in Engineering Through Web 2.0 Social Objects

The development of transversal competences is currently considered a key point within the European Area of Higher Education adaptation process. However, course and curricula design that accounts for such competences (e.g., team work, digital competence and ICT, critical thinking, leadership, and the like) remains a challenge and a field open to exploration. Departing from the social and collaborative learning methodologies supported by management platforms like Moodle, social networks, and Second Life, this chapter aims to present a set of teaching strategies, tasks, and practices to develop the necessary transversal competences for both successful study and future vocational integration.

Analysis of beamforming for improving the energy efficiency in wireless sensor networks with metaheuristics

Distributed beamforming in a wireless sensor network (WSN) allows the sensor nodes to reduce the energy required to perform wireless communications, a critical issue to prolong the lifetime of this kind of systems, in which the node energy is supplied by limited sources such as batteries. This works analyzes the effect of the dimensionality in the problem instances to accomplish an efficient distributed beamforming, taking into account two separate factors: the number of sensor nodes involved in the beamforming and the type of antenna these nodes have installed. By using both classic and state-of-the-art metaheuristics, a thorough set of experiments have been performed, showing that, given the antenna type, the number of nodes makes the beamforming problem become harder because of the required synchronism. The results have also shown that beamforming is an effective technique to increase the WSN lifetime.

Language learning resources and developments in the Second Life metaverse

Under the auspices of the 3D virtual platform Second Life, our proposal, centred on the learner capacity to act within online environments, consists of applying innovative ideas for second language acquisition and examines the potential of various pedagogical aspects in the design of tandem English/Spanish language courses for specific professional sectors. To reach this goal, we have created new scenarios and developed applications (e.g., role-play activities in personalised settings, automated avatars/bots, game-based tests adapted to the virtual world, the integration of the Moodle platform in a virtual area, etc.), aimed at exploring these possibilities for language training.

Chronos: A tool to develop the time management competence among engineering students

The development of cross‐curricular competences is one of the challenges European higher education is facing as consequence of the establishment of the European Higher Education Area (AHEA). One of these competences is the “time management,” an instrumental ability related to manage personal and working time. Time management seems to be a significant competence for engineering professionals, but despite its importance, the empirical literature linking such competence with the engineering teach remains limited. By addressing this research gap, the main purpose of this research is to gain insights into whether Chronos, a computer‐based game, proves efficient to train time management and change the perception of engineering students about the role played by this competence to improve productivity. In order to reach this goal, we perform an exploratory empirical study, based on data retrieved from 72 engineering students, which are analyzed by applying different statistical analysis (mainly mean test and regression analysis). Findings indicate that Chronos is a successful tool to develop time management competence in the context of engineering degrees. Thus, the present article promotes the reflection on the difficulties teachers face in the development of cross‐curricular competences and proposes new areas requiring further investigation, which are also discussed.

Tailored Training in Mobility: Interactive Video and Device-Specific Usage Patterns

Educational experiences using mobile devices are increasingly becoming popular and widespread. In this context, audiovisual elements are a common resource used in these initiatives but rarely as a core to direct the learning process. This paper studies the possibilities regarding the cohesion of video and learning elements so the resulting experiences are personalized to the users typical routines for each device in terms of their use in mobility: customizing the design, the interaction protocols and the delivery of the formative material.