Josep Maria Monguet

Using Web 2.0 Applications as Supporting Tools for Personal Learning Environments

This paper shows the results of a pilot study based on a proposed framework for building Personal Learning Environments using Web 2.0 tools. A group of 33 students from a Business Administration program were introduced to Web 2.0 tools in the context of an Information Systems class, during the academic year 2008-2009, and reflected about this experience through essays and interviews. The responses show evidence of learning and acquiring skills, strengthening social interactions and improvement in the organization and management of content and learning resources.

Patient Centered Design: Challenges and Lessons Learned from Working with Health Professionals and Schizophrenic Patients in e-Therapy Contexts

Patient Centered Design (PCD) is a particular type of User Centered Design (UCD) where the end-user is a patient that will use an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) solution for healthcare. It focuses on needs, wants and skills of the product’s primary user and implies involving end-users in the decision-making and development process of the solution. e-Therapy aims to provide support to therapy sessions through ICT solutions. In the mental health arena is being used for specific therapeutic contexts and is an especially difficult environment due to specificities of the patients’ conditions; the physical access to patients is restricted and, sometimes, not even possible. Thus, a PCD approach can be accomplished through the health professionals involved, applying some of the most well-known methods of UCD: interviews, questionnaires, focus groups and participatory design. eSchi is an e-Therapy tool that complements traditional practices for the cognitive rehabilitation and training of schizophrenic patients and was successfully developed using a PCD approach.

Vector Consensus: Decision Making for Collaborative Innovation Communities

To achieve a general agreement in relation to a specific proposal, members of a community must participate in the formal consensus process. This paper describes a web-based system (the Vector Consensus system) for supporting an ad hoc consensus process. The system was implemented in a collaborative innovation community with the aim to discuss how this organization understands some drivers affecting collaboration practices. The results have shown that Vector Consensus system enhance ultimate consensus and canalize personal contributions to the organization. Furthermore, the possibility to compare the one’s personal opinion with respect to the rest of the community, given as a real-time feedback, appeared to have a positive impact on the group, augmenting the context knowledge awareness.

Costing framework for service-oriented future internet architectures: empowering requester's choice

Internet is evolving fast thanks to the rising of new services and applications. This situation allowed realizing about current Internet deficiencies. Nowadays, researchers are proposing novel Internet architectures avoiding the rigidity of the layered structure posed by the TCP/IP stack. Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) principles are appropriate for proposing a flexible and scalable Internet architecture, which relies on the combination of services according to the requester needs. In this context it is necessary to introduce a framework for cost and price that enables requesters and providers to interact and create new business models for the Future Internet (FI). This work proposes a novel costing framework for providing services adapted to requester requirements.

Fostering Collective Intelligence Education

New educational models are necessary to update learning environments to the digitally shared communication and information reality. Collective intelligence is an emerging field that already has a significant impact in many areas and will have great implications in education, not only from the side of new methodologies but also as a challenge for education, currently more focused on the individual than in the collective. This paper proposes an approach to a collective intelligence model of teaching using Internet to combine two strategies: idea management and real time assessment in the class. A digital tool named Fabricius has been created supporting these two elements to foster the collaboration, empowerment and engagement of students in the learning process. As a result of the research we propose a list of KPI trying to measure individual and collective performance in a course. We are conscious that this is just a first approach to define which aspects of a class following a course can be qualified and quantified. We finally discuss the need to connect research and innovation in this field.

Knowledge Based Information Retrieval with an Adaptive Hypermedia System

This paper describes research on information retrieval with an adaptive hypermedia system (AHS) used during three higher education courses taught in a blended learning (BL) environment. The system generates different work plans for each student, according to their profile. Work plans are adapted by means of an algorithm. AHS enable course contents to be adapted to the learning needs of each student and structured in a way that leads to many different learning paths. The case study method was used in this research. The results suggest that the AHS has a positive impact on the learning process. Further research is needed to confirm these results.

Reaching consensus on communication of critical laboratory results using a collective intelligence method

Abstract Background: There is no consensus in the literature about what analytes or values should be informed as critical results and how they should be communicated. The main aim of this project is to establish consensual standards of critical results for the laboratories participating in the study. Among the project’s secondary objectives, establishing consensual procedures for communication can be highlighted. Methods: Consensus was reached among all participating laboratories establishing the basis for the construction of the initial model put forward for consensus in conjunction with the clinicians. A real-time Delphi, methodology “health consensus” (HC), with motivating and participative questions was applied. The physician was expected to choose a numeric value within a scale designed for each analyte. Results: The medians of critical results obtained represent the consensus on critical results for outpatient and inpatient care. Both in primary care and in hospital care a high degree of consensus was observed for critical values proposed in the analysis of creatinine, digoxin, phosphorus, glucose, international normalized ratio (INR), leukocytes, magnesium, neutrophils, chloride, sodium, calcium and lithium. For the rest of critical results the degree of consensus obtained was “medium high”. The results obtained showed that in 72% of cases the consensual critical value coincided with the medians initially proposed by the laboratories. Conclusions: The real-time Delphi has allowed obtaining consensual standards for communication of critical results among the laboratories participating in the study, which can serve as a basis for other organizations.

Fostering collective intelligence education

New educational models are necessary to update learning environments to the digitally shared communication and information. Collective intelligence is an emerging field that already has a significant impact in many areas and will have great implications in education, not only from the side of new methodologies but also as a challenge for education. This paper proposes an approach to a collective intelligence model of teaching using Internet to combine two strategies: idea management and real time assessment in the class. A digital tool named Fabricius has been created supporting these two elements to foster the collaboration and engagement of students in the learning process. As a result of the research we propose a list of KPI trying to measure individual and collective performance. We are conscious that this is just a first approach to define which aspects of a class following a course can be qualified and quantified.

Guess the Score, Fostering Collective Intelligence in the Class

This paper proposes the use of serious games as a tool to enhance collective intelligence of undergraduate and graduate students. The use of games in teaching, at different levels of education, has been widely discussed by researchers [1]. The development of social skills of individuals in a group is related to the performance of the collective intelligence of the group manifested through the shared and collaborative development of intellectual tasks [2]. Guess the Score GS, is a serious game implemented by means of an online tool, created to foster the development, interaction, collaboration and engagement of students with the educational activity. The game has been designed with the intention of facilitating the development of individual’s social skills in a group in order to promote education of collective intelligence. The first part of this article is devoted to the presentation of the fields of knowledge which may be involved in collective intelligence education. The second part presents GS game in the context of a model-based learning to promote collective intelligence. In the final part the results of the implementation are discussed. This paper concludes that the design of learning activities using serious games as a support tool in education, increased social skills and improves student performance groups, therefore the development collective intelligence.

A Telepresence Learning Environment for Opera Singing: Distance Lessons Implementations over Internet2

The Opera eLearning project developed a solution for opera singing distance lessons at the graduate level, using high bandwidth to deliver a quality audio and video experience that has been evaluated by singing teachers, chorus and orchestra directors, singers and other professional musicians. Prior to finding a technological model that suits the users requirements, several experiments have been conducted, testing and prototyping different technologies, until arriving at a telepresence, immersive sound model. This paper summarises the findings of this pilot stage, and its interest includes the management of innovation exercises across a multidisciplinary team, based on usability and a user-centred design. Some of the technology tested includes professional audio and video equipment, software for A/V signal capturing and transmission on uncompressed formats, A/D converters, and other auxiliary devices. The resultant model has later been successfully used in a formal case study, delivering 14 remote masterclasses.