Nizam Omar

Bacterial colony: Information processing and computational behavior

A bacterium presents rudimentary, though powerful, cognitive functions, such as sensing the environment, processing information and contextual interpretation. When part of a colony, bacteria show collective memory, distributed information storage and processing, collective decision making abilities, cooperation and competition, various communication methods and learning at different levels. These features and capabilities allow us to view bacteria colonies as complex adaptive systems, from which much inspiration can be taken to the design of bioinspired tools and algorithms for problem solving and the modeling of biological phenomena. Despite some effort has been taken in this direction, emphasizing applications in optimization, the present paper brings a discussion of bacteria as useful information processing systems under an intelligent agent framework. The main benefits of this discussion, thus, are the presentation of an intelligent agent-based perspective of bacteria, the stress of the main communication skills and mechanisms of bacteria, and a structured discussion of their main information processing and learning. Our hope is that this paper paves the conceptual ground for the design of novel bacteria inspired algorithms with applications over several areas, from the mining of large databases, to the design of sophisticated decision-making mechanisms for collective robotics.

Improving genetic search for one-dimensional cellular automata, using heuristics related to their dynamic behavior forecast

As part of the comprehensive theme of the relationships between dynamic systems and computational theories, a very active area of research has been the relationships between the generic dynamic behavior of Cellular Automata (CA) and their computational abilities. Various investigations have been carried out on the computational power of CA, with concentrated efforts in the study of one-dimensional CA and their computational abilities. One of the approaches is the use of Genetic Algorithms (GA) to look for CA with a predefined computational behavior. A set of parameters which we have previously shown to be effective in helping forecast CA dynamic behavior, are used here as an auxiliary metric to guide the GA search. To this end, we modified selection, mutation and crossover of a GA, so as to incorporate the heuristic, and obtained very effective results in the evolution search for CA that can solve the so-called synchronization task.

Descobrindo Conhecimentos em Dados de Avaliação da Aprendizagem com Técnicas de Mineração de Dados

Resumo: Em busca de novos metodos que auxiliem no aprendizado de portadores de necessidades especiais, um jogo utilizando a tecnologia de agentes virtuais foi criado, atraves da linguagem brasileira de sinais, LIBRAS, o modelo grafico repassa toda informacao necessaria a manipulacao do jogo didatico, despertando no aluno a autonomia e o interesse pelo conteudo abordado. Abstract: Looking for new methods to help learning, a game using the technology of virtual agent was created, a graphic model using the LIBRAS language to transmit all information that is necessary to the student to manipulate the game, increasing his will of learning and self improving.Resumo: Tem sido ampla e intensamente divulgado e aplicado o uso do computador para fins de aprendizagem em diversos dominios. Partindo dessa perspectiva, deu-se inicio a um trabalho na Casa de Saude Paulo de Tarso, o qual tem como objetivo primordial auxiliar na melhoria da coordenacao motora dos pacientes da referida Instituicao e, por consequencia, aumentar a auto-estima, contribuir com o aprendizado, dentre outros. Abstract: The use of the computer has been wide and intensely divulged and applied in the learning process in diverse dominions. In agreement with this perspective, it was started a work at the Health Institution “Paulo de Tarso”, which has as its major goal to assistant in the improvement of the patients motor coordination in the above-mentioned Institution and, by consequence, to augment the self-esteem, to contribute to apprenticeship, among others.Resumo: A Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso (UFMT) - Campus de Rondonopolis, atraves de alguns estudantes, do 4o ano do curso de Licenciatura em Informatica, em pleno exercicio de seu estagio supervisionado, firmou uma parceria com a EEMOP (Escola Estadual Major Otavio Pitaluga) em maio de 2005 para que juntos realizassem um trabalho, onde os estagiarios estariam auxiliando a utilizacao da Internet durante o processo de ensino-aprendizagem na referida escola. Abstract: Mato Grosso’s Federal University (UFMT) Rondonopolis’s Campus, through some students, of the fourth year of the Graduation Course of Degreee in Informatics, in full exercise of their supervised probation period, established a partnership with EEMOP (Major Otavio Pitaluga State School) in may of 2005 so that together they could accomplish a work, where the trainees would be assisting the use of Internet during the teaching- learning process at the above-mentioned school.Resumo: A educacao a distância (EAD) se apresenta no seculo XXI como um novo espaco de trabalho docente, trazendo mudancas nos papeis tradicionais, requerendo um preparo especial do professor. Para verificar se as IES que oferecem EAD formam seus docentes para ensinar a distância e como fazem este trabalho, foi feita uma pesquisa atraves de questionarios enviados por e- mail para 15 IES de Santa Catarina. O presente artigo discute os resultados encontrados que mostraram que as IES catarinenses nao apenas se preocupam com a producao de materiais didaticos, mas estao criando estruturas de apoio para formar seus professores para ensinar a distância. Abstract: Distance education (DE) is presenting, in the 21st century, a new challenge for teachers, asking for a change in their traditional roles, and requiring them to be specially trained for it. In order to find out if the Higher Education Institutions offering DE are training their teachers to work at a distance and how this preparation has been done, a research was conducted in the state of Santa Catarina, Brazil, using a questionnaire, sent by e-mail to 15 institutions. This article presents and discuss the results, showing that the Higher Education Institutions offering DE are not concerned only about the production of the course materials but are, also, creating support structures to prepare their professionals to teach at a distance.Resumo: Este artigo apresenta resultados iniciais de uma pesquisa visando diagnosticar a situacao da informatica educativa no municipio de Belem(PA). Esse diagnostico foi feito tendo-se como referencia um conjunto de criterios propostos para o planejamento e a avaliacao de experiencias em informatica educativa. Entre os resultados apresentados pode-se destacar o contraste entre a rede publica e a privada e o baixo investimento na formacao docente para essa atividade. Abstract: This paper presents the initial results of a diagnostic of the current state of educative informatics in Belem, Para. To perform such analysis, we used a set of criteria that aimed to evaluate the different educative informatics experiences reported. Among the results it is possible to notice clearly the contrast between the public and private school system and the low investment in the teaching personnel.

Towards a model for organizing and measuring knowledge upgrade in education with data mining

The adaptability in systems of education and learning requires a detailed photograph of the students mental state. In other words, a well-developed set of information able to diagnose with reasonable precision what the student knows and how much he knows, in order to infer what he does not know: his learning gaps. This set of information pieces regarding student knowledge and skills can be obtained through an ongoing learning assessment process that makes possible to specify, with fair accuracy, which subject the student is better suited to learn at that moment. On the other hand, this process of data collection generates a great amount of data requiring automatic or semi-automatic procedures for treatment and analysis for acquisition of new knowledge for next step. This paper presents a model for organizing and measuring knowledge upgrade in systems of education and learning with the support of data mining tools.

A Digital Ecosystem for the Collaborative Production of Open Textbooks: The LATIn Methodology

Access to books in higher education is an issue to be addressed, especially in the context of un-derdeveloped countries, such as those in Latin America. More than just financial issues, cultural aspects and need for adaptation must be considered. The present conceptual paper proposes a methodology framework that would support collaborative open textbook initiatives. This meth-odology intends to be the main guideline for a digital ecosystem for the collaborative production of open textbooks and has the potential to solve standing methodological problems of current ini-tiatives, such as Wikibooks and Connexions. The systems architecture and construction will be guided by six collaborative writing di-mensions: process, roles, timing, con-trolling, granularity, and writing groups. Each dimension will coordinate an as-pect of the collaborative work and is detailed in the methodology proposed in this paper. This paper is divided in the following parts: the first part introduces the sub-ject, being followed by an analysis of related works about collaboration and Computer-Supported Cooperative Work; in this section, some authors, ideas, and methodological aspects of collaborative writing are also discussed. Next, the paper shows the proposal of a Digital Ecosystem for the collaborative creation of open text-books, the six dimensions of this Ecosystem, and its respective descriptions. The work finishes with some conclusions about the proposal and the next steps needed to implement it in the real world.

Analysis of Tools for Learning Assessment and Tracking in Distance Education

Learning Management Systems (LMS) used in Distance Education present two classes of assessment tools: objective and written test tools and communication tools, such as forums and message boards. Assessment metrics in these tools are usually based on averages and totals, and are presented in measuring units that are not compatible, therefore making difficult the comparisons and the accurate analysis of the student Knowledge Acquisition Level. This article objective is to present the analysis of some assessment tools included in two learning management systems: Moodle and TIDIA-AE, which is an adapted version of Sakai developed in Brazil. The analysis presents the metrics that can be obtained from each tool in the two systems and also the amount of feedback that each one gives to the student. The work is concluded presenting the main gaps that exist in the analyzed assessment tools and pointing out the need for new research to deal with them.

Formative Assessment in Distance Learning Education with Cognitive and Metacognitive Measurements

Traditional forms of assessment used in face-to-face and distance learning education are insufficient to ascertain the learning progress of student and therefore do not provide enough information to detect student learning gaps and improve learning. Another point is that traditional assessment ways rarely involve the student in monitoring his or her own learning through his metacognitive abilities. This article presents a model for formative assessment in distance learning education based on cognitive and metacognitive measurements that will make possible the identification of student learning gaps. Moreover, it presents the architecture of a computational environment for student knowledge mapping that will allow identifying more specifically the learning gaps in order to supply the educational system with qualitative information.

Acquisition and use of knowledge over a restricted domain by intelligent agents

This short paper provides a description of an architecture to acquisition and use of knowledge by intelligent agents over a restricted domain of the Internet Infrastructure. The proposed architecture is added to an intelligent agent deployment model over a very useful server for Internet Autonomous System administrators. Such servers, which are heavily dependent on arbitrary and eventual updates of human beings, become unreliable. This is a position paper that proposes three research questions that are still in progress.

Instructional Design Models to support Collaborative Open Books for Open Education

The recent open education movement, with its most visible aspect, the MOOCs - Massive Open Online Courses), brought a wide discussion regarding the potential and threats that this model could represent to traditional education, being on classroom or online. However, regarding to instructional design models for open courses, meanwhile, very little discussion or proposals have been presented. This article discusses instructional design proposals for projects based on the insertion of collaborative open books with open licenses as supporting elements for MOOCs.

Programming plagiarism as a social phenomenon

This paper describes a classroom experiment in which detected cases of programming plagiarism were correlated with the classrooms social network. The results suggest that it is possible to understand the amount of similarity between artifacts as an indirect measure of the student social network. These findings imply that it is possible to uncover the classroom social network using only the source code produced by the students. The proposed method may be used as an instrument for considering and applying social techniques to improve student learning. This research is the first step in redefining the role of plagiarism detection in the programming assessment process as an effective learning intervention tool as opposed to a simple disciplinary procedure.