Paula Peres

An Experiment in Collaborative Writing

In this article an experiment of collaborative work is described; it was held in an Internet environment of a Computer science discipline in the Accounting and Administration course of ISCAP, where 26 first-year students participated. This subject was lectured between September and December 2004 in a traditional class room, complemented with a distance developed collaborative work. Student’s easy access to the Internet was an essential condition for the success of this project’s implementation. The Institute has some rooms equipped with computers connected to the Internet, available for free access by the students. Nevertheless, an inquiry was carried out at the beginning of the semester to check the kind of technologies access the students had: 93% of the students had a computer at home and 73% of these had their computer connected to the Internet

The Future of Higher Education – Students’ Views About Challenges Promoted by Technologies

Higher education institutions are, at this moment, receiving students known as digital natives. These persons are highly technological and lack the patience to be co-enrolled in a traditional classroom. Taking into consideration these characteristics it is necessary to propose an educational reform to allow an immersion, interaction, or critical thinking. With the purpose to study these factors we asked ourselves some questions: “Is higher education taking into consideration the needs and expectations of the students regarding the use of technologies?”; “Are technologies being used in the classroom?”; “Are teachers using them?” and if not, why? In this paper we present a study done with students, from different programme of studies, and where we try to contribute to the discussion of the questions formulated before.

Higher education teachers in Portugal use technology in their educational activities: Myth or Reality?

Technologies are being introduced in our everyday life, including schools and in particular classrooms. Teachers are trying to make the most of web 2.0 tools and social media. However, we are not sure if, in fact, teachers are using these technologies and if when they do, if they do so with pedagogical purposes or to help them to manage the learning process or to replace some obsolete technologies by more modern ones but without learning objectives. To contribute to this question a questionnaire was developed and administered to teachers from higher education. Results show that there is still a long way to go before saying that teachers are fully using and taking the advantages of technologies in the classroom.

Customized learning environment: A new approach

The education sector is going through a very marked change in relation to the needs of students who arrive at Higher Institutions Education (HIEs), and the labor market requirements. There are already solutions that try to meet the new requirements; however, the changing of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) require a rapid and demanding adaptation. In this context it is assumed that education systems must address the backgrounds diversity of students, taking into account their need in order to provide access to learning objects, as well as the validation of knowledge of each student. In this paper, we propose a model where all the learning and e-learning elements are present and where the student is the focus and the one who decides what should be included in this learning environment in order to create a Customized Learning Environment.

Flipping the Classroom to Gain Time: A Pedagogical Innovative Model

This article describes the European project GainTime developed in the educational field. The objectives of the project concern the development of professional and pedagogical competences among teachers and trainers. It intends to enhance learning through the use of Information and Communication Technologies and increase the access to Open Educational Resources OER with the aim to combine higher levels of excellence and attractiveness with increased opportunities for all. To attain the objectives, an online course that teaches teachers on how to innovate in their classroom, specially using flipped classroom and games supported on OER, will be developed. The target of the project is secondary education. In order to identify the best practices in Portugal concerning the use of flipped classroom and games as well as creative classroom, a questionnaire was administered and results are presented. Furthermore, the handbook regarding the master model developed as well as the online courses are also presented.

The DELTA + MODEL in Organizational Knowledge Management - A Perspective in the Context of Shared Services

Organizational knowledge becomes a crucial element for any organization, as a resource which must be managed and as a support for development, sustainability and innovation. Organizational Knowledge promotes Human Resources’ pro activity by its acquisition and sharing. The following study presents the selective coding results of the empirical material proposed by Strauss Corbin, which correlates the organizational phenomena of Shared Service Center and e-Learning as Organizational Knowledge Management tools. With the following paper it is intended to demonstrate the existence of correlations between the studied constructs (aggregators), as well as a standardization tendency on the pursued approaches among the different bodies studied. This study follows the investigation carried out for the construction of an Organizational Knowledge Management model in the Shared Services’ context with an e-Learning resource, “Modelo Delta +” (Delta + Model). It was a constructive start for a qualitative and quantitative research, methodologically supported by the Grounded Theory and knowledge creation of Nonaka theory.

Designing learning paths: Contributions to the organization of b-learning initiatives

This article presents a simple guide that supports the pedagogical planning process. Besides the knowledge that will be shared, structuring an learning unit or a course demands reflection and effort in the teaching/learning development. The work described in this paper proposes a guide that speeds the process of defining online learning strategies by crossing cognitive objectives, pedagogical models, techniques and free web tools. The usefulness of the results obtained can be viewed on the perspectives of both student and teacher, thus it is a mediation instrument among all the players in the learning process. At the same time, it helps the bureaucratic procedures that are usually associated. We conclude this paper by presenting a set of recommendations obtained by the application of the pedagogic planning suggested in an implementation of an online course.

Critical Success Factors in the Adoption of Technologies in Education in Higher Education: The Case of ISCAP Polytechnic of Porto

Distance learning has evolved a lot since the moment students received materials by mail and as regular correspondence. At that time, students worked already at their own pace and concluded training according to their professional work and agenda. Today, although courses by correspondence still exist, they are being quickly replaced by distance learning. And the success of this format of education are at the basis of the emergence of different offers and new business models. The success of adoption of technology depends on several factors related with the organization where it is implemented and with the individuals involved. In this paper, the authors will present a case, the evolution of the solutions offered concerning distance learning in the school under study, the actual offers and the concerns for the future. The authors will identify the factors that enabled or constrained this evolution. They will also raise some questions that are still unanswered and will point out some clues for future research.

European educational projects

This conference track encourages living or recently ending national and international projects coordinators and researches to make a presentation about the advances and main outcomes of their projects related to the Knowledge Society researching lines.

Master model to gain time in your classroom: an ongoing european project

This article describes a European project that involves a consortium of 8 partners in the education field. The GainTime project aims and objectives are to develop professional and pedagogic competences among teachers and trainers. It intends to enhance Information and Communication Technology uptake, through the support of learning and access to open educational resources with the aims to combine higher levels of excellence and attractiveness with increased opportunities for all. The consortium also intends to develop an online course that teaches teachers about how to innovate in their classroom, specially using flipped classroom and games supported on Open Education Resources. The target of the project is secondary education. This paper describes the results of the first two outputs of this project: the development of a compendium of best practices about creative classroom and game learning and also the development of a handbook of a flipped classroom.