Ricardo Azambuja Silveira

Developing Distributed Intelligent Learning Environment with JADE - Java Agents for Distance Education Framework

Over the last years, many organizations started to use Distance Teaching tools as instruments in employees qualification programs, creating what we may call E-learning or Virtual Training in Human Resources Development Programs. However, usually these organizations tend to use technological resources already available, and do not shape their technological platform into a pedagogical project. Recent advances in the field of Intelligent Teaching Systems have proposed the use of Artificial Intelligence through architectures based on agents societies. Teaching systems based on Multi-Agent architectures make possible to support the development of more interactive and adaptable systems. The objective of the paper is to discuss the feasibility of implementing Distributed Intelligent Learning Environment - DILE based on the Multi-Agents Architecture approach, aiming at the achievement of human resources qualification through Virtual Training. Besides, we present a proposal of an architecture named JADE - Java Agent Framework for Distance Learning Environments.

Improving Interactivity in e-Learning Systems with Multi-agent Architecture

Over the last years, many organizations started to use Distance Teaching tools as instruments in employees qualification programs, creating what we may call E-learning or Virtual Training in Human Resources Development Programs. However, usually these organizations tend to use technological resources already available, and do not shape their technological platform into a pedagogical project. Recent advances in the field of Intelligent Teaching Systems have proposed the use of Artificial Intelligence through architectures based on agents societies. Teaching systems based on Multi-Agent architectures make possible to support the development of more interactive and adaptable systems. The objective of the paper is to discuss the feasibility of implementing Distributed Intelligent Learning Environment - DILE based on the Multi-Agents Architecture approach, aiming at the achievement of human resources qualification through Virtual Training. Besides, we present a proposal of an architecture named JADE - Java Agent Framework for Distance Learning Environments.

Intelligent Learning Objects: An Agent Based Approach of Learning Objects

Many researchers on Intelligent Learning Environments have proposed the use of Artificial Intelligence through architectures based on agents’ societies. Teaching systems based on Multi-Agent architectures make possible to support the development of more interactive and adaptable systems. At the same time many people have been working to produce metadata specification towards a construction of Learning Objects in order to improve efficiency efficacy and reusability of learning content based on Object Oriented design paradigm. This paper proposes an agent based approach to produce more intelligent learning objects according to FIPA agent architecture reference model and LOM/IEEE 1484 learning object specification learning objects

The Cycle of Knowledge Creation and Learning in Agribusiness

Introduction The changes in global production have had a great impact on Brazilian agribusiness. The agribusiness organizations (considered all segments linked to the productive chain from production to the final consumers) have undergone evolutions in many aspects such as quantitative and qualitative processes as well as managerial development (linked to new knowledge, technologies, biochemistry, etc.). These changes have demanded new education processes, reviews of management practices and implementation of new strategies and policies. Competitiveness, flexibility and agility are key words in agribusiness organizations. These organizations should be preoccupied with reducing costs and improving the quality of their products and services. The competitive advantage among them appears, more and more, to lie in the quality of the services rendered by the people involved throughout the industry chain. Therefore, how these people learn is an important and strategic subject in a reality with permanent changes. It is possible to observe great differences in the rates of adoption of change among Brazilian people linked to agribusiness; sometimes people are quick to change and others are slow. Change seems not to occur homogeneously because depends it on personal aspects such as background, learning style and capacity, adoption speed, amount of effort, economic resources, determination, degree of risk involved, among other factors. To analyse the agricultural reality, it is necessary to understand how the evolutionary process is assimilated, comprehended and incorporated by agricultural producers and their collaborators or employees, with the aim of identifying and analysing the stages in the knowledge creation process by which they find answers to their problems, in order to implement changes. The technological modernization of Brazilian agriculture has been influenced from two sides, the industrial producers of agricultural inputs and the agro-industry processors of the products from agricultural properties. In this new competitive environment, information, knowledge, and managerial skills and strategies can contribute to obtaining a competitive advantage for organizations in general, and the rural properties, in particular (Binotto, 2000). Blum (1999) is emphatic when it comes to the need of the professional development of farmers and he considers impossible for them to survive without transformations in their activities. In this competitive context, it is necessary to understand knowledge as something essential for the success and the survival of organizations. The agricultural producers have a fundamental place as components and agents of change in the respective production chains, impelling them to review their technological, managerial and structural processes. These changes which have occurred in agribusiness have caused many impacts on agricultural cooperatives which now face new threats and opportunities, for example, in internal as well as external markets. In this new context, it is necessary for co-operatives improve the management of all their available resources, tangible and intangible, to ensure their survival and their success in this new reality. The central objective of this paper is to analyse the knowledge creation process in agricultural properties, at Co-operative Triticola Mista Alto Jacui Ltda, from the perspective of producers. The study is exploratory-descriptive and qualitative in character and it is based on the theoretical model of organizational knowledge creation of Nonaka and Takeuchi (1997), more specifically on their four modes of knowledge conversion. The interest in analyzing the knowledge creation process in these rural properties is justified by the need to understand how agricultural producers learn and receive information, to identify the ways in which this happens and the learning relationships involved. …

The Performance of Virtual Teams

Virtual teams have recently provided an alternative way of organising work in organizations. The efficient management of virtual teams is a key component of overall organizational management. The objective of the present work is to analyze the performance of two virtual teams. Data collection was based on interviews, surveys, minutes of meetings and observation. This study verified that the support offered to virtual teams was not effective if the particular characteristics of the virtual teams, as well as their complexity, were not taken into account. We highlight the importance of considering success factors in virtual teams: adequate technology, Human Resources policy that offers support to the virtual worker, training of leaders and members, standardized work procedures, and leadership skills.

Intelligent Learning Objects

Many people have been working hard to produce metadata specification towards a construction of Learning Objects in order to improve efficiency, efficacy and reusability of learning content based on an Object Oriented design paradigm. The possibility of reusing learning material is very important to designing learning environments for real-life learning. At the same time, many researchers on Intelligent Learning Environments have proposed the use of Artificial Intelligence through architectures based on agent societies. Teaching systems based on Multi-Agent architectures make it possible to support the development of more interactive and adaptable systems. This paper proposes an agent-based approach to produce more intelligent learning objects (ILO) according to the FIPA agent architecture reference model and the LOM/IEEE 1484 learning object specification.

Workshop on Distance Learning Environments for Digital Graphic Representation

Graphic Representation is a considerable activity for architects during the development of design, and Architectural Design has been, for centuries, concerned with the design of physical objects and physical space to accommodate various human needs and activities, creating new environments in the physical world.

Distance Education and Lifelong Learning

This paper presents some considerations on the theoretical position concerning the use of technology for continued education and two case studies. The first one reports a distance post-graduation course to qualify teachers who work in grade school and high school to prepare them for the use of information technologies in their classes. The second one reports the distance teaching project, based on open source software, created for people that have no access to regular classes. Both are activities at UFRGS — Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.

The Human Dimension on Distance Learning: A Case Study of a Telecommunications Company

Introduction The history of administration reveals that the greatest concern for the people in organizations first appeared in the 1930s, in opposition to the mechanistic paradigm of the scientific management and classical theories, which were first advanced by Taylor and Fayol. The research done by Elton Mayo about the productivity of the employees in the Hawthorne demonstrated that people are motivated to work by social and psychological factors and not only by salaries. This was the beginning of the Human Relations (HR) theory in which employees start to be seen as people and the organizations consider them as a fundamental factor in productivity, although the importance of the human aspects was not universally recognized. At the present, due to the complexity of organizations, a number of organizational studies are appearing that do not yet constitute acknowledged theories, but indeed deserve much attention. What stand out are the researches on Organizational Culture, Apprenticeship, Innovation, and Creativity, among others, with contributions to the Administration from several sciences: Sociology, Psychology, Economics, Pedagogy, Computer Science, and more. Organizational behavior studies bring up the human matters in organizations. To study the human aspects in the organizations (motivation, change in behavior, desire, symbolism, communication and speech, perception of space and time, leadership, individual singularities, participation and consideration, and learning) permits a greater comprehension of people, their feelings, interactions, and reactions to changes. Thus, the human aspects should be considered in the Human Resources policies so that the employees and the company may both achieve their strategic goals. Nevertheless, history also reveals that when employees are attempting to upgrade their professional capacities, some organizations have claimed that priority must be given to the objective aspects (costs, logistics, needs assessments, evaluation...) to the detriment of the human aspects. On the other hand, historically, many organizations acknowledged the strategic importance of Training and Development. Therefore, organizations have been investing heavily in the capacity of their employees. The skills and knowledge of latter must be continuously updated so that they may keep up with the speed of change with efficiency. With this growing need for people qualified, every day there appear new information technologies that can be combined with modern education techniques, thus permitting improvements in human learning and work performance. One option used in company training is Distance Learning (DL). This learning-apprenticeship modality is being applied more and more to increase the capacity of employees. The utilization of a Distance Learning System presents advantages, such as the access to a greater number of people, the integration of many educative resources, respect for the students own rhythms of work and learning, continuous updating, and a reduction on educational costs (Niskier, 1999). On the other hand, owing to the fact that it is a recent application system in companies and despite the several studies about its organizational impacts, knowledge about DL systems are still insufficient. Research in general so far has taken in account the mainly technological aspects of DL and, in some situations, the matter of apprenticeship. This is so in the case of the company investigated, since 1996, it has implemented and consolidated a DL System, which delivers several training programs to their employees. This company in the telecommunications business, where changes are swift and technologies rapidly become obsolete, demonstrates concern in overcoming the barriers of space and time. It is also striving to make the capacity of its employees more flexible in order to maintain its leadership in the market and achieve its goals. This telecommunications company is a pioneer in this matter with its DL System, which has been acknowledged in the business and academic area. …