Virginia Rodés

Strategies for Implementing the Adoption of Open Textbooks Initiatives: State of the Art Review

Open textbook initiatives have appeared as an alternative to traditional publishing aiming at the production of non-copyrighted educational resources. In this paper we review some cases which used different strategies favoring the adoption of open textbook initiatives. These strategies were conceptually linked with the notion of innovation adoption, framed in models of social diffusion of innovations. In addition, the major dimensions inherent to these strategies, are identified and extracted from such review.

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.

Percepciones, actitudes y prácticas respecto a los libros de texto, digitales y en formatos abiertos por parte de estudiantes de universidades de América Latina

Este artigo apresenta fragmentos da experiencia e das contribuicoes do projeto “Paulo Freire Memoria e Presenca: preservacao e democratizacao do acesso ao patrimonio cultural brasileiro” para acoes envolvendo bibliotecas e arquivos, no que tange ao uso de softwares livres. Discorre sobre a metodologia do trabalho, bem como enumera os softwares utilizados nas atividades de digitalizacao, tratamento de textos, fotos, audios e videos, alem de apresentar as novas funcionalidades e customizacoes da plataforma de codigo aberto utilizada para disponibilizar ao publico todo o acervo. Por fim, apresenta alguns dos desafios encontrados e aponta as perspectivas para o futuro.O presente estudo teve como objetivo analisar o movimento instituido pelos professores em formacao, no curso oferecido pelo grupo do UCA na Bahia, ao buscar respostas para questoes relacionadas as dimensoes tecnicas, teoricas e praticas para a insercao dos laptops na sala de aula. Para esse estudo, a partir de uma pesquisa exploratoria, priorizamos as discussoes dos professores no forum do Moodle, por ser uma interface que potencializa a colaboracao entre os interagentes e porque agrega, no mesmo recurso, os professores de todas as escolas, o que possibilita a elaboracao de uma visao de todo o contexto do PROUCA na Bahia.Este projeto tem como ideia central refletir como as multiplas possibilidades e conhecimentos embutidos nas padronagens dos tecidos africanos, suas conexoes com os aspectos historico-culturais e linguisticos podem ser incorporados em sala de aula e contribuir com a educacao. Vivencias compartilhadas sao registradas, descritas e analisadas. Entrelacando esses focos, busco interpretar e compreender os sentidos e os significados que esses alunos dao as experiencias vividas durante o projeto. Todos esses elementos se entrelacam e comunicam e nos comunica algo sobre nosso territorio, nossa cultura, nossa lingua, enfim, nossa historia.A falta de motivacao e a principal causa do desinteresse dos alunos, quase sempre acarretado pela metodologia utilizada nas aulas tradicionais. Neste trabalho procurou-se demonstrar que os jogos podem colaborar no processo de ensino e aprendizagem de forma diferenciada, dinâmica e atrativa, promovendo alem de prazer e divertimento, a construcao do conhecimento, ao conectar os diferentes aspectos relacionados ao processo de aprendizagem, como cognicao, afeicao, socializacao e criatividade, utilizando-se do domino e do jogo do mico, adaptados dos jogos tradicionais, para trabalhar conteudos de Quimica Orgânica.O artigo, aqui apresentado, tem como objetivo compartilhar um projeto que iniciou-se, em 2008, na turma de alfabetizacao da Escola Municipal Neil Fioravanti da cidade de Dourados (MS). O mesmo visou o combate da pratica do bullying e a sua metodologia oportunizou a interface das areas de conhecimento, a exploracao da literatura infantil, do jornal e das TICs (tecnologias da informacao e comunicacao). Objetivou tambem, integrar a comunidade escolar e colaborar no desenvolvimento do (Plano de Metas Compromisso Todos Pela Educacao). Em 2009, foi premiado pelo MEC atraves do Premio Professores do Brasil. Em 2010, tornou-se um Programa Antibullying. Atualmente, continua em vigor e alcancou ate outro municipio.Este artigo reporta a experiencia de construcao de um projeto de jogo em ambiente imersivo, envolvendo as areas de Artes Visuais, Engenharia, Direito Ambiental e Lingua Inglesa (LI). Esse prototipo usa ambientes virtuais de aprendizagem e a tecnologia OpenSim para criacao do design do jogo e das atividades em LI. Os resultados sugerem que a construcao das fases do jogo, bem como os desafios que envolvem as atividades em LI e os conhecimentos interdisciplinares exigem a formacao de uma equipe que seja capaz de articular pressupostos teorico-metodologicos sobre jogos e conhecimentos tecnologicos, para garantir o desenvolvimento dos principios de um bom jogo. Resultados dessa experiencia serao apresentados no evento.A Educacao a Distância (EaD) esta cada vez mais presente nas instituicoes de ensino, principalmente com a adocao dos Ambientes Virtuais de Aprendizagem (AVA). Paralelo a isso e notoria a evolucao da industria de dispositivos moveis, disponibilizando no mercado uma rica variedade de tablets e smartphones. Surge entao o m-Learning que promove o ensino e a aprendizagem com mobilidade permitindo que alunos e professores extrapolem as barreiras da sala de aula atraves do uso de dispositivos moveis. Neste contexto, este artigo apresenta uma aplicacao que acessa os AVA por meio de dispositivos moveis, o Question Mobile. O objetivo do Question Mobile e permitir que atividades avaliativas por meio desses aparelhos sejam integrados aos AVA que possuem atividades de questionarios.

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.

Virtual Learning Environment adoption and organizational change in Higher Education

The growing use of virtual environments in higher education results in the need to identify different management models that can guide their use in a manner consistent with institutional conditions.To this end, a case-study interdisciplinary research project was conducted between 2011 and 2013. It focused on the analysis of management, from an organizational perspective, of the institutional change effected by the adoption of Moodle at the Universidad de la República. The research methodology included qualitative and quantitative techniques to collect information: focused interviews, surveys and participatory work dynamics with teachers, students, government officials and experts, as well as the analysis of documentary sources. Conclusions were drawn regarding the perceptions of students, teachers and government officials, conclusions that make it possible to identify various management aspects and that contribute to the assessment of the impact of Moodle as a VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) at universities. It was through the analysis and descriptive reading of the sources that it was possible to create the following conceptual categories: 1) Development of Human Resources; 2) Changes in Management and Organizational Structure; 3) Design and Implementation of Institutional Policies; 4) Technological Infrastructure; 5) Transformation of Education. This research project makes it possible the understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the process studied, and also to build a conceptual perspective that is theoretically grounded, and on the subject at hand. Thus, important contributions can be made to the field and the practice. The results obtained through this research are a significant antecedent and theoretical-methodological contribution for the diagnosis, design, planning and implementation of institutional strategies related to the adoption of Virtual Learning Environments in higher education.

Strategies for the Adoption of Open Textbooks: The Latin American Open Textbooks Initiative

Abstract Open textbook initiatives have emerged as an alternative to traditional publications, boosting the creation of educational resources based on open licenses. In order to make them sustainable, it is necessary to define strategies for the adoption of these initiatives by the different actors involved in the education institutions where they will be implemented. In this article we present the components of the adoption strategy designed for the LATIn Initiative. In Section 2 we present the relevant background information collected in a state-of-the-art reviewing. We then present in Section 3 the components defined for the Strategy for the Adoption of the LATIn Project. In this respect, in Section 4 we present the main processes defined. Furthermore, in Section 5 we identify the intervention of Actors and Contexts. Finally, in Section 6 we include the Phases of Implementation of the strategy, defined as Initial Phase, Generalization Phase and Institutionalization Phase. In Section 7 we present the Conclusions of this work.

Creación de Libros Colaborativos en el Marco de la Iniciativa LATIn

Creating text book is now a task that involves different stockholders participation. Working under a collaborative environment is not an easy labour to carry on. It is important to define, make plans and realize structured activities that lead to a treully collaboration among all working team. When writing books, such technique is utilized in order to generate high quality documents. On this paper, the authors are going to show the preferred model emplyed to create books under collaborative environment, fremd upon the LATin iniciative (Latin-American Creation of Open Text Books).

A Digital Ecosystem for the Collaborative Production of Open Textbooks: The LATIn Methodology (Abstract only)

The access to books in higher education is a issue to be addressed especially in the context of underdeveloped countries, the case for many Latin American countries. More than just financial issues, cultural aspects and need for adaptation must be considered. In this way, the present paper shows a proposal for a methodology framework that would support collaborative open text books initiatives.