didactics
I Encontro Internacional da Casa das Ciências
Uma das alterações mais significativas dos modelos de Comunicação e Informação deste início de Século XXI que se repercutiram de forma clara e substantiva no processo educativo, foi a do uso mais ou menos indiscriminado da Internet.
O aumento quase exponencial da velocidade de transmissão de dados através das redes de comunicação com a omnipresença da Internet num contexto global e, por arrastamento, educacional, alterou de forma radical o conceito de acessibilidade à educação, dando corpo à ideia peregrina de Albert Eisntein de que "A aprendizagem não é um produto da escolaridade, mas da tentativa ao longo da vida para adquiri-la."
Com efeito, todos aqueles que desejam aprender possuem hoje uma panóplia de instrumentos, recursos e modelos, acedíveis à distância de um "clique".
Só para referir alguns elementos marcantes, desde 2001 que o MIT possui cursos livres disponíveis na internet. Berkeley seguiu o exemplo e tem hoje uma das maiores coleções de palestras presenciais gravadas do mundo, tendo sido já realizados mais de 120 milhões de downloads. Yale e Stanford fizeram o mesmo, e até mesmo Harvard lhe seguiu o exemplo, bem como a maioria das Universidades por esse mundo fora.
Nas escolas do ensino não superior, proliferam as plataformas de interação e conteúdos (em Portugal a mais comum é a plataforma MOODLE), usando recursos livres ou disponibilizados pelas estruturas educacionais.
Os cursos on-line são hoje uma realidade, discutível por vezes, é certo, mas presente na sociedade e acedível por qualquer cidadão.
Todo este ambiente digital que envolve a sociedade, com relevo para as redes sociais e para os modelos digitais de comunicação de informação em contexto educativo, transformaram os processos de aprendizagem e aportaram aos sistemas educacionais um acréscimo de questões significativas sobre as quais importa refletir.
Qual a fiabilidade da informação científica disponibilizada na Web?
Como podemos aferir do valor e rigor dos recursos digitais ligados à Ciência?
Qual o peso efetivo que a Internet tem na aprendizagem dos alunos?
Até que ponto a utilização do digital evita ou potencia as conceções alternativas?
De que modo se alterou (ou não) a didática da experimentação?
A modelação e simulação computacional permitem, ou não, uma visão mais perfeita da realidade?
Estas e outras questões que com estas se prendem, são o suporte concetual que levaram à organização do I ENCONTRO INTERNACIONAL DA CASA DAS CIÊNCIAS, subordinado ao tema organizador:
A Utilização de Recursos Digitais em Contexto de Aprendizagem.
O recurso a individualidades com experiência nesta área em Portugal, e noutros países, para Lições Temáticas, realização de Workshops centrados sobretudo na prática educacional, bem como a apresentação de comunicações e posters partilhados por todos os interessados, dão corpo a esta iniciativa, que nos parece ser de relevância significativa como complemento de formação para os docentes em Ciência de todos os níveis de Ensino em Portugal.
First Announcement and Call for Papers - EDEN workshop Learners in the Driving Seat
The 2012 Research Workshop will continue the EDEN tradition of highlighting bi-annually the relevant fields in e-learning research and innovative practice. This year's Workshop Scope reflects on how are students driving teachers, instructors in the fields where new learning technologies play important role. How does instruction work, where borders between physical and virtual learning environments disappear, where roles of students and teachers have changed, where new pedagogical paradigms and didactic approaches are introduced?
It will be a distinctive conference, with envisaged strong involvement of the students from the Leuven University and virtual participation of students from learners from European universities, EDEN member institutions.
Call for Contributions
We invite all interested professionals to take part and discover the conference themes by submitting their experience. There will be opportunities for submitting and presenting papers, workshops, posters and demonstrations. To learn more about the scope of the event and consult the themes, please visit the respective conference pages. For details visit the Conference web-site and the Call for Contributions links.
Proposals should be submitted by 15th September through the online submission form.
Checklist for a Didactically Sound Design of eLearning Content
The design of elearning content requires several areas of educational psychology to be integrated. In order to enhance the design process, checklists can be used as a means of formative evaluation. We present a checklist for the design and formative evaluation of elearning modules.
It covers the content, segmenting, sequencing and navigation, adaptation to target audience, design of text and graphics, learning tasks and feedback, and motivation. In the context of a project on designing elearning modules on renewable energies, this checklist was successfully used for providing formative feedback to the developers.
iTeach: Experienţe didactice
Revista iTeach îşi propune să promoveze aspectele practice ale predării, învăţării şi evaluării şcolare prin aducerea în prim plan a experienţelor concrete ale cadrelor didactice.
Study on Knowledge Maturing in Europe
The MATURE Integrating Project is based on the concept of knowledge maturing (KM): goal-oriented learning on a collective level. The project investigates how KM takes place within and across organisations, what barriers are encountered and how socio-technical solutions overcome those barriers.
Using ICT and electronic music to reduce school drop out in Europe
The use of ICT in E-Motion is not an end in itself, but a tool to transform learning and teaching processes using novel ways alongside more traditional methods. The project aims to apply an experimental approach using ICT, particularly electronic music and informatics. An understanding of sound technologies contributes towards understanding important physics concepts such as acoustics and wave technologies, and the creation process of electronic music also requires elements of mathematics, physics and informatics. With this innovative approach the project intends to improve young people’s level of competence in core curriculum subjects such as maths and foreign languages.
The Lisbon Strategy identified the need to tackle the number of young people who leave school and attempt to enter the labor market with few or no qualifications. Many of these teenagers end up becoming part of the “NEET Group” (Not in Education, Employment or Training). The strategy set specific targets to ensure that young people are suitably qualified to enable a smooth transition from education to employment, targets which many Member States are currently failing to meet
Outline of a Microlearning Agenda
Based on this overview, we develop the thesis that the “microlearning agenda” – as an explicit emphasis on the minute and particular in teaching, learning and technology – presents valuable lessons for research into technology and media in education generally. We reveal microlearning to be not simply as one approach among many, but instead as a perspective that applies to many aspects of education, as something that goes on continuously, whether it is an explicit focus for research and technology development or not. As such, we show that the lessons gained through microlearning have a generalized applicability to the studies of media and technology in education in the broadest possible sense.
We conclude by considering some lessons to be drawn from recent discussions of microlearning. These focus on the constraints and freedoms for learners and also on the pedagogical responsibility of teachers. The yet inconclusive and polyvocal nature of microlearning discourse is a good thing, and we believe it should be cultivated and encouraged. Originally published in: Hug, Theo (Ed.) (2007): Didactics of Microlearning. Concepts, Discourses and Examples. Münster et al: Waxmann, pp. 15-21 (cf. http://waxmann.com/kat/1869.html). With permission of the Waxmann corporation.
Perspectives on project based teaching and “blended learning” to develop ethical awareness in students
Using true projects as tools, students get a “real” world orientation and their work suddenly gets a value beyond just the demonstrated competence of the pupil. The project has given the students a unique opportunity to get involved emotionally and practically in the field of Social Informatics. The Computer Science students have provided both Save the Children and the National Criminal Investigation Service with reports on various topics such as secure chat, camera phones and possible abuse, etc. This exceptional cooperation between higher education and public and private organizations makes the project not only unique, but might also be a major factor to boost the willingness of students to learn Social Informatics and improve their skills in the various topics of the subject.
In an increasingly globalized world, we should also strive to make both Computer and Teacher education more global, with global ethical themes (Kirkwood, 2001) that are recognizable and relevant both nationally and internationally. To fight sexual abuse of children in digital media using project based teaching in relevant fields of education, is just such an example of a global ethical theme.
Nesna University College is the only Computer Science education in the world which has sexual abuse of children as the main topic on the Computer Science curriculum.