The Role of Needs Analysis in English for Specific Purposes

This article discusses the role of needs analysis in ESP. 'reaching ESP should not he considered as a different kind of teaching the language but rather as an approach as it is also based on the commonly held belief of teaching language for communicative purposes. The problems that ESP teachers have are similar to those of teachers of English for general purposes although there are some additional problems that may he beyond methods and pedagogy especially those related to non-linguistic matters. Students' needs are discussed from different angles and the theoretical basis of needs analysis is derived from the ideas of communicative competence proposed by Hymes (1972) and Canale and Swain (1980). Different approaches to needs analysis and its importance are also discussed. Finally, a model of framework for needs analysis as a basis for syllabus design is presented

Trends in online consumption and sharing of content by higher education students

This article presents a literature review about media consumption and content sharing on the Internet and is part of a research project that aims to outline and understand practices shared among students of a specific Portuguese higher education institution. Much of the studies found allow us to conclude that students that currently attend higher education are used to multitasking and are active users of online devices, platforms and services in both personal and learning contexts. Research shows that the presence of technology and social media in the daily life of young people is no longer just a growing trend but rather a current fact, which produces intensive and participatory communication dynamics.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

A Model-based Approach for Designing Cyber-Physical Production Systems

The most recent development trend related to manufacturing is called "Industry 4.0". It proposes to transition from "blind" mechatronics systems to Cyber-Physical Production Systems (CPPSs). Such systems are capable of communicating with each other, acquiring and transmitting real-time production data. Their management and control require a structured software architecture, which is tipically referred to as the "Automation Pyramid". The design of both the software architecture and the components (i.e., the CPPSs) is a complex task, where the complexity is induced by the heterogeneity of the required functionalities. In such a context, the target of this thesis is to propose a model-based framework for the analysis and the design of production lines, compliant with the Industry 4.0 paradigm. In particular, this framework exploits the Systems Modeling Language (SysML) as a unified representation for the different viewpoints of a manufacturing system. At the components level, the structural and behavioral diagrams provided by SysML are used to produce a set of logical propositions about the system and components under design. Such an approach is specifically tailored towards constructing Assume-Guarantee contracts. By exploiting reactive synthesis techniques, contracts are used to prototype portions of components' behaviors and to verify whether implementations are consistent with the requirements. At the software level, the framework proposes a particular architecture based on the concept of "service". Such an architecture facilitates the reconfiguration of components and integrates an advanced scheduling technique, taking advantage of the production recipe SysML model. The proposed framework has been built coupled with the construction of the ICE Laboratory, a research facility consisting of a full-fledged production line. Such an approach has been adopted to construct models of the laboratory, to virtual prototype parts of the system and to manage the physical system through the proposed software architecture

The Effect of Scaffolding on Assignment Quality and Procedural Learning Achievement

Some problems experienced by millennial students when they learn by online include learning control, learning disorientation, and cognitive load. This study aims to examine the effect of scaffolding use on assignment quality and procedural cognitive learning achievement in the implementation of inverted or flipped (IF) classroom strategies. This study involved students of the pre-service study program of Indonesian Catholic University of Ruteng. The total research subjects were 78 students. They were divided into experimental and control groups. The experimental group is assisted by scaffolding, while the control group without scaffolding. The study design used a pretest-posttest experimental control group design and data collection using questionnaires and tests. Data analysis using multivariate analysis (MANOVA). The results showed that the use of scaffolding increased the effectiveness of implementing IF classroom strategies on student assignment quality and procedural learning achievement. The implications of the research for future study and learning practices can be explained

MEDLAB Sicilia Le occasioni per l\u2019innovazione sociale e territoriale MEDLAB in Sicily An opportunity for social and territorial innovation

The volume contains written in italian and english language on the reflections and the final results of international partnership experience by Medlab (project promoted by European Commission, MED Program) concerning the case of Living Labs in Sicily. Gelardi and Salemi showed the action of the regional innovation instruments of urban and regional planning at institutional regional level and in particular the role of experience of international cooperation in the comparison of experiences of different kind of territorial innovation in the Euro-Mediterranean area. Marsh shows as the MedLab project has been to examine the current and potential role of Living Labs within regional development policy and the questions thrown up by considering Living Labs as a policy tool. This means looking at issues of development policy and linking their relevance to broader territorial innovation strategies. In addition, governance issues arise for coordinating different Living Lab initiatives within a territorial domain, with the aim of maximising benefits not only to ICT-based innovation and the local knowledge economy, but also to the fields of application that Living Labs address: the environment, the economy, social and government services, etc. The process has thus involved first looking at how these questions can be addressed from the standpoints of different types of actors and how they can engage in reciprocal learning processes. The idea is to develop a model of \u201cinnovation literacy\u201d for local authorities and policy makers, namely the capacity to structure the demand for and supply of ICT-based innovation in order to maximise the concrete benefits to specific policies and initiatives. The ultimate vision is of a virtuous circle whereby regional development authorities apply the Living Lab model in an increasing array of fields and the ICT industry increasingly recognises the value proposition of engaging in co-design processes in concrete local and regional development initiatives. In the following pages, we explore the experiences developed in the MedLab project according to three issues: a) a first exploration of the concept of \u201cterritorial innovation\u201d at the basis of the MedLab hypothesis, and its potential impact on policy and governance; b) The case story of the formation of the original TLL-Sicily partnership in 2007 and how that experience shaped the MedLab workplan; c) The summative conclusions of the MedLab project, exploring the concept of an emergent macro-regional Living Lab. Giambalvo e Lucido involved the analysis of urban change in a social and economic context particularly full of difficulties as the town of Favara. Their contribution tries to define the processes of social innovation when they born and move the first steps, this contribution aims to collect the challenge born inside the Medlab project \u2013 Mediterranean Living Lab for the Territorial Innovation to reflect on some of the outcomes of the Living Lab approach to support territorial innovation in the geographical areas of Sicily concerned by the pilot cases of MedLab (the spatial planning of the province of Ragusa and the strategic plan of the municipality of Favara). More specifically, the remark starts from a work of research on the field and facilitation of communicative processes aimed to identify what dynamics of social innovation, such as transactions among the social actors and what new micro-economic ecosystems are developing in the municipality of Favara, whose background has been explored and treated as territorial Living Lab. Di Bono e Parisi describe the way of the Province of Ragusa tried to initiate arrangements to create a Living Lab from experience of local planning and addressing to the involvement of the local firm to obtain a dinamic digital mapping of local creativity. In the contribution the autors try to show that the concept of innovation is still evolving and the market is not disappearing from this innovation concept, but it is one of its components; the social dimension is increasingly relevant, as well as the institutional innovation. In fact, public boards, dealing with the themes of territorial innovation, can re-design their role starting from networking open innovation approaches and building up public-private partnerships able to activate technological and social innovation processes in a participatory way. Trapani present a cotribution on theme about the report of launching a citizen initiative for the mobilization of the social capital in the second Constituency of Palermo; it includes the Brancaccio neighborhood very famous for the murder of Father Puglisi. The initiative is designed as an integrated program of architectural, urban, cultural, social, environmental and economic qualification for the development (also for touristic aims) of Castle Maredolce and (oncoming) park close the monument and the nearby gardens. The proposal which is maturing in this period, falls within the framework of infrastructural transformations taking place in the districts of Brancaccio and Bandita and compared to the new role of the metropolitan city in the new economies of the Mediterranean, namely in a context in which Sicily seems to remain more at the edge of Europe and see, in the cautious use of its cultural resources, a way of survival. The proposal initially moves from the definition of projects and visions for the architectural setting and the urban and social redefinition of a new square in front of an important Moorish Castle undergoing restoration. Furthermore, the interest is moved to the second municipal constituency. The integrated urban program consists of interventions which specify the contents of the strategic plan of Palermo for the second constituency. The urban part, specifically, is characterized by the presence of important infrastructure and services for the production of small and medium-sized enterprises. It has been possible to examine the characteristics of the citizens, their expectations in terms of their objectives and concerning the concrete possibilities of integrated planning and design within participatory and urban sphere on the background of the failure of urban traditional planning tools

Una tribuna libera per la valutazione. Il ruolo del forum nei corsi di Tirocinio Formativo Attivo

La progettazione dei corsi del Tirocinio Formativo Attivo per la componente pedagogica dovrebbe considerare in modo attento le esigenze formative dei corsisti. L’uso di una piattaforma e-learning permette di cogliere in anticipo e durante lo svolgimento dei corsi quali siano le tematiche calde a partire dalle quali sviluppare e accompagnare gli interventi di formazione. Lo studio riguarda 323 corsisti TFA della Sapienza (A.A. 2014-15) iscritti a un corso Moodle di Ateneo. In particolare sono considerate le interazioni all’interno del forum “Tribuna libera valutativa”. Sono stati considerati gli aspetti quantitativi delle interazioni nel forum e creata una mappa della valutazione basata sulla popolarità degli argomenti trattati, e il legame con l’esperienza di tirocinio nelle scuole. I dati individuali di attività nel forum saranno aggregati per i gruppi di lavoro PRO.V.A. e messi in relazione con la valutazione delle prove prodotte, che rientra nell’esame finale del TFA. Infine saranno considerate le differenze fra i tre sottogruppi del TFA (Scienze, Arte/Lingue, Lettere) e le diverse classi di concorso. La possibilità per i corsisti di incidere sui contenuti della formazione, prendendo spunto dall’esperienza svolta nelle scuole, è risultata essere motivante, sia durante le lezioni teoriche, sia durante le attività di gruppo, entrambe molto partecipate. Nel quadro dell’uso delle tecnologie in contesti formativi, e in questo caso anche di formazione professionale, l’uso mirato dei forum può migliorare l’efficacia degli interventi di formazione, verificabile attraverso la prova d’esame finale.The design of the courses of the TFA (Tirocinio Formativo Attivo;Active Training Internship) for pedagogical aspects should carefully consider the training needs of the trainees. An e-learning platform allows you to grasp in advance and during the course of the course what are the hot topics on which to develop and accompany training. The study deals with 323 TFA graduates from Sapienza (A.A. 2014-15) enrolled in a Moodle course. In particular, the interactions within the Forum "Free Evaluation Tribune". The quantitative aspects of interactions in the forum were considered and a map of the themes of evaluation based on the popularity of the topics discussed. and the link with the internship experience in schools. The individual activity data in the forum will be aggregated for the PRO.V.A. groups and related to the final TFA examination. Finally, the differences between the three subgroups of the TFA (Science, Arts / Languages, Letters) and the different competition classes will be considered. The opportunity for the trainees to influence the contents of the training, based on the experience gained in the schools, was very motivating, both during the theoretical lessons and during group activities, that have been very involved. In the context of the use of technologies in training contexts, and in this case also of professional training, forum use can improve the effectiveness of training, verifiable through the final exa

Leadership e tecnologia nei team virtuali

Virtual teams (VT) are today a pervasive form of work since organizations increasingly use them to perform knowledge intensive tasks and innovative activities. VTs' features are global distribution of members (spatial and temporal dispersion), pervasive use of technologies as the main means of communication and collaboration and functional, organizational, disciplinary, cultural and linguistic heterogeneity of members. In the last years the research interest on VT has grown according to their diffusion in organizations, enabled by the development of new technologies and recent economic changes. Today the effectiveness of these teams is strategic for organizations because they have the potential to increase competitiveness and flexibility. The literature on VT and work at a distance provides numerous contributions on the factors influencing their effectiveness as technology use and leadership processes. As in traditional teams, even in VT the role of the leader is crucial for the performance of the group, but the traditional leadership models considered so far show their limits when they are moved into a virtual environment. This happens because leadership theories have been studied for co-located teams which are based on face-to-face interactions, while VTs’ dynamics are partially different and cannot be completely explained by traditional theories. Another important factor related to the effectiveness of VT is technology, seen both as a means of communication and of collaboration. The VTs' leadership is expressed through technology, so leaders choose and use different types of technologies and combination of media; moreover, leaders and members must have the sense and the perception of the presence of technology and also being able to use it. However studies on how this two elements relate to each other and jointly influence performance are still limited. So we propose an investigation of the joint effect of technology use and leadership processes in distributed work settings to improve teams’ effectiveness. - What is the relationship between leadership processes and the use of technologies? - How do the use of technologies and the leadership processes jointly influence the effectiveness of VT? The exploratory nature of the investigation and the multidimensional aspect of the variables suggest the adoption of a qualitative method. A multiple case study based on five case studies was conducted in order to develop a grounded theory. Data were gathered on a specific type of VT: team science involved in European research projects of the 7th Framework Programme (FP7). These projects are considered VT because they are large collaborative distributed projects which involve peers in an interdisciplinary context. We chose team science for our data collection also because further investigations are needed in that context particularly how expertise, technological infrastructures and organizational behavior can influence their performance. The two variables used to identify case studies have been the team size, where number of partners is used as a proxy of number of people, and science/humanity area as a proxy of the technological expertise. Team size is closely related to the complexity of coordination and thus to the leadership processes, while scientific field can be used with good approximation as perceived usefulness of the technology and intention to use it. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and the program NVivo was used to do the content analysis. Many categories and themes have been obtained through the NVivo coding procedure: interdependence of activities (generic, sequential, reciprocal), quality of relationships and in relational resources, needs of coordination, knowledge and behavioral integration, leadership processes, use of technology, perception of effectiveness and so on. The qualitative evidence shows centrality of the variable knowledge and behavioral integration as predictor of effectiveness. This variable is strongly influenced by the design of activity and their interdependencies. Even if every project had a detailed and strict design of interdependencies, as the European Community required, the data collection showed that not all of them achieved high levels of integration. So the members perceived the projects as differently effective. The data made clear that there are two variables that affect the integration: process of leadership and use of collaborative technologies. They don't affect it independently, but jointly; moreover, the qualitative evidence shows the importance of achieving alignment between this two variables. Making processes of leadership and use of technologies compatible and synergic leads to more integrated results and to collaborative behavior between members and improves team effectiveness. On the one hand the two more effective research projects gained a high alignment: the first adopted a distributed leadership and an extensive use of technology and the role of the integrator was played by technology; the second adopted a centralized leadership and a limited use of technology and the role of integrator was played by the team leader. On the other hand the project perceived as less effective is characterized by low alignment, while it chose a decentralized leadership and a limited use of technologies. So neither the leaders nor the technologies of communication and collaboration can ensure integration in this team. The alignment between leadership processes and technology use is also affected by the size of the project, the priority of the project, the turnover, the economic and relational resources. Finally, we could connect the main themes to suggest a complex relationship between design of interdependences, knowledge and behavioral integration, perceptions of effectiveness and alignment between use of technology and leadership processes: the perception of effectiveness of VT is explained by knowledge and behavioral integration, which in turn is influenced by the alignment. This finding contributes to the development of the theory on VT effectiveness: the effectiveness is influenced by the alignment through the achievement of integration. The knowledge on the social dynamics of team science is enriched too: social processes (as relational resources or process of leadership) and technological infrastructure have mutual implications on scientific production, collaboration and success of the team