Analyzing the usability of the WYRED Platform with undergraduate students to improve its features

[EN]The WYRED ecosystem is a technological ecosystem developed as part of WYRED (netWorked Youth Research for Empowerment in the Digital society), a European Project funded by the Horizon 2020 program. The main aim of the project is to provide a framework for research in which children and young people can express and explore their perspectives and interests concerning digital society. The WYRED ecosystem supports this framework from a technological point of view. The WYRED Platform is one of the main software components of this complex technological solution; it is focused on supporting the social dialogues that take place between children, young people and stakeholders. The ecosystem, and in particular the Platform, are already developed, but it is vital to ensure the acceptance by the final users, the children and young people mainly. This work presents the usability test carried out to evolve the Platform through the System Usability Scale. This usability test allows the identification of the weaknesses of the Platform regarding its characteristics, also allowing the corresponding improvement of the WYRED Platform, and it will serve as a reference for further usability testin

Gender gap in the Digital Society; a qualitative analysis of the international conversation in the WYRED project

[EN]The objective of this research is to know the opinion of young people about one of the main current issues: gender stereotypes and equality. The research has been developed in the context of the WYRED project. Specifically, the information has been obtained from an international conversation about stereotypes and equality on Internet carried out on the WYRED Platform between February and March 2019. The content analysis has been done with the Nvivo software following a qualitative analysis method. The most important results are the importance of technology in the perpetuation of stereotypes, the criticism towards traditional gender stereotypes, and the defense of education in breaking stereotypes in order to achieve an egalitarian society. In short, the opinion of young people concludes in a critique of traditional stereotypes and the need for change in society

Study of the Usability of the WYRED Ecosystem Using Heuristic Evaluation

[EN]The WYRED ecosystem is a composition of Open Source tools and the people involved in the project, i.e., partners, stakeholders and young people between the ages of 7 and 30 years. The main component of this ecosystem is the WYRED Platform. The WYRED Platform relies on communities, which are a set of interaction spaces where conversations and research projects are developed. Every community has a person or persons in charge of its management, which are the so-called facilitators, and also a set of members, mainly young people, interacting through discussion threads. The high levels of interaction required to accomplish the WYRED Platform’s goals lead to the necessity of ensuring that the system is accepted by its final users. Given this need, a preliminary study was performed to analyze the usability of the Platform from the point of view of young people. However, it is also crucial that the ecosystem meets usability criteria for the facilitators, due to their role of encouraging young people to participate and serving as a guide in the conversations taking place within communities, as well as in the research projects developed by the young people about different topics related to the digital society. Therefore, a usability study targeting facilitators was carried out to reach insights about how these users value the system’s usability. This usability study was performed through a combination of two techniques, a heuristic analysis by experts and the Computer System Usability Questionnaire to collect the experience of the real users

Aprendizaje, Innovación y Cooperación como impulsores del cambio metodológico. Actas del V Congreso Internacional sobre Aprendizaje, Innovación y Cooperación. CINAIC 2019 (9-11 de Octubre de 2019, Madrid, España)

La misión de CINAIC se basa en contribuir a mejorar el proceso de formación y aprendizaje a través de la innovación educativa. Para ello, y desde el año 2011, los años impares se organiza un congreso internacional y los años pares se desarrollan actividades experimentales y abiertas con un fuerte contenido innovador. CINAIC también tiene el compromiso de ayudar a mejorar la calidad de la innovación educativa llevada a cabo con planteamientos científicos y, en la medida de sus posibilidades, contribuir a divulgar dichas experiencias para que se produzca un mayor impacto en la educación. CINAIC se ha consolidado como un punto de encuentro del profesorado que realiza innovación, como un foro de debate con una activa participación de los asistentes, como un centro de divulgación de las buenas prácticas y como un espacio de aprendizaje y experimentación. Junto a las innovaciones ya consolidadas, como presentaciones en formato PechaKucha, como actividades participativas y cooperativas, como seminarios y talleres sobre temáticas útiles (tendencias, indicadores y divulgación científica de la innovación educativa), espacios abiertos de discusión como ECO-LAB. En esta edición se introduce la innovación: «mesa redonda de palabras» y «Escuela de cocina» Las “mesas redondas de palabras”. Son similares a una mesa redonda, pero es el público el que participa en ella. Inicialmente a cada persona del público se le asigna una palabra al entrar en la sesión. La mesa comienza con un moderador, una o dos personas invitadas y sillas vacías. Esas sillas se irán ocupando por personas del público que tengan las palabras que vayan saliendo en las reflexiones. La «Escuela de Cocina» está compuesta por un conjunto de talleres donde se trabajará con «recetas» concretas para aplicar diversas innovaciones educativas en el aula. Las recetas integran y secuencian ingredientes (tipos de contenidos), actividades (a realizar por el profesorado y alumnado) y herramientas (tecnologías educativas). Las personas que participen en estas actividades «cocinarán» las recetas para poder llevarse los platos a sus respectivas asignaturas. Desde los comités organizador, científico, editorial y de acción social les damos la bienvenida a esta nueva edición de CINAIC que tendrá lugar en Madrid del 9 al 11 de octubre de 2019