The proliferation of virtual laboratories in educational fields

Since its emergence in the 1960s, the use of virtual reality (VR) has grown progressively. This wide dissemination of VR has allowed its application in an increasing number of disciplines, including education. It is well known that virtual laboratories (VLs), which base their use in VR technology, are very useful tools in both university and professional training. In this article, the main advantages and disadvantages of the use of modern VLs in teaching are analyzed. In addition, the design and development process that must be followed to appropriately create these VLs is described in detail, as well as a small-scale study of the perception that university teachers have about the use of VR in education. Lastly, the reasons why the implementation of VR is not currently as broad as it would be expected, given its proven potential in different fields, are discussed

Photovoltaic Teaching Project: a didactic method for approaching the renewable energy

Progetto didattico sviluppato per affrontare l'introduzione alla meccanica quantistica in un corso di fisica di quinta liceo attraverso attività  di laboratorio virtuali e pratiche con pannelli fotovoltaici

Semantic architecture for sensors

Based on the report for the unit “Sociology of New Information Technologies” of the Master on Computer Sciences at FCT/University Nova Lisbon in 2015-16. The responsible of this curricular unit is Prof. António MonizTechnological progress in recent years and the increase of Internet of things (IoT) in our daily life brought a huge flood of data that can only be handle, processed and exploited in real-time with the help of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). The ICT is one main element in order to achieve more efficient and sustainable an environment resource management, while the needs of the citizens are satisfied, creating new applications to improve citizen’s quality life. The creation of new systems that allow the acquisition of context information, automatically and transparently, and give that information to decision support systems are important aspects for information societies. In this paper it will be presented the usability and importance of sensors to get information from our environment in order to know what and when happen changes around us as well as the importance of ontologies in the structure and organization of the systems, to acquire new knowledge

A phenomenological analysis of an instructional systems design creative project

This research paper is a phenomenological analysis of a creative project involving University of Northern Iowa undergraduate art students in the planning and creation of visual illustrations, graphic design concepts, .html documents, and imagery for a world wide web intranet/lnternet virtual space. This analysis looks at instructional design as a creative process and the phenomenology of the UNI Art/Cat (Art Resources Technology/Computer Assisted Training) computer laboratory. The mission, goals, and objectives of the creative project, experiential and experimental philosophies of education, and the phenomenologies of the instructional design process are the main considerations. The methodology of this thesis is primarily concerned with action research and research as lived experience. The generational aspects of computer hardware and software and the affective aspects of the evolution of the infrastructure upon instructional development is examined. This generation of techno-apparatus includes the Macintosh G3 Personal Computer in a network environment, Afga and Hewlett Packard Flatbed Scanners, Polaroid Slide Scanners, Adobe Graphic Design Software, and Symantec Visual Page Web Design Software. Commentary on the social and bureaucratic considerations in this particular creative project and discussion of the collaboration with UNI Art Department administration, faculty, and students is included with the final conclusions and recommendations

ReSCon '12, Research Student Conference: Book of Abstracts

The fifth SED Research Student Conference (ReSCon2012) was hosted over three days, 18-20 June 2012, in the Hamilton Centre at Brunel University. The conference consisted of 130 oral and 70 poster presentations, based on the high quality and diverse research being conducted within the School of Engineering and Design by postgraduate research students. The conference is held annually, and ReSCon plays a key role in contributing to research and innovations within the School

Ecosystemic Evolution Feeded by Smart Systems

Information Society is advancing along a route of ecosystemic evolution. ICT and Internet advancements, together with the progression of the systemic approach for enhancement and application of Smart Systems, are grounding such an evolution. The needed approach is therefore expected to evolve by increasingly fitting into the basic requirements of a significant general enhancement of human and social well-being, within all spheres of life (public, private, professional). This implies enhancing and exploiting the net-living virtual space, to make it a virtuous beneficial integration of the real-life space. Meanwhile, contextual evolution of smart cities is aiming at strongly empowering that ecosystemic approach by enhancing and diffusing net-living benefits over our own lived territory, while also incisively targeting a new stable socio-economic local development, according to social, ecological, and economic sustainability requirements. This territorial focus matches with a new glocal vision, which enables a more effective diffusion of benefits in terms of well-being, thus moderating the current global vision primarily fed by a global-scale market development view. Basic technological advancements have thus to be pursued at the system-level. They include system architecting for virtualization of functions, data integration and sharing, flexible basic service composition, and end-service personalization viability, for the operation and interoperation of smart systems, supporting effective net-living advancements in all application fields. Increasing and basically mandatory importance must also be increasingly reserved for human–technical and social–technical factors, as well as to the associated need of empowering the cross-disciplinary approach for related research and innovation. The prospected eco-systemic impact also implies a social pro-active participation, as well as coping with possible negative effects of net-living in terms of social exclusion and isolation, which require incisive actions for a conformal socio-cultural development. In this concern, speed, continuity, and expected long-term duration of innovation processes, pushed by basic technological advancements, make ecosystemic requirements stricter. This evolution requires also a new approach, targeting development of the needed basic and vocational education for net-living, which is to be considered as an engine for the development of the related ‘new living know-how’, as well as of the conformal ‘new making know-how’