Collecting resilience points for a smooth transition to adult healthcare services:co-creating a playful resource for Spina Bifida.

Background: The transition of young people with a disability or a chronic health condition, from paediatric to adult focused health and social care services, in Scotland, is known to be difficult. There is a significant body of evidence to suggest that a transition should start early, be holistic and inclusive, as well as structured to build essential capabilities and promote resilience. The nurse led project, reported here, was set to create a playful mechanism for meaningful interactions between young people, families and healthcare professionals involved in the transfer of care. Methodology: Salutogenic theory and efforts to enhance a ‘sense of coherence’ guided developments of a collaborative boardgame entitled ‘The Young Heroes’. Through participatory design and the ecological framing of resilience, the captured lived experience of adults with spina bifida who already transitioned to adult care, was used to enhance developments. Playtests with a range of stakeholders was used to further hone and validate the tool. Results: Seeking to co-create a tool to support effective transitions, enabled a team to craft and test a transition game that is easily accessible, inclusive, and sufficiently adaptable to fit different settings, communities and cultures. The open licence grants others a free access to download, play and adapt this game so it could be further used, enhanced and validated. <br/

Inovação na diplomacia cultural: o caso da China

This study focuses on the innovation of China’s cultural diplomacy (CCD) by means of the Confucius Institute (CI). The main contents revolve around the following research goals: 1) to understand the strategic framework and practical path of CCD, and to clarify the context of its inheritance and innovation; 2) to analyze whether the CI, epitomized as a crucial innovation of CCD, has improved China’s national image in Portuguese-speaking countries (PSCs) and enhanced the attraction and international competitiveness of Chinese culture; and 3) to explore how China can better formulate its CD strategy in line with the exigencies of the modern era. The study combines the methods of literature review, case study, and questionnaire research to explore the topics from different perspectives to strengthen the scientific nature of the research results. In addition to the introduction and conclusion, the thesis is divided into five chapters. Chapter 1 discusses the connotation and value of CD. Chapter 2 expounds the development and innovation of CCD. Chapter 3 systematically summarizes China’s cultural interaction in its diplomatic process with PSCs. Chapter 4 elaborates on the CI in terms of its operation mode and diplomatic means. Chapter 5 forms the core of the study and involves empirical analysis of case-study and questionnaire data. It aims to investigate the functions, public image, influence, and practical means of CIs in the process of CD. Major findings indicate that CIs in PSCs have achieved ideal social feedback and play a positive role in shaping the image of China. However, according to the different continents where CIs are located, the survey results show distinct characteristics which are closely related to China’s different foreign policies towards Latin America, Europe, and Africa and are determined by the historical experiences and national conditions of the various countries. The future task for CCD is to clarify China’s institutional roots and the cultural genes behind its development by using cultural exchanges and China’s fluid culture to convey a message of China’s pursuit of peace, development, and cooperation.Este estudo tem como foco a inovação da Diplomacia Cultural da China (DCC) através do Instituto Confúcio (IC). Os principais conteúdos giram em torno dos seguintes objetivos de investigação: 1) compreender o enquadramento estratégico e o percurso prático da Diplomacia Cultural da China e clarificar o contexto da sua herança e inovação; 2) analisar se o IC, exemplo de inovação crucial da Diplomacia Cultural da China, melhorou a imagem nacional da China nos Países de Língua Oficial Portuguesa (PALOP) e aumentou a atração e competitividade internacional da cultura chinesa; e 3) explorar como a China pode formular melhor a sua estratégia de Diplomacia Cultural, de acordo com as exigências da era moderna. O estudo combina os métodos de revisão de literatura, estudo de caso e pesquisa de questionário para explorar os tópicos de diferentes perspetivas com o objetivo de fortalecer a natureza científica dos resultados de investigação. Além da introdução e da conclusão, a tese está dividida em cinco capítulos. O Capítulo 1 discute a conotação e o valor de Diplomacia Cultural (DC). O Capítulo 2 expõe o desenvolvimento e a inovação da Diplomacia Cultural da China (DCC). O Capítulo 3 resume sistematicamente a interação cultural da China no seu processo diplomático com os Países de Língua Oficial Portuguesa (PALOP). O Capítulo 4 discorre sobre o papel do IC em termos do seu modo de operar e dos seus meios diplomáticos. O Capítulo 5 constitui o núcleo da tese e envolve a análise empírica dos dados do estudo de caso e do questionário. Tem como objetivo investigar as funções, a imagem pública, a influência e os meios práticos dos IC no processo de Diplomacia Cultural (DC). As principais descobertas indicam que os IC nos PALOP alcançaram o feedback social ideal e desempenham um papel positivo na formação da imagem da China. No entanto, de acordo com os diferentes continentes onde os IC estão situados, os resultados da pesquisa apresentam caraterísticas distintas que estão intimamente relacionadas com as diferentes políticas externas da China para a América Latina, a Europa e a África e são determinadas pelas experiências históricas e pelas condições nacionais dos vários países. A futura tarefa da Diplomacia Cultural da China (DCC) será a de esclarecer as raízes institucionais da China e os genes culturais por trás do seu desenvolvimento, usando intercâmbios culturais e a cultura fluida da China para transmitir uma mensagem de busca de paz, de desenvolvimento e de cooperação por parte da China.Programa Doutoral em Políticas Pública

Educational Technology and Related Education Conferences for June to December 2015

The 33rd edition of the conference list covers selected events that primarily focus on the use of technology in educational settings and on teaching, learning, and educational administration. Only listings until December 2015 are complete as dates, locations, or Internet addresses (URLs) were not available for a number of events held from January 2016 onward. In order to protect the privacy of individuals, only URLs are used in the listing as this enables readers of the list to obtain event information without submitting their e-mail addresses to anyone. A significant challenge during the assembly of this list is incomplete or conflicting information on websites and the lack of a link between conference websites from one year to the next

Improving serious games evaluation by applying learning analytics and data mining techniques

Tesis inédita de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Informática, Departamento de Ingeniería del Software e Inteligencia Artificial, leída el 15/06/2017. Tesis formato europeo (compendio de artículos)Serious games are highly motivational resources effective to teach, raise awareness, or change the perceptions of players. To foster their application in education, teachers and institutions require clear and formal evidences to assess students' learning while they are playing the games. However, traditional assessment techniques rely on external questionnaires, typically carried out before and after playing, that fail to measure players' learning while it is happening. The multiple interactions carried out by players in the games can provide more precise information about how players play, and even be used to assess them. In this regard, game learning analytics techiques propose the collection and analysis of such interactions for multiple purposes, including assessment. The potentially large game learning analytics data collected can be further analyzed with data mining techniques to discover unexpected patterns and to provide measures to evaluate the effect of fames on their players and assess their learning...Los juegos serios son recursos altamente motivadores y efectivos para enseñar, concienciar, o cambiar las percepciones de sus jugadores. Para fomentar su aplicación en educación, los profesores y las instituciones necesitan pruebas claras y automáticas con las que evaluar el aprendizaje de sus estudiantes mientras utilizan los juegos. Tradicionalmente, la evaluación con juegos serios se basa en cuestionarios externos, realizados normalmente antes y después de jugar, que no miden el aprendizaje de los jugadores durante el proceso en sí. Las múltiples interacciones que realizan los jugadores al jugar pueden proporcionar una información más precisa sobre cómo juegan los jugadores e, incluso, utilizarse para evaluar su aprendizaje. En este sentido, las analíticas de aprendizaje para juegos proponen técnicas para la recogida y el análisis de dichas interacciones con múltiples fines, incluida la evaluación de los jugadores. Los datos (potencialmente numerosos) de las analíticas de aprendizaje para juegos pueden analizarse en mayor detalle con técnicas d minería de datos que permiten descubrir patrones ocultos a simple vista y proporcionar mejores medidas para estudiar el efecto de los juegos en los estudiantes y evaluar su aprendizaje...Fac. de InformáticaTRUEunpu

PBL Student Projects and Sustainable Development Goals: A Case Study

Working with the Sustainable Development Goals can be a highly motivating factor in Problem Based Learning, especially if the solutions produced can be used afterwards and have an actual impact on people and communities. This paper describes how three engineering students from Aalborg University, Denmark, collaborated with the South African Organisation Green Shoots on bringing IT-supported Math education out to some of the most disadvantaged learners from townships and rural areas of the Western Cape. The project provided the Danish students with a unique learning experience and have a lasting impact on the communities involved. While the content of the project focused on bringing IT-supported Math education to learners in previously disadvantaged areas around the Western Cape, the project also provided valuable insight into how such students’ projects, where the outcomes benefit people and communities suffering from socio-economic challenges e.g. poverty, can be carried out. In addition to demonstrate that such projects are actually possible, we studied three critical aspects: How to ensure a good fit between learning objectives and project outcome, how to ensure that the project creates value for the partner organisation and communities, and how to ensure that the projects can be conducted without overloading the university supervisors. We believe that student projects focusing on SDGs have a big potential in terms of providing highly motivating student projects yet at the same time contribute to a better world through solutions that are being used even afterwards. However, our study was just a single case with one group of three students. We hope it will serve as inspiration for larger studies, where more quantitative data could be gathered in terms of how to establish a good framework around such projects, and in order to demonstrate the value for students and societies