Blended-Learning arrangements for higher education in the changing knowledge society

This paper presents an advanced – international – blended learning arrangement. It has been developed, implemented and reviewed regularly in the last 4 years at the authors’ institution. Instead of referring solely to traditional classroom teaching, we use and continually refine this arrangement in our every-day formal teaching and learning processes at Technische Universitaet Dresden. By this we take into regard the changes induced by the Bologna Roadmap and try better to support its “new” didactical objectives: more interactive and interdisciplinary modules with focus upon the (practical) integration of professional and methodical responsibility, decision-making and soft skills

Updating freeTribe to Support Efficient Synchronous Awareness in the Web Context

Abstract: The research field of Computer-Supported Cooperative Work has been reflected fundamentally in theoretical contributions. This contributions have constitute the base to carry out several intents to facilitate the work of the collaborative systems developers, however, current tool-kits, APIs or class libraries only eliminate partially the gap between the technical aspects that impose the information technology and the stressed social character of the process of collaboration in the World Wide Web. In this paper is presented the framework freeTribe, which involve the domain of the distributed groupwares leaning on the Cooperative Model of the methodology AMENITIES, in the middleware platform ICE and in RIA technologies; freeTribe has been designed as a software framework, to maximize its reusability and adaptability with a minimal programming effort. Support for synchronous group tasks in the Web context is increasingly recognized as a desideratum for collaborative systems and several tools have emerged recently that help groups of people with the same goals to work together, but many issues for these collaborative systems remain under studied. We identified synchronous awareness as one of these issues in collaborative systems, and updated freeTribe with four well-accepted kinds of awareness (group awareness, workspace awareness, contextual awareness, and peripheral awareness) by the community focusing our interest in its synchronous mechanism for efficient interaction in Web contexts.Keywords: computer-supported cooperative work, groupware, synchronous awareness.

Motivating factors in online language teacher education in southern Argentina

Online teacher education is of growing interest and so is the study of motivation as a key factor in technology-mediated learning environments. This study is based on a pre-service language teacher education programme in Patagonia, a southern Argentinian region with no face-to-face training offers, limited Internet access and a large number of unqualified teachers. Our goal is to broaden the understanding of online teacher education programmes at undergraduate level in contexts where most trainees are practicing teachers and where online education is the only possibility for holding a teaching qualification. We focused on the motivating factors that led 71 trainees to enrol and to remain in this online teacher training course. Through a mixed methods approach, the trainees completed an online survey (n = 71) and participated in a follow-up interview (n = 24). Results showed that obtaining a teaching degree, autonomy, and individual activities were key factors in initial and sustaining motivation. Participants' experiences challenged collaborative learning in an online environment

ERP 2.0, what for and how?

International audienceThe poor level of adoption of ERP systems is often considered as linked to a loss of social interactions between users of the ERP, together with the poor adaptability of these huge systems to local needs. Web 2.0 tools (including among others social networks, wikis, mashups and tags) aim at allowing a better interaction between a user and an Internet site, or between communities of users by means of a Web site. Using these tools in an industrial context appears now as a possible solution for addressing some of the problems of present information systems, and especially ERPs. Examples of such integration of Web 2.0 technologies in industrial practices are analysed and the empiricism with which these experiences are usually conducted is underlined. In order to address this problem, we suggest a step-by-step method allowing to identify on which business processes performed by an ERP the Web 2.0 tools could be of interest, and investigate how to integrate the two worlds. This approach is illustrated on the SAP product Business By Design, which new version includes a set of configurable Web 2.0 tools

Collaborative tools: computer science students' skills versus software industry needs

Software companies encourage and further the use of collaborative tools and skills at the workplace in pursuit of the benefits of their use: they improve communication, productivity and efficiency, and competitiveness. Besides, undergraduate and graduate software engineering computing curricula recommend subjects related to effective cooperative working and group learning. In order to align industry needs and curricula recommendations, universities should provide students with the collaborative knowledge and skills that they will require on the labour market once they finish their degrees. In this scenario, we asked three questions: Are collaborative tools beneficial to software projects? Is it easier for students with knowledge and skills of collaborative tools to find a job? Do enterprises use collaborative tools as a marketing strategy for the recruitment process or are they really empowering their employees to use collaborative tools? This paper explores these questions. We devised a survey addressing the above questions, which was administered to 86 recent computer science graduates. We applied statistical techniques to analyse the responses. From the data gathered during the survey, we conclude that the expected benefits of the use of collaborative tools are in fact corroborated, students skilled in the use of collaborative tools do find it easier to get jobs and companies are not only looking for people with collaborative skills but also use collaborative tools in their routine work processes

Marking machinima : a case study in assessing student use of a Web 2.0 technology

The model of learning best suited to the future may be one which sees learning as the process of managing the different kinds of participation an individual might have in complex social systems. Learning capability and engagement is thus dependent on the relationship between an individual identity and social systems. We report on the incorporation of machinima, a Web 2.0 technology, as part of an interdisciplinary and collaborative project where the focus is not on the mastery of the tools or the acquisition of predetermined knowledge, but on the development of learning engagement. We provide the case study of a pilot project involving students across two Arts disciplines collaborating via the game, World of Warcraft, to produce an animated adaptation of one of Geoffrey Chaucer\u27s Canterbury Tales. Their contributions were differently assessed according to the pre-existing requirements of their home disciplines. We argue that the assessment in such projects, in conjunction with innovations and experimentation with Web 2.0 technologies, should shift from an emphasis on product to process. We believe that this has a sound pedagogical and theoretical foundation, and also fits better with the increasingly digitalised, unfixed and interdisciplinary world that students will face on graduation. <br /

Co-authorship in the age of cyberculture: Open Educational Resources at the Open University of the United Kingdom

Locating Open Educational Resources (OER) as a phenomenon of cyberculture, this paper presents a reflection on the possibilities of co-authorship that are entailed in OER initiatives of different natures and settings within a large organisation. A selection of OER-related projects and activities carried out at the Open University of United Kingdom (UKOU) are examined from the perspective of a comparative framework proposed by Okada (2010). The framework identifies key features and differences between ‘Closed’ and ‘Open’ Education, that is, respectively, formal education, which takes place within the constraints of institutional Virtual Learning Environments, and informal education, which is gradually taking place more widely in cyberspace. The paper is introduced with a succinct discussion of the connection between cyberculture and the emergence of OER, followed by a presentation of the comparative framework adopted. The UKOU´s structure and methods are then presented, and various projects are discussed. The article concludes by proposing a brief commentary on the creative potential that is being unleashed at the very boundaries between formal and informal educational spaces that cyberculture is challenging

ICTs for Engagement, Collaboration, and Communication in English Teaching: A practical guide

Guía didáctica para incorporar TICs en ambientes virtuales. La guía se encuentra estructurada según buenas prácticas para la docencia virtual y contiene ejemplos de herramientas y actividades.The goal of this booklet is to provide instructors with practical tips for incorporating ICTs into the teaching and learning of English mediated by technology. The selection of practices and digital tools was based on a previous study conducted with students and instructors from the Western Campus of the University of Costa and high school teachers from the same region in 2020.Universidad de Costa Rica/[836-B9-006]/UCR/Costa RicaUCR::Sedes Regionales::Sede de Occidente::Recinto San Ramón::Centro de Investigaciones sobre Diversidad Cultural y Estudios Regionales (CIDICER