BIWiki - Using a Business Intelligence Wiki to Form a Virtual Community of Practice for Portuguese Master's Students

Web 2.0 software in general and wikis in particular have been receiving growing attention as they constitute new and powerful tools, capable of supporting information sharing, creation of knowledge and a wide range of collaborative processes and learning activities. This paper introduces briefly some of the new opportunities made possible by Web 2.0 or the social Internet, focusing on those offered by the use of wikis as learning spaces. A wiki allows documents to be created, edited and shared on a group basis; it has a very easy and efficient markup language, using a simple Web browser. One of the most important characteristics of wiki technology is the ease with which pages are created and edited. The facility for wiki content to be edited by its users means that its pages and structure form a dynamic entity, in permanent evolution, where users can insert new ideas, supplement previously existing information and correct errors and typos in a document at any time, up to the agreed final version. This paper explores wikis as a collaborative learning and knowledge-building space and its potential for supporting Virtual Communities of Practice (VCoPs). In the academic years (2007/8 and 2008/9), students of the Business Intelligence module at the Master's programme of studies on Knowledge Management and Business Intelligence at Instituto Superior de Estatistica e Gestao de Informacao of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal, have been actively involved in the creation of BIWiki - a wiki for Business Intelligence in the Portuguese language. Based on usage patterns and feedback from students participating in this experience, some conclusions are drawn regarding the potential of this technology to support the emergence of VCoPs; some provisional suggestions will be made regarding the use of wikis to support information sharing, knowledge creation and transfer and collaborative learning in Higher Education

BIWiki - Using a Business Intelligence Wiki to Form a Virtual Community of Practice for Portuguese Master's Students

Web 2.0 software in general and wikis in particular have been receiving growing attention as they constitute new and powerful tools, capable of supporting information sharing, creation of knowledge and a wide range of collaborative processes and learning activities. This paper introduces briefly some of the new opportunities made possible by Web 2.0 or the social Internet, focusing on those offered by the use of wikis as learning spaces. A wiki allows documents to be created, edited and shared on a group basis; it has a very easy and efficient markup language, using a simple Web browser. One of the most important characteristics of wiki technology is the ease with which pages are created and edited. The facility for wiki content to be edited by its users means that its pages and structure form a dynamic entity, in permanent evolution, where users can insert new ideas, supplement previously existing information and correct errors and typos in a document at any time, up to the agreed final version. This paper explores wikis as a collaborative learning and knowledge-building space and its potential for supporting Virtual Communities of Practice (VCoPs). In the academic years (2007/8 and 2008/9), students of the Business Intelligence module at the Master's programme of studies on Knowledge Management and Business Intelligence at Instituto Superior de Estatistica e Gestao de Informacao of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal, have been actively involved in the creation of BIWiki - a wiki for Business Intelligence in the Portuguese language. Based on usage patterns and feedback from students participating in this experience, some conclusions are drawn regarding the potential of this technology to support the emergence of VCoPs; some provisional suggestions will be made regarding the use of wikis to support information sharing, knowledge creation and transfer and collaborative learning in Higher Education

Higher education institutions and international students’ hindrances: a case of students from the African Portuguese-speaking countries at two European Portuguese universities

We present a study to comprehend if the support given by higher education institution (HEI) to international students coming from the PortugueseSpeaking African Countries meets their academic and social hindrances. Our starting point was a set of semi-structured interviews focused on the perspectives of these students, their Professors and Course Directors as well as on the perspectives of HEI’ staff. Despite findings indicate a positive institutional support, it seems there is still much to do in order to do it properly with these students. These different perspectives will allow us to reflect on the impact that those actions/resources have on the path of students from Portuguese-Speaking African Countries and to systematize suggestions to enhance their experiences in HE.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Multimedia technologies and online task-based foreign language teaching-learning

Teaching and learning a foreign language at a distance implies many challenges, namely regarding oral skills. At Universidade Aberta (the Portuguese Open University), and taking into account its virtual pedagogical model (Pereira, 2007) and the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (Alves, 2001), we suggest curricular paths which include online communicative practices, both oral and written, within the present pedagogical offer, following a student- centred, task-oriented approach. Thus, in this text, we share some examples of training activities in German, French and English, focusing on oral practice, and based on digital resources. These digital resources comprise multimedia materials, either produced by the teachers or the students, as well as other materials available on the web 2.0. Our teaching and research practice within the field of foreign languages and in e-learning, in particular, leads us to conclude that the multimedia resources used are suitable for the online teaching and learning of foreign languages (see third question of questionnaire), especially for professionally engaged adults, as is the case with Universidade Aberta’s students, providing them with real-life situations that foster the teaching-learning of languages in the virtual environment. We include responses to a questionnaire survey filled out by a group of students.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The place of grammar in the teaching of English in Portugal

La gramática siempre ha estado presente en diferentes métodos y enfoques de enseñanza. Sin embargo, el lugar de la gramática en estos métodos ha cambiado a través de los siglos, desde un lugar central en el enfoque de gramática y traducción a un enfoque más ecléctico e integrado. En Portugal, fue duro derrotar el peso de la tradición y liberar la enseñanza de las lenguas de los enfoques tradicionales y pasados de moda. Nuestro propósito es analizar a fondo los programas de 1995 y 1996, un hito en Portugal, que fueron emitidos por el Ministerio de Educación para orientación de la enseñanza de diferentes materias en Educación Básica y Secundaria y compararlos con los nuevos Objetivos Curriculares ("Metas Curriculares") que vieron la luz entre 2013 y 2015. Otra parte interesada en esta ecuación es el papel de las editoriales de libros de texto. Por lo tanto, pretendemos complementar nuestro trabajo con el análisis de varios libros de texto para la enseñanza del inglés, lo que nos permitirá llegar a una perspectiva general de la ecuación portuguesa de tres términos.Grammar has always been present in different teaching methods and approaches. However, the place of grammar in these methods has shifted throughout the centuries, from a central place in the grammar and translation approach to a more eclectic and integrated approach. In Portugal, it was harsh to overcome the weight of tradition and free the teaching of languages from traditional and old-fashioned approaches. Our purpose is to thoroughly analyse the 1995 and 1996 syllabi, which were issued by the Ministry of Education and oriented the teaching of different subjects in Basic and Secondary Education, and compare them to the new Curricular Targets that saw the light between 2013 and 2015. Another stakeholder in this equation is the role of publishing houses, which put out coursebooks for schools. We intend to complement our work with the micro- and macroanalysis of a sample of English coursebooks, which will enable us to reach an overall perspective of the Portuguese three-term equation

The place of grammar in the teaching of English in Portugal

La gramática siempre ha estado presente en diferentes métodos y enfoques de enseñanza. Sin embargo, el lugar de la gramática en estos métodos ha cambiado a través de los siglos, desde un lugar central en el enfoque de gramática y traducción a un enfoque más ecléctico e integrado. En Portugal, fue duro derrotar el peso de la tradición y liberar la enseñanza de las lenguas de los enfoques tradicionales y pasados de moda. Nuestro propósito es analizar a fondo los programas de 1995 y 1996, un hito en Portugal, que fueron emitidos por el Ministerio de Educación para orientación de la enseñanza de diferentes materias en Educación Básica y Secundaria y compararlos con los nuevos Objetivos Curriculares ("Metas Curriculares") que vieron la luz entre 2013 y 2015. Otra parte interesada en esta ecuación es el papel de las editoriales de libros de texto. Por lo tanto, pretendemos complementar nuestro trabajo con el análisis de varios libros de texto para la enseñanza del inglés, lo que nos permitirá llegar a una perspectiva general de la ecuación portuguesa de tres términos.Grammar has always been present in different teaching methods and approaches. However, the place of grammar in these methods has shifted throughout the centuries, from a central place in the grammar and translation approach to a more eclectic and integrated approach. In Portugal, it was harsh to overcome the weight of tradition and free the teaching of languages from traditional and old-fashioned approaches. Our purpose is to thoroughly analyse the 1995 and 1996 syllabi, which were issued by the Ministry of Education and oriented the teaching of different subjects in Basic and Secondary Education, and compare them to the new Curricular Targets that saw the light between 2013 and 2015. Another stakeholder in this equation is the role of publishing houses, which put out coursebooks for schools. We intend to complement our work with the micro- and macroanalysis of a sample of English coursebooks, which will enable us to reach an overall perspective of the Portuguese three-term equation