Towards e-cities. An Atlas to enhance the public realm through interactive urban cyber-physical devices

Cyber-physical devices are the backbone of a postdigital society in which the virtual and real spaces are seamlessly integrated by ubiquitous computing and networking. The incorporation of such devices in public space is a central subject of a strategic Research Project that gathers a multidisciplinary team from architecture, product design, polymer science and ICT R&D units. This paper frames the key roles of public space and ICTs for UN Sustainable Development Goals and sustainable smart cities. It also reports the architecture R&D unit review on the relations between public space, community, environment and digital interfaces. This review was materialized in an Atlas that collects, classifies and relates a corpus of heterogeneous urban cyber-physical projects case studies. We expand on three main framing concepts (Digital Twin, Interface, Awareness) and identify trends on the devices’ design and deployment strategies to counteract digitally hostile environments and early obsolescence. We also suggest the rising of new types of urban devices aiming at expanding the liveliness of urban places, the knowledge of urban life and the users’ environmental consciousness. The lessons learned from the Atlas fed the design guidelines for a developing demonstrator of a new breed of environmentally sensible interactive urban devices

Strategic Guidelines for the Development of the Public Authorities Communication Policy in the Information Society

The purpose of this article is to critically analyze the Strategy for the Development of the Information Society in the Russian Federation for 2017–2030. The theoretical basic of the analysis are the theory of information society and communicative theory of power. Having a rich explanatory potential and based on the large-scale empirical research, these theories comprehensively characterize the main elements of the existing socio-economic system in their relationship with political action. Thus they contribute to the development of practical recommendations for public authorities. Methodologically, this study is based on the structural and contextual analysis of the text, carried out with the help of MAXQDA (n=225) and allows to reveal the importance of key parameters of communication policy in the information society and their relations with each other. The results of the study show that the Strategy reflects all the key parameters of communication policy in the information society, like: the digitalization of individual, organizational and spatial development; the formation of legal and institutional foundations of the knowledge society at the international level; the introduction of artificial intelligence and big data based decision making in science, industry, business, and in governance; the transformations in administration and management and the formation of new competences in the information society’s stakeholders. However, the Strategy makes a very strong emphasis on security issues. This refers to the extensive elements of the development of communication policy of public authorities. Contemporary studies research shows, that the restrictive development is a critical element that prevents the formation of an effective communication policy of public authorities in the information society. The article substantiates the conclusion that it is expedient to change the connotation of the security concept, and to understand it in terms of sustainable development. Sustainable development should serve as a strategic reference point for the state communication policy in order to develop the information society in contemporary Russia

Towards e-Cities: an Atlas to enhance the public realm through interactive urban cyber-physical devices

Cyber-physical devices are the backbone of a postdigital society in which the virtual and real spaces are seamlessly integrated by ubiquitous computing and networking. The incorporation of such devices in public space is a central subject of a strategic Research Project that gathers a multidisciplinary team from architecture, product design, polymer science and ICT R&D units. This paper frames the key roles of public space and ICTs for UN Sustainable Development Goals and sustainable smart cities. It also reports the architecture R&D unit review on the relations between public space, community, environment and digital interfaces. This review was materialized in an Atlas that collects, classifies and relates a corpus of heterogeneous urban cyber-physical projects case studies. We expand on three main framing concepts (Digital Twin, Interface, Awareness) and identify trends on the devices’ design and deployment strategies to counteract digitally hostile environments and early obsolescence. We also suggest the rising of new types of urban devices aiming at expanding the liveliness of urban places, the knowledge of urban life and the users’ environmental consciousness. The lessons learned from the Atlas fed the design guidelines for a developing demonstrator of a new breed of environmentally sensible interactive urban devices.Work co-funded by European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) thru Norte 2020: Project “Lab4U&Spaces - Living Lab of Interactive Urban Space Solution” (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000072); and Project Lab2PT - Landscapes, Heritage and Territory laboratory - UIDB/04509/2020 thru FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia

Digital technologies and education for sustainable development. An analysis of scientific production

En los últimos años, las Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación (TIC) han tenido repercusión en los diferentes ámbitos educativos, entre ellos en la Educación para el Desarrollo Sostenible(EDS). Este estudio consiste en una revisión de las evidencias científicas sobre el uso que se hace de las Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación (TIC) en Educación para el Desarrollo Sostenible(EDS). Como instrumentos de recogida de información, se ha tomado el repositorio bibliográfico ISI Web of Knowledge y la base de datos SCOPUS. El procedimiento del estudio es descriptivo y cuenta las referencias de artículos, libros y capítulos de libros en un periodo analizado. Los resultados cuantitativos muestran las principales áreas temáticas involucradas en el periodo analizado. La revisión cualitativa describe la producción científica sobre nuevas tecnologías digitales y EDS. El análisis de la producción científica muestra la eficacia del uso de las tecnologías digitales en Educación para el Desarrollo Sostenible, e incide en el potencial motivacional y creativo de las tecnologías digitales para tratar la EDS. Las tecnologías digitales también ofrecen la posibilidad de crear nuevos entornos de aprendizaje conectando la educación formal en el aula con la educación informal.In recent years, Information and Communication Technologies(ICT) have been integrated in different educational fields, including Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). This study aims to review the scientific evidence on the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). As instruments for collecting information, it have been taken the bibliographic repository ISI Web of Knowledge and the database SCOPUS. The study procedure is descriptive and counts the references of articles, books and book chapters. The results of a quantitative nature show the main thematic areas involved. The qualitative review describes the scientific production of new digital technologies and EDS in the period analyzed. The analysis of scientific production shows the effectiveness of the use of digital technologies in Education for Sustainable Development, and focuses on the creative and motivational potential of digital technologies in ESD. Digital technologies also offer the possibility of creating new learning environments by connecting formal education in the classroom with informal education

Competencias digitales docentes en el nuevo milenio: retos por superar

Debido al avance de la tecnología, es más fácil tener acceso a la información actualizada, además de mejorarse las vías de comunicación; traducido esto en el surgimiento de las denominadas Tecnologías de Información y Comunicación (TIC). El ámbito educativo se ha visto enormemente influenciado por el desarrollo de las TIC, lo cual ha derivado en que los docentes deben apropiarse del uso de las mismas, a fin de adecuar el desarrollo de contenidos, actividades e investigación en el aula, en donde se termina modificando el modelo educativo tradicional, hacia un modelo más dinámico, colaborativo y altamente dependiente del dominio tecnológico, tanto por parte del docente como de los alumnos. El presente trabajo es una revisión sistemática sobre las Competencias Digitales Docentes necesarias para la educación del nuevo milenio y los retos que aún persisten. Para ello, se consultó más de 40 publicaciones sobre la materia, seleccionadas por su pertinencia; culminando con una propuesta de decálogo sobre las principales competencias digitales que el docente del nuevo milenio debe adquirir

How offline backgrounds interact with digital capital

This article investigates the interaction between digital capital and some offline components (economic, cultural, political, social and personal) that represent the background against which we access and use the Internet. Based on a stratified sample of the UK population (868), six indexes (one for each component) were generated through factor analysis and univariate analysis. We summarised them into a unique model by performing a multiple linear regression to evaluate the role-played by offline components in the development/reinforcement of digital capital. The interaction between these new indexes and the digital capital index shows that, with the exception of the political component, all offline backgrounds positively contribute to digital capital. Moreover, the multiple regression analysis shows that the economic and social components have the strongest influence on digital capital

The Effect of Green Software: A Study of Impact Factors on the Correctness of Software

Unfortunately, sustainability is an issue very poorly used when developing software and hardware systems. Lately, and in order to contribute to the earth sustainability, a new concept emerged named Green software which is computer software that can be developed and used efficiently and effectively with minimal or no impact to the environment. Currently, new teaching methods based on students’ learning process are being developed in the European Higher Education Area. Most of them are oriented to promote students’ interest in the course’s contents and offer personalized feedback. Online judging is a promising method for encouraging students’ participation in the e-learning process, although it still has to be researched and developed to be widely used and in a more efficient way. The great amount of data available in an online judging tool provides the possibility of exploring some of the most indicative attributes (e.g., running time, memory) for learning programming concepts, techniques and languages. So far, the most applied methods for automatically gathering information from the judging systems are based on statistical methods and, although providing reasonable correlations, these methods have not been proven to provide enough information for predicting grades when dealing with a huge amount of data. Therefore, the great novelty of this paper is to develop a data mining approach to predict program correctness as well as the grades of the students’ practices. For this purpose, powerful data mining technologies taken from the artificial intelligence domain have been used. In particular, in this study, we have used logistic regression, decision trees, artificial neural network and support vector machines; which have been properly identified as the most suitable ones for predicting activities in the e-learning domains. The results have achieved an accuracy of around 74%, both in the prediction of the program correctness as well as in the practice grades’ prediction. Another relevant issue provided in this paper is a comparison among these four techniques to obtain the best accuracy in predicting grades based on the availability of data as well as their taxonomy. The Decision Trees classifier has obtained the best confusion matrix, and time and memory efficiency were identified as the most important predictor variables. In view of these results, we can conclude that the development of green software leads programmers to implement correct software.This work has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO/FEDER) under the granted project SEQUOIA-UA (TIN2015-63502-C3-3-R), project GINSENG-UMU (TIN2015-70259-C2-2-R) supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness and European FEDER funds. This work has also been partially funded by University of Alicante, under project GRE14-10 and by the Generalitat Valenciana, Spain, under project GV/2016/087

Addressing territorial digital divides through ICT strategies: Are investment decisions consistent with local needs?

Governments around the world are investing a great amount of resources in the development of an information society. These investments are particularly important as an attempt to close digital divides among countries and regions within countries. However, there is no clear evidence that suggests that current Information and Communication Technology (ICT) policies are helping align investments with the actual needs of the local contexts. Based on data about the allocation of 2014-2020 EU Funds, this paper analyzes the relationship between local needs and investment decisions aiming at bridging territorial digital divides. The results identify four different regional strategies developed around four policy goals: broadband, digital inclusion, digital government services, and the use of ICTs in enterprises. The results also show that unlike the past 2007-13 period, the allocations to these goals appear to be consistent with the ICT local context, i.e. funding for a given goal is higher in the regions that need it the most. Therefore, our main recommendation for the European Commission and Member States is to keep existing requirements for developing evidence-informed “Digital Growth” strategies for the next 2021-27 period. We also suggest to strengthen existing support tools for regional governments

Addressing territorial digital divides through ICT strategies: Are investment decisions consistent with local needs?

Governments around the world are investing a great amount of resources in the development of an information society. These investments are particularly important as an attempt to close digital divides among countries and regions within countries. However, there is no clear evidence that suggests that current Information and Communication Technology (ICT) policies are helping align investments with the actual needs of the local contexts. Based on data about the allocation of 2014-2020 EU Funds, this paper analyzes the relationship between local needs and investment decisions aiming at bridging territorial digital divides. The results identify four different regional strategies developed around four policy goals: broadband, digital inclusion, digital government services, and the use of ICTs in enterprises. The results also show that unlike the past 2007-13 period, the allocations to these goals appear to be consistent with the ICT local context, i.e. funding for a given goal is higher in the regions that need it the most. Therefore, our main recommendation for the European Commission and Member States is to keep existing requirements for developing evidence-informed “Digital Growth” strategies for the next 2021-27 period. We also suggest to strengthen existing support tools for regional governments