Massive Open Online Courses: opportunities and challenges from a student perspective

This book is based on an experiment carried out by the author with the aim of analyze and explore trends and experiences on MOOC development. Despite the intention of the author is to initiate a discussion in which massive open online courses were neither a panacea to the crisis in education nor the terrifying threat condemned by doomsayers, his point of view is generally optimistic. The author experiment started to complete the same number of courses one would take to obtain a four-year liberal arts degree in just twelve months using only MOOCs and other forms of free learning

Early literacy development in Catalan: characteristics and instructional influence

Resumo: Este artigo analisa a relação entre o nível de consciência fonológica, conhecimento das letra e as estratégias utilizadas para ler e escrever, em crianças de cinco anos, ensinadas em catalão. Participaram 69 crianças de três classes diferentes. Cada um dos seus professores utilizava um método diferente de ensino: analítico, sintético ou analítico-sintético. As crianças foram avaliadas no início e no final do ano letivo em: Reconhecimento de letras, segmentação palavra oral, leitura de palavras, leitura de um texto curto e um ditado. Foram realizadas análises de granulação fina em nas respostas das crianças, para identificar estratégias e padrões específicos. A análise qualitativa indica que a capacidade de segmentar uma palavra em sílabas por via oral parece ser suficiente para as crianças começarem a ler de uma forma convencional. Além disso, a consciência fonológica e o conhecimento das letras são usados em formas relativamente diferentes, dependendo do tipo de texto a ser lido. As abordagens de ensino dos professores parecem ter uma influência nos resultados das crianças.Abstract: This article examines the relationship between the level of phonological segmentation, letter knowledge, and the strategies used to read and write, in 5-year-old children taught in Catalan. 69 children from 3 different classes participated. Each of their preschool teachers held a different conception about teaching early literacy: analytical, synthetic, or analytical-synthetic. Children were assessed at the beginning and at the end of text and a dictation. We performed fine-grained analysis on children‟s data to identify specific strategies and patterns. The qualitative analysis indicates that the ability to segment a wordtext and a dictation. We performed fine-grained analysis on children‟s data to identify specific strategies and patterns. The qualitative analysis indicates that the ability to segment a word into syllables orally seems to be sufficient for children to start reading in a conventional way. Furthermore, phonological segmentation and letter knowledge are used in relatively different ways depending on the type of text being read. Teachers‟ instructional approaches seem to have an influence on children‟s results.Résumé: Cet article analyse la relation entre le niveau de conscience phonologique, la connaissance des lettres, et les stratégies utilisées pour lire et écrire, chez des enfants de cinq scolarisés en catalan. 69 enfants de 3 classes différentes ont participé à cette étude. Chacun de leurs enseignants utilisait une méthode d‟enseignement différente: analytique, synthétique, mixte. Les enfants ont été évalués au début et à la fin de l'année scolaire en: reconnaissance de lettres, segmentation orale de mots, lecture de mots, lecture d'un texte court et une dictée. Nous avons effectué une analyse fine des réponses des enfants pour identifier des stratégies et modèles spécifiques. L'analyse qualitative indique que la capacité de segmenter un mot en syllabes oralement semble être suffisante pour que les enfants commencent à lire. La conscience phonologique et la connaissance des lettres sont utilisées de forme relativement différente en fonction du type de texte à lire. Les approches pédagogiques des enseignants semblent avoir une influence sur les résultats des enfants

Revolución en las aulas : llegan los profesores del siglo. La introducción de las TIC en las aulas y el nuevo rol docente

La introducción de las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación en las aulas de educación primaria i secundaria en nuestro país supone un nuevo reto para toda la comunidad educativa y, especialmente, para el profesorado. Sin duda, el uso de herramientas innovadoras en las aulas debe ir acompañada de una reflexión pedagógica y didáctica. En este sentido, cabe subrayar que introducir nuevas herramientas en los centros escolares no es sinónimo de una mejora en los aprendizajes de los alumnos si éstas no van de la mano de nuevas metodologías educativas. Las TIC abren puertas a maneras diferentes de trabajar en el aula, sobre todo enmarcadas en una perspectiva constructivista del aprendizaje, en que el alumnado se convierte en el actor principal de su aprendizaje y el profesorado en guía y soporte imprescindible de los alumnos. El docente debe llegar a ser un guía, un facilitador y un acompañante en todo el proceso de enseñanza y aprendizaje, proporcionando a los alumnos los recursos necesarios para el desarrollo de habilidades comunicativas, de búsqueda y de tratamiento de la información, de pautas para el trabajo colaborativo, etc. En este contexto, el profesorado debe desplegar nuevas habilidades y maneras de plantear las estrategias educativas.The school community, and specially the teachers, are facing new challenges with the introduction of Informacion and Communication Technologies in the elementary and secondary school classrooms. Without doubt, the use of innovative tools in the classroom must be based on pedagogical and educational reasoning. In this sense, it is important to point out that introducing new tools in the classroom is not synonymous of an improvement in the pupils learning if t.hey are not acompained by new educational methodologies. ICT open the doors to a new ways of working within the classroom, especially framed in constructivist learning approach, that understand students as the main actors of they learning and the teachers rol based in guidance and support of the students. The teacher becomes a guide and a workmate throughout the teaching and learning processes, he must help to improve the communication skills, the research and the information processes and the way the students can do collaborative work. In this context, teachers must develope new skills and new approaches related to their educational strategies

E-Learning Research Report 2017. Analysis of the main topics in research indexed articles

The E-learning Research Report 2017 was written by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya's eLearn Center. Its primary goal is to report on the e-learning subject areas that have been most researched in impact publications during 2017. The information should be useful for researchers, research groups and educational institutions interested in e-learning and digital education.L'informe E-learning Research 2017 està elaborat per l'eLearn Center de la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. La finalitat principal de l'informe és donar a conèixer quines són les temàtiques sobre l'e-learning que més s'han investigat en les publicacions d'impacte durant l'any 2017. És una informació que vol ser rellevant per a investigadors/es, grups de recerca i institucions d'educació interessades en l'e-learning i l'educació digital.El informe E-learning Research 2017 está elaborado por el eLearn Center de la UOC. La finalidad principal del informe es dar a conocer las temáticas sobre e-learning que más se han investigado en las publicaciones de impacto durante el año 2017. Es una información que quiere ser relevante para investigadores/es, grupos de investigación e instituciones de educación interesadas en el e-learning y la educación digital

Activity and learning contexts in educational transmedia

The idea of transmedial organisation emerged as the form adopted by much of today's storytelling, combining different media, at different points in time, placing the user in a new situation with a much more active attitude, having to work out how to understand a set of message and having to engage in the understanding of the story (Jenkins, 2006). Transmediality has some educational consequences that set it apart from other approaches, even outside specific learning contexts. Some of the ideas discussed led to the creation of a project entitled The Ancestral Letter, a transmedia story, designed and produced specifically for 15-year-old students. The project was implemented in two secondary schools in Barcelona in order to verify the interest in this concept. The journey we have made, from a few starting principles and theoretical problems to a complex case of transmedia storytelling, clearly highlights the difficulty involved in addressing the question of learning between contexts, and through them, especially if it is carried out in a simple and simplified manner; that is, without having a much more elaborate theory of learning contexts, nor a rigorously designed descriptive language. The Ancestral Letterand other transmedia examples offer us a more understandable and effective way of coordinating between the school-based and informal settings, between the digital setting and everyday life (analogical, not mediated by screens), both in terms of the organisation of content and in respect of time-based narrative. Unfortunately, we still do not have enough knowledge about this or about activity contexts (whether or not learning takes place within them)

Writing a synthesis versus reading: strategies involved and impact on comprehension

Little evidence is available regarding the differential impact of reading versus reading and writing on multiple source comprehension. The present study aims to: (1) compare the inferential comprehension performance of students in reading vs. reading/synthesis conditions; (2) explore the impact of performing the tasks on paper vs. on screen with Read&Answer (R&A) software; and (3) explore the extent to which rereading, notetaking, and the quality of the written synthesis can explain student's comprehension scores. For the students in the synthesis condition, we also examined the relationship between the quality of the synthesis they produced and the comprehension they achieved. 155 psychology undergraduates were randomly assigned either to the reading (n=78) or to the reading/synthesis condition (n=77). From this sample, 79 participants carried out the task with the Read&Answer software, and 76 solved the task on paper. All the students took a prior knowledge questionnaire, and read three complementary texts about the conception of intelligence. Students in the reading condition answered an inferential comprehension test, whereas students in the synthesis condition were asked to write a synthesis before taking the same test. Results show no differences in comprehension between students in the four conditions (task and media). There was no significant association between rereading and task condition. However, students in the synthesis condition were more likely to take notes. We found that two of the categories for the quality of the synthesis, textual organization and accuracy of content had an impact on inferential comprehension for the participants who wrote it. The quality of the synthesis mediated between student's prior knowledge and inferential comprehension

Contribuciones para pergeñar la práctica del psicólogo de la educación en Colombia

This article presents a general review of educational psychology practice in Colombia, where psychologists are traditionally formed under the conception of punctual interventions on specific aspects of the dynamic of education, but which leaves out other elements of this system. In order to overcome this situation the adoption of a constructivist - systemic perspective is proposed which will enhance the change of model in intervention. This change would allow to go beyond clinical and assistant positions, and at the same time to take a closer step to an educative and constructive model offering tools for the reconceptualization of intervention from three perspectives: preventive, corrective and enriching. To allow understanding of this change process, the intervention proposal developed delimits the psychologists routine and enables the comprehension of the educational system as a whole in which s/he is a constitutive part, and in this way it will be possible to abandon the psychologists redeeming vision that is normally held.En este artículo se presenta una revisión general de la práctica de la psicología de la educación en Colombia, donde tradicionalmente se han formado psicólogos que realizan intervenciones puntuales sobre aspectos específicos de la dinámica educativa, pero que dejan por fuera otros elementos del sistema. Para superar esta situación se propone la adopción de una perspectiva constructivista-sistémica que propicie el cambio de modelo en la intervención; este cambio permitiría el alejamiento de posiciones clínico-asistenciales y, a la vez, el acercamiento a un modelo educativo-constructivo que brinde herramientas para reconceptualizar la intervención desde tres modalidades: preventiva, correctiva y enriquecedora. Para ayudar a comprender este proceso de cambio, se desarrolla una propuesta de intervención que delimita el quehacer del psicólogo y posibilita considerar el sistema educativo como un todo en el que éste es parte constitutiva y, de esta manera, abandonar la visión redentora que se tiene de este profesional

¿Está enseñando a sus hijos a escribir? Pues empiece por una buena lectura

En un aula de segundo curso de Educación Primaria (7-8 años), antes del confinamiento, los alumnos estaban esforzándose para escribir una noticia a partir de la lectura de artículos de un periódico digital y otro en papel. Las niñas y los niños, sentados en parejas, discutían acerca de qué título poner y qué contenidos querían plasmar en su propio texto mientras consultaban, de vez en cuando, el ejemplo que el docente les había proporcionado