Lessons for urban politics evolution from two recent participatory processes in Portugal

UIDB/04647/2020 UIDP/04647/2020This article presents a preliminary analysis on the evolutionary framework for new types of in-tersections, dialogues and conflicts between urban administration and civic movements in Por-tugal. The analysis is here based on two case studies developed around urban requalification processes in two central public spaces, in the cities of Lisbon – the Martim Moniz Square – and Aveiro – the Rossio Garden. In these cases, the conflicts and the interconnections between local authorities and social movements have been evolving in very interesting forms. Expressing not only relevant changes occurring on urban civic movements themselves, but also an inevitable although still quite limited and visibly thwarted political culture reconfiguration on urban gov-ernments and its administration.publishersversionpublishe

The importance of being open: how european open universities can reposition in pos-pandemic higher education landscape

Conferência realizada em Lisboa, de 21-23 de outubro de 2020.Open universities (OUs) have been at the forefront of educational technology. Designed as innovative and flexible organizations, they have proven instrumental to assure the consolidation of research, innovation and quality practice in distance and online education. Inspired by the impact of open education and MOOCs, traditional higher education institutions began embracing technology-enhanced learning and online education. The growing competition from these universities, as well as of new non-formal providers, have resulted for the OUs in the decrease in student numbers, especially in Europe and North America. With the closing down of campuses due to Covid 19, this growing movement was noticeably accelerated. As higher education prepares for the new normal, how may the European OU remain socially relevant and competitive? Are they still indispensable for assuring quality education opportunities for all, as a growing number of critics question? In this paper we analyse the impact of the pandemic on European OU, discuss possible strategies to meet the challenges of a rapidly transforming higher education landscape, and identify potential trends and models for future development.Financed national funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., under the projects UIDB/04372/2020 e UIDP/04372/2020.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A proposal for the methodological design of collaborative language MOOC

The introduction of massive open online education has offered a new range of exciting possibilities for the development of language learning. By opening up access to language education for all who are digitally connected, it contributes to increase the speed and outreach of the dissemination of one of the key transversal competences. Additionally, it allows also for the acceleration of the language learning processes through the use of very large communities of practice. However, most of the MOOCs in offer today are not designed in such a way as to empower learners and favour collaborative learning experiences. In this chapter we explore how the massive open education movement has been evolving and discuss what the design elements favouring massive collaborative language learning experiences should be. We present a methodological proposal for collaborative language MOOCs based on the iMOOC model, developed by a team of the Open University of Portugal (Universidade Aberta – UAb.pt)iMOOC Project integrated and supported by in Laboratory of Distance Education and eLearning (https://lead.uab.pt/imooc/). Financed national funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., under the projects UIDB/04372/2020info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Innovation and openness through MOOCs: Universidade Aberta's pedagogical model for non formal online courses

In face of the recent but fast growing worldwide interest on Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC), many universities, both open and traditional, have being discussing strategies to implement this new format of educational delivery. The huge successes of the experiences from the top universities in the United States have been an inspiration, especially to European higher education institutions. Universidade Aberta, the open university of Portugal, has been the first educational institution to develop an institutional pedagogic model for open online courses, thus issuing an institutional standard practice model for MOOCs. This paper details the institutional rationale behind this initiative, describes the pedagogical approach used and discusses the main features of the model. Finally, the authors reflect on the possible characteristics of a European-style response to the challenge of massive open online higher education.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

¿Pueden los MOOC cerrar la brecha de oportunidades?: La contribución del diseño pedagógico social inclusivo

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are open courses made available online at no cost to the user and designed to scale up, allowing for a large number of participants. As such, they are a disruptive new development which has the potential to widen access to higher education since they contribute to social inclusion, the dissemination of knowledge and pedagogical innovation. However, assuring quality learning opportunities to all cannot be simply reduced to allowing free access to higher education. On the contrary, it implies assuring equitable opportunities for every participant to succeed in their learning experience. This goal depends on the quality of the learning design. To be successful, a massive open online learning experience has to empower learners and to facilitate a networked learning environment. In fact, MOOCs are designed to serve a high heterogeneity of profiles, with many differences regarding learning needs and preferences, prior knowledge, contexts of participation and diversity of online platforms. Personalization can play a key role in this process. In this article, the authors describe the iMOOC pedagogical model and its later derivative, the sMOOC model, and explain how they contributed to the introduction of the principles of diversity and learner equity to MOOC design, allowing for a clear differentiation of learning paths and also of virtual environments, while empowering participants to succeed in their learning experiences. Using a design-based research approach, a comparative analysis of two course iterations each representing each model is also presented and discussed.Los cursos en línea abiertos y masivos (MOOC) son cursos abiertos disponibles en línea sin costo para el usuario y diseñados para ampliarse, permitiendo un gran número de participantes. Como tales, son un nuevo desarrollo disruptivo que tiene el potencial de ampliar el acceso a la educación superior, ya que contribuyen a la inclusión social, la difusión del conocimiento y la innovación pedagógica. Sin embargo, garantizar oportunidades de aprendizaje de calidad para todos no puede reducirse simplemente a permitir el acceso gratuito a la educación superior. Por el contrario, implica asegurar oportunidades equitativas para que cada participante tenga éxito en su experiencia de aprendizaje. Este objetivo depende de la calidad del diseño de aprendizaje. Para tener éxito, una experiencia de aprendizaje en línea abierta y masiva debe empoderar a los alumnos y facilitar un entorno de aprendizaje en red. De hecho, los MOOC están diseñados para servir a una gran heterogeneidad de perfiles, con muchas diferencias con respecto a las necesidades y preferencias de aprendizaje, conocimiento previo, contextos de participación y diversidad de plataformas en línea. La personalización puede jugar un papel clave en este proceso. En este artículo, los autores describen el modelo pedagógico iMOOC y su derivada posterior, el modelo sMOOC, y explican cómo contribuyeron a la introducción de los principios de diversidad y equidad en el diseño MOOC, lo que permite una clara diferenciación de las rutas de aprendizaje y también de entornos virtuales, al tiempo que permite a los participantes tener éxito en sus experiencias de aprendizaje. Usando un enfoque de design-based research, también se presenta y discute un análisis comparativo de dos iteraciones del curso, cada una representando cada modelo

Column-based databases: estudo exploratório no âmbito das bases de dados NoSQL

O aumento da quantidade de dados gerados que se tem verificado nos últimos anos e a que se tem vindo a dar o nome de Big Data levou a que a tecnologia relacional começasse a demonstrar algumas fragilidades no seu armazenamento e manuseamento o que levou ao aparecimento das bases de dados NoSQL. Estas estão divididas por quatro tipos distintos nomeadamente chave/valor, documentos, grafos e famílias de colunas. Este artigo é focado nas bases de dados do tipo column-based e nele serão analisados os dois sistemas deste tipo considerados mais relevantes: Cassandra e HBase

Design of laminated structures using piezoelectric materials

Composite structures incorporating piezoelectric sensors and actuators are increasingly becoming important due to the offer of potential benefits in a wide range of engineering applications such as vibration and noise supression, shape control and precisition positioning. This paper presents a finit element formulation based on classical laminated plate theory for laminated structures with integrated piezoelectric layers or patches, acting as actuators. The finite element model is a single layer triangular nonconforming plate/shell element with 18 degrees of freedom for the generalized displacements, and one electrical potential degree of freedom for each piezsoelectric elementlayer or patch, witch are surface bonded on the laminate. An optimization of the patches position is performed to maximize the piezoelectric actuators efficiency as well as, the electric potential distribuition is search to reach the specified structure transverse displacement distribuition (shape control). A gradient based algorithm is used for this purpose. The model is applied in the optimization of illustrative laminated plate cases, and the results are presented and discussed

Shape control of laminated panels using piezoelectric actuators

This paper presents a finite element formulation based on the classical laminated plate theory for laminated structures with integrated piezoelectric layers or patches, acting as actuators.The finite element model is a single layer trinaguular nonconforming plate/shell element with 18 degrees of fredom for the generalized displacements, and one electrical potential degree of freedom for each piezoelectric element elemenet layer or patch. An optimization of the patches position is perfomed to maximize the piezoelectric actuators efficiency as well as,the electric potential distribution is serach to reach the specified strusctura transverse displacement distribution is search to reach the specified structures trsnsverse displacement distribution (shape control). A gradient based algorithm is used for this purpose.Results are presented and discussed