Evolución de las actitudes de alumnos ante el aprendizaje del inglés mediante el uso de la pizarra digital interactiva

We begin to be aware of the huge change our education has experimented recently as a consequence of the use of some technological resources so common nowadays. This situation has created new teaching-learning processes and roles, causing new pupils’ attitudes toward those subjects that are taught. The present work focuses on the attitudinal changes that several pupils from a school of Badajoz experiment when the Interactive Digital Whiteboard is taken into the English classroom and used as part of an experimental process, developed in three sessions, with different activities such as vocabulary games or recipes. An attitude scale based on the Osgood’s Semantic Differential has been developed in order to adapt it to our sample (8 years old). The results we get from the pretest-postest show an improvement of those pupils’ attitudes toward English, so we can somehow relate the use of this technological tool and a higher interest for the subject studied.Desde hace unos años la educación está experimentando grandes cambios, en gran parte debido a la incorporación de recursos o herramientas tecnológicas presentes en nuestro mundo actual. Esto, sin duda, ha generado cambios en los procesos de enseñanzaaprendizaje, promoviendo, como consecuencia, nuevas actitudes de los alumnos ante las materias. Este trabajo aborda los cambios actitudinales de un grupo de alumnos de un centro educativo de la provincia de Badajoz al introducir la Pizarra Digital Interactiva en el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje de la lengua inglesa durante un periodo de tres sesiones, en las que se han desarrollado diferentes actividades. Para la evaluación de estos cambios se ha utilizado una escala de actitudes según el modelo de Diferencial Semántico de Osgood, Succi y Tannenbaum (1957), adaptada a la edad de los alumnos de la muestra, ocho años. Los datos obtenidos, mediante un contraste pretest-postest, muestran una mejoría de las actitudes de dichos alumnos hacia dicha materia, por lo que podemos vincular el uso de este recurso tecnológico con un mayor interés por ella

FILOU oscillation code

The present paper provides a description of the oscillation code FILOU, its main features, type of applications it can be used for, and some representative solutions. The code is actively involved in CoRoT/ESTA exercises (this volume) for the preparation for the proper interpretation of space data from the CoRoT mission. Although CoRoT/ESTA exercises have been limited to the oscillations computations for non-rotating models, the main characteristic of FILOU is, however, the computation of radial and non-radial oscillation frequencies in presence of rotation. In particular, FILOU calculates (in a perturbative approach) adiabatic oscillation frequencies corrected for the effects of rotation (up to the second order in the rotation rate) including near degeneracy effects. Furthermore, FILOU works with either a uniform rotation or a radial differential rotation profile (shellular rotation), feature which makes the code singular in the field.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures. Astrophysics and Space Science (in press

Str\"omgren photometry and spectroscopy of the Delta Scuti stars 7 Aql and 8 Aql

Photometric $(ubvy-\beta$) and spectroscopic observations of the $\delta$ Scuti variables \astrobj{7 Aql} and \astrobj{8 Aql} are described. The Str\"omgren standard indices and physical parameters of both stars are derived. Spectral types of F0V and F2III have been assigned to \astrobj{7 Aql} and \astrobj{8 Aql} respectively considering the results from both spectroscopy and photometry. Differential $uvby$ light curves were also analyzed. A attempt of multicolour mode identification is carried out.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, 4 tables, accepted for publication in New Astronom

Parents’ Beliefs about and Associations to their Elementary Children’s Home Technology Usage

This study sought to gather information through a survey of how newcomer parents’ beliefs about technology usage and how they engage with technology as they support their children with twenty-first century literacies. Parent respondents (N = 70) were drawn from two publicly funded schools in the Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada, where the population tends to be immigrant, visible minority, with post-secondary education, but unemployed and low income. Descriptive statistics quantified daily technology activities as being communication-oriented with the majority of parents holding distinct beliefs about the amount and type of their children’s technology usage. Chi-square tests indicated significant associations for demographic characteristics such as the gender, age, education, first language, and ethnicity of the parents as determinants of their beliefs about their children’s technology usage (e.g., social media, mobile phones, television). As well, levels of access and use varied in terms of the number of new technologies and the types of literacy practices that families engage in. Immigrant parents might hold misconceptions about twenty-first century literacies, therefore there should be an attempt to assist them to provide responsive twenty-first century literacy and technology support for their children

Hispanic Latin America, Spain and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean: A rich source of reference material for public health, epidemiology and tropical medicine

There is a multiplicity of journals originating in Spain and the Spanish-speaking countries of Latin America and the Caribbean (SSLAC) in the health sciences of relevance to the fields of epidemiology and public health. While the subject matter of epidemiology in Spain shares many features with its neighbours in Western Europe, many aspects of epidemiology in Latin America are particular to that region. There are also distinctive theoretical and philosophical approaches to the study of epidemiology and public health arising from traditions such as the Latin American social medicine movement, of which there may be limited awareness. A number of online bibliographic databases are available which focus primarily on health sciences literature arising in Spain and Latin America, the most prominent being Literatura Latinoamericana en Ciencias de la Salud (LILACS) and LATINDEX. Some such as LILACS also extensively index grey literature. As well as in Spanish, interfaces are provided in English and Portuguese. Abstracts of articles may also be provided in English with an increasing number of journals beginning to publish entire articles written in English. Free full text articles are becoming accessible, one of the most comprehensive sources being the Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO). There is thus an extensive range of literature originating in Spain and SSLAC freely identifiable and often accessible online, and with the potential to provide useful inputs to the study of epidemiology and public health provided that any reluctance to explore these resources can be overcome. In this article we provide an introduction to such resources

Interim 2017/18 influenza seasonal vaccine effectiveness: Combined results from five European studies

Between September 2017 and February 2018, influenza A(H1N1)pdm09, A(H3N2) and B viruses (mainly B/Yamagata, not included in 2017/18 trivalent vaccines) co-circulated in Europe. Interim results from five European studies indicate that, in all age groups, 2017/18 influenza vaccine effectiveness was 25 to 52% against any influenza, 55 to 68% against influenza A(H1N1)pdm09, -42 to 7% against influenza A(H3N2) and 36 to 54% against influenza B. 2017/18 influenza vaccine should be promoted where influenza still circulates