A Computer Based Support to Guided Note Taking: A preliminary Study on University Students with Dyslexia

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Didattica e inclusione scolastica - Inklusion im Bildungsbereich

The inequalities in education, which have also been exposed by the pandemic, highlight the need for alternatives and new horizons. The seventh edition of the conference series "Didattica e Inclusione Scolastica – Inclusion in Education", which was organized for the first time under the direction of the Competence Center for Inclusion in Education of the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, offered a space to deal with the priorities of a just and inclusive education during this time. This volume opens up a dialogue on inclusive didactics, which builds a bridge between german- and Italian-speaking traditions through its multilingual and intercultural orientation. The twelve contributions open up from different perspectives theoretical references, methods and instruments for the development of an inclusive school with a special focus on didactics.Die Ungleichheiten im Bildungsbereich, die auch durch die Pandemie zutage getreten sind, verdeutlichen die Notwendigkeit von Alternativen und neuen Horizonten. Die siebte Ausgabe der Tagungsreihe „Didattica e Inclusione Scolastica – Inklusion im Bildungsbereich“, welche erstmals unter der Leitung des Kompetenzzentrums für Inklusion im Bildungsbereich der Freien Universität Bozen veranstaltet wurde, bot einen Raum zur Auseinandersetzung mit den Prioritäten einer gerechten und inklusiven Bildung in dieser Zeit. Dieser Band eröffnet einen Dialog über inklusive Didaktik, der durch seine mehrsprachige und interkulturelle Ausrichtung eine Brücke zwischen deutsch- und italienischsprachigen Traditionen schlägt. Die zwölf Beiträge erschließen aus unterschiedlichen Blickwinkeln theoretische Bezüge, Methoden und Instrumente für die Entwicklung einer inklusiven Schule mit besonderem Augenmerk auf die Didaktik.Le disuguaglianze in ambito educativo, emerse anche a causa della pandemia, indicano la necessità di alternative e nuovi orizzonti. La settima edizione del Convegno “Didattica e Inclusione Scolastica – Inklusion im Bildungsbereich”, organizzato per la prima volta dal Centro di Competenza per l’Inclusione Scolastica della Libera Università di Bolzano, ha voluto creare uno spazio per mettere a fuoco le priorità per un’educazione equa ed inclusiva in questo tempo. Con questo volume si dà avvio ad un dialogo sulla didattica inclusiva che si fa plurilingue ed interculturale, creando un ponte fra le tradizioni di lingua italiana e tedesca. I dodici contributi presenti delineano, da prospettive diverse, riferimenti teorici, metodologie e strumenti per lo sviluppo della scuola inclusiva, con un’attenzione particolare alla dimensione didattica

CATMoS: Collaborative Acute Toxicity Modeling Suite.

BACKGROUND: Humans are exposed to tens of thousands of chemical substances that need to be assessed for their potential toxicity. Acute systemic toxicity testing serves as the basis for regulatory hazard classification, labeling, and risk management. However, it is cost- and time-prohibitive to evaluate all new and existing chemicals using traditional rodent acute toxicity tests. In silico models built using existing data facilitate rapid acute toxicity predictions without using animals. OBJECTIVES: The U.S. Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM) Acute Toxicity Workgroup organized an international collaboration to develop in silico models for predicting acute oral toxicity based on five different end points: Lethal Dose 50 (LD50 value, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency hazard (four) categories, Globally Harmonized System for Classification and Labeling hazard (five) categories, very toxic chemicals [LD50 (LD50≤50mg/kg)], and nontoxic chemicals (LD50>2,000mg/kg). METHODS: An acute oral toxicity data inventory for 11,992 chemicals was compiled, split into training and evaluation sets, and made available to 35 participating international research groups that submitted a total of 139 predictive models. Predictions that fell within the applicability domains of the submitted models were evaluated using external validation sets. These were then combined into consensus models to leverage strengths of individual approaches. RESULTS: The resulting consensus predictions, which leverage the collective strengths of each individual model, form the Collaborative Acute Toxicity Modeling Suite (CATMoS). CATMoS demonstrated high performance in terms of accuracy and robustness when compared with in vivo results. DISCUSSION: CATMoS is being evaluated by regulatory agencies for its utility and applicability as a potential replacement for in vivo rat acute oral toxicity studies. CATMoS predictions for more than 800,000 chemicals have been made available via the National Toxicology Program's Integrated Chemical Environment tools and data sets (ice.ntp.niehs.nih.gov). The models are also implemented in a free, standalone, open-source tool, OPERA, which allows predictions of new and untested chemicals to be made. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP8495

Futuri insegnanti con disabilità/DSA : un’analisi di esperienze e aspettative

In queste pagine sono presentati i risultati della ricerca sulle esperienze di studentesse/i con disabilità o con disturbi specifici dell’apprendimento (DSA) che frequentano percorsi universitari per diventare insegnanti. Questa ricerca è parte del più ampio studio “BECOM-IN”, che si propone di indagare anche le esperienze di insegnanti con disabilità/DSA già in servizio a scuola

Testing of Virtual Toolkit with Stakeholders

The collected data reported in this document gives mainly positive feedback on Virtual Toolkit (IO2), highlighting some interesting and relevant elements that can be further developed in its final release. The group of respondents have a quite long average experience in managing inter-institutional projects and belong to the EU-defined main participants groups of Managers (22), Teachers/Trainers/Researchers/Youth workers (17), Technicians (3) and Administrative staff (5). Of the 8 indicators outlined in the original ONE Meeting Project proposal, 5 were met, 3 not. The 4 reached indicators were Usefulness & Relevance, Impact on Virtual Transnational Collaboration, Willingness to recommend to a colleague or professional contact and Willingness to use the IO2 Virtual Toolkit by decision makers. Willingness to use Virtual Toolkit by decision makers was positive result, with room for improvement. In addition, the following 3 indicators which reached improvable result need a closer analysis. Impact on Managerial and Digital Competences (the target was 90%, we reached 82%). All respondents who gave less positive answers were highly experienced and they left a detailed response including tool suggestions to the open question. Impact on Transnational Project Design and Implementation (the target was 90%/we reached 64%). Less positive evaluations tended to come from respondents with higher degrees of experience. This may indicate that experienced project managers while already using a wide variety of digital tools in their daily work had higher expectations for the Virtual Toolkit. Willingness to use IO2 Virtual Toolkit by project managers (the target was 70%/we reached 51%) reached improvable results. According to the Net Promoter Score (NPS) tool (Reichheld, 2003), 55 % is generally seen as a good result in terms of product reception. The answers to the final open question provided valuable information. Half of the 48 respondents gave useful feedback which was analysed based on the themes that emerged from the data. These eight themes were identified: Appreciation for the Virtual Toolkit, Accessibility and Usability, Open source/fee based, Sustainability, Layout and Graphical design, Tips for improvement, Relevance (for target group) and Dissemination. Some themes recurred through different answers, some of them were unique to a specific response. There was also one new theme, GDPR issues, that was not asked in the survey but that was mentioned by several respondents. Since this theme was relevant for the ONE Meeting Project, it was added into the analysis of the data. When proceeding with the analysis, we grouped the themes found in the three areas of impact envisioned for the ONE Meeting Project: Methods and tools, Collaborative Project Management, Environmental Awareness & Sustainability. Some of the suggestions coming from the reviewers were highlighted and attributed to a priority level which was based on the issue how relevant they were for the “ONE Meeting Approach”. High priority was given to GDPR issues (adding a GDPR logo into each tool and a link to web pages were GDPR information is available) and Dissemination (Adding Virtual Toolkit in the European Lifelong Learning Platform) and Tips for Improvement (Create links from the table of content into each tool). Medium priority was given to Tips for improvement (Create anchors/links from the overview to the tools in page 5 in the Virtual Toolkit) and Sustainability (Ensure the sustainability of Virtual Toolkit after ONE Meeting project has ended).nonPeerReviewe

Il valore dell'eBook

ItQuanto vale un e-book? Quale valore percepisce chi compra e usa gli e-book? Comprare un libro o un e-book è una scelta che i lettori oggi si trovano a fare quotidianamente: la diffusione degli e-book reader a prezzi accessibili e la proposta sempre più varia dei piccoli e grandi editori sta cambiando la percezione del valore commerciale dell'oggetto libro e del valore attribuito dal consumatore finale al lavoro di intermediazione delle case editrici e della distribuzione. Sorgono sistemi "alternativi" di condivisione dei testi digitali, che sfruttano la rete Internet, celebrati come democratici o demonizzati come pirateria illegale, ma sicuramente rispondenti a quello che è il cambio di prospettiva, di percezione, di abitudini di consumo del lettore. Quanto si può parlare, dunque, di pirateria nel mercato degli e-book? E quanto, invece, è importante che l'industria editoriale tenga in considerazione la risposta del consumatore? La presente ricerca si è posta l’obiettivo di svolgere una indagine esplorativa su questi temi, che stanno assumendo un rilievo sempre maggiore all’interno dell’opinione pubblica, e che sono destinati in futuro ad incidere in modo sempre più diretto sull’evoluzione economica e professionale dell’intero settore editoriale. L’indagine ha visto, in questa prima fase, l’utilizzo di un questionario diffuso online sui social network, in siti e forum dedicati alla lettura, attraverso mailing list di gruppi di interesse, con il primo obiettivo di precisare il profilo di quell’avanguardia di lettori forti e che si muovono agilmente tra il cartaceo e il digitale, raccogliere informazioni rispetto alle loro abitudini di ricerca di nuove letture e descriverne le dinamiche di matchmaking preliminari all’acquisto. In aggiunta, si è indagata la consistenza di pratiche di prestito e condivisione dei libri, l’appoggio a sistemi tradizionali, come quello bibliotecario, o la decisa svolta verso sistemi di scambio di testi in modo informale online. A fronte di questo panorama complesso, che riguarda certamente una frangia di lettori molto particolare, ma esemplare in un’ipotetica linea di diffusione dell’e-book come veicolo del testo scritto, si è indagata la correlazione tra la percezione dell’illegalità della condivisione in rete di un testo, di particolare interesse personale o professionale per il lettore, e il suo prezzo, così come proposto dalle case editrici.EnWhat value perceives those who buy and use e-books? The diffusion of e-book readers at affordable prices is changing the perception of the commercial value of ebook object and the value attributed by the consumer to the work of publishing and distribution. Alternative system of distribution arise, therefore does still make sense speaking of piracy in the market for e-books? This study has the objective to carry out a fact-finding on these issues, which are becoming increasingly important. The survey has seen, at this early stage, the use of a questionnaire disseminated on online social networks, websites and forums dedicated to reading through the mailing list of interest groups, with the primary objective to define the profile of that vanguard of strong readers, to collect information with respect to their search habits of new readings and describe the dynamics of matchmaking prior to the acquisition

Dieta mediale degli studenti universitari: primi risultati di una ricerca quantitativa diacronica

ItIn questo articolo illustreremo i risultati della nostra ricerca empirica, svolta dal gruppo di lavoro dell’Osservatorio sui Nuovi Media NuMediaBiOs (www.numediabios.eu) sulla dieta mediale dei giovani universitari italiani. Presenteremo alcuni dati in prospettiva diacronica, essendo ormai giunti alla terza edizione di questa ricerca. La prima rilevazione è stata compiuta nel 2008, la seconda nel 2009 e la terza nel 2011.Vi sono evidenze, pur nella provvisorietà dei dati del 2011, che l'utilizzo della rete stia diventando sempre più pervasivo, creando così i presupposti perché da una tecnologie di vita essa diventi anche una tecnologia di apprendimento.EnIn this article we outline some results of our empirical research, conducted by the New Media observatory NuMediaBiOs (www.numediabios.eu) on young Italian universitystudents media diet. We present some data from a diachronic perspective, having now reached the third edition of this research. The first survey was completed in 2008, the second in 2009 and third in 2011.There is evidence, despite the provisional data of 2011, that the use of the network is becoming more pervasive, thus creating the conditions for the web to become a learning technology, as it is more and more a "life technology"

Design for inclusion in a linguistically and culturally diverse Europe : challenges in the development of a virtual learning environment

The inclusive potential of digital technologies in educational contexts is well represented by multimodal communication: the use of different channels and strategies can lower barriers to participation and improve the overall quality of educational intervention. This paper discusses the issues and challenges encountered while developing a pilot multimodal learning platform in the context of the Horizon 2020 research project called ISOTIS (Inclusive Education and Social Support to Takle Inequalities in Society). The overall aim of the ISOTIS project (www.isotis.org) is to address the challenges raised by the cultural and linguistic super-diversity of European society. It tackles inequalities and educational gaps at several levels and using a variety of research methods. One specific task of the project is centered on the design and development of a pilot VLE (Virtual Learning Environment). The platform ultimate goal is to enable children, parents and teachers to participate in various online activities and to communicate using different media (i.e., text, pictures, video and audio recordings), developing skills and acquiring knowledge about multilingualism and multiculturalism. The main theoretical underpinnings of the project are design-based research intervention and Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model. Research interventions are being carried out in 8 European countries, focusing on understanding and highlighting the system of relationships among the actors involved at intervention sites (educators, practitioners, children, parents…). In all those countries the VLE was presented to participants and used as a means of improving awareness about the implications of linguistic and cultural diversity. The choice of an Open Source software platform proved to be convenient especially on the data management side, but the implementation also had to face some problems – especially when it came to the integration of multiple features into a unique framework. Also, the application of Universal Design for Learning principles and guidelines introduced interesting elements, but this form of inclusive design required continuous and important efforts on both technological and educational levels and unveils some possible problems that should be taken into consideration