Las TIC en el debate educativo de la Ley Orgánica de Educación (España, marzo 2005)

Este artículo pretende dirigir la mirada hacia el papel que la comunidad educativa atribuye a las TIC. En primer lugar se presentan las preguntas que el Ministerio formuló en su propuesta para el debate. En una segundo momento, se resume el informe del Debate conteniendo las aportaciones que se han hecho según el análisis del MEC. Y finalmente, se analizan los resultados que al respecto se han obtenido en una investigación propia. Igualmente se llama la atención sobre el papel que el colectivo de profesores asistentes a las JUTE (Jornadas Universitarias de Tecnología Educativa) deberían asumir en procesos de reforma educativa como el establecido en España en el año 2004 por el gobierno socialista.This paper directs the view towards the role that the educative community attributes to the TIC. In the first place appear the questions that the Ministry formulated in its proposal for the debate. In the second, I summarize the report of Debate whit the contributions of the educative community according to the analysis of the MEC. And finally, I analyse the results found in my own research about the proces of educative reform. The attention is also directed to the role that the group of JUTE (Working day University Educational Technology) professors should assume in processes of educative reform like the established one in Spain in 2004 by the socialist government

El currículum de T.I.C. en la formación permanente del profesorado

Se presentan algunas propuestas de formación permanente del profesorado: de sensibilización, de profundización, para la obtención de un título, etc. En primer lugar se recogen varios datos sobre tres estudios relativos a la motivación del profesorado tanto de nivel universitario como no universitario, atendiendo a cinco tópicos: disponibilidad de recursos, formación, utilización, actitudes y expectativas. Por último, se ofrecen tres propuestas recientes: dos propias (una de sensibilización y otra “a la carta”) así como la propuesta europea de Licencia Pedagógica de TIC (EPICT).In this paper we present some proposals about continuous teacher training focused on: raising teachers’ awareness, deepening, obtaining a degree, etc. First of all, we have selected several data gathered from three studies relative to teachers’ motivation, whether for the higher level or not, referenced to five topics: availability of resources, training, utilization, attitudes and expectations. Finally, we show three recent proposals: two from ourselves (a raising teachers’ awareness program and another one “à la carte”) and a European proposal of a Pedagogical License on TIC (EPICT)

“Como decíamos ayer...”. La docencia de nuevas tecnologías aplicadas a la educación desde el primer encuentro al duodécimo de JUTE.

El currículum de Nuevas Tecnologías de ayer (1992) a hoy (2004). Partiendo de la reunión de Sevilla de 1993 y pasando por todos los encuentros de JUTE, se presenta el programa actual en la Universidad de Zaragoza. Se mostrará cómo hemos pasado de una situación en la que predominaban los temas de reflexión teórica, epistemológica y de análisis de medios audiovisuales a una nueva situación en la que la informática y sus acólitos: mass‐media, multimedia, etc. predominan en nuestros programas. Se presentan dos tablas: una, con los contenidos de los programas de varias universidades españolas y otra, con los contenidos que aparecen en los manuales publicados en el período descrito.The curriculum of New Technologies, from the past (1992) to nowadays (2004). Starting at the 1993 Sevilla’s Meeting and through the previous JUTE gatherings, the current syllabus at the University of Zaragoza is presented. It will be showed how, from a situation in which the main points were the theoretical reflection and the epistemological and audiovisual themes, to a new syllabus where informatics and its surrounding areas (mass‐media, multimedia, etc.) are the predominant matters. Two tables are showed: one of them with the syllabus of New Technologies of several Spanish universities and the other one with the contents that are included in the handbooks published within the referenced period

Practical on-line signature verification

Producción CientíficaA new DTW-based on-line signature verification system is presented and evaluated. The system is specially designed to operate under realistic conditions, it needs only a small number of genuine signatures to operate and it can be deployed in almost any signature capable capture device. Optimal features sets have been obtained experimentally, in order to adapt the system to environments with different levels of security. The system has been evaluated using four on-line signature databases (MCYT, SVC2004, BIOMET and MyIDEA) and its performance is among the best systems reported in the state of the art. Average EERs over these databases lay between 0.41% and 2.16% for random and skilled forgeries respectively.Junta de Castilla y León (project VA077A08

Feature selection in a low cost signature recognition system based on normalized signatures and fractional distances

Producción CientíficaIn a previous work a new proposal for an efficient on-line signature recognition system with very low computational load and storage requirements was presented. This proposal is based on the use of size normalized signatures, which allows for similarity estimation, usually based on DTW or HMMs, to be performed by an easy distance calcultaion between vectors, which is computed using fractional distance. Here, a method to select representative features from the normalized signatures is presented. Only the most stable features in the training set are used for distance estimation. This supposes a larger reduction in system requirements, while the system performance is increased. The verification task has been carried out. The results achieved are about 30% and 20% better with skilled and random forgeries, respectively, than those achieved with a DTW-based system, with storage requirements between 15 and 142 times lesser and a processing speed between 274 and 926 times greater. The security of the system is also enhanced as only the representative features need to be stored, it being impossible to recover the original signature from these.Junta de Castilla y Leon (project VA077A08

Conditional Order-m Efficiency of Wastewater Treatment Plants: The Role of Environmental Factors

The growing economic and environmental importance of managing water resources at a global level also entails greater efforts and interest in improving the functioning and efficiency of the increasingly more numerous wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). In this context, this study analyzes the efficiency of a uniform sample of plants of this type located in the region of Valencia (Spain). The type of efficiency measure used for this (conditional order-m efficiency) allows continuous and discrete contextual variables to be directly involved in the analysis and enables the assessment of their statistical significance and effect (positive or negative). The main findings of the study showed that the quality of the influent water and also the size and age of the plants had a significant influence on their efficiency levels. In particular, as regards the effect of such variables, the findings pointed to the existence of an inverse relationship between the quality of the influent water and the efficiency of the WWTPs. Also, a lower annual volume of treated water and more modern installations showed a positive influence. Additionally, the average efficiency levels observed turned out to be higher than those reported in previous studies

Banca ética y banca cooperativa. Un análisis comparativo a través del estudio de Caixa Popular y de Fiare Banca Ética

Social banks now represent an alternative to conventional banking, especially for those customers who demand a socially responsible consumption. Social banking consists of two different types of credit institutions: cooperative banks and ethical banks. The first are active since more than a century through a proximity banking model focused on the territory. The latter have three decades approximately operation, addressing the realization of socially responsible investment (social and environmental projects). In this paper the similarities and differences between the two models of social banking are analyzed by conducting a consistent analysis of cases in a comparative study between the credit union Caixa Popular and the ethical bank Fiare Banca Etica. The analysis concludes that both social banking models are based on a participatory and democratic system in which employees and customers are actively involved in their operation and both contribute to financial inclusion. Instead, the cooperative banking model is a model based on community banking and direct customer relations through bank branches, while the model of ethical banking is based on electronic banking with few branches.Los bancos sociales representan en la actualidad una alternativa a la banca convencional, sobre todo para aquellos clientes que demandan un consumo socialmente responsable. La banca social está formada por dos tipos diferentes de entidades de crédito: los bancos cooperativos y los bancos éticos. Los primeros desarrollan su actividad desde hace ya más de un siglo a través de un modelo de banca de proximidad enfocada al territorio. Los segundos llevan tres décadas aproximadamente de funcionamiento, dirigiéndose a la realización de inversiones socialmente responsables (proyectos sociales y medioambientales). En el presente trabajo se analizan las similitudes y diferencias entre ambos modelos de banca social mediante la realización de un ánalisis de casos consistente en un estudio comparativo entre la cooperativa de crédito Caixa Popular y el banco ético Fiare Banca Ética. Del análisis se concluye que ambos modelos de banca social se basan en un sistema democrático y participativo en el que trabajadores y clientes participan activamente en su funcionamiento y ambos contribuyen a la inclusión financiera. En cambio, el modelo de la banca cooperativa es un modelo de proximidad basado en el trato personalizado y directo al cliente a través de las oficinas bancarias, mientras que el modelo de banca ética está basado en la banca electrónica con escasas sucursales

Banca ética y banca cooperativa. Un análisis comparativo a través del estudio de Caixa Popular y de Fiare Banca Ética

Los bancos sociales representan en la actualidad una alternativa a la banca convencional, sobre todo para aquellos clientes que demandan un consumo socialmente responsable. La banca social está formada por dos tipos diferentes de entidades de crédito: los bancos cooperativos y los bancos éticos. Los primeros desarrollan su actividad desde hace ya más de un siglo a través de un modelo de banca de proximidad enfocada al territorio. Los segundos llevan tres décadas aproximadamente de funcionamiento, dirigiéndose a la realización de inversiones socialmente responsables (proyectos sociales y medioambientales). En el presente trabajo se analizan las similitudes y diferencias entre ambos modelos de banca social mediante la realización de un ánalisis de casos consistente en un estudio comparativo entre la cooperativa de crédito Caixa Popular y el banco ético Fiare Banca Ética. Del análisis se concluye que ambos modelos de banca social se basan en un sistema democrático y participativo en el que trabajadores y clientes participan activamente en su funcionamiento y ambos contribuyen a la inclusión financiera. En cambio, el modelo de la banca cooperativa es un modelo de proximidad basado en el trato personalizado y directo al cliente a través de las oficinas bancarias, mientras que el modelo de banca ética está basado en la banca electrónica con escasas sucursales

Landau-gauge condensates from the quark propagator on the lattice

We compute the dimension-2 condensate, , and the dimension-4 mixed condensate, , from the recent quenched lattice results for the quark propagator in the Landau gauge. We fit the lattice data to the Operator Product Expansion in the "fiducial" region 1.2 GeV < Q < 3 GeV. Our result for the dynamical gluon mass at the scale of 10 GeV^2 is m_A=600-650 MeV, in agreement with independent determinations. For the mixed Landau gauge condensate of dimension-4 we get alpha_s = (-0.11 +/- 0.03) GeV^4. This value is an order of magnitude larger than the gluon condensate.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, references adde