UPTAKE ICT – MOOC on digital employabilty

Uptake_ICT2life-cycle: digital literacy and inclusion to learners with disadvantaged background" is an Erasmus+ project that aims at enhancing digital literacy among adults with disadvantaged backgrounds. One of the project’s outputs is a MOOC on Digital Employability. This paper presents and reflects upon this product, analysing data collected from the students that followed the course as pilot-group. The experience has proved very positive since students recognized the technical quality of the MOOC, as well as the interest, relevance and utility of its contents. A bridge between academia and the work market was established and the students’ awareness of several career opportunities was raised. These various aspects seem to recommend the replication of this MOOC as well as the making of similar ones. The adopted methodology that the trainers involved in this action decided to use aimed at reaching two major target groups: higher education students and other participants that were enrolled in parallel training sessions. Trainees from the Higher School of Education of the Polytechnic Institute of Santarem had two sorts of profile, according to their study area, more specifically, communication and multimedia or plastic arts and multimedia. So, the idea underlying the chosen strategy was to diversify the target population of the MOOC, and to establish a bridge between participants who had more competencies in the field of ICTs (the multimedia class), and those who has lesser skills in this field (the art class). This diversity implied that the achieved results and metrics, both analytical data and statistic results concerning the used platform and the course’s content, included answers given by students with different learning profiles. The MOOC focused on the importance of ICT for employability. It presented information and suggestions on three main areas, Employability, Freelancing and Entrepreneurship. Each module of the course had several lessons since the educational contents were structured into specific sections, each one addressing a key subject and providing sets of examples that helped students to better understand the focused issues. The MOOC also includes video presentations with real life examples of successful entrepreneurs and freelancers, telling about their experiences and giving advice on how to thrive in the current job market. This is an innovative aspect that means both an approach between business and education, as well as to bring students closer to the objective requirements of working life outside schools.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Trace elements accumulation in the sea lamprey along the major hydrographic basins of Portugal

Trace elements accumulation in the sea lamprey along the major hydrographic basins of Portuga

UPTAKE ICT: A NETWORK OF STAKEHOLDERS AGAINST DIGITAL ILLITERACY

#Uptake_ICT2life-cycle: digital literacy and inclusion to learners with disadvantaged background# is an Erasmus + project that aims at enhancing digital literacy among adults with disadvantaged backgrounds. The partners have produced didactic materials and pedagogical guidelines to meet this aim. Based on these materials, and their didactical exploitation, a network of stakeholders was formed and trained in order to subsequently be able to teach citizens that both have disadvantaged backgrounds and are digitally illiterate or quasi-illiterate. This paper relates how this experience was undertaken in Portugal in what concerns the creation of the Stakeholders' network and presents its results. The reality that has boosted the creation of this project was the shocking situation portrayed in 2013 Eurostat statistics, according to which one in every three Portuguese had never used the Internet. Uptake ICT was then conceived and designed in order to engage synergies to counter this problem, aiming at a variety of focus groups (but paying special attention to learners of various ages that have never used Internet, like adults with disadvantaged backgrounds), in line with the transversal priorities for education, training and youth of the European Commission and seeking to assist in the meeting of the aims of Europe 2020. To add up, it also intended to enhance and to develop ideas that answer to the Societal Challenges’ needs, by sharing and creating scientific, social, technological and policies impact. The main aspects that the project focused on were digital literacy inclusion, re-qualification and employability of disadvantaged citizens, in order to help them to face the present process of civilizational change (social, political, economic, and cultural). The addressed priorities were to contribute towards a reduction of the number of low-skilled adults (re-skilling and up-skilling of adults thanks to lifelong-learning and training), and to strengthen the links between education and employment in the area of ICT | New technologies | digital literacy and digital competences | basic skills. After having identified both the most preeminent needs and ways of integrating ICT in daily life, and a set of good practices already tested in the areas of digital literacy, inclusion and employability, the project team has built a number of educational contents addressing the issues that were considered most relevant in three main levels of knowledge (Basic, Intermediate, and advanced) , and in the four languages of the project (Portuguese, Italian, English and German). The decision to work on the three levels was due to the fact that in the various partner countries there were groups of target audiences that were positioned differently with respect to their level of digital expertise. The teachinglearning materials that were conceived were afterwards reworked in order to fit in a variety of contexts and formats (e-modules, ebook, MOOC). This option for multi-format was taken having in mind different learning profiles, and the need to provide flexible and attractive materials in order to avoid any kind of rejection. Finally, a number of didactical guidelines were produced in order to provide an interface of suggestions to the stakeholders that would use these materials in their classes or workshop sessions.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Applying action research in the formulation of information security policies

Information Systems Security (ISS) is crucial in all and each of the services provided by organizations. This paper focuses on Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) as although all organizations have their own requirements as far as information security is concerned, SMEs offer one of the most interesting cases for studying the issue of information security policies. Within the organizational universe, SMEs assume a unique relevance due to their high number, which makes information security efficiency a crucial issue. There are several measures which can be implemented in order to ensure the effective protection of information assets, among which the adoption of ISS policies stands out. This article aims to constitute an empirical study on the applicability of the Action Research (AR) method in information systems, more specifically through the formulation of an ISS policy in SMEs. The research question is to what extent this research method is adequate to reach the proposed goal

Transformação digital – as smart cities e os recursos tecnológicos

Na idade da transformação digital, as cidades estão a sofrer inúmeras mudanças, visível na quantidade de projetos implementados nos últimos anos pelos Municípios, fazendo com que as tecnologias se infiltrassem nas nossas cidades. A mudança é inevitável! Embora a transformação digital esteja para além da incorporação de tecnologias, a mentalidade e cultura dos cidadãos em se adaptarem a essas alterações, tem de ser devidamente incutida. Com esta transformação tecnológica as cidades superam os desafios do passado e conquistam o futuro. Os recursos tecnológicos utilizados como um meio para prestar de forma eficiente diferentes serviços e melhorando a qualidade de vida dos cidadãos, transformam-nas em “smart cities”.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Implementation of information systems security policies: a survey in small and medium sized enterprises

Information has become organizations’ most valuable asset, thus being a potential target to threats intending to explore their vulnerabilities and cause considerable damage. Therefore, there is a need to implement policies regarding information systems security (ISS) in an attempt to reduce the chances of fraud or information loss. Thus, it is important to find the critical success factors to the implementation of a security policy as well as to assess the level of importance of each one of them. This paper contributes to the identification of such factors by presenting the results of a survey regarding information systems security policies in small and medium sized enterprises (SME). We discuss the results in the light of a literature framework and identify future works aiming to enhance information security in organizations

Information security culture: a survey in small and medium sized enterprises

Information security is a relevant fact for current organizations. There are factors inextricably linked to this issue, and one cannot talk about information security in an organization without addressing and understanding the information security culture of that institution. Maximizing the organizational culture within an organization will enable the safeguard of information security. For that, we need to understand which the inhibiting and the enabling factors are. This study contributes to point out those factors by presenting the results of a survey concerning information security culture in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs)

Critical success factors for the implementation of a security policy in health clinics

A Segurança de Sistemas de Informação (SSI) é primordial em todos e cada um dos serviços oferecidos pelas organizações. De entre as medidas de segurança, as políticas assumem na literatura um papel central. Todavia, nota-se a existência de um reduzido número de estudos empíricos sobre a implementação de políticas SSI e quais os fatores críticos de sucesso para a sua implementação. Este artigo contribui para minimizar essa falha mediante a apresentação dos resultados de um inquérito sobre a adoção de políticas de SSI em clínicas de saúde. Se bem que todas as organizações apresentem requisitos próprios ao nível da SSI, reconhece-se que o sector da saúde oferece um dos casos mais interessantes para o estudo da temática da SSI em particular e das tecnologias de informação e sistemas de informação em geral. Os resultados são discutidos á luz da literatura e identificam-se trabalhos futuros com vista a potenciar a implementação de políticas de SSI.Information systems security (ISS) is crucial in all and each of the services provided by organizations. Among the security measures, policies assume a central role in literature. However, there is a reduced number of empirical studies about the implementation of ISS policies and which are the critical success factors for its implementation. This paper contributes to mitigate this flaw by presenting the results of a survey in the adoption of ISS policies in health clinics. While all organizations have their own ISS requirements, the health sector is recognized to offer one the most interesting cases for the thematic study of ISS in particular and information technology and information systems in general. The results are discussed in literature and future works are identified with the aim of enabling the implementation of ISS policies.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A comparative analysis of three high school textbooks’ concepts in Algebra in South Africa and Angola.

Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg.The purpose of this study was to conduct a comparative analysis of algebra sections in three textbooks; one South African grade 9, one South African grade 10, and one Angolan grade 10. Firstly, I compared the textbooks in terms of topics covered. Secondly, I compared the distribution of the text on explanations, examples and exercises, respectively. Thirdly, I used the levels of understanding of algebraic expressions suggested by Sfard and Linchevski (1994) to investigate progression and consistency of the texts. Finally, I looked at the number of steps required to move from task to solution in the examples and exercises, providing a different measure of progression. The findings revealed that the textbook for Angola is more advanced than the textbooks for South Africa in terms of topics, explanations and examples, and contains far fewer exercises. Therefore, in terms of their explanations, the textbooks from Angola are denser and have more detailed clarifications than the South African textbooks. In terms of examples and exercises, the textbooks from Angola have fewer exercises than South African textbooks. The progression both in terms of levels of understanding of algebraic expressions and in terms of number of steps required to solve tasks is swifter in the Angolan textbook. Also, there is less focus on symbol manipulation without conceptual content in the Angolan textbook. Although much depends on the ways in which textbooks are used in the classroom, this suggests that the Angolan textbook offers the learners more opportunities to learn. There were some signs that the South African textbooks had been organized in ways informed by research, and in a few cases the exercises in the South African textbooks were more explorative, allowing learners more opportunities to develop deeper conceptual understanding. This was, however, not a dominant feature

Implementation of the general data protection regulation: a survey in health clinics

The new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was approved on April 27 2016. The GDPR 2016/679 aims to ensure the coherence of natural persons’ protection within the European Union (EU), comprising very important innovative rules that will be applied across the EU and will directly affect every Member State. Furthermore, it aims to overcome the existing fragmented regulations and to modernise the principles of privacy in the EU. This regulation will come into force in May 2018, bringing along several challenges for citizens, companies and other private and public organisations. The protection of personal data is a fundamental right. The GDPR considers a ‘special category of personal data’, which includes data regarding health, since this is sensitive data and is therefore subject to special conditions regarding treatment and access by third parties. This premise provides the focus of this research work, where the implementation of the GDPR in health clinics in Portugal is analysed. The results are discussed in light of the data collected in the survey and possible future works are identified.POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio