Seamless support for lifelong learning with ubiquitous technology

This poster presents 3 years research on how to provide support for lifelong learners with mobile technology. The aim of this research is facilitating adapted feedback services to foster self-regulation in adult lifelong learners

User-modelled ambient feedback for self-regulated learning

A fundamental objective of human-computer interaction research is to make systems that are seamlessly integrated into daily life activities. Hence, the challenge is not only to make information available to people at any time, at any place, and in any form, but specifically to say the right thing at the right time in the right way. On the other hand, the proliferation of sensor technology is facilitating the scaffolding and customization of smart learning environments. This manuscript presents an ecology of resources comprising NFC, BLE and Arduino technology, orchestrated in the context of a learning environment to provide smoothly integrated feedback via ambient displays. This ecology is proposed as a suitable solution for self-regulated learning, providing support for setting goals, setting aside time to learn, tracking study time and monitoring the progress. Hereby, the ecology is described and intriguing research questions are introduced

23-F en Sevilla, la asignatura pendiente de un pasado. [Reportaje]

Universidad de Sevilla. Grado en Periodism

A methodology of analysis and selection of Business Development Projects on a Regional Subcontinental Scale

The objective of this paper is to set up, among a group of projects and by means of multivariate techniques, a selection process that allows to choose those with the best performance and to establish the factors and variables characterising successful cases. This way, we can offer a model for the evaluation and selection of development projects. New ideas and approaches for the promotion politics of business services should come out of the extraction of common models and behaviours among the cases with best performance. More specifically, for the empirical development of this research, we have used the project portfolio of business development services of the Inter-American Development Bank between 1995 and 2002. JEL classification: Keywords: business development project, factor, cluster

Learning ecologies in online students with disabilities

E-Learning environments are enhancing both their functionalities and the quality of the resources provided, thus simplifying the creation of learning ecologies adapted for students with disabilities. The number of students with disabilities enrolled in online courses is so small, and their impairments are so specific that it becomes difficult to quantify and identify which specific actions should be taken to support them. This work contributes to scientific literature with two key aspects: 1) It identifies which barriers these students encounter, and which tools they use to create learning ecologies adapted to their impairments; 2) It also presents the results from a case study in which 161 students with recognised disabilities evaluate the efficiency and ease of use of an online learning environment in higher education studies. The work presented in this paper highlights the need to provide multimedia elements with subtitles, text transcriptions, and the option to be downloadable and editable so that the student can adapt them to their needs and learning style

ENTREPRENEURIAL WOMEN, DIFFERENTIAL BEHAVIOURS AND BUSINESS INNOVATION

The participation of women in entrepreneurial activity forty years ago was virtually an exception. However, nowadays this is an important economic and social phenomenon, with an outstanding impact on the dynamics of both advanced and emerging economies. This is significant not only from a quantitative viewpoint. The fact that female personal features, motives and managerial methods differ from those of men gives a new and interesting perspective –which is still subject to debate- to the analysis regarding training and consolidation of enterprises. Gender-related differences can be the vehicle to introduce innovative aspects that could be influential in the uncertain and changing economic environment after the current crises, particularly in those fields where business output is related to the quality of life. Adopting a previous regional model as a basis of study, we analyse in this work the characteristics that differentiate entrepreneurial women in Spain on the grounds of data collected from an own drafted survey regarding the entrepreneurial activity (607 complete questionnaires) carried out in 2009. The results obtained indicate the coexistence of two different types of entrepreneurial women. The first group gathers those women whose enterprises show, generally speaking, a similar sectoral distribution to that of the whole productive fabric, although with a slight tendency to be more present in services activities. Their characteristics and attitudes are, in general, quite similar to those registered among entrepreneurial men and many of these women come from entrepreneurial families. The second group is mainly made up of entrepreneurial women –frequently with family burdens and low qualified- devoted to services, particularly personal services and retail trade. Technological and managerial characteristics of companies managed by the entrepreneurial women belonging to this group differ substantially from the average of the economy, with a much more traditional and less innovative profile.

Learning ecologies in online students with disabilities

E-Learning environments are enhancing both their functionalities and the quality of the resources provided, thus simplifying the creation of learning ecologies adapted for students with disabilities. The number of students with disabilities enrolled in online courses is so small, and their impairments are so specific that it becomes difficult to quantify and identify which specific actions should be taken to support them. This work contributes to scientific literature with two key aspects: 1) It identifies which barriers these students encounter, and which tools they use to create learning ecologies adapted to their impairments; 2) It also presents the results from a case study in which 161 students with recognised disabilities evaluate the efficiency and ease of use of an online learning environment in higher education studies. The work presented in this paper highlights the need to provide multimedia elements with subtitles, text transcriptions, and the option to be downloadable and editable so that the student can adapt them to their needs and learning style

Everyday patterns in lifelong learners to build personal learning ecologies

Tabuenca, B., Ternier, S., & Specht, M. (2012). Everyday patterns in lifelong learners to build personal learning ecologies. In M. Specht, J. Multisilta, & M. Sharples (Eds.), Proceedings of the 11th World Conference on Mobile and Contextual Learning 2012 (pp. 86-93). October, 16-18, 2012, Helsinki, Finland.This article presents the results from a questionnaire filled out by 147 lifelong learners. The primary aim of the questionnaire is to analyse learning practices of adults, and to recognize patterns of lifelong learners in order to support them with technology. These patterns capture the context in which lifelong learners are more willing to learn, that is, the day of the week, duration, location, activity being performed, type of device being used, way to interact with their devices and how these aspects can affect when an adult student takes the initiative to learn. Moreover, this article examines previous publications on surveys, questionnaires and information collected with the same objective, to corroborate and contrast the findings. The contribution of this paper is identifying and describing patterns in which lifelong learners are more willing to build personal learning ecologies when supported by mobile devices.Open University of The Netherlands, CELSTEC, NELL

Supporting lifelong learners to build personal learning ecologies in daily physical spaces

This article presents the results from a questionnaire filled out by 147 lifelong learners with the aim to analyse learning practices of adults, and to recognize patterns of lifelong learners in order to support them with technology. These patterns capture the context in which lifelong learners are more willing to learn, that is, the day of the week, duration, location activity being performed, type of device being used, way to interact with their devices and how these aspects can affect when an adult student takes the initiative to learn. Likewise, this article examines previous publications on surveys, questionnaires and information collected with the same objective, to corroborate and contrast the findings. Moreover, we present a literature review on augmented tangibles for learning identifying potential contexts to orchestrate tangibles depending on the physical space where they are normally used. As an outcome of this work, important research questions are risen to integrate smart learning objects in learner-centred ecologies of resource