MOOCs in the Education of the Future : Digitizing Training

Everybody agrees that education is the foundation of a developed society. Parents make it abundantly clear to their children from a tender age: education will open doors for you; it will allow you to grow both personally and socially, to make money.... too many responsibilities for a single word. Improving education has become a magical mantra that is repeated over and over in both families and institutions. It is therefore quite striking to witness how the procedures and structure of the educational system in developed countries have remained fairly stable almost since its creation as a public service and its subsequent universalization. The reason for this is that education has been very successful in its main goal: spreading general knowledge among the population to allow citizens to get by in their everyday lives, and providing a more specialized knowledge so they can perform a specific job. Thus, the university education system teaches students to be, for instance, doctors, so they can replace other doctors who are retiring in any part of the country or they can work in newly opened health centers. The traditional view of higher education is to create somewhat interchangeable pieces that try to fit into a stable society. However, times are changing. Organizations need to adapt faster; knowledge is more specialized; and technology constantly modifies jobs. The traditional educational system therefore faces increased difficulties to remain a fundamental reference for training. Technology is behind many of the changes that seem to challenge society, and with it, the educational system. This monograph provides compelling arguments about how it can also be the solution. Although online training, and MOOCs in particular, have so far only been a reflection of in-class teaching, and a virtual reflection where many of the most important qualities are lost, there are currently enough elements to suggest that things will be different in the future. Speaking of technology as the element that prompts change does not include merely the Internet or improved interfaces. It also refers to new concepts such as big data, which will allow a staggering amount of data to be collected about users and behaviors to provide to adapt education in real-time; it refers to immersive technologies such as those developed for virtual reality environments, which will allow laboratory environments to be recreated for the users (the so-called remote laboratories); it refers to technologies that support the Open Content movement in the educational world. It therefore refers to the convergence of a large number of technologies that are much more powerful when combined than applied separately. Furthermore, the disruptive capabilities of these educational models do not lie simply in the adaptation of traditional methods to new technologies, but on the possibility of applying new pedagogical practices. Students will be able to explore, either through the use of simulators or of other technologies such as 3D printers. Additionally, peer-to-peer collaboration models could be used, whereby the core of the learning process is transferred from the teacher to the community itself, which uses teamwork and interaction to make its own deductions

Innovaciones educativas 2016. Educar para la sociedad digital

La educación debe ser soporte de igualdad y justicia social. Debe facilitar tanto el desarrollo personal como la integración social. El momento histórico al que se enfrenta la educación en la actualidad es fascinante. La revolución digital está generando, de modo incremental y acelerado, transformaciones en todos los ámbitos de la sociedad. La educación no está exenta de estos cambios. Al contrario, es donde más críticos son sus efectos. Por ello, es urgente que los conozcamos mejor y que consigamos que la educación no sólo se adapte, sino que se anticipe a ellos. Lo que se ha venido denominando Sociedad Digital hace referencia a una sociedad que se caracteriza por ser abierta, cambiante, conectada y global. En ella, los alumnos son colaborativos, sus ideas compiten en igualdad de condiciones. Cuenta más el valor de la contribución que el de la posición. Los alumnos no esperan clases magistrales, sino conversaciones abiertas

La transición digital : retos y oportunidades para Iberoamerica

Resumen: Bajo el marco de una digitalización que contribuya a fortalecer las instituciones democráticas, mejorar la productividad, estrechar las disparidades sociales y de género, formar en competencias tecnológicas, y garantizar la sostenibilidad medioambiental, nuestras instituciones abrieron, en diciembre de 2020, la primera edición del programa: “Digitalización inclusiva y sostenible en América Latina”. El objetivo concreto consistía en apoyar estudios procedentes de la academia, centros de análisis o institutos científicos, dirigidos a generar conocimiento experto, de utilidad para el diseño e implementación de estrategias innovadoras verdes e inclusivas, tanto en el sector privado como en el público. Exactamente un año después de su activación, el balance es alentador: se han realizado 10 trabajos de investigación, en una amplia gama de temáticas —innovación empresarial, digitalización educativa, diseño urbanístico, atención a la discapacidad, modernización de las administraciones públicas, etc.—, en los que han participado un total de 60 especialistas (34 mujeres), procedentes de Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, España, México y Perú

Medios de Comunicación en Internet móvil: La televisión como modelo aún pendiente de éxito

La televisión en el móvil no ha acabado de arrancar comercialmente en la mayor parte de los países europeos. No existe una única razón que explique esta situación. Antes bien, cabe referirse a un conjunto de causas complejas (e interrelacionadas). En el lado de la oferta, deben analizarse aspectos técnicos (infraestructuras, estándares), económicos (modelos de negocio, disponibilidad de contenido) y normativos. En el lado de la demanda, es necesario investigar cuál es la utilidad que el servicio realmente (y no teóricamente) ofrece al consumidor y las circunstancias en que lo usaría. El estudio de todos estos factores es el objetivo de este artículo. Se concluye que la televisión móvil asentará su presencia en el mercado sólo si se sortean algunos de los obstáculos descritos, se pone el foco en el posible usuario (y no en el producto) y se cuenta con cierto apoyo institucional

Mobile Web Adoption in Top Ranked University Libraries: A Preliminary Study

This paper aims to study the level of adoption of mobile access to the academic libraries in the best universities in the world as well as the quality of services offered in order to ascertain if the quality of academic apps and mobile websites are at the level of the overall web impact of world-class universities. For the top 50 universities according to the Ranking Web of Universities (2014), we determined whether there is a mobile website or app for their libraries. Finally we evaluated the services offered against a list of 14 indicators. The results show that 88% of the libraries studied (44) offer mobile access via web or app, showing a high level of mobile adoption in elite universities. The form is clearly uneven: 80% (40) offers mobile web access while only 34% (17) has an app. As to the content, no library offered all 14 points evaluated, and the results are varied. Only 50% of apps meet at least half the indicators. In the case of mobile web this figure improves notably to 74.3%. We can note a high level of mobile web adoption in the world's best universities, although the quality does not reach their level of excellence. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Torres-Pérez, P.; Méndez-Rodríguez, E.; Orduña Malea, E. (2016). Mobile Web Adoption in Top Ranked University Libraries: A Preliminary Study. Journal of Academic Librarianship. 42(4):329-339. doi:10.1016/j.acalib.2016.05.011S32933942