A User-Centred Methodology for the Development of Computer-Based Assistive Technologies for Individuals with Autism.

The design and development of computer assistive technologies must be tied to the needs and goals of end users and must take into account their capabilities and preferences. In this paper, we present MeDeC@, a Methodology for the Development of Computer Assistive Technologies for people with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), which relies heavily in our experience working with end users with ASD. The aim of this methodology is not to design for a broad group of users, but to design highly customizable tools so that they can be easily adapted to specific situations and small user groups. We also present two applications developed using MeDeC@ in order to test its suitability: EmoTraductor, a web application for emotion recognition for people with Asperger Syndrome, and ReadIt, a web browser plug-in to help people with ASD with written language understanding difficulties to navigate the Internet. The results of our evaluation with end users show that the use of MeDeC@ helps developers to successfully design computer assistive technologies taking into account the special requirements and scenarios that arise when developing this kind of assistive applications.pre-print703 K

Real and ideal perception of the intelligent classroom environment of future teachers

The proliferation of information and communication technology tools in the last years has led many teachers to review the way they teach and structure their learning environments. The growth of technological applications in teaching and the training of future teachers is not only gaining momentum; it is also becoming an important part of the current educational scene. The objectives of this study were to adapt and validate the Real and Ideal Intelligent Classroom Questionnaires (REQSC) and (IEQSC), and to determine if there were significant differences in the perception that future teachers had of the real and ideal environment of intelligent classrooms. A quantitative methodology was used, applying the statistical software SPSS 23 for the factor analysis. The results indicated that both questionnaires showed a valid and reliable internal consistency. The real and ideal perceptions of the use of technology as a learning tool and access to information make it clear that it is currently being used correctly. It is important that future teachers acquire adequate skills for their use and research in different topics

Exploring the Potential of Concept Associations for the Creative Generation of Linguistic Artifacts: A Case Study With Riddles and Rhetorical Figures

Automatic generation of linguistic artifacts is a problem that has been sporadically tackled over the years. The main goal of this paper is to explore how concept associations can be useful from a computational creativity point of view to generate some of these artifacts. We present an approach where finding associations between concepts that would not usually be considered as related (for example life and politics or diamond and concrete) could be the seed for the generation of creative and surprising linguistic artifacts such as rhetorical figures (life is like politics) and riddles (what is as hard as concrete?). Human volunteers evaluated the quality and appropriateness of the generated figures and riddles, and the results show that the concept associations obtained are useful for producing these kinds of creative artifacts

Predictive Composition of Pictogram Messages for Users with Autism.

Communication is a basic need for every person. However, there are many people who present disabilities that prevent communication through natural language. Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems, including those based on pictograms, attempt to facilitate the communication for people with this kind of difficulties. In this paper we present PictoEditor, an augmentative and alternative communication application for the composition of pictogram messages for users with autism that incorporates prediction functionalities. Although such functionalities have been widely studied in text-based augmentative and alternative communication tools, they have not been applied to pictogram based ones. The results show that prediction based on frequency of use of specific pictograms improves the immediate availability of the desired pictograms, but the improvement with prediction based on sequencing of pseudo-syntactic types of pictogram is not as clear.pre-print4500 K

¿Qué esconde la camiseta que llevo puesta?

¿Qué esconde la camiseta que llevo puesta? es una unidad didáctica que pretende acercar al alumnado a una realidad presente en nuestra sociedad actual y que en muchos casos desconoce: las fases del proceso productivo. Este contenido aparece definido en el Decreto 108/2014 de la Comunidad Valenciana, en el Bloque 3 de la asignatura de Ciencias Sociales: Vivir en sociedad. Hemos creído conveniente su formulación mediante una pregunta con la intención de despertar la curiosidad e interés del alumnado, puesto que este tema a priori puede no resultar demasiado atractivo para ellos

Teaching Innovation in the Development of Professional Practices: Use of the Collaborative Blog

The development of professional practices during the university stage is a fundamental factor for quality skills development. For many students, it is the first real experience in a professional context, so continuous monitoring by teachers is necessary. This article presents an innovative proposal to develop the follow-up of the professional practices of the degree in Primary Education, and two Masters’ in Psychopedagogy and Special Educational Needs using a learning management system (LMS) (Blackboard). The experience was developed by a team of teachers from the departments of Didactics and Educational Organization and Research Methods and Educational Diagnosis of the University of Seville (Spain). The aspects to be studied are the development of communication, reflection, and collaborative learning processes during the internship period. After an explicit agreement, 24 students (10 from the course “Professional Practices I” in undergraduate students; and the others from the Master’s) committed to periodically using the blog designed ad hoc for this experience. A content analysis of the speeches posted on the blog was carried out, examining the changes, the advantages, and the disadvantages that this model entailed. It allowed observing similarities and differences between both groups of students. As the main conclusion, there were some differences between the two groups of students, regarding the number, type, and contents of interventions; there were no differences in the assessment of the methodology, all the students thought that it was a very positive assessment of the experience for generating information exchange networks among colleagues and teachers. Finally, the relevance of constant monitoring of the academic tutor was highlighted

Effect of immature oak (Quercus pyrenaica) leaves intake on ruminal fermentation and adaptation of rumen microorganisms in cattle

6 pages, 2 figures.-- Contributed to: VII International Symposium on the Nutrition of Herbivores (Beijing, China, Sep 17−22, 2007).Later published as paper in: Animal Feed Science and Technology 150(1-2): 75-85 (2009), https://digital.csic.es/handle/10261/13289Two experiments were conducted to study the effect of the consumption of different amounts of immature Pyrenean oak leaves (OL) by beef cattle on in vitro ruminal fermentation and potential adaptation of rumen microorganisms. A total of twelve ruminally cannulated young Brown Swiss bulls were divided in experimental groups that received different amounts of OL via the ruminal cannula (on average 0, 2.5, 5.2 and almost 10 kg fresh matter per animal and day). The gas production technique was used to study in vitro fermentation of two substrates (grass hay and OL) incubated with rumen inocula derived from each bull. Results suggest not only a dose-dependent negative effect of tannins consumption on ruminal fermentation of common feeds (e.g., grass hay), but also an adaptation of rumen microbial populations from animals receiving moderate amounts of OL. The high level of tannins in the rumen of bulls that received the highest amount of OL would have exceeded the ability of microorganisms to tolerate or detoxify them.Supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science, MEC, Project AGL2004-06076-C02-01Peer reviewe

A text generation system that uses simple rhetorical figures

Este artículo describe el enriquecimiento de la calidad estilística de los textos generados por el sistema PRINCE, una aplicación de generación de lenguaje natural diseñada para construir textos de cuentos fantásticos. Para ello se explota el potencial de un recurso léxico (WordNet) y algoritmos de mapeamiento estructural para enriquecer los textos de salida con figuras retóricas simples como metáfora y analogía. El sistema enriquecido sigue la arquitectura para sistemas multi-agente OAA, con varios agentes cooperando para conseguir los textos finales. Los resultados de la versión enriquecida son presentados y discutidos. Finalmente, se describen algunos problemas y posibles extensiones.This paper describes the improvement of the stylistic quality of the texts generated by the PRINCE system, a natural language generation application designed for building texts for simple fairy tales. This is done by exploiting the potential of a lexical resource - such as WordNet - and structure mapping algorithms to enhance the output texts with simple rhetorical tropes such as metaphor and analogy. The enhanced system follows the OAA multi-agent system architecture, with various agents cooperating to achieve the final texts. The results of the enhanced version are presented and discussed. Finally, some problems and possible extensions are described.Partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science, Acción Integrada Hispano-Portuguesa (HP2003-0068

BigMark: análisis y predicción de calificaciones mediante Big Data

Proyecto de innovación docente en el que apliquemos estas técnicas de análisis de datos inteligentes para extraer información a partir de las calificaciones obtenidas por los alumnos durante el curso. El proyecto consiste en el desarrollo de una aplicación inteligente, disponible a través del navegador web o del móvil, para que tanto los profesores como los alumnos puedan ver las calificaciones del curso, compararlas e incluso predecirlas. La predicción se consigue mediante el análisis de datos y la aplicación de técnicas de regresión estadística a partir de los datos del curso actual y de los cursos anteriores, tanto del alumno que busca información como (de forma anonimizada) de sus compañeros

Review of intervention programs for students infant and primary with specific language disorder

En el presente estudio se revisan diferentes programas de intervención tanto a nivel internacional como nacional relacionados con el Trastorno Específico del Lenguaje (TEL) en Educación Infantil y Primaria. Para ello, se realizó una búsqueda en las bases de datos ProQuest, Dialnet, CSIC y Psicodoc sobre intervenciones realizadas desde el año 2012 al 2015. Se observan que existen, entre los artículos revisados, variaciones en cuanto a los objetivos, actividades y resultados, pero todos ellos muestran unas características comunes a la hora de elaborar programas en este ámbito, convenientes de tener en cuenta para posibles investigaciones e intervenciones futuras con el fin de mejorar el rendimiento académico del alumnado.In the present study are reviewed some intervention programs both at international and national related to the specific language disorder (TEL) in early childhood education and elementary. For this aim, it carried out a search in the databases ProQuest, Dialnet, CSIC and Psicodoc on interventions since 2012 to 2015. It is observed, among the articles reviewed, variations in the objectives, activities and results, but all of them show some common features when it comes to developing programs in this area, which it convenient to take into account for future interventions and research to improve the academic performance.Universidad de Granada. Departamento de Psicología Social. Proyecto de Innovación Docente ReiDoCre