Applied Numerical Analysis. By C.F. Gerald. Pp. xii, 340. £3·60. 1970. (Addison-Wesley.)

Classical Dynamics of Particles and Systems

Active learning has gained growing political, instructional, and research interest. However, the definitions of active learning are wide. The learning outcomes related to it have been mostly positive but the measurement methods are not without problems. This review provides an overview of active learning, especially in the context of engineering higher education, by answering two research questions: (1) How is the concept of active learning defined and justified in engineering higher education research? (2) What are the learning outcomes connected to active learning and how is learning measured in engineering higher education research? Sixty-six empirical articles were analyzed inductively with qualitative content analysis. The analysis showed that active learning was defined in various ways, and in some articles, it was not defined at all. In addition, justification (theoretical or empirical) for the use of active learning was seldomly reported. Finally, the indicators used to measure the impact of active learning on students’ learning outcomes were mostly based on students’ self-report data and focused on course specific development in subject-related knowledge. More thorough descriptions and theoretical justifications, as well as the consideration of learning outcomes with appropriate research methods, could reinforce the transparency of empirical interventions and the application of active learning.

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The concept of active learning and the measurement of learning outcomes: A review of research in engineering higher education

Las controversias sociocientificas surgen y nos rodean en los temas mas actuales y emergentes de nuestra sociedad: transgenicos, homeopatia, impacto de las telefonias, etc. Por eso creemos importante exponer en que consiste una controversia sociocientifica, estudiar la relacion entre las tematicas de controversias que aparecen en prensa y en la literatura didactica asi como si es posible el uso de estas controversias en el contexto escolar. La imagen consensuada con la que suelen aparecer las noticias cientificas en los medios de comunicacion va a dificultar su utilizacion en el aula. Del analisis documental de la literatura didactica, hemos podido seleccionar actividades que utilizan controversias y que pueden ser usadas como modelo para utilizar las controversias en el aula de ciencias y desarrollar distintas finalidades en el alumnado: alfabetizacion cientifica, pensamiento critico, fomento de la cultura cientifica, etc.

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Las controversias sociocientíficas: temáticas e importancia para la educación científica

Background:Interactive learning tools are emerging as effective educational materials in the area of computer science and engineering. It is a research domain that is rapidly expanding because of its positive impacts on motivating and improving students’ performance during the learning process.Material and methods:Taking into account the learning style index and learning preferences of engineering learners, the work uses software engineering techniques to develop the interactive learning environment. 
It also uses Java Technology in the implantation part.Results:This paper introduces an interactive learning environment for teaching and learning information and communication theory and related courses. The environment integrates several modules to meet the students’ different learning styles. It contains a movie-like module, an animated hypertext introductory module that fully explains the fundamental concepts of information and communication theory. Besides those important learning modules, it also contains a self-assessment module that contains a set of interactive tests and examinations.Conclusions:Learners can use the environment as a standalone application or as an applet from within any web browser. Some evaluation experiments comparative analyses of the results were performed to measure the performance of our environment in the classroom.

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An Interactive Learning Environment for Information and Communication Theory

La movilidad activa es saludable, contribuye a mitigar el cambio climatico y a mejorar la calidad del aire. La investigacion sobre los contenidos medioambientales y energeticos de la publicidad de la movilidad es de gran trascendencia. La gran novedad que aporta este estudio es el analisis de la publicidad donde aparece la bicicleta como elemento anadido, desde campanas de empresas, hasta publicidad institucional, y tambien de anuncios especificos donde se comercializan directamente bicicletas. Se ha realizado un analisis de tipo cualitativo basado en el material recopilado por los autores en mas de veinte anos. El papel  de la bicicleta en la publicidad de muchos productos suele ser sinonimo de calidad de vida, mejor comunicacion entre las personas, habitos saludables o actividades al aire libre.  Se detectan y analizan buenas y malas practicas tanto en campanas de empresas como institucionales. Algunos anuncios de bicicletas recurren a los mismos esloganes que los de los automoviles: gadgets, diseno, diversion, etc. Se recomienda insistir en el desarrollo de guias de comunicacion que insistan en la bicicleta como elemento de la Smart City, movilidad electrica, vehiculo cero emisiones y transporte saludable tanto con beneficios individuales como colectivos.

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La imagen de la Bicicleta en la comunicación publicitaria: movilidad sostenible, smartcity y cambio climático.

The use of information and communication methodologies during the University training period implies changes in the way of transmitting knowledge, which traditionally has been disseminated through lectures and conventional activities. These techniques make possible to integrate supplementary material such as images, videos, hyperlinks or interactive activities into the students' educational development, enabling a more attractive learning environment for both students and teachers. The relevance of transferring the acquired knowledge by the students in different forums throughout their academic life clearly justifies the onset of deep changes in all phases conforming the educational system, and especially in higher education. Therefore, the enhancement of communicative skills not only would be useful as a supportive tool in the training of students but also as a development strategy to improve students’ competences under different and increasingly changing fields. Within this variability of scenarios, the knowledge of a second language is of special interest due to the need to transmit the information to a broad public and the interaction with a diversity of agents, being all these aspects included in the general guidelines of university degrees as transversal competences. The dissemination of these concepts in an attractive way is essential to increase society's interest in science and the possibility of doing so in a second language, enabling information to reach a wider and more diverse audience. This project aims the encouragement of students in terms of collaborative work, incorporating communicative skills techniques (e.g. such as scientific posters) in their training process to facilitate communication and understanding of the theoretical basis that justify everyday phenomena that often go unnoticed. To reach this purpose, the students will have to group (3-5 students/group) and chose one of the topics previously proposed by the teachers. They will have to develop the quotidian phenomena and its theoretical foundation following a scientific poster template and give a short talk (2 minutes duration) after which, they should answer several questions. Each group activity will be assessed in terms of originality, accuracy, visuality and quality and by teachers and colleagues following a predetermined 1-5 scored template. The selection of a non-mother tongue to perform this activity will be positively evaluated. The expected benefits of this pilot proposal will be, among others, the promotion of self-learning, social and communicative skills and the enhancement of the interaction between students and professors, all this under the possibility of reinforcing the knowledge of basic concepts with the added value of the use of a second language.

Scientific posters to promote collaborative and bilingual learning

En este trabajo vamos a presentar el estado de desarrollo de un proyecto de innovacion educativa destinado a favorecer el uso de las Tecnologias de la Informacion y la Comunicacion (TIC) en la formacion cientifica y tecnica de los estudiantes de Ingenieria. En concreto este proyecto se ha centrado en la elaboracion y aplicacion de un software educativo que permita a nuestros alumnos aprender a manejar un sistema de adquisicion de datos (SAD) que despues sera utilizado como instrumento de medida de variables fisicas en diversos procesos experimentales. Tras elaborar un primer prototipo del programa hemos comenzado a utilizar esta aplicacion como instrumento de ensenanza virtual, en una fase previa al uso real del citado sistema de adquisicion de datos por parte de los alumnos, en el desarrollo de experiencias de laboratorio. En este proceso hemos observado que el software elaborado contribuye a que los estudiantes comiencen a familiarizarse con la metodologia experimental y el instrumental, antes de pasar a utilizarlo en la realizacion de experiencias reales.

El uso del ordenador como instrumento para enseñar a manejar sistemas de adquisición de datos experimentales

In this work an introduction to the main design features of a computer-aided educational package addressed to students of the final years of Electronic and Computer Engineering is presented. The Software includes interrelated tutorial, computer simulations and test questions, in which graphical outputs, hypertexts and animations are widely used. The package is devoted to the simulation study the concepts and propagation electromagnetic waves. It provides instant numerical evaluation and a graphical display of different studies. The software presented in this paper has all the following features: an integrative character, personalized and active learning process, adaptability to teacher’s aims, versatility as a teaching tool, multimedia resources and simplicity. This study has been carried out with final-year students at the Superior Polytechnic School of Cordoba (Spain), with highly favourable results when compared with students who did not use the software.

Gerardo Pedrós Pérez

Papers

La imagen de la Bicicleta en la comunicación publicitaria: movilidad sostenible, smartcity y cambio climático.

Scientific posters to promote collaborative and bilingual learning

El uso del ordenador como instrumento para enseñar a manejar sistemas de adquisición de datos experimentales

Simulation electromagnetic waves web as innovative methodology to improve the quality of electronic and computer engineering formation