Open University of Catalonia

About: Open University of Catalonia is a education organization based out in Barcelona, Spain. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Collaborative learning & Educational technology. The organization has 1943 authors who have published 4646 publications receiving 64200 citations. The organization is also known as: Universitat Oberta de Catalunya & UOC.

Promoting collaborative skills in online university: comparing effects of games, mixed reality, social media, and other tools for ICT-supported pedagogical practices

Abstract: This article analyses the development of collaborative skills through nine tools for information and communication technologies (ICT)-supported pedagogical practices, which are used in online unive...

La competencia informacional desde una perspectiva psicoeducativa: enseñanza basada en la resolución de problemas prototípicos y emergentes

Abstract: This article contributes from a psycho-educational perspective to the definition and characterization of the concept of informational competency in teaching and learning in school-based education and in the training of information professionals. The first section defines a competent person as one who is able to adequately solve a set of typical problems stemming from a particular social or community practice. Based on this definition, the authors then identify and characterize informational problems and the most significant incidents faced by students during their school work, which are grouped into three sections: the demand and the conditions through which it is satisfied; the presence and the activation of beliefs, conceptions and relevant knowledge; and the regulation of decisions, emotions and interactions with others. The text then presents some guidelines for training in information skills, based on authentic tasks. The article concludes by reflecting on the implementation of innovative educational experiences for the development of informational competency in the context of formal education.

Driving assistance system based on the detection of head-on collisions

Abstract: An artificial vision system for vehicles is proposed in this article to alert drivers of potential head on collisions. It is capable of detecting any type of frontal collision from any type of obstacle that may present itself in a vehiclepsilas path. The system operates based on a sequence of algorithms whose images are recorded on a camera located in the moving vehicle, resulting in the calculation of Time-to-Contact taken from an analysis of the optical flow, which allows the vehiclepsilas movement to be studied from a sequence of images.

Anticipatory sentence processing in children with specific language impairment: Evidence from eye movements during listening

Abstract: Twenty-five children with specific language impairment (SLI; age 5 years, 3 months [5;3]–8;2), 50 typically developing children (3;3–8;2), and 31 normal adults participated in three eye-tracking experiments of spoken language comprehension that were designed to investigate the use of verb information during real-time sentence comprehension in Spanish. In Experiment 1, participants heard sentences like El nino recorta con cuidado el papel (The boy trims carefully the paper) in the presence of four depicted objects, only one of which satisfied the semantic restrictions of the verb recorta (e.g., paper, clock, fox, and dinosaur). Eye movements revealed that children with SLI, like other groups, were able to recognize and retrieve the meaning of the verb rapidly enough to anticipate the upcoming semantically appropriate referent, prior to actually hearing the noun phrase el papel (the paper). Experiments 2 and 3 revealed that for all groups of participants, anticipatory eye movements were also modulated by the semantic fit of the object serving as the patient/theme of the verb. Relatively fine-grained semantic information of a verb was computed fast enough even by children with SLI to result in anticipatory eye movements to semantically appropriate referents. Children with SLI did differ from age-matched controls, but only slightly in terms of overall anticipatory looking at target objects; the time course of looking between these groups was quite similar. In addition, no differences were found between children with SLI and control children matched for mean length of utterance. Implications for theories that characterize SLI are discussed.

What are teens doing with media? An ethnographic approach for identifying transmedia skills and informal learning strategies

Abstract: The emergence of new media, devices, narratives and practices has compelled media literacy scholars and professionals to review their theoretical frameworks and methodological approaches. Based on a new conception – ‘transmedia literacy’ – that moves from traditional media literacy to informal learning and participatory cultures practices, the research program behind the present article tries to understand how new generations are doing things with media outside schools and how they learnt to do the things they do. The article begins by describing the transformations of media literacy in recent years as a consequence of the mutations of the media ecology and, in that context, proposes a methodological approachfor analysing the acquisition of transmedia skills in informal learning environments by teens. The article describes, analyses and evaluates the development and initial implementation of this methodology working with teenagers in a high-school in NAME CITY. It ends with a Research Kit that includes surveys, creative workshops, interactive interviews and media diaries with teens between 12-18 years old. The article also describes the evolution of this methodological approach from its original formulation to the evaluation of the model after it was tested, and reflects on the possibilities of developing specific research devices to be applied in transnational research.