Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Learning via technologies'

Facebook är den mest använda sociala plattformen bland vuxna i Sverige idag. Här sker dagligen erfarenhetsutbyten mellan individer som samlats kring något eller några gemensamma intressen. I det vanliga Facebookflödet kan detta vara familj och vänners välmående, i Facebookgrupper sker det kring mer specifikt uttalade ämnen. I Facebookgrupper inriktade mot lärare samlas således dessa kring ett gemensamt intresse för undervisning. Men det erfarenhetsutbyte som sker i dessa grupper och det lärande som det ger upphov till har idag ingen status i samhället. Skollagen påbjuder att lärare ska fortbildas och Skolverket rekommenderar kollegialt lärande som modell. I en fallstudie har tre Facebooktrådar från en Facebookgrupp inriktad mot matematiklärare analyserats och jämförts med fem trådar från en Facebookgrupp inriktad mot tekniklärare. Studien vill se hur pass väl de samtal som förekommer i Facebookgrupperna stämmer överens med definitionen på ett kollegialt lärande. Detta har gjorts genom en samtalsanalys där de utvalda trådarna har kopplats till kriterier för lärares yrkesmässiga kunskapsbas samtidigt som en analys av samtalets utveckling över tid förs. Trådarna från matematikgrupperna jämförs sedan med trådarna från teknikgrupperna för att belysa om samma samtalsutveckling sker oberoende av vilket ämne som diskuteras i trådarna. Slutsatsen är att ämnesrelevanta och didaktiska samtal förs i båda Facebookgruppernas alla trådar. Detta är dock inte tillräckligt för att samtalen ska kunna räknas till ett kollegialt lärande i och med att studien inte kan fastställa att lärandet sker över längre tid.
Facebook is the most used social platform for adults in Sweden today, with a daily exchange of experiences between individuals on topics of common interest. In the normal flow this could concern friends and family and in Facebook groups it focuses on more specific issues. Facebook groups oriented towards teachers are thus guided by a common interest in education, but the exchange of experience that takes place in these groups and the learning it gives rise to, do not have any status in the community. At the same time Skolverket demands that teachers train continually. This training should take place through professional learning. In a case study three Facebook threads from a Facebook group oriented towards mathematic teachers are analysed and compared to five threads from a Facebook group oriented towards technology teachers. The study examine to what extent the conversations that occur in the Facebook groups are consistent with the definition of professional learning. This has been achieved through a conversational analysis where the selected threads have been linked to criteria for teachers' professional knowledge base concurrent with an analysis of the conversation over time. The threads from the mathematics group are then compared with the threads from the technology groups in order to illuminate if the same conversational development takes place independent of what topic is discussed. The conclusion is that relevant and didactic conversations take place in all threads of both Facebook groups. However, this is not enough to conclude that the conversations should be counted as professional learning as the study cannot ascertain that the learning takes place over a longer period of time.

Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo descrever de que modo está sendo promovida a aprendizagem de idiomas, mais especificamente de língua francesa, através de aplicativos para smartphones. Os aplicativos, isto é, as aplicações de software possuem uma infinidade de objetivos e são usadas atualmente em diversos contextos, podendo funcionar como um acesso às redes sociais ou como uma plataforma para a aprendizagem. A m-learning (mobile-learning) consiste na aprendizagem por meio de TIMS (Tecnologias da Informação Móveis e Sem fio) representadas pelos tablets e os smartphones. As TIMS surgem para complementar as já conhecidas TIC (Tecnologias da Informação e Comunicação), isto é, os computadores, televisores, rádio e etc., e a m-learning para complementar a e-learning (eletronic-learning), a aprendizagem via TIC. Estima-se que hoje existam cerca de 7 bilhões de telefones celulares ativos em todo mundo nas mãos de uma população mundial de 7,1 bilhões e a penetração dos smartphones no Brasil já chega a 64% da população (CONSUMER BAROMETER WITH GOOGLE, 2016). No ensino-aprendizagem de línguas adicionais, a utilização de TIC já é um campo bastante discutido, entretanto, no caso das TIMS, apesar da popularização dos dispositivos móveis, as pesquisas ainda são muito recentes. Contudo, a criação de aplicativos voltados a aprendizagem de idiomas não deixa de aumentar, assim como o seu público. De modo a propiciar um debate sobre o futuro da aprendizagem móvel entre professores de línguas, linguistas e desenvolvedores de aplicativos para dispositivos móveis, este trabalho buscou relatar e analisar alguns dentre os aplicativos mais populares presentes na Google Play Store para dispositivos móveis voltados à aprendizagem de língua francesa. Com a presença de QrCodes e printscreens da tela de um smartphone MotoX, sistema Android 5.1, sete aplicativos que se anunciavam como cursos de francês foram descritos e avaliados tanto pelos fatores ligados à didática quanto aos relativos à interface; são eles o Mondly, Duolingo, Memrise, Mosalingua, Babbel, Busuu e Le Bon Mot. Foram analisadas as atividades presentes na primeira lição de cada aplicativo selecionado, evidenciando e comparando o construto e a metodologia anunciada na Google Play Store ao que realmente é desenvolvido durante a utilização de cada aplicativo. Em um segundo momento, a partir da utilização dos aplicativos, foram analisadas questões ligadas à interface e usabilidade dos aplicativos, isto é, a presença e o funcionamento de recursos de imagem, áudio e vídeo em cada aplicativo, as dificuldades em relação ao uso da plataforma, etc. A partir desta descrição e desta análise minuciosa, pode-se concluir que apesar dos aplicativos serem, de uma forma geral, inovadores quanto às questões ligadas à interface, com uma boa usabilidade, no quesito didático-metodológico se anunciam como seguidores do método comunicativo na Google Play Store, mas utilizam abordagens tradicionais e estruturalistas. Nota-se, desse modo, a persistência de um ensino focado somente na repetição e na aprendizagem de vocabulário que, apesar de acompanhado de plataformas e interfaces bem construídas, não correspondem às necessidades comunicativas dos aprendizes do século XXI.
This research aims to describe how language learning, specifically French, is being promoted through mobile applications.Applications, that is, software that can be installed in MICT (Mobile Information and Communication Technologies), possess lots of goals and are currently used in various contexts. Furthermore, they can function as access to social networks or as platforms for learning. The M-learning (mobile-learning) is the learning through MICT, such as smartphones and tablets. MICT come to complement the already known ICT (Information and Communication Technologies), for instance, desktop computers, televisions and radio, and m-learning to complement e-learning (electronic-learning), i.e. learning via ICT. It is estimated that currently there are about 7 billion active mobile phones worldwide at the hands of a world population of 7.1 billion people, and smartphone penetration within Brazil already reaches 62% of its population (CONSUMER BAROMETER WITH GOOGLE, 2016) In the process of teaching and learning additional languages, the use of ICT is already a widely discussed field. As for MICT, despite the popularization of mobile devices, research is still relatively recent. However, the creation of applications aimed at language learning is increasing, as is its audience. As to endorse a joint debate on the future of mobile learning among language teachers, linguists, and mobile application developers, this work attempted to report and analyze some of the most popular applications on mobile devices related to French-language learning, which are available on Google Play Store. With this aim, a MotoX smartphone with Android 5.1 system was used as a support and seven applications (Mondly, Duolingo, Memrise, Mosalingua, Babbel, Busuu and Le Bon Mot), advertised as French courses, were described and evaluated regarding didactic and interface aspects. QR codes and print screens of the analysis are presented throughout this work to facilitate future reference and queries. The activities in the first lesson of each selected application were analyzed evidencing and comparing the construct and the methodology announced in Google Play Store with what is actually developed during the use of the application. In a second moment, from the use of the applications, questions related to the interface and usability of the applications were analyzed, such as the presence and operation of image, audio and video resources in each application and the difficulties regarding the use of the platform. From this description and analysis, it is noticed that the applications are, in general, innovative in the questions of interface and usability. However, in the didactic-methodological aspect, they are traditional and structuralist, although they were advertised as communicative in the Google Play Store. On theses apps, it is noticed a teaching method focused only on repetition and learning of vocabulary which, although accompanied by well-constructed platforms and interfaces, does not correspond to the communicative needs of the learners of the 21st century.

North-West University in South Africa is committed to expanding use of learning technologies for contact and distance education students by augmenting the existing NWU teaching and learning policy with an e-learning policy. The School of Continuing Teacher Education at North-West University is currently training about 24 000 in-service teacher students through Open Distance Learning. Only a few students submit assignments in typed format and seldom electronically. Students rarely use electronic technologies to augment their learning, and the SCTE employs few to support students. This does not comply with the South African Government’s policy on e-Education that demands information and communication technology mastery in teacher training. The aim of this research was integration of learning technologies in open distance learning at SCTE NWU through recommendations compiled in a sociologically transformative emergent implementation framework. The researcher followed a concurrent mixed-method sociologically transformative approach, focussing on the use of technology for social empowerment to cross the digital divide, through a theoretical lens of ICT for development. The lived experience in the natural setting of distance education students, lecturers, and involved stakeholders was used as initial data collection, informed by a continuous literature study of emergent learning technology use. Purposeful sampling was used during participant selection. The role of the researcher was that of participant observer, interviewer, and human instrument, from a position of methodological pragmatism as a method of inquiry. Using a design-based research approach, the thesis addresses the main research question through five research papers; each addressing one of the sub-questions as design-based research cycles, while collectively addressing the research problem to address the main research question. Nonstandardised measuring instruments were developed based on themes identified from literature and the analysis of qualitative data. Significant barriers to population-wide ICT adoption exist. Strong intentions of perseverance in attaining functional computer literacy are evident. Support and enablement are required to promote trust to attempt using computers, necessary to obtain self-confidence through accomplishment. In this way perseverance to attain functional computer literacy may be cultivated. The study presents a model for intention to use, confidence, trust and perseverance in attaining computer literacy competence with statistically significant standardised regression weights. In terms of affective responses of students during computer literacy training, a twodimensional model for computer literacy learning emotions is presented. Perceptions during professional development produced a model for faculty development towards socially transformative learning technology integration for open distance learning. The researcher also presents a people-technology interaction in teaching and learning model in the fifth paper. A distinction is made between reactionary interventions and pre-emptive unobtrusive seamless support, based on requirements identified through bottom-up feedback listening to latent requests of participants. Technology-enhanced learning integration should be legitimised through visible commitment from the university as institution. Lecturer training, innovative planning of time issues, acquisition of appropriate infrastructure, buying in from the institution and IT support services, and support of teacher-students are all essential for evolvement towards an e-mature organisation for the delivery of ODL to vast numbers of newly industrialised context clients.
Thesis (PhD (Curriculum Development Innovation and Evaluation))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013

Aquesta recerca estudia la viabilitat d'una educació en línia basada en l'apoderament com a via per a la millora de l'ocupabilitat al segle XXI. Concretament, mitjançant una implementació de la teoria del capital humà fonamentada en: 1) un aprenentatge al llarg de la vida fent servir mitjans en línia; 2) una educació en línia assentada sobre els pilars sociotècnics formats per sistemes de persones i tecnologies que actuen integradament; 3) una educació que ha de formar treballadors, però també ciutadans actius i emancipats socialment, i 4) una consideració dels estats de liminaritat existents en els estudiants, d'acord amb les seves diverses situacions individuals d'accés i ús de múltiples dispositius digitals de manera ubiqua i ininterrompuda, és a dir, en espais, llocs, temps i moments adequats a les seves necessitats. La recerca mostra que aquest tipus d'educació proporciona resultats positius en tres àmbits, no sempre estretament lligats entre si: 1) l'econòmic, contribuint a tenir contractes de feina, estabilitat laboral i seguretat dels llocs de treball; 2) el social, considerant l'alfabetització mediàtica com a via per a l'apoderament i la inclusió social, en el sentit de desenvolupar habilitats orientades a la ciutadania activa i a l'emancipació, i 3) el socioeconòmic, fusionant totes dues dimensions i establint una educació d'acord amb valors, coneixements i tècniques amb els quals es pugui fomentar una integració d'habilitats relacionades amb predisposició per a l'ocupació, la gestió del coneixement, l'apoderament mediàtic, la col·laboració, la digitalització i la consciència respecte a les tendències futures del mercat de treball. Les proves científiques mostren que una educació en línia vàlida per a l'ocupabilitat ha de tenir una forta orientació social i estar basada en uns estudiants amb un rol de ciutadania activa i responsables sobre el seu futur professional. Una educació d'aquest tipus serà capaç de resoldre el nus gordià d'una ocupabilitat entesa com un capital de fluïdesa contínua amb el qual saber moure's emancipadament en el mercat de treball.
Esta investigación estudia la viabilidad de una educación en línea basada en el empoderamiento como vía para la mejora de la empleabilidad en el siglo XXI. Concretamente, mediante una implementación de la teoría del capital humano fundamentada en: 1) un aprendizaje a lo largo de la vida usando medios en línea; 2) una educación en línea asentada sobre los pilares sociotécnicos conformados por sistemas de personas y tecnologías que actúan de forma integrada; 3) una educación que tiene que formar a trabajadores, pero también a ciudadanos activos y emancipados socialmente, y 4) una consideración de los estados de liminaridad existentes en los estudiantes, de acuerdo con sus distintas situaciones individuales de acceso y uso de múltiples dispositivos digitales de modo ubicuo e ininterrumpido, es decir, en espacios, lugares, tiempos y momentos adecuados a sus necesidades. La investigación muestra que este tipo de educación proporciona resultados positivos en tres ámbitos, no siempre estrechamente ligados entre sí: 1) el económico, contribuyendo a tener contratos de empleo, estabilidad laboral y seguridad de los puestos de trabajo; 2) el social, considerando la alfabetización mediática como vía para el empoderamiento y la inclusión social, en el sentido de desarrollar habilidades orientadas a la ciudadanía activa y a la emancipación, y 3) el socioeconómico, fusionando ambas dimensiones y estableciendo una educación de acuerdo con valores, conocimientos y técnicas con los que pueda fomentarse una integración de habilidades relacionadas con predisposición para el empleo, la gestión del conocimiento, el empoderamiento mediático, la colaboración, la digitalización y la consciencia respecto a las tendencias futuras del mercado de trabajo. Las pruebas científicas muestran que una educación en línea válida para la empleabilidad debe tener una fuerte orientación social y estar basada en unos estudiantes con un rol de ciudadanía activa y responsables acerca de su futuro profesional. Una educación de este tipo será capaz de resolver el nudo gordiano de una empleabilidad entendida como un capital de continua fluidez con el que saber desenvolverse de un modo emancipado en el mercado de trabajo.
This research studies the viability of empowerment-based online education as a way to improve employability in the 21st century. Specifically, through an implementation of human capital theory based on: 1) lifelong learning through online media; 2) online education based on the socio-technical pillars that are systems that integrate the actions of people and technologies; 3) an education that must deliver people who are ready to work but are also active and socially emancipated citizens; and 4) a consideration of the states of liminality existing in students, according to their different individual circumstances regarding access and use of multiple digital devices in a ubiquitous and uninterrupted way, that is in spaces, places, times and moments appropriate to their needs. The research shows that this type of education provides positive results in three areas which are not always closely linked: 1) economics: contributing to employment contracts, job stability and job security; 2) social: considering media literacy as a path towards empowerment and social inclusion, with the development of skills that encourage active citizenship and liberation; and 3) socioeconomics: combining the two previous dimensions, and providing education in accordance with the values, knowledge and techniques needed for students to acquire skills relating to readiness to work, knowledge management, media empowerment, collaboration, digitization, and awareness as regards future labour market trends. Scientific evidence shows that online education valid for employability must have a strong social orientation and be based on students having a role of citizens who are active and responsible as regards their future professional lives. Education of this kind will be able to solve the Gordian knot of employability, understanding it as a continuously fluid capital with which the labour market can be freely navigated.

Mestrado em Economia e Gestão da Ciência e Tecnologia e Inovação
Como pode a utilização quotidiana das TIC, principalmente o computador e a Internet, em casa e no emprego, contribuir para a qualificação da população activa? Podem as TIC criar gosto e reconhecimento pela aprendizagem numa população cujos baixos níveis médios de qualificação condicionam o reconhecimento da necessidade de aprender? Estas são as questões geradoras do trabalho que aqui se apresenta. Com um carácter exploratório procurou-se respostas fazendo uma reflexão sobre as relações e articulações entre o desenvolvimento das competências em TIC e a necessidade de melhoria do nível de qualificações da população activa, através da integração desta população em processos inclusivos e sustentados de ALV, de âmbito mais alargado. Tendo como objecto central a população activa portuguesa, tentou-se compreender como esta constrói e reconstrói o seu portfólio de competências e qualificações, atendendo às suas experiências nos sistemas de ensino e formação e no meio social e institucional em que está inserida. A análise inclui duas metodologias complementares: a primeira, quantitativa, compreendeu a concepção e administração de um inquérito por questionário, onde se procurou ilustrar os canais formais e informais de aquisição e desenvolvimento de competências em TIC. A segunda fase, de natureza qualitativa, é composta pela elaboração de um conjunto de questões de aprofundamento que emanaram da análise dos significados dos resultados obtidos do cruzamento dos dados primários do inquérito com outros estudos e fontes secundárias. Estas questões foram discutidas e analisadas através de entrevistas a actores-chave. Concluiu-se que as TIC enquanto objecto de aprendizagem (algo por aprender), sujeito de auxilio à aprendizagem e meio de promoção e sustentação do próprio processo de aprendizagem, podem, efectivamente, ter efeitos benéficos na qualificação da população activa, sinalizando a importância da participação em processos inclusivos e sustentados de ALV, de âmbito mais alargado, o que pressupõe a valorização e exploração dos canais informais.
How could ICT daily use, mainly computer and Internet, both at home and at work, contribute for Portuguese working age population qualification? Could ICT contribute towards learning, making it more interesting and important in a society whose low average levels of qualification condition the social valorization of learning? These are the generating questions of this work. With an exploratory approach we attempt to understand the links between the development of ICT competencies and the need of improvement of the working force average level of qualifications, by means of their integration on LLL inclusive and sustainable processes, of a more widened scope. Having Portuguese working age population as our research object, we tried to understand how it constructs and reconstructs its qualifications and competencies portfolio, having into account the conditionings, both from its experiences on the education and training systems, and from the social and institutional environment where it is inserted. Our analysis is composed of two complementary methodologies: first, a quantitative one, consisting of the conception and application of an inquiry by questionnaire, where we attempted to illustrate the informal and formal channels of acquisition and development of ICT competencies. The second phase, of a qualitative nature, focused on the analysis of a set of research topics resulting from the crossing of inquiry outputs with other surveys and reports. These topics were discussed and analyzed by interviewing selected key actors. It is conclude that ICT while object of learning (something to learn), subject of assistance to learning and medium of promotion and sustentation of learning process, can, effectively, contribute for the improvement of the working age population qualifications, screening the importance of the participation in inclusive and sustainable LLL process, of a more widening scope, what implies the valorization and exploration of the informal channels.

Detta examensarbete undersöker om ett skolprogram på Vetenskapens Hus har förmågan att skapa en bro mellan gymnasieelevers matematikkunskap, universitetsmatematik och dess praktiska tillämpning för att därmed öka deras intresse och motivation för inlärning av matematik- och fysikämnen. Skolprogrammets tema är fourieranalys och dess tillämpning inom ljudsyntes och digital ljudbehandling (DSP). Skolprogrammet har att göra med matematik, fysik och IT, vilket gör programmet tvärvetenskapligt. En viktig del av detta arbete är också att vidareutveckla detta skolprogram med avseende på resultaten från denna undersökning. Resultaten är baserade på kvalitativa data från enkäter och intervjuer med eleverna som deltog i testfallen av skolprogrammet och deras lärare samt på litteraturstudier. Information samlades också in under en iterativ process av programmets vidareutveckling. Denna rapport inleds med motivering till genomförandet av detta arbete, studiens syfte- och målsättning samt formulering av huvudfrågeställningar. Därefter beskrivs metoder som användes för att besvara frågeställningarna. I mitten av rapporten sammanfattas litteratur och forskningsstudier inom undervisning, intresse och motivation samt sammanfattas en vetenskaplig bas för innehållet i skolprogrammet inom fourieranalys. Därefter beskrivs utvecklingsprocessen av skolprogrammet. Detta följs av en presentation av resultaten från testning av skolprogrammet med gymnasieelever med avseende på hur deras intresse och motivation påverkas av det. Rapporten avslutas med diskussion av dessa resultat och dess trovärdighet. Resultaten visar att den sista versionen av den laborativa aktiviteten, som vidareutvecklades inom ramen av detta arbete, väcker elevernas intresse och motivation för temat av skolprogrammet. Resultaten visar också att vissa komplexa begrepp (både nya och de som eleverna lär sig i skolan) blir klarare för eleverna efter skolprogrammet, vilket potentiellt kan leda till ökning av deras motivation till att lära sig matematik och naturvetenskap generellt. Problemet är dock att skolprogrammet testades med för få gymnasieklasser för att kunna generalisera resultatet över hela målgruppen av gymnasieelever.
This thesis investigates the ability of a lab exercise in House of Science (Vetenskapens Hus),Stockholm, to create bridges between upper-secondary school students’ knowledge, university mathematics and practical application of that knowledge, thus increasing their motivation and interest to learn more mathematics and physics. The topic of the lab exercise is Fourier analysis and its practical application in Digital Sound Processing (DSP). The lab exercise deals with mathematics, physics and IT-technology thus making the activity interdisciplinary. An important part of the work is also to improve this lab exercise based on the results of this study. The result is based on qualitative data from interviews, questionnaires filled by students and their teachers and also on literature studies. Some data is also collected through an iterative process of improving the lab exercise. This report starts with justification for conducting this work, setting the goals and objectives and formulating main questions. Then the methods, which were used in order to answer these questions, are described. The middle part of the report summarizes literature and research studies in education, interest and motivation of students and also summarizes a scientific basis for the content of the school program in Fourier analysis. Next, the development process of the school program is described. This is followed by a presentationof the results of testing the school program with upper secondary school students with regard to how their interest and motivation are affected by it. The report ends with a discussion of these results and its credibility. The result shows that the final version of the lab exercise, that is modified within the framework of this study, wakes students’ interest and motivation towards the topic of the exercise. The result also shows that some complex concepts (both new and those which are learned in school) become clearer for the students after the exercise which could potentiallylead to an increase in their motivation for learning the mathematics and physics in general. The problem is that the lab exercise was tested on too few classes for being able to generalize the result over the whole target group of the upper-secondary school students.

As tecnologias digitais compõem um cenário de mudanças em diversas esferas da sociedade. O objetivo deste trabalho foi investigar a presença de tais tecnologias na EJA (educação de jovens e adultos), por meio dos usos que estudantes dizem fazer dessas tecnologias e as possíveis relações desses usos com o processo de escolarização e as aprendizagens que vivenciam. Foram aplicados trinta questionários a jovens e adultos matriculados em salas de EJA de escolas públicas da região da Freguesia do Ó e Brasilândia, na zona noroeste de São Paulo, e realizadas entrevistas de profundidade com cinco dos sujeitos que responderam aos questionários. Os resultados indicam que a maior parte dos sujeitos utiliza as tecnologias digitais fora das escolas para se comunicarem, para se divertirem e aprenderem sobre temas relacionados a projetos pessoais e conteúdos culturais de seu interesse. Também é possível afirmar que a apropriação das tecnologias, explorando suas diversas possibilidades para a realização de projetos individuais ou coletivos, depende de saberes prévios aprendidos na escola. Sem estarem alfabetizados, por exemplo, a capacidade de navegação pela rede fica comprometida, e quanto mais escolarizados, mais os sujeitos da EJA se apropriam das tecnologias digitais. A partir das análises destes resultados são desenhadas recomendações de como os projetos de EJA, as escolas e as políticas públicas podem contribuir para a ampliação dos usos das tecnologias digitais, e para que estes usos auxiliem nos processos de aprendizagem ao longo da vida dos sujeitos da educação de jovens e adultos.
Digital technologies form a scenario of changes in many spheres of society. The objective of this study is to investigate the existence of such technologies in youth and adult education, through the uses of technologies that students report and the relationship between these uses and the schooling process they experience. Thirty questionnaires were answered by young people and adults registered in adult education classrooms of public schools in the region of Freguesia do Ó and Brasilândia, in the northwest of São Paulo city, and five of these students were interviewed aftwerwards. The results indicate that most of the students uses digital technologies outside schools to communicate, have fun and to learn about topics related to their personal projects and cultural content of their interest. It is also possible to say that the appropriation of technologies, exploring its many possibilities for the implementation of individual and group projects, depends on prior knowledge learned at school. Without being literate, as an example, the ability to navigate through internet is compromised, and the more people are educated in school, more they appropriate the digital technologies. The analysis of these results bring some recommendations to adult education projects, schools and public policies, to try to expand the uses of digital technologies for life-long learning of brazilian youngsters and adults.

L’âge moyen de la population française et européenne augmente, cette constatation apporte de nouveaux enjeux techniques et sociétaux, les personnes âgées étant les personnes les plus fragiles et les plus vulnérables, notamment du point de vue des accidents domestiques et en particulier des chutes. C’est pourquoi de nombreux projets d’aide aux personnes âgées : techniques, universitaires et commerciaux ont vu le jour ces dernières années. Ce travail de thèse a été effectué sous convention Cifre, conjointement entre l’entreprise KRG Corporate et le laboratoire BMBI (Biomécanique et Bio-ingénierie) de l’UTC (Université de technologie de Compiègne). Elle a pour objet de proposer un capteur de reconnaissance de sons et des activités de la vie courante, dans le but d’étoffer et d’améliorer le système de télé-assistance déjà commercialisé par la société. Plusieurs méthodes de reconnaissance de parole ou de reconnaissance du locuteur ont déjà été éprouvées dans le domaine de la reconnaissance de sons, entre autres les techniques : GMM (Modèle de mélange gaussien–Gaussian Mixture Model), SVM-GSL (Machine à vecteurs de support, GMM-super-vecteur à noyau linéaire – Support vector machine GMM Supervector Linear kernel) et HMM (Modèle de Markov caché – Hidden Markov Model). De la même manière, nous nous sommes proposés d’utiliser les i-vecteurs pour la reconnaissance de sons. Les i-vecteurs sont utilisés notamment en reconnaissance de locuteur, et ont révolutionné ce domaine récemment. Puis nous avons élargi notre spectre, et utilisé l’apprentissage profond (Deep Learning) qui donne actuellement de très bon résultats en classification tous domaines confondus. Nous les avons tout d’abord utilisés en renfort des i-vecteurs, puis nous les avons utilisés comme système de classification exclusif. Les méthodes précédemment évoquées ont également été testées en conditions bruités puis réelles. Ces différentes expérimentations nous ont permis d’obtenir des taux de reconnaissance très satisfaisants, les réseaux de neurones en renfort des i-vecteurs et les réseaux de neurones seuls étant les systèmes ayant la meilleure précision, avec une amélioration très significative par rapport aux différents systèmes issus de la reconnaissance de parole et de locuteur
The average age of the French and European population is increasing; this observation brings new technical and societal challenges. Older people are the most fragile and vulnerable, especially in terms of domestic accidents and specifically falls. This is why many elderly people care projects : technical, academic and commercial have seen the light of day in recent years. This thesis work wasc arried out under Cifre agreement, jointly between the company KRG Corporate and the BMBI laboratory (Biomechanics and Bioengineering) of the UTC (Université of Technologie of Compiègne). Its purpose is to offer a sensor for sound recognition and everyday activities, with the aim of expanding and improving the tele-assistance system already marketed by the company. Several speech recognition or speaker recognition methods have already been proven in the field of sound recognition, including GMM (Modèle de mélange gaussien – Gaussian Mixture Model), SVM-GSL (Machine à vecteurs de support, GMM-super-vecteur à noyau linéaire – Support vector machine GMM Supervector Linear kernel) and HMM (Modèle de Markov caché – Hidden Markov Model). In the same way, we proposed to use i-vectors for sound recognition. I-Vectors are used in particular in speaker recognition, and have revolutionized this field recently. Then we broadened our spectrum, and used Deep Learning, which currently gives very good results in classification across all domains. We first used them to reinforce the i-vectors, then we used them as our exclusive classification system. The methods mentioned above were also tested under noisy and then real conditions. These different experiments gaves us very satisfactory recognition rates, with neural networks as reinforcement for i-vectors and neural networks alone being the most accurate systems, with a very significant improvement compared to the various speech and speaker recognition systems

S tím, jak se neustále vyvíjejí nové technologie pro energeticky náročná průmyslová odvětví, stávající zařízení postupně zaostávají v efektivitě a produktivitě. Tvrdá konkurence na trhu a legislativa v oblasti životního prostředí nutí tato tradiční zařízení k ukončení provozu a k odstavení. Zlepšování procesu a projekty modernizace jsou zásadní v udržování provozních výkonů těchto zařízení. Současné přístupy pro zlepšování procesů jsou hlavně: integrace procesů, optimalizace procesů a intenzifikace procesů. Obecně se v těchto oblastech využívá matematické optimalizace, zkušeností řešitele a provozní heuristiky. Tyto přístupy slouží jako základ pro zlepšování procesů. Avšak, jejich výkon lze dále zlepšit pomocí moderní výpočtové inteligence. Účelem této práce je tudíž aplikace pokročilých technik umělé inteligence a strojového učení za účelem zlepšování procesů v energeticky náročných průmyslových procesech. V této práci je využit přístup, který řeší tento problém simulací průmyslových systémů a přispívá následujícím: (i)Aplikace techniky strojového učení, která zahrnuje jednorázové učení a neuro-evoluci pro modelování a optimalizaci jednotlivých jednotek na základě dat. (ii) Aplikace redukce dimenze (např. Analýza hlavních komponent, autoendkodér) pro vícekriteriální optimalizaci procesu s více jednotkami. (iii) Návrh nového nástroje pro analýzu problematických částí systému za účelem jejich odstranění (bottleneck tree analysis – BOTA). Bylo také navrženo rozšíření nástroje, které umožňuje řešit vícerozměrné problémy pomocí přístupu založeného na datech. (iv) Prokázání účinnosti simulací Monte-Carlo, neuronové sítě a rozhodovacích stromů pro rozhodování při integraci nové technologie procesu do stávajících procesů. (v) Porovnání techniky HTM (Hierarchical Temporal Memory) a duální optimalizace s několika prediktivními nástroji pro podporu managementu provozu v reálném čase. (vi) Implementace umělé neuronové sítě v rámci rozhraní pro konvenční procesní graf (P-graf). (vii) Zdůraznění budoucnosti umělé inteligence a procesního inženýrství v biosystémech prostřednictvím komerčně založeného paradigmatu multi-omics.

Le problème “d’apprentissage continu” implique l’entraînement des modèles profonds avec une capacité limitée qui doivent bien fonctionner sur un nombre inconnu de tâches arrivant séquentiellement. Cette configuration peut souvent résulter en un système d’apprentissage qui souffre de “l’oublie catastrophique”, lorsque l’apprentissage d’une nouvelle tâche provoque des interférences sur la progression de l’apprentissage des anciennes tâches. Les travaux récents ont montré que les techniques de “méta-apprentissage” ont le potentiel de ré- duire les interférences entre les anciennes et les nouvelles tâches. Cependant, les procé- dures d’entraînement ont présentement une tendance à être lente ou hors ligne et sensibles à de nombreux hyperparamètres. Dans ce travail, nous proposons “Look-ahead MAML (La-MAML)”, un algorithme de méta-apprentissage rapide basé sur l’optimisation pour l’apprentissage continu en ligne et aidé par une petite mémoire épisodique. Ceci est réalisé en utilisant l’équivalence d’un objectif MAML en plusieurs étapes et un objectif d’apprentissage continu “temps conscient”. L’équivalence résulte au développement d’un algorithme intuitif que nous appelons Continual-MAML (C-MAML), utilisant un méta-apprentissage continu pour optimiser un modèle afin qu’il fonctionne bien sur une série de distributions de don- nées changeantes. En intégrant la modulation des taux d’apprentissage par paramètre dans La-MAML, notre approche fournit un moyen plus flexible et efficace d’atténuer l’oubli catas- trophique par rapport aux méthodes classiques basées sur les prieurs. Cette modulation a également des liens avec des travaux sur la métadescendance, que nous identifions comme une direction importante de la recherche pour développer de meilleurs optimiser pour un ap- prentissage continu. Dans des expériences menées sur des repères de classification visuelle du monde réel, La-MAML atteint des performances supérieures aux autres approches basées sur la relecture, basées sur les prieurs et basées sur le méta-apprentissage pour un apprentissage continu. Nous démontrons également qu’elle est robuste et plus évolutive que de nombreuses approches de pointe.
The continual learning problem involves training models with limited capacity to perform well on a set of an unknown number of sequentially arriving tasks. This setup can of- ten see a learning system undergo catastrophic forgetting, when learning a newly seen task causes interference on the learning progress of old tasks. While recent work has shown that meta-learning has the potential to reduce interference between old and new tasks, the current training procedures tend to be either slow or offline, and sensitive to many hyper-parameters. In this work, we propose Look-ahead MAML (La-MAML), a fast optimisation-based meta- learning algorithm for online-continual learning, aided by a small episodic memory. This is achieved by realising the equivalence of a multi-step MAML objective to a time-aware con- tinual learning objective adopted in prior work. The equivalence leads to the formulation of an intuitive algorithm that we call Continual-MAML (C-MAML), employing continual meta- learning to optimise a model to perform well across a series of changing data distributions. By additionally incorporating the modulation of per-parameter learning rates in La-MAML, our approach provides a more flexible and efficient way to mitigate catastrophic forgetting compared to conventional prior-based methods. This modulation also has connections to prior work on meta-descent, which we identify as an important direction of research to de- velop better optimizers for continual learning. In experiments conducted on real-world visual classification benchmarks, La-MAML achieves performance superior to other replay-based, prior-based and meta-learning based approaches for continual learning. We also demonstrate that it is robust, and more scalable than many recent state-of-the-art approaches.

Quand le E-learning a émergé il ya 20 ans, cela consistait simplement en un texte affiché sur un écran d'ordinateur, comme un livre. Avec les changements et les progrès dans la technologie, le E-learning a parcouru un long chemin, maintenant offrant un matériel éducatif personnalisé, interactif et riche en contenu. Aujourd'hui, le E-learning se transforme de nouveau. En effet, avec la prolifération des systèmes d'apprentissage électronique et des outils d'édition de contenu éducatif, ainsi que les normes établies, c’est devenu plus facile de partager et de réutiliser le contenu d'apprentissage. En outre, avec le passage à des méthodes d'enseignement centrées sur l'apprenant, en plus de l'effet des techniques et technologies Web2.0, les apprenants ne sont plus seulement les récipiendaires du contenu d'apprentissage, mais peuvent jouer un rôle plus actif dans l'enrichissement de ce contenu. Par ailleurs, avec la quantité d'informations que les systèmes E-learning peuvent accumuler sur les apprenants, et l'impact que cela peut avoir sur leur vie privée, des préoccupations sont soulevées afin de protéger la vie privée des apprenants. Au meilleur de nos connaissances, il n'existe pas de solutions existantes qui prennent en charge les différents problèmes soulevés par ces changements. Dans ce travail, nous abordons ces questions en présentant Cadmus, SHAREK, et le E-learning préservant la vie privée. Plus précisément, Cadmus est une plateforme web, conforme au standard IMS QTI, offrant un cadre et des outils adéquats pour permettre à des tuteurs de créer et partager des questions de tests et des examens. Plus précisément, Cadmus fournit des modules telles que EQRS (Exam Question Recommender System) pour aider les tuteurs à localiser des questions appropriées pour leur examens, ICE (Identification of Conflits in Exams) pour aider à résoudre les conflits entre les questions contenu dans un même examen, et le Topic Tree, conçu pour aider les tuteurs à mieux organiser leurs questions d'examen et à assurer facilement la couverture des différent sujets contenus dans les examens. D'autre part, SHAREK (Sharing REsources and Knowledge) fournit un cadre pour pouvoir profiter du meilleur des deux mondes : la solidité des systèmes E-learning et la flexibilité de PLE (Personal Learning Environment) tout en permettant aux apprenants d'enrichir le contenu d'apprentissage, et les aider à localiser nouvelles ressources d'apprentissage. Plus précisément, SHAREK combine un système recommandation multicritères, ainsi que des techniques et des technologies Web2.0, tels que le RSS et le web social, pour promouvoir de nouvelles ressources d'apprentissage et aider les apprenants à localiser du contenu adapté. Finalement, afin de répondre aux divers besoins de la vie privée dans le E-learning, nous proposons un cadre avec quatre niveaux de vie privée, ainsi que quatre niveaux de traçabilité. De plus, nous présentons ACES (Anonymous Credentials for E-learning Systems), un ensemble de protocoles, basés sur des techniques cryptographiques bien établies, afin d'aider les apprenants à atteindre leur niveau de vie privée désiré.
E-learning emerged over 20 years ago, and was merely book like text displayed on a computer screen. With the changes and advances in technology, E-learning has come a long way, providing personal and interactive rich content. Today, E-learning is again going through major changes. Indeed, with the proliferation of E-learning systems and content authoring tools, as well as established standards, it has become easier to share and reuse learning content. Moreover, with the shift to learner centered education and the effect of Web2.0 techniques and technologies, learners are no longer just recipients of the learning content, but can play an active role into enriching such content. Additionally, with the amount of information E-learning systems can gather about learners, and the impact this has on their privacy, concerns are being raised in order to protect learners’ privacy. Nonetheless, to the best of our knowledge, there is no existing work that supports the various challenges raised by these changes. In this work, we address these issues by presenting Cadmus, SHAREK, and privacy preserving E-learning. Specifically, Cadmus is an IMS QTI compliant web based assessment authoring tool, offering the proper framework and tools to enable tutors author and share questions and exams. In detail, Cadmus provides functionalities such as the EQRS (Exam Questions Recommender System) to help tutors locate suitable questions, ICE (Identification of Conflicts in Exams) to help resolve conflicts between questions within the same exam, and the topic tree, designed to help tutors better organize their exam questions and easily ensure the content coverage of their exams. On the other hand, SHAREK (Sharing REsources and Knowledge) provides the framework to take advantage of both the rigidity of E-learning systems and the flexibility of PLEs (Personal Learning Environment) while enabling learners to enrich the learning content, and helping them locate new learning resources. Specifically, SHAREK utilizes a multi-criteria content based recommender system, and combines Web2.0 technologies and techniques such as RSS and social web to promote new learning resources and help learners locate suitable content. Lastly, in order to address the various needs for privacy in E-learning, we propose a framework with four levels of privacy, and four levels of tracking, and we detail ACES (Anonymous Credentials for E-learning Systems), a set of protocols, based on well established cryptographic techniques, to help learners achieve their desired level of privacy.

Dans ce mémoire, nous étudions la généralisation des réseaux de neurones dans le contexte du méta-apprentissage, en analysant divers propriétés des surface leurs fonctions objectifs. La recherche en apprentissage automatique portant sur les surfaces de fonctions objectifs des réseaux de neurones ayant aidé à comprendre leur généralisation en apprentissage supervisé standard, nous proposons l'étude de telles surfaces dans le but d'approfondir nos connaissances sur la généralisation en méta-apprentissage. Nous introduisons d'abord la littérature sur les fonctions objectifs des réseaux de neurones à la Section \ref{sec:intro:objective_landscapes}, puis celle portant sur le méta-apprentissage à la Section \ref{sec:intro:meta-learning}, pour enfin terminer notre introduction avec le méta-apprentissage par descente de gradient, très similaire à l'entraînement des réseaux de neurones par descente de gradient stochastique et pour une tâche unique. Nous présentons par la suite notre travail sur les fonctions objectifs en méta-apprentissage au Chapitre \ref{chap:prof_forcing}, lequel nous avons soumis à la conférence NeurIPS 2019 en tant qu'article scientifique. Au moment d'écrire ce mémoire, et au meilleur de notre connaissance, ce travail est le premier à étudier empiriquement les surfaces des fonctions objectifs en méta-apprentissage, particulièrement dans le contexte de l'apprentissage profond, et nous mettons notamment en lumière certaines propriétés de ces surfaces qui apparaissent liées à la généralisation des réseaux de neurones à de nouvelles tâches. Nous démontrons empiriquement qu'alors que progresse la phase de méta-entraînement, pour les solutions aux nouvelles tâches obtenues via quelques itérations de descente de gradient, la courbure de la fonction objective décroit monotoniquement, la valeur de la fonction objective diminue, tandis que la distance euclidienne avec la solution ``méta-entraînement" augmente. Cependant, nous observons que la courbure des minima continue de décroître même lorsque le sur-apprentissage devient apparent et que la généralisation commence à se dégrader, indiquant que la courbure des minima semble peu corrélée à la généralisation en méta-apprentissage par descente de gradient. De plus, nous montrons empiriquement que la généralisation aux nouvelles tâches semble plutôt liée à la cohérence de leurs trajectoires d'adaptation dans l'espace des paramètres, mesurée par la similarité cosinus moyenne entre les trajectoires. Nous montrons également que la cohérence des gradients ''meta-test", mesurée par le produit scalaire moyen entre les vecteurs de gradients spécifiques aux nouvelles tâches, évalué à solution meta-entraînement, est également corrélée à la généralisation. Nous basant sur ces observations, nous proposons un nouveau terme de régularisation pour l'algorithme de méta-apprentissage Model Agnostic Meta-Learning (MAML).
In this master's thesis, we study the generalization of neural networks in gradient-based meta-learning by analyzing various properties of the objective landscapes. Meta-learning, a challenging paradigm where models not only have to learn a task but beyond that, are trained for ``learning to learn" as they must adapt to new tasks and environments with very limited data about them. With research on the objective landscapes of neural networks in classical supervised having provided some answers regarding their ability to generalize for new data points, we propose similar analyses aimed at understanding generalization in meta-learning. We first introduce the literature on objective landscapes of neural networks in Section \ref{sec:intro:objective_landscapes}. We then introduce the literature of meta-learning in Section \ref{chap:prof_forcing}, concluding our introduction with the approach of gradient-based meta-learning, a meta-learning setup that bears strong similarities to the traditional supervised learning setup through stochastic gradient-based optimization. At the time of writing of this thesis, and to the best of our knowledge, this is the first work to empirically study the objective landscapes in gradient-based meta-learning, especially in the context of deep learning. We notably provide some insights on some properties of those landscapes that appear correlated to the generalization to new tasks. We experimentally demonstrate that as meta-training progresses, the meta-test solutions, obtained after adapting the meta-train solution of the model, to new tasks via few steps of gradient-based fine-tuning, become flatter, lower in loss, and further away from the meta-train solution. We also show that those meta-test solutions become flatter even as generalization starts to degrade, thus providing experimental evidence against the correlation between generalization and flat minima in the paradigm of gradient-based meta-leaning. Furthermore, we provide empirical evidence that generalization to new tasks is correlated with the coherence between their adaptation trajectories in parameter space, measured by the average cosine similarity between task-specific trajectory directions, starting from a same meta-train solution. We also show that coherence of meta-test gradients, measured by the average inner product between the task-specific gradient vectors evaluated at meta-train solution, is also correlated with generalization. Based on these observations, we propose a novel regularizer for the Model Agnostic Meta-Learning (MAML) algorithm and provide experimental evidence for its effectiveness.

L’évolution continue des besoins d’apprentissage vers plus d’efficacité et plus de personnalisation a favorisé l’émergence de nouveaux outils et dimensions dont l’objectif est de rendre l’apprentissage accessible à tout le monde et adapté aux contextes technologiques et sociaux. Cette évolution a donné naissance à ce que l’on appelle l'apprentissage social en ligne mettant l'accent sur l’interaction entre les apprenants. La considération de l’interaction a apporté de nombreux avantages pour l’apprenant, à savoir établir des connexions, échanger des expériences personnelles et bénéficier d’une assistance lui permettant d’améliorer son apprentissage. Cependant, la quantité d'informations personnelles que les apprenants divulguent parfois lors de ces interactions, mène, à des conséquences souvent désastreuses en matière de vie privée comme la cyberintimidation, le vol d’identité, etc. Malgré les préoccupations soulevées, la vie privée en tant que droit individuel représente une situation idéale, difficilement reconnaissable dans le contexte social d’aujourd’hui. En effet, on est passé d'une conceptualisation de la vie privée comme étant un noyau des données sensibles à protéger des pénétrations extérieures à une nouvelle vision centrée sur la négociation de la divulgation de ces données. L’enjeu pour les environnements sociaux d’apprentissage consiste donc à garantir un niveau maximal d’interaction pour les apprenants tout en préservant leurs vies privées. Au meilleur de nos connaissances, la plupart des innovations dans ces environnements ont porté sur l'élaboration des techniques d’interaction, sans aucune considération pour la vie privée, un élément portant nécessaire afin de créer un environnement favorable à l’apprentissage. Dans ce travail, nous proposons un cadre de vie privée que nous avons appelé « gestionnaire de vie privée». Plus précisément, ce gestionnaire se charge de gérer la protection des données personnelles et de la vie privée de l’apprenant durant ses interactions avec ses co-apprenants. En s’appuyant sur l’idée que l’interaction permet d’accéder à l’aide en ligne, nous analysons l’interaction comme une activité cognitive impliquant des facteurs contextuels, d’autres apprenants, et des aspects socio-émotionnels. L'objectif principal de cette thèse est donc de revoir les processus d’entraide entre les apprenants en mettant en oeuvre des outils nécessaires pour trouver un compromis entre l’interaction et la protection de la vie privée. ii Ceci a été effectué selon trois niveaux : le premier étant de considérer des aspects contextuels et sociaux de l’interaction telle que la confiance entre les apprenants et les émotions qui ont initié le besoin d’interagir. Le deuxième niveau de protection consiste à estimer les risques de cette divulgation et faciliter la décision de protection de la vie privée. Le troisième niveau de protection consiste à détecter toute divulgation de données personnelles en utilisant des techniques d’apprentissage machine et d’analyse sémantique.
The emergence of social tools and their integration in learning contexts has fostered interactions and collaboration among learners. The consideration of social interaction has several advantages for learners, mainly establishing new connections, sharing personal experiences and receiving assistance which may improve learning. However, the amount of personal information that learners disclose in these interactions, raise several privacy risks such as identity theft and cyberbullying which may lead to serious consequences. Despite the raised concerns, privacy as a human fundamental right is hardly recognized in today’s social context. Indeed, the conceptualization of privacy as a set of sensitive data to protect from external intrusions is no longer effective in the new social context where the risks come essentially from the self-disclosing behaviors of the learners themselves. With that in mind, the main challenge for social learning environments is to promote social interactions between learners while preserving their privacy. To the best of our knowledge, innovations in social learning environments have only focused on the integration of new social tools, without any consideration of privacy as a necessary factor to establish a favorable learning environment. In fact, integrating social interactions to maintain learners’ engagement and motivation is as necessary as preserving privacy in order to promote learning. Therefore, we propose, in this research, a privacy framework, that we called privacy manager, aiming to preserve the learners’ privacy during their interactions. Considering social interaction as a strategy to seek and request peers’ help in informal learning contexts, we analyze learners’ interaction as a cognitive activity involving contextual, social and emotional factors. Hence, our main goal is to consider all these factors in order to find a tradeoff between the advantages of interaction, mainly seeking peer feedback, and its disadvantages, particularly data disclosure and privacy risks. This was done on three levels: the first level is to help learners interact with appropriate peers, considering their learning competency and their trustworthiness. The second level of protection is to quantify potential disclosure risks and decide about data disclosure. The third level of protection is to analyze learners’ interactions in order to detect and discard any personal data disclosure using machine learning techniques and semantic analysis.

Orientação: Jorge Manuel de Melo Serrano ; co-orientação: Manuel da Costa Leite
O tema partiu do interesse pessoal em compreender até que ponto as tecnologias de informação e comunicação (TIC) facilitam a aprendizagem e contribuem para a inclusão de pessoas com deficiência auditiva, em contexto escolar. Assim sendo, o núcleo de incidência desta investigação centra-se no papel que as TIC representam nos processos de aprendizagem das pessoas portadoras de deficiência auditiva e que utilizam ajudas técnicas no seu quotidiano. O estudo é teoricamente fundamentado em informação recolhida através de uma revisão bibliográfica. Para a obtenção dos dados empíricos do estudo procedeu-se à aplicação de um questionário. Os sujeitos em estudo foram selecionados em Escolas, Faculdades e Associações de Surdos da Região da Grande Lisboa e Vale do Tejo, sendo estudantes do 1º, 2º, e 3º ciclos do ensino secundário e do ensino superior. Trata-se de pessoas com problemas auditivos de ambos os sexos e com idades compreendidas entre os 7 e os 26 anos de idade. Também foi aplicado um questionário aos profissionais que atendem este tipo de população bem como a sujeitos conhecedores de pessoas com perda auditiva. Para que o projeto ganhasse informação complementar foram feitas entrevistas estruturadas a vários profissionais. O software estatístico utilizado para proceder ao tratamento de dados deste estudo foi o SPSS versão 19. Visto o estudo ser iminentemente descritivo, utilizou-se estatística descritiva, nomeadamente análise de frequências para as variáveis qualitativas (com escala nominal e ordinal) e média e desvio padrão mínimo e máximo para as variáveis com escala quantitativa. Ao nível de estatística inferencial, - e no sentido de cruzar variáveis que são de natureza qualitativa - utilizaram-se os testes de Qui-Quadrado e Fisher. O presente trabalho de investigação suporta a conclusão de que as tecnologias são um recurso importante para quem as pode ter e faz uso delas; porém, por si só não chegam para garantir o sucesso escolar. As dificuldades de comunicação, a falta de preparação dos professores, a falta de apoios técnicos e logísticos das escolas, a falta de currículos alternativos, o atraso académico que estes alunos apresentam devido às lacunas de aprendizagem, levam à dificuldade de integração, ao insucesso escolar e, consequentemente, ao abandono escolar.
The theme underlying my thesis came from my personal interest in understanding the extent to which the use of Technology facilitates learning and contributes to the inclusion of people with hearing disabilities in a school context. The core focus of this research is therefore the role ICT play in the learning processes of the hearing impaired whose use these technologies in their daily lives. The study is theoretically based on information gathered through a literature review. A questionnaire was used to obtain empirical data on the study. The subjects were students from the 1st, 2nd and 3rd cycles and higher education selected from schools, universities and Associations of the Hearing Impaired in Lisbon and the Tagus Valley. These are people with hearing problems of both sexes aged between 7 and 26. A questionnaire was also administered to professionals who deal with this type of population and to people who know people with hearing loss. In order to provide further information, structured interviews were conducted involving various professionals. The statistical software SPSS version 19 was used to process the data from this study. Since the study is imminently descriptive, descriptive statistics was used, namely frequency analyses for qualitative variables (with nominal and ordinal scale), and average and minimum and maximum standard deviation for quantitative variables. In terms of inferential statistics in order to cross variables of a qualitative nature, the Chi-square and Fisher tests were used. Despite being a very important resource for those who have access to technologies and make use of them, it has been concluded that technologies alone are not enough to ensure success in school. Communication difficulties, lack of preparation of teachers who have these children as students, lack of technical and logistic support of schools, lack of alternative curricula for this type of population and the academic delay experienced by these students due to gaps in learning lead to difficulties in integration, educational underachievement and consequently early school-leaving.

De nos jours, avec l'utilisation croissante des technologies numériques, l'éducation à la préservation de la vie privée joue un rôle important en particulier pour les adolescents. Bien que plusieurs plateformes d'apprentissage en ligne à la sensibilisation à la vie privée aient été mises en œuvre, elles sont généralement basées sur des techniques traditionnelles d'apprentissage. Plus particulièrement, ces plateformes ne permettent pas aux étudiants de coopérer et de partager leurs connaissances afin d’améliorer leur apprentissage ensemble. En d'autres termes, elles manquent d'interactions élève-élève. Des recherches récentes sur les méthodes d'apprentissage montrent que la collaboration entre élèves peut entraîner de meilleurs résultats d'apprentissage par rapport à d'autres approches. De plus, le domaine de la vie privée étant fortement lié à la vie sociale des adolescents, il est préférable de fournir un environnement d'apprentissage collaboratif où l’on peut enseigner la préservation de la vie privée, et en même temps, permettre aux étudiants de partager leurs connaissances. Il serait souhaitable que ces derniers puissent interagir les uns avec les autres, résoudre des questionnaires en collaboration et discuter de problèmes et de situations de confidentialité. À cet effet, ce travail propose « Teens-online », une plateforme d'apprentissage en ligne collaborative pour la sensibilisation à la vie privée. Le programme d'études fourni dans cette plateforme est basé sur le Référentiel de formation des élèves à la protection des données personnelles. De plus, la plateforme proposée est équipée d'un mécanisme d'appariement de partenaires basé sur la théorie des jeux. Ce mécanisme garantit un appariement élève-élève stable en fonction des besoins de l'élève (comportement et / ou connaissances). Ainsi, des avantages mutuels seront obtenus en minimisant les chances de coopérer avec des pairs incompatibles. Les résultats expérimentaux montrent que l'utilité moyenne obtenue en appliquant l'algorithme proposé est beaucoup plus élevée que celle obtenue en utilisant d'autres mécanismes d'appariement. Les résultats suggèrent qu'en adoptant l'approche proposée, chaque élève peut être jumelé avec des partenaires optimaux, qui obtiennent également en retour des résultats d'apprentissage plus élevés.
Nowadays, with the increasing use of digital technologies, especially for teenagers, privacy education plays an important role in their lives. While several e-learning platforms for privacy awareness training have been implemented, they are typically based on traditional learning techniques. In particular, these platforms do not allow students to cooperate and share knowledge with each other in order to achieve mutual benefits and improve learning outcomes. In other words, they lack student-student interaction. Recent research on learning methods shows that the collaboration among students can result in better learning outcomes compared to other learning approaches. Motivated by the above-mentioned facts, and since privacy domain is strongly linked to the social lives of teens, there is a pressing need for providing a collaborative learning platform for teaching privacy, and at the same time, allows students to share knowledge, interact with each other, solve quizzes collaboratively, and discuss privacy issues and situations. For this purpose, this work proposes “Teens-online”, a collaborative e-learning platform for privacy awareness. The curriculum provided in this platform is based on the Personal Data Protection Competency Framework for School Students. Moreover, the proposed platform is equipped with a partner-matching mechanism based on matching game theory. This mechanism guarantees a stable student-student matching according to a student's need (behavior and/or knowledge). Thus, mutual benefits will be attained by minimizing the chances of cooperating with incompatible students. Experimental results show that the average learning-related utility obtained by applying the proposed partner-matching algorithm is much higher than the average utility obtained using other matching mechanisms. The results also suggest that by adopting the proposed approach, each student can be paired with their optimal partners, which in turn helps them reach their highest learning outcomes.

Relatório de Estágio do Mestrado em Ciências da Educação apresentado à Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação
O estágio curricular, inserido no Mestrado em Ciências da Educação, da Faculdadede Psicologia e Ciências da Educação da Universidade de Coimbra, foi realizado noCentro Paroquial de Bem Estar Social de Almalaguês (CPBESA) com início emsetembro de 2018 e término em maio de 2019, completando assim um total de 1019 horasque passamos na instituição em atividades diretas que foram integradas nas dinâmicasdiárias das pessoas utentes e da restante equipa.A instituição que nos acolheu contém três valências que constituem respostas sociaispara pessoas de idade adulta avançada, sendo estas o Centro de Dia (CD), a EstruturaResidencial para Pessoas Idosas (ERPI) e o Serviço de Apoio Domiciliário (SAD).O trabalho desenvolvido neste período de nove meses inseriu-se na área dagerontologia educativa e, como tal, abrangeu todas estas respostas do CPBESA,permitindo-nos também desenvolver competências enquanto Técnica Superior deCiências da Educação.O nosso estágio regeu-se pelos princípios da educação de adultos, pois incidiuessencialmente na aprendizagem e na estimulação cognitiva e motora das pessoas idosasatravés de diversos meios, incluindo as tecnologias digitais, sempre levando em conta assuas especificidades e respeitando os interesses das mesmas.O relatório encontra-se estruturado em cinco capítulos, sendo estes o EnquadramentoTeórico, o Enquadramento Contextual, o Projeto de Estágio, as AtividadesComplementares e a Avaliação. Em anexo incluímos o diário de campo das nossas rotinas na instituição, o qual demonstra claramente a riqueza do processo que vivemos, tanto a nível pessoal como profissional. Esta oportunidade de aprendizagem foi para nós muito gratificante e damos contadisso ao longo do presente documento.
The curricular internship comprised in the master course of Ciências da Educação,da Faculdade de Psicologia e Ciências da Educação da Universidade de Coimbra, washeld at the Centro Paroquial de Bem-Estar Social de Almalaguês (CPBESA) fromseptember 2018 to may 2019 in a total of 1019 hours that we spent in the institution indirect activities which were integrated in the daily dynamics of the users and the rest ofthe team.The institution that hosted us includes three areas associated with advancedadulthood, such as the Day Center, Senior Residence and Home Support Service.During this nine-month-period the work was done in the educational gerontologyfield and, as such, focused on all of these CPBESA responses, allowing us to developskills as a specialist with an university graduation in Sciences of Education.Our apprenticeship was guided by the principles of adult education, because itprimarily focused on the learning as well as the cognitive and motor stimulation of theelderly through various means, including digital technologies, always taking into accounttheir specificities and respecting their interests.This document is structured in five chapters: Theoretical Framework; ContextualFramewor;, Internship Project; Complementary Activities; and Evaluation. In attachment we include the diary of our daily routines in the institution which demonstrate very clearly the richness of this process, both personalliy and professionally. This learning opportunity was very gratifying for us and it is shown hroughout thisdocument.

La détection de la paternité textuelle est un domaine de recherche qui existe depuis les années 1960. Il consiste à prédire l’auteur d’un texte en se basant sur d’autres textes dont les auteurs sont connus. Pour faire cela, plusieurs traits sur le style d’écriture et le contenu sont extraits. Pour ce mémoire, deux sous-problèmes de détection de la paternité textuelle ont été traités : la prédiction du genre et de l’âge de l’auteur. Des données collectées de blogs en ligne ont été utilisées pour faire cela. Dans ce travail, plusieurs traits (features) textuels ont été comparé en utilisant des méthodes d’apprentissage automatique. De même, des méthodes d’apprentissage profond ont été appliqués. Pour la tâche de classification du genre, les meilleurs résultats ont été obtenus en appliquant un système de vote majoritaire sur la prédiction d’autres modèles. Pour la classification d’âge, les meilleurs résultats ont été obtenu en utilisant un classificateur entrainé sur TF-IDF.
Authorship Attribution (AA) is a field of research that exists since the 60s. It consists of identifying the author of a certain text based on texts with known authors. This is done by extracting features about the writing style and the content of the text. In this master thesis, two sub problems of AA were treated: gender and age classification using a corpus collected from online blogs. In this work, several features were compared using several feature-based algorithms. As well as deep learning methods. For the gender classification task, the best results are the ones obtained by a majority vote system over the outputs of several classifiers. For the age classification task, the best result was obtained using classifier trained over TFIDF.

Abstract in English, Tswana and Afrikaans
People who graduated from higher education, whether they attended classes on campus or studied via a distance mode of learning, have not only been educated but are also able to participate in and contribute positively to the political, social and economic forums in their immediate environments and within their country. Progressing through the higher education system successfully is not easy since there are many challenges to overcome. Students With Disabilities (SWD) face even greater challenges in making their way through the system to emerge triumphantly as graduates. Institutions of higher learning, including Open Distance eLearning (ODeL) facilities, must provide support to SWD in order to facilitate their learning experience so that they are better equipped to succeed. Therefore, it is vital to promote access to higher education for people with disabilities and to provide support, such as making assistive technologies and human services available, for SWD within ODeL institutions. This qualitative study was exploratory in nature and used a multiple case study research design in the chosen area to investigate the provision of support for SWD in the ODeL institution. Data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews and a document analysis, and these two methods of data gathering assisted with triangulation. The research findings revealed differences between the findings that were obtained through the responses received from teacher and staff member participants. The research findings also revealed differences between the findings that were obtained through the responses received from the participants, in general, and those obtained through the document analysis. The findings obtained through responses received from teacher participants showed that support for SWD was more evident at the school level than at the ODeL institution, that is, at the tertiary level of education. The document analysis of the policies of the ODeL institution revealed that the policies were general and did not specifically relate to the needs of SWD. At the same time, the findings in this dissertation of limited scope showed that the use of technology and the availability of assistive devices were more prominent at the school level than at the ODeL institution.
Batho ba ba alogang go tswa mo ditheong tse kgolwane tsa Thuto, ba tswa ba ka bo ba rutilwe le go ithuta ka go tsenela dikamuso (attending lecturers) mo khemphaseng kgotsa ba rutilwe le go ithuta ka thutotlhaeletsano, ga ba rutega fela mme ba kgona gape le go nna le seabe le go abelana ka tshiamo mo diforamong tsa sepolotiki, tsa seloago le tsa seikonomi mo ditikologong tse ba iphitlhelang ba le mo go tsona naga ka bophara. Go tsweletsa dithuto mo setheong sa thuto e kgolwane ka katlego ga go bonolo ka gonne go na le dikgwetlho di le dintsi tse o tshwanelwang ke go di fenya. Baithuti ba ba tshelang-ka-bogole (Students with disabilities -SWD) ba lebagane le dikgwetlho tse dikgolo thata mo setheong sa thuto e kgolwane, go ka ipona kwa bofelelong e le dialogane tse di atlegileng. Ditheo tsa thuto e kgolwane, go akaretsa le tsa tlamelo ya thutotlhaeletsano ka mafarafatlha ntle le maparego (ODeL), di tshwanelwa ke go tshegetsa SWD mo dithutung tsa bone gore batle ba atlege. Ka jalo, go botlhokwa go rotlweetsa phitlhelelo ya thuto e kgolwane go batho ba ba tshelang ka bogole le go ba tshegetsa, jaaka go ka ba direla le go ba neela thekenoloji tsa thuso le ditirelo tsa thuso-ka-batho. Tshegetse fela jaaka e tshwanetse go SWD ba ba mo ODeL. Patlisiso e ya khwaletatifi, e tlhametswe go utulola mme ebile e dirisitse mefuta e le mentsi ya go batlisisa ka ga mokgwa wa go tshegetsa SWD mo ODeL. Tshedimosetso kgotsa dinewane di kokoantswe ka go dirisa seripa sa dipotsolotso le go sekaseka tokamana, mme mekgwa e mebedi e, e thusitse ka go netefatsa diphitlheleo tse di bonweng. Diphitlhelelo tsa patlisiso di bontshitse dipharologano magareng ga diphitlhelelo tse di bonweng go tswa go barutabana kwa sekolong le go tswa go badiri kwa ODeL. Diphitlhelelo tsa patlisiso, di tlhagisitse gape dipharologano magareng ga diphitlhelelo tse di bonweng go tswa go banna-le-seabe, ka kakaretso, le tse di bonweng go tswa mo go sekasekeng tokamana. Diphitlhelelo tse di bonweng go tswa go barutabana, di bontshitse gore tshegetso ya SWD e tlhomame kwa sekolong go na le kwa ODeL, e leng setheo sa thuto e e kgolwane. Tshekatsheko ya tokomana ya dipholisi tsa ODeL, e bontsitse fa dipholisi e le tsa kakaretso fela mme di sa tote ka tlhamalalo ditlhokego tsa SWD. Go ntse go le jalo, diphitlhelelo tsa tlhotlhomisi e e lekanyeditsweng mothamo, di bontshitse fa tiriso ya thekenoloji le go nna teng ga didiriswa-thuso, di tlhomame kwa sekolong go na le kwa ODeL.
Mense wat aan hoëronderwysinstellings gradueer, of hulle klasse op kampus bygewoon het of deur 'n afstandsmetode van leer studeer het, is nie slegs onderrig nie, maar hulle kan ook deelneem aan en positief bydra tot die politieke, sosiale en ekonomiese forums in hul onmiddellike omgewing en in hul land. Dit is nie maklik om suksesvol deur die hoëronderwysstelsel te vorder nie, omdat daar baie struikelblokke is om te oorkom. Studente met gestremdhede (SMG) het selfs meer uitdagings om hul weg deur die stelsel te baan en triomfantlik as graduandi te verrys. Hoëronderriginstellings, insluitende oop e-afstandsleer (ODeL) -fasiliteite, moet ondersteuning aan SMG bied om hul leerervarings te fasiliteer sodat hulle beter toegerus is om sukses te behaal. Dit is daarom noodsaaklik om toegang tot hoër onderwys en ondersteuning aan mense met gestremdhede te bied, soos om hulptegnologieë en menslike dienste aan SMG in ODeL-instellings beskikbaar te stel. Hierdie kwalitatiewe studie was verkennend van aard en het 'n veelvoudige gevallestudie-ontwerp in die gekose veld gebruik om die voorsiening van ondersteuning aan SMG in 'n ODeL-instelling te ondersoek. Data is versamel deur semigestruktureerde onderhoude en 'n dokumentonleding; hierdie twee metodes van dataversameling het met triangulasie gehelp. Navorsingsbevindings het verskille aangedui tussen die data wat verkry is van die onderwyser en die van deelnemende personeellede se reaksies. Navorsingsbevindings het ook verskille aangedui tussen die data wat verkry is van deelnemers se reaksies oor die algemeen en die wat deur dokumentontleding verkry is. Die bevindings wat deur die onderwyserdeelnemers verkry is, het aangedui dat ondersteuning aan SMG duideliker op skoolvlak was as by die ODeL-instelling; dit is op tersiêre vlak van onderwys. Die dokumentontleding van die ODeL-instelling se beleide het aangedui dat die beleide algemeen was nie spesifiek met SWD se behoeftes verband hou nie. Terselfdertyd het die bevindings van hierdie verhandeling van beperkte omvang getoon dat die gebruik van tegnologie en die beskikbaarheid van hulptoestelle meer prominent was op skoolvlak as by die ODeL-instelling.
Curriculum and Instructional Studies
M. Ed. (Open Distance Learning)

The research aimed to describe the sociodemographic data, the ownership and use of information and communication technology devices of Portuguese senior citizen participants in the study and to design a research instrument. This exploratory, descriptive and quantitative research performed a survey through a questionnaire to 162 seniors in Portugal. The investigation revealed that the majority of older people are retired, married who have elementary education, live with their families and are mostly female. The study allowed us to know which are the most owned and used devices by seniors are: TV remote control, mobile telephone and corded telephone. Those who have computers think these devices are useful and those who do not own these tools claim they do not need them. The TV remote control is the device that users feel more autonomous and it is also the most frequently used device. Just 23% of elderly in the sample are computer users. The majority of them is male gender and has attended the secondary school level. The investigation also revealed that the activity most frequently performed using the computer, is Internet surfing. In addition, seniors showed a favorable predisposition regarding the contribution of computers to their quality of life. The results described throughout this research may provide general clues about the topic of digital inclusion of older adults in Portugal and the need to propose policies and educational programs tailored to the characteristics of people in this age group.
Cette étude vise à décrire les données sociodémographiques, la possession et l'utilisation des appareils pour la technologie et la communication des personnes âgées portugaises participants et également à concevoir un instrument de recherche. Cette recherche exploratoire, descriptive et quantitative a mené une enquête par questionnaire à 162 seniors au Portugal. L'étude a révélé que la plupart des personnes du troisième âge sont à la retraite, mariées, avec un niveau scolaire d’école primaire, habitent avec leurs familles et sont pour la plupart de sexe féminin. La recherche a permis de savoir que les appareils qui ont et qui utilisent la plus part des personnes âgées participants sont: la télécommande du téléviseur, le téléphone mobile et le téléphone fixe. Les seniors qui ont des ordinateurs, affirment que ces dispositifs sont utiles tandis que ceux sans ces appareils indiquent qu’ils n’ont pas besoin d’eux. La télécommande du téléviseur est l'appareil avec lequel les âgées participants sont plus autonomes et c'est également le plus fréquemment utilisé. Uniquement le 23% des personnes du troisième âge de l'échantillon sont les utilisateurs d'ordinateurs. La majorité est de sexe masculin et a un niveau d'enseignement secondaire. L'étude a également révélé que l’activité plus fréquente avec l'utilisation de l'ordinateur est "surfer sur Internet". En plus, les seniors montrent une prédisposition positive par rapport à la contribution que les ordinateurs peuvent avoir sur l'amélioration de leur qualité de vie. Les résultats présentés dans cette étude peuvent fournir des informations utiles en ce qui concerne la question de l'inclusion numérique des personnes du troisième âge au Portugal et la nécessité de proposer des politiques et des programmes éducatifs adaptés aux caractéristiques de la population de cette étape de l'âge.
A investigação teve como objetivo descrever os dados sociodemográficos, a posse e o uso das tecnologias da informação e comunicação dos seniores portugueses participantes no estudo. Esta pesquisa exploratória, descritiva e quantitativa aplicou um inquérito através de um questionário a 162 idosos em Portugal. A investigação revelou que a maior parte das pessoas mais velhas são reformadas, casadas que têm o nível de escolaridade elementar, moram com a família e são maioritariamente do género feminino. O estudo permitiu saber que os dispositivos mais possuídos e mais usados pelos seniores são: o controlo remoto da televisão, o telemóvel e o telefone fixo. Aqueles que possuem computadores acham que os mesmos são uteis e o que não os possuem afirmam que não precisam deles. O controlo remoto da televisão é o dispositivo que os utilizadores se sentem mais autónomos e sendo também o mais frequentemente usado. Apenas 23% das pessoas mais velhas da amostra são utilizadores de computadores. A maioria é do género masculino e tem uma formação ao nível do ensino secundário. A investigação revelou também que a atividade mais realizada com uso do computador, pelos idosos inqueridos, é a navegação na Internet. Além disso, os seniores mostram uma pré-disposição favorável em relação à contribuição dos computadores para a sua qualidade de vida. Os resultados descritos ao longo desta pesquisa poderão fornecer indícios gerais sobre o tópico da inclusão digital dos idosos em Portugal e a necessidade de propor políticas e programas educativos adaptados às características das pessoas desta faixa etária.
El presente estudio ha tenido como objetivo describir los datos sociodemográficos, la tenencia y el uso de los dispositivos de tecnologías de la información y de la comunicación de los adultos mayores portugueses participantes y diseñar un instrumento de investigación. Esta investigación exploratoria, descriptiva y cuantitativa aplicó una encuesta a través de un cuestionario a 162 personas mayores en Portugal. El estudio reveló que la mayor parte de los adultos mayores son jubilados, casados, con un nivel de escolaridad de primaria, residen con sus familias y son mayoritariamente del género femenino. La investigación permitió saber que los dispositivos que más tienen y usan los mayores portugueses participantes son: el mando de la TV a distancia, el teléfono móvil y el teléfono fijo. Aquellos que poseen ordenadores, opinan que tales dispositivos son útiles mientras que quienes no los tienen señalan que no los necesitan. El mando de la TV a distancia es el aparato con el que los mayores se sienten más autónomos y es a la vez el más frecuentemente utilizado. Apenas el 23% de los adultos mayores de la muestra son usuarios de ordenadores. La mayoría es del género masculino y tiene una formación a nivel de educación secundaria. La investigación reveló también que la actividad más realizada con el uso del ordenador es “navegar en Internet”. Además, los adultos mayores muestran una predisposición favorable en relación a la contribución que los ordenadores pueden tener en mejorar su calidad de vida. Los resultados presentados en este estudio podrán proveer datos de interés en torno al tema de la inclusión digital de las personas mayores en Portugal y la necesidad de proponer políticas y programas educativos adaptados a las características de las personas de esta etapa etaria.