Virtual Worlds in the Context of Competence Development and Learning

Author(s):  
Albena Antonova

Recently, different researchers and practitioners provided new evidence for successful implementation of Virtual Worlds (VW) in educational context. Virtual worlds propose an immersive environment and sophisticated technology infrastructure and stimulate active learning and complex learning scenarios. At the same time, many educators and learning institutions are still hesitating to adopt VW in their educational models. Statistics show that the public interest in VW is declining and users spend less time in-world. VW is still a highly dynamic market, and many of them close operations. Should educational institutions join VW? What will be the future of VW in education? The present chapter aims to discuss the challenges behind VW implementation in the educational process from three main perspectives. First, how virtual worlds can enhance knowledge acquisition and development of key competences, increasingly needed by new generations, is analyzed. The second perspective discovers if and how virtual worlds can be used to practically transform the educational process, developing a new set of learning and training experiences. Finally, virtual worlds will be discussed from a disruptive technology point of view, discovering its strengths and limitations for education. At the end, the discussion will provide a general framework for assessing the VW benefits for education and its expected further development.

2018 ◽  
pp. 1219-1233
Author(s):  
Albena Antonova

Virtual worlds (VW) propose an immersive environment and sophisticated infrastructure for active learning and complex competence development. While recently the interest toward VW declined, it is expected the release of virtual/augmented reality hardware equipment to bring new impulse for its further explorations in education. The present research aims to discuss the challenges behind VW implementation in the educational process from three main perspectives. First, there will be identified the main benefits of applying virtual worlds for knowledge acquisition and development of complex competences. The second perspective discovers how virtual worlds can be used to transform the educational process, developing a new set of learning and training experiences. Finally, virtual worlds will be analyzed from a disruptive technology point of view, discovering its strengths and limitations for education. At the end, the discussion provides a general framework for assessing the VW benefits for education and its expected further development.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-28
Author(s):  
Albena Antonova

Virtual worlds (VW) propose an immersive environment and sophisticated infrastructure for active learning and complex competence development. While recently the interest toward VW declined, it is expected the release of virtual/augmented reality hardware equipment to bring new impulse for its further explorations in education. The present research aims to discuss the challenges behind VW implementation in the educational process from three main perspectives. First, there will be identified the main benefits of applying virtual worlds for knowledge acquisition and development of complex competences. The second perspective discovers how virtual worlds can be used to transform the educational process, developing a new set of learning and training experiences. Finally, virtual worlds will be analyzed from a disruptive technology point of view, discovering its strengths and limitations for education. At the end, the discussion provides a general framework for assessing the VW benefits for education and its expected further development.


Author(s):  
Ehsan Ehsani

Managing product development in an efficient manner is considered a crucial element for a company’s survival in today’s world. Current markets usually consist of highly fragmented segments of customers looking for customized and differentiated products at lower costs. Intense competition has also pressured companies to launch the products faster to the market in order to reap the planned benefits. Usage of collaborative Web-enabled models for innovation and product development, what we refer to as E-Novation, has become more popular as a result of responding to the aforementioned challenges. From technological point of view, the E-Novation models are particularly enabled through collaborative Web solutions, Web 2.0 tools, and Web-based virtual worlds. This chapter deals with the application of such collaborative Internet-based technologies in the product development and discusses their use in various stages of product development process; from idea management to prototyping. Based on existing literature in the area, the analysis of four cases (Dell, InnoCentive, Ponoko, and Implenia), participant observation and experience with such applications and semi-structured interviews with both managers of such projects and the projects’ stakeholders, this chapter demonstrates that new organizational models and skills are required to manage interdependencies internally and externally in collaboration through E-Novation. It also provides some insights about the future trends and opportunities in this era and guidelines for successful implementation of these technologies in reality.


Author(s):  
Esmaeil Shahsavandi ◽  
Ghassem Mayah ◽  
Hesamaddin Rahbari

Iran also is not exceptional case in terms of E- government when applications have emerged rapidly almost all countries in glob to use E- government as an enabling tool to increase efficiency, enhance transparency, collect more revenue and facilitate public sector reform. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) is transforming the governmental processes in serving citizens (G2C), businesses (G2B) and governments (G2G).Due to various economic, social and political limitations and pressures, most countries of the world has already began the implementation of e-government architecture in sectors where it seems more necessary and they focus their investments in these areas. Many works which find out on impact of E-government have shown that while E-government is not a remedy and magic to solve all problem, it is just a powerful enabling tool that has aided governments to achieve some of their development and administrative reform goals. Hence E-government is not a complete solution, but can be a catalyst for change E-government must be a part of broader commitment to reform the public sector. Since, sill is there some obstacle which we could categorize in three factors and all this factors are critical for the successful implementation of E-government. The first is willingness to reform, secondly, availability of information and communication technology infrastructure and finally the institutional capacity to absorb and manage change. So in this purpose we try to analyze the potential impact of E-government on transparency and corruption in Iranian society. Moreover, this article attempted to give details the extent to which corruption and transparency have been impacted in implemented on corruption in Iran. Enhancing transparency and reducing corruption are identified. Evidence shows that E-government has had a significant impact on broader government goals where political leadership and a commitment to reform have been present. In this work the authors try to distinguish the main obstacles such like legal, social and cultural and some other obstacles concerned.


Author(s):  
José Melchior

Aborda a gestão democrática dos recursos públicos no Brasil, sob a perspectiva do processo administrativo, envolvendo o planejamento, a execução e o controle social dos recursos financeiros públicos. Pretende ainda ampliar a concepção de que a gestão democrática se dá pela via exclusiva da participação dos interessados nos órgãos decisórios. São enfocadas alternativas que podem levar qualquer cidadão a participar desse processo em educação e, por extensão, nos demais setores de atividades exercidas pelo poder público, fornecendo instrumentos para uma intervenção na receita e na despesa do setor público encarregado de gerir os recursos financeiros alocados para a educação. O trabalho divide-se em cinco partes: 1) a experiência no Estado de São Paulo; 2) a sistemática do planejamento público; 3) a sistemática da execução orçamentária; 4) o controle social dos recursos financeiros públicos e 5) as conclusões. Abstract This study approacches the administration of public resources in Brazil, from the point of view of the administrative process, comprising planning, accomplishment and the social control of the financial public resources. It aims also at extending the concept of democratic management through participation of the concerned in the decision-making institutions. It focus some alternatives to enable any citizen to participate in the educational process and, similarly, in other activities sectors performed by the Public Power, providing instruments for interventions in budgetary issues (revenue and expenses) from institutions linked to management of financial resources of the education sector. The paper has been organized in five parts: 1) the experience in São Paulo state; 2) the public planning systematic; 3) the budgetary performance systematic; 4) social control of public financial resources; 5) conclusions. Résumé Cet article discute la gestion démocratique des ressources publiques au Brésil, sous la perspective du procés administratif, comprenant la planification, l'exécution et le controle social des ressources financières publiques. Il prétend aussi grandir la conception selon laquelle Ia gestion démocratique est possible par la voie exclusive de la participation des intéressés dans les organismes de décision. On présent des alternatives qui peuvent conduire un citoyen quelconque à participer de ce procés en éducation, et par extension, aux autres domaines d'activités pratiquées par le pouvoir public, donnant desoutils pour une intervention à la receite et aux frais du secteur public chargé d'administrer les ressources financières destinées à 1'éducation. Le travail est divisé en cinq parties: 1) 1'expèrience à l'Etat de São Paulo; 2) Ia systématique de Ia planification publique; 3) la systématique de l'exécution budgétaire; 4) le contrôle social des ressources financières publiques et 5) conclusiones. Resumen Aborda la gestión democrática de los recursos públicos en el Brasil, bajo Ia perspectiva del proceso administrativo, incluye la Planificación, la ejecución y el control social de los recursos financieros públicos. Pretende aún ampliair Ia Concepción de que la gestión democrática se da por Ia via exclusiva de la participación de los interresados en los órganos de decisión. Son enfocadas alternativas que pueden llevar a cualquier ciudadano a participar de ese proceso de educación y, por extensión, en los demás sectores de actividades ejercidas por el poder público, proporcionando instrumentos para una intervención en el haber y en el gasto del sector público encargado de administrar los recursos financieros designados para educación. El trabajo se divide en cinco partes: 1) Ia experiencia en Estado de são Paulo: 2) la sistemática de Ia Planificación pública: 3) Ia sistemática de la ejecución presupuestaria; 4) el control social de los recursos financieros públicos y 5) Ias conclusiones.


Organizacija ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreja Rojko ◽  
Matjaž Debevc ◽  
Darko Hercog

Implementation, Effectiveness and Experience With Remote Laboratory in Engineering EducationModern educational methods bring many new challenges from the pedagogical, as well as from the technical aspect. One of the more significant is the integration of information and communication technology into the educational process. These is particularly noticeable in the engineering education where the requests of the industry for a faster and more efficient acquisition of knowledge and practical skills lead to a constant search for new solutions in the learning process which would attract and motivate students, as well as be user friendly. This is especially difficult to be reached with the practical education which is usually composed of laboratory exercises that are bound to a specific time and place. One of the possible solutions are the remote laboratories which offer the possibility of the implementation of real remote laboratory experiments in the educational institutions' laboratories and, therefore, enhance the students' knowledge and capability for dealing with some technical problems without the need for their physical presence in the laboratory. In the article, the example of a successful implementation of the remote laboratory in the field of engineering, developed and operating in the Moodle environment, is presented. The laboratory does not only represent the framework for the experiment implementation, but it also offers courses with complete documentation, therefore courses can be performed on distance. As an example, the case of the most widely used course from remote laboratory is presented, i.e., the "Control of nonlinear mechanism" course. Special attention is given to the description of the booking process for remote experiments, the execution of remote experiments and the applied user interface. The evaluation of the interface usability from the point of view of end users was performed via the acknowledged SUMI method. Additionally, another questionnaire was prepared in order to investigate the students' opinion about working in the remote laboratory. The results have shown that the presented remote laboratory is user friendly and accepted by both teachers and students as a suitable and interesting supplement to the conventional laboratory exercises.


Author(s):  
Olena Marchenko

Based on the generalization of socio-cultural factors of social development in the period from 1918 to the mid-30s of the twentieth century and formed at that time educational models, values, ideals and worldviews revealed the essential features and main trends of the national educational space in totalitarianism. The semantic and structural features of the educational space in the 20-30s of the XX century have been analyzed, the general philosophical and sociocultural determinants of system transformations in all its dimensions have been substantiated. In particular, the consequences of unjustified, from the point of view of educational needs and available educational potential, expansion of territorial-subject dimension have been shown, when the increase in the number of educational institutions with new names did not give their actual growth and semantic diversification. Based on the analysis of party and government documents related to the problems of education, as well as philosophical and pedagogical works of this period revealed the specifics of the deployment of sign-symbolic dimension of educational space, which was to level the natural process of metatext, instead - artificial planting of texts with strong ideological direction. In the public consciousness, and hence in the textual space, there was a devaluation of established categories (personality, individuality, society, etc.), at the same time such concepts as "class", "team", "idea" gained weight. Collectivism, solidarity of interests and the priority of the collective over the individual, discipline and subordination over free will have been asserted. Significant changes have been established in the subjective dimension of the educational space: the idea of the inseparability of an exceptional, unique personality from society is gradually transformed into an indisputable statement about the "merger" of man with society by abandoning his/her own individuality. As a result, there was a shift of the individual to the denominator of the social, which from an important attributive characteristic of the individual has become the main goal, determinant and regulator of his/her life. And the recognition of the external determinism of all human actions has led to the "compression" of the educational space in its subjective dimension to the size of the environment.


2019 ◽  
pp. 22-29
Author(s):  
Н. В. Фрадкіна

The purpose and tasks of the work are to analyze the contemporary Ukrainian mass culture in terms of its value and humanistic components, as well as the importance of cultural studies and Ukrainian studies in educational disciplines for the formation of a holistic worldview of modern youth.Analysis of research and publications. Scientists repeatedly turned to the problems of the role of spirituality in the formation of society and its culture. This problem is highlighted in the publications by O. Losev, V. Lytvyn, D. Likhachev, S. Avierintsev, M. Zakovych, I. Stepanenko and E. Kostyshyn.Experts see the main negative impact of mass culture on the quality approach, which determines mass culture through the market, because mass culture, from our point of view, is everything that is sold and used in mass demand.One of the most interesting studies on this issue was the work by the representatives of Frankfurt School M. Horkheimer and T. Adorno «Dialectics of Enlightenment» (1947), devoted to a detailed analysis of mass culture. Propaganda at all socio-cultural levels in the form is similar in both totalitarian and democratic countries. It is connected, according to the authors, with the direction of European enlightenment. The tendency to unify people is a manifestation of the influence of mass culture, from cinema to pop. Mass culture is a phenomenon whose existence is associated with commerce (accumulation in any form – this is the main feature of education), in general, the fact that it exists in this form is related to the direction of the history of civilization.Modern mass culture, with its externally attractive and easily assimilated ideas and symbols, appealing to the trends of modern fashion, becomes a standard of prestigious consumption, does not require intense reflection, allows you to relax, distract, not teach, but entertains, preaches hedonism as the main spiritual value. And as a consequence, there are socio-cultural risks: an active rejection of other people, which leads to the formation of indifference; cruelty as a character trait; increase of violent and mercenary crime; increase in the number of alcohol and drug addicts; anti-patriotism; indifference to the values of the family and as a result of social orphanhood and prostitution.Conclusions, perspectives of research. Thus, we can conclude that modern Ukrainian education is predominantly formed by the values of mass culture. Namely, according to the «Dialectic» by Horkheimer and Adorno, «semi-enlightenment becomes an objective spirit» of our modern society.It is concluded that only high-quality education can create the opposite of the onset of mass culture and the destruction of spirituality in our society. It is proved that only by realizing the importance of cultivating disciplines in the educational process and the spiritual upbringing of the nation, through educational reforms, humanitarian knowledge will gradually return to student audiences.Formation of youth occurs under the influence of social environment, culture, education and self-education. The optimal combination of these factors determines both the process of socialization itself and how successful it will be. In this context, one can see the leading role of education and upbringing. It turns out that the main task of modern education is to spread its influence on the development of spiritual culture of the individual, which eventually becomes a solid foundation for the formation of the individual. Such a subject requires both philosophical and humanitarian approaches in further integrated interdisciplinary research, since the availability of such research will provide the theoretical foundation for truly modern educational and personal development.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Benatov

Our conference is the first project of Student Science Association, which was restored in our University in 1998. The main peculiarity of the conference is the student organizing committee. The conference was attended by representatives of Russia, Belarus, Sweden, Poland, Bulgaria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Latvia, Georgia, Iran, not mentioning hundreds of Ukrainian participants. We’re happy with the fact that our conference allows students to discover new information, which they wouldn’t find in training courses manuals; contrariwise businesses and organizations can get direct access to young and qualified staff. We believe that events like our conference are useful for the young scientists and also for the public authorities and businesses. Conference "Ecology. Human. Society "is a part of feedback between universities and market participants. The conference has overgrown limits of being simple educational process element. Today, it is a serious recruiting resource for state institutions and businesses - an important part of a mutually beneficial dialogue.


Author(s):  
Ramnik Kaur

E-governance is a paradigm shift over the traditional approaches in Public Administration which means rendering of government services and information to the public by using electronic means. In the past decades, service quality and responsiveness of the government towards the citizens were least important but with the approach of E-Government the government activities are now well dealt. This paper withdraws experiences from various studies from different countries and projects facing similar challenges which need to be consigned for the successful implementation of e-governance projects. Developing countries like India face poverty and illiteracy as a major obstacle in any form of development which makes it difficult for its government to provide e-services to its people conveniently and fast. It also suggests few suggestions to cope up with the challenges faced while implementing e-projects in India.


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