Efeito de uma intervenção com jogos digitas e webgames na motivação intrínseca em escolares / Effect of an intervention with digital games and webgames on intrinsic motivation in schools

RESUMO O objetivo deste estudo foi analisar o efeito de uma intervenção com jogos digitais associados aos webgames na motivação intrínseca de crianças de uma escola pública de Florianópolis, Santa Catarina. Participaram deste estudo de desenho de um estudo de intervenção pedagógica não randomizado, 50 estudantes (52% de meninas), com idade média de 6,7 (±0,54) anos. Duas turmas da escola foram transformadas em dois grupos de pesquisa: 1) grupo intervenção (vivência prévia de jogos digitais no computador e webgames durante as aulas de educação física); e 2) grupo controle (apenas vivência de webgame). O Inventário de Motivação Intrínseca foi o instrumento utilizado, e para comparação intra e intergrupos utilizou-se o método de Equações de Estimativas Generalizadas, adotando-se o nível de significância de 5%. Não foi identificado efeito isolado do grupo ou interação grupo vs momento, o que indica que o grupo submetido a intervenção não se diferiu do grupo controle ao longo do tempo em termos de motivação. Conclui-se que o tipo de intervenção pedagógica realizada não foi capaz de aumentar a motivação intrínseca do grupo intervenção, sugerindo a necessidade de adaptações na estrutura e estratégias da intervenção em um próximo estudo.

ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to analyze the effect of an intervention with digital games associated with webgames on the intrinsic motivation of children from a public school in Florianópolis, Santa Catarina (Brazil). 50 students (52% girls) participated in this design study of non-randomized pedagogical intervention study, with a mean age of 6.7 (± 0.54) years. Two classroom groups were transformed into two research groups: 1) intervention group (preview experience of digital games on the computer and webgames during physical education classes); and 2) control group (only experience of webgame). The Intrinsic Motivation Inventory was the instrument used, and for intra and intergroup comparison, the Generalized Estimation Equations method was used, adopting a significance level of 5%. No isolated effect of the group or interaction between group vs moment was identified, which indicates that the group submitted to the intervention did not differ from the control group over time in terms of motivation. It is concluded that the type of pedagogical intervention performed was not able to increase the intrinsic motivation OF GROUP I, suggesting the need for adaptations in the structure and strategies of the intervention for future research.

Programming course for health science as a strategy to engage students during the coronavirus pandemic.

Programming is an important skill for different areas of knowledge. While in the past, programming skills were much more related to fields of computer sciences and engineering, today, professionals from different areas benefit from the ability to write codes for different applications. Furthermore, programming stimulates logical thinking, which impacts other personal abilities. Health science students have limited exposure to programming during their studies. Aware of this and considering the prolonged time in social distancing in Brazil due to the SARS-COV2 pandemic in 2020, we organized an outreach course dedicated to teaching introductory concepts of programming for health science students. The activity was developed fully online using the Zoom web conference agent, lasting 12 wk (8 synchronous classes, 15 synchronous hours in total), and attended by 27 undergraduate and graduate students from two different universities. A collaborative problem-based learning and group-learning methodology were developed through asynchronous homework and mainly online synchronous activities. In this article, we describe our approach and provide some suggestions for replicating the course in other universities. We observed that the activities of the outreach course improved programming skills and confidence for most of the students. More importantly, it piqued their interest enough to motivate them to continue to practice writing and testing their programs. We concluded that an outreach course dedicated to programming promoted improvements in programming skills in health science students. Furthermore, the program was an opportunity to keep the students active in science while working from their homes during the pandemic.

Interactions of construal levels on programming ability and learning satisfaction: A case study of an Arduino course for junior high school students.

Programming is one of the most crucial abilities for students in science and technology courses. Few studies on programming ability have considered the effect of students' construal levels on their learning performance. Therefore, the effects of students' construal level were explored in this study to fill this research gap and open a new avenue for the improvements in programming ability. The research participants were 110 seventh- and eighth-grade students with basic programming abilities taking an Arduino course. Data were collected from online questionnaires and analyzed using two-way analysis of variance and structural equation modeling to investigate the relationships among construal levels, programming ability, and learning satisfaction. The results revealed that students' construal levels affect their learning satisfaction and programming ability. These findings indicate that teaching strategies could effectively improve the learning satisfaction and programming ability of junior high school students.

Computer science skills across China, India, Russia, and the United States.

We assess and compare computer science skills among final-year computer science undergraduates (seniors) in four major economic and political powers that produce approximately half of the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics graduates in the world. We find that seniors in the United States substantially outperform seniors in China, India, and Russia by 0.76-0.88 SDs and score comparably with seniors in elite institutions in these countries. Seniors in elite institutions in the United States further outperform seniors in elite institutions in China, India, and Russia by ∼0.85 SDs. The skills advantage of the United States is not because it has a large proportion of high-scoring international students. Finally, males score consistently but only moderately higher (0.16-0.41 SDs) than females within all four countries.

Mulheres 50+ em rede: Capacitação digital e empreendedora para empresárias a partir de 50 anos de idade / Women 50+ in a network: digital training and entrepreneurship for entrepreneurs from 50 years old / 50+ mujeres en una red: capacitación empresarial y digital para emprendedoras 50+

O objetivo é analisar os dados obtidos sobre curso de capacitação de recursos digitais para empreendedoras com idade acima de 50 anos, em termos de aprendizagem, ganhos pessoais e profissionais. Amostra formada por 28 empresárias, com idade igual ou superior a 50 anos, residentes na cidade de São Paulo. Como resultados e discussão, destaca-se que 80% das alunas afirmaram que iriam aplicar os conhecimentos obtidos no dia a dia de suas empresas, demonstrando a pertinência do conteúdo com a prática das empreendedoras.

Objective: to analyze the data obtained on the training course of digital resources for entrepreneurs aged over 50, in terms of learning, personal and professional gain. Methods: a sample of 28 women entrepreneurs, aged 50 years or over, living in the city of São Paulo. Results and discussion: 80% of the students affirmed that they would apply the knowledge obtained in their companies' day-to-day activities, demonstrating the relevance of the content to the practice of entrepreneurs.

El objetivo es analizar los datos obtenidos sobre el curso de capacitación en recursos digitales para emprendedores mayores de 50 años, en términos de aprendizaje, ganancias personales y profesionales. Una muestra de 28 mujeres de negocios, de 50 años o más, que residen en la ciudad de São Paulo. Como resultados y discusión, es digno de mención que el 80% de los estudiantes dijeron que aplicarían los conocimientos obtenidos en la vida diaria de sus empresas, lo que demuestra la relevancia del contenido con la práctica de los emprendedores.

Assessment of problem solving ability in novice programmers.

Problem Solving (PS) skills allow students to handle problems within an educational context. PS is a core competence of Computer Science education and affects programming success. In this vein, this paper aims to investigate PS ability performance in primary school pupils of a computer course, implemented according to the Neo-Piagetian theory of cognitive development. The study included 945 Slovenian pupils, ranging from fourth to sixth grade. The effects of gender, age and consecutive years of attending the course were examined on pupils' PS ability at the pre-operational and concrete operational stages. Pupils completed a survey questionnaire with four types of tasks (a series of statements, if-statements, loops and variables) at both stages. The analysis revealed three findings: the performance of PS ability in all tasks was, at the pre-operational stage, associated positively with performance at the concrete operational stage; there were no gender differences in PS performance at both stages, and both the grade and consecutive year of taking the computer course had an effect on PS ability performance at both stages. Those in the lowest grade and those taking the course for the first year reported lower performances than their older counterparts. These findings may help curriculum designers across the world develop efficient approaches to teaching computer courses.

Automatically assembling a full census of an academic field.

The composition of the scientific workforce shapes the direction of scientific research, directly through the selection of questions to investigate, and indirectly through its influence on the training of future scientists. In most fields, however, complete census information is difficult to obtain, complicating efforts to study workforce dynamics and the effects of policy. This is particularly true in computer science, which lacks a single, all-encompassing directory or professional organization. A full census of computer science would serve many purposes, not the least of which is a better understanding of the trends and causes of unequal representation in computing. Previous academic census efforts have relied on narrow or biased samples, or on professional society membership rolls. A full census can be constructed directly from online departmental faculty directories, but doing so by hand is expensive and time-consuming. Here, we introduce a topical web crawler for automating the collection of faculty information from web-based department rosters, and demonstrate the resulting system on the 205 PhD-granting computer science departments in the U.S. and Canada. This method can quickly construct a complete census of the field, and achieve over 99% precision and recall. We conclude by comparing the resulting 2017 census to a hand-curated 2011 census to quantify turnover and retention in computer science, in general and for female faculty in particular, demonstrating the types of analysis made possible by automated census construction.

Chemoinformatics: a perspective from an academic setting in Latin America.

This perspective discusses the current progress of a chemoinformatics group in a major university in Latin America. Three major aspects are discussed in a critical manner: research, education, and collaboration with industry and other public research networks. It is also presented an overview of the progress in applied research and development of research concepts. Efforts to teach chemoinformatics at the undergraduate and graduate levels are discussed. It is addressed how the partnership with industry and other not-for-profit research institutions not only brings additional sources of funding but, more importantly, increases the impact of the multidisciplinary work and offers the students to be exposed to other research environments. We also discuss the main perspectives and challenges that remain to be addressed in these settings.

A Team, Case-based Examination and Its Impact on Student Performance in a Patient Safety and Informatics Course.

Objective. To describe the redesigned assessment plan for a patient safety and informatics course and assess student pharmacist performance and perceptions. Methods. The final examination of a patient safety course was redesigned from traditional multiple choice and short answer to team-based, open-ended, and case-based. Faculty for each class session developed higher level activities, focused on developing key skills or attitudes deemed essential for practice, for a progressive patient case consisting of nine activities. Student performance and perceptions were analyzed with pre- and post-surveys using 5-point scales. Results. Mean performance on the examination was 93.6%; median scores for each assessed course outcome ranged from 90% to 100%. Eighty-five percent of students completed both surveys. Confidence performing skills and demonstrating attitudes improved for each item on post-survey compared with pre-survey. Eighty-one percent of students indicated the experience of taking the examination was beneficial for their professional development. Conclusion. A team, case-based examination was associated with high student performance and improved self-confidence in performing medication safety-related skills.

Informática na Educação em Saúde e Enfermagem: análise dos grupos de pesquisa / Computing in Education in Health Care and Nursing: review of research groups / Computación en la Educación en Salud y Enfermería: revisión de los grupos de investigación

Foi verificada as características dos grupos de pesquisa do Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico que trabalham com a informática na educação em saúde e na enfermagem. Trata-se de um estudo documental, exploratório-descritivo, de natureza quantitativa realizada por meio do acesso de todos os grupos de pesquisa do Brasil cadastrados no Diretório dos Grupos de Pesquisa do site institucional. A análise resultou na identificação de 27 grupos de pesquisa com concentração nas áreas de Enfermagem e Ciências da Saúde prevalente na região Sudeste do país. A existência de grupos de pesquisa é um indicativo que corrobora com o crescimento da área da saúde e enfermagem no país com a integração de grupos heterogêneos e multidisciplinares com interesses de estudos científicos em comum.

It was verified the characteristics of the research groups of the National Scientific and Technological Development Council to work with information technology in health education and nursing. It is a documentary study, exploratory and descriptive, quantitative accomplished through access to all research groups in Brazil registered in the Directory of Research Groups of the institutional site. The analysis resulted in the identification of 27 research groups with concentration in the areas of Nursing and Health Sciences prevalent in the Southeast of the country. The existence of research groups is an indication that supports the growth of health and nursing in the country with the integration of heterogeneous and multidisciplinary groups to scientific studies of common interests.

Se verificó las características de los grupos de investigación de la Nacional Científico y Consejo de Desarrollo Tecnológico para trabajar con tecnologías de la información en la educación en salud y enfermería. Se trata de un estudio documental, exploratorio y descriptivo, cuantitativo realizado a través del acceso a todos los grupos de investigación en Brasil registradas en el Directorio de Grupos de Investigación del sitio institucional. El análisis dio como resultado la identificación de 27 grupos de investigación con la concentración en las áreas de Enfermería y Ciencias de la Salud prevalente en el sudeste del país. La existencia de grupos de investigación es una indicación de que es compatible con el crecimiento de la salud y de enfermería en el país con la integración de grupos heterogéneos y multidisciplinarios para estudios científicos de interés común.

Pathology Informatics Essentials for Residents: A Flexible Informatics Curriculum Linked to Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Milestones.

CONTEXT: -Recognition of the importance of informatics to the practice of pathology has surged. Training residents in pathology informatics has been a daunting task for most residency programs in the United States because faculty often lacks experience and training resources. Nevertheless, developing resident competence in informatics is essential for the future of pathology as a specialty. OBJECTIVE: -To develop and deliver a pathology informatics curriculum and instructional framework that guides pathology residency programs in training residents in critical pathology informatics knowledge and skills, and meets Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Informatics Milestones. DESIGN: -The College of American Pathologists, Association of Pathology Chairs, and Association for Pathology Informatics formed a partnership and expert work group to identify critical pathology informatics training outcomes and to create a highly adaptable curriculum and instructional approach, supported by a multiyear change management strategy. RESULTS: -Pathology Informatics Essentials for Residents (PIER) is a rigorous approach for educating all pathology residents in important pathology informatics knowledge and skills. PIER includes an instructional resource guide and toolkit for incorporating informatics training into residency programs that vary in needs, size, settings, and resources. PIER is available at http://www.apcprods.org/PIER (accessed April 6, 2016). CONCLUSIONS: -PIER is an important contribution to informatics training in pathology residency programs. PIER introduces pathology trainees to broadly useful informatics concepts and tools that are relevant to practice. PIER provides residency program directors with a means to implement a standardized informatics training curriculum, to adapt the approach to local program needs, and to evaluate resident performance and progress over time.

An Approach for Some in Advanced Pharmacy Informatics Education.

Computerization is transforming health care while the quantity and complexity of biomedical knowledge rapidly grows. Today, all clinicians use health information technology (HIT), but only some pharmacists need to be cross-trained in "all" that advanced informatics entails so they can devise new and better information systems to support the pharmacy practice of the future. We propose a dual approach to informatics education in pharmacy: incorporate fundamental informatics education into pharmacy curricula for all students; and train some students interested in becoming informatics experts to design, develop, implement, and evaluate novel HIT for pharmacy. This commentary focuses specifically on the latter. It discusses the advanced pharmacy informatics training needed by some pharmacists to support innovation of HIT and to enable a shift to a more fully system-supported pharmacy practice.

Cartilha de Inclusão Digital para Idosos / Digital Inclusion Primer for the Elderly

A Inclusão Digital pode trazer benefícios para o público idoso. Para saciar a avidez dos idosos por conhecimentos nesta área, o IPGG montou um Centro de Inclusão Digital. Muitos idosos ganham celulares/smartphones, computadores ou tablets e deixam de utilizá-los por desconhecerem o funcionamento. Alguns nunca ligaram um computador, acessaram a internet, enviaram e-mails e utilizaram outros serviços de informática. Envergonhados por não conhecerem as tecnologias, evitam pedir auxílio aos filhos e netos. Outros referem que os familiares não têm tempo ou paciência para ensiná-los. Outros ainda pretendem capacitar-se profissionalmente, visando manter-se empregados, conseguir uma promoção ou buscar melhores oportunidades de trabalho.

Predictors of Information Technology Integration in Secondary Schools: Evidence from a Large Scale Study of More than 30,000 Students.

The present study examined the predictors of information technology (IT) integration in secondary school mathematics lessons. The predictors pertained to IT resource availability in schools, school contextual/institutional variables, accountability pressure faced by schools, subject culture in mathematics, and mathematics teachers' pedagogical beliefs and practices. Data from 32,256 secondary school students from 2,519 schools in 16 developed economies who participated in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012 were analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). Results showed that after controlling for student-level (gender, prior academic achievement and socioeconomic status) and school-level (class size, number of mathematics teachers) variables, students in schools with more computers per student, with more IT resources, with higher levels of IT curricular expectations, with an explicit policy on the use of IT in mathematics, whose teachers believed in student-centered teaching-learning, and whose teachers provided more problem-solving activities in class reported higher levels of IT integration. On the other hand, students who studied in schools with more positive teacher-related school learning climate, and with more academically demanding parents reported lower levels of IT integration. Student-related school learning climate, principal leadership behaviors, schools' public posting of achievement data, tracking of school's achievement data by administrative authorities, and pedagogical and curricular differentiation in mathematics lessons were not related to levels of IT integration. Put together, the predictors explained a total of 15.90% of the school-level variance in levels of IT integration. In particular, school IT resource availability, and mathematics teachers' pedagogical beliefs and practices stood out as the most important determinants of IT integration in mathematics lessons.

Simbrain 3.0: A flexible, visually-oriented neural network simulator.

Simbrain 3.0 is a software package for neural network design and analysis, which emphasizes flexibility (arbitrarily complex networks can be built using a suite of basic components) and a visually rich, intuitive interface. These features support both students and professionals. Students can study all of the major classes of neural networks in a familiar graphical setting, and can easily modify simulations, experimenting with networks and immediately seeing the results of their interventions. With the 3.0 release, Simbrain supports models on the order of thousands of neurons and a million synapses. This allows the same features that support education to support research professionals, who can now use the tool to quickly design, run, and analyze the behavior of large, highly customizable simulations.

Cognitive Collaboration Found in Cardiac Physiology: Study in Classroom Environment.

It is known that periods of intense social interaction result in shared patterns in collaborators' physiological signals. However, applied quantitative research on collaboration is hindered due to scarcity of objective metrics of teamwork effectiveness. Indeed, especially in the domain of productive, ecologically-valid activity such as programming, there is a lack of evidence for the most effective, affordable and reliable measures of collaboration quality. In this study we investigate synchrony in physiological signals between collaborating computer science students performing pair-programming exercises in a class room environment. We recorded electrocardiography over the course of a 60 minute programming session, using lightweight physiological sensors. We employ correlation of heart-rate variability features to study social psychophysiological compliance of the collaborating students. We found evident physiological compliance in collaborating dyads' heart-rate variability signals. Furthermore, dyads' self-reported workload was associated with the physiological compliance. Our results show viability of a novel approach to field measurement using lightweight devices in an uncontrolled environment, and suggest that self-reported collaboration quality can be assessed via physiological signals.