The view on teachers and students using virtual classrooms methodology b-learming

El presente estudio se engloba dentro de un proyecto de innovación llevado a cabo en el curso 2010-2011 en la Universidad de La Laguna. Se desarrolló en las distintas asignaturas del campo o ámbito de la "Tecnología Educativa" y que se imparten actualmente en distintas titulaciones de la Facultad de Educación. El objetivo que se pretende es indagar sobre la opinión y valoración que hace el alumnado y el profesorado sobre el uso de las aulas virtuales como herramienta de apoyo en la modalidad semipresencial o “blended-learning”. Así como explorar si el diseño del aula virtual y el uso de determinadas herramientas y actividades de aprendizaje en el entorno de las aulas virtuales está moldeada por el perfil de la titulación, de la asignatura o de la práctica docente de cada profesor La metodología se estructuró en dos líneas atendiendo a la naturaleza de los sujetos participantes: profesorado y alumnado. En el caso del alumnado se elaboraron dos cuestionarios de opinión on line. Y con respecto al profesorado se elaboró una matriz en la que el docente tenía que describir tanto la metodología utilizada como las herramientas y actividades desarrolladas. De los resultados se desprende que en el diseño del aula virtual interviene fundamentalmente la propia estructuración de las asignaturas en créditos teóricos y prácticos. Y en cuanto a la selección de las herramientas digitales y actividades de aprendizaje parece que de alguna manera está influyendo las teorías y prácticas docentes sobre cómo debe desarrollar y adquirir el alumnado determinadas habilidades y conocimientos.This study is part of an innovation project conducted in 2010-2011 at the University of La Laguna. It was developed in the different subjects of the field or area of "Educational Technology" and currently taught in different degrees of the Faculty of Education. The objective sought is to inquire into the opinion and judgment that makes the students and teachers on the use of virtual classrooms as a support tool in a blended- learning or blen. And explore whether the design of the virtual classroom and the use of certain tools and learning activities in the virtual classroom environment is shaped by the degree profile of the subject or of the teaching practice of each teacher. The methodology is structured in two lines based on the nature of the subjects involved: teachers and students. In the case of students prepared two opinion questionnaires online. And with respect to teachers is developed a matrix in which the teacher had to describe both the methodology and the tools and activities. The results show that in the virtual classroom design itself primarily involved structuring of credit courses in theory and practice. And as for the selection of digital tools and learning activities seems that somehow is influencing educational theories and practices on how to develop and acquire certain skills and knowledge students

Analysis of Activities with ICT in Secondary Education Classrooms

MetNum es punto de encuentro en el campus virtual Moodle, para los alumnos de Métodos Numéricos de la I.T.Informática de la Universidad de Málaga. Como herramientas básicas de Moodle nos planteamos en este campus virtual la utilización de cuestionarios, lecciones, glosarios, tareas, wikis, libros y foros como medio de incentivar y encauzar el trabajo diario de los alumnos. Destacamos que se ha desarrollado PDTeXInT: un entorno para el diseño de tutoriales interactivos para la presentación de material matemático. PDTeXInT permite acercar de forma amistosa y formato portable los contenidos teóricos junto con ejercicios de autoevaluación, como método para mejorar el proceso de aprendizaje.An cases study has made in two Secondary Education Centres of Tenerife, integrated into the Project Medusa of the Canary Government (http://www.gobiernodecanarias.org/educacion/ medusa). The results obtained from the observations of many classrooms developed teaching activities supported in the use of digital resources are presented here. The central objective was to identify what kind of activities have been developed in the pedagogical use of ICT, to what extent these activities are favoring informational and digital skills in students, and how they organized and developed them

Is Barbero's Hamiltonian formulation a Gauge Theory of Lorentzian Gravity?

This letter is a critique of Barbero's constrained Hamiltonian formulation of General Relativity on which current work in Loop Quantum Gravity is based. While we do not dispute the correctness of Barbero's formulation of general relativity, we offer some criticisms of an aesthetic nature. We point out that unlike Ashtekar's complex SU(2) connection, Barbero's real SO(3) connection does not admit an interpretation as a space-time gauge field. We show that if one tries to interpret Barbero's real SO(3) connection as a space-time gauge field, the theory is not diffeomorphism invariant. We conclude that Barbero's formulation is not a gauge theory of gravity in the sense that Ashtekar's Hamiltonian formulation is. The advantages of Barbero's real connection formulation have been bought at the price of giving up the description of gravity as a gauge field.Comment: 12 pages, no figures, revised in the light of referee's comments, accepted for publication in Classical and Quantum Gravit

Asymptotics and zeros of Sobolev orthogonal polynomials on unbounded supports

In this paper we present a survey about analytic properties of polynomials orthogonal with respect to a weighted Sobolev inner product such that the vector of measures has an unbounded support. In particular, we are focused in the study of the asymptotic behaviour of such polynomials as well as in the distribution of their zeros. Some open problems as well as some new directions for a future research are formulated.Comment: Changed content; 34 pages, 41 reference

The endogenous caspase-8 inhibitor c-FLIPL regulates ER morphology and crosstalk with mitochondria

Components of the death receptors-mediated pathways like caspase-8 have been identified in complexes at intracellular membranes to spatially restrict the processing of local targets. In this study, we report that the long isoform of the cellular FLICE-inhibitory protein (c-FLIPL), a well- known inhibitor of the extrinsic cell death initiator caspase-8, localizes at the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and mitochondria-associated membranes (MAMs). ER morphology was disrupted and ER Ca2+-release as well as ER-mitochondria tethering were decreased in c-FLIP-/- mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs). Mechanistically, c-FLIP ablation resulted in enhanced basal caspase-8 activation and in caspase-mediated processing of the ER-shaping protein reticulon-4 (RTN4) that was corrected by re-introduction of c-FLIPL and caspase inhibition, resulting in the recovery of a normal ER morphology and ER-mitochondria juxtaposition. Thus, the caspase-8 inhibitor c-FLIPL emerges as a component of the MAMs signaling platforms, where caspases appear to regulate ER morphology and ER-mitochondria crosstalk by impinging on ER-shaping proteins like the RTN4

ICT education policies in Spain after School Program 2.0: Emerging Trends

En este artículo se analiza la situación actual de las políticas educativas destinadas a laincorporación de las TIC a las escuelas en una muestra de ocho comunidades autónomasde España (Andalucía, Canarias, Cataluña, Extremadura, Madrid, País Valenciano, PaísVasco y Principado de Asturias) después del proceso impulsado por el Programa Escuela2.0. Este programa estuvo vigente durante el periodo 2009­2012 y respondió al modelo 1:1,de un ordenador por estudiante. Este análisis se guió por las siguientes cuestiones: ¿Quéefectos permanecen de las experiencias de políticas educativas del modelo 1:1?; ¿Quénuevos proyectos o programas están vigentes en los sistemas educativos de lascomunidades autónomas? ¿Qué nuevas tendencias con relación a las TIC estánemergiendo en la agenda educativa de las políticas autonómicas? Se concluye que lasnuevas políticas TIC, entre otras acciones, apuntan a centrar su atención en laincorporación de las PDI a todas las aulas, a la dotación de tabletas a los estudiantes envez de miniportátiles, a políticas de sustitución de los libros de texto de papel porplataformas de contenidos digitales y a la creación de portales de recursos en la nube. Seconstata también la ausencia de un programa o política educativa TIC coordinada a nivelde todo el estado como fue la experiencia del Programa Escuela 2.0.In this article the current situation of educational policies for the incorporation of ICT inschools in a sample of eight regions of Spain (Andalusia, Canary Islands, Catalonia,Extremadura, Madrid, Valencia, the Basque Country and the Principality of analyzesAsturias) after the process driven by the Escuela 2.0 program. This program was in effectduring the period 2009­2012 and responded to the 1:1 model of a computer per student.This analysis was guided by the following questions: What effects remain from theexperiences of educational policies of the 1:1 model?; What new projects or programs arein place in the educational systems of the regions? What new trends in relation to ICT areemerging in the educational agenda of regional policies? We conclude that the new ICTpolicy, among other things, aim to focus on the integration of IDPs to all classrooms toequipping students tablets instead of netbooks, a substitution policies textbooks paper fordigital content platforms, to create portals of cloud resources. The absence of aneducational program or policy level ICT coordinated statewide as was the experience ofSchool Program 2.0 has been observed

The making of a mammalian peroxisome, version 2.0: mitochondria get into the mix

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Nature Publishing Group via the DOI in this record.A recent report from the laboratory of Heidi McBride (McGill University) presents a role for mitochondria in the de novo biogenesis of peroxisomes in mammalian cells (1). Peroxisomes are essential organelles responsible for a wide variety of biochemical functions, from the generation of bile, to plasmalogen synthesis, reduction of peroxides, and the oxidation of very long chain fatty acids (2). Like mitochondria, peroxisomes proliferate primarily through growth and division of pre-existing peroxisomes (3-6). However, unlike mitochondria, peroxisomes do not fuse (5,7); further, and perhaps most importantly, they can also be born de novo, a process thought to occur through the generation of pre-peroxisomal vesicles that originate from the endoplasmic reticulum (reviewed in (8,9). De novo peroxisome biogenesis has been extensively studies in yeast, with a major focus on the role of the ER in this process. Comprehensive studies in mammalian cells are, however, scarce (5,10-12). By exploiting patient cells lacking mature peroxisomes, Sugiura et al. (1) now assign a role to ER and mitochondria in de novo mammalian peroxisome biogenesis by showing that the formation of immature preperoxisomes occurs through the fusion of Pex3- / Pex14-containing mitochondriaderived vesicles with Pex16-containing ER-derived vesicles