This article investigates the impact of educational contexts on automatic classification of online discussion messages according to cognitive presence, an essential construct of the community of inquiry model. In particular, the work reported in the article analyzed online discussion messages written in Brazilian Portuguese from two different…

Industry standards are used in many disciplines, including science and technology areas. To date, little research has been conducted regarding the citing of standards in scholarly publications. The aim of this study was to answer two questions: Are standards being cited in scholarly publications? And, if so, what are the characteristics of the…

This article presents a web-based educational project focused on the potential value of Information and Communication Technology to enhance communication and education on nuclear science throughout Brazil. The project is designed to provide trustworthy information about the beneficial uses of nuclear technology, educating children and teenagers,…

From Rio to Rio with Kyoto, Copenhagen and Durban in between, the conclusion remains the same: we fundamentally disagree on realities of this planet and the ways we can address them. A decisive breakthrough would necessitate both wider contexts and a larger participatory base so as to identify problems, formulate policies, and broaden and…

A unique challenge for organizations is in leading diverse, dispersed teams whose members are motivated to work independently, but are willing to collaborate. The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of how nuanced variations in motivational patterns influences the relationship between work satisfaction and virtual team…

The expansion of sugarcane for biofuels is a highly contentious issue. The growth of sugarcane area has occurred simultaneously with a reduction of dairy production in Sao Paulo state, the primary production region for sugar and ethanol in Brazil. This paper analyses different dairy farm rationales to continue dairy production in the context of a…

The place of popular and multifunctional media in the musical life of young people has been addressed in several studies. Music can aid in understanding youth cultures through the identification of musical preferences: inform about new lifestyles, fashions, ways of acting, work as motivation for personal dreams and aspirations, and build…

This is a unique and groundbreaking collection of questions and answers coming from higher education institutions on diverse fields and across a wide spectrum of countries and cultures. It creates routes for further innovation, collaboration amidst the Sciences (both Natural and Social), the Humanities, and the private and public sectors of…

A summary of the workshop convened in May 1971 in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil by the Council on Higher Education in the American Republics to assess current applications of communications technology for the improvement of educational systems in Latin America is given in this document. Against a background which includes: 1) technological asymmetry in…

This paper intends to bring out the experience of introducing a discipline of History of Science and Technology in an Undergraduate Course of Engineering and a proposal of transforming it so as to help future engineers deal with the challenges posed by the present moment of capitalism, usually called globalization. The discipline was lectured at…

Although the participation rates of females in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (or STEM) education is poor in most Western countries, considerable differences across countries exist as well. This may be due to differences in the so-called gender achievement gaps, that is, delays of one sex with respect to the other. The variation…

This book offers 21 papers in three parts. After (1) "Introduction" (Jacques Maurais and Michael A. Morris), Part 1, "Global Communication Challenges," includes (2) "Towards a New Global Linguistic Order?" (Jacques Maurais); (3) "The Geostrategies of Interlingualism" (Mark Fettes); (4) "Language Policy…

For supporting the teaching activities on linear system theory, a World Wide Web-based laboratory is being developed. It integrates both simulation and implementation aspects in the same framework. Modules covering the main topics of the linear system analysis are developed using a colloquial language approach in order to attract and retain the…

A Latin American Educator responds to three challenging social questions: How essential is the university in the development process? What are the strengths and weaknesses of technology transfer? How ready are developing societies to absorb higher technical literacy?

Developed as part of a document series that focuses on science and technology teaching, this volume was produced under the auspices of the Commission for Biological Education of the International Union of Biological Sciences (CBE-IUBS). It serves to provide biology teachers and others concerned with secondary biology curriculum development with…