Thesis (M. Phil.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-91). Also available in electronic version. Access restricted to campus users.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2002. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 157-172). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2002. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 157-172). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Florida, 2005. / Title from title page of source document. Document formatted into pages; contains 83 pages. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Introdução. Nossa sociedade vive num momento chamado de condição Tecno-humana. Este momento tem como principal característica a habilidade de mudança de processos, posições e estratégias. O ambiente educacional tem a possibilidade de ressignificar a si mesmo e o uso de inovações tecnológicas nas aulas. Alunos, educadores, diretores escolares, pais e pesquisadores estão discutindo o processo educacional nesta nova sociedade. O uso das TICs é um interesse atual dos pesquisadores na busca de das melhores práticas para o cenário educacional. Aulas presencias não são mais o único ambiente de aprendizagem, então, é importante considerar como os ambientes de aprendizagem presencial e online podem auxiliar os alunos a assimilar conhecimento. Métodos. Esta pesquisa é um estudo exploratório-descritivo com uma abordagem quantitativa. O objetivo foi analisar o conhecimento assimilado e o comportamento das presenças educacional, social e cognitiva em ambientes presencial e virtual de aprendizagem. O método foi desenvolvido para analisar uma disciplina realizada em dois ambientes de aprendizagem: presencial e virtual. Dois sub-delineamentos foram realizados. Uma coleta de dados longitudinal foi realizada para mensurar o grau de conhecimento antes e depois da exposição dos alunos à disciplina (independente do ambiente). Um segundo sub-delineamento, a coleta transversal de dados foi realizada para identificar as presenças educacional, social e cognitiva por meio da percepção dos alunos, após o término da disciplina. O estudo foi realizado em uma instituição de ensino superior na região do Alto Tietê São Paulo. A população de estudo foi composta por alunos de graduação de um curso oferecido em ambos os ambientes, matriculados na disciplina de estudo no primeiro semestre de 2012 e aceitaram participar da pesquisa. A disciplina teve o mesmo professor, estrutura, conteúdo, objetivos e conteúdos. Foram utilizados dois instrumentos de coleta de dados: o primeiro foi um formulário contendo dez questões fechadas e de múltipla escolha sobre os conteúdos da disciplina, contendo somente uma resposta correta; o segundo foi um instrumento que, por meio da escala de Lickert, permitiu mensurar as presenças educacional, social e cognitiva, por meio da percepção doa aluno. Tal instrumento foi traduzido e teve sua confiabilidade avaliada pelo teste Alpha de Cronbarch. Resultados. Trinta e três alunos participaram da pesquisa, sendo 52% no ambiente de aprendizagem presencial e 48% no ambiente virtual. Os alunos foram caracterizados como mulheres, com renda menor que 2 salários mínimos, com casa própria e computador e internet no domicílio. A proporção de respostas corretas no pós teste foi maior que no pré teste (presencial: aumento de 46% para 69%; virtual: aumento de 46% para 625). O teste Qui-Quadrado/Exato de Fisher demonstrou que as proporções de respostas corretas no pós teste (em ambos os ambientes) foram estatisticamente significativas. Entretanto, nenhuma diferença significativa foi identificada entre as proporções de respostas corretas entre os ambientes. Assim, é claro que os grupos deste estudo obtiveram o mesmo grau de aprendizado depois da exposição à disciplina. Mas, um olhar na literatura sobre o desempenho de alunos em ambientes virtuais de aprendizagem demonstra que o tema é uma preocupação antiga dos pesquisadores e que não há consenso na literatura, uma vez que os achados divergem: de um melhor desempenho no ambiente virtual ao desempenho sem diferenças significativas entre os ambientes virtual e presencial. No entanto, o teste Qui-Quadrado/ Exato de Fisher demonstrou que a presença educacional foi melhor percebida no ambiente virtual, e a presença social melhor percebida no ambiente presencial. Em ambos os ambientes, a presença cognitiva foi a melhor percebida. A literatura apresenta que sem a percepção de estar se relacionado com outrem, o aluno possivelmente não aprenda. Neste estudo, em ambos os ambientes o aluno percebeu-se numa relação com outrem, com o professor (no ambiente virtual) e com os pares (no ambiente presencial). Ainda, a literatura aborda a necessidade do aluno ser responsável pelo seu conhecimento e aprendizado, demonstrando que, entre a mediação pedagógica (proporção na qual as presenças educacional, social e cognitiva são percebidas) e o aprendizado, há a autonomia do aluno conectando um aspecto ao outro. Ressalta-se que, nenhuma das variáveis independentes de estudo (sexo, idade, renda, moradia, computador e internet em casa) estiveram associadas significativamente ao grau de assimilação do conhecimento ou às presenças educacional, social e cognitiva. Conclusão. Este estudo alcançou seu objetivos ao encontrar que ambos os ambientes proporcionaram o aprendizado, sem diferenças significativas, desde que a disciplina (e seus objetivos e conteúdos) e o professor foram os mesmos. Ainda, possibilitou compreender que a necessidade do aluno perceber-se presente no ambiente de aprendizagem por meio da relação com outrem é importante para seu aprendizado. Entretanto, o estudo teve um número limitado de alunos participantes. Então, é importante replicar este estudo em outras realidades e para grupos maiores. E, ainda, é importante analisar o impacto de cada presença dentro do ambiente de aprendizagem, consolidando os conhecimentos existentes acerca da mediação pedagógica aplicada a cada tipo de ambiente de aprendizagem / Introduction. Our society lives in a moment called Techno-human Condition. This moment has as principal characteristic the ability to change processes, positions, and strategies. It gives for educational environment a possibility to re-analyse itself and use technological innovations into classes. Students, educators, school directors, parents and researchers are trying to discuss educational process into this new society. Use of ICTs is a current interest of researches in order to find the best practices in educational scenario. Face-to-face is not the only learning environment so it is important to consider how face-to-face and online learning environments can help students to develop knowledge. Methods. This research is an exploratory and descriptive study and had a quantitative approach. The objective was to analyse knowledge built and the behaviour of educational, social and cognitive presence inside face-to-face and online learning environments. Method was built to analyse a discipline held in two different learning environments: face-to-face and online. Two sub-designs were developed. A longitudinal data collection was made to measure level of knowledge before and after student exposure to the discipline (regardless of his environment). A second data collection was done as a transversal design to identify educational, social and cognitive presence through students perceptions after discipline exposure. It was conducted in a Private Institution of Higher Education in the State of São Paulo (Brazil). Study population was composed of students from an undergraduate course offered in both environments who were enrolled at it in the first half of 2012 and agreed to participate. Discipline had the same teacher, workload, objectives and contents in both learning environments. Two data collection forms were used: at first was a form containing ten closed questions of multiple choice with one correct answer about discipline contents; second form was a Lickert scale instrument to measure educational, social and cognitive presence through students perceptions. This second form was translated and had its reliability tested by Alpha of Cronbarch. Data collection instrument for knowledge measurement constituted in a form done with closed questions with multiple-choice answers about the disciplines main subjects, containing only one correct answer. Ten questions were formulated. Instrument was applied in both environments before and after the discipline. Results. Thirty-three students participated in the survey, 52% of them in the face-to-face learning environment, and 48% in the online learning environment. Students were characterized as women with income less than a US$ 600,00 monthly salary, with proper house, computer and broadband Internet. The proportion of correct answers in the post-test of both groups was higher than pre-test (face-to-face: increase 46% to 69%; online: increase 46% to 62%). Chi-square statistical test/ Fishers Exact demonstrated that the proportions of correct answers in post-test (in both environments) were statistically significant. However, no significant difference was identified between the proportions of correct answers in the post-test between environments. Thus, it is clear that groups in this study had the same degree of learning, regardless of the environment, after discipline exposure. But a look beneath the literature about the performance of students in online learning environments realizes that the topic is an old interesting subject for researchers and there is no consensus, since the findings diverge: to better performance in online learning environment, for performance without significant differences between online and face-to-face environments. However, Chi-square test/ Fishers Exact demonstrated that educational presence was better perceived inside online learning environment, and social presence inside face-to-face environment. Cognitive presence was the most perceived in both environments. Literature presents that probably without any perception of interaction with other students could not learn. In this study, in both environments, students perceived a relationship with other, with teacher (inside online learning environment) and peers (inside online learning environment) Literature also reinforce the need of student be responsible by his knowledge and learning demonstrating that between pedagogical mediation (proportion in which educational, social and cognitive presence are perceived) and learning, there is students autonomy connecting those aspects. None of independent variable of study (sex, age, income, proper house, computer and broadband internet) were significantly related to knowledge and educational, social and cognitive presence. Conclusion. This study achieved its goal, finding the fact that both environments enabled learning without significant differences, since the discipline (and its objectives and contents) and the teacher are the same. Though, study allowed comprehension of students need of perceiving him present inside learning environment through relationship with other is important for learning. However, this study has a limited number of students participating on it. So, it is important to replicate it in other realities and for higher groups. And, it is also important to analyse the impact of each presence inside learning environment consolidating existent knowledge about pedagogical mediation inside each type or learning environment

Eu jogo, tu jogas e nós? Nós jogamos ou somos jogados? Eu me comunico? Tu te comunicas comigo? Nós nos comunicamos enquanto jogamos? Talvez a resposta rasa a qual somos induzidos a pensar seja: \"Sim! e como nos comunicamos.\" De forma mais elaborada, a ideia da pesquisa em questão é: qual a sinergia que ocorre entre o jogar e o comunicar, considerando que o comunicar não é algo que emula a comunicação, que promove o êxodo para o virtual, que coloca o jogador enquanto objeto de jogo tal como um peão. Comunicar é algo que sente, que frui, que nos atravessa, que permeia a nossa sensibilidade e imbrica aquilo que somos com aquilo que passamos a ser. Por isso, a proposta aqui é a de buscar apreensão do fenômeno que o jogo promove, considerando a Nova Teoria da Comunicação, O Princípio da Razão durante, o metáporo e demais terminologias desenvolvidas por Ciro Marcondes Filho e o Grupo FiloCom. Abordar o jogar pelo suporte do videogame para buscar o sutil, o ponto de equilíbrio do lúdico interativo na comunicação, que não nos mantém a mesma pessoa ao terminarmos de jogar. O jogo proposto como objeto de estudo, Minecraft, trata de um fenômeno, pois não só coloca o jogador como um produtor de conteúdo audiovisual mas permite que os usuários transformem e traduzam a realidade para eles. A questão, contudo é: será que os usuários traduzem os blocos que manipulam, que lhes é informado e supostamente comunicado em realidade? O objetivo aqui é o de compreender o jogo por este olhar, buscando as contribuições teóricas do ponto de vista do Princípio da Razão Durante (viés Comunicacional, Tecnológico e Sistêmico) e práticas (Reflexão, Criação, Apreensão e Popularização do conhecimento). / I play, you play, and what about us? Do we play or are we played? Do I communicate myself? Do you communicate with me? Do we communicate while we play? Perhaps the shallow answer we are led to think is, \"Yes! and how we communicate. \" More elaborately, the idea of the research in question is the synergy that occurs between playing and communicating, considering that communication is not something that emulates communication, which promotes a escape to the virtual, which places the player as an object like a pawn. Communicating is something that one feels, that flows naturally, that permeates our sensitivity and connects what we are with what we become. Therefore, this proposal involves studying the phenomenon that the game promotes, considering the New Theory of Communication, The Principle of Reason During, the metapore and other terminologies developed by Ciro Marcondes Filho and the FiloCom Group. The best approach to playing the game is through the support of the video game in order to seek the subtle, the point of balance of interactive playful communication, which somehow changes us when we finish playing. The game is proposed as an object of study. Minecraft, deals with a phenomenon, as it not only places the player as an audiovisual content producer but allows users to transform and translate reality into them. The question, however, is: do users translate the blocks they manipulate, which are informed and supposedly communicated in reality? The objective here is to understand the game through this lens, seeking the theoretical contributions from the point of view of the Principle of Reason During (Communication, Technological and Systemic bias) and practices (Reflection, Creation, Seizure and Popularization of knowledge).

Permeadas pelos audiovisuais, as sociedades contemporâneas se veem cada vez mais envoltas por eles. Diferentemente do que se verificava até bem pouco tempo atrás, época em que o ato de assistir a um audiovisual implicava adequar-se às grades das emissoras ou cinemas e estar localizado geograficamente em um lugar que dispusesse de aparato técnico para aguardar o momento da exibição, hoje as telas invadiram todos os espaços e seus conteúdos são visualizados facilmente por meio de diferentes dispositivos móveis (celulares, tablets, entre outros) a qualquer momento. Mesmo num cenário marcado pela aceleração, tais materiais têm o potencial de despertar nas pessoas a sensação de que o tempo parou, resgatando memórias, possibilitando novas visões sobre assuntos que não estavam pautados para aquele momento. Partindo da hipótese de que os audiovisuais são instâncias que permitem a ampliação do olhar racional porque conseguem penetrar no sensível, esta investigação apresenta uma forma inovadora de sentir essa experiência. A partir deste ponto, não cabe mais apenas a expressão assistir, mas, sim, sentir. O métaporo, como procedimento de pesquisa no âmbito da Nova Teoria da Comunicação, permitiu que, por meio de relatos, fosse possível observar o fenômeno comunicacional em situações de ensino-aprendizagem. Finalmente, e ensejando um movimento de metaporização do metáporo, a pesquisa revela também as ressonâncias resultantes dessas vivências tendo por base o ponto de vista do sujeito (o professor) que relata e revive as experiências no momento em que as registra. / Permeated by audiovisuals, contemporary societies are increasingly surrounded by them. Unlike what happened until a very short time ago, when the act of watching an audiovisual implied adjusting to the grids of the broadcasters or cinemas and being located geographically in a place that had the technical apparatus to wait for the moment of the exhibition, today the screens have invaded all spaces and their contents are easily visualized through different mobile devices (cell phones, tablets, among others) at any time. Even in a scenario marked by acceleration, such materials have the potential to awaken in people the feeling that time has stopped, retrieving memories, enabling new visions on subjects that were not scheduled for that moment. Starting from the hypothesis that the audiovisuals are instances that allow the amplification of the rational look because they can penetrate the sensitive, this investigation presents an innovative way to feel this experience. From this point on, it is no longer just the use of the expression to watch, but to feel. Metaporo, as a research procedure in the scope of the New Theory of Communication, allowed that, through reports, it was possible to observe the communicational phenomenon in teaching-learning situations. Finally, and by fostering a metaporalization movement of the metáporo, the research also reveals the resonances resulting from these experiences based on the point of view of the subject (the teacher) who reports and relives the experiences at the moment of registering them.

To encounter and digest the oeuvre of H. Marshall McLuhan on his own terms, this study deploys a strategy not dissimilar to that of Poe’s sailor who survived his descent into the maelstrom by studying the action of the vortex and catching hold of a recurring form. Here, McLuhan’s career-spanning concern with “communication” may be seen as just such a recurrence — his concern with communication is evident at every turn of his effort to update the Great English Vortex of 1914 and develop a second vortex in mid-century America. Having taken hold of this central concern, this study uses the procedure he developed to expose the “theory of communication” of any figure in the arts and sciences, and applies it to McLuhan himself. In this process of folding McLuhan in on himself, five loosely chronological chapters are used to reveal the four historical “phases” of his career, and to show that McLuhan cannot properly be understood apart from: 1. The great tradition of Ciceronian humanism and the Ciceronian ideal —the doctus orator — a figure in whom eloquence and wisdom coalesce. 2. The programme of the figures frequently referred to as the Men of 1914: James Joyce, Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, and Wyndham Lewis. In the final analysis, McLuhan is shown as having updated and transformed both — the Ciceronian ideal and the programme of the Men of 1914 — to become something of a singularity in the midst of what he saw as an Electric Renaissance: a paramodern (neither modernist nor post-modernist) doctus orator.

ABSTRACT Notions of quality of life dictate philosophies and policies for services for people with developmental disabilities. There is an abundance of research on quality of life, much of which has influenced the significant amount of study of quality of life for people with developmental disabilities. According to specialist developmental disability nurses, however, this research has little meaning for one group of people with developmental disabilities with whom they work - people with severe multiple impairments. Nevertheless, judgements and decisions about the lives of this group continue to be driven by the idea of quality of life. While the literature review found that researchers are urged to seek the perceptions of people regarding their own quality of life by asking them, some authors have noted the difficulty in pursuing such a method with people, such as people with severe multiple impairments, who are unable to communicate in the usual ways. Given, then, that it is difficult to directly determine the views of people with severe multiple impairments, this study sought the perceptions of nurses about the quality of life of the people with whom they work. In order to discover and conceptualise nurses' views, a symbolic interaction perspective was chosen to guide this study and data were analysed using the grounded theory approach. The study was conducted in two stages. Stage One consisted of semi-structured indepth interviews with expert nurses to explore their perceptions of quality of life for the people with whom they worked. A significant finding in these interviews was that perceptions of quality of life are mediated by interaction. Consequently, Stage Two involved a participant observation study in which the interactions of nurses and people with severe multiple impairments were examined. Specialist developmental disability nurses have a unique view of quality of life for people with severe multiple impairments. They refer to it as 'just little things', a phrase which masks complex nursing knowledge and skills, and which can be described by four interrelated categories which emerged from the data: humans being, supporting, becoming intimate, and situated belonging. As nurses become more intimate with individuals, they perceive that people with severe multiple impairments are humans being as they wish, and that quality resides in supporting their everyday lives in a context of situated belonging. This thesis represents a new conceptualisation of quality of life for people with severe multiple impairments, a conceptualisation which may have significance for other groups and, indeed, for the whole quality of life enterprise. This conceptualisation draws on knowledge not usually related to quality of life, that is, knowledge of the body, of the emotions, of identity and of humanness. Such findings demonstrate the power of an interpretive approach in explicating the meanings nurses have regarding quality of life. Further, these findings have implications for how the question of quality of life is approached, for how different ways of thinking about people impact on quality of life, and for the importance of the life in quality of life.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--McMaster University, 2005. / Supervisor: Simon Haykin. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [126]-135).