This thesis focuses on the adaptation of formal education to people’s technology- use patterns, theirtechnology-in-practice, where the ubiquitous use of mobile technologies is central. The research question is: How can language learning practices occuring in informal learning environments be effectively integrated with formal education through the use of mobile technology? The study investigates the technical, pedagogical, social and cultural challenges involved in a design science approach. The thesis consists of four studies. The first study systematises MALL (mobile-assisted language learning) research. The second investigates Swedish and Chinese students’ attitudes towards the use of mobile technology in education. The third examines students’ use of technology in an online language course, with a specific focus on their learning practices in informal learning contexts and their understanding of how this use guides their learning. Based on the findings, a specifically designed MALL application was built and used in two courses. Study four analyses the app use in terms of students’ perceived level of self-regulation and structuration. The studies show that technology itself plays a very important role in reshaping peoples’ attitudes and that new learning methods are coconstructed in a sociotechnical system. Technology’s influence on student practices is equally strong across borders. Students’ established technologies-in-practice guide the ways they approach learning. Hence, designing effective online distance education involves three interrelated elements: technology, information, and social arrangements. This thesis contributes to mobile learning research by offering empirically and theoretically grounded insights that shift the focus from technology design to design of information systems.

La società digitale e l’incremento degli spazi informali di apprendimento richiedono agli insegnanti di divenire digitalmente competenti. I più recenti sviluppi digitali, identificati con l’avvento del web 2.0, creano nuove sfide educative per la scuola. Questo studio, sviluppato in collaborazione con il CREMIT (Università Cattolica di Milano), intende sviluppare un modello per la competenza digitale che possa orientare la formazione degli insegnanti. Il modello intende essere costruito a partire da una ricognizione bibliografica sul concetto di competenza sviluppata da Guy Le Boterf. Questo frame teorico ha orientato la ricerca etnografica sul campo condotta attraverso interviste in profondità e osservazioni partecipanti di insegnanti che utilizzano le tecnologie in classe. Le “best practices” emerse saranno sistematizzate in un modello di competenze digitali volto a fornire le linee guida per l’utilizzo delle ICT nell’educazione e nella didattica. / The digital society and the increasing of informal learning spaces require teachers to become digitally competent. The latest digital trends identified with 2.0 web, create new educational challenges in school. This study, developed in collaboration with CREMIT (Catholic University in Milan), aims to develop a digital model competence that could pave the way for teachers training. The model is going to be built from a bibliographic recognition about the competence concept developed by Guy Le Boterf. This theoretical frame has oriented an ethnographic research on field consisted in deep interviews and participant observations of teachers using technology in class. The best teaching practices will be used to build a competence model giving the guidelines for using ICT in education and didactic.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:26:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rachel Neves Dias Francisco.pdf: 1300949 bytes, checksum: 73e8918cbfa7ea801ae78d389e6ce593 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-08-29 / Fundo Mackenzie de Pesquisa / The introduction of the new technologies in the educational process, especially virtual learning systems via web, is enabling the Distance Education (DE) become more interactive. Those advances in DE bringing a new way of thinking and continuously improving the quality of education service. Because of these advances, the Higher Education Institutions (HEI) need to develop technological skills related to the use and exploitation of information technology. The objective of this dissertation is to understand the relationship of the use of technologies for Distance Education and the development of technological competence of the Higher Education Institution from the articulation between artifacts, agents and practice. The conceptual framework of this research focuses on technology and competence in practice. It starts on the approach structurationist technology, through contact with the user, unexpected results arise in relation to original purposes. The human practice has constituted and reconstituted every day and collective practices become routine. Therefore, the development of technological competence results from recurring interaction between artefacts, agents, new institutionalized practices throughout the process of implementation and use of technology. The objective of this dissertation is understand the relationship of the use the Distance Education s technologies and the development of technological competence of the Institution of Higher Education from the articulation artifacts, agents and practice. The specific objectives of this study are: 1) identify the artifacts used in DE by HEI and the necessary infrastructure to deploy DE at an HEI.; 2) understand the competencies of the agents that develop and use the technology of DE in terms of knowledge, experience and skills; 3) analyze the practice of DE from the introduction of technology, in terms of training and adaptation to changes; 4) analyze the impact of using technology and the development of technological competence in terms of professor qualification, teaching content and market share. In defining these goals, we opted for qualitative research, predominantly interpretive, exploratory and descriptive based on a single case study. The data were analyzed according to interpretative approach of content analysis proposed by Flores (1994). Semi-structured interviews had conducted with managers, developers, teachers and tutors that work in DE. The different views of these participants contributed to a more process detailed of the interaction between agents and technology. The research shows that both, the technology, the agents and the practices have changed because of the dynamic introduction of this new type of education model, bringing reflections about the users roles and the influence on the presence education model. / A introdução de novas tecnologias no processo educacional, notadamente os sistemas virtuais de aprendizagem via web, vem possibilitando que a Educação a Distância (EAD) se torne mais interativa. Esses avanços no EAD trouxeram uma nova forma de pensar e de aperfeiçoar continuadamente a qualidade do serviço de educação. Como resultado destes avanços as Instituições de Ensino Superior (IES) necessitam desenvolver competências tecnológicas relativas ao uso e exploração das tecnologias de informação. O objetivo desta dissertação é compreender a relação do uso das tecnologias de Educação a Distância e o desenvolvimento da competência tecnológica da Instituição de Ensino Superior a partir da articulação entre artefatos, agentes e prática. O recorte conceitual desta pesquisa se concentra na tecnologia e competência na prática. Parte-se de um abordagem estruturacionista da tecnologia, em que a partir de seu contato com o usuário, resultados inesperados surgem em relação aos propósitos originais. A prática humana é constituída e reconstituída a cada dia e as práticas coletivas se tornam rotinas. Portanto, o desenvolvimento da competência tecnológica resulta da interação recorrente entre artefatos, agentes e a forma como as novas práticas são institucionalizadas ao longo do processo de implantação e uso da tecnologia. O objetivo geral desta dissertação é compreender a relação do uso das tecnologias de Educação a Distância e o desenvolvimento da competência tecnológica da Instituição de Ensino Superior a partir da articulação artefatos, agentes e prática. Os objetivos específicos deste estudo são: 1. Identificar os artefatos de EAD utilizadas pela Instituição de Ensino Superior e a estrutura necessária para implantar o curso de EAD em uma IES; 2. Compreender as competências dos agentes envolvidos no desenvolvimento e uso da tecnologia de EAD, em termos de conhecimento, experiências e habilidades; 3. Analisar a prática de EAD a partir da introdução da tecnologia, em termos de treinamento e adaptação às mudanças; 4. Analisar o impacto da relação do uso da tecnologia e o desenvolvimento da competência tecnológica em EAD em termos de qualificação do professor, conteúdo ensinado e participação de mercado. Na concepção destes objetivos, optou-se pela pesquisa qualitativa de caráter predominantemente interpretativo, exploratória e descritiva, com base na técnica de estudo de caso único. Os dados foram analisados segundo a abordagem interpretativa de análise de conteúdo proposta por Flores (1994). Foram realizadas entrevistas semiestruturadas com gestores, desenvolvedores, professores e tutores que atuam em EAD. As diferentes visões desses participantes contribuíram para um melhor detalhamento do processo de interação dos agentes com a tecnologia. A pesquisa mostra que tanto a tecnologia, quanto os agentes e as práticas sofreram mudanças por conta da dinâmica de introdução dessa nova modalidade de ensino, trazendo reflexões sobre os papéis desempenhados pelos usuários e a influência sobre o próprio modelo de ensino presencial.

This thesis focuses on the adaptation of formal education to people’s technology- use patterns, their technology-in-practice, where the ubiquitous use of mobile technologies is central. The research question is: How can language learning practices occuring in informal learning environments be effectively integrated with formal education through the use of mobile technology? The study investigates the technical, pedagogical, social and cultural challenges involved in a design science approach. The thesis consists of four studies. The first study systematises MALL (mobile-assisted language learning) research. The second investigates Swedish and Chinese students’ attitudes towards the use of mobile technology in education. The third examines students’ use of technology in an online language course, with a specific focus on their learning practices in informal learning contexts and their understanding of how this use guides their learning. Based on the findings, a specifically designed MALL application was built and used in two courses. Study four analyses the app use in terms of students’ perceived level of self-regulation and structuration. The studies show that technology itself plays a very important role in reshaping peoples’ attitudes and that new learning methods are coconstructed in a sociotechnical system. Technology’s influence on student practices is equally strong across borders. Students’ established technologies-in-practice guide the ways they approach learning. Hence, designing effective online distance education involves three interrelated elements: technology, information, and social arrangements. This thesis contributes to mobile learning research by offering empirically and theoretically grounded insights that shift the focus from technology design to design of information systems.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:26:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Luciano Augusto P dos Santosprot.pdf: 6487197 bytes, checksum: e10288ec2257cdcf0c5b523750b87965 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-08-03 / This study aims, as general objective, to identify, describe and understand the relationship between the use of educational technologies (TEs) within a elementary and secondary education institution (IEFM) and the development of dynamic capabilities (DC) in terms of sensing the environment, learn, integrate and coordinate this capabilities in the organization, as from the analysis of the evolution in the practices of this agents and the impact of their new skills on the competences of the institution, in order to offer more and better services. The achievement of these objectives took place from the dynamic capabilities theory and the vision of technology in practice. On the one hand, the theory of dynamic capabilities recognizes the importance of organizations to respond to incorporate and benefit, over time, of their environment dynamism to create and maintain their competitive advantage through changes in their routines, their processes and other capabilities through which organizations reaches new configurations of skills and resources. On the other, the vision of technology in practice allows to analyze the changing process of these capabilities through the recurring interaction between agents and devices enabling the emergence of new structures. The analysis of the dynamic capabilities development in TEs in the studied IEFM is based on a DC measurement model that identifies a set of capabilities - feel the environment, learning, integrating and coordinating - capable of reconfiguring the existing operational capabilities in an organization in new ways that are best suited to the environment. The methodology adopted is the process theory approach, in order to find a description of the trajectory of the organization, from the point of view of the process of technology in practice and the development of its technologicals competences. The strategy of this search was given from the interpretative paradigm, on a qualitative and descriptive-exploratory method, whose basic orientation is the interpretation of a social phenomenon in a case study, and the analysis technique is the narrative analysis. / Este estudo teve como objetivo geral compreender a relação entre o uso de tecnologias educacionais (TEs) e o desenvolvimento de capacidades dinâmicas (CDs) em termos das capacidades de sentir o ambiente, aprender, integrar e coordenar novas tecnologias nas capacidades operacionais de uma instituição de ensino fundamental e médio (IEFM), a partir das mudanças nas competências dos agentes; e de como tais mudanças podem se refletir em novas competências da organização, no sentido de oferecer mais e melhores serviços. A consecução desses objetivos deu-se a partir da teoria de capacidades dinâmicas e da visão da tecnologia na prática. De um lado, a teoria de capacidades dinâmicas reconhece a importância das organizações em reagir, incorporar e se beneficiar, ao longo do tempo, do dinamismo de seu ambiente para criar e manter sua vantagem competitiva por meio de mudanças nas suas rotinas, de seus processos e de outras capacidades por meio das quais as organizações atingem novas configurações de competências e de recursos. De outro, a visão da tecnologia na prática permite analisar o processo de mudança destas capacidades por meio da interação recorrente entre agentes e artefatos possibilitando que novas estruturas emerjam. A análise do desenvolvimento das capacidades dinâmicas em TEs na IEFM estudada foi fundamentada em um modelo de mensuração de CDs que identifica um conjunto de capacidades - sentir o ambiente, aprender, integrar e coordenar -, capazes de reconfigurar as capacidades operacionais já existentes em uma organização de novas maneiras e que se ajustam melhor ao ambiente. A metodologia adotada foi baseada na abordagem de processos, para buscar uma descrição da trajetória da organização, do ponto de vista do processo de uso da tecnologia e do desenvolvimento de sua competência tecnológica. A estratégia de pesquisa deu-se a partir do paradigma interpretativista, do método qualitativo e descritivo-exploratório, cuja orientação essencial é interpretação de um fenômeno social a partir de um estudo de caso, tendo como técnica de análise a análise narrativa.