Language learners often face communication problems when they need to express themselves and do not have the ability to do so. On the other hand, continuous advances in technology are creating new opportunities to improve second language (L2) acquisition through context-aware ubiquitous learning (CAUL) technology. Since vocabulary is the foundation of all language acquisition, this article presents ULearnEnglish, an open-source system to allow ubiquitous English learning focused on incidental vocabulary acquisition. To evaluate our proposal, 15 learners used the developed system, and 10 answered a survey based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Results indicate a favorable response to the application of incidental learning techniques in combination with the learner context. ULearnEnglish achieved an acceptance rate of 78.66% for the perception of utility, 96% for the perception of ease of use, 86.5% for user context assessment, and 88% for ubiquity. Among its main contributions, this study demonstrates a possible tool for ubiquitous use in the future in language learning; additionally, further studies can use the available resources to develop the system.
Noncommunicable chronic diseases (NCDs) affect a large part of the population. With the emergence of COVID-19, its most severe cases impact people with NCDs, increasing the mortality rate. For this reason, it is necessary to develop personalized solutions to support healthcare considering the specific characteristics of individuals. This paper proposes an ontology to represent the knowledge of educational assistance in NCDs. The purpose of ontology is to support educational practices and systems oriented towards preventing and monitoring these diseases. The ontology is implemented under Protégé 5.5.0 in Ontology Web Language (OWL) format, and defined competency questions, SWRL rules, and SPARQL queries. The current version of ontology includes 138 classes, 31 relations, 6 semantic rules, and 575 axioms. The ontology serves as a NCDs knowledge base and supports automatic reasoning. Evaluations performed through a demo dataset demonstrated the effectiveness of the ontology. SWRL rules were used to define accurate axioms, improving the correct classification and inference of six instantiated individuals. As a scientific contribution, this study presents the first ontology for educational assistance in NCDs.
The use of information communication technologies (ICT) in education brings up new possibilities of promoting learning and health experiences. In this sense, education contexts of the 21st century must consider these two areas of knowledge, especially their integration. This article presents learning practices developed with mobile devices and games in order to improve learning and well-being in children and adolescents undergoing cancer treatment in a non-formal educational setting. The methodology is based on qualitative case studies with content-based data analyses, involving informal interviews and observation methods. The study considers data from five patients who participated in the research between 2015 and 2019. The results demonstrate a positive influence of the practices with mobile technologies and games in terms of learning and in the well-being experience of patients during the treatment.
1 November 2021 in Revista Brasileira de Computação Aplicada