The pandemic declared by the World Health Organization due to the SARS-CoV-2 virus (COVID-19) awakened us to a reality that most of us were previously unaware of—isolation, confinement and the massive use of information and communication technologies, as well as increased knowledge of the difficulties and limitations of their use. This article focuses on the rapid implementation of low-cost technologies, which allow us to answer a fundamental question: how can near real-time monitoring and follow-up of the elderly and their health conditions, as well as their homes, especially for those living in isolated and remote areas, be provided within their care and protect them from risky events? The system proposed here as a proof of concept uses low-cost devices for communication and data processing, supported by Long-Range (LoRa) technology and connection to The Things Network, incorporating various sensors, both personal and in the residence, allowing family members, neighbors and authorized entities, including security forces, to have access to the health condition of system users and the habitability of their homes, as well as their urgent needs, thus evidencing that it is possible, using low-cost systems, to implement sensor networks for monitoring the elderly using the LoRa gateway and other support infrastructures.

The rapid development and widespread use of information and telecommunication technologies do not mitigate, in many situations, information exclusion, nor the physical isolation of people—mainly that of the elderly living in remote locations, whose mobile network coverage is deficient or non-existent, preventing them from accessing health care, be it routine follow-up procedures or emergencies. Addressing this, we raise the question that guides our study: how can we monitor the elderly’s residence and health conditions, detect falls, and track their movement in the vicinity of their homes in a non-intrusive manner? To answer this question, we present a system prototype that uses affordable, low-cost, and low-energy equipment with media and data processing, supported by LoRa (Long Range) and ESP32 microcontrollers, coupling several sensors. As a result, it is possible to monitor sensors that predict and detect falls or other risk events for the user, e.g., fire, with authorized persons and entities, family members, civil protection, and security forces accessing the gathered data, assuring their security. We conclude that the system could decisively improve people’s quality of life, particularly those of the elderly who live in remote places with greater vulnerability.

Los portafolios pueden definirse como la retención y organización de instrumentos de información sobre los procesos llevados a cabo por el alumno durante un determinado período y que pueden proporcionar una visión amplia y lo más detallada posible de los diferentes componentes cognitivos, metacognitivos, afectivos e incluso desarrollo moral. Este artículo tiene como objetivo abordar la relevancia del uso de portafolios por parte de maestros que favorecen la reflexión, la autonomía en el aprendizaje y la innovación en el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje. En Educación, el portafolio ha asumido un papel importante y se ha convertido en una herramienta de evaluación, que da visibilidad al conocimiento aprendido, que lleva a la reflexión, que resalta los diferentes elementos del desarrollo de los estudiantes y, por lo tanto, no es solo una muestra de actividades.

This work has the methodological design used for the study we carried out on the adaptation procedures to the Bologna Process undertaken by Portuguese institutions of higher education (PHEI), which is predominantly humanistic-interpretive. The purposes of this paper encompass: the objectives pursued; the theoretical support adopted; the assumptions that guided the content analysis and the analytical project developed with NVivo 10.0 software; and some of the results achieved. Based on the assumptions of the qualitative methodology, the investigation used mixed methods (survey applied to a sample of 381 teachers, analysed with IBM SPSS Statistics software, version 21.0; and content analysis of the corpus composed of 26 reports from 8 PHEI). The main results we present are related to content analysis and show common trends and subtle differences between the four education subsystems, focusing the Bologna Reform on the impacts experienced in teaching-learning processes and in the changes introduced in institutional structures.