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- Industry 4.0 and telecollaboration to promote cooperation networks: a pilot survey in the portuguese region of Castelo BrancoPublication . Régio, Mónica; Gaspar, Marcelo; Farinha, Luís; Morgado, MargaridaAccording to the World Economic Forum, the Fourth Industrial Revolution – also known as Industry 4.0 – is expected to take place before 2020, fostering significant changes in the way people think, live and work. Impending changes will have great impact on people and businesses. Growing digital interconnectivity will promote new business contexts, fostering communication beyond geographical borders and preventing physical constraints. Technological developments will also cause social and economic concerns, since they can create mass unemployment, inequality or talent shortages. In response to these foreseen working modifications, workers must be prepared to communicate digitally in a common language, known as lingua franca, usually English for global digital communications. In such context, local, regional and global communication is normally conducted through digital environments. Thus, as telecollaboration relates to the engagement of geographically dispersed learners in online intercultural exchanges using ICT (information and communications technologies), the potential of such collaborative methodology appears to be particularly promising for the forthcoming Industry 4.0 context, in which over one-third of skills that are considered important in today’s workforce will have changed. In order to assess the potential of such collaborative ICT-based learning methodologies to promote digital cooperation networks amongst companies and enterprises, a pilot survey focused on telecollaboration was carried-out in the Portuguese region of Castelo Branco. Preliminary results allowed discussing the advantages of combining such learning methodologies with the digital interconnectivity related to the Industry 4.0 context to develop new strategic avenues of cooperation between regional, national and international actors.
- The co-construction of a bilingual glossary of terms for engineering design technologies as part of learning in engineering trough a collaborative CLIL approachPublication . Gaspar, Marcelo; Régio, Mónica; Morgado, MargaridaThis case study refers to the collaborative work of pre-engineering and engineering students, supported by their content and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) teachers, on the development of a full semester assignment focusing on the design and construction of a dedicated glossary of terms. Based on a student-centered Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) approach, intermediate tasks were proposed to the students to construct their own personal glossary about the subject. As a result of the combined effort of all actors, a full class bilingual glossary of terms was obtained for engineering design technologies as part of learning in engineering through a collaborative CLIL approach.
- Intercultural communicative skills in the training of industrial engineers: a case-study on students' perceptionsPublication . Gaspar, Marcelo; Régio, Mónica; Morgado, MargaridaIn order to understand the intercultural awareness development of engineering students, which is necessary for them to fully function in globalized educational and professional work contexts, a dedicated project was carried-out with Industrial Engineering students in a Higher Education Portuguese Polytechnic Institute during three successive academic years in the framework of an adjunct CLIL pilot experiment. Students’ perceptions were collected and assessed in order to tackle two main research questions: “Do students feel they have more opportunities for global employment or globally networked collaborative innovation?” and “What were the difficulties experienced because of the CLIL methodological approach?”. Preliminary findings point out that even though students feel that competence in English is important (or very important) concerning their work as engineers, the majority states not being proficient in that language. Students also refer that the CLIL approach allowed them to develop collaborative work with other colleagues and helped them understand better their own personal language learning needs, thus contributing to facilitate their communication in a foreign language.
- Content, language and intercultural challenges in engineering education: (E-)strategies to improve instructional designPublication . Morgado, Margarida; Régio, Mónica; Gaspar, MarceloIntercultural, multilingual and culturally and academically diverse classrooms are a common reality in current higher education (HE) landscapes, as globalisation is effectively taking place in all major schools. Rethinking instructional design strategies that contribute to the overcoming of communication and cultural differences in both online and blended learning processes may help not only improve the development of more efficient online learning environments but also meet the challenges of current teaching and learning processes. Special focus will be put into engineering education through the medium of English and the training of engineering lecturers in HE through communities of practice (CoPs), which present, integrate and discuss how to integrate content and language (through what is known as the content and language integrated learning (CLIL) approach) as well as trends, challenges and opportunities related to recent technological developments on students’ learning ourcomes. The desciption of the pedagogical training shared through a CoP describes E-strategies to improve instructional design in engineering courses in online learning environments when English is used as a medium of instruction and integrated with content in a CLIL approach.
- Lean-Green manufacturing: collaborative content and language integrated learning in higher education and engineering coursesPublication . Gaspar, Marcelo; Régio, Mónica; Morgado, MargaridaLean and Green manufacturing processes aim at achieving lower material and labour costs, while reducing impacts on the environment, and promoting sustainability as a whole. This paper reports on a pilot experiment with higher education and engineering students, exploring the full potential of a collaborative approach on courses integrating the Portuguese Polytechnic of Castelo Branco engineering studies curricula, while simultaneously improving their proÞ ciency in English. Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has become a key area of curricular innovation since it is known for improving both language and content teacher and student motivation. In this context, instructional design for CLIL entailed tandem work of content (engineering) and language (English) teacher to design learning sequences and strategies. This allowed students to improve not only their language skills in English but also their knowledge in the speciÞ c engineering domain content on green and lean manufacturing processes.
- Learning a /through a foreign language in higher education: employers’ and students’ perceptionsPublication . Morgado, Margarida; Gómez Garcia, Luis Vicente; Gaspar, MarceloIntroduction: Higher Education Institutions (HEI) are allegedly preparing students for a globalized working area where people will need to be ready to communicate effectively in one or more foreign languages in international working environments, which puts a lot of pressure on how foreign languages (FL) are learned in Higher Education (HE). Methods: This article explores how a FL or learning through a FL could be approached in HEI, focusing mainly on what employers claim in terms of skills of recent graduates or on-the-job workers. Case studies are used, combining interviews to employers and questionnaires to HE students to find out their perceptions on FL learning requirements for greater employability. Conclusions: A series of recommendations are made for HEI on how to promote students’ employability skills; on the best practices for the development of intercultural communicative competence and FL skills to communicate effectively in international or digitally-mediated working environments; as well as on how to prepare the teaching staff for emerging trends that involve using a FL as medium of instruction or CLIL, a content and language integrated approach. These testify to the importance of learning a FL or through a FL, as well as the need to combine transversal skills development in connection to FL learning.