It is a pleasure to present, in this Editorial, the number one, volume one, of Sensos-e – Sensos electronic – a multimedia journal on Education, in its broadest sense, of the Centre for Research & Innovation in Education (inED), School of Education of the Polytechnic Institute of Porto. This number one of Senses-e was preceded by the number zero, in whose Editorial the motivations for creating a journal, with the features of Senses-e, are explained: open content, multimedia and online, with the various multimedia elements of each paper edited by the authors in the online journal platform. It is important to emphasize what we consider to be the main potential of this format: portraying in a multimodal way, the various dimensions of research and innovation in education, namely the voices of participants.
Sensos-e journal is, in this way, a project with innovative features. While facing the risks of innovation in papers’ format, Sensos-e publishes works with the following specific characteristics: papers that take advantage of the potential of a digital publication online, of the use of multimedia, hypertext and color, as well as of the possibility of dynamic interaction and collaborative edition.
The number one of Sensos-e is focuses on the theme Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Education. However, the Call for Papers informed that articles in other areas of education were not excluded. This number one of Sensos-e journal includes a set of six papers, from which the first four are the result of collaboration with the XV International Symposium on Informatics in Education 2013 (SIIE 2013). In conjunction with the Organizing Committee and the Program Committee of the aforementioned symposium four papers were selected. The authors were invited to develop multimedia versions of those papers and to submit them to this number one of Sensos-e. All the papers submitted to this number were subject to blind peer review, particularly by members of the Editorial Board and by invited reviewers, depending on the specific issues of the papers.
The first two articles explore didactically free software tools. The first article of this issue, with the title “How do I blur the pencil? “: Children’s learning about drawing and collaboration using MyPaint, by Maria Figueiredo, Nelson Gonçalves, Maria Helena Lopes, and Maria de Fátima Barreiros, describes a research focused on the use of the free software MyPaint in two preschool education contexts. The reported research contributes to the knowledge on the use of software and computer tools in kindergarten, as well as on the impact of using MyPaint in children´s drawings and in collaboration work.
The following paper named Castro Lusitano Virtual: Free Software and Virtual Heritage, is authored by Nelson Gonçalves, Maria Pinto Figueiredo and Orlando Pinto. This paper presents the development process of an interactive three-dimensional environment, a Virtual Heritage open educational resource for history teaching, which can be explored and modified by students.
The paper Development of logical thinking, using TOPOBO is authored by Matthew Santin, João da Silva and Sílvia Botelho, and introduces the different strategies and outcomes of robotic experimentation activities conducted with Topobo Kit 100 pieces in a class of children, aged 9 to 10 years. In fourth place, the paper Hands-On-Tec virtual Portal: An authoring tool for basic education teachers is presented. As stated in the title, this article describes the development and characteristics of a portal for sharing, cooperation and authoring of educational resources to be used by Natural Sciences and Mathematics teachers in Primary Education. These resources are based on a strategy that begins with investigative questions, in the context of real, everyday problems and uses mobile technologies in the process of answering to such questions.
The fifth article, Bruno Gonçalves and Victor Gonçalves, called MOOC: a strategy to attract students?, presents the concept of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC), their dimensions and characteristics. The ultimate goal of this work is to reflect on the use of MOOC as a strategy to attract students for higher education institutions. Finally, the article Conjecturing with Geogebra, written by Angela Couto and Claudia Maia, reflects in an investigative way on the results of the use of a dynamic geometry environment (AGD), Geogebra, in the classroom, specifically in the Elementary Education Graduation.
Accordingly, it is possible to affirm that the papers in this number of Senses-e cover different areas of the theme Information Technology and Communication (ICT) in Education, particularly regarding the diversity of: i) teaching levels, from preschool to higher education; ii) types of tools and software, such as drawing and dynamic geometry software, 3D environments, robotics kits, portals and MOOC; iii) subject areas, such as Arts, History, Natural sciences and Mathematics. We wish that our readers enjoy and disseminate the published papers.
