Abstract: A discussion about spirit and soul in an adult learning scenario should start examining the definition and purpose of adult learning. The approach to this term involves many learning theories such as: behaviorism, humanism, constructivism, and critical theory. In addition, many types of adult learning like: instrumental, communicative, and emancipatory learning (Nesbit, Brigham, Taber, & Gibb, 2013, pp. 95-100). Per instance, if we just consider UNESCO’s focus: “… educational processes, whatever the content…whereby people regarded as adults by the society to which they belong: develop their abilities, enrich their knowledge…turn them in a new…development” (Spencer & Lange, 2014, p. 8). It will be difficult to find the role of the spirit and the soul in such consideration.

Date of Publication: July 2015

Author: Miguel Guzman, Department of Accounting and Computer Education

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Julia’s farewell cake from the BIT Space team

Coming from almost as far from Winnipeg as her team member Anderson Pires Pereira (10,000 km), Julia Chiarello Passamani also hails from the Brazilian sub-tropical state of Rio Grande do Sul, but from Passo Fundo, a city of about 180,000 people some 9,300 kms south of us. Following two academic semesters of Business Information Technology, Julia is just days away from completing her year-long stay here and her current project with Bit Space Development. The good news for her team members is that she will maintain a virtual connection to the project and continue to contribute after returning to her university in Brazil.

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A lover of technology, reading, travelling, and games, Douglas Modena’s first kick at coding was in his high school computer technician course. He then moved on to carpentry at the Brazilian National Service for Industrial Training (SENAI) before returning to Systems Analysis at the Federal Institute of São Paulo, Brazil. Now, thanks to a scholarship from the Canada/Brazil Science Without Borders program, he is wrapping up a year in the Web Development stream of RRC’s Business Information Technology (BIT) program. Interestingly, Douglas’s current development project combines his love of both information technology and carpentry. The interactive game environment he is helping to build for Apprenticeship Manitoba is a platform to introduce young adults to the skilled trades. Read More →

The Accounting and Computer Education department awarded 33 awards to students in Business Information Technology, Introduction to Business Information Technology and Applied Accounting.  On Wednesday, June 17 the award winners and their guests attended the Awards presentation at Roblin Centre to receive their awards.

Thank you to our Business Information Technology Advisory Committee Chair, Gerry Glatz, for helping to hand out the awards.

Thank you to our award sponsors, Eileen Penner, the Huhtala Family, Gladys Bell, Paterson GlobalFoods, Ricoh Canada, MTS, and Great West Life.

Awards Program 2015

BIT Space bad boy Diego Santos

Diego Santos is an enthusiast of web/mobile technologies, programming, and all things cool. Though more focused on backend PHP and JavaScript/HTML5, he also has solid Java skills for Android and is starting to get into Cordova apps development. A self-proclaimed “authentic Brazilian guy”, Diego loves soccer, both on the field and, because he’s a bit of a nerd too, of course in video games.

He also happens to be a really nice guy. Read More →

Anderson Pires Pereira, BIT Space Developer

“N&SAmerica-pol” by CIA, original political map from Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection; University of Texas Library Online. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

Whereas Andre Felipe, the subject of our last BIT Project student profile, hailed from the massive metropolis of São Paulo, the largest city in the southern hemisphere at over 20 million inhabitants, Anderson Pires Pereira comes from Santa Vitória do Palmar (“Saint Victoria of the Palms”), a municipality in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul whose population is smaller than Brandon Manitoba’s. Santa Vitória do Palmar is the most southerly corner of Brazil, lying a whopping 10,000 km from Winnipeg. It also includes the larger part of Cassino Beach, the world’s longest uninterrupted stretch of sandy ocean shore, over 240 km! Read More →

End of Sprint # 3 and our Brazilian BIT students continue to impress. BIT Space Development’s overarching goal is the delivery of gamified 360-degree panoramas, but its framework’s success hinges on the open-ended set of integrated games and activities that it will house and launch. To reach the broadest possible audience, that impressive collection of learning components (or activity types) is being called PanoPlā (pronounced pano play) and will deploy over the Web to any browser or mobile device. Read More →

Andre Felipe Costa Silva, BIT Developer

So how does a 20 year-old from  São Bernardo do Campo (a municipality of São Paulo, Brazil) end up in Winnipeg? Andre Felipe, a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) gamer who likes coding and reading poems, would tell you that it’s a mix of hard work and luck. His success in a System Analysis and Development program in Brazil won him a seat in the Business Information Technology (BIT) program. Now having completed two BIT academic semesters, Andre Felipe is part of a team of eight developers in the Massey Building who are building a platform for the delivery of interactive 360-degree panoramas. Read More →

We are having an information session for the Introduction to Business Information Technology, Business Information Technology, and the brand new Business Technology Management program.  Learn about our programs on Tuesday, May 26 at 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm at the Roblin Campus in room P107; or on Tuesday, June 2 from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm at Roblin Campus in room A104.

Sprint 0 had been short, having only moved into our Massey space on Tuesday, May 5. First priorities were a quick Scrum immersion, settling on some core team tools (like Trello, our virtual Kanban board), and drafting team norms (such as donut preferences – these Brazilians LOVE chocolate glaze). Because our project will only run for four months, the team committed to one-week sprints and the delivery of something usable every Friday. Sprint planning is 10 am every Monday, we hold daily 10 am fifteen-minute scrums, and each Friday ends with a sprint review and retrospective. It was also important during this first week to lay out our broad development objectives and a general technology framework. Essentially, we intend to build a server-based delivery system for gamified 360-degree panoramas. It will support delivery to a desktop via a custom WordPress theme and accompanying plugins, or to mobile devices in the form of apps.   Read More →