Modelling languages are frequently extended to include new constructs to be used together with the original syntax. New constructs may be proposed by adding textual information, such as UML stereotypes, or by creating new graphical representations. Thus, these new symbols need to be expressive and proposed in a careful way to increase the extension's adoption. A method to create symbols for the original constructs of a modelling language was proposed and has been used to create the symbols when a new modelling language is designed. We argue this method can be used to recommend new symbols for the extension's constructs. However, it is necessary to make some adjustments since the new symbols will be used with the existing constructs of the modelling language original syntax. In this paper, we analyse the usage of this adapted method to propose symbols to mitigate the occurrence of overloaded symbols in the existing iStar extensions. We analysed the existing iStar extensions in an SLR and identified the occurrence of symbol overload among the existing constructs. We identified a set of fifteen overloaded symbols in existing iStar extensions. We used these concepts with symbol overload in a multi-stage experiment that involved users in the visual notation design process. The study involved 262 participants, and its results revealed that most of the new graphical representations were better than those proposed by the extensions, with regard to semantic transparency. Thus, the new representations can be used to mitigate this kind of conflict in iStar extensions. Our results suggest that next extension efforts should consider user-generated notation design techniques in order to increase the semantic transparency.

Há larga evidência da efetividade do uso de métodos ágeis no desenvolvimento profissional de software, sendo essencial sua incorporação na formação de egressos de cursos da área de Computação. No entanto, métodos ágeis exigem experiência e disciplina das equipes e sua adoção na universidade deve levar em conta a falta de maturidade e de experiência natural aos profissionais iniciantes. Esse relato apresenta a experiência do Núcleo de Práticas em Informática do Campus da UFC em Quixadá na adoção de práticas baseadas em métodos ágeis. As práticas relatadas neste trabalho demonstram que seu uso em ambientes acadêmicos trazem benefícios para a qualidade dos produtos e da formação dos alunos, porém devem ser adotadas e adaptadas de acordo com necessidades e restrições acadêmicas.

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Brazil, such as many other countries, does not have the capacity to train enough teachers to attend the educational needs ofthe growing population of children. This has a direct impact on the quality of education that the students receive. The low cost and ease of use of semi-immersive virtual reality environments have recently resulted in a rapid expansion ofthis technology across the world. In this work, we present a low cost distributed virtual reality system for the education of students from grades K to 12. The proposed system is based on an architecture that allows efficient data distribution in low bandwidth networks. We believe that virtual schools, based on the proposed virtual reality system, where remote teachers and students can exchange ideas and propose activities, may be an important part of the solution to this prob lern.