Computer Ownership Research Articles

The Internet and Sustainable Development: Communication Dissemination and the Digital Divide

This paper analyzes the state of Internet penetration across the developing world. We examine a variety of socioeconomic, human capital, and media and technology-related measures as they relate to Internet adoption. Results demonstrate that the Internet is not only dependent on economic variables such as spendable income, costs and poverty, but also education, literacy, share of urban population; population growth, and old and new telecommunication measures such as telephone subscriptions, broadband subscriptions and related costs, computer and mobile phone ownership, number of telecommunication secured lines and bits generated, trade matters such as communication services exports, and political environment issues such as political and democratic openness, economic freedom, and freedom of the press. Contrary to earlier research,gdpand English language are not statistically significant variables. Our findings on telecommunication industry competition and literacy run contrary to many earlier studies that find these variables to be unrelated to the Internet.

Gravidez na adolescência e associação com indicadores de renda, educação e acesso às Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação no Brasil e na Amazônia Legal Brasileira

Objectives: To analyse the association between the information access through a computer with Internet connexion in households and the teenage pregnancy, taking as reference the municipalities of Brazilian Legal Amazon compared to the rest of Brazil. Methods: Ecological study based on data collected from the Demographic Census of peoples and households performed in Brazil, in the year 2010, by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. The integration of the databases was performed, from which variables were selected for the municipalities. These variables represent the dimensions of fecundity, income, education, ownership of computer with Internet access in the households, and space of reference (Brazil, Amazon). The visualisation of the spatial distribution of teenage pregnancy in Brazilian municipalities is presented in the form of map. According to the classes of ages, the medium percentages of occurrence of the phenomenon in the municipalities of Amazon are compared to the municipalities of Brazil. Interactively, mining algorithms were applied to extract rules of association between the variables of the problem. Results: For the municipalities of Brazilian Legal Amazon with the lowest percentages of households with computer with Internet access (< 4,49%), the probability of presenting the highest percentages of teenage pregnancy (≥ 9,39%) is equal to 0,723, while for the others municipalities of Brazil, this probability is equal to 0,23. The phenomenon of teenage pregnancy presented association with the space of reference (Brazil, Amazon) and with the ownership of computer with Internet access in the households. Conclusions: The municipalities of Brazilian Legal Amazon present high occurrence rates of teenage pregnancy compared to the others municipalities of Brazil. Associated to the low-infrastructure of Internet access, the occurrence of this phenomenon reveals the unequal conditions that managers and health professionals can find to execute projects that use Information and Communications Technologies.

The Impact of Cultural Capital on Secondary Student's Performance in Brazil

The main goal of this study is to verify the effects of cultural capital on students' performance in an official test applied by the Brazilian government, as part of the National Assessment of Basic Education (Saeb). The data set used is from 2003 and involves 52.434 students. The standard test is applied every two years in the fields of mathematics and languages. A questionnaire is applied along with the test in order to measure the student's characteristics as well as their families' profile. The question of this research is: what is the impact of cultural capital on student's performance in the Saeb test? The theoretical approach is based on the work of Pierre Bourdieu. As contributions of Brazilian scholars the study includes the ideas of Nelson Silva and Carlos Hasenbalg and Carlos Ribeiro. The model of study considered the students' grades in the Saeb test as the dependent variable and the cultural capital as the main independent variable. The descriptive analysis was used as well as regression models in order to obtain the effect of the independent variables over the dependent one. The preliminary and main results show that there is significant association between levels of cultural capital and student's performance in the Saeb test. Specifically, there is a significant and positive correlation between parents' education, computer ownership, access to internet and newspaper reading with the performance in the Saeb test.

Secondary School Students' Mobile Phone, Tablet Computer Ownership and Associated Factors

Introduction: Mobile phone ownership is getting more common in younger populations. The aim of this study is to determine the ownership of mobile phone and tablet computer in secondary school stude...

The Digital Divide in Farming: A Problem of Access or Engagement?

AbstractThis article explores farmers’ use of computers for farm business purposes by analyzing the computer access and usage decisions of almost 900 Irish farmers. The findings reveal that computer ownership is influenced by a combination of farm business and household characteristics, but that farm business characteristics dominate if the computer is used for the business. More detailed findings suggest that computers are most likely to be used on larger dairy farms, while farmers who are living alone have limited access to computers. Public policy needs to support the adoption of information technologies, and the role of computers in tackling social isolation and providing farm information is critically discussed.

Computer classes for older people: motivations and outcomes

Purpose – A “digital divide” exists between older and younger people in terms of computer use and older people’s uptake of computer training programmes in the UK remains low. The purpose of this paper is to identify the motivations and outcomes of computer classes for some older people and the contributory factors. Design/methodology/approach – One-to-one qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight participants at a computer class in a London community centre. Using a topic guide, interview transcripts underwent thematic analysis. The theoretical perspective of “ageing in place” (the ability to stay in one’s own home in later life) was used when interpreting the findings. Findings – Participants had been motivated to attend the class initially to gain computer skills. Initial motivation was influenced by the death of a spouse and the desire to remain mentally active. The main outcome by the class was acquisition of computer skills. Psychological and social benefits were also reported, the latter constituting motivation for continued attendance. Computer ownership and gender differences in preferred teaching style influenced class outcomes. Research limitations/implications – Although this was a small sample comprising older people solely from one community, participant backgrounds varied and the findings suggest that further research with a larger, more culturally heterogeneous sample would be valuable. Originality/value – Computer classes benefit older people wishing to learn computer skills which may facilitate “ageing in place”. There has been little research in this area.

The Future of Foreign Language Instructional Technology: BYOD MALL

&lt;p&gt;This paper describes trends in instructional technology that are influencing foreign language teaching today and that can be expected to increasingly do so in the future. Though already an integral part of foreign language instruction, digital technology is bound to play an increasing role in language teaching in the coming years. The greatest stimulus for this will undoubtedly be the accessibility of Mobile-Assisted Language Learning (MALL), made possible through the exploitation of mobile devices owned by students themselves. The ubiquitous ownership of smartphones and tablet computers among adolescents and adults now makes a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) approach a feasible alternative to desktop computer labs. Making this work, however, especially in a financially and technologically restricted environment, presents a number of challenges which are the focus of this paper.&lt;/p&gt;

Attributes of digital natives as predictors of information literacy in higher education

AbstractDigital natives are assumed to possess knowledge and skills that allow them to handle information and communication technologies (ICT) tools in a “natural” way. Accordingly, this calls for the application of different teaching/learning strategies in education. The purpose of the study was to test the predictive strength of some attributes of digital nativeness (ICT ownership, ICT experiences, internet confidence and number of ICT‐rich university courses) on the information literacy (IL) of 299 Slovenian university students. Correlation and regression analysis based on survey data revealed that the attributes of digital natives are poor predictors of IL. The principal findings are: ICT experiences expressed as the sum of the use of different applications do not necessarily contribute to IL; some applications have a positive and some a negative effect; personal ownership of smartphones, portable computers and desktop computers has no direct effect on IL, while ownership of a tablet computer is actually a negative predictor; personal ownership of ICT devices has an impact on ICT experiences and Internet confidence, and, therefore, an indirect impact on IL; and ICT‐rich university courses (if not designed to cultivate IL) have only a marginal impact on IL, although they may have some impact on ICT experiences and Internet confidence. The overall conclusion is that digital natives are not necessarily information literate, and that IL should be promoted with hands‐on and minds‐on courses based on IL standards.

Age, period and cohort effects on adult physical activity levels from 1991 to 2011 in China.

BackgroundTo date no work has differentiated the effects of age, period, and cohort on physical activity (PA) among Chinese adults, while also considering biological, behavioral, economic, and environmental factors over time.MethodsWe used data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) between 1991 and 2011 (20 years). The outcomes of interest are metabolic equivalent of task (MET) hours per week from work and domestic activities. Age, individual characteristics, household size, asset ownership, urbanization were included as covariates. Analyses for adult (≥20y) males (n = 29,343) and females (n = 31,094) was conducted to explicitly assess differences in PA due to age vs period effects, and implicitly assess differences by cohorts due to the period-specific experiences across individuals of varying ages.ResultsThe mean age of the sample rose from 41.31 to 50.8 years and PA decreased from 427.75 ± 264.35 MET hours per week (MET-hr/wk) in 1991 to 245.99 ± 206.65 MET-hr/wk in 2011, with much steeper declines for women compared to men. For both genders, we found non-linear decreases in PA with age over time. Controlling for age effects, negative period effects on PA were observed in each survey year, and were substantial from 1993 to 2000 for males and from 1993 to 2011 for females. The interaction between survey year and age (P < 0.05) were observed from 2004 to 2011. Higher community urbanicity, vehicle ownership, TV and computer ownership, overweight and obese, higher education served as negative predictors. Bicycle ownership, bigger household size, non-professional jobs, being married and having more children (for women) were positive predictors of PA (P < 0.05). Furthermore, at any given age, individuals who were younger at baseline had higher mean PA compared with individuals older at baseline.ConclusionThis study followed a large cohort of adults over a significant portion of their lives. Strong age and secular trends were observed, resulting in an increasing number of participants who have or are likely to lower their PA levels. These trends suggest that tackling the rapid PA decline among its population is of high priority for China’s public health outlook as its population ages and continues to experience significant economic and environmental changes.

Computerphobia in Preservice Teachers

&lt;p class="apa"&gt;This study proposes an instrument to determine and categorize computerphobia in college students, and reports findings from implementation of this instrument on education majors in a northeastern university in Turkey. 829 teacher education students were administered computerphobia scale (CPS) after they attended an introductory computer course. Factor analysis, CFA and GLM methods are utilized for data analysis. Results indicate a reliable instrument and significant differences for gender, computer ownership, and computer experiences. Females had significantly higher CPS scores. Computer ownership and experience with computers reversely related to computerphobia. It is recommended to expose teacher candidates more to computer-using opportunities and carefully designed computer education arrangements.&lt;/p&gt;

Gravidez na adolescência e o acesso às Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação na Amazônia

Objectives: To analyze the association between access to information, measured by the possession of a computer with Internet connection in households, and teenage pregnancy, taking as reference the municipalities of the Brazilian Legal Amazon compared to the rest of Brazil. Methods: Ecological study based on data collected from the Demographic Census of persons and households, carried out in Brazil in 2010, by the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatistica (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics). Results : For the municipalities of the Brazilian Legal Amazon with the lowest percentages of households with computer with Internet access (< 4.49%), the probability of presenting the highest percentages of teenage pregnancy (≥ 9.39%) is 0.723, while for the others municipalities of Brazil, this probability is 0.23. The phenomenon of teenage pregnancy presented association with the space of reference (Brazil, Amazon) and with the ownership of computer with Internet access in the households. Conclusions: The municipalities of the Brazilian Legal Amazon present high rates of teenage pregnancy compared to the others municipalities of Brazil. Associated to the poor infrastructure of Internet access, the occurrence of this phenomenon reveals the unequal conditions that managers and health professionals can find to execute projects that rely on Information and Communications Technologies.

Factors that Influence Teachers’ Perceptions of Information Communication and Technology (ICT) in Mathematics Teaching in Kenyan Secondary Schools

This study investigated the factors that influence mathematics teachers’ perceptions of ICT in mathematics teaching in Kenyan secondary schools. Participants for the study came from a population of mathematics teachers in Nairobi and Nyandarua counties in Kenya. The results revealed that mathematics teachers’ perceived roles of ICT in the classroom were positive with a large proportion of teachers agreeing that ICT plays a significant role in the teaching-learning process. Additionally, demographic factors such as age, school type, teachers’ educational level, principal’s subject major, and so on were significantly related to mathematics teachers’ perceptions of the roles of ICT in the classroom. The Internet and ownership of laptop computer were found to be useful in shaping mathematics teachers’ perceptions; however, this was not true for the availability of computer labs, technology resources, and location of the school (rural or urban). Additionally, limited time to integrate ICT in the lessons and inadequate ICT training in mathematics related software were found to limit mathematics perceptions of the positive roles of ICT in mathematics teaching. The study recommends that mathematics teachers need to be trained on the relevant mathematics software, be provided with reliable Internet connection, and encouraged to acquire laptop computers for instructional use.

The Effects of Computers on Children's Social Development and School Participation: Evidence from a Randomized Control Experiment

Concerns over the perceived negative impacts of computers on social development among children are prevalent but largely uninformed by plausibly causal evidence. We provide the first test of this hypothesis using a large-scale randomized control experiment in which more than one thousand children attending grades 6-10 across 15 different schools and 5 school districts in California were randomly given computers to use at home. Children in the treatment group are more likely to report having a social networking site, but also report spending more time communicating with their friends and interacting with their friends in person. There is no evidence that computer ownership displaces participation in after-school activities such as sports teams or clubs or reduces school participation and engagement.

E-Assessment Adaptation at a Military Vocational College: Student Perceptions

Background:This survey study examines an assessment methodology through e-quizzes administered at a military vocational college and subsequent student perceptions in spring 2013 at the “Computer Networks” course.Materials and methods:A total of 30 Computer Technologies and 261 Electronic and Communication Technologies students took three e-quizzes. Data were gathered via an online questionnaire. A model derived from Technology Acceptance Model 2 (TAM2) was proposed to examine perceptions about the e-assessment system. A structural equation modeling analysis employed to examine relationships among age, type of high school student graduated from, computer ownership, course grade, technological complexity, content of questions in online quizzes, perceived usefulness and intention to use. Also, content analysis was performed on qualitative data.Results:Results showed that perceptions about question contents significantly affected perceived usefulness. Perceived usefulness had great influence on behavioral intention – substantiating the TAM literature. Student perceptions were neither overly optimistic nor pessimistic qualitatively.Conclusions:All in all, students appear to require training about e-assessment to benefit from it. The overall implication is that to boost use of e-quizzes, it is imperative to help students recognize the e-quizzes are useful for themselves.

Usefulness of a home affluence scale administered to urban adolescents with asthma to estimate the family's socioeconomic status

PurposeMeasurement of socioeconomic status (SES) is traditionally based on education, income, and occupation. This information may not be readily available from adolescents participating in research. MethodsUsing data from school-based randomized trial of an asthma intervention targeting urban adolescents, we compared percent poverty in zip code of residence (% poverty), median housing value, and parental income and education, to teen responses on the Home Affluence Scale for Children (HASC), which included home, car, and computer ownership for the family and eligibility for free school lunch. The association of HASC with measures of asthma control was also assessed. ResultsOf 422 adolescents, 390 (92%) responded to HASC items (mean HASC = 2.5). HASC was associated with mother's education and household income (both P < .001), and significantly correlated with % poverty (P < .0001) and median home value (P = .003). The association of HASC <2.0 to indicators of uncontrolled asthma was in the direction hypothesized, especially for nighttime symptoms, odds ratio (95% confidence interval) = 1.59 (0.95–2.66) and restricted activity, odds ratio = 1.87 (1.12–3.12). ConclusionsHASC correlates well with more traditional measures of SES, and the risk estimates for HASC less than 2.0 and indicators of uncontrolled asthma were mostly in the hypothesized direction. Methods of obtaining SES indicators from youth are needed for research studies.

Interactive whiteboards: do teachers really use them interactively?

The aim of this quantitative study is to examine high school teachers’ use of specific features of interactive whiteboards (IWBs). During the 2012–2013 academic school year, 535 teachers in pilot schools from 10 provinces under the FATIH Project (Movement of Enhancing Opportunities and Improving Technology) participated. Data were collected through a three-factor usage level scale developed by the researchers and analyzed through descriptive statistics and non-parametric tests. No significant difference was found between the use of the interactive features of an IWB and sex, education level, or subject area. However, a significant difference was found between the use of interactive features and professional experience, city, computer ownership, in-field IWB training, previous IWB experience, usage duration, frequency of use, and the case of suggesting the use of IWBs to other teachers.

Factors influencing health professions students' use of computers for data analysis at three Ugandan public medical schools: a cross-sectional survey.

BackgroundEffective utilization of computers and their applications in medical education and research is of paramount importance to students. The objective of this study was to determine the association between owning a computer and use of computers for research data analysis and the other factors influencing health professions students’ computer use for data analysis.MethodsWe conducted a cross sectional study among undergraduate health professions students at three public universities in Uganda using a self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire was composed of questions on participant demographics, students’ participation in research, computer ownership, and use of computers for data analysis. Descriptive and inferential statistics (uni-variable and multi- level logistic regression analysis) were used to analyse data. The level of significance was set at 0.05.ResultsSix hundred (600) of 668 questionnaires were completed and returned (response rate 89.8%). A majority of respondents were male (68.8%) and 75.3% reported owning computers. Overall, 63.7% of respondents reported that they had ever done computer based data analysis. The following factors were significant predictors of having ever done computer based data analysis: ownership of a computer (adj. OR 1.80, p = 0.02), recently completed course in statistics (Adj. OR 1.48, p =0.04), and participation in research (Adj. OR 2.64, p <0.01).ConclusionsOwning a computer, participation in research and undertaking courses in research methods influence undergraduate students’ use of computers for research data analysis. Students are increasingly participating in research, and thus need to have competencies for the successful conduct of research. Medical training institutions should encourage both curricular and extra-curricular efforts to enhance research capacity in line with the modern theories of adult learning.

How and Why Parents Guide the Media Use of Young Children.

Children use electronic screens at ever younger ages, but there is still little empirical research on how and why parents mediate this media use. In line with Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development, we explored whether children’s media skills and media activities, next to parents’ attitudes about media for children, and several child and parent-family characteristics, predicted parental mediation practices. Furthermore, we investigated children’s use and ownership of electronic screens in the bedroom in relationship to the child’s media skills. Data from an online survey among 896 Dutch parents with young children (0–7 years) showed that children’s use and ownership of TV, game consoles, computers and touchscreens, primarily depended on their media skills and age, not on parent’s attitudes about media for children. Only touchscreens were used more often by children, when parents perceived media as helpful in providing moments of rest for the child. In line with former studies, parents consistently applied co-use, supervision, active mediation, restrictive mediation, and monitoring, depending on positive and negative attitudes about media. The child’s media skills and media activities, however, had stronger relationships with parental mediation styles, whereas age was not related. Canonical discriminant analysis, finally, captured how the five mediation strategies varied among infants, toddlers, pre-schoolers, and early childhood children, predominantly as a result of children’s media skills, and media activities, i.e., playing educational games and passive entertainment use.

Computer anxiety in nursing: an investigation from Turkish nurses.

The purpose of this study was to determine and analyze levels of computer anxiety in nurses at a public university hospital in Turkey. This study investigated the dimensions of computer anxiety in terms of computer literacy, self-efficacy, physical arousal, affective feelings, positive beliefs, and negative beliefs. Moreover in this study it was aimed to analyze relationships among computer anxiety and some characteristics of nurses (age, gender etc.). This study based on Beckers and Schmidt's computer anxiety model. The Beckers and Schmidt's Computer Anxiety Scale (BSCAS) was used for data collection. BSCAS comprises six factors: computer literacy, self-efficacy, physical arousal in the presence of computers, affective feelings towards computers, positive beliefs, and negative beliefs. At the end of the data collection period, 175 nurses were received from the population. The response rate was 43.75%. This study showed that a majority of nurses had medium levels of computer anxiety. Overall computer anxiety means score was 12.11±1.72. Computer anxiety has significant relationship with age (r=-.153; p<.05), personal computer ownership (r=.171; p<.05). The highest correlation was between overall computer anxiety and self efficacy (r=-.859), the lowest correlation was between overall computer and negative beliefs (r=-.653). Multiple regression analysis revealed that computer anxiety of nurses was predicted significantly by self efficacy, affective feelings, physical arousal, computer literacy, positive beliefs, and negative beliefs, respectively.

Overcoming Faculty Avoidance of Online Education

The online delivery of higher education courses and programs continues to expand across academic disciplines at colleges and universities. This expansion of online education has been precipitated by, among other things, (a) the rise in personal computer ownership, (b) the ease of access to the Internet, (c) the availability and continuous improvement in technology for the delivery of online courses, and (d) the increase in demand for online courses by both traditional and nontraditional students. However, the proliferation of online education has not been enthusiastically supported by all constituents of higher education. Specifically, some faculty members remain resistant to the shift to online course delivery. This article applies the Transtheoretical Model of Change to the process of gaining faculty support for, and involvement in, online learning. After briefly reviewing current issues in online education and making a case for its adoption, we describe sources of faculty resistance and offer recommendations for interventions that may be applied to transforming faculty resistance to support and eventually to active participation.