Digital Information Communication Technologies Research Articles

Digital transformation in foreign language education: Examining the position of the EFL teacher in ICT literacy diffusion

Digital transformation and ICT adoption in Japanese higher education has lagged behind other developed countries. Drawing on Diffusion of Innovation theory, this preliminary case study examines the role of English foreign language (EFL) teachers as opinion leaders in information communication technology (ICT) literacy diffusion in the Japanese university context. The preliminary findings indicate EFL teachers enhance ICT literacy in breadth and depth for both teachers and students. With these findings this study proposes a tentative conceptual model that adds to the current scholarship on ICT utilization in Japanese higher education by illuminating how teachers can support digital transformation to expand the breadth and depth of ICT literacy, and cross-cultural diffusion of technology. Policy and pedagogical implications for in-service teacher professional development are discussed.Keywords: EFL; opinion leaders; Japan; digital transformation; ICT literacy; higher educationPart of the Special Issue Teaching practices in times of digital transformation <https://doi.org/10.21428/8c225f6e.ac86609b>

Virtual consumption: A review of digitalization's “green” credentials

The unprecedented development, growth, and widespread pervasiveness of digital Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) have coincided with ever-increasing levels of consumption and the climate emergency. Digital ICTs, once lauded for their potential to dematerialize society, are now imposing additional burdens on the planet. The widespread consumption of personal electronics continues to grow at an enormous rate, while recycling of the scarce rare-earth minerals that are crucial to their development is negligible. As digital technologies become ubiquitous, the need for additional energy to power our ever-increasing number of digital devices and services must also keep pace. Moreover, despite their public veneer as progressives, digital tech companies are collaborating with fossil fuel companies to render oil and gas extraction more profitable and with greater speed, fuelling climate breakdown. Online social platforms are also being misused as podiums for dis/misinformation and falsehoods counter to the scientific consensus of anthropogenic climate change, allowing the digital tech sector to abdicate any social responsibility and denying the dire consequences of inaction. This review article explores the growing consumption demands and the ecological threat from digitalization and the digital tech sector: demands that will only intensify with our insatiable appetite for digital tech services and products. Such a review aims to draw closer attention to some ways such technology can be used to assist ecological research and conservation, but also to expand upon our understanding of the negative environmental aspects of a relentless push toward a Digital Society. In uncritically accepting Big Tech's virtuous credentials, we are choosing to ignore the immense power and influence they have over our lives, and the ways they may be propelling our environment toward collapse.

Review of practice & policy strategies for managing digital communication and ICT use in Australian universities

This paper explores practices and policies for managing information communication technologies (ICTs) and ensuring healthy and productive work environments in higher education settings. This was informed by: (1) semi-structured interviews with 12 senior Human Resource and Wellbeing personnel recruited from 11 public Australian universities; and (2) a review of policy documents that address ICTs/digital communication sourced from 37 Australian public universities. Analyses revealed that ICT management involved balancing flexibility and boundaries and expectations around responsiveness. Findings from interview data revealed that to improve ICT management it is important to develop university guidance material, detangle the notion of responsibility, establish boundaries around expectations of responsivity, provide more education and develop positive working practices. Thematic analysis and subsequent quantification of 654 policy documents revealed gaps in the university policy context on the topic of digital communication. The largest proportion of policies focused on privacy and security, followed by media representation of the university (e.g., throughout branding), then bullying, harassment and discrimination. We make recommendations for policy and practice improvement. It would be beneficial for future research to assess the impact of enacted digital communication management strategies (e.g., policy interventions) on worker wellbeing and work practice outcomes.

Realizing Strategic Approach in E-mail Marketing

E-mail marketing in line with context advertising, SMM, SEO-promotion and SERM are tools of digital communication. They provide shaping of stable long-term and regular communication (adjustment, support and retain) with potential and real customers (subscribers) of business, which explains topicality of the research subject. The use of digital information-communication technologies fosters customer base growth and building long-term relations with clients, which forms foundation for business extension and development. The article explains such notions as ‘E-mail marketing’, ‘eDM mail-outs’, ‘strategic approach’, ‘components of strategic approach’, systematizes types of mail-outs, describes specific features of content-plans of different types of mail-outs and gives practical recommendations for their use. Apart from that the author substantiates the idea that e-mail marketing is a promising and widely used trend in advertising and marketing, an effective tool of promotion in conditions of fast changing market environment and that it requires strategic approach to attain the set parameters of efficiency

The effects of digital inclusion and ICT access on the quality of life: A global perspective

The role of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) on the quality of life (QoL) has garnered much research interest recently given the pervasiveness of ICTs in our daily lives. However, whilst the evidence on the effects of ICTs in improving QoL at the individual country level is mixed, the evidence at the global level has not also been fully understood. Besides, the evidence on the linkages between ICTs, digital inclusion, and QoL has been underexplored in information systems research. Even though existing empirical research has largely provided specific results using single country data, there remains a gap in our understanding of the dual effects of digital inclusion and ICT access on QoL and the mediating role of ICT usage at the global level. This study seeks to address these by relying on secondary data from 121 countries for 2018 and structuration theory as a theoretical lens. The results from our PLS-SEM analysis show that digital inclusion and ICT access significantly influence QoL at the global level. Furthermore, our results show support for the mediating effects of ICT usage on the linkages between digital inclusion and QoL. The findings from this study provide key insights that explain how QoL may be enhanced through ICTs.

Digital Pathology and ICT in Medical Education in the Pre-COVID Era: Measuring the State of Readiness of Medical Students in a Nigerian Medical School for the Changing Technological Landscape

Background: Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) have caused significant improvement in the practice and teaching of medicine worldwide. The novel coronavirus disease (COVID 19) pandemic has heightened the need for increased development and improvement in ICT skills and infrastructure. ICTs are causing a revolution in the way Pathology is practiced and taught worldwide. This study was carried out to evaluate the utility of ICTs in undergraduate pathology education in a tertiary institution in Nigeria.&#x0D; Materials and Methods: This was a cross sectional study in which a structured questionnaire was used to assess students’ access to ICT, ICT skills and perceptions regarding ICT in pathology education. Questions regarding learning challenges and knowledge of pathology related resources and the current state of utilization of computer based/ digital tools in pathology education in the institution were also examined. Data was analysed using SPSS version 20 and reported in charts.&#x0D; Results: Questionnaires were administered to 146 students out of which 97 responded. Only 44% of the students had personal computers with 24% using their computers daily and 69% having internet connectivity. Most were proficient in Word processing (84%) and Email (80%), while very few had programming or database skills. Eighty-nine percent (89%) considered ICT as being useful in pathology learning, while 65% considered ICT as being more effective than traditional learning methods. Gross demonstrations were rated as being superior to digital images in gross pathology by 55%. The most commonly used ICT tools by the students were photomicrographs, online lecture notes, images and tutorials with interactive ICT tools (webinars, teleconferencing and simulations) hardly being used.&#x0D; Conclusion: The need for formal training in relevant ICT skills in specific content areas is very necessary in our environment, more so now with the appearance of the COVID - 19 pandemic on the scene.

Formação docente para o uso dos aplicativos do Google for Education em sala de aula

This paper analyzes the process of teacher training under a perspective of using apps from Google Education Plataform in Higher Education Institutions, in Aracaju/SE. This is a qualitative research, with a descriptive and exploratory approach within a field work. Concerning the instrument of data collection, it has been chosen a semi-structured research, and teachers were the target audience. The methodology adopted aimed the perspective of content analysis and results for the learning of the participants of the research, with two important factors for the learning of the Digital Information Communication Technology in the learning process: interest and investment in continuing education.

The Ontology of Globalization and Sensemaking of Industrial Work in the Age of Digital Electronics

Abstract Today industrial production is performed across national boundaries in real time with great accuracy and precision using digital information communication technologies. Manufacturing in one location is possible as it receives digital signals and messages transmissions from remote activities across borders. But who are these magicians behind the curtain? They are the highly skilled and educated knowledge workers of the global, blue-collar, working class. A generation ago working in industrial settings we would have likely shared close physical proximity as well as a common language and culture. Today we share the interconnectedness of our global village across national, cultural, and linguistic boundaries.

Geopolitics, jurisdiction and surveillance

The rise of digital information communication technology has major implications for how states wield coercive power beyond their territorial borders through the extraterritorial geographies of data flows. In examining the geopolitics of data, transnational surveillance, and jurisdiction, this collection makes a significant contribution to the field of global internet governance. It shows how the internet is a forum for geopolitical struggle with states weaponising jurisdiction and exerting power beyond their own borders directly, and via infrastructures owned and operated by transnational technology companies. These dynamics challenge existing conceptual and theoretical categories of contemporary law across the fields of international relations, criminology, and digital media, and raise urgent questions about if and how individual rights can be protected in an era of ubiquitous transnational surveillance conducted by private companies and governments alike.

Frugal innovation and the digital divide: Developing an extended model of the diffusion of innovations

Based on diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory and economic consumption analysis as well as the concept of frugal innovation, this study develops an extended DOI model that theorizes the characteristics of the diffusion of frugal information communication technologies (ICTs) and their impacts on the Internet diffusion. This model posits that frugal digital ICTs diffuse more rapidly in developing countries than in developed countries and significantly bridge the digital divide between them. The diffusion of frugal smartphones is investigated as a case of the diffusion of frugal digital ICTs, which provides empirical evidence for the theoretical model presented herein.

Technological Determinism in Video Gaming and Gender Sensitivities

This research seeks to find out if video games are created for making ideological statements about gender and feminism, and if there are any differences between how females and males perceive, play and react to video games. The research is framed by the Technological Determinism theory, while the Qualitative Secondary Analysis (QSA) is adopted as the research design towards the selection of relevant reports by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) between 2002 and 2014. The study reveals that the advancements made in computer and digital information communication technologies mean that the nature and role of video games in media entertainment has become more psychologically and sociological complex. Also, male and females alike use video games for entertainment, education, information and even sports but do not perceive all video games the same way. The study, among other recommendations state that video games are “weapons” for modern feminists towards sensitizations on gender and related concepts, however, responsible video gaming, should not only be expected of male game developers; female video game developers should also employ reason with caution in the ideation and creation of video games that dominantly carry female themes. Key Terms: Technological Determinism, Video Gaming, Gender Sensitivities.

Guest editorial: theorizing the geoweb

The general convergence of location with digital information communication technologies (ICTs) has brought about profound shifts in the content, forms, and practices that surround spatial media. In geography, these phenomena have been variously and alternately referred to as ‘volunteered geographic information’ (VGI) (Elwood et al. 2011; Goodchild 2007), ‘neogeography’ (Graham 2010; Turner 2006; Warf and Sui 2010; Wilson and Graham 2013a, 2013b), ‘(new) spatial media’ (Crampton 2009; Elwood and Leszczynski 2012), and ‘the geoweb,’ (Elwood and Leszczynski 2011; Haklay et al. 2008; Scharl and Tochtermann 2007). Here, we prefigure ‘the geoweb’ as we consider it to account for both new materialities and new practices. Regardless of the neologism used to refer to these phenomena, they nevertheless present significant challenges to our disciplinary thinking about geographic information and technologies. Much of our early engagements of the geoweb have been informed by the GIScience and Critical GIS traditions, which are ontologically and epistemologically committed to data regimes, practices, and technics associated with geographic information systems (GIS) as a singular or unique technological assemblage (for examples see Farman 2010; Guptill 2007; Miller 2006; Sui and Goodchild 2011; Sui 2008; Wilson 2009). More recently, however, geographers have acknowledged that the rapid proliferation and diversification of spatial media, content forms, and praxes require new empirical, conceptual, and theoretical approaches to apprehend both the nature and implications of these transitions and materialities. This need for new approaches has been most saliently articulated in a 2008 special issue of GeoJournal devoted to VGI edited by Sarah Elwood (volume 72 issues 3–4) (Elwood 2008b). Contributors to this special issue highlighted the imperatives of reconceptualizing entrenched notions of ‘the user’ (Budhathoki et al. 2008); attending to the altered contexts of information curation (Flanagin and Metzger 2008); evaluating the effectiveness and appropriateness of existing frameworks—such as Feminist, Critical, and Participatory GIS—for ‘reading’ or engaging the geoweb (Elwood 2008a; Tulloch 2008); and, devising new metrics and/ or schemes for evaluating the validity and reliability of user-generated geographic information (Bishr and Mantelas 2008; Mummidi and Krumm 2008). In response to this agenda-setting work, for which this journal importantly served as a venue, geographers A. Leszczynski (&) Department of Geography, Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada e-mail: agnieszka.leszczynski@queensu.ca

‘Agency time’

This article investigates the postindustrial temporal landscape, or ‘timescape’, through a case study of a specific industry: Internet advertising. The theoretical portion of this article finds that the expansion of digital information communication technologies (ICTs) has radically transformed time keeping into ‘calculation’ in many of today’s workplaces. Additionally, globalized production has also rendered many locally constructed symbols of time less relevant. The author contrasts these events to the domestic time, which is constructed through contextual events and symbols, thereby making the postindustrial timescape further estranged from the domestic than even the Fordist timescape. The empirical portion of this article summarizes qualitative findings of time reckoning among Internet advertising workers. Time is not constructed out of local, material experiences but through digital means. This estranges domestic time even further, which has unintended but differential gendered effects. The implications of these findings include the emergence of a new sense of precarity, one based on ‘productivity’ of time spent on work. Additionally, a potentially new ‘glass ceiling’ could be emerging, based on the increased levels of home-based paid work. Women’s domestic responsibilities may make it relatively more difficult for them to advance when home-based paid work is expected.

E-Health in Bosnia - Starting from the Ground-Up

CONFLICT OF INTEREST: NONE DECLAREDPAPERAIMSUMMARY.The development of the digital Information Communication Technology (ICT) has definitely changed healthcare system in all its areas. The development of standardized electronic medical record (EMR) make possible other forms of E-Health like transmural care, telemedicine etc. In this paper was described Health Information System (HIS) of Tuzla Canton and Brčko DC (whose citizens gravitate toward Tuzla Clinical Center). Tuzla Clinical Center is the only Clinic for tertiary healthcare in this region. To estimate level and types of the HIS, telecommunications and information management we have designed questionnaire. Based on this research we have presented current state of E-Health in Canton and the most important problems in this area. Also, based on this research and our experiences, we have identified the main directions of the HIS development, its standardization and integration as the base for E-Heath in Bosnia.

Bringing E-Democracy Back In

The author argues that contemporary digital information communication technologies (ICTs) facilitate new forms of e-government-enabled public sector policy making that enshrine some of the important norms and practices of e-democracy. The potential for linking e-democracy in civil society with e-government at the level of the local and national state is far from straightforward but nevertheless achievable. Following a consideration of the democratization effects of e-democracy and e-government, the author outlines how their norms and practices are converging in four principal areas: online consultations integrating civil societal groups with bureaucracies and legislatures, the internal democratization of the public sector itself, the involvement of users in the design and delivery of public services, and the diffusion of open-source collaboration in public organizations. These now feature as some of the core areas for research in this field and our broader understanding of how ICTs are reshaping governance, the state, and democracy.