Innovative Information And Communication Technology Research Articles

The use of innovative ICT in the active pursuit of literacy

AbstractThis paper investigates classroom interventions using a particular form of multimedia information and communication technology (ICT), and looks to study gains in pupil learning that accrue from its use. The research takes place in eight UK schools with 219, 11‐year‐old children (eight Year 6 classes). Work within the Literacy Hour is detailed in order to evaluate the effectiveness of a multimedia broadband educational communications system. The Literacy Hour is part of the UK Government's National Literacy Strategy: guideline requirements of schools to spend an hour a day on literacy to meet centrally established and monitored targets. The research data include pre‐ and post‐test assessments, along with 48 interviews with classroom teachers and pupils. The children are presented with a series of journalistic tasks and classroom activities that they resolve through the use of a compact and coordinated information system. The outcomes demonstrate that children can become self‐directive and very active – exploratory – learners in a very short period of time. They quickly enjoy the freedom and control that the system permits and through which they can be shown to enhance particular literacy skills. The lessons to be learned relate to the management and organisation of classroom teaching in the face of systems that promote rapid devolution of learning to the learner.

Research, Development, and Innovation in Extremadura

For forty years information and communication technologies (ICT) together with the internet have been reshaping daily life. The criticisms of electronic luddites find it difficult to influence the fait acompli of ICT transformations. In the contemporary world it is assumed that technological competence plus the free market equals progress. There are simply no alternatives. The economist Joseph Schumpeter (1883-1950) distinguished invention from innovation. Invention is constituted by technological change alone, but innovation requires the successful marketing of an invention by adapting it to the marketplace. Not all inventions enter society simply on the basis of their utility. But should market forces alone direct innovation, with governments having no role except to favor or criticize already circulating developments? The response to this question must acknowledge two basic points: First, any technology represents also a political choice. second, ICT are creating something beyond simple economic benefit. They are producing a new culture or what some have called cyberculture. It is true that politics and culture cannot be completely designed in advance. There are always elements of uncertainty. Interactions of intention and contingency generate different experiences. But can we expect diversity in the information society as it arises solely from the market? Should we not try to promote models appropriate to different political and cultural realities? Can we harmonize different models of information society and have a shared arena for different experiences? If the answers are "Yes," then we should try to imagine an array of models instead of one unique information society. But in an increasingly globalized society it is difficult to think in pluralistic terms. A single market combined with just one form of technology does not promote the imagining of diversity. Telecommunications, the internet, and a global market imply a homogeneous or uniform realm. Nevertheless, some observers see such diversity emerging. Pekka Himannen (2001) and Manuel Castells analyze the Finnish model to reveal an alternate information society in a disappearing welfare state managed by private corporations. The Basque model (Andoni Alonso and Izaki Arzoz, 2003) provides another example-as does the autonomous region of Extremadura in western Spain, which is one of the most interesting examples of ICT innovation promoted by political initiative in Europe. Information Society: Open or Closed? According to most commentators, ICTs are primarily a means for economic development. Nicholas Negroponte (1996) wrote some years ago about the new digital paradigm that transforms atoms into bytes; commodities should be translated into information. Bill Gates (1999) considers the internet the largest shopping mall on earth, one in which economics and competence are perfected because all frictions vanish (mediators disappear so prices reach an absolutely fair level). Indeed, many economists see United States economic growth during the 1990s as a result of implementing the internet and other computer tools able to boost productivity. This was a lesson that European technocrats took very seriously and the Fifth European Community Framework Programme for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration (1998-2002) had as one of its goals promoting a new European economy based in ICTs. ICTs may power the economy, but this is not all they do. In the apt description of Chris Hables Gray (2002), the Internet has a military past, an anarchist present, and a free-market future. Yet insofar as past is prologue, there is no need to take the future as determined. The fact that ICTs have had different cultural configurations should encourage us to think of alternatives in what might be. Economics, politics, and culture are sometimes conflicting forces seeking to shape ICT, and there is no reason to presume that one relationship between these factors has priority. …

Technological forecasting and scenarios matter

Information and communication technology (ICT) is increasingly being used in the home environment, making it a very important and interesting research topic for communication scientists. Future developments will influence the way and the extent to which ICT will be used in the home environment and therefore the way people look for information, communicate, make use of entertainment services and carry out transactions. However, it is still very difficult to make meaningful and accurate forecasts with regard to the possible future use and acceptance of ICT in people’s homes. Important reasons are, for example, that more and more market parties are involved in the development of innovative ICT products and services. This makes developments more complex and the outcomes more uncertain. Furthermore, consumers play an important role in the development of new ICT‐based information, communication, transaction and entertainment services. Since a precise prediction of the possible use of ICT in domestic environments in 2010 is hard to make, other methods of futures research must be used. Combining technological forecasting with scenario thinking is such a research method, whereon, technological forecasting shows the major trends in the specific technology domain, while scenarios cover the possible future worlds. By giving end‐users a central place in these scenarios, the diversity of the use and acceptance of innovative products and services is captured. Thus, the addition of scenarios to the technology trends gives insight into the possibilities (and impossibilities) of new ICT‐technologies and the way they may be used in the home environment.

Hannover after the World Exhibition EXPO 2000--An Attempt to Establish an ICT-cluster

The Hannover Region is extremely interested in the development of an innovative information and communication technology (ICT) cluster through the continued use of the EXPO 2000 site. This article looks into the question of whether the potential for the successful development of an ICT cluster exists. The location factors considered by the ICT firms to be poor, such as cooperation with consulting and transfer facilities, the administration and educational facilities, the missing critical mass of related and supporting industries and R&D facilities, all indicate serious weaknesses in the ICT sector. But, the development of the Hannover EXPO Park into a nucleus of the regional ICT cluster, which was begun after the end of EXPO 2000, is counteracting these deficits

ICT Innovation and Economic Performance: The Role of Financial Intermediation

This article considers the relationship between finance and the contribution of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to macroeconomic performance. The general characteristics of ICT firms, especially their often ‘high risk, high return’ nature, suggest equity finance is more appropriate than debt finance. Also, the prevalence of information asymmetries tends to favour internal finance and venture capital with management participation. For a group of countries, we analyse correlations between financial structure and the ICT contribution to economic growth. Our results support the view that a market–oriented financial system and a well–developed venture capital market are key factors stimulating the emergence of the so–called ‘New Economy’. This helps explain the considerable gap in productivity growth between the United States and Europe in the second half of the 1990s.

Bank Strategies and the Internet: An Interpretation of the Banking Industry Based on the Italian Retail Market

The introduction of innovative information and communication technologies (ICT) in conjunction with economic and legislative changes has substantially intensified competition in the banking industry. Consequently, Online Financial Services have developed greatly in terms of both quality and quantity. The banking industry scenario is characterized by a high level of uncertainty: a number of strategies seem to differentiate the financial institutions and it is debatable what variables banks should use to make their Internet-based activities more effective.This study aims to provide an interpretation of the Internet-based development of the banking industry starting from the identification of clusters of banks with similar strategies. The literature analysis has suggested the methodology of strategic grouping and has led to the identification of three main strategic variables: the amount of bank charges, the number of bank services available online and the number of distribution channels used.Data were collected through an extensive empirical study on a selection of 95 banks within the Italian retail market. The research outcomes provided support to the classification of the surveyed banks into five strategic groups that present specific characteristics and strategies.

Aligning Process and Meaning Innovating in Complex Healthcare Delivery Systems

For some time now, successive generations of more sophisticated information and communication technologies (ICTs) have been adopted by organisations to enhance or replace more traditional methods of accessing, recording and communicating information used in problem-solving activities. Professionals in most industries have had some experience of the impact of ICT innovation and might be expected to resist innovations which they perceive to have the potential to disrupt crucial processes. This appears particularly likely to occur where there is a substantial tacit knowledge component. In this paper, we report the perceptions of key groups of healthcare professionals of the barriers to adoption of videoconferencing into knowledge-intensive processes mediating high-level problem-solving. While there was some shared perception of the critical problems, the interpretations of the underlying issues differed. The findings give some insight into the conceptualisation issues surrounding innovation management within complex systems which are emerging in the adoption of ICTs. The nature of their impact on pre-existing core communication routines involving high level expertise and tacit knowledge is considered.

ALIGNING PROCESS AND MEANING: INNOVATING IN COMPLEX HEALTHCARE DELIVERY SYSTEMS

For some time now, successive generations of more sophisticated information and communication technologies (ICTs) have been adopted by organisations to enhance or replace more traditional methods of accessing, recording and communicating information used in problem-solving activities. Professionals in most industries have had some experience of the impact of ICT innovation and might be expected to resist innovations which they perceive to have the potential to disrupt crucial processes. This appears particularly likely to occur where there is a substantial tacit knowledge component. In this paper, we report the perceptions of key groups of healthcare professionals of the barriers to adoption of videoconferencing into knowledge-intensive processes mediating high-level problem-solving. While there was some shared perception of the critical problems, the interpretations of the underlying issues differed. The findings give some insight into the conceptualisation issues surrounding innovation management within complex systems which are emerging in the adoption of ICTs. The nature of their impact on pre-existing core communication routines involving high level expertise and tacit knowledge is considered.