Information And Communication Technology Support Research Articles

Virtual pedagogical design for business development with TIC support

The state of the art and projections related to virtual pedagogical business models developed in the world is presented through a historical, documentary and bibliographical review of emblematic experiences by universities that have implemented these models. In the first part, the models of e-learning in European, American and Colombian universities are analyzed, based on the incorporation of information and communication technologies (ICT) and methodologies used to optimize learning. In the second, the findings are articulated in order to promote innovative ideas for designing an educational virtual online business development. The third component validates the model in two academic years. The study leaves as conclusion that despite the existence of different models of educational virtual business development, the creation of others, with the support of ICT is required, to achieve greater competition, cooperation and connectivity across platforms and mega learning networks. This, to facilitate the construction of new, shared knowledge as contribution to the university in general and, in particular, to the Colombian one, in the development of its immediate context, in front of the globalization of education and commerce.

Staff members’ perceptions of a ICT support package in dementia care during the process of implementation

The aim of the present study was to describe staff members' perceptions of an information and communication technology (ICT) support package during the process of implementation. ICT in dementia care will likely increase in the future. The diffusion of new innovations can be better understood through diffusion research. Fourteen staff members in dementia care were interviewed, in groups, once before the new ICT, twice during its implementation and once after. Data were analysed using qualitative content analyses. The ICT included monitors/alarms: passage alarms, fall detectors, sensor-activated night-time illumination of the lavatory, and communication technology: Internet communication and additional computers. The results showed two themes 'Moving from fear of losing control to perceived increase in control and security' and 'Struggling with insufficient/deficient systems'. Staff perceptions of ICT were diverse and changed during the implementation. Benefits were more pronounced than disadvantages, and improvements were described both in care and in staff job situation. Functioning and use of ICT may relate to design as well as by application and the surrounding structure, and the whole system: the organizational structure, the employers and the new product needs to be taken into consideration when implementing new technology.

COLLABORATIVE OPPORTUNITIES FOR ICTs DEVELOPMENT IN A CHALLENGED AFRICAN ENVIRONMENT

The emergence and convergence of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has remained at the centre of global socio-economic transformations. The required ICT revolutionary technological change or productivity levels in Southern Africa is a function of both skilled labour (high technical competence) and capital for investment. Technological progress in Southern Africa can be measured as an index composed of measures of personal computers, Internet hosts, fax machine, mobile phones and television, etc., across the various member countries. The paper presents a synopsis of the ICTs indicators for Southern Africa and the opportunities therein, together with an analysis of technological progress and opportunities for ICTs development in Southern Africa. A regional ICT collaboration strategy is proposed, underpinned by best practice elements. The proposed Regional ICT Collaboration strategy largely depends on human resource development, information sharing platforms, and the degree of development of the ICTs industry and support services in the individual member countries. The design of virtual collaborative systems is a useful paradigm for the development and sustainability of virtual collaboration for Southern African countries, so that higher levels of collaboration may be achieved among geographically dispersed work groups. Knowledge may be shared between people through face-to-face or through technology, either asynchronously or synchronously, commonly known as virtual collaboration.

ICT‐Enabled Distance Education in Community Development in the Philippines

The Philippines, an archipelago of 7,100 islands in Southeast Asia, faces new opportunities as it competes with the rest of the world in the information and communication technology (ICT) arena. New industries including call centers, foreign medical transcription services, and the hugely popular multiplayer online gaming systems require the rolling‐out of a much needed ICT architectural backbone and support systems, and a readily available pool of ICT‐trained workers. This article describes the development of the Maguinda Multipurpose Community Telecenter, a rural facility designed to provide this type of support; the experiences, successes, and lessons learned from a research and development project implemented at the site; and qualitative insights into the effects of the ICT intervention on the lives of the Maguinda residents. Emphasis is placed on the importance of community development principles in rural distance education implementation.

Facilitation patterns and citizen engagement

This paper is concerned with the problem of engaging citizens in decision making and with the nature of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) required to support geographically dispersed citizen groups. The authors draw upon work within the field of collaboration engineering that has identified patterns in collaboration processes and has used these to underpin ICT support. The authors argue that where citizens have a stake in the outcome of a decision, there are likely to be problems arising from their social and emotional involvement, leading, for example, to internal conflicts or attempts to dominate the group. The paper posits that it is also possible to identify patterns in these more social aspects of collaboration and proposes a facilitation intervention pattern that can be used to underpin requirements for ICT support. The facilitation intervention pattern is important because it will enable a wider range of people to act as facilitators by embodying the knowledge and experience of professional facilitators within the support tools.

From strategic planning to meaningful learning: diverse perspectives on the development of web‐based teaching and learning in higher education

AbstractThis paper reports the results of a study on strategic planning and implementation of information and communication technology (ICT) in teaching and describes the level of quality awareness in web‐based teaching at the University of Helsinki. Questionnaire survey data obtained from deans and institutional leaders, ICT support staff, teachers and students (n = 333) at the University indicate that strategic planning has proceeded well, and all the faculties of the University have developed virtual university strategies in order to continue existing ICT initiatives, to further increase the use of ICT in teaching and to assure student information literacy. The data indicate that all the faculties and institutions have monitored and reported the use of ICT in teaching, but quality assurance or enhancement as tools for monitoring were mentioned less frequently. The available ICT training was found satisfactory to meet the actual training needs of the teachers, but their lack of time was judged to be the main obstacle to their participation in it. The teachers identified two basic functions of ICT in teaching: (1) distribution of course material via the web, and (2) the creation of interactive and collaborative learning opportunities. The male teachers and students consistently estimated that their ICT skills were stronger when compared with the judgements made by female teachers and students. The teachers generally felt that the greatest problems arose from students’ lack of time management skills and from deficiencies in the usability of the technology. The students did not perceive lack of time management as a problem. Rather, they experienced isolation, loneliness and the lack of practical ICT usability to be the main obstacles to learning. The teachers had a higher assessment of students’ learning than the students did. The greatest difference between teachers and students concerned the contextual nature of learning in a virtual environment. The fact that the teachers’ views were markedly more positive signals a distinct challenge for pedagogy.

Occupational therapists’ perception of usage of information and communication technology (ICT) in Western Australia and the association of availability of ICT on recruitment and retention of therapists working in rural areas

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate occupational therapists’ usage of information and communication technology (ICT) in Western Australia and the association of availability of ICT on recruitment and retention of rural therapists. Methods: One thousand, one hundred and thirty‐eight surveys were sent to all occupational therapists registered with the Western Australian Occupational Therapy Registration Board in January 2003. The survey was used to identify ICT access, support and literacy. The attitude of therapists towards using ICT as a communication tool and therapists’ usage patterns of ICT in metropolitan and rural localities were analysed by using the Chi‐squared test. Results: Email and the personal computer were used most frequently. On ICT global competency, 58% of therapists rated their competency level as good or better. Competence was rated lower for web searching (48.5%) and searching for electronic articles (29.8%). Approximately one‐third of respondents were dissatisfied with the level of technical support available and only 38.4% of therapists had participated in basic computer training provided by their current employer. Rural therapists had less access to a computer in their work environments in comparison to their metropolitan peers (P < 0.05). Nevertheless, rural therapists were using email, teleconferencing and videoconferencing more frequently than their metropolitan counterparts.A proportion of rural therapists (45.5%) felt that ICT influenced their decision to continue working in rural areas.Discussion and Conclusion: Professional isolation has been cited as an inhibitor to recruit and retain health‐care workers in rural areas. The higher ICT usage by rural therapists may represent the utility of ICT as a means of circumventing professional isolation that is inherent in rural and remote areas.

Genomics, ICT and the formation of R&D networks

Research in genomics is an example of changes induced by information and communication technologies (ICT). The emergence of interconnected ICT support for scientific work and the handling of information have changed the challenges in genomics as well as other scientific fields. The promises are significant but a large degree of uncertainty remains. While the information space is opened up, R&D cooperation essential to reaping the benefits for companies is still difficult. Moreover, in order to benefit in full from the possibility to combine knowledge on a larger scale, knowledge repositories and places of knowledge creation need to be combined. This paper discusses the new strategies of information networking between companies that emerges in response to this challenge. It concludes with an outline of a research agenda for genomics and society.

Customers in sight: Supporting corporate accommodation decisions with real estate data

Information and communication technology (ICT) support of corporate accommodation processes with real estate data is not a simple subject. Insight is required into the primary processes of very different organisations, and inclusion of many aspects of portfolio management is necessary. This paper highlights possibilities for ICT support of these complex processes, although it does not explore in detail the different technology products available on the market. Instead, an overview of considerations focused at possible functionalities is provided which may contribute to sound decision making on actual development, purchase and implementation of supporting systems. To an increasing degree business support systems function in a network or are ‘webenabled’. Also transactions are frequently effected using new infrastructures (e‐commerce, business‐to‐business [B2B], etc). New technologies are also rapidly gaining ground in demand and supply chains regarding corporate accommodation, real estate and portfolio management. In many cases, though, the need for an overall and ‘future proof’ vision when applying them in a corporate real estate (CRE) environment is not thoroughly recognised. With regard to the Government Buildings Agency (GBA) in the Netherlands, it is important to bear in mind that this is not a commercial organisation. It functions in the public domain, and therefore there are aspects that must be specially treated. The paper presents a survey of important matters in GBA’s primary (and partially secondary) processes, and establishes connections with possibilities (and implications) that state‐of‐the‐art ICT support may provide. A conceptual outline of the primary processes of a CRE organisation is used as a starting point, and an overview of the data needs in these processes is given. By explicitly applying an approach aimed at (potential) data customers, who will decide for themselves what data has informative value, functional boundaries in internal processes are easily crossed. From this approach, many possibilities for added value, marketing and B2B communication become more obvious and manageable. Although this paper focuses on the primary process of the GBA in the Netherlands, many subjects may be applicable in other CRE organisations.

Functions of ICT for supporting organisational learning

Information and communication technology (ICT) offers many opportunities for supporting knowledge management processes. It is, however, unclear what exactly these opportunities are and what functions of ICT are necessary to support knowledge management. We explore this issue by applying two complementary perspectives. First, we focus on a specific type of knowledge management process learning processes, such as internal, feedback, external and creative learning. These are part of organisational learning. Taking their different characteristics as a starting point, each process puts different requirements on ICT support. Second, from the current types of ICT that we distinguished we reason what support ICT could offer for organisational learning. These two ways of describing ICT functions are then combined in a matrix. This combination provides important insights. For example, the broad category of groupware has the most potential for supporting organisational learning processes. Besides that, it appears hard to support creative learning with ICT; at least, this is not a particular strength of current ICT. Thus, this paper provides functions of ICT for supporting organisational learning. These can be useful for both the use and development of ICT for supporting these processes.

Innovation through Knowledge Codification

Academics and business professionals are currently showing a significant interest in understanding the management of knowledge and the roles to be played therein by information and communication technology (ICT). This paper takes a closer look at one of the primary issues raised when supporting the management of knowledge: how to understand the role of knowledge classification and codification as means for further organizational learning and innovation. Two manufacturing cases are analysed using particular perspectives from current theories on classification, namely the management of knowledge and organizational innovation. It is concluded that a more complex understanding of the interplay between cognitive and community models for knowledge management as informed by research on the social processes of classification can inform our understanding of both the role of classification of knowledge for organizational innovation and the viability of providing ICT support based on codified knowledge.