Information And Communication Technologies Research Research Articles

Managerial problem-solving in the adoption of Radio Frequency Identification Technologies

This study explores the ways in which managers evaluate Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and participate in its adoption. Using in-depth qualitative focus group and published trade journal interviews, our study contributes to research on managing RFID projects in organizations by identifying salient problems and relating them to sensemaking and influencing activities across problem types and manager experience with RFID. We also identify potential dangers in applying past knowledge, cognitive patterns, and experience about information and communication technologies (ICT) to problems that arise in RFID projects. Our study provides analytic generalizability for future RFID and ICT research.

Actor-Network Theory in ICT Research

This article examines the properties of ANT in light of other approaches. It argues that ANT provides a theoretical inclusion of what used to be considered different poles. It also argues that ANT analytically includes a wide array of actors that used to be considered of different nature and from different levels of analysis. The study discusses how ANT properties could provide researchers concerned with studying information and communication technology (ICT) with a non-biased lens to explore the phenomena of concern. It invites researchers to reflect on the theoretical and analytical exclusion that could take place at the start of research and how a careful application of ANT could avoid it.

Applying critical realism to information and communication technologies: a case study

Critical realism is a philosophy of science which has been developed as an alternative to positivism and interpretivism. It has been argued that critical realism should be applied to research concerned with information and communication technologies (ICTs). In particular, it has been argued that critical realism can increase understanding of causal mechanisms and contexts that are needed in order to achieve outcomes from actions. However, there is a lack of examples of how critical realism might be applied in practice. The aim of the research was to investigate the potential for practical application of critical realism to research concerned with ICTs. Four interrelated examples are presented from practical application of critical realism during ICT research. These are examples of causal mechanism, technological context, social context and business context. Findings suggest that practical application of critical realism to ICT research in AECO may be possible without any particular training or extensive prior knowledge.

Frontiers of research and future directions in information and communication technology

Information and communication technology (ICT), characterized by continual innovation and rapid technological change, is having a tremendous impact on society. Research and development in ICT are being conducted throughout the technology sector, and fundamental research is being carried out in many university departments of electronics, computer science, and engineering. This paper deals with frontiers of research and trends in selected areas of ICT, including computer hardware, microelectronics, and semiconductor devices and materials—areas that are leading the innovations in ICT. It briefly describes emerging technological developments, and concludes with advances in software engineering.

A survey on intelligence approaches that may be useful for information and communication technology research

The concepts on information and communication technology (ICT) and “intelligence” are defined firstly and the analyses on the environment and requirements for ICT are then followed. Based on the definitions and the analyses, a survey on intelligence approaches that may be useful for ICT is thus made. The conclusion drawn from the survey is a recommendation by saying that intelligence approaches have been one of the keys for further development of the entirety of ICT and therefore should receive much more attentions from ICT researchers in the years to come.

Education in Informatics at Sofia University - current status and future plans

The paper presents some real experiences, emerging models and lessons learnt based on the case of Sofia University - Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics (FMI), and its partners. Sofia University has always played a very important role for the development of the country. The university experiences a lot of challenges related to the overall transformation of the economic and social system in the country, the changing models of education, the new role of the universities in the knowledge-based society and the great demand for Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) specialists. Sofia University is also challenged by the opportunity to be actively involved in the development of the European space of higher education. The outcomes of an internal university project aimed at the establishment of ACM/IEEE based BSc programs in Computer Science, Software Engineering and Information Systems are described and analyzed. Some experience in developing a layer of MSc programs as a live link to the professional ICT society and ICT industry is also described. Some future plans for the development of the Computing Curricula and its coordination with the European ICT education, research and innovation agenda are presented as well.

Theory and history, questions and methodology: current and future issues in research into ICT in education

Serious criticisms of research in information and communications technology (ICT) in education have been published recently in both the UK and the USA. This paper addresses several issues raised in these commentaries: a lack of sound theoretical underpinnings to our research, persistent neglect of the history of our sub‐discipline, the choice of research questions to be studied, and the use of appropriate methodologies for investigating them. The paper argues that the major role for ICT research in education should be an important contribution to the understanding of the processes of learning, with a view to informing teaching strategies and approaches to developing educational software. This implies that the theoretical work on learning on which wider educational research is based should be used to underpin research in ICT in education as well. In addition, specific theoretical frameworks have been developed for research into the use of ICT in education; however, associated with an almost complete neglect of the history of the area, the most powerful of these, developed in the early years of the sub‐discipline, are now generally ignored. Consistent with this, the authors argue that questions for investigation in this area should focus more on contributing to knowledge about learning and teaching, and less on the seemingly widespread concern for demonstrating benefits of ICT use in education to justify its cost. The types of research studies the authors advocate are generally more complex, difficult and time‐consuming to undertake than these quantitative surveys and evaluations, and they describe a methodological approach developed to undertake such complex work.

Preface

Information and communication technology (ICT) has taken a centre stage in the day to day activities of people in every country today, from social interactions to business and pleasure. The technologically advanced countries have been experiencing rapid changes in their way of life, through the fruits of research and developments in ICT. Many developing countries have also joined to contribute to global advancement in ICT and have indeed made fundamental changes to the lifestyle and working habit of their people.

National ICT Australia (NICTA)

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has had a profound impact on the world's social and economic development. National ICT Australia's (NICTA) has been established to ensure that Australia continues to capitalize on the massive opportunities that ICT research delivers and to create a vibrant ICT industry that boosts Australia's competitive advantage and builds the overall wealth of nation.

Critical Review of Research Findings on Information Technology in Education

This article analyses the field of research on information and communication technology (ICT) in education. It reviews the results of ICT researches carried out in the world. First, the article presents the retrospective of researches on ICT implementation into education. Summarizing them, it reviews main research findings in five areas of ICT implementation: 1) the impact of ICT use on students achievements and attitudes; 2) the impact of ICT use on teachers; 3) the effect of teachers' factors and instructional methods on ICT efficiency; 4) the influence of infrastructure and organizational factors on ICT efficiency; 5) the effect of specific software design features. Then, the paper reviews the main recent and future directions of researches on ICT in education, in the world. Finally, it shortly reviews the most important future directions of ICT research and development in Lithuania. The article concludes that in spite of numerous ICT studies worldwide the national research and experiments have to be carried out in order to implement ICT in an appropriate for Lithuania and efficient way.

Information technology implementation: analysis theoretical methods and frameworks

This article analyses the landscape of research on information and communication technology (ICT) in education. It reviews the theory and practices of ICT research. The first chapter of the article investigates general theoretical research methods. The second chapter analyses the main peculiarities of ICT implementation analysis. The article presents the main concepts and definitions of research theory, it discusses possible evaluation aspects of ICT use in education, classical features of ICT research frameworks and their main components. While analysing the elements of research frameworks, structure and peculiarities of education system are discussed briefly. The article also reviews the main types of research of ICT use in education and analyses evaluation problems of ICT implementation into education.

The new geography of corporate research in Information and Communications Technology (ICT)

In the new ICT-based paradigm MNCs have increasingly locationally dispersed competence-creating activities. Using patent data granted in the US to the largest European-owned electronic corporations and all the largest companies in other industries for their ICT research in the European regions, this paper investigates the regional dispersion of such research. We find that co-specialised electronic companies do not tend to develop related R&D in the same regional location, but non-electronic firms undertake related ICT development in a common centre of excellence. Thus, intra-industry competition encourages the geographical separation of co-specialised research, while inter-industry cooperation entails the co-location of related research.

Bridging the Subdisciplines: An Overview of Communication and Technology Research

Communication and technology (CAT) research is concerned with the development, uses, and consequences of information and communication technologies (ICTs) across all types of social, cultural, and institutional settings. Technology includes the artifacts or devices that enable and extend our abilities to communicate, the communication activities or practices in which we engage when developing and using those devices, and the social arrangements or organizations that form around those practices and devices. Together, these elements also constitute the central phenomenon of interest for CAT research, the mediation of communication processes by ICTs. ICTs are used across many social settings and applications, so CAT research does not fit easily into either the traditional “mass media” or “interpersonal” specializations within the communication discipline. The present essay is organized broadly around the contexts of ICT use and research in society and organizations and by individuals and groups. Three themes resonate throughout this literature: the pervasiveness of electronically mediated communication in contemporary society (ubiquity); the multiplex social formations and phenomena associated with ICTs, rather than effects on particular audiences or demographic groups (the network metaphor); and the changes entailed by the ongoing rearrangement and redefinition of ICTs to suit oeoole’s

In search of the European Paradox: an international comparison of Europe's scientific performance and knowledge flows in information and communication technologies research

This article deals with the scientific performance of the European Union (EU) in what is now perhaps the most important enabling technology worldwide: information and communication technologies (ICT). The performance measures are based on the stock and flows of scientific knowledge embodied in research papers published in international scientific and technical journals. Quantitative data derived from these papers are used to examine and compare the performance of the EU science base with the US and Japan—two leading scientific nations in ICT research, and major competitors in ICT industries. These bibliometric indicators characterize and compare these three ICT research bases in terms of research output, international scientific quality, transnational knowledge flows, and domestic and international cooperation patterns. The analysis focuses on the key issue whether or not these data bear evidence of the perceived `European Paradox' which is, among others, characterized by a strong EU public sector science base coupled to a relatively weak R&D performance of EU firms. The findings provide empirical confirmation for the existence of this Paradox in both ICT research domains under investigation: computers and data processing, and telecommunications.

The global science base of information and communication technologiges: Bibliometric analysis of ICT research papers

The science and engineering base is a key source of knowledge for the development and use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). In order to be able to effectively describe and monitor world-wide scientific activity related to ICTs, it is important to be able to provide reliable macro-level statistics of this knowledge base. International bibliographic databases and related bibliometric indicators together provide an analytical framework and appropriate measures to cover both the ‘supply side’—research capabilities and outputs—and ‘demand side’—collaboration, diffusion and citation impact—related to the ICT research. This paper presents results of such a bibliometric study describing macro-level features of this ICT knowledge base. The data were retrieved from a specially developedCWTS ICT Database which provides a broad-scope world-wide coverage of ICT-relevant research papers published in high-quality international scientific and technical journals. The cross-country comparison focuses on the level of scientific output and co-operation patterns of the most actively publishing nations with a focus on the three Triad zones—the European Union, the USA and Japan.