Technology-based Applications Research Articles

Curriculum and Technology Design: A Course to Explore Technology Applications in EFL Curriculum Design

Teaching and technology pedagogy should be mastered by a teacher in this digital era. It is an inevitable fact that teachers should realize. To be in line with technology development, teachers are expected to bring any technology-based applications to the classroom. Many education institutions from Kindergarten to Higher Education around the world equip their teachers with technology-based training. In particular, Technology Enhanced Language Learning (TELL) has been mushrooming in English Language Teaching trends. To comply with this demand, Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework has been developed by Koehler & Mishra (2006) to equip student teachers in English Department. Therefore, Technology and Curriculum Design course is designed to tailor Pre-Service English Teachers how to integrate technology in EFL curriculum design. By having blended learning activities, teaching and learning activities are conducted to explore technology applications to design an EFL curriculum. Any class projects are technology-based assignments such as infographic, poster, mind map, questionnaire, presentation, etc. using CANVA, Google applications, presentation applications, lesson plan application (LessonWRITER), quiz application (Quizlet), and interactive book applications (AnyFlip, Flipping Book, FlipSnack), etc. 
 Keywords: curriculum, EFL, technology

A Peer-Led Electronic Mental Health Recovery App in an Adult Mental Health Service: Study Protocol for a Pilot Trial

BackgroundThere is growing demand for peer workers (people who use their own lived experience to support others in their recovery) to work alongside consumers to improve outcomes and recovery. Augmenting the workforce with peer workers has strong capacity to enhance mental health and recovery outcomes and make a positive contribution to the workforce within mental health systems and to the peer workers themselves. Technology-based applications are highly engaging and desirable methods of service delivery.ObjectiveThis project is an exploratory proof-of-concept study, which aims to determine if a peer worker-led electronic mental (e-mental) health recovery program is a feasible, acceptable, and effective adjunct to usual treatment for people with moderate to severe mental illness.MethodsThe study design comprises a recovery app intervention delivered by a peer worker to individual consumers at an adult mental health service. Evaluation measures will be conducted at post-intervention. To further inform the acceptability and feasibility of the model, consumers will be invited to participate in a focus group to discuss the program. The peer worker, peer supervisor, and key staff at the mental health service will also be individually interviewed to further evaluate the feasibility of the program within the health service and further inform its future development.ResultsThe program will be delivered over a period of approximately 4 months, commencing June 2017.ConclusionsIf the peer worker-led recovery app is found to be feasible, acceptable, and effective, it could be used to improve recovery in mental health service consumers.

Technology-Based Monitoring and Intervention Delivery: Expanding Behavior-Analytic Treatment to Health Behavior

Technology-based health interventions are providing unprecedented ways to improve a range of socially significant behavior. In this article, we provide behavior analysts with an overview of technology-based platforms and applications to help broaden research and practice. First, we discuss “high-tech” platforms, such as smartphones, wearable sensors, and other wireless devices. Second, we provide information about “low-tech” platforms, such as text messaging, which may be more feasible to implement than high-tech platforms. Finally, we discuss challenges and opportunities, and we provide specific guidance regarding the prescription of these assessment and intervention tools as a part of behavior analytic services.

Technology-Based Services Adoption: A Comparison of the Major Applications

A literature review in technology-based services (TBSs) revealed many research projects dealing with the attitudes of consumers towards technology-based service applications and the constructs influencing that relationship. However, there are still no reported research projects examining the differences on attitude and adoption of consumers towards different applications of technology-based services. This study addresses the gap in knowledge in point of the factors influencing consumer attitudes towards, and adoption of, technology-based services, by comparing four different applications of them. A conceptual model for the adoption process of technology-based services is developed and tested across four different applications of the e-service industry. Each survey respondent has to answer the same set of questions for all four categories. The results indicate that attitudes towards different technology-based service applications are separate and distinct from one another, and that attitude towards each technology-based service application differs, while it positively influences the actual future use in all of them.

Implementing Electronic Tablet-Based Education of Acute Care Patients.

Poor education-related discharge preparedness for patients with heart failure is believed to be a major cause of avoidable rehospitalizations. Technology-based applications offer innovative educational approaches that may improve educational readiness for patients in both inpatient and outpatient settings; however, a number of challenges exist when implementing electronic devices in the clinical setting. Implementation challenges include processes for "on-boarding" staff, mediating risks of cross-contamination with patients' device use, and selling the value to staff and health system leaders to secure the investment in software, hardware, and system support infrastructure. Strategies to address these challenges are poorly described in the literature. The purpose of this article is to present a staff development program designed to overcome challenges in implementing an electronic, tablet-based education program for patients with heart failure.

Caregiver Preferences regarding Technology's Role in Supporting Adolescent Weight Management.

Background. Health technology provides a wealth of strategies to address chronic health issues, such as childhood obesity. Few studies have assessed parental preferences regarding use of health technology to support weight management for adolescents. Objective. This study determined caregiver beliefs, attitudes, and practices towards using traditional methods and technology-based health applications to address weight management among overweight adolescents. Methods. Self-administered surveys were distributed to caregivers of children ages 11–18 years in Stony Brook Children's Hospital outpatient offices with a BMI ≥ 85th percentile for age, gender. The data were entered into StudyTrax research platform and analyzed using SAS. Results. N = 114. Mean BMI z-score = 1.95 ± 0.50. Two-thirds (65.8%) of caregivers preferred a weight management program that includes both traditional and technology components. Most parents rated involvement in program development (68.1%), access to content (72.4%) as very important. Those who believed their child's weight was a problem (p = 0.01) were more likely than other parents to prefer a program that combined both traditional and technology components. Conclusions. Parents' perceptions of their child's weight drove preferences about incorporating technology elements into a weight management program. Future weight management programs should incorporate parental content preferences and be tailored to different age groups.

Socioeconomic impact of e-Health services in major joint replacement: A scoping review.

e-Health is a widespread healthcare practice in the medical community, supported by technology-based applications aiming to deliver health services in an efficient manner, improving the quality of life and providing a wide range of health and socio-economic benefits to patients. To investigate the use of e-Health and mobile applications for the follow-up of major joint arthroplasty patients and the socio-economic impact of e-Health services on arthroplasty patients. Studies published after 2000 in English language, enrolling patients who underwent total knee or hip replacement, applying e-Health solutions and highlighting the economic benefits obtained by patients, doctors and healthcare systems were considered for inclusion in the present study. Five studies satisfied our inclusion criteria and were included in qualitative analysis. In this paper, the use of e-Health for the follow-up of major joint arthroplasty patients and the positive impact in terms of cost, time and hospital visits reduction by applying e-Health solutions on arthroplasty patients are reviewed in detail as reported in the included studies. The majority of the included studies reported a positive impact in terms of cost, time and hospital visits reduction.

A review of adolescent adherence in type 1 diabetes and the untapped potential of diabetes providers to improve outcomes.

Only 21% of adolescents with type 1 diabetes (T1D) meet glycemic goals set forth by the American Diabetes Association. Adherence to therapy is a particular concern in this population, and the association between poor adherence and worsening glycemic control indicates that there is a critical need to improve adherence to therapy in adolescents with T1D. In this article, we review barriers to adherence in adolescents with T1D and discuss interventions aimed at improving adherence to therapy and glycemic control. Interventions include technology-based applications, family-based therapies, motivational interviewing, and others. Notably, less than 10% of the interventions reviewed are provider-led, clinic-based interventions, and few have focused on regimen-related aspects of adherence. This article also outlines the importance of provider communication and the role of providers in facilitating adherence behaviors in adolescents with T1D. Finally, we suggest future directions of research to improve adherence to therapy in adolescents with T1D.

Addressing engagement issues for interactive music technologies through a participatory design approach with ‘SoundField’

Abstract This article presents a project that applies a collaborative design and an integrated evaluation approach to the bottom-up development of an immersive installation. In the inception of the set-up, user-related concerns for artistic technology-based applications were addressed in order to identify creative opportunities for the implemented multimodal technologies. For this purpose, an interdisciplinary collaboration between researchers from the arts, computer science and systematic musicology was established. Throughout a six-month project, a participatory and iterative design methodology was applied to the development of an augmented reality-based artistic installation. The project aimed at testing the flexibility of the technological platform, the artistic opportunities latent in the immersive installation domain, how users’ cultural aspirations could be accommodated within the installation, how subjects with a standard media literacy were to engage with the technology at hand, and whether the quality of the experience could be improved by meeting the stated aesthetic requirements. The employed design strategy resulted in a user-inspired and use case-driven development process, in which gesturally controlled audio-visual features were tested, evaluated and improved for the entire duration of the project. Results include the delivery of 22 operational use cases in six different artistic application domains and the assessment of the applied methodology by means of the user-centred evaluation. In summary, SoundField’s strategy of in-situ stakeholder involvement within the creative process allowed for following three: (1) successful implementations in a variety of cultural practices to be distilled, (2) limitations of the platform’s interactive nature to be identified and (3) the rendition of guidelines for establishing user acceptance towards multimediated embodied interactive technologies.

Domestic Violence Service Providers’ Technology Readiness and Information Needs

Technology-based applications hold promise as effective, efficient means of disseminating research- and practice-based information to professionals whose work relates to domestic violence. Other related uses of technology in the field have grown, including safety planning to address technology-related risks to victims and software programs being integrated into domestic violence agencies. However, to date, the levels of technology readiness and technology-related information needs of these professionals have received minimal research attention. This study involved a national survey of 471 professionals whose work addresses domestic violence. The findings demonstrate differences in professionals’ technology readiness based on key demographic and professional characteristics. They also reveal the most frequently noted information needs within this professional field. Implications for future research and practice are provided.

Surreal Venues of the Postmodern World: Social Networking Sites

INTRODUCTION Following the distinction of Internet becoming the locomotive of everyday life, crucial social changes have taken place in all areas of cultural and everyday life. Concepts such as time and space have disappeared, and classical communication methods have left their places to very different, alternative and technology-based applications for people’s interactions with each other. The Internet technology; holding a very important place for institutions’ communication with each other and providing the old habits to be ‘disposed of’ has allowed institutions to achieve savings also in the financial aspect. As a result of today's age of information and technology entering into union of forces with the Internet gaining a great momentum since the beginning of 21st century and entering into the veins of our social life, it has been seen that both individuals and institutions have left aside generally accepted rules and habits. This quick change has led people to different pursuits also due to the influences of the post-modern world and environmental conditions that we are within. Factors such as the dominant emergence of technology in all areas, individual approaches, alienation arising from loneliness have brought people rapidly towards a different search for identity in a 'virtual world' created by the Internet. Especially in the last 2-3 years with social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, which come to mind when we say the Internet, providing people the possibility of converting themselves into their ‘dream heroes’ in ‘surreal’ venues, prepared the ground for a decrease in sense of mutual trust with each other, as well as for the identities they created beyond what is true and wearing a very different ‘dress’. In this study, primarily the 'new world order', which is brought by the technological revolution, will be discussed, then critical perspective with both positive and negative aspects will be introduced to a different area, to which we started to get used and whose frame is drawn by the internet and social networking sites. Finally, the applications in the most popular social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook will be evaluated in regard to stories and the anticipation of situations, which we may face in the future.

USING MOBILE DISASTER RESPONSE SYSTEM IN BRIDGE MANAGEMENT

Over the years, various hydro-meteorological disasters have impacted many countries and civilians, thus decreasing the losses caused by these disasters has become important for disaster management. While bridges often are essential to connect the affected disaster areas, this study focuses on bridge management associated with typhoons and rain-storms. Recently, although numerous information technology-based applications are available, three problems (i.e. asynchronous information records, unsteady information transmission, and inaccessible information analysis) still influence responses on disaster sites. Therefore, this study integrated several mobile information techniques to propose a mobile disaster response system. The applied mobile GPS- and GIS-based data reports simplify information generation, AR-based assistance enhances information representation, and mobile 3D graphics accelerates information processes. Based on the tests, this system not only improved the recognized problems but also strengthened the cooperation between construction engineers and workers and disaster managers. Overall, this study is a useful reference for similar applications in bridge management and disaster management.

Build a Network-Based System of Accounting Information System Reform

This paper analyzes the network accounting background generated ; then discusses the concept of network accounting , objectives and characteristics of its location; paper focuses on the traditional network of accounting and reflect the impact of accounting , including accounting assumptions , accounting principles , accounting reports and accounting functions of the impact study , pointed out in the Internet environment, the traditional concept of accounting change should be and try to put forward their point of view : Again , study the network accounting system, including technology-based accounting network , system, operational and enterprise applications. Finally, the network security issues were studied accounting and briefly presents the relevant strategy.

Romanian Public Sector Transparency Approached by E-governance

E-government or electronic governance, is an important step in the reform of public administration and at the same time, it is a process of normalization of the public sector, with the aim of facilitating interaction between public institutions and the population, using information technology-based applications. Another role of e-Government is to simplify bureaucratic procedures, or even eliminate, by improving access for citizens to information with effects on the public spending value. Through an empirical research based on a theoretical approach, we determine on a sample of 16 municipalities, how transparency is provided starting from the requirements of e-governance found in West's study (2003) and national legislation.

The financial industry business ontology: Best practice for big data

This article describes the Financial Industry Business Ontology (FIBO) as a set of formal models that define unambiguous shared meaning for financial industry concepts. An account is given of the history and development of the FIBO series of standards and the theoretical underpinnings of these as a business or ‘conceptual’ model. Some initial proof of concept work is described, demonstrating how in addition to the use of FIBO as a conceptual model, it is possible to derive semantic technology-based applications that may be used to carry out novel types of processing on data. The development roadmap of the FIBO series of standards within the Object Management Group is also described, so that readers can have an idea of what to expect from FIBO and when.

OWLPath: An OWL Ontology-Guided Query Editor

Most Semantic Web technology-based applications need users to have a deep background on the formal underpinnings of ontology languages and some basic skills in these technologies. Generally, only experts in the field meet these requirements. In this paper, we present OWLPath, a natural language-query editor guided by multilanguage OWL-formatted ontologies. This application allows nonexpert users to easily create SPARQL queries that can be issued over most existing ontology storage systems. Our approach is a fully fledged solution backed with a proof-of-concept implementation and the empirical results of two challenging use cases: one in the domain of e-finance and the other in e-tourism.

Technology-Based Suicide Prevention: Current Applications and Future Directions

This review reports on current and emerging technologies for suicide prevention. Technology-based programs discussed include interactive educational and social networking Web sites, e-mail outreach, and programs that use mobile devices and texting. We describe innovative applications such as virtual worlds, gaming, and text analysis that are currently being developed and applied to suicide prevention and outreach programs. We also discuss the benefits and limitations of technology-based applications and discuss future directions for their use.

Designing for Children's Mobile Storytelling

Mobile technologies offer novel opportunities for children to express themselves in-context, seamlessly, without disrupting the flow of their formal learning activities or informal play. Most contemporary mobile devices are equipped with multimedia support that can be used to create multimodal stories that represent the rich life narratives children experience, imagine, and want to share. The authors investigated these issues over a 9-month series of participatory design sessions in the Human-Computer Interaction Lab (HCIL) at the University of Maryland. In this article, the authors describe their work with children in designing mobile tools for story creation and collaboration. Throughout this work, they asked the following questions: What stories do children want to tell, and how do they want to convey them in a mobile context? The findings suggest the need for mobile technology-based applications that support children’s unique storytelling habits, particularly interruptability and multimodality.

The potential roles of context-aware computing technology in optimization-based intelligent decision-making

Abstract Making effective decisions often depends on having the right information at the right time. Decision support systems were originally designed to help decision makers by automating some of the decision process. Today's decision support systems should take this a step further: making decisions proactively and intelligently by automatically detecting users' contextual data. Context-aware technology-based applications currently only provide limited personalization services that reference the user's context and preferences; these systems do not fully make use of sophisticated decision making capabilities. Hence, this paper describes how decision making and context-aware computing are jointly used to establish context-aware intelligent decision support systems. To incorporate these capabilities, we address a framework of context-aware intelligent intelligent decision support systems (CAIDSS), with the description of the subsystems within.

UbiDSS: a proactive intelligent decision support system as an expert system deploying ubiquitous computing technologies

Abstract Many industries have deployed expert systems (ESs) to provide support for solving complicated and specialized problems since 1980. Because ESs are originally designed for generating feasible alternatives in an automated manner, users, especially decision makers, expect ESs to make decisions proactively and intelligently by automatically detecting users' contextual data. In other words, decision makers require decision support systems (DSSs) to be reinforced with proactive and intelligent ESs that can utilize contextual data. Meanwhile, ubiquitous technology-based applications currently only provide limited personalization services that use the user's context and preferences; in other words, these systems do not fully make use of sophisticated decision making capabilities. Hence, this paper describes how decision making and context-aware computing are jointly used to establish ubiquitous computing technology-based applications. To do so, we propose an amended DSS paradigm, Context-Knowledge-Dialogue-Data-Model (CKDDM). This model describes what may be considered for future DSSs when we regard ubiquitous computing technology as an inevitable effect that changes how decision making decisions are described. Under the CKDDM paradigm, a framework of ubiquitous decision support systems (ubiDSS) is addressed with the description of the subsystems within. To show the feasibility of ubiDSS, a prototype system, Context-Aware Multi Agent System-My Optimization (CAMA-myOpt) has been implemented as an illustrative example system.