Development Of Technological Skills Research Articles

Geomaterials in construction and their sustainability: understanding their role in modern society

Abstract Inorganic raw materials, here termed geomaterials, derived from the Earth's crust and used in construction after appropriate processing make a genetically and functionally varied group of mineral resources. Although their basic functions have remained almost unchanged for centuries, some new attributes, meanings and impacts on society are still emerging. Geomaterials for construction were among the first mineral raw materials exploited, processed and used by man. They helped in the development of technological and artistic skills of humankind. Accessibility, workability and serviceability are considered here as their main functional attributes, being connected with man's skills to find their occurrence, extract and process them, and then use them in the correct way. However, serviceability is a more complex functional attribute as it also encompasses durability of a material in construction. Durability, that is the ability to withstand the action of weathering/decay processes, is an expression of the dynamic interactions between material and the surrounding environment encompassing not only gradual adaptation of materials to current environmental conditions, but also interactions between materials in construction, the history of maintenance/conservation of the structure and the impact of a polluted environment. In the modern world, sustainable use of raw materials, specifically those exploited in the largest volumes such as geomaterials for construction, raises questions of reducing extraction of primary resources and thus minimizing impacts on natural systems, and also employment of materials and technologies to produce less emission of deleterious substances in to the atmosphere. Use of secondary materials such as waste produced during extraction of primary raw materials and/or re-use of existing structural elements and re- or down-cycling can be considered as modern approaches to reducing the pressure on primary resources.

Methods for Developing Technological Thinking Skills in the Pupils of Profession-oriented Schools

The urgency of the problem under investigation is due to the fact that technological thinking skills are today one of the important conditions of polytechnic education and professional orientation of the pupils of different types of schools. Technological thinking contributes to the development of pupils’ innovative and inventive abilities, as well as promotes the scientific level of education. The purpose of the current article is to reveal different methods for developing technological thinking skills of the pupils of contemporary profession-oriented schools. These methods are based on the development laws of the features of profession-oriented schools and are focused on the pupils, prone to technological activities. The authors conclude that the considered training methods and techniques stimulate the development of technological thinking skills of the pupils, as well as spark their interest in technological, encourage the broad scientific and cognitive activity that characterizes general labor education of profession-oriented schoolchildren.

Using concurrent think-aloud and protocol analysis to explore student nurses' social learning information communication technology knowledge and skill development

Observations obtained through concurrent think-aloud and protocol analysis offer new understanding about the influence of social learning on student nurses' acquisition of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) knowledge and skills. The software used provides a permanent record of the underpinning study method, events and analyses. The emerging themes reflect the dimensions of social engagement, and the characteristics of positive and negative reactions to ICT. The evidence shows that given the right conditions, stronger learners will support and guide their peers. To explore the use of concurrent think-aloud and protocol analysis as a method to examine how student nurses approach ICT. To identify the benefits and challenges of using observational technology to capture learning behaviours. To show the influence of small group arrangement and student interactions on their ICT knowledge and skills development. Previous studies examining social interaction between students show how they work together and respond to interactive problem solving. Social interaction has been shown to enhance skills in both ICT and collaborative decision making. Structured observational analysis using concurrent think-aloud and protocol analysis. Students displayed varying degrees of pastoral support and emotional need, leadership, reflection, suggestion and experimentation skills. Encouraging student nurses to work in small mixed ability groups can be conducive for social and ICT skill and knowledge development. Observational software gives a permanent record of the proceedings.

Characteristics of micro, small and medium enterprises in Ghana: gender and implications for economic growth

This paper sought to investigate the characteristics of MSMEs and to suggest ways of improving performance, particularly tackling constraints faced by women and youth entrepreneurs in Ghana. A total of 4 433 MSME operators were interviewed in all the ten regions of Ghana using a structured questionnaire. The study revealed that apprenticeship was the most common form of training received by the MSME operators interviewed. Disaggregating data by gender, it was observed that more men had received training in their business operations than women. Close to 90% of the MSMEs were under sole proprietorship. There was significant correlation between gender and scale of enterprises, with increasing numbers of men as scale of operations increased. Women, who dominated the agro-processing, agro-industrial and services sectors, were constrained by ineffective marketing strategies, lack of capital, inadequate equipment and machinery, lack of improved technology, inadequate training and low skill development. Marketing strategies employed by the majority of women were limited, mostly patronising markets within their respective districts of business operations. The study recommended support for women to access sizeable business credit with flexible payment plans, tailor-made skill development training and improved access to institutional markets with quality and well-packaged products.

Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments and Their Use of Assistive Technology: Measuring the Proficiency of Teachers and Their Identification with a Community of Practice

Introduction This article presents an instrument that measures the assistive technology proficiency of teachers of students with visual impairments and their identification with a community of practice that values assistive technology. Teachers’ deficits in assistive technology proficiency negatively impact students who are visually impaired by stunting the development of assistive technology skills, ultimately resulting in poorer postsecondary education and employment outcomes. Identification with a community of practice that values assistive technology may be supportive of the technological proficiency of teachers of students with visual impairments. Method Assistive technology proficiency and community of practice identification dimensions were defined and outlined in rubric-like “construct maps.” A survey that was created to place teachers of students with visual impairments within each construct map was completed by 33 Californian teachers. Survey performance was evaluated by estimating Rasch models, which provided information on relative question difficulty and question performance. Results Estimated question difficulties revealed expected patterns. Only two survey questions performed irregularly (infit > 1.33). Internal reliability was good (Cronbach's Alpha = 0.80) for assistive technology proficiency, and acceptable (Cronbach's Alpha = 0.70) for community of practice identification. Discussion The findings suggest the survey reliably measured the assistive technology proficiency and identification with a community of practice that values technology in this sample of teachers. Utilization of this tool may enable the objective evaluation of assistive technology proficiency of teachers pre- and post-training. Implications for practitioners Creation of a reliable instrument that measures these constructs will support investigations in how one relates to the other, and will consider how professional development may be designed to better support the use of assistive technology by teachers.

Research on ICT Literacy Education in Primary and Lower Secondary Schools in the Czech Republic

The implementation of ICT literacy education as obligatory part of primary and lower-secondary school curriculum is a feature of school systems of developed countries. We may consider a wide spectrum of approaches ranging from limiting ICT literacy education to practising mastering software tools on the one hand, to the approach emphasizing pupils’ algorithmic thinking development on the other hand. School educational programmes and teaching in action obviously differ. And yet the method and topical orientation of ITC literacy education definitely have a profound effect on pupils’ information technology competencies or digital literacy development. This paper briefly reports on the project focused on the Czech Science Foundation Project - Information Technology Competencies of Children and Their Development in Primary and Lower Secondary Schools examining the current state, structure and trends in development of ICT literacy education in Czech primary (ISCED 1) and lower-secondary schools (ISCED 2). The project involving 1183 participating schools (ICT teachers) provides findings on particular issues including characteristics and thematic units of educational ICT activities, pupils’ information technology skills development and implementation of ICT competencies into educational activities.

SOCIOECONOMIC AND ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT OF MANAGEMENT

This paper deals with the development of management that takes place in many areas and covers a wide range of activities, aiming at improving communicational and representational skills. It also includes the development of specific skills such as management of information in the office, assessment of performance, financial management, governance in different cultures and alignment capabilities (training) management in accordance with changes in strategies and organizational structure. The management is characterized by a variety of approaches, methods, interpretations and ideas related to human and organizational development. Contemporary management is in a stage of transition specialists to control the deformation between the managerial hierarchies, and also the trust that is necessary if people need to take initiative. During this transition, manager's development is faced to many dilemmas and severity of consequences. Managers may fear that their specialization might be followed by retrenchment of working positions. This development of their knowledge and skills will help them improve themselves and prepare them for a career change. The most powerful sources for management development are the global technology and personal knowledge and skills development.

A customer-centric approach towards evaluating single-choice information technology service provision to the parastatal sector of South Africa

The article presents a case study whereby the service performance of a single-choice information technology service provider in the parastatal industry of South Africa is measured against multi-choice private service providers without any provisional agreements. The outcome of the case study reveals that single-choice service provision options with provisional agreements have a limited chance of success if they are not supported by strong service user inputs. In fact, provisional strategies that disallow sound competition among service providers are bound to impact negatively on user preferences as well as information technology skills development opportunities that are required to improve service provision generally and long-term survival in particular.

Decoding learning in law: collaborative action towards the reshaping of university teaching and learning

At the University of the Free State (UFS) in South Africa, professional development is characterised by its focus on the advancement of scholarly teaching in the disciplines. Practices followed are informed by the scholarship of teaching and learning movement. Within learning communities, special attention is given to the motivational conditions for optimal development, which are intentionally and collaboratively created or enhanced. An action research approach is adhered to, with action learning always an underlying ingredient. The approach has already shown promising signs in advancing personal growth and scholarly teaching practices among lecturers in the Decoding Learning in Law project. The decoding idea originated in the USA and follows a process of identifying and addressing the discipline-specific learning problems of undergraduate students. As precursor to the more formal phase of decoding, the Centre for Teaching and Learning at the UFS has embarked on a process of empowering a group of lecturers in law to address the challenges they experience in their teaching environment. During meetings and workshops, the members of the newly established learning community act as collaborators in the construction of new knowledge on the theory and practice of good teaching and learning (with a special focus on student engagement); they reflect critically on obstacles in their own courses and take part actively in conversations on the application of innovative strategies in law teaching. Special attention is given to the use of educational technology. In the project, development of relevant technological skills was preceded by a technology-needs survey and discussions in which prevailing perceptions about the use of technology in law education were brought to light. Although the project is still in its first year, the motivational context of community and collaboration has already given rise to a synergy that promises to reshape the teaching and learning environment in law at the UFS. In an informal way, progress has also been made with the decoding process of identifying “bottlenecks” in the teaching and learning of law at the institution.

<p>Technology Skill Development Among Education Majors</p>

This study sought to determine the influence that numerous variables have on the technology skill development of education majors. The study investigated how the participants’ age, gender, race, ethnicity, level of comfort with technology, and learning style(s) correlated with their level of digital literacy. The results revealed that level of verbal-linguistic intelligence significantly correlated with the subjects’ level of digital literacy, whereas the other seven multiple intelligence variables did not yield significant findings. Further statistical analysis demonstrated that each of the multiple intelligence variables (including level of verbal-linguistic intelligence) had a weak correlation with level of digital literacy when isolated from the other variables. Each one of the independent variables was found to be a poor predictor of the education majors’ technology capabilities. Therefore, this article suggests that these variables (age, gender, level of prior technology use, etc.) should not be relied upon to predict a student’s technology skills.

Educational Technologies in Health Sciences Libraries: Teaching Technology Skills

As technology rapidly changes, libraries remain go-to points for education and technology skill development. In academic health sciences libraries, trends suggest librarians provide more training on technology topics than ever before. While education and training have always been roles for librarians, providing technology training on new mobile devices and emerging systems requires class creation and training capabilities that are new to many librarians. To appeal to their users, many health sciences librarians are interested in developing technology-based classes. This column explores the question: what skills are necessary for developing and teaching technology in an academic health sciences library setting?

‘Lights, Camera, Action!’ Video Technology and Students' Perceptions of Oral Communication in Accounting Education

This paper examines the influence of an authentic assessment item on three dimensions of oral communication in accounting education: skills, self-efficacy, and relevance. An explanatory mixed methods design is used to explore students' perceptions of their development. The results indicate that an elevator pitch assessment has a positive impact on all three dimensions. In particular, the employed video technology fosters greater self-awareness and a more accurate perception of skill levels, and enhances students' self-efficacy. The contextualised learning experience also enables students to better appreciate the relevance of oral communication to their future careers. The paper extends the literature on video technology, self-efficacy, and generic skills development in accounting education, and provides relevant stakeholders with evidence of an authentic activity that can assist with bridging the skills-expectation gap.

(Estimate the Optimal Structure of Public Spending on Education Through Technology Skills Development)

В ходе исследования удалось выявить, как влияет на среднее образование перераспределение расходов в пользу высшего образования. Было установлено с помощью эконометрических методов анализа наличие оптимальной доля расходов на высшее образование, которая соответствует наилучшему качеству среднего образования, при прочих равных условиях. Для анализируемого временного периода (2005-2010 гг.) и исследуемой выборки стран это значение составило 45% (нижняя граница оптимальности). Начиная с этого значения, дальнейшее увеличение доли расходов на высшее образование ведет к повышению качества среднего образования. Естественно, что существует и верхняя граница оптимальности, для данной выборки она составляет порядка 63%. Также был составлен сценарий по динамике расходов на образование, согласно которому к 2018-му году Россия потенциально способно выйти на оптимальное соотношение расходов между разными уровнями образования.The study was able to identify the impact on the redistribution of secondary education spending in favor of higher education. It was established with the help of econometric methods for the analysis of the presence of the optimal share of spending on higher education, which corresponds to the best quality of secondary education, other things being equal. For the analyzed time period (2005-2010 gg.), and the study sample of this value was 45% (lower bound of optimality). From this value, a further increase in the share of spending on higher education is to improve the quality of secondary education. Naturally, there exists a upper limit of optimality for a given sample, it is about 63%. Also, the script was compiled by the dynamics of spending on education, according to which by 2018, Russia has the potential to reach the optimal ratio of costs between different levels of education.

The MSU Educational Technology Certificate Courses and Their Impact on Teachers’ Growth as Technology Integrators

The Educational Technology Certificate (ETC.) courses at Michigan State University are a set of three courses that can be taken as a standalone qualification or as the first three courses in the Master’s of Educational Technology degree. Together, the courses emphasize the development of technology skills and advanced mindsets for technology integration in the classroom. In this article, we provide examples of our approach to the teaching of technology skills and mindsets in ways that are adaptable across four distinct modes of instruction (online, hybrid, overseas and faceto-face). We also present student feedback and survey data that inform a critical evaluation of the program’s effectiveness. Findings suggest that the certificate courses help students to gain technological skills, to become more confident users of technology and more likely to help colleagues with tech-related questions. Interestingly, respondents also reported feeling like better teachers, in general, after taking these courses.

FarsiSpell: A spell-checking system for Persian using a large monolingual corpus

In recent years, great availability of various language resources in different forms as well as rapid development of computer technology and programming skills have made researchers in the fields of linguistics and computer science cooperate in solving different problems of computational linguistics and natural language processing. Building large monolingual as well as bilingual corpora in digital forms and storing them in computer memories has enabled linguists and lan- guage engineers to automatically explore techniques for processing information with the help of various computer programs without any need to manually col- lect and analyze data. One of the main applications of monolingual corpora can be seen in developing automatic spell-checking systems. In such systems, a large monolingual corpus can function as a database instead of a monolingual dictionary. In the present study, it has been tried to demonstrate the effectiveness of a large monolingual corpus of Persian in improving the output quality of a spell-checker developed for this language. In the present spelling correction system, the three phases of error detection, making suggestions, and ranking suggestions are performed in three separate stages. An experiment was carried out to evaluate the performance of the spell-checking system.

Applying a Theoretical Model for Explaining the Development of Technological Skills in Statistics Education

Technology has become an inseparable part of modern statistical practice (Gould, 2010), and, to a large extent, modern statistics courses. The literature on technology in statistics education has focused heavily on the role of technology for improving students’ understanding. However, limited research has examined the development of technological skills for “doing” statistics, e.g. using statistical packages. This paper proposes a distinction between these two roles of technology and how both benefit student learning. The paper then applies Kanfer and Ackerman’s (1989) integrative model of skill acquisition to explain the variability in students’ technological skill development. The ability to use statistical packages, arguably the most pervasive example of statistics technology, is used as an example to illustrate this model. The implications of the model are then discussed in the context of teaching technological skills in statistics courses. Future directions and challenges related to this area of are discussed

Information Technology (IT) Knowledge and Skills of Accounting Graduates: Does an Expectation Gap Exist?

The present research explores the expectation gap in information technology (IT) skills development in an accounting degree course using grounded theory methodology. Data were collected using multiple qualitative approaches, including interviews; focus groups; observations; and document reviews, focusing on respondents at one traditional university in the UK and involving respondents from one of the big four accounting firms operating in the UK. The findings indicate that some of the required understanding and skills relating to accounting, tax and auditing software is lacking, suggesting an expectation gap. Different opinions concerning who should assume the responsibility for the development of the IT skills of the graduates; the understanding concerning the nature of IT skills; unclear expectations; and a lack of communication among stakeholders in accounting education are the factors perceived to cause the existence of such a gap. The findings also reveal that educators, as major players in the education process, should initiate a platform to promote communication among all stakeholders in educations, including potential employers and students, so that skills needs and expectations can be clearly identified and communicated, thus bridging the gap.

Comparing Training Approaches for Technological Skill Development in Introductory Statistics Courses

Technology has transformed the modern introductory statistics course, but little is known about how students develop the skills required to use this technology. This study compares two different training approaches for learning to operate statistical software packages. Guided training (GT) uses direct instruction and explicit guidance during training, whereas active-exploratory training types, such as error-management training (EMT), promote self-directed exploration. Previous studies in general software training suggest that EMT outperforms GT at promoting adaptive skill transfer. This study recruited a sample of 115 psychology students enrolled in introductory statistics courses that ran concurrently across two campuses. These students completed weekly, one-hour training sessions learning to use the statistical package SPSS. In the final week of the semester, students completed an SPSS certification task to measure adaptive skill transfer. The EMT and GT approach was implemented in Campus A and B respectively. Due to non-random allocation, the covariates of gender, personal access, statistical knowledge, and training progress were taken into account when modeling adaptive transfer between training approaches. After controlling for these covariates, no difference in adaptive transfer was found between training approaches. The results suggest that improving access to statistical packages may provide a more powerful way to improve the development of technological skills over using different training approaches.

PRIMARY FINDINGS OF THE RESEARCH ON ICT LITERACY EDUCATION PUPILS’ AND TEACHERS’ ICT COMPETENCIES IN PRIMARY AND LOWER SECONDARY SCHOOLS

In 2012 and 2013, the authors of this paper worked on the Czech Science Foundation Project - Information Technology Competencies of Children and Their Development in Primary and Lower Secondary Schools. This article briefly reports on this project focused on examining the current state, structure and trends in development of ICT literacy education in Czech primary (ISCED 1) and lower-secondary schools (ISCED 2). 1,183 schools (ICT teachers) and 2,507 pupils joined the project. It presents the key findings of the research in particular issues including characteristics and thematic units of educational ICT activities, pupils´ information technology skills development and implementation of ICT competencies into educational activities. The research follows up on a similarily orientated project realized in 2006, in which the relevant data was obtained from 930 schools and it seeks to update and compare these research findings.

Reality Bytes: Using Technology in Mooting

This article considers how law schools can facilitate the development of technology skills by using technology to enhance access to mooting in settings that replicate legal practice. The authors conducted research into the use of technology by Australian law schools for mooting and evaluated an internal mooting competition using Elluminate, an online communication platform available to students through Blackboard. The analysis of the results of the survey and the Elluminate competition will demonstrate that technology can be used in mooting to provide an authentic learning experience. The paper concludes that while it is essential to teach technology skills as part of legal education, it is important that the benefits of using technology are made clear in order for it to be accepted and embraced by the students. Technology must also be available to all students considering the widening participation in higher education and consequent increasing diversity of law students.