bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
house4hack: STIMULATING TECHNICAL AND PRACTICAL INNOVATION FOR SOCIAL GOOD
Authors: Twinomurinzi Hossana , Heunis Schalk
Published: October 2017

John Burger, the founding member of house4hack, despite his passion for social good using practical innovation, was fully aware of the cost of getting people and organizations actively involved in social enterprises. The successful electrical and electronics engineer with a number of academic (PhD and Masters – cum laude) and corporate accolades (executive in a top firm) had already been at the top of the corporate ladder. But despite the success, his stronger desire to see South Africa become a net producer of IT and technical artifacts rather than a net importer had led him to rethink his entire life strategy. After deep discussions on the merits of free and open source software development with two friends, they decided to start house4hack as a non-profit organization. The main purpose of house4hack was to provide an innovative environment, a hacker space, where members could conceptualise and create innovative technical artifacts which are well suited for the South African and African environment. The emphasis of house4hack was on making available technical equipment and working space so that members had an environment in which they could experiment and develop technical artifacts. An example of a technical artefact that emerged from house4hack is Robohand. Robohand is a mechanically driven artificial hand printed using 3D technology. Robohand has depended exclusively on donations to develop and distribute artificial hands to people who cannot afford them, such as in the war torn areas of South Sudan.
It was now three years since house4hack started. The hacker space was exciting, new ideas and opportunities kept emerging at the Tuesday meet ups where members and visitors networked and collaborated on new techniques or technology they had come across. But despite the liveliness, there were some key questions and critical decisions on John’s mind:
1. How do we get more people involved in creating artifacts?
2. Where do we find seed funding to support house4hack?
3. Are we serving Africa well enough with relevant artifacts?
4. Am I falling right back into the corporate work lifestyle trap?
INFOSYS: MEETING THE KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT CHALLENGE
Authors: Chari Kaushal , Gill Grandon
Published: October 2017

Dr. J. K. Suresh, Vice President and Principal Knowledge Manager at Infosys Limited (Infosys), pondered a question that continually needed to be addressed, but never could be truly answered. For a number of years, he had been responsible for overseeing the internal knowledge management (KM) activities of the large, global IT-services company, headquartered in Bangalore, India. The existing system was widely recognized—in case studies, articles and books—for its excellence. But the company, whose revenues for FY 2013 were in excess of $7 billion, was evolving rapidly in its business model. What changes to the KM system, if any, would improve the company’s ability to move its services to the next level?
The particular challenge of greatest long term interest was presented by the company’s Products, Platforms, and Solutions (PP&S) operations, seen by many at Infosys as being crucial to the firm’s long term prosperity. Margins on the offshoring of support and routine development activities—the business that had been the bread-and-butter of Infosys as it grew—were becoming narrower, squeezed both by increasing competition and by rising personnel costs in countries like India. An important remedy to this pressure was to develop software products that the company could sell to its customers as part of a larger package, building an asset category that did go home every night. For KM to benefit these PP&S activities, however, a substantially different focus would likely be required. Traditionally, KM at Infosys had been inward focus, facilitating the exchange of code and experience between the company’s employees, currently numbering over 150,000. Where KM could be of greatest help to PP&S, would be in looking outward—e.g., identifying market trends and desirable features, capturing customer experiences, developing sales strategies, finding market niches. Could a system that was designed principally for internal use later be modified for these purposes? Or would it make more sense to build a new system from the ground up? And what might such as system look like?
Applications of Digital Watermarking to Cyber Security (Cyber Watermarking)
Authors: Agbaje Micheal , Awodele Oludele , Ogbonna Chibueze
Published: October 2017

Cyber security is generally an extension of the traditional information technology (IT) security that is aimed at protecting systems, applications and data that exposed to a variety of forms of attack via the internet, ranging from data theft and espionage to corruption of data and denial of service attacks. There is a need for an increase in cyber security research due to losses from sabotage being experienced by nations, businesses and individuals from various cybercrime attacks. This paper takes a look at the applications digital watermarking to the process of protection in cyber space called cyber watermarking particularly focusing on theft of information (identity & credit card theft).The methodology of the research is through literature search and case study. The rest of the paper presents a brief overview of the digital watermarking and issues in cyber security.
Designing to Inform: Toward Conceptualizing Practitioner Audiences for Socio-technical Artifacts in Design Science Research in the Information Systems Discipline
Authors: Drechsler Andreas
Published: October 2017

This paper identifies areas in the design science research (DSR) subfield of the information systems (IS) discipline where a more detailed consideration of practitioner audiences of socio-technical design artifacts could improve current IS DSR research practice and proposes an initial conceptualization of these audiences. The consequences of not considering artifact audiences are identified through a critical appraisal of the current informing science lenses in the IS DSR literature. There are specific shortcomings in four areas: 1) treating practice stakeholders as a too homogeneous group, 2) not explicitly distinguishing between social and technical parts of socio-technical artifacts, 3) neglecting implications of the artifact abstraction level, and 4) a lack of explicit consideration of a dynamic or evolutionary fitness perspective of socio-technical artifacts. The findings not only pave the way for future research to further improve the conceptualization of artifact audiences, in order to improve the informing power – and thus, impact on practice and research relevance – of IS DSR projects; they can also help to bridge the theory-practice gap in other disciplines (e.g. computer science, engineering, or policy-oriented sociology) that seek to produce social and/or technical artifacts of practical relevance.

A revised version of this paper was published in Informing Science: the International Journal of an Emerging Transdiscipline, Volume 18, 2015
The Impact Facebook and Twitter has on the Cognitive Social Capital of University Students
Authors: A. Johnston Kevin , Petersen Chad
Published: October 2017

The impact that Facebook and Twitter usage has on the creation and maintenance of university student’s cognitive social capital was investigated on students in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Facebook and Twitter were selected as part of the research context because both are popular online social network systems (SNSs), and few studies were found that investigated the impact that both Facebook and Twitter have on the cognitive social capital of South African university students. Data was collected from a survey questionnaire, which was successfully completed by over 100 students from all 5 universities within the Western Cape. The questionnaire was obtained from a previous study, allowing comparisons to be made. Analysis of the results however, did not show a strong relationship between the intensity of Facebook and Twitter usage, and the various forms of social capital. Facebook usage was found to correlate with student’s satisfaction with university life; which suggests that increasing the intensity of Facebook usage for students experiencing low satisfaction with university life might be beneficial.

This is the revised version of the paper published in journal "Informing Science: The International Journal of an Emerging Transdiscipline"
A Quantitative Investigation into the Impacts of 1:1 iPads on Early Learner’s ELA and Math Achievement
Authors: Bebell Damian , Pedulla Joseph
Published: October 2017

Many parents, educators, and policy makers see great potential for leveraging tools like laptop computers, tablets, and smartphones in the classrooms of the world. Although increasing students’ technology access may be associated with increased student achievement, there is little research directly investigating objective measures of student achievement. This study addresses the short-term and long-term quantitative impacts of one of the world’s first school efforts to provide Kindergarten through 3rd grade classrooms with 1:1 iPad access and a range of English Language Arts (ELA) and math Apps. This report summarizes two investigations conducted during this iPad implementation. First, a 9-week pre/post randomized control trial was conducted in which 8 Kindergarten classes used literacy and numeracy apps while another 8 Kindergarten classes used their traditional (non-iPad) resources. At the end of this short implementation period, slightly stronger literacy performance gains were observed in the iPad settings. In a second longitudinal study, three years of assessment data were explored before and after the 1:1 iPad implementation in grades K to 2. Results from the longitudinal study provide emerging evidence of potential increases in ELA achievement, but no consistent results in math achievement. This paper adds to the sparse literature in this area and provides a springboard for further research.
Learning Circles: A Collaborative Technology-Mediated Peer-Teaching Workshop
Authors: Sullivan Kevin , Marshall Kevin , Tangney Brendan
Published: October 2017

This research study explores peer teaching and learning without a domain expert teacher, within the context of an activity where teams of second level students (~16 years old) are required to create a learning experience for their peers. The study looks at how participants would like to be taught and how they would teach their peers if given the opportunity and examines the support they require, their motivation levels, and if they actually learn curriculum content using this approach.
An exploratory case study methodology was used, and the findings suggest that students want varied learning experiences that include many of the elements which would fall under the heading of 21st century learning, that with some support and encouragement they can create innovative learning experiences for their peers, and that they can learn curriculum content from the process.
Exploring the Effect of Teaching Methods on Students’ Learning of School Informatics
Authors: Hadjerrouit Said
Published: October 2017

School informatics is a relatively new subject in comparison to mathematics and science. As a result, there is much less research on the area of informatics didactics. Likewise, there is lack of theoretical grounding of the field and associated teaching methods and learning processes. The lack of research in the field of school informatics makes it difficult to identify which methods are effective to teach the subject. In addition, despite the emphasis on a set of well-defined topics, the informatics curriculum makes few suggestions as to which didactical skills teachers need to acquire in order to teach these topics. In fact, school informatics education is still in its infancy. It lacks the extensive research base of materials published for the didactics of mathematics or science. The main research objective of this work is to investigate the effectiveness of teaching methods and their impact on learning school informatics.
Change management in information systems projects for public organizations
Authors: Ziemba Ewa , Oblak Iwona
Published: October 2017

It can be argued that public organizations, in order to provide the public with sufficient services in the current, highly competitive and continuously evolving environment, require changes. The changes that become necessary are often related to the implementation of information systems (IS). Moreover, when organizations are faced with changes, a change management (CM) process needs to be put in place. CM theories that are currently available to practitioners and academics are often contradictory; they mostly lack empirical evidence and are supported by unchallenged hypotheses concerning the nature of the contemporary CM. The aim of this paper is, therefore, to identify critical success factors (CFSs) for CM in IS projects. In order to reach this aim an explanation of changes in public organizations and the nature of CM are presented. Following this, a framework of CFSs for CM in IS projects are identified based on the literature review. The paper also examines two IS projects and uses them to demonstrate CFSs influencing CM in IS projects in Polish pubic organizations. A discussion of the research findings is provided and the paper concludes with a presentation of the study’s contributions and limitations as well as the stream of future work.
HUNT: Scavenger Hunt with Augmented Reality
Authors: Lu Yan , T. Chao Joseph , R. Parker Kevin
Published: October 2017

This project shows a creative approach to the familiar scavenger hunt game. It involved the implementation of an iPhone application, HUNT, with Augmented Reality capability for the users to play the game as well as an administrative website that game organizers can use to create and make available games for users to play. Using the HUNT mobile app, users will first make a selection from a list of games, and they will then be shown a list of objects that they must seek. Once the user finds a correct object and scans it with the built-in camera on the smartphone, the application will attempt to verify if it is the correct object and then dis-play associated multi-media AR content that may include images and videos overlaid on top of real world views. HUNT not only provides entertaining activities within an environment that players can explore, but the AR contents can serve as an educational tool.

A revision of this paper was published in Interdisciplinary Journal of Information, Knowledge, and Management
Volume 10, 2015
Exploring the Impact of Cyber Incivility in the Workplace
Authors: Ophoff Jacques , Machaka Thabiso , Stander Adrie
Published: October 2017

The world is an interconnected global village due to the increasing adoption and reliance on technology, but an ugly side of the increased usage of technology has come to light. The issue of harassment and abuse on the internet has led to relatively new issues such as cyber harassment, cyber incivility and cyberbullying.
A case study was conducted within two faculties at the University of Cape Town (UCT). The research objectives were: to find out how staff members in a workplace have experienced cyber incivility, to find out what effects cyber incivility has on employees, to find out what the motivations are for staff participation in cyber incivility, and to find out what policies a workplace should have in place in order to deal with cyber incivility.
The data collected shows that there have been occurrences of cyber harassment and cyber incivility among staff members at UCT. The following effects were found to be consistent with cyber harassment and cyber incivility: decrease in productivity and a toxic working environment. On an individual basis: anger, negative feelings and feelings of inferiority, feeling demotivated, feelings of fear and intimidation, feeling emotional and upset, irritation, loss of self-esteem, stress and wasted time.
Five Principles for MOOC Design: With a Case Study
Authors: R. Drake John , T. O'Hara Margaret , Seeman Elaine
Published: October 2017

New web technologies have enabled online education to take on a massive scale, prompting many universities to create massively open online courses (MOOCs) that take advantage of these technologies in a seemingly effortless manner. Designing a MOOC, however, is anything but trivial. It involves developing content, learning activities, and assessments to accommodate both the massiveness and openness of the course. To design an effective MOOC, instructors need to integrate both pedagogical and information systems theory. In this paper, we present a case study of a MOOC grant and a series of decisions made in its development. These decisions, when paired with the theoretical framework, suggest five principles – meaningful, engaging, measurable, accessible, and scalable – may be applicable to future MOOC development projects.
The Use of Computer Simulation to Compare Student performance in Traditional versus Distance Learning Environments
Authors: Guy Retta , Lownes-Jackson Millicent
Published: October 2017

Simulations have been shown to be an effective tool in traditional learning environments; however, as distance learning grows in popularity, the need to examine simulation effectiveness in this environment has become paramount. A casual-comparative design was chosen for this study to determine whether students using a computer-based instructional simulation in hybrid and fully online environments learned better than traditional classroom learners. The study spans a period of 6 years beginning fall 2008 through spring 2014. The population studied was 281 undergraduate business students self-enrolled in a 200-level microcomputer application course. The overall results support previous studies in that computer simulations are most effective when used as a supplement to face-to-face lectures and in hybrid environments.
A Juggling Act: Supervisor/Candidate Partnership in a Doctoral Thesis by Publication
Authors: nethsinghe rohan , Southcott Jane
Published: October 2017

Increasingly doctoral candidates are attempting to complete a thesis by publication. This format varies between universities but there are common issues particularly in terms of progression, planning and timing. There are both advantages and difficulties involved in undertaking a thesis in this format. Our discussion of the supervisor/candidate partnership is framed within the requirements of a tight journal publishing agenda. Different universities have different requirements about the number of published papers to be included, the extent of candidate’s contribution as sole or joint author, the framing of the research as a unified thesis, presentation, and examination. The decision to attempt a thesis by publication must be taken early and data collection may need to be completed early. Articles then need to be written, polished, submitted, reviewed, revised and, hopefully, accepted. The thesis by publication is a juggling act between maintaining coherence and focusing on publishable segments. It is also a dialogue between supervisor and candidate involving the resolution of sometimes conflicting demands. Employing Cognitive Apprenticeship theory we present a shared autophenomenography that chronicles our doctoral journey that led to a successful thesis by publication. The findings are discussed under thematic headings: Logistics, Cognitive Apprenticeship in Action, and Building Trust.
Comparing Social Isolation Effects on Students Attrition in Online Versus Face-to-Face Courses in Computer Literacy
Authors: Ali Azad , T Smith David
Published: October 2017

This paper compares the effect of social isolation on students enrolled in online courses versus students enrolled in on campus courses (called in this paper Face-to-Face or F2F). Grade data was collected from one online section and two F2F sections of a computer literacy course that was recently taught by one of the authors of this study. The same instructor taught all sections thereby providing a controlled comparison between the two forms of teaching (F2F and online). This paper first introduces the plan and the limitation of this study. It provides a literature review and notes the trend of social isolation found in online courses. This paper then presents a summary of the collected data; and offers a conclusion based on the collected data.
An Internship Program at a Computer Science Department –Theoretical Foundation and Overall Coordination
Authors: Ali Azad , T Smith David
Published: October 2017

Internship courses, unlike others, are multi-pronged because they require coordination at different levels. Typically, a faculty member coordinates the communication and implementation at each level to achieve the desired outcomes. We call the position that this faculty holds the “internship coordinator”. For the work of the internship coordinator to be successful, he/she may need to synchronize the work of the internship with all parties involved. Failure to coordinate at one level or another may affect the work of other parties involved in completing the internship for the students.
This paper explains the experience of an internship program at the computer science department (COSC) at Indiana University Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP). We focus on the work of the internship coordinator for this program and his work to communicate and coordinate to successfully implement the internship experience for the students. We first discuss the theoretical foundation that led to the development of internship programs in academia and then elaborate on the multiple levels of the role of the internship coordinator in completing the internship experience for the students.
Privacy Protection and Data Breaches
Authors: Srinivasan S.
Published: October 2017

Data breach is the act of accessing a central data repository without the consent of the data owner. Data breaches are occurring frequently and involve millions of records. Major breaches have been reported since 2005. Often data breaches occur due to someone with malicious intent accessing the stored data. In this paper we look at the types of data breaches and how they impact people’s privacy, we introduce a data protection model with the goal of protecting people’s privacy. Given today’s mobile information needs it is essential to have access to personal data. Social networks are making it difficult to keep personal information private. We provide several different summaries to show the effect of data breaches and data losses on people. We conclude this paper with a set of recommendations to protect people’s privacy.
Recognizing and Managing Complexity: Teaching Advanced Programming Concepts and Techniques Using the Zebra Puzzle
Authors: D. Crabtree John , "Paul" Zhang Xihui
Published: October 2017

Teaching advanced programming can be a challenge, especially when the students are pursuing different majors with diverse analytical and problem-solving capabilities. The purpose of this paper is to explore the efficacy of using a particular problem as a vehicle for imparting a broad set of programming concepts and problem-solving techniques. We present a classic brain teaser that is used to communicate and demonstrate advanced software development concepts and techniques. Our results show that students with varied academic experiences and goals, assuming at least one procedural/structured programming pre-requisite, can benefit from and also be challenged by such an exercise. Although this problem has been used by others in the classroom, we believe that our use of this problem in imparting such a broad range of topics to a diverse student population is unique.
Knowledge Capture and Acquisition Mechanisms at Kisii University
Authors: Aming'a Nemwel
Published: October 2017

Knowledge management and knowledge assets have gained much prominence in recent years and are said to improve organizational performance. Knowledge capture and acquisition mechanisms enhance organizational memory and performance. However, knowledge capture and acquisition mechanisms in higher education institutions are not well known. The aim of this study was to investigate the knowledge capture and acquisition mechanisms at Kisii University. This was a case study in which data were collected through interviews and questionnaires. Purposive sampling was used to determine interview participants while questionnaire respondents were selected through stratified random sampling. Qualitative and quantitative data were analysed using SPSS® student version 14; it revealed that there were various knowledge capture and acquisition mechanisms at Kisii University. It was also established that the University encountered various challenges in knowledge capture and acquisition and lacked some essential knowledge capture and acquisition mechanisms. In this regard, this study proposed knowledge capture and acquisition guidelines that may be adopted by the University to enhance its organizational memory and performance.
Analyzing the Quality of Students Interaction in a Distance Learning Object-Oriented Programming Discipline
Authors: Simão Carvalho Elizabeth
Published: October 2017

Teaching object-oriented programming to students in an in-classroom environment demands well-thought didactic and pedagogical strategies in order to guarantee a good level of apprenticeship. To teach it on a completely distance learning environment (e-learning) imposes possibly other strategies, besides those that the e-learning model of Open University of Portugal dictates. This article analyses the behavior of the students of the 1st cycle in Computer Science while interacting with the object-oriented programming (OOP) discipline available to them on the Moodle platform. Through the evaluation of the level of interaction achieved in a group of relevant selected actions by the students, it is possible to identify their relevancy to the success of the programming learning process. Data was extracted from Moodle, numerically analyzed, and, with the use of some charts, behavior patterns of students were identified. This paper points out potential new approaches to be considered in e-learning in order to enhance programming learning results, besides confirming a high level of drop-out and a low level of interaction, thus finding no clear correlation between students’ success and the number of online actions (especially in forums), which reveals a possible failure of the main pillar on which the e-learning model relies.
The Impact of Community for Part-Time Doctoral Students: How Relationships in the Academic Department Affect Student Persistence
Authors: Zahl Sarah
Published: October 2017

This study examines the ways that part-time Ph.D. students develop community within the academic department and how a sense of community is related to persistence. This study included 12 participants (ten students and two program chairs) in two academic departments at one urban research institution. This qualitative study followed a descriptive case study design and provided three levels of data: the institution is the bounded system; the academic departments are the cases; and the participants are embedded cases. Positive relationships with peers and faculty served as a source of encouragement and supported persistence, particularly during challenging semesters and later phases of the doctoral program. However, it was often difficult for the participants to develop and/or maintain relationships, due to limited proximity, limited access to faculty, and changing cohorts. Participants did not consider full-time doctoral students to be part of their community, due to perceived differences between part-time and full-time students. The participants also perceived that faculty catered to full-time students and preferred to conduct research with them rather than part-time students.
Doctoral Advisor-Advisee Pairing in STEM Fields: Selection Criteria and Impact of Faculty, Student and Departmental Factors
Authors: Joy Simy , Fen Liang Xiang , Bilimoria Diana , Perry Susan
Published: October 2017

Unlike the doctoral programs in places where students are paired with advisors at the time of admission itself, most US programs require the students to choose their advisors, and the advisors to formally accept the students as advisees. Little research has been done to understand how students and faculty approach this mutual selection and pairing process. This paper examines this process in STEM departments (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), with specific focus on factors influencing the decisions. Based on focus groups and interviews of doctoral students and faculty from STEM departments in an American university, we identify criteria applied by students and faculty in making their choices. Students were found to assess faculty on available funding, area of research, personality, ability to graduate students fast, and career prospects for students, and faculty to assess students on their qualifications/credentials and perceived ability to contribute to research. We also found that this mutual assessment was not objective, but influenced by perceptions associated with faculty gender and career stage, and student nationality. In the end, whether students and faculty were actually paired with persons of their choice depended on departmental factors including prevalent pairing practices, restrictions on student numbers per faculty, and reward structure. We discuss implications of the findings for research and practice.
OER Usage by Instructional Designers and Training Managers in Corporations
Authors: Merkel Eli , Cohen Anat
Published: October 2017

Since the development of Open Educational Resources (OERs), different models regarding the usage of these resources in education have appeared in the literature. Wiley’s 4-Rs model is considered to be one of the leading models. Research based on Wiley’s model shows that using materials without making changes is the most common use. Compared to the extensive literature regarding OER usage in education, the literature barely deals with OER usage by instructional designers or training managers in corporations. The purpose of this research is to examine the OER usage of these two stakeholders, distinguishing between Little and Big OER repositories, in which Little OER repositories such as YouTube and Wikipedia aren’t necessarily designed to fulfill educational purposes. Findings show that these stakeholders almost use only Little repositories and that their usage level is higher than what is documented in the literature: they mostly Revise–modify the form of the resource, and Remix–combine different resources to create new ones. These differences can be explained by the fact that materials from Little OER repositories are raw materials, requiring further editing and adjustment. Significant differences between instructional designers’ and training managers’ usage of OERs were found regarding the Reuse level of resources from internal repositories and the Google Images repository, and the frequency of this Reuse.
Collective Problem-Solving: The Role of Self-Efficacy, Skill, and Prior Knowledge
Authors: Geifman Dorit , R Raban Daphne
Published: October 2017

Self-efficacy is essential to learning but what happens when learning is done as a result of a collective process? What is the role of individual self-efficacy in collective problem solving? This research examines the manifestation of self-efficacy in prediction markets that are configured as collective problem-solving platforms and whether self-efficacy of traders affects the collective outcome.
Prediction markets are collective-intelligence platforms that use a financial markets mechanism to combine knowledge and opinions of a group of people. Traders express their opinions or knowledge by buying and selling “stocks” related to questions or events. The collective outcome is derived from the final price of the stocks.
Self-efficacy, one’s belief in his or her ability to act in a manner that leads to success, is known to affect personal performance in many domains. To date, its manifestation in computer-mediated collaborative environments and its effect on the collective outcome has not been studied.
In a controlled experiment, 632 participants in 47 markets traded a solution to a complex problem, a naïve framing of the knapsack problem. Contrary to earlier research, we find that technical and functional self-efficacy perceptions are indistinguishable, probably due to a focus on outcomes rather than on resources. Further, results demonstrate that prediction markets are an effective collective problem-solving platform that correctly aggregates individual knowledge and is resilient to traders’ self-efficacy.
ICT Use: Educational Technology and Library and Information Science Students' Perspectives – An Exploratory Studyew Article
Authors: Aharony Noa , Shonfeld Miri
Published: October 2017

This study seeks to explore what factors influence students’ ICT use and web technology competence. The objectives of this study are the following: (a) To what extent do certain elements of Rogers’ (2003) Diffusion of Innovations Theory (DOI) explain students’ ICT use, (b) To what extent do personality characteristics derived from the Big Five approach explain students’ ICT use, and (c) To what extent does motivation explain students’ ICT use. The research was conducted in Israel during the second semester of the academic year 2013-14, and included two groups of participants: a group of Educational Technology students (ET) and a group of Library and Information Science students (LIS). Findings add another dimension to the importance of Rogers’ DOI theory in the fields of Educational Technology and Library and Information Science. Further, findings confirm that personality characteristics as well as motivation affect ICT use. If instructors would like to enhance students’ ICT use, they should be aware of individual differences between students, and they should present to students the advantages and usefulness of ICT, thus increasing their motivation to use ICT, in the hopes that they will become innovators or early adopters.
5-7 Year Old Children's Conceptions of Behaving Artifacts and the Influence of Constructing Their Behavior on the Development of Theory of Mind (ToM) and Theory of Artificial Mind (ToAM)
Authors: Spektor-Precel Karen , Mioduser David
Published: October 2017

Nowadays, we are surrounded by artifacts that are capable of adaptive behavior, such as electric pots, boiler timers, automatic doors, and robots. The literature concerning human beings’ conceptions of “traditional” artifacts is vast, however, little is known about our conceptions of behaving artifacts, nor of the influence of the interaction with such artifacts on cognitive development, especially among children. Since these artifacts are provided with an artificial “mind,” it is of interest to assess whether and how children develop a Theory of Artificial Mind (ToAM) which is distinct from their Theory of Mind (ToM). The study examined a new theoretical scheme named ToAM (Theory of Artificial Mind) by means of qualitative and quantitative methodology among twenty four 5-7 year old children from central Israel. It also examined the effects of interacting with behaving artifacts (constructing versus observing the robot’s behavior) using the “RoboGan” interface on children’s development of ToAM and their ToM and looked for conceptions that evolve among children while interacting with behaving artifacts which are indicative of the acquisition of ToAM. In the quantitative analysis it was found that the interaction with behaving artifacts, whether as observers or constructors and for both age groups, brought into awareness children’s ToM as well as influenced their ability to understand that robots can behave independently and based on external and environmental conditions. In the qualitative analysis it was found that participating in the intervention influenced the children’s ToAM for both constructors and for the younger observer. Engaging in building the robot’s behavior influenced the children’s ability to explain several of the robots’ behaviors, their understanding of the robot’s script-based behavior and rule-based behavior and the children’s metacognitive development. The theoretical and practical importance of the study is discussed.
Graduate Student Placement: An Examination of Experience and Career Barriers in a Student Affairs Professional Preparation Program
Authors: B Wilson Amy , B. Hall Jeremy , Alba Amanda
Published: October 2017

This quantitative descriptive study examined the job placement success and challenges of graduate students in a higher education and student affairs professional preparation program at a mid-size public institution in the U.S. Specifically, this study investigated the impact of curricular standards in the form of supervised practice (i.e., internships and graduate assistantships) on the job placement rate of recent alumni. In addition, perceived barriers in the job search process were investigated and examined comparatively by gender. Findings suggest that current curricular standards may not be sufficient for successful placement and that men and women do not differ significantly with respect to perceived barriers in their job search process. Implications for practice include a re-evaluation of curricular standards for student affairs professional preparation programs and a greater understanding of what factors and barriers contribute to successful graduate student placement.
Stage-Based Challenges and Strategies for Support in Doctoral Education: A Practical Guide for Students, Faculty Members, and Program Administrators
Authors: J. Pifer Meghan , L. Baker Vicki
Published: October 2017

Studies of doctoral education have included an interest not only in processes, structures, and outcomes, but also in students’ experiences. There are often useful recommendations for practice within individual examinations of the doctoral experience, yet there remains a need to strengthen the application of lessons from research to the behaviors of students and others engaged in the doctoral process. This paper is the first to synthesize research about doctoral education with the particular aim of informing practical strategies for multiple stakeholders.
In this article, we summarize findings from a literature review of the scholarship about doctoral education from the past 15 years in a stage-based overview of the challenges of doctoral education. Our aim is to apply theory to practice through the systematic consideration of how research about doctoral education can best inform students and those who support them in the doctoral journey. We first present an overview of the major stages of doctoral education and related challenges identified in the research. We then consider key findings of that research to offer recommendations for doctoral students, faculty members, and administrators within and across stages.
Leveraging IT for Distance Education: An Interdisciplinary Graduate Program on the Internet
Authors: Onay Zeynep
Published: October 2017

Distance education through the Internet represents a paradigm shift in higher education. The implementation of an information technology (IT) enabled teaching and learning environment necessitates the redesign of conventional structures. This paper addresses some of the issues involved in the design and delivery of an Internet-based interdisciplinary graduate program in Informatics at Middle East Technical University in Turkey. The aim of the paper is to contribute to the development of a number of guidelines for leveraging the use of IT in distance education programs at universities.
Intelligent Tutoring of Domain Skills : The Need and A Solution
Authors: NA Kinshuk , Patel Ashok , Russell David
Published: October 2017

The task-oriented disciplines require acquisition ofphysical and cognitive skills, besides the domain’s conceptual knowledge to get ready for challenges of real work environment. Traditional academic practices tend to emphasize facts acquisition and fail to provide adequate learning of cognitive skills required in the day-to-day application of these facts in real life, requiring the learners to subsequently acquire these through experiential learning at the work place and thus delaying the productive use of domain knowledge. On the other hand, learning only in the real work environment makes the learner competence too situated to the particular context in which learning takes place and the learners frequently lack the ability to generalize or even distinguish between the concrete and abstract aspects their knowledge, reducing the scope of immediate productive use of their competence in different situations that may not be completely identical to their place of learning. This paper describes an intelligent tutoring system, developed under the Byzantium project, which attempts to bridge this gap and aims to facilitate acquisition of cognitive skills to go with the learning of a domain’s concepts
How to Provide for an Appropriate Dealing with Business Decision-Making from the Viewpoint of Informing
Authors: Potocan Vojko
Published: October 2017

Economics of business decision-making (BDM) is target-oriented into management of the economic flow of business activities. Has a major impact on the level of quality of enterprise's operation. Business decision-making (BDM) is based on information, which shows the characteristics of the decisions and provides an additional and necessary knowledge. The main field of the management of the BDM is presented by the economic treatment of decisions, which are based on various information. The picture of the BDM is illustrated by various sorts, types and forms of information that are primarily created by the target- oriented information systems. These ensure a corresponding structured quality information for BDM at the selected levels of management. Due to the tradition, the usual business information hardly meets criteria of contemporary holism.
Reflections on Interpretivist Teaching with Positivist Students
Authors: Banks David
Published: October 2017

This paper reflects upon the teaching of two final year undergraduate subjects, Information Systems Policy and E Commerce, in a Management Information Systems degree program that is located in a School of Accounting and Information Systems. Both of the subjects were taught from an ‘interpretive’ standpoint, an approach that some students found to be challenging given that they were more familiar with the highly structured and positivist approach used in most of their previous subjects. Student feedback gained from informal conversations with the lecturer, an electronic meeting and through paper questionnaires as part of the normal formal evaluation process, is used to explore some of their reactions to a ‘soft’ approach and to provide a basis for consideration of future delivery patterns for the subjects.
Pedagogical Support for Use of Information Technology in Teaching
Authors: Klassen Johanna
Published: October 2017

With the advent of Information Technology (IT), there is a change happening in universities around the world. New information technologies are increasingly being integrated into the educational process to support pedagogy and learning. Teaching methods that use only the traditional lecture approach to teaching are increasingly seen as unsatisfactory. Good teaching has been identified by Chickering and Gamson (1987) as having seven attributes. This paper proposes that IT in teaching can involve all seven attributes of good practice. First, it provides literature support for IT use to achieve each of the attributes. Based on interviews carried out at City University of Hong Kong, recommendations are made for specific pedagogical support in order to support faculty better in the use of innovative technology.
Informing Science (IS) and Science and Technology Studies (STS): The University as Decision Center )
Authors: Castelao-Lawless Teresa , Lawless William
Published: October 2017

Students of history and philosophy of science courses at my University are either naive robust realists or naive relativists in relation to science and technology. The first group absorbs from culture stereotypical conceptions, such as the value-free character of the scientific method, that science and technology are impervious to history or ideology, and that science and religion are always at odds. The second believes science and technology were selected arbitrarily by ideologues to have privileged world views of reality to the detriment of other interpretations. These deterministic outlooks must be challenged to make students aware of the social importance of their future roles, be they as scientists and engineers or as science and technology policy decision makers. The University as Decision Center (DC) not only reproduces the social by teaching standard solutions to well-defined problems but also provides information regarding conflict resolution and the epistemological, individual, historical, social, and political mechanisms that help create new science and technology. Interdisciplinary research prepares students for roles that require science and technology literacy, but raises methodological issues in the context of the classroom as it increases uncertainty with respect to apparently self- evident beliefs about scientific and technological practices.
WORKSHOP: Intelligent Learning Systems for Cognitive Skills Development
Authors: NA Kinshuk
Published: October 2017

This tutorial deals with the broad class of intelligent learning systems for cognitive skills development. These systems have proved very effective, especially within the applied domains where learning is more concerned with the operational knowledge. These systems can accommodate both the 'instruction' and 'construction' of knowledge and involve active engagement, they have been more successful as demonstrated by the popularity and wide acceptance of simulation based learning systems. This tutorial aims to provide the intelligent systems developer and implementer community with the knowledge that they need in order to make informed assessments and decisions about such systems. It considers in turn five questions that can be asked about any intelligent learning systems for cognitive skills development: 1. What are the various aspects of learning facilitated by such systems? 2. What are the theoretical issues that underlie development of such systems? 3. What functions are served by intelligence and how they are twinned with assessment issues? 4. What pedagogical issues are important in the development of such systems? 5. How one can go about practically developing such systems?
Towards the Project of an Open Catalogue of Manuscripts
Authors: Cartelli Antonio , Palma Marco
Published: October 2017

After an introduction and a short description of the research methods usually adopted in scientific disciplines and particularly in palaeography, some hypotheses on the influence of new technologies on human learning and some examples of the use of Web technologies in manuscript cataloguing are proposed. The reasons for the project of an information system adopting Web technologies for manuscripts cataloguing are then reported and the meaning of an open catalogue strictly related to the above information system is presented. The project is applied to a concrete example to show one of the possible ways the information system can be used by the palaeographers' community and, more in general, by scientific community. The paper ends with the proposal of long term publishing hypotheses for materials collected within the database of the open catalogue.
The Digital Divide in Western Europe: Problems and Prospects
Authors: Carveth Rod , B. Kretchmer Susan
Published: October 2017

This paper reviews the digital divide in Western Europe, as well as policy options for combating that divide. While age, income and gender are significant predictors of the digital divide in Western Europe, geography plays a crucial role. The countries in Southern Europe have less computer and Internet penetration than their Northern European counterparts. The paper then discusses four policy options for combating the divide, suggesting that the most effective solution would be private/public partnerships.