Mobile phones are everywhere in contemporary society. They have permeated most facets of society, and can be described as a culturally prominent feature of contemporary society. The focus of this dissertation aims to identify and simultaneously distinguish the different types of mobile phone convergence existing among mobile phone users in Durban, South Africa. This “identification” will analyse whether or not any of the identified forms (of mobile convergence) are present among mobile phones of Durban based users. This broad “umbrella” identification will then be followed by a number of sub‐questions that will be answered throughout the dissertation. These questions will identify mass adoption traits among mobile phone users, and will attempt to chart the difference in adoption and usage function as articulated by Marc Prensky’s digital immigrants and digital natives. The hypothesis is based on mobile phones being a “converged medium”. The mobile phone seems to have been universally embraced, growing in usage almost exponentially over the last decade or so. Because the mobile phone has become a multipurpose device, marketed as an essential prerequisite for modern life, it has become ubiquitous in most societies around the world and is an important medium to study, and more importantly to understand. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

Dažniausiai patiriami sveikatos sutrikimai buvo šilumos pojūtis aplink ausį, odos niežėjimas aplink ausį, odos paraudimas bei galvos skausmas. Vertinant naudojimosi įpročių ir sveikatos būklės sąsajas, nustatyta, kad kalbėjimas mobiliuoju telefonu daugiau nei 1 valandą per parą lėmė beveik 2,9 karto, o mobiliojo telefono nešiojimas arti kūno net 6,5 karto didesnę galimybę turėti prastą sveikatą. / The most common experienced health problems are the warmth around the ear, itching of the skin around the ear, skin flushing and headache. Assessing the links between the mobile phone using habits and health status we found that speaking on mobile phone for more than 1 hour per day resulted in almost 2.9 times, and carrying a mobile phone close to the body even 6.5 times higher chance to have poor health.

Mobile technologies are the latest technologies in the realm of communication media. They have the potential to flatten the world by making it a place where gender, age, class, race and nationality can no longer hold us back from being heard and being informed. We have learned that these technologies can help to liberate and empower us, and they can lead to a collective cognition as much as they can distract us from what we need to know about the world we live in. In Greece thousands of years ago, a selected number of Greeks had a public space called the Agora to discuss the issues that concerned the public, meaning each and every citizen. They were the first to be able to create the space and place were the word “democracy” could be brought into language; the very word that was used to start a new war in the era of a communication revolution in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. There are still issues that concern the public today such as wars, global warming, homelessness or human rights which are all matters of our collective cognition. However, today in an age of information revolution the public life of people and their collective cognition is being exercised mostly in the virtual spaces of the Internet. Simultaneously, some physical spaces are being abandoned by people. This thesis investigates the possibility of having physical public spaces that are enriched with communication media and not weakened by it. If architects rethink their designs based on a new understanding of the networked society it might be possible to turn this “networked individualism” into a networked collectivism. However, most designed public spaces fail to offer new possibilities that can transform space for the new generation of users. Here, the aim is to understand a new generation of users. Who have they become as a result of new communication media? And how can architects design in a way that responds to this new subject in architecture?

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 135-148).

Thesis (M. Phil.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 71-76). Also available in electronic version. Access restricted to campus users.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Southern California, 2008. / Adviser: Sarah Banet-Weiser. Includes bibliographical references.

Dissertation (Ed.D.)--The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2010. / Directed by Carl Lashley; submitted to the Dept. of Educational Leadership and Cultural Foundations. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Jul. 9, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 124-129).

Thesis (MSc)--University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

The ubiquitous nature of mobile phones and their popularity has led to opportunistic value added services (VAS), such as mobile money, riding on this phenomenon to be implemented. Several studies have been done to find factors that influence the adoption of mobile money and other information systems. The thesis looks at factors determining the uptake of mobile money over cellular networks with a special emphasis on aspects relating to perceived security even though other factors namely perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived trust and perceived cost were also looked at. The research further looks at the security threats introduced to mobile money by virtue of the nature, architecture, standards and protocols of Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). The model employed for this research was the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Literature review was done on the security of GSM. Data was collected from a sample population around Harare, Zimbabwe using physical questionnaires. Statistical tests were performed on the collected data to find the significance of each construct to mobile money adoption. The research has found positive correlation between perceived security concerns and the adoption of money mobile money services over cellular networks. Perceived usefulness was found to be the most important factor in the adoption of mobile money. The research also found that customers need to trust the network service provider and the systems in use for them to adopt mobile money. Other factors driving consumer adoption were found to be perceived ease of use and perceived cost. The findings show that players who intend to introduce mobile money should strive to offer secure and useful systems that are trustworthy without making the service expensive or difficult to use. Literature review done showed that there is a possibility of compromising mobile money transactions done over GSM

M.Ed. (Ict in Education) / South African learners are underperforming in Mathematics. Annual National Assessments for grade 9 and grade 12 results in Mathematics are shocking according to the Ministry of Education. This study investigates informal learning as an alternative method of addressing underperformance in Mathematics in South African schools. Informal learning with the use of mobile technology enhances engagement in Mathematics learning. The participants of this study had access to Nokia MoMaths on their mobile phones. A quantitative survey research was conducted in four schools in Sedibeng West. The data was analysed using SPSS version 20.0. Results indicated a positive relationship between engagement and informal mobile mathematics learning.