Orientador: Sérgio Luiz Monteiro Salles-Filho / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Geociências / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-20T04:55:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Mattos_CarolinaVaghetti_M.pdf: 2720248 bytes, checksum: 6f08c6c657b9b103069ec6a8d4e71b0a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / Resumo: A Lei de Informática (Lei n° 8.248/91) é o principal instrumento de incentivo à indústria de tecnologias da informação e comunicação (TICs) do Brasil. Mesmo sendo, também, o principal instrumento de incentivo à P&D do país, incoerentemente, a Lei de Informática não foi criada para ser uma política de inovação e talvez seja mais justo não avaliá-la como tal, muito embora essa opção seja extremamente custosa para o país. Criada para manter os produtos de TICs nacionais competitivos frente aos importados, concede redução fiscal (Imposto sobre Produto Industrializado - IPI) para empresas de TICs mediante: i) a fabricação de produtos incentiváveis com cumprimento de etapas básicas do processo produtivo no Brasil e ii) a exigência de investimento em P&D de parte do faturamento, incluindo parcerias obrigatórias com Instituições de Ciência e Tecnologia (ICTs). Consideramos, então, que esses dois elementos (produtos incentivados e parcerias com ICTs) são as variáveis mais importantes afetadas por esse instrumento. O objetivo do presente trabalho é identificar se, mesmo não sendo uma política de inovação, a Lei foi capaz de promover melhorias no sistema setorial de inovação da indústria de TICs brasileira por meio da aproximação das relações entre firmas e ICTs para atividades de P&D. Pretendemos verificar, também, se a Lei cumpriu seu objetivo de promover uma maior competitividade dos produtos nacionais frente aos importados / Abstract: The Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) Law is the main instrument to promote the ICT industry in Brazil. Despite also being the main instrument to encourage R&D investments in the country, the ICT industry was not supposed to be an innovation policy and it may not be fair to evaluate it such a way, yet this option represents a high cost for the country. Created with the aim of keeping the national ICTs products competitive compared to the imported goods, the ICTs Law concedes fiscal incentives (reduction of the IPI - a Brazilian tax over the industrialized products) to ICT companies under the following conditions: (i) manufacturing of a few basic phases of the production process of stimulated products in the national territory, and (ii) investing a percentage of sales in R&D activities, including partnerships with Science and Technology Institutions (STI) as part of this requirement. Thus, we consider these two elements (stimulated products and partnerships with STI) are the most affected by this instrument. The objective of the present research is to identify if, despite not being an innovation policy, the Law was capable of promoting enhancements in the sectoral system of innovation of the Brazilian ICT industry through closer relations between firms and STI for R&D activities. We also intend to verify if the Law has carried out the goal of promoting a greater competitiveness of the national products facing the imported goods / Mestrado / Politica Cientifica e Tecnologica / Mestre em Política Científica e Tecnológica

In this thesis, I examine how local communities can be encouraged or enhanced in an apartment complex with the help of a local collaboration platform. I examine the relationship that exists within between neighbors in the apartment building in Sweden. Moreover, I focus on presenting relevant theory regarding neighborly relations along with research on creating local communities. I perform a series of interviews with people living in residential building in Sweden and the use of relevant methods for creating me an understanding of how we can use the areas located on the border of private and public space inside the residence. My research will also focus on how windows can be used to encourage local involvement and create a sense of community within the residential building. As part of the thesis, I highlight some relevant projects previously done in terms of neighborhood and community research, too.

The adoption of eHealth is very slow despite evidences showing its benefits. This research examines the individual, clinical, technical and organizational challenges for eHealth adoption from healthcare provider‟s perspectives. A cross-sectional study design with a quantitative paradigm was used. The study was conducted on 312 doctors and nurses randomly selected from ten hospitals in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Most respondents viewed eHealth positively with no significant differences in terms of profession or gender. Computer skill, workload, patient interaction, management support, cost and infrastructure were the main concerns. Privacy and security were not the main concerns. Knowledge of eHealth applications and utilization was low, even for evidence-based medicine and online databases. Specialists and males were better aware of eHealth applications. The study showed that eHealth acceptance was good. Increasing eHealth literacy was recommended as a cost effective means for improving access to updated information to improve the quality of healthcare. / Health Studies / M.A. Public Health (Medical Informatics)

Economic, social, technological and educational factors have led to an increase in the use of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) in education at all levels. Most research concerning this has focused on the way in which e-learning can be used to improve teaching and learning across the curriculum and has neglected the teaching of ICT as a subject (Hammond, 2004). In a 1999 Ofsted inspection, ICT was found to be the least well taught subject in primary schools. The present research considers how the teaching of ICT could be better supported in the UK and Saudi Arabia. In the first stage, an investigation was made of the teaching of ICT in UK primary schools to understand why its teaching had been rated unfavourably. It was discovered that teaching focused on technical aspects (i.e. how to use specific applications) whilst ignoring the communication and information parts. Although it has been argued widely that e-learning improves teaching and learning across the curriculum, observations showed that e-learning was not, in itself, used to support teaching of the ICT curriculum. Hence, this research explored the ways in which the teaching of the ICT curriculum (to 9-11 year olds) could be made more effective, particularly through the incorporation of e-learning material. It was hypothesized that the experience of teaching and learning could be enhanced if e-learning material was designed which specifically addressed the needs of the teachers and young learners. Evidence collected in the course of the research suggested that little material existed to support the ICT curriculum, and that e-learning material produced to support other subjects does not always suit the teachers’ needs. Therefore in the second stage of the research, a design approach that engaged end users (teachers and young students) was proposed which was tested and refined during the design of e-learning material to support the teaching of the Multimedia Unit of the ICT National Curriculum. The resulting e-learning material was evaluated in UK schools to determine the extent to which it satisfied user needs and its effectiveness in teaching the intended learning outcomes. The results in both cases were positive implying that such a method could lead to the production of useful supportive material. As a former Saudi Arabian computer teacher, one of my personal goals was to provide opportunities to improve the experience of teachers and children in my own country. As such I have been interested in how I can transfer my understanding of the UK educational system to my home country. Following the successful evaluation of the elearning material in the UK, a demonstration of how a child centred design approach can be used to design effective educational material. Unfortunately although such a process might produce more effective learning outcomes and pleasurable material, I also found that such an approach is considered incompatible with commercial design environments. In the last stage of the thesis strategies are discussed which could be used (particularly in Saudi Arabia) to encourage the producers of educational materials to engage in the design of more effective teaching and learning experiences, especially in relation to the primary ICT curriculum. One such strategy would be to train undergraduates in applying a more user centred design approach as an integral part of their practice. The resultant design approach has now been approved by the Director of the Graphic Design Department in Dar Al Hekma Collage (Jeddah – Saudi Arabia) to be taught as a design approach for designing e-learning material for children on the Information Design Course. Additionally, a set of recommendations was developed for the Saudi Ministry of Education addressing the sort of revisions needed to improve the ICT curriculum in Saudi Arabia.

The interactive whiteboard is a fairly recent technical device, which has become an increasingly important teaching aid. The interactive whiteboard is supposed to have a positive impact on English Language Teaching, due to its interactivity and the unlimited opportunities it creates for language teaching. However, findings still show that the interactive whiteboard is used more as a traditional whiteboard to write and show information on rather than as an interactive teaching and learning device. This study seeks to investigate English language teachers’ integration of the IWB in ELT. A qualitative approach was used to collect data for this study. Four English Language Teachers at a lower secondary school in southern Sweden were interviewed. The result from this study shows similarities to previous research. The decisive factors for the participants’ incorporation of the IWB in ELT, such as attitude, knowledge and time, were comparable to previous studies. The result also implies that the participants saw the interactive whiteboard as a useful tool in English Language Teaching and as a regular part of their teaching. Nevertheless, there was a desire among the teachers to learn more about the interactive whiteboard and its possibilities and also to develop their skills in order to improve their teaching and the pupil's language proficiency. Although the teachers in the study used the interactive whiteboard frequently and interactively, the result shows that the most frequent usage was to display information non-interactively.

Det svenska skolväsendet har sedan 2000-talet fått övergripande stöd från regeringen för att utveckla den digitaliserade undervisningsformen. Trots detta har upprepande årsrapporter kring IT-användning i skolan visat på brister inom användarkunskap och IT-kompetens utvecklingsmöjligheter. Syftet med denna studie är att kartlägga hur digitala lärplattformar används och varför den digitala kommunikationen mellan lärare och elever inte uppnått förväntade resultat. Följande forskningsfrågor har varit relevanta i detta sammanhang: Hur ser användandet av lärplattformar på gymnasieskolan ut idag? Varför har digitalisering ännu inte slagit igenom som ett effektivt verktyg i undervisningen? Studien är baserad på en empirisk undersökning där data insamlats från intervjuer med rektorer och lärare från sex gymnasieskolor i Gävle och Uppsala. Ett slumpmässigt urval av 80 elever har även svarat på en enkät med mål att representera den generella inställningen till skolans digitala kommunikationssystem för delning av undervisnings-och studiematerial. Vidare har en litteraturgenomgång utförts där problemområden och brister inom forskningsområdet presenteras. Dels är informationen hämtad från forskare inom kommunikation och teknologi, men även från Skolverket och Skolinspektionen. Resultatet visar på att skolans lärplattformar används som verktyg för informationsöverföring där information överförs i vertikal riktning från lärare till elever. I nuläget används lärplattformar främst på grund av krav från ledningen och inte som en kanal för dubbelriktad kommunikation, där lärare och elever kan diskutera lösningar på uppgifter och problem, få feedback samt tips och råd. Resultatet påvisar även att lärare upplever tekniska brister i delar av lärplattformen och att de saknar systematiska arbetsrutiner för effektiv användning. Detta utgör ett hinder som begränsar kommunikationens effektivitet med avseende till kunskapsutveckling genom lärplattformer. / The Swedish school system has since the 2000s, received overall support from the government to develop digitized teaching methods. Despite this, repetitive annual reports on IT usage in schools revealed shortcomings in user knowledge and development of IT-skills. The purpose of this study is to identify how digital learning platforms are used and why digitized communication between teachers and students in high schools have not achieved the expected results. The following research questions were relevant in the study: How is the use of learning platforms in secondary schools today? Why has the digitization not yet been seen as an effective tool in teaching? The study is based on empirical data, where data is collected from interviews with principals and teachers from six different high schools in Gävle and Uppsala. A random sample of 80 students also completed a questionnaire with the aim to represent the general attitude to the school’s digital communications system for sharing of learning material. Furthermore, a literature review helped to evaluate problem areas and gaps in the research presented. The results show that the schools’ learning platforms are used as tools for information sharing, where the information is transferred in a vertical direction from teachers to students. Today the teaching platform is mainly used due to demands from the school management, and not as a channel for bidirectional communication, where teachers and students can discuss solutions to the tasks and problems, or to get feedback and advice. The result also shows that teachers are experiencing technical defects in parts of the learning platform and that lack of systematic work procedures prevent it from effective use. This is a barrier that limits the effectiveness of communication with regard to the development of knowledge through learning platforms.

The aim of the thesis was to investigate factors influencing ICT use by older-adults. A selection of psycho-social, socio-demographic and health determinants were investigated with Internet use. Data were collected through questionnaires (Studies I-III) and interviews (Study IV). Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted, investigating Internet use as a dichotomous variable, with the aforementioned factors. The results indicated that psycho-social determinants did not affect older-adults’ Internet use (Study I). Scoring higher on the personality traits openness and extraversion did not affect whether the older adults started to use the Internet (Study II). However, well-being increased for some frail older-adults when using the tablet computer and connected to the Internet (Study IV). Some socio-demographic determinants affected Internet use. Being younger in age was a strong contributing factor in all four studies whether the older-adult would use the Internet. Higher education influenced Internet use (Study I & III), correlated with living in a rural or urban setting (Study III); yet education was not influencing whether they would start to use the Internet. Living alone was correlated with Internet use, especially if the older-adult lived in an urban setting (Study III). Functional disability and household economy did not affect Internet use. Finally, the health determinants on Internet use were quite strong. Normal cognitive functioning influenced whether older-adults would start to use the Internet (Study II). The older-adult living in an urban environment, would use the Internet if they had normal cognitive functioning (Study III). It was noted also from Study IV that the learning to use the Tablet PC and Skype took longer for older people and more repetition was needed. Being frail was a strong factor whether the older-adult would use the Internet. They would not want to learn or try to use the technology if they were too ill (Study IV). The findings show only a small increase (7.7%) in Internet use by older-adults over time. The indicators of non-use are: higher in age, lower educated, living alone or rurally, lower cognition and frailty. There are two different profiles of rural and urban Internet users. These determinants along with an understanding of the use of technology, and a good support system, are a few pillars in ICT adoption by older-adults. As ICT continues to develop as a means to provide better health care, it will be important to take into account the abovementioned indicators. In certain cases Internet use is not a given, which continues to exclude older-adults. Part of healthy aging is social participation; therefore being connected and included in the digital society is important. Alternative and not only one design solutions should be explored in health care and by organisations, so as to cater to the heterogeneity of the aging population.

Visual communication (VC) resources can be seen as playing an increasingly important role in delivery and learning systems in today s design and technology education. The performance of current tools and resources is the primary concern of this research, and particularly whether they take full advantage of VC when delivering technological information to industrial design (ID) and engineering design (ED) students. This thesis sought key principles behind the visual communication of technology (VCT) and its association to designing, creativity and innovation through a literature survey. The findings concluded that there were many such assertions made with little evidence concerning the associations suggested. Some guiding sources and key emerging principles (KEPs) for good VCT practices were established. A miniature-kite-designing exercise was conducted as a case study for the purpose of examining the links between VCT, designing and creativity and/or innovation. Kite-technological-information posters were used as the VCT tool for the kite-designing case. A comparative study of kite-designing was conducted in Malaysia to check the reliability of the study, and another validation study was carried out for the purpose of establishing the validity of the data gathering. Visual technological information (VTI) for kite design (or a kite-poster) was refined accordingly to the KEPs established from the literature review, and its visual impact was tested through the use of eye-tracking technology. Some selected current and historical visual tools, which have been used in design and technology communication and were recognised as having positive impacts were analysed and articulated in order to reveal a deeper understanding of the KEPs. These were further validated through eye-tracking of reading patterns of participants on those selected visuals. The perceptual responses toward those visuals were also recorded and analysed. A theoretical research framework was established to investigate VTI representation used in books by Ashby (1999) and Ashby and Johnson (2002), in new authors scholarly papers (METU, 2010), and of the author s analysis and redesign of some of those studied VTIs based on the KEPs emerging from the research. A questionnaire survey was conducted within a number of higher education institutions in 3 regions around the world in order to achieve reliable data gathering. This third case study was validated through experts discussion of the findings and related issues. Within these three case studies, a mixture of scientific (using the eye-tracker device) and conventional methods (questionnaires, interviews, discussion group and comparative studies), and also others methods such as design workshops, analysing existing resources, using own practice of design-and-redesign activities were conducted to provide quantitative and qualitative measurements to empirically validate the literature search. Evidence of links between VCT, designerly activities which involved knowledge, skills and values within the technological communication, and of facilitating creativity was obtained. Empirical evidence showed that VTIs were effective in communicating knowledge, skills and values; where the KEPs criteria had played essential roles in enriching the visual emphasis of VTIs. The redesigning exercise using the author s own practice, which articulated the KEPs through the redesign of the existing VTIs for the purpose of more effective VCT, again obtained significant evidence of visual effectiveness and easy understanding capability. Evidence from the analysis of 2 books on materials technology for ID and ED students, views from the 2 materials experts, and the literature review suggested that ID and ED students require difference types of representational models and graphical strategies of VCT in their learning. However, the empirical data from the research, which was supported by one of the materials experts, suggested that ID and ED students even with different cultural backgrounds did not require different VTIs or the use of different VCT strategies for effective communication.

Despite a growing awareness of the importance of support for carers who combine paid work with care of an older relative, so called ‘working carers’, there remains a lack of empirical knowledge about more innovative ways to support this largest group of carers of older people. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are becoming more readily available. As a result, ICTs have made it feasible to offer working carers more targeted forms of support. This thesis aimed to gain an understanding about support for working carers of older people via the use of ICT. An integrative literature review was conducted to explore and evaluate the current evidence base concerning the use of ICT-mediated support for working carers (I). Content analysis of qualitative data was used to describe nursing and support staff’s experiences of using web-based ICTs for information, e-learning and support of working carers (II). Content analysis was also used to describe working carers’ experiences of having access to a web-based family care support network provided by the municipality (III). Descriptive statistical methods were used to analyse survey data which focused on the types of support received and how they were valued by working carers, with a focus on ICT support (IV). Findings highlighted that ICT mediated support provided working carers with the means to manage their caring situation, via the provision of information, e-learning and education, in addition to practical assistance and emotional and/or physical respite from caregiving. In this way, working carers felt empowered in their caring situation by feeling more competent and prepared in their caring role and by strengthening their self-efficacy and positive self-appraisal of their situation. Carers were provided channels to share their frustrations and burdens via forums for emotional and social support between working carers, caring professionals, and other peer carers. This led to working carers feeling less burdened by their caregiving role and it helped promote their wellbeing. Further, carers were helped in some instances to balance work and care. As a result caregiving activities conflicting with work obligations were then lessened. In contrast, when ICT mediated support was neither provided in a timely fashion or in accordance with individual carers’ needs and preferences, then it was perceived by them to be unimportant. Cross-sectional data revealed that take-up of support services was low suggesting that unmet support needs may be inflated by work-care conflicts. For carers with lower digital skills, the additional time needed to learn to use ICTs was a further barrier. Overall, ICT mediated support acted as a complementary form of support for working carers. Measures to overcome dis-empowering aspects of this innovative from of support are needed to avoid working carers’ deprioritizing their own support needs and also to avoid possible digital exclusion from the current information society.

Service marketing is something new, and a lot of companies are working on answering the demand as best they can. Consumption behaviour implies a lot of changes in every market, and companies have to deal with all these changes. Companies must be able to adapt their strategy to be competitive. This has implications for the different models they use to adapt. Furthermore, there is a big difference between the theory and the practice. There are a lot of variables that must be taken into consideration in order to develop the best strategy and to offer the best service possible. During this research, the authors have used a qualitative case study with an abductive approach to develop a theoretical model based on the theory and the practice. Through interviews, the authors have discovered the importance of following the "flow". Companies need to be always be updated by developing a CRM. But also the variable technology that plays an important role in offering a certain product or service. Moreover, the industry is growing very fast, and companies must be able to change all the time and develop new product to be real competitors. So this investigation provides a model that varies from market to market with an explanation of how to develop a certain strategy based on all the information you can gather.