This research examines loyalty marketing as an empirical case study of consumer surveillance. Focusing on the Canadian context, the research investigates the relationship between the personal information economy and loyalty marketing through several interrelated perspectives. These are marketing and business literature, theoretical frameworks of surveillance, the branding of consumers and corporations, consumer ambivalence towards surveillance and privacy issues, and the mutual shaping of consumers and these programs. These interrelated yet distinctive perspectives provide different means to understand loyalty programs as information portals in the increasingly monitored, measured and marketed lives of consumers. They are a means of surveillance through which corporations systematically collect consumption data in order to influence, manage, entitle, or control consumers (Lyon 2001). The research is based on interviews with loyalty program executives, international survey results, and focus groups to both describe the relationship between corporate information processing and consumers as well as the current and potential social effects and issues embedded in this relationship. Loyalty programs are seen as an important means for conceptualizing contemporary marketing practices, the use of personal information, and personal identity in an information oriented society. They are a complex manifestation of a ‘knowing capitalism’ (Thrift 2005) that has implications far beyond the accumulation of points and the ‘reward yourself’ appeal of participation by contributing to a cultural consumption circuit that perpetuates and reinforces already existing socio-economic differences. / Thesis (Ph.D, Sociology) -- Queen's University, 2008-04-24 10:19:22.99

Comprehensive and accurate information plays a key role in urban planning process. Recent developments in Information Communications Technologies (ICT) have provided considerable challenges and opportunities to improve the management of planning processes and make better use of planning information. However, data sharing and integration are always problematic for urban planning tasks because urban datasets are heterogeneous and scattered in different domains and organisations. It is stated that planners spend about 80 percent of their time to coordinate various datasets and analysis information (Singh 2004). The aim of this research is to develop a technical solution to providing information support for urban planning. The research will focus on planning data representation and integration in order to produce semantically rich urban models.

This study investigated the effectiveness of video tutorials, accessed via Quick Response codes, on Grade 10 Mathematical Literacy students' ability to complete their homework. Students often struggle to complete their Mathematical Literacy homework. To assist them outside of the classroom, an intervention involving video tutorials that explained specific sections of work and how to go about solving problems, was devised. Students could access the relevant tutorials on a mobile device via the scanning of barcodes provided on the worksheets. The effectiveness of the intervention was assessed both quantitatively and qualitatively, through analysis of the participating students' homework submissions and interviews with the students after the intervention had ended. Use was made of the YouTube analytics view count feature to observe how many times the videos had been watched. Feedback forms, focus group interviews and questionnaires were also used to obtain additional data. Unfortunately, the students did not make as much use of the intervention as had been anticipated, and this, together with the very small sample, meant that no meaningful conclusions could be drawn. The students who had made use of the intervention claimed that the tutorials had helped them in their understanding of the relevant concepts, as well as with the completion of their homework. This would indicate that the intervention was potentially beneficial. I have recommended that future research be undertaken in this regard. When trying to understand why so little use was made of the intervention, it became apparent that many of the weaker students were unaware of their limitations in Mathematical Literacy, and therefore did not feel the need to access the available resources offered by the intervention. This is a serious obstacle to implementing such an intervention, and possible solutions are considered.

Information Literacy is an integral part of university libraries. At the University of Cape Town (UCT) it has had varying levels of success, depending on the size of the class, the access to devices, the time provided, and the frequency of sessions. Unlikely other universities around the world, information literacy is not embedded in the curriculum. The standard practice in our context has been once-off sessions offered to students at the beginning of an academic year. This is targeted to different courses and disciplines. This study sought to understand the information (IL) and digital literacy (DL) skills of postgraduate students in an Information Systems (IS) course. Specifically it looked at how they undertake their academic writing tasks without formal exposure to IL or DL training. It examines the general IL and DL skills, the ineffectiveness of IL interventions provided and explores opportunites for curriculum integration of Il in postgraduate courses. This case study uses a case study approach to explore the perceptions of students and their lecturers of the IL presentations which the library offers. Using a mixture of interviews with lecturers and a student questionnaire and focus group discussions with students the study sought to provide a wholistic picture of the various perspectives and experiences. Findings showed that students and lecturers had a very narrow perception of IL, although IL is a skills set that helps students to acquire competencies for a lifelong learning journey in terms of information usage generally and digitally in particular. A framework for librarians is proposed based on SCONUL's Seven Pillars of Information Literacy. This would enable a more wholistic approach to IL as it develops student as self-directed learners rather than learners who just aim to comply with course regulations. Integration of IL into the curriculum is proposed as a necessary strategy and if librarians increased their teaching professionalisation working in partnership with their academic colleagues, they could raise the profile of IL in institutional priorities.

Spanning 14 states in the northeast United States, the Appalachian Trail (AT) is a popular destination for outdoor recreation, with thousands of individuals attempting to thru-hike the AT every year. For its scenic views and accessibility from the cities, the AT is experiencing a record number of visitors raising concerns about the sustainability of the trail. Many trail organizations manage the AT to reduce the visitor impact on the outdoors. In this research, I study the role of information and communication technologies in promoting collaboration between these trail agencies and visitors. I identify the need for a formal communication channel between the stakeholders by examining the existing information-sharing practices of hikers and trail managers through social media analysis, interviews, and a design workshop. I present the design of an online discussion platform, the SmarTrail board, and conduct a field usability study with two AT trail clubs to evaluate the platform. Findings from the study reveal that centralized direct communication and streamlined information can support trail management on the AT by promoting collaboration within the trail community. The research paves the path for future research into the design of ICTs for driving nature conservation goals. / Master of Science / The Appalachian Trail (AT) in the northeast of the United States spreads across 14 states. It is accessible from many regional urban centers, offering recreational opportunities to thousands of individuals every year. It is also a popular site for thru-hiking, an endeavor to hike the trail from end to end in a year. Such popularity and accessibility to the trail put pressure on the natural resources, raising concerns about the sustainability of the trail. Management of the trail deals with minimizing the resource impact while preserving the trail experiences of the visitors. Thirty trail clubs maintain separate sections of the AT, and a number of trail organizations work together to manage the trail. The core of this management relies on the collaboration of these trail agencies with each other and the visitors. As communication is central to collaborations in everyday life and for the trail, I explore the practices and possibilities for information sharing and communication on the AT. Digital conservation refers to the technological developments that support and forward nature conservation goals. As the pristine environment of the trails and the AT are not barred from the reach of digital technology, the prevalence of smartphones among visitors presents opportunities for information and communication technologies (ICTs) to support the digital conservation of the trail. In this research, I study digital technology use among hikers and trail managers on the AT, particularly for information sharing. By analyzing comments on Reddit, conducting interviews with the AT trail managers, and organizing a workshop with long-distance hikers, I highlight the need for direct communication between these stakeholders. I present the design of an online discussion board called the SmarTrail platform as a formal communication channel between hikers and trail managers and evaluate it with two trail clubs on the AT. The results from the evaluation offer several use cases of mediated communication, highlighting its need and potential in supporting trail management on the AT. Centralized and formal communication can lead to effective trail management by engaging visitors in trail management, improving volunteer management for the clubs, and enabling knowledge sharing and coordination between the trail agencies. With design considerations for improving human-nature interaction and simplifying the available information for visitors and trail management authorities, this study informs the design of ICTs for trail environments that would forward the digital conservation goals on the AT.

Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Library and Information Science at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2012. / The purpose of this study was to investigate the diffusion of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the informal sector in Kenya. The study specifically focused on micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in two provinces in Kenya, namely Nairobi Province and Central Province. Information for the study was gathered through a literature review, a field survey, and personal observation. Questionnaires were used to solicit information from micro and small enterprise participants drawn from the two provinces. A combination of purposive and probability random sampling was used to generate the sample frames of MSE clusters and respondents respectively. The sample of respondents was drawn from the central business district in the city of Nairobi, two markets (Gikomba market and Kenyatta market) and a horticultural products’ depot next to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi Province. Two urban centers and two market centers were selected from Central Province, namely Kiambu and Thika towns and Kabati and Makutano market centers in Muranga District. Questionnaires were administered to a sample of 390 MSE participants comprising of owner/managers and selected employees. The overall results revealed that the majority of MSEs are small and are started with little preparation and scarce capital. Only 5.6% of the enterprises had more than five employees, while less than one percent had over ten employees. The majority of the MSEs (over 90%) therefore fell in the micro-enterprises category. The use of ICTs by the micro enterprises’ participants, with the exception of the mobile phone and mobile money services, was found to be quite low. The use of the mobile phone and mobile phone services was over 90%. . Access to formal business information sources was also poor, and the majority of the MSE participants relied mainly on their knowledge and experiences, customer reactions, telephone contacts, and friends and relatives. Information was rarely sourced from government agencies and other formal sources like the internet and mass media. MSEs face many challenges in the use of ICTs because of the nature and small scale of their businesses, which do not allow them to focus on much else beyond survival. The MSEs lacked institutional capacity and support in the form of affordable telecommunications facilities and ICTs as formal sources of information. The mobile phone has been embraced by MSE workers, as an affordable and quick way to communicate and perform business transactions. The mobile phone technology has been quickly adopted and is heavily relied on in MSE operations. The study recommends accelerated government involvement in order to address the various challenges of providing the necessary infrastructure, developing and implementing effective policies, improving the distribution of economic resources, improving business premises and infrastructure that can reach the MSEs, improving skills and training to enable the use of ICTs, raising awareness, facilitating access to credit and finance, as well as improving information structures for formal information sources and dissemination. The study recommends more research to gain a deeper understanding of the context and information needs of small business enterprises in order to be able to offer a strategic framework for appropriate intervention in providing information for MSEs. Further research is also recommended in the area of mobile telephony, given its rapid adoption and use in a short span of ten years, to bring out its full potential and benefits. / University of Zululand

In the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, many indigenous communities further their struggles for greater political and cultural autonomy by working with transnational non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Communication technology (what I call comtech) is increasingly vital to these intersecting socio-spatial relations of activism and advocacy. In this dissertation, I examine how comtech offer indigenous individuals and organizations with the means for visualizing their political-cultural agendas. Approaching the access and use of comtech, especially video technologies, as a partial and situated technoscience, I inquire into how and why these activities reconfigure the production and evaluation of authoritative knowledge about indigenous peoples, places, and practices. More specifically, I undertook an organizational ethnography of a small intermediary NGO comprised of individuals who self-identify as indigenous and others who do not, Ojo de Agua Comunicacin Indgena, which endeavors to place communication technologies (especially video equipment) at the disposal of indigenous communities. Through participation-observation and interviews, I explored this groups everyday strategies of networking in the name of assisting indigenous actors access and appropriation of visual technologies. I also pursued interpretive analyses of video-mediated articulations of indigenous knowledge and identity that were enabled by Ojo de Agua. My research indicates that Ojo de Agua has selectively built upon the ambitions and the socio-spatial connections of a government program that emerged from the initiatives of academic advocates, who sought to open new spaces of participation for indigenous peoples. Members of Ojo de Agua have, however, found their goal of service somewhat stymied by a situation that positions them within a flexible labor force of knowledge workers. Their livelihoods as media makers did not allow them (the time or money) to pursue as much altruism and advocacy as they would have liked. Nonetheless, Ojo de Aguas corpus of videos established the group as an alternative and yet authoritative source of visual knowledge of indigenous peoples, places, and practices. This relocation of advocacy is symptomatic of the creative destruction fueled by the neo-liberal economic policies that, for the last thirty years, have been reconfiguring spaces of cooperation and conflict in Latin America.

Ample evidence exists that suggests that Information and Communication Technologies (ICT’s) access and usage is structured along gender lines where social, economic, education barriers as well as attitudes impact negatively on female adoption and usage of ICT’s. Further, the ability to communicate and or own an ICT gadget is heavily reliant on disposable income and affordability (Hafkin, 2002). By investigating gender adoption and usage patterns of ICT’s, South Africa stands an opportunity to gather important data critical to circumvent possible negative aspects of gender difference in adoption and usage. According to Huyer, S., and Hafkin, N., (2007), “gender in relation to ICT use and access remains largely an uncharted domain” (Huyer & Hafkin, 2007, p.36). The report uses available ICT data covering between year 2005 to 2010 and the 2007 ICT access and usage survey data is the primary source for the key findings of the report. Key findings of the report suggest that no gender difference exists in adoption and usage of ICT’s in South Africa. However higher incomes, more advanced education, being young and living in an urban location increases adoption and usage. Thus, given the existing gender disparities in income and education and the location of a large proportion of the female population in rural areas, the analysis found that females are disadvantaged with respect to broad ICT access and usage beyond mobile voice communications. While ICT adoption cannot on its own address the broad challenges of socio-economic development, gender-based policy and regulation is necessary to unlock heightened ICT usage by women as a contributing factor to development.

Thesis advisor: Leigh Patel / Digital literacies have become central in today's society, used in various personal and public incarnations (Coiro, Knobel, Lankshear, & Leu, 2008), occupying prominent space in social and professional worlds (boyd, 2014; Leu et al., 2011). Despite digital literacies' centrality in society, schools have a notoriously difficult time integrating these into curriculum and instruction (O'Brien & Scharber, 2008). Accordingly, I asked: How do teachers in a large, public comprehensive secondary school navigate the challenges and benefits of digital literacies within the structure of Washington High, the curriculum, and their pedagogy? Using a case study design both ethnographic and collaborative in nature, I examined teachers' beliefs and practices to investigate how digital literacies were being used in the classroom, as well as why. Data included a school-wide survey, participant interviews and observations with six teachers, and informal meetings with school staff, most notably the vice-principal. Data was analyzed through the lens of theories of literacy curricular design (New London Group, 1996) and an eye toward New Literacies (Lankshear & Knobel, 2006). Notable results include the finding that technology at Washington often plays out in fairly traditional, teacher-directed, "wine in new bottles" (Lankshear & Knobel, 2006, p. 55) sorts of ways. However, this study also concludes that why this is so moves far beyond these teachers' individual beliefs and practices. Their contexts (unreliable technology, control of uses imposed by the administration), their cultures (narratives of adolescents needing protection from themselves and others), and compulsory schooling itself (traditional conceptions of time and space, narrow definitions of success, high-stakes testing and teacher evaluations) all play dynamic and complicated parts in how digital literacies get taken up, along with teachers' own beliefs and practices. As such, I draw upon theories of complex personhood (Gordon, 1997) and complexity thinking (Davis & Sumara, 2008) in positing ways digital literacies may be utilized in relationship to schools. Implications address these practices' collaborative, creative potentials to transform schools. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

Orientador: Renato Eugênio da Silva Diniz / Banca: Maria Elisabette Brisola Brito Prado / Banca: Aguinaldo Robinson de Souza / Banca: Maria Inês Petrucci Rosa / Banca: Silvia Regina Quijadas Aro Zuliani / Resumo: A presente pesquisa foi realizada com o propósito de analisar e compreender um processo de formação continuada de professores visando promover a inserção da informática nas aulas de Química. Tal ação teve seu desenvolvimento pautado na racionalidade prática e na reflexão crítica sobre o trabalho docente, sendo mediada pela educação a distância. O estudo desenvolveu-se com um grupo de professores de Química de escolas públicas estaduais na região de Jaú (SP). Através de encontros presenciais e de interações em um ambiente virtual de aprendizagem, buscou-se estabelecer um vínculo constante entre a realidade do professor e a formação continuada. Foram utilizados diferentes recursos metodológicos que possibilitaram aos docentes o contato com materiais diversificados, a análise de softwares, a elaboração material didático, bem como a atuação com seus alunos na sala de informática das escolas. Na organização dos dados foram trabalhados três eixos principais: formação e trabalho docente, ensino de Química e uso da informática. A investigação evidenciou elementos-chave para subsidiar propostas de formação continuada e envolveu reflexão e planejamento como meios para desencadear reformulações tanto na percepção dos professores em relação ao papel da informática nas aulas de Química como na utilização desse recurso em sala de aula. / Abstract: This research was conducted with a view to analyze and understand a process of teachers training in-service aiming to promote the insertion of Information and Communication Technologies in the classes of Chemistry. This action had its development based on practical rationality and critical reflection about teaching practice, being mediated by Distance Education. The study was developed with a group of Chemistry teachers in state public schools in the region of Jaú (SP). Through presence meetings and interactions in a virtual learning environment, it was aimed to establish a constant link between the teacher reality and the training in-service. Different methodological resources had been used so that the teachers could have contact with diverse materials, analyse educational software, elaborate learning material, as well as the work with their students in the computer lab of the schools. In the organization of the data three main axes were considered: training and teaching work, teaching of Chemistry and use of Information and Communication Technologies. The investigation revealed key elements to subsidize proposals of teachers training in-service and involved reflection and planning as a mens to trigger recasts in both the perception of teachers concerning to the role of Information and Communication Technologies in the classes of Chemistry as the use of this resource in the classroom. / Doutor