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The application of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as supportive tool in teaching and learning within the framework of the radical change that Outcomes Based Education (OBE) has created, pervades and consequently alters the pedagogy and methodology of Geography teaching. Geography Is a subject in which ICT can make a definite and worthwhile contribution and it is, therefore, important that Geography educators know how to harness the benefits of ICT for their learners. Apart from the general availability of ICT to fulfil the requirements of the curricula, there are pressures from the world outside the classroom in the form of professionals who utilize Geography in their profession, such as town planners and meteorologists, who utilise new technology such as GIs, GPS, satellite images, radar summaries, air charts and meteograms as an integral part of their work. The Internet, the World Wide Web and CD-Rom are used progressively as resource-based and communication tools in teaching and learning throughout the world. The challenge to utilise ICT in Geography teaching and learning occurs in a world experiencing increasing disparities between the rich and poor, among and within nations. For example, while 72.7% of Americans currently use the Internet, only 6.4% of South Africans have access to and use the Internet. A solution for sufficient ICT support in teaching and learning for developing countries is to focus on ICT variants that are affordable and that will sustain movement toward fulfilling development objectives. Developing countries (such as the RSA) need to consider alternatives to ICT that maximise the Impact of ICT and that entail balancing investment in computers with investment in other technologies that might be cheaper and equally effective. The use of alternative ICT variants must, however, be globally competitive, but at the same time be cost-effective. The ability, versatility and low cost of an ICT variant such as the Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) suggest that it can serve this purpose. ICT supports teaching and learning in Geography in many ways and has an impact on the quality of learners' learning experience and the depth of their learning. It can be a tool for inquiry learning, a resource for obtaining secondary source material, an aid in measuring physical events and situations, models real-world situations, helps to communicate and present information, improves efficiency and pace of workload, provides resources and structure to support learning independently of the educator and improves the quality of task outcomes for learners. The introduction of OBE in South Africa since 1994 has also encouraged learner-centred teaching and learning and has required a paradigm shift away from the traditional content-based transmission model of teaching and learning. The purpose of this study is to: • determine whether or not the DVD method can support the teaching and learning of Geography teacher students effectively; • determine how the DVD alters the format, structure and number of traditional formal Geography lectures; • determine what the nature of the information on the DVD must be in order to be perceived by the students effectively; • Investigate the effect of the utilisation of the DVD on the academic performance of Geography teacher students; and • develop a model for the effective integration and utilisation of the DVD in fulltime Geography teaching and learning. An action research method constituted the backbone of this study. The action research included a combined qualitative and quantitative research method in the form of a cross-sectional study as part of a developmental research method, in order to develop and evaluate a proposed model for the effective integration and utilisation of the DVD in Geography teaching and learning. The participants in this study included the entire population of the full-time, second-year students of the Economic Geography module, GEOH251 of 2004, 2005 and 2006 of the B.Ed (teaching degree) of the North-West University (Potchefstroom Campus). The results of the study can be summarised as follows: This study indicated that the majority of the GEOH251 students were positive regarding the integration of the DVD in Geography teaching and learning. The DVD-method teaching approach challenges lecturers and students to fulfil new roles within the teaching and learning environment. The results of this study indicate the following: The integration of the DVD method can support the teaching and learning of Geography teacher students effectively. The utilisation of the DVD, together with a seminar format with a specific procedure, enhances the teaching and learning of Geography. The DVD with all the different types of information included thereon was well received by the Geography students and was deemed effective. The integration of the DVD into Geography teaching and learning evidently did not result in poorer academic performances of students in the GEOH251 module. The proposed model provides clear guidelines on how to integrate the DVD In Geography teaching and learning. It explains how the DVD should be compiled, what to include and how to employ it effectively in conjunction with seminars. It also describes the transition of formal contact sessions to seminars, which occur less frequently than traditional contact sessions, but with regular weekly intervals, as well as explains the seminar proceedings, interactions and timeframes. The DVD can be integrated into Geography teaching and learning effectively if the procedures, steps, and actions, as expounded in the proposed model, are applied. The advantages of the DVD as ICT variant in Geography teaching and learning can be clearly seen, especially if it can be implemented in developing countries. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Education))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

The UAE's labour market policy of Emiratisation is intended to replace expatriates with local workers by imposing restrictions on the employment of expatriate workers in the public sector and enforcing the private sector to employ nationals in certain types of jobs. This policy has been focused rather narrowly on administrative jobs in the finance and oil sector, and has not addressed the newly emerging ICT sector which is a cornerstone of the government's long-term economic growth strategy. Moreover, strategies such as the Emiratisation policy and investment in the ICT sector are not currently taking place within the context of a proper analysis of labour market needs and problems. The main aim of this study is to make a significant contribution to the knowledge base from which a sustainable national human resource policy in the UAE can be developed, by exploring the current barriers to successful working environments, and by assessing how the Emiratisation policy can be redesigned to focus more on new high-growth sectors, especially the ICT sector. The study also contributes more generally to the field of knowledge about how human capital supply can be improved through policy interventions and technology implementation. Furthermore, by adopting a conceptual framework based on established labour market and social network theories, the study is expected to improve understanding of the UAE economy and potential solutions to current labour market problems, thus offering considerable practical value to UAE decision-makers and policy officials. The study employs a multi-disciplinary approach to the study of the relationship between human capital and ICT with special emphasis on harmonization. This is a mixed-methods study consisting of both quantitative and qualitative primary research data collection, as well as a review of literature. The quantitative research method used a semi-structured online questionnaire survey targeted at managers in the Oil/Gas and Banking/Finance sectors, future job-seekers (students), and other UAE labour market stakeholders and experts. This was followed up by in-depth interviews with ICT expert informants, to provide qualitative data. The results of the quantitative and qualitative components were integrated in a process of triangulation, to draw out their overall significance. The principle finding of this research is that the mismatch between the supply and demand sides of the labour market in terms of skills and expectations is the main barrier to emiratisation. High percentages of Emirati students do not enter the labour market following graduation. UAE nationals have high job and salary expectations, and mainly focus on the public sector. Employers surveyed believe that the types of skills and qualifications they need are in short supply among UAE nationals, especially in relation to managerial and professional jobs. The cultural importance of contacts makes the recruitment process inefficient on both sides. Emiratisation can be expensive for organisations, would be more sustainable if compliance were better enforced by the UAE government, and needs to be better supported by a good education/training system which prepares UAE nationals for the needs of the labour market. The study concludes by advocating a gradual shift towards the knowledge economy as a way of rebalancing the labour market, proposing potential further research on the ICT field within the UAE's private sector, with close attention to indigenization. On the demand side, more detailed nationally representative data might be collected on the skills requirements of private sector jobs in a range of sectors, so that the UAE education system can be better designed to meet the needs of the economy through human resource development.

As computing technology has become a vital part of everyday life, studies have increasingly scrutinized the underlying meaning of computational things. As different devices become interwoven with daily practices and routines, there is a growing interest in understanding not only their functional meaning in computational terms but also their meaning in relation to other non-computation artefacts. This thesis investigates how people relate to artefacts and how their individual values and attitudes affect this relationship.  The analysis is based on four ethnographic studies, which look at the richness of ordinary interactions with technology to understand the impact of technology upon practice and experience. The process through which humans develop a relationship to artefacts is framed as a continuous series of encounters, through which the individual constantly reshapes their relationship to things.  Artefacts are seen as lines in the mesh of everyday life, and the encounters are the intersections between lines. This approach–grounded in phenomenology and paired with an anthropological understanding of everyday life–reconceptualises understanding of the processes of adaption, meaning-making, disposing and recycling. The work reveals how human relations to all kinds of things–in the form of meaning–is continually transforming. Core to this understanding is the cultural relative essence that becomes perceived of the artefacts themselves. This essence deeply affects the way we encounter and thus interact with technology, as well as objects more broadly. In the daily interaction with computing devices we can observe that computing technology alters the mesh on a different level than non-computational artefacts: digital interfaces pull our lines together, bundle experiences an affect how we encounter the material and the social world. This enables computing devices to have meanings distinct from non-computing technology. To go further, computing is itself a mode of existence – a crucial difference in things that helps us understand the complexity of the material world.

Society needs information and communication technology (ICT) hardware to produce, process and store highly valuable information. This hardware, of course, affects the environment throughout its whole life cycle, starting with manufacturing, where the necessary scarce and precious resources (e.g. rare earth metals) are often mined under miserable environmental conditions. This leads to pollution of soil, water and air in the present as well as for the future. During the use phase of ICT hardware, energy consumption impacts the environment. At the end of life of ICT hardware, recycling, disposing as e-waste in landfills or disassembling are additional impacts that affect the environment. More and more producers and users, especially companies, want to measure these impacts, which is a complex task. However, approaches to measure the impacts are at hand, either as single indicators, measuring one specific impact, or as composed indicators, combining different single indicators into one "summarizing" indicator. However, collection of data, measurement, assessment and interpretation are challenging. Unfortunately, guidelines for those who want to measure the impact of ICT hardware are rare. With our research, we aim to shed light on the various approaches to measure impacts of ICT hardware as well as their application in practice. Based on a literature review, we identified different indicators and them to the attention of experts from companies to assess these approaches in terms of practicability, significance and value for practice. The results show that research investigates and proposes a variety of different more or less complex indicators. However, business prefers single indicators, which are easy to measure and understand.

The purpose of this study has been to research how ICT is used in a selection of both Swedish and English preschools and what the pedagogues attitude towards the use of ICT is like. The framing of the study is based on the following questions; How to use ICT in preschool? Seen ICT as a limitation or as a support in the preschool? What image have the educators of their own digital competence? The study was performed through a survey where the questions were phrased so that the pedagogues would answer based on themselves and their opinion/reaction to ICT in their work. The study shows that the pedagogues have a positive attitude towards using ICT along with the kids and by themselves as aid in their work. The pedagogues’ opinions affect the use of ICT but all pedagogues are aware of the curriculum and the goals that are listed there.

Cette étude porte sur les usages des TIC des étudiants universitaires du Cameroun. Elle se situe dans un contexte de l’enseignement supérieur camerounais en pleine mutation par les TIC. Elle vise donc à mieux comprendre les utilisations des TIC qui influencent l’apprentissage et la motivation académique chez les étudiants universitaires du Cameroun. Pour atteindre cet objectif, quatre principaux axes d’étude sont envisagés : -Les usages des TIC des étudiants universitaires camerounais; -Les perceptions des étudiants sur l’usage des TIC dans leur formation; -L’impact des TIC sur l’apprentissage des étudiants universitaires du Cameroun ; -L’impact des TIC sur la motivation académique des étudiants universitaires en apprentissage. La typologie de De Vries (2001) adoptée, qui est bâtie sur plusieurs variables d’apprentissage en lien avec les TIC (lire, faire des exercices, dialogue, jouer, explorer, manipuler, observer, construire et discuter), a facilité l’élaboration d’un portrait des usages des TIC des étudiants universitaires camerounais. Pour vérifier si les TIC ont un lien avec l’acquisition du savoir visée par un cours chez les étudiants camerounais, nous avons eu recours à la taxonomie de Bloom (1956) révisée par Lorin (2001). Cette taxonomie est constituée des verbes d’action qui décrivent des opérations cognitives d’apprentissage et spécifient des activités d’apprentissage liée aux TIC en terme de « capacité à ». Aussi, les résultats de Barrette (2005) sur les effets des TIC sur l’apprentissage (amélioration des résultats académiques, développement des opérations cognitives, amélioration de la motivation et intérêt des étudiants) nous ont servi de balises pour mieux comprendre les influences des TIC sur l’apprentissage des étudiants universitaires. La littérature sur l’impact des TIC sur la motivation académique a révélé que les sentiments d'autodétermination, de compétence et d'affiliation influencent la motivation des étudiants. Ainsi la théorie retenue de l'autodétermination de Deci et Ryan (1985, 1991, 2000) nous permet de mieux cerner le concept de la motivation dans cette étude. Cette recherche se fonde sur une méthodologie de type mixte, comportant plusieurs sources de données collectées (Savoie-Zajc et Karsenti (2000)): entrevues individuelles semi dirigées avec des étudiants (n = 9), observations participantes d’étudiants (n=2), observations participantes de groupes d’étudiants (n = 3), questionnaire (n=120). La thèse suit un mode de présentation par articles, chacun des articles étant en lien avec l’un des objectifs de la recherche. Les résultats obtenus confortent l’hypothèse d’une utilisation des TIC à des fins académiques par des étudiants dans le campus ainsi que dans les cybercafés. Autrement dit, la recherche dresse un portrait des usages des TIC des étudiants universitaires camerounais en mettant en évidence les types d’utilisation multivariés rencontrés. Les résultats font aussi ressortir que les TIC sont des outils didactiques efficaces pour faciliter la compréhension des situations complexes des cours suivis par les étudiants. Cette recherche a donné lieu à l’adaptation de l’échelle de mesure EMITICE, un instrument de mesure de la motivation lors de l'intégration des TIC dans l'enseignement, qui a permis de déterminer les variations de la motivation des étudiants et de mettre en évidence une comparaison de l'évolution du type de leur motivation. / This study focuses on the uses of ICT by Cameroonian university students, in a context where the higher education is changing due to ICT. It therefore aims to better understand the uses of ICT that affect learning and academic motivation significantly among Cameroonian university students. To achieve this objective, four main areas of study are considered: -The uses of ICT by Cameroonian university students; -The perceptions of students on the use of ICT in their training -The impact of ICT on the learning of Cameroonian university students; -The impact of ICT on the academic motivation of university students in learning. The adopted typology of De Vries (2001), which is built on several variables related to learning with ICT (reading, doing exercises, dialoguing, playing, exploring, manipulating, observing, building and discussing), has facilitated the development of a description of the uses of ICTs by Cameroonian university students. To check whether ICT has a connection with the acquisition of knowledge aimed at by a course given to Cameroonian students, we used the taxonomy of Bloom (1956) revised by Lorin (2001). This taxonomy consists of active verbs that describe the operations of cognitive learning and specify learning activities related to ICT in terms of "ability to". Also, the results of Barrette (2005) on the effects of ICT on learning (improving academic achievement, cognitive development operations, improving the motivation and interest of students) have been very instrumental to better understand the influences of ICT on the learning of university students. The literature about the impact of ICT on academic motivation showed that the feelings of self-determination, competence and affiliation, influence students’ motivation. Thus, the theory of self-restraint of Deci and Ryan (1985, 1991, 2000) allows us to better understand the concept of motivation in this study. This research is based on a mixed methodology, with multiple sources of data collected (Savoie-Zajc and Karsenti (2000)): semi-directed interviews with individual students (n = 9), participating observations of students (n = 2), participating observation of groups of students (n = 3), questionnaire (n = 120). The thesis follows a format for articles, each article being closely linked with one of the objectives of the research. The results support the hypothesis that students use ICT on campus and in the cyber cafes for academic purposes. In other words, the research makes a description of Cameroonian university students’ uses of ICT, highlighting the types of the diverse uses encountered. The results also show that ICT are effective teaching tools to facilitate the understanding of complex situations of courses taken by students. This research led to the adaptation of the measurement scale EMITICE, a tool for measuring motivation during the integration of ICT in education, which made it possible to determine the motivation variation of students and to highlight a comparison of the changes in the type of students’ motivation.

Despite the variety of literature on ‘adaptation to technology’, the literature still witnesses a gap concerning the concept of adaptation especially about its multi-level nature. Recognizing the multilevel nature of IS adaptation, we rise the challenge of conducting an alternate template analysis of three cases of adaptation to IS in order to provide complementary explanations about the phenomenon. In order to expand the comprehension of the ‘adaptation’ concept, a multi-study dissertation model is adopted. The objective is to examine the adaptation concept on three different levels: the individual, the group level, and the organizational level. This thesis aims at 1) exploring the shaping of individual adaptive actions that knowledge workers engage towards technostress with a focus on the factors that influence their adaptation process; 2) examining the adaptive performance of a group facing an newlyimplemented technology based on the adaptive structuration theory (DeSanctis and Poole 1994) under which were puzzled the concepts of affordances (Leonardi 2011, Leonardi, Huysman et al. 2013) and the structure of usage (Burton-Jones and Straub Jr 2006, Burton-Jones and Gallivan 2007); 3) examining, through an organizational learning lens (Argyris and Schon 1978), the case of an organizational adaptation to environmental technological changes examined within a managerial cognition conceptual framework (Orlikowski and Gash 1994); (Bijker 1987, Bijker 1995). To answer the different research questions, the three studies adopt a qualitative approach falling within a critical realist perspective.

TITLE: Portability of transformation of lower secondary ICT education in England into the Czech conditions AUTHOR: Bc. Michal Strnad DEPARTMENT: Department of Information Technology and Technical Education SUPERVISOR: Doc. RNDr. Miroslava Černochová, CSc. ABSTRACT: This thesis deals with teaching Computing subjects at secondary schools in England as a model for transformation of teaching ICT at schools in the Czech Republic. The thesis focuses on the portability of aspects of teaching Computing to the Czech environment and endeavours to identify the possible barriers to implementation processes. The aim of the thesis is to bring new stimuli for changes in the Czech ICT curriculum that are based on the experience of teaching ICT and Computing in the UK. The theoretical part of the thesis consists of the analysis and comparison of the Czech and British curricular documents and the study of academic and journalistic texts. The empirical part uses questionnaires focused on opinions of Czech and English experts on teaching ICT or Computing. It also uses interviews with English teachers of Computing and observations of Computing and ICT lessons at English secondary schools. Based on the results of both parts of the thesis, several recommendations for changes in the ICT study program in Framework Educational...

This diploma thesis builds on results of national and international surveys of mathematical and natural science literacy of pupils. A collection of newly conceived experimental and laboratory tasks has been proposed. The chosen approach consists on heuristic exploration of physical patterns and rules in a virtual environment. In the theoretical part, the problems of using electronic media in education are discussed and several views on the motivation of pupils which affects it are summarized. The learning process and also participation of sensory perception on this are described. In the practical part, the pupils' opinions on the using of ICT in physics learning are surveyed and the selected virtual environment and methodology for the creating of worksheets are described. Further on, the analysis of a case study of the pilot verification of problems has been carried out. The final evaluation of the study has also been performed.