Published Article / This paper reports on a mixed methods study that investigated access to, use, and perceptions of current and emerging technologies among Information Technology (IT) staff and students at universities of technology (UoTs) in South Africa. Fifty-eight IT staff and 410 IT students from 4 UoTs participated in the study. The primary research instrument was an online survey questionnaire, which was supplemented by semi-structured interviews with 31 of the study participants. Web investigations and conversations with IT support staff from UoTs also formed part of the mixed methods employed in the study. The findings of the online survey are analysed both from individual institutional perspectives and in aggregate form representative of the sector as a whole. Cross tabulations are used to analyse the data across institutions. The quantitative analysis reveals interesting trends and patterns in how students and staff are taking advantage of the potential held by Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for teaching and learning and for use in their daily lives. The qualitative findings question the assumptions that have been made about a digital divide between digital native students and their digital immigrant lecturers, suggesting that we need to develop a more sophisticated understanding of the role that technologies play in the lives of both students and staff. Results indicate that while students are very enthusiastic about using various ICTs and Web 2.0 tools, most have still to be convinced about their use for formal academic functions. Academic staff, on the other hand, continues to be cautiously optimistic about the use of ICTs in teaching and still harbour a number of concerns.

Thesis (MTech(Information Technology)) --Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2012 / Due to the legacy of apartheid South Africa is facing developmental discrepancies with inequalities between the advantaged few in the more urban areas and the disadvantaged majority in the rural areas. With quality education being key, not only to the success of an individual but of a country’s development, efforts have been made to ensure equal access for all. ICT is seen as a key enabler to this end. The study investigated the status of ICT deployment and its integration into curricula in schools. The objective was to understand the factors affecting the efforts to achieve successful implementation of ICT integration into schools in underdeveloped areas, to understand the challenges that exist and ultimately, to inform solutions. A qualitative study was conducted, using a case study method. A purposive sampling method was used to select population elements; educators and school coordinators of ICT programs in Western Cape schools (i.e. Kulani Secondary, Sithembele Matiso Secondary, Macassar Secondary and Marvin Park Primary). To gain an understanding of the status quo, literature was explored and semi-structured interviews were conducted with ICT coordinators and educators within the 4 sampled schools. Activity theory was used to provide an analytical framework for the study. Through this framework the aims and objectives of the study were conceptualized and summarized to form a graphical representation of the phenomena under study. In spite of efforts to ensure universal access to ICT, the findings indicate that the status of ICT deployment and its integration into school curricula is far from favourable in underdeveloped schools.

This thesis sought to address the management challenges of using ICT in advancing secondary school administration in Kirinyaga County, Kenya. Despite the Kenyan government taking an initiative towards transforming her education sector to be ICT compliant, much emphasis has been laid on the pedagogical aspect at the expense of managerial and administrative functions. This study sought to investigate the underlying challenges in the use of ICT in secondary school administration. A mixed mode method was used in which both qualitative and quantitative approaches were applied. The target population comprised 18 principals and 54 teachers; inclusive of two heads of departments and one computer teacher in each school. Sampling was done using the purposive technique. Structured and semi-structured questionnaires, administrative documents and face-to-face interviews were used. The principals responded to questionnaire one whereas the HoDs and ICT teachers responded to questionnaire two and three respectively. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used for data analysis. The findings from the literature review and the empirical study attest that; a) The government in its ICT policy formulation has not adequately defined the roles and responsibilities of various key actors in education for tangible integration. b) A relatively high number of principals (41.2%) and HoDs (36.1%) had only undergone ICT training at informal levels despite their attendance to ICT integration courses in school administration. c) ICT integration in school administration saved time for easy monitoring and evaluation of the school programmes. The conclusion was that vivid ICT policy framework, school administrators and teachers’ ICT training play a crucial role in the integration of ICT in schools’ administrative functions. / Educational Leadership and Management / D. Ed. (Educational Management)

This dissertation acknowledges that despite the global initiatives towards an inclusive information society, there are still some disparities in how communities access and use the information and communication technologies (ICTs) that are available. These disparities, or digital divide, have been interpreted and addressed from different interrelated theoretical view points. The provision of ICTs through public access centres has been widely applauded as one of the strategies to enable especially disadvantaged communities to participate in today‟s information led economy. Botswana has adopted the just noted approach. The country has also developed policies and supportive infrastructure to enable especially the rural communities to be part of the global information society. It is however regrettable that access and usage of ICT‟s is still notably low in rural communities. The concern over this worrisome situation motivated this study to explore the factors that enabled or inhibited access and use of ICTs that were available to the Letlhakeng community through public access centres. This descriptive case study was conducted in four sequential stages: designing, conducting the research, data analysis and development of conclusions. The study was characterized by a continued comparative analysis of data which was collected through interviews; observation and review of related documents from the service providers; the users and non users of the services. The Letlhakeng community had access to ICTs through individually owned stand alone centres and from government supported centres. These centres were used by both residents of Letlhakeng and people from nearby villages. The factors that promoted or inhibited access and use of the available ICTs differed within and between these communities. Despite the observed digital divide, the Letlhakeng community used the ICT public centres to access social services. There is a need to develop strategies to increase access to more technologies in the village and to equip the community / Information Science / D. Litt. et Phil. (Information Science)

This thesis sought to address the management challenges of using ICT in advancing secondary school administration in Kirinyaga County, Kenya. Despite the Kenyan government taking an initiative towards transforming her education sector to be ICT compliant, much emphasis has been laid on the pedagogical aspect at the expense of managerial and administrative functions. This study sought to investigate the underlying challenges in the use of ICT in secondary school administration. A mixed mode method was used in which both qualitative and quantitative approaches were applied. The target population comprised 18 principals and 54 teachers; inclusive of two heads of departments and one computer teacher in each school. Sampling was done using the purposive technique. Structured and semi-structured questionnaires, administrative documents and face-to-face interviews were used. The principals responded to questionnaire one whereas the HoDs and ICT teachers responded to questionnaire two and three respectively. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used for data analysis. The findings from the literature review and the empirical study attest that; a) The government in its ICT policy formulation has not adequately defined the roles and responsibilities of various key actors in education for tangible integration. b) A relatively high number of principals (41.2%) and HoDs (36.1%) had only undergone ICT training at informal levels despite their attendance to ICT integration courses in school administration. c) ICT integration in school administration saved time for easy monitoring and evaluation of the school programmes. The conclusion was that vivid ICT policy framework, school administrators and teachers’ ICT training play a crucial role in the integration of ICT in schools’ administrative functions. / Educational Leadership and Management / D. Ed. (Educational Management)

In the late 1990s, NASA conducted a study of the Interplanetary Internet (IPN) architecture. In order to build and deploy IPN infrastructure, the network technology had to be able to cope with long radio signal propagation delays and frequent radio link disruptions. The concept of a Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN) emerged after recognizing that such a networking paradigm can also be applicable for terrestrial use. DTN technology can be applied, for instance, in disaster situations, military battlefields, economically developing areas, and remote regions.This thesis follows the process of applying DTN technology to a remote, communication-challenged area in the Arctic part of Sweden. The aim of the DTN deployments in the remote villages of Sarek and Padjelanta National Parks, between 2008 and 2011, was to provide a basic set of ICT services to the nomadic Sami population. Therefore, the research presented here acknowledges and considers the specific geographical, technical, and cultural conditions of these areas, and how these conditions profoundly shaped the development of the deployed technology as well as the research methodology. As a result, this thesis makes scientific contributions to several research topics, spanning the fields of DTN routing, DTN service development, DTN evaluation methodologies, and ICT deployments.The first contribution in this thesis is the proposal of a new and improved version of the PRoPHETv2 routing protocol. The development of this routing protocol was driven by actual protocol use and the results of experiments conducted during the course of the DTN deployments.Secondly, this thesis proposes an alternative DTN routing objective for a typical remote village DTN scenario. Weaknesses of a conventional DTN routing research objective are exposed by outlining concrete geographical, social, and technical conditions discovered in DTN deployments on the field. When these conditions are overlooked, they can profoundly affect DTN deployments.Thirdly, this thesis discusses the development and deployment of the Not-So-Instant-Messaging (NSIM) DTN service. The NSIM service was designed to leverage from the decentralized DTN infrastructure. Its success in the field demonstrates the importance of localized DTN services. Fourthly, using qualitative reading of DTN routing related papers, this thesis describes shortcomings of established DTN routing evaluation methodologies. Extensive use of simulated environments and scarce real-world experiments in the DTN research field often leads to usage of specific hypothetical scenarios. These scenarios are difficult to compare or relate to each other. Additionally, DTN research that does contextualize itself in remote, extreme, and challenging scenarios performs evaluations of proposed routing schemes in urban or academic environments. The DTN evaluation model that is proposed here tries to improve the readability, comparability, and validity of DTN routing evaluations. This thesis also pays attention to the issue of how to evaluate the complex interplay that occurs between researchers, users, technology and environment throughout the deployment process. The suggested method highlights the dynamics of resistance, as conceptualized within Actor Network Theory (ANT). It illustrates how employment of the concept of resistance facilitates the recognition of different driving forces in the design process that emerge from the events in the deployment.Ultimately, the thesis contributes with the PRoPHET routing protocol specification in the "Request for Comments" (RFC) document series that is the official publication channel for the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) and other Internet communities. The protocol specification published as the RFC6693 document allows for actual protocol implementation and assures interoperability. The discussion that follows the RFC document in this thesis focuses on the process of transferring scientific findings gained from the experiments on the deployment field into the Internet draft document that was finally recognized as an experimental RFC within the IRTF. / Godkänd; 2014; 20140407 (samo); Nedanstående person kommer att disputera för avläggande av teknologie doktorsexamen. Namn: Samo Grasic Ämne: Arbetsvetenskap/Human Work Science Avhandling: Development and Deployment of Delay Tolerant Networks: An Arctic Village Case Opponent: Professor Lars Wolf, Institut für Betriebssysteme und Rechneverbund, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Tyskland Ordförande: Docent Maria Udén, Avd för arbetsvetenskap, Institutionen för ekonomi, teknik och samhälle, Luleå tekniska universitet Tid: Måndag den 12 maj 2014, kl 10.00 Plats: A109, Luleå tekniska universitet För Tekniska fakultetsnämnden / Networking for Communications Challenged Communities: Architecture, Test Beds and Innovative Alliances