The impact of technology in society nowadays has led to significant curricular reforms around the world that aim to achieve a higher quality in education. Mexico has not been the exception and in 2008, the Reforma Integral de la Educación Media Superior, RIEMS (the Comprehensive Reform of Upper Secondary Education) was launched with the aim to overcome three challenges in upper secondary education in Mexico: access to education, quality and equity. The proper development of this educational level would represent a fundamental assumption that the country could respond to the challenges of the global economy in a context of equity and diversity. In this context, the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in schools has become a required tool considered as the necessary action for the qualitative improvement of the teaching and learning process. This provides many possibilities, but also new demands. One of the most important challenges concerns the teaching task and the fact that teachers are required to play a different role from the traditional approach that they are used to using in class and which is common in classrooms in Mexico, becoming instead facilitators of the learning process. This thesis was carried out to explore how EFL teachers engage with ICT in their practice in the context of Mexican reform initiatives. Specifically, the study focused on teacher cognition to understand what teachers think, know, believe and do related to ICT adoption. A case study approach was used to collect data from three EFL teachers in a high school in Mexico through interviews, observations and stimulated recall sessions. The results show that the participant teachers face a challenging, complex, multifactorial situation that hinders their adoption of ICT. The organisational structures of schooling and the social dimension of the particular school setting impact negatively on the conceptions that teachers bring to their practice making it difficult for ICT tools to be explored and appropriated pedagogically.

Definice informatiky jako vědy, trendů a budoucího vývoje. Definice a popis 5 základních informatických studijních oborů. Stanovení metodiky pro porovnávání kvality ve výuce informatiky. Srovnání 19 vysokých škol a univerzit ve 4 evropských zemích, které informatické předměty vyučují. Tvorba základních studijních plánů pro informatické obory.

Popis komunikačního procesu a jeho náležitostí, stručný popis vývoje IT/ICT a souvisejících změn v systému práce a manažerských pojetí. Seznam a popis nejvýznamnějších současných technologií a jejich přínosů, včetně vývojových trendů této oblasti. Vzájemná konfrontace IT/ICT a komunikace s upozorněním na nejvýraznější změny v procesu komunikace a s nimi souvisejícího lidského jednání a prožívání. Výsledky analýzy způsobů komunikace realizované v nejmenované bance. Zdůvodnění a vysvětlení některých zjištěných jevů a formulace případných návrhů na jejich zlepšení.

Teoretické vymezení informatiky a informační společnosti. Vztah ICT a ekonomiky, vliv ICT na makroekonomické veličiny a produktivitu firem. Informační společnost v ČR (infrastruktura, trh práce, využití ICT, vliv na českou ekonomiku). Teoretické vymezení informatiky z hlediska výuky, rozdělení na jednotlivé obory a tématické oblasti a jejich definice. Stanovení metodiky hodnocení a srovnávání výuky na vysokých školách. Provedení hodnocení a srovnání výuky u pěti vybraných českých a pěti amerických škol. Stanovení optimálních studijních plánů pro jednotlivé studijní obory.

Cílem této práce je uspořádat a obohatit teoretickou základnu řízení rizik v projektovém managementu, analyzovat a zhodnotit přístup k této problematice dle metodiky PMBOK a poskytnout základní praktický pohled na řízení rizik ve skutečných projektech z oblasti IS/ICT. Vlastní text je strukturován do sedmi kapitol, z nichž první poskytuje úvod a vymezení celé práce. Ve druhé kapitole je proveden úvod do oblasti řízení rizik v projektech a dále analyzován přístup a základní principy metodiky řízení projektu PMBOK. Ve třetí kapitole je uveden seznam projektových rizik, který byl vytvořen a popsán na základě průzkumu literatury, diskusí s odborníky a praktických zkušeností autora. Ve čtvrté kapitole, která obsahuje řadu nových teoretických pojmů, jsou poté popsány autorem identifikované různé způsoby řízení rizik projektu podle jeho základních charakteristik. Pátá kapitola se zaměřuje na posouzení metodiky PMBOK vzhledem ke všem zjištěným typům rizik a identifikovaným způsobům jejich řízení a pokouší se o její doplnění. V šesté kapitole jsou konečně využity všechny poznatky získané ve všech předchozích kapitolách a je provedena jejich aplikace na oblast IS/ICT, mimo jiné pomocí vzorového příkladu obsahujícího některé autorem navržené analytické nástroje. V sedmé kapitole je provedeno závěrečné zhodnocení.

The main goal of this thesis is to map and determinate position of ICT sector in the Czech economy and estimate competitiveness of this segment in the scope of economy of the Czech Republic. The first part explores and evaluates topical position of ICT sector in the Czech Republic, mainly by analyzing basic statistical data about the economic and employment impact of all ICT firms as a whole. There is also calculated effectiveness of each sector of the economy. This part provides a basic image of the ICT sector position compared to other sectors of the Czech economy. The second part continues with the research made in the first part, but on an aggregate level. It summarizes and visualizes changes in aggregated parts of economy in chronological order. Sectors of economy are aggregated to three groups according to their absorption of ICT. The third part expands previous analysis of a global scale. It summarizes and comments the Global Competitiveness Report published by World Economic Forum. This chapter provides clear review of competitiveness of Czech Republic compared to European Union, with accent on ICT sector. The last part is aimed at new methodology of scoring projects developed by the Department of Information Technologies at the University of Economics, Prague. It also sets some recommendations for future methodology. This part contains the library of case studies worked up in new methodology. Finally, there is summary of findings made during the process of exploring selected area of research which evaluates the contribution of the whole thesis as a whole to the researched topic.

The need for construction to change its traditional working practices has been repeatedly expressed in government, industry, and academic publications. The Internet has been a major catalyst for change in most industry sectors, including the construction sector. The implementation of Internet-based technologies, such as ecommerce for achieving business targets, bring about changes in an organisation, its current practices, systems, processes and workflows. It is therefore important to evaluate the business process implications of adopting e-commerce in construction organisations. This was the focus of this study. The early stages of the research established the possible benefits, barriers, and drivers for the adoption of e-commerce technologies within construction. This was done by conducting an industry-wide survey that explored attitudes, current usage, barriers and enablers of IT and e-commerce within the UK construction sector. Survey results indicated that the exact benefits of using e-commerce within the construction industry were not known and more needed to be done to establish the effects of incorporating e-commerce applications into construction business processes and to demonstrate the opportunities of e-commerce for construction. To address this need a typical business process model that used the principles of business process re-engineering and demonstrated opportunities for e-commerce, was developed. Using this model it was possible to illustrate how, with the use of ecommerce applications, different members of the construction supply chain could derive business benefits and overcome traditional process inefficiencies. In order to effectively adopt e-commerce technologies in construction, companies may have to reengineer their current working methods, which could lead to a step change in current work practices. To facilitate such a step change it was essential to study and document the impact of specific e-commerce applications on their current end-user business processes. Case studies were conducted for this purpose. The case study findings showed that the end-user companies had accrued several business benefits from using e-commerce tools. Issues related to management buy-in and organisational culture were the main barriers to the wider use of e-commerce within the construction industry. The case studies and earlier findings indicated that e-commerce is 'here to stay' and it will not be long before it becomes an industry norm. Taking this into account, construction companies who are currently using, and those who have yet to use, e-commerce tools need to take measures to successfully adopt and benefit from these tools. It is important for companies that seek to adopt ecommerce to assess their 'e-readiness' for adopting e-commerce tools to ensure a productive and beneficial implementation of these tools. To address this need an ereadiness model for construction organisations and a prototype application, VERDICT, that assess e-readiness were developed and implemented. The model is based on the premise that for any company to be e-ready, its management, people, process and technology have to be e-ready in order to derive maximum business benefits. The research findings indicate that the use of e-commerce is still in its infancy within the construction industry. The current use of e-commerce has resulted in process automation, however, there is no evidence of process re-engineering. Such practices, although beneficial in the short-term, can have long-term implications in that the end-users are not necessarily making full use of the technology and hence not deriving full benefits from it. The model and e-readiness assessment prototype developed as part of this study will enable construction organisations to successfully adopt e-commerce and exploit its potential.

This master thesis examines Directive 2014/66/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on the conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals in the framework of an intra-corporate transfer, the so-called ICT-directive and its corresponding rules in the Swedish legal framework with a main point on the principles of good administration. This issue is deliberated in relation to the direct effect of the European Union and the national procedural and institutional autonomy to determine whether the Directive’s procedural safeguards have been implemented satisfactorily. The principle of good administration has a wide comprehension and therefore, in this thesis, the focus is on the right to have his or her affairs handled impartially and fairly, an obligation of the administration to give reasons for its decisions and a right to be heard in the Directive and the corresponding rules of the Swedish utlänningslagen (2005:716) and utlänningsförordningen (2006:97) also with consideration to the Swedish förvaltningslagen (1986:223) and the new förvaltningslagen (2017:900). This master thesis is based on the legal-judicial and comparative law approaches to solve the legal problems that arise after the national implementation of this Directive. Finally, criticism has been directed towards the principle of good administration in the Union law and Swedish law. / I denna magisteruppsats analyseras Europaparlamentets och rådets direktiv 2014/66/EU om villkor för inresa och vistelse för tredjelandsmedborgare inom ramen för företagsintern förflyttning av personal, det så kallade ICT-direktivet (Intra-Corporate Transfer) och de motsvarande reglerna i den svenska rätten med tonvikt på principen om god förvaltning. Ämnet behandlas i förhållande till Europeiska unionens direkta effekt och den nationella processuella och institutionella autonomin för att undersöka huruvida direktivets rättssäkerhetsgarantier har implementerats på ett tillfredställande sätt. Principen om god förvaltning har en bred förståelse och i denna uppsats sätts fokus på omsorgsprincipen, motiveringsskyldigheten och rätten att bli hörd i ICT-direktivet och de motsvarande reglerna i den svenska utlänningslagen (2005:716) och utlänningsförordningen (2006:97) samt med beaktande av förvaltningslagen (1986:223) och den nya förvaltningslagen (2017:900). Magisteruppsatsen tillämpar den rättsdogmatiska och komparativrättsliga metoden för att lösa de juridiska problemen som uppkommer vid den nationella implementeringen av ICT-direktivet. Slutligen har kritik riktats till principen om god förvaltning i unionsrätten och i den svenska rätten.

Growing pressure is being placed upon educational institutions as students, employers and governments look at the economic, demographic and technological environments of the present, expecting them to have the answers for the future. Many institutions are turning to information and communication technology (ICT) for some of these answers. The focus of this study is two fold - the use of ICT in teaching and learning by teaching staff within an Australian tertiary institution (Curtin University of Technology) and the mechanisms the University has established in order to realign themselves with the information age. At certain stages these two coincide to provide an insight into the organisational culture and teaching environment of one Australian University. The key research questions that guided this study are as follows: How are Curtin University teaching staff utilising ICT in their teaching and learning?; What is the relationship between the ICT behaviour of a University's teaching staff and the strategies used to implement the University's ICT strategic planning initiatives?; What is an appropriate model for future implementation of ICT into teaching and learning at an Australian university? A combination of qualitative (interview and case study techniques) and quantitative (survey and Likert-type instruments) methods was employed. Overall, this study can be described as longitudinal in nature, relying upon such tools as observation, interviews and survey instruments, to collect data at appropriate points in time from the various samples. Since it has already been acknowledged that such change takes time, the study focused specifically on those changes which occurred during the two academic years (1999-2000) at Curtin University of Technology. / It appears that the critical mass stage for integrating ICT into teaching and learning has been reached by the teaching staff involved in the Curtin survey sample. The most common teaching mode adopted by the survey sample is the traditional lecture and tutorial (workshop or laboratory) mode. However, the data revealed that over the 16 month period of the study there was a large increase in the use of Web-based material for teaching and learning. The data revealed that a number of factors emerged which affected the adoption of ICT. These factors included: leadership across the university, attitude toward the use of ICT; the perceived benefits of adopting ICT in teaching and learning; incentives, modeling mechanisms, the provision of adequate support structures; the time factor; training; facilities and resources. The reflective monitoring system utilised in this study (the TracIT reports) revealed the changes in ICT behaviour and the changes in the ICT environment, as well as the source of initiation of the change. It appears that most of the 'real changes' which occurred in the teaching practice of the case study sample were individually driven, with some others being influenced by their own Department/School or by student pressure. The study also found that the adoption of ICT into the working environment of a university teacher significantly increases the workload of individual staff. The existence of transformational leadership across all levels of the University was identified as a major factor in the promotion and adoption of ICT and ultimately the development of a truly professional learning community. / From the extensive data collected in this longitudinal study an empirical model or framework, the "Curtin University Professional Learning Community Model", was introduced. Many of the teaching staff at Curtin University involved in this particular study have clearly demonstrated their commitment to the adoption of ICT for teaching and learning. The detailed case study data has also revealed that many of the teaching staff possess professional attributes which would be admired and valued in any university. Universities are facing the challenge of identifying what role ICT will play in the future of higher education and how to implement the appropriate strategies which will meet these needs. This study has found that the key to meeting the challenge seems to be to harness strategies that lead to the development of a professional learning community. The Curtin University Professional Learning Community Model has identified the key elements which need to be in place if the use of ICT for teaching and learning is to be not only adopted, but sustained and more importantly, effective in the teaching and learning process. This study has clearly revealed that it is only through the synergy of university commitment and individual commitment that real change can actually take place, the change in this case being the adoption of ICT in teaching and learning practices. The strategies suggested by the empirically derived model can begin this journey to a truly professional learning community.

Worldwide, governments and representatives of the community sector believe that the adoption of ICT by community-sector organisations is important because it contributes to the achievement of mission, strategic and business objectives, and benefits the communities those organisations serve. However, despite the fact that many organisations have developed innovative ICT applications, most experience problems in taking up ICT (Burt & Taylor 1999, Surman 2001, DCITA 2005b). This thesis explores the conditions for success and barriers to the take-up and effective use of information and communications technology (ICT), specifically websites and online services, by community-based non-profit organisations, using a study of seventeen organisations based in rural and regional Victoria in Australia, and Tuscany in Italy. In particular, it examines the structural barriers and the inter-organisational relationships that act to facilitate the take-up, or otherwise, of technology by community sector non-profit organisations. The study adopts a grounded theory approach, based on a two-stage data analysis: using the LIAISE framework for the take-up of ICT (Schauder et al. 2005), to identify the factors or conditions that contribute to the development of effective, sustainable websites; and social network analysis to explore the extent to which organisational networks enable the achievement of those conditions. The broad aims of this approach are to enable the evaluation of the existing LIAISE framework and to develop it as a more dynamic systems model capable of serving as a guide to policy and action. The study finds that although the LIAISE framework provides a good taxonomy of the factors important to the take-up of ICT by community-based non-profit organisations, it has weaknesses in that it does not explicitly identify user literacy as a factor, nor does it sufficiently emphasise the importance of an organisation’s external relationships, which provide an essential means of accessing required information and resources such as technical skills, and of enhancing core internal skills such as the ability to develop strategic plans. A new model is proposed to address these weaknesses: ALLIANCE (Applications; Literacy; user Literacy; Infrastructure; Access; Networks; Computing support; and Evaluation).