This article is a summary of the work carried out by the Ministry of Education in Turkey, in terms of the development of a new ICT Curriculum, together with the e-Training of teachers who will play an important role in the forthcoming pilot study. Based on recent literature on the topic, the article starts by introducing the “F@tih Project”, a national project that aims to effectively integrate technology into schools. After assessing teachers’ and students’ ICT competencies, as defined internationally, the review continues with the proposed model for the e-training of teachers. Summarizing the process of development of the new ICT curriculum, researchers underline key points of the curriculum such as dimensions, levels and competencies. Then teachers’ e-training approaches, together with selected tools, are explained in line with the importance and stages of action research that will be used throughout the pilot implementation of the curriculum and e-training process.

No description available.

A prototype multimodal tablet application for learning the physics of motion has been developed tested and evaluated. By moving their finger across the screen the application enables the user to map its position and velocity in real-time in terms of graphs. The learning outcome of those test subjects using the application was compared to a group that had the same procedure shown to them, as well as getting an explanation of all the physics involved. There was a small but not significant difference in performance between these groups on a post-test. However, a larger (arguably significant) difference was seen between the male and female test subjects for the sub-set of questions of a more analytical nature.

This thesis examines the effect of absenteeism on education quality for primary-aged public school students in the Department of Loreto, Province of Maynas, situated in the Amazonian region of north-eastern Peru. The thesis also examines the underlying reasons for absenteeism, with a focus on the contribution of childhood morbidity and socio-economic and environmental context to absenteeism, using both gender- and grade-based analyses of student level absenteeism data collected from a sample of schools in the study area. A five-component model with multiple individual indicators measuring each component of education systems defines the concept of education quality as it relates to the analysis in the thesis. The model has been demonstrated in previous research to be effective in explaining variations in education quality in Peru and elsewhere. However, the model has not been applied to this important yet under-researched area of education assessment, namely student absenteeism (at the student and school level) and its effect on education quality. In addition, spatial variations in absenteeism, based on the geographic distribution of the schools over the study area, are evaluated. This analysis allows spatial regularities or spatial randomness to be established for both absenteeism and education quality in the study area. Identifying spatial clustering of public primary schools where a high rate of student absenteeism contributes significantly to explaining overall low levels of education quality can provide education policy planners and decision-makers with insights into causal processes that need to be addressed through planned interventions in the education system.

This thesis examines the effect of absenteeism on education quality for primary-aged public school students in the Department of Loreto, Province of Maynas, situated in the Amazonian region of north-eastern Peru. The thesis also examines the underlying reasons for absenteeism, with a focus on the contribution of childhood morbidity and socio-economic and environmental context to absenteeism, using both gender- and grade-based analyses of student level absenteeism data collected from a sample of schools in the study area. A five-component model with multiple individual indicators measuring each component of education systems defines the concept of education quality as it relates to the analysis in the thesis. The model has been demonstrated in previous research to be effective in explaining variations in education quality in Peru and elsewhere. However, the model has not been applied to this important yet under-researched area of education assessment, namely student absenteeism (at the student and school level) and its effect on education quality. In addition, spatial variations in absenteeism, based on the geographic distribution of the schools over the study area, are evaluated. This analysis allows spatial regularities or spatial randomness to be established for both absenteeism and education quality in the study area. Identifying spatial clustering of public primary schools where a high rate of student absenteeism contributes significantly to explaining overall low levels of education quality can provide education policy planners and decision-makers with insights into causal processes that need to be addressed through planned interventions in the education system.

The purpose of this study is to outline students’ attitudes towards ICT in the learning of English. The research was carried out as action research at a vocational high school in Sweden. The study aims at giving answers to the questions what the students’ attitudes towards ICT are, to what extent they think that ICT affects their learning and if ICT use changes their attitudes towards English. The students had little or no previous experience of ICT. For a period of two months, they used ICT in their English studies. This work was organized according to Svensson’s (2008) definitions ICT as a tutor, ICT as a tool and ICT as an arena, which are connected to behavioristic, cognitive/constructive and social constructivist/socio-cultural learning perspectives, respectively. For example, the students read and listened to texts online, wrote their own dialogues for a movie and maintained their own blogs. After each module, they evaluated the method and at the end of the project they were interviewed. The study shows that most of the students were positive towards ICT in learning English. They were most positive towards ICT as a tutor, which was interesting given that behavioristic ways of learning are often criticized by today’s scholars. Furthermore, the students claimed that ICT gives them new opportunities to learn. Not surprisingly, to learn in a way that suits the individual learner was seen as positive. They stated that it was difficult to comment on the impact that ICT might have had on their performance after such a limited period of time, but they indicated that they thought that they had improved at least a little. During the interviews, a few students claimed to have changed their attitudes towards English a little, in a positive way, but it was difficult to confirm this after such short time.

India is often considered to be a high tech country; however there are substantial differences in both adaptation and use of new technology between urban and rural areas. Many times women are excluded from the technological development due to social norms and traditions. The use of cell phones in India has increased profoundly in recent years; meanwhile the use of computers spreads at a much lower rate. Still the women are not making full use of these new communication technologies. In order to investigate this, a field study in Tuticorin area in South East India was conducted, where interviews with small-scale businesswomen were carried out. The purpose of this degree project is to investigate the current use of Information and Communication Technologies, ICT, among women in the area in order to assess the value of cell phones and identify barriers for the use of computers as communication tools. The empirical findings show that the four women mainly studied, all used cell phones within their businesses, but to different extents. Using the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing group’s network theory and the resource based 4R-model, we have analysed the current use cell phones as well as barriers and enabling factors for the use of communication technologies. The main barrier for the cell phone use is the ownership issue, limiting the women’s access. For cell phones, low prices and accessible knowledge enable the spread and use, whereas the same factors can create barriers for the use of computers.

The purpose of this paper is to build a comprehensive indicator of Information Communication Technology (ICT). We first develop an ICT indicator for Taiwan high-technology industries. We then extend the Bresnahan, Brynjolffson and Hitt (2000) model to measure the impact of ICTs on economic performance and organization structure. In this paper, a new measure of ICTs provides a more complete picture of ICT activity in Taiwan high-technology industry.

This study aimed to realize the relationship between learning styles and use of information communication and technologies (ICTs) of older adults in Taiwan, specifically how the learning styles of the elders predict their use of ICTs. Data was collected from a sample of 313 senior adults who are above 55 years of age in the senior centers in Kaohsiung City. The instrument of the Elders¡¦ Access and Use of ICT Questionnaire was developed by the author bases on Selwyn, Gorard & Furlong¡¦s Adult Learning @ Home Questionnaire 2002 and related literature. In addition, the researcher also investigated the learning style preferences using Kolb Learning Style Inventory. The findings from the research summarized as follows: (a) most of the participants were the ¡§Accommodators¡¨, (b) in terms of access and use of ICTs, the older adults had more access to communication technologies than to information technologies , (c) receiving the videio/visual informtation is the main activity when elders used ICTs (d) and there was a significantly positive correlation between concrete experiences/ active experimentation and their frequency of ICTs use while a significantly negative correlation between abstract conceptualization/ reflective observation and frequency of ICTs use. Specifically, (e) active experience is to the most significant predictor to the older adults¡¦ ICTs use. Recommendations were also provided based on the findings of this study. It is recommended the the government should encourage elders under 64 years old to use the ICTs, viewing them as important human resources and and provide assistance to retrain their IT skills . For the elders who were above 65 years of age, they should receive more opportunities to access ICTs and develop positive attitudes towards the use of ICTs. Results from this study provided suggestions and implications to the government, institutions and organizations on ICT policy implementations to make elders become productive human resources, and to help them age productively to achieve self-realization for the purpose of life long learning.

<p>The accelerating growth of e-business and technologies has raised the interest in transforming traditional business models or developing new ones. Most of the e-business model research has been devoted to giving taxonomies of e-business models. Though defining e-business model and decomposing it into atomic elements traditionally has been a task for researchers, the concepts surrounding them have been subject to debate lately. While there is an extensive research conducted towards identifying and analyzing key components in e-business models, limited research has been noted in identifying component values or factors and the interconnections between components. In this thesis we review the e-business models literature using literature study in order to give an overview of e-business model definitions, identify the component values and interconnections between components and finally a framework provided that shows all these components, values and interconnections.</p>