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The final thesis deals with the mapping of the use of network media as one of the tools of political communication during events, that are called Arab Spring (Arab revolution). It is based on the hypothesis, that some people in non-democratic countries are able to effectively deal with information and are able to spread it efficiently among themselves and beyond their country through network media. All this despite of the fact that in these modes is censorship, restriction or Internet blocking. It provides the evidence, that the use of the network media is, that they help to inform the world about events in the country, that held protests or riots. Social networks are not used to organize and coordinate protests, as they were often attributed by the media. Network media acted more as an alternative channel of information to the outside of the country.

In his dissertation thesis, the author elaborates on a new position from which both information society theory and digital divide research could be analyzed as active participants in a large-scale societal reconstruction. The text begins with the reconstruction of the argumentation core of information society theories, which is then utilized when choosing their latest, most respected, and most elaborated version. In the following chapter, the author presents the composition of Manuel Castells' information society theory and its tight relationship with the digital divide issue. In the final parts of this chapter, the author reveals the key position of the digital divide issue in solving the contradictions and negative aspects of informatization. The chapter is concluded by finding out the absence of the link between digital divide and information society theory in the preceding criticism of Castells' work. In the fourth part, the development, arguments, and empirical evidence of the digital divide research are presented, followed by identification of the limits of contemporary academic digital divide discourse. In the sixth chapter, the author tries to overcome these limits by proposing a new empirical evidence better fitting model of the digital divide. The thesis is concluded by thinking over the...

Digitalization has made it possible for organizations to propose value to their customers through digital services. Meanwhile, due to digital development, the digital divide has increased in society, since many older adults do not know how to use the proposed digital services.   The purpose of this study was to investigate the challenges and dilemmas that older adults face within digital services and how organizations can co-create value with older adults to maintain them and attract them as their customers. This study aimed to analyze existing data, but also to embrace new findings, therefore, an abductive approach has been used. Seven interviews were accomplished, one with the head of sales development at our case organization Skånetrafiken, and six interviews with older adults, who contributed with their thoughts about the digitalization, digital services, and value.   The digital divide does not only depend on the digitalization but also that older adults feel forgotten as customers since they do not follow with the digital development, which leads to older adults not knowing how to use digital services. Organizations may co-create value with older adults through a change of mindset, education, information, and interaction. Moreover, this may lead to that organizations attract and maintain older adults as their customers, meanwhile minimize the digital divide.   The context of this study has a few limitations that may affect trustworthiness. Firstly, only one region was taken into consideration. Secondly, this study could have contained more participants in interviews with older adults. Lastly, due to Covid-19, there was no possibility of having physical interviews, which set limits for reading body language and facial expressions. However, future researchers may consider these limitations and hopefully can contribute to more research on this widespread topic.   Although the findings are related to the cases of older adults and Skånetrafiken, this study contributes with original insights into the field of the digital divide, older adults, and value co-creation.

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To obtain the purpose of this study, three following questions were asked:● How are three government agencies working with the transition to the increased amount of digital services?● What effects does digitalization have on the selected authorities?● How do they counteract the risk that some individuals will find it difficult to take advantage of the authorities services at a time when an increased amount of work is being transferred to digital forms?Since digitalization of the public sector first occurred around the year of 2010 in Europe, Sweden has been one of the frontrunners in the development of digitalizing their public sector. Despite Sweden’s good use of digitalization it is clear that a digital divide exists in the northern country within different public authorities. The main purpose of this study is to describe how the Swedish authorities; the Swedish Tax Agency, the Swedish social insurance agency and the Swedish pensions agency include the excluded target groups and individuals who are within the digital divide. This was formed following the increased digitalization of self-service services. The purpose is also to see the similarities and differences between the authorities linked to theories and strategies. The empirical material has been collected from interviews and previous research. The method used in this study is a qualitative and comparative approach to successfully investigate differences between the selected authorities. The main conclusion is that there is a clear digital divide, especially within the older target group. As for the effects of the digitalized public authorities, some of the advantages refer to cost-benefits and a more open, efficient and accessible authorities. Although there are also disadvantages such as risks to unsee/miss important details in individual cases and that the selected authorities indirectly fail their social responsibility: to include all citizens. The authorities combine personal meetings with digital services to minimize the digital divide.

The PDA is an important technology in clinical medicine. Although PDAs are widely utilized by medical students and residents, older teaching faculty have not readily adopted them. The medical library can position itself as a leader in training patrons to use these devices. The East Tennessee State University (ETSU) Quillen College of Medicine Library (QCOML) staff trained older, experienced teaching faculty to use PDAs loaded with ePocrates and InfoRetriever databases. The training was rated highly and several faculty members became PDA users. The library is now considered the place to go on campus for PDA help.

Our digital world is accelerating at a rapid pace and has made technology a prime component of today’s societies. The development of digitalization affects us all in one way or another but it primarily affects our senior citizens, those who may possess a less developed knowledge within the field. How do senior citizens experience digitalization and its effects on their everyday lives?. This thesis conducted with phenomenographic semi-structured interviews aims to analyze and grasp how senior citizens experience and perceive the developing digitalization in the western world. Studies stresses how technology and digitalization increase information and communication spread in our societies and can be an efficient tool for staying in touch with relatives and close friends living far away. The results of this study, however, emphasizes on the, less talked about, negative aspects of digitalization.   The collected material consists of the answers extracted from eight interviews with male and females aged 65-80+ and these answers are categorized into similarities and differences seen in the interviews. Theoretical perspective of digital divide, ageism, visions of time, concept of experience and social imaginaries were applied to the extracted material to place the experiences in a context. The analysis clearly presents a difference between the genders and their relation to digitalization and it does relate to previous integration and knowledge with the technological field. The male interviewees communicate positive experiences with the digital world as a majority of them have been in contact with technology during their working life. The women on the other hand have more dull perceptions of digitalization and are experiencing feelings of fear of falling behind in the digital world. Self-efficacy and acceleration of time, society, and the digital world play part in how digitalization is experienced and perceived by senior citizens, a generation which may find themselves in a situation where they are unwillingly excluded from the digital society due to lack of previous knowledge and the opportunity to learn without requirements from society.

In the spring of 2020, nearly every school aged student and K-12 teacher across the United States was forced to participate in remote educational activities online, prompting an unexpected departure from the status quo in public education. This was a result of government mandated social distancing practices, as a mitigation strategy for combating the global pandemic induced by the novel coronavirus. Most school districts were compelled to repurpose their daily practices by rapidly planning to ascertain resources for the implementation of an emergency remote education initiative. These unprecedented events presented many challenges for educators, especially given most had no formal training for conducting online instructional delivery utilizing various technologies. Special education teachers in particular confronted a unique set of challenges when considering how to support the complex needs of diverse learners. This included student support for engagement with access to technology, knowledge of various applied technological pedagogical skills, teacher preparation, technical training, ongoing professional support, interactions with stakeholders, and individual social emotional well-being. The purpose of this study was to determine how special education teachers perceived various aspects of their experiences, when teaching remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. A survey was designed to measure these perceptions containing aligned items to the domains of the technological pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK) framework. The COVID-19 Special Education Teacher Survey (C-SETS) was a 42 item questionnaire set on a 5-point Likert scale that contained an additional open-ended question. It was administered online and completed by 280 participants, across 46 states, primarily via a social media platform. While the results demonstrated that special education teachers overall were technically skilled, had increased communication with parents/caregivers, and gained skills for future practices, there was a significantly insufficient level of preparation, a deficit with various pedagogical skills using technology, less collaboration with IEP team members, inconsistent student engagement, varying access to technology, a lack of technical training, ongoing professional development and support, contributing to social emotional stress, anxiety and fatigue. Aspects of these findings were particularly evident in historically under resourced districts and those that did not participate in technology infrastructure initiatives, where an overwhelming majority of the statistically significant differences, with the exception of respondents' level of educational attainment, were attributed to school characteristics. Implications for future teacher preparation, technical training, ongoing professional development, and best practices are presented. Keywords: Special Education, COVID-19, Teacher Preparation, TPACK, Emergency Remote Education, Digital Divide, SEL, Educational Technology, Students with Disabilities, Technical Training, Professional Development, Social Media, Facebook, Pandemic, C-SETS / Special Education

Prior research has shown teachers’ attitudes, teachers’ preparation for using technology, and the availability of technology had significant positive associations with technology integration. However, research has shown that teachers do not fully utilize technology, they fail to implement it thoroughly due to a lack of time needed for planning the implementation of technology into the curriculum, and they do not have adequate training which contributes to underutilization of technology. Due to a lack of research from the teachers’ perspective of technology acceptance, the purpose of this study was to examine high school teachers’ acceptance and use of technology and determine the relationships between Performance Expectancy, Effort Expectancy, Social Influence, Facilitating Conditions and Privacy Concerns. To investigate the current status of adopting and implementing laptops in high schools, this study adopted the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model with an addition of Privacy Concerns. The online survey was sent in the fall semester of 2018 to teachers who taught in a North Mississippi School District that has implemented a 1:1 initiative laptop program. A total of 121 high school teachers made up the population and sample in the study, and 112 teachers replied with a 92% return rate. Overall, this study found that Performance Expectancy and Social Influence had the highest mean score at 5.6 (agree), and Privacy Concerns had the lowest mean score 3.8 (neutral), on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1 for ‘strongly disagree’ to 7 for ‘strongly agree.’ The average mean score for Performance Expectancy, Effort Expectancy, Social Influence, Facilitating Conditions, and Privacy Concerns was 5 (somewhat agree), indicating that teachers perceived all 5 variables somewhat affect high school teachers’ intention to accept and use of technology. When analyzing whether Performance Expectancy, Effort Expectancy, Social Influence, Facilitating Conditions, and Privacy Concerns predict high school teachers’ behavioral intention to accept technology, Effort Expectancy was the only variable that predicted teachers’ behavior intention to accept technology. The findings of this study will provide valuable information with the current status of adopting and implementing technology in the context of 1:1 initiative programs in high schools.