The aim of this study was to investigate the attitudes of students towards, and use of ICT in KHEIs (private- public), as well as identifying the factors that influence students‟ attitudes towards using ICT in their daily learning. Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was used to examine the influence of the factors: type of university, gender, academic discipline, language of learning, students‟ ICT experience and ICT support, on the Perceive Ease (PEOU) of Use and Perceive Usefulness (PU), as internal components of attitude. This study employed mixed research methods to achieve its aims and objectives. The study sample consisted of 717 students from the sciences and humanities at both the Public University and the private University in Kuwait. Quantitative and qualitative data were gathered from students by distributing questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The principal quantitative results of this study were: (1) the overall attitude of public university students towards using ICT in their learning are more positive than the attitudes of students at the private university; (2) the type of university, gender, level of ICT experience and ICT support factors have an influence on students‟ attitudes through the PEOU and PU; (3) the factor of academic discipline only influences students in terms of the PEOU and PU, and (4) learning English has a positive influence on students‟ attitudes towards ICT. At the same time, the qualitative results show that the use of ICT tools in their English version can improve students‟ English language skills. Another qualitative result shows that the social communication between students and the peer learning can positively influence their attitude towards ICT, as well as improving their ICT experience and skills. Recommendations were subsequently made to stakeholders and educators at both universities, based on the findings of the study. Further ideas were then identified for future research.

The advance of information and communication technology speeds up year by year. At the same time, methodologies for objective measurement of the benefits of ICTs are still lacking behind. This difference then forms a void of unsatisfied information requirements about the state of ICTs from a business as well as national economy's point of view. This thesis summarizes theoretical background about possible ways of viewing and measuring ICT benefits (be that benefits for a person, society as a whole or economy as a whole). The practical part of the thesis analyzes data describing the state of ICT sector in the Czech economy. The first part looks at ways of measuring ICT benefits as they are seen by a number of other authors and described in many studies. This provides a summary of the possibilities to consider when looking at our topic. The second part uses conclusions from previous works on similar topics to set some recommendations for policy improvement as well as social development that will enable maximizing the achieved utility of ICTs. Third part evaluates the position of ICT sector in the Czech Republic by analyzing basic statistical data about the economic and employment impact of all ICT firms as a whole. This is compared to other sectors of the Czech economy. Last part provides a detailed description of the process to calculate output and employment multipliers for all the sectors of Czech economy and then calculates these values according to the process. In the end, there is a summary of the theoretical and practical findings described in all preceding chapters.

This diploma thesis focuses on the selection process of the enterprise information system in the enterprise. The general investment process and vendor selection process are described in the theoretical part. This part also includes the analysis of the specifics and differences of the selection process of the information system and recommended methodology for public tender. The optimized selection process of enterprise information system is designed on the basis of specialized literature and found deficiencies. The applicability of the proposed process in practice is assessed through comparison with a case study of a successful selection of an information system in the final part of the thesis. The design can be considered usable in practice according to the described transformation of the tender in the case study to the proposed process. The application of the thesis outputs brings reduction of the required effort and increases the success rate of the selection process of the enterprise information system.

The aim of the work is to analyze and describe the current status of the use of ICT in teaching and propose of appropriate use of ICT in education by the questionnaire survey of primary school pupils, secondary school students, teachers, and ICT coordinators in primary and secondary schools. The first four chapters are devoted to theory and explanation of basic concepts related to the topic of ICT in teaching. The first chapter defines the concept of ICT, its history, and it presents concrete examples of ICT. The second chapter focuses on ICT in teaching, learning theory, development of ICT application in education before and now, and the benefits of ICT in education. The third chapter describes roles in education in terms of ICT usage, such as the role of teachers and ICT coordinators, and attitudes of experts. The last theoretical part deals with international comparisons. The following chapters provide a description and analysis of the survey. The final chapter discusses the proposals and recommendations how to use ICT in teaching.

Today's environment of information society brings many changes. The main objective was to identify those changes which the development of the Internet affect business opportunities. A fundamental change is globalization and the related impact on marketing, strategic planning, record-keeping and human resource management. The thesis also focuses on the importance of education, experience and skills and their relationship to the business, which raises the question whether the current period has contributed to more successful business plans. Different levels of knowledge and experience, along with information literacy of individuals affect the use of modern information and communication technologies for formulating business plans. On real cases, the author applies theoretical knowledge and explains the context, because it shows that there is no demonstrable importance of Internet development to the success of business plans.

This work focuses on collaborative learning and how it canbe applied and supported in distance education. Previous workindi-cates that distance learners experience more loneliness,technical problems and lack of stimulation than face-to-facelearners do. Collaboration with peers may improve the feelingof connectedness and engagement. However, collaborativelearning is not the answer to all problems in distanceeducation--and it creates new problems. The present workexplores problems, opportunities and processes whencollaborative learning is introduced in distance education--andsuggests solutions. Related research on distance education andcomputer-supported collaborative learning is reviewed andrelated to own research. The different roles of information andcommunication technology in these areas are described. Six own research papers are reviewed and integrated. Threeof them explore university courses on computer use in society.Learners interacted mainly through a forum system, i.e. asystem for text-based, asynchronous electronic conferences anddiscussions. The special character offorum communication hadan impact on communication and collaboration processes. Onepaper summarizes these results and deduces a first list of tipsto teachers and systems designers, aiming to reduce problemsand take advantage of collabo-rative-learningopportunities. One paper, a report to the Swedish School Board, provides anoverview of research on distance education, withrecommendations for use in secondary schools. To get a broader picture of distance-education learners andtheir special situation and interests, a study was conducted inAustralia. Most of the learners were secondary-school students,living far away from towns. Communication was normallyrestricted to mail, radio and telephone. Opportunities forcollaboration between peers were rare, and correspondencetraditions and the lack of technological infrastructure weredelaying changes. However, a development towards morecollaborative learning had started. Empirical data were gathered ethnographically in naturalcourse settings. Results were analysed using 'activity theory'as a framework. The main contribution of this work is a description of howthree groups of learning processes develop and interact: (a) ofcontent, (b) of communication, and (c) of collaboration. Theyform the spiralling model of a"Triple Helix". Finally, detailed advice is given aschecklists to organisations, teachers, learners and systemdesigners. Keywords:Distance education, Collaborative learning,Computer-supported collaborative learning, Information andcommuni-cation technology, ICT, Forum system, Learningprocesses. / <p>NR 20140805</p>

Orientador: Marko Synésio Alves Monteiro / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Geociências / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-27T02:29:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Lopes_LuccaVichr_M.pdf: 1658388 bytes, checksum: 82f02c1d5db6f29f00acd776b4dd259b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015 / Resumo: O que convencionou-se chamar de inclusão digital constitui, em verdade, um emaranhado de conceituações que convergem ao suposto de que, ao proporcionar o acesso à informação, estas tecnologias podem trazer uma melhora real na qualidade de vida das pessoas que as utilizam. É possível que o acesso a um computador (e à internet) possibilite esta melhora, mas os condicionantes para que isto ocorra envolvem desde a qualidade do equipamento técnico utilizado à destreza com que o usuário interage com a máquina. De acordo com o Comitê Gestor da Internet (CGI), moradores de áreas rurais, de baixas renda e escolaridade representam, em linhas gerais, o caso mais extremo de exclusão digital. Neste estudo, partirei da Teoria Ator-Rede (TAR) e de seu ferramental etnográfico, para evidenciar alguns destes condicionantes a partir da experiência em uma área rural no interior de São Paulo. Para isto, ministrei dez aulas sobre conteúdos básicos de informática a alunos do ensino médio de uma escola pública rural. Busquei deste modo, compreender como ocorre o acesso destas populações em áreas rurais, como se utilizam destas tecnologias e quais os condicionantes que caracterizam a inclusão digital nestas localidades. Apesar de, a princípio, a combinação entre a baixa renda per capita e a localização geográfica rural serem fortemente correlacionados à exclusão digital, os indivíduos com os quais tive contato mostraram-se criativos para driblar a ausência de acesso à internet. Com base nos estudos de Mol (2002), as conclusões deste trabalho sugerem que diversos atores ¿ sejam governos, empresas, ONGs e mesmo tecnologias ¿ performam, cada um a seu modo, uma multiplicidade de inclusões digitais. De forma análoga, cada indivíduos performa de forma única suas relações com artefatos digitais / Abstract: What is conventionally called digital inclusion consists, in fact, in a variety of concepts that converge to the pressupost that access to these technologies can bring a real improvement in quality of life of those who use it. It¿s arguable that access to a computer (and internet) allows this improvement; nevertheless the conditioners for that to occur include issues from the quality of the technical equipment utilized till the user¿s skill when interacting with that machine. According to CGI (Comitê Gestor da Internet), dwellers from countryside areas, low income and level of education represent, in general, the most extreme case of digital exclusion. This study utilizes the Actor-Network Teory (ANT) and it¿s ethnography¿s tools to evidence some of these conditioners trough my experience in a rural area located in the countryside of Sao Paulo. To reach this purpose, I ministered ten classes about basic subjects of computers and data processing to high school students in a public rural school. The goal was to comprehend how these populations access digital networks in rural areas, how they utilize these technologies and which are the conditioners that characterize digital inclusion in this area. Besides that the combination of low per capita income and geo-localization of these areas comes to be strongly related to digital exclusion, individuals with who I¿ve had contact showed to be very creative to dribble the absence of internet access.Based on Mol (2002), the findings of this study suggest that many actors - whether governments, companies, NGOs and even technologies ¿ enact, each in its own way, a multitude of digital inclusions. Similarly, each individual enact uniquely its relations with digital artifacts / Mestrado / Politica Cientifica e Tecnologica / Mestre em Política Científica e Tecnológica

Made available in DSpace on 2016-01-26T18:49:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao.pdf: 420190 bytes, checksum: 3a62032eb98d7ccc02c7beb3e5384b00 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-08-25 / This research was carried out to analyze the insertion of ITC (Information Technologies and Communication) into the senior high school context, from the its students and teachers standpoints. The methodology we have adopted focused on the study of the item at issue according to a qualitative approach and the subjects of the research comprised 25 students and 6 teachers of that school. To collect the data we resorted to the application of questionnaires and group interview with both students and teachers. The outcomes show that technologies are part of one s everyday life, both for students and teachers, but within the context of the school environment their use does not correspond to reality. Students believe that ITC are important means for facilitating communication, stimulating interest and increasing motivation, however, they argue that such technologies are not reliable sources of information and believe that the learning process requires the reading of books/textbooks and the taking of an attitude of attentiveness in class. Teachers admit the importance of such technologies as devices which facilitate interaction by means of communication, furthering meaningful learning, but they do not use ITC in their classes. This research may make a contribution encouraging educators reflection on reconciling both students and teachers standpoints in order to balance disparity between them concerning the use of ITC in school. / A presente pesquisa, intitulada As Tecnologias da Informação e Comunicação em uma Escola Pública de Ensino Médio na Ótica de Alunos e Professores, teve por objetivo analisar, a partir da ótica de alunos e professores do Ensino Médio, a inserção das TIC (Tecnologias da Informação e Comunicação) no contexto escolar. Como metodologia, optamos por estudo de caso com abordagem qualitativa, e os sujeitos da pesquisa foram 25 alunos e seis professores. Para a coleta de dados recorremos à aplicação de questionários e entrevista coletiva com os alunos e os professores. Os resultados indicaram que as tecnologias fazem parte do cotidiano, tanto dos alunos quanto dos professores, mas no ambiente escolar o uso das mesmas não é realidade. Os alunos acreditam que as TIC são importantes para a comunicação, o interesse e a motivação, entretanto, alegam não ser fonte de conhecimento confiável, e acreditam que para aprender é preciso estudar nos livros e prestar atenção às aulas. Os professores admitem a importância das tecnologias como ferramentas que facilitam a interação por meio da comunicação, favorecendo a aprendizagem significativa, mas não utilizam as TIC em suas aulas. A presente pesquisa pode contribuir com a reflexão, por parte dos educadores, na tentativa de conciliar o pensar dos alunos e o dos professores visando diminuir o descompasso existente entre eles quanto as TIC na escola.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-18T17:54:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao.pdf: 420190 bytes, checksum: 3a62032eb98d7ccc02c7beb3e5384b00 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-08-25 / This research was carried out to analyze the insertion of ITC (Information Technologies and Communication) into the senior high school context, from the its students and teachers standpoints. The methodology we have adopted focused on the study of the item at issue according to a qualitative approach and the subjects of the research comprised 25 students and 6 teachers of that school. To collect the data we resorted to the application of questionnaires and group interview with both students and teachers. The outcomes show that technologies are part of one s everyday life, both for students and teachers, but within the context of the school environment their use does not correspond to reality. Students believe that ITC are important means for facilitating communication, stimulating interest and increasing motivation, however, they argue that such technologies are not reliable sources of information and believe that the learning process requires the reading of books/textbooks and the taking of an attitude of attentiveness in class. Teachers admit the importance of such technologies as devices which facilitate interaction by means of communication, furthering meaningful learning, but they do not use ITC in their classes. This research may make a contribution encouraging educators reflection on reconciling both students and teachers standpoints in order to balance disparity between them concerning the use of ITC in school. / A presente pesquisa, intitulada As Tecnologias da Informação e Comunicação em uma Escola Pública de Ensino Médio na Ótica de Alunos e Professores, teve por objetivo analisar, a partir da ótica de alunos e professores do Ensino Médio, a inserção das TIC (Tecnologias da Informação e Comunicação) no contexto escolar. Como metodologia, optamos por estudo de caso com abordagem qualitativa, e os sujeitos da pesquisa foram 25 alunos e seis professores. Para a coleta de dados recorremos à aplicação de questionários e entrevista coletiva com os alunos e os professores. Os resultados indicaram que as tecnologias fazem parte do cotidiano, tanto dos alunos quanto dos professores, mas no ambiente escolar o uso das mesmas não é realidade. Os alunos acreditam que as TIC são importantes para a comunicação, o interesse e a motivação, entretanto, alegam não ser fonte de conhecimento confiável, e acreditam que para aprender é preciso estudar nos livros e prestar atenção às aulas. Os professores admitem a importância das tecnologias como ferramentas que facilitam a interação por meio da comunicação, favorecendo a aprendizagem significativa, mas não utilizam as TIC em suas aulas. A presente pesquisa pode contribuir com a reflexão, por parte dos educadores, na tentativa de conciliar o pensar dos alunos e o dos professores visando diminuir o descompasso existente entre eles quanto as TIC na escola.

Within a context of continuous population and economic growth, the future projections for agricultural products\' demand is impressive. At the same time, agriculture already exercises significant pressure on natural resources. As a consequence, the world needs to produce higher agricultural volumes while limiting agriculture\'s impacts on the environment. This thesis evaluates whether empirical indications exist that demonstrate how Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure development and usage could impact the sustainable development of agriculture. Drawing from the empirical literature on infrastructure\'s impacts on development, two statistical models are created. The first analyses impacts of Internet and mobile usage on cereal yields at a country level using Fixed Effects Panel Regression for 212 countries in five 5-year periods, from 1990 to 2014. The second uses a Propensity Score Matching Model to evaluate how the installation of 3G technology during the period between 2005 and 2009 in Brazilian municipalities located in the Amazon region affected deforestation. Based on the methodology and datasets used, results indicate that the growth of Internet users could have a positive impact on cereal productivity in a country. Results for mobile device users are inconclusive. Finally the second models indicate that municipalities in which 3G technology was installed had lower deforestation rates than similar municipalities lacking 3G technology. / Em um contexto de crescimento populacional e econômico, as projeções de demanda para produtos agrícolas no futuro são expressivas. Ao mesmo tempo, a agricultura já exerce pressão significativa nos recursos naturais do planeta. Como consequência, é preciso obter maior oferta de produtos e, ao mesmo tempo, limitar o impacto ambiental da atividade agrícola. Essa tese avalia o papel da infraestrutura e uso de Tecnologia da Informação e Comunicação (TIC) no desenvolvimento sustentável da agricultura. Baseando-se na literatura empírica sobre impacto de infraestrutura no desenvolvimento, dois modelos estatísticos foram criados. O primeiro analisa os impactos do uso de internet e telefones celulares na produtividade de cereais utilizando uma regressão em painel de efeitos fixos para 212 países no período entre 1990 e 2014. O segundo utiliza um modelo Propensity Score Matching para avaliar o impacto da instalação de tecnologia 3G no desmatamento de municipios localizados na região da Amazônia Legal brasileira. De acordo com a metodologia e dados utilizados, os resultados indicam que um crescimento no uso da internet pode positivamente impactar a produtividade de cereais em um país. Para o caso do uso de telefones celulares os resultados são inconclusivos. Finalmente, de acordo com o modelo, há indicações de que municipios que receberam a tecnologia 3G no período estudado tiveram taxas de desmatamento reduzidas quando comparadas a municipios similares que não receberam a tecnologia.