The electronic engineering notebook is a pen-based computer tool designed to capture engineering notes and to assist in structuring them to facilitate subsequent information access. Experiments were conducted in which free-form and fixed-form note-taking interfaces were compared with respect to capturing and structuring notes from a design meeting. Suitability of domain-based and user-defined terminologies for semantic structuring was also tested. Results from the experiment confirmed that a free-form interface was easier to use for note-taking and structuring notes than were forms with fixed structure. However, difficulties with applying semantic categorizations were observed in both types of interface. The results indicated that terminology should be chosen appropriately to a task, and that experienced users have less problems with applying it. The experiment also demonstrated high diversity in note-taking styles, thus highlighting the need to accommodate individual preferences in electronic notebooks.

doi:10.1016/j.intcom.2004.04.008 / This paper addresses issues raised by the ever-expanding role of email as a multi-faceted application that combines communication, collaboration, and task management. Individual differences analysis was used to contrast two email user interfaces in terms of their demands on users. The results of this analysis were then interpreted in terms of their implications for designing more inclusive interfaces that meet the needs of users with widely ranging abilities. The specific target of this research is the development of a new type of email message representation that makes pending tasks more visible. We describe a study that compared a new way of representing tasks in an email inbox, with a more standard representation (the Microsoft Outlook inbox). The study consisted of an experiment that examined how people with different levels of three specific cognitive capabilities (flexibility of closure, visual memory, and working memory) perform when using these representations. We then identified combinations of representation and task that are disadvantageous for people with low levels of the measured capabilities.

<p>There is a dire need to transform Mathematics education in the schooling system in South Africa as this is evident by the poor learner performance in the Mathematics examination results. There is a high failure rate in Mathematics at schools and the number of learners taking Mathematics up to the grade twelve level is on the decline. This study investigates the integration of computer technology in Mathematics education to improve learner performance.</p>

<p>The purpose of this study was to examine the level and extent of community participation in the Danga Ecological Sanitation Project carried out in the Zvishavane district of Zimbabwe. The people-centered approach was chosen as a theoretical background. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to gather relevant information. The results indicated that the community was not fully involved in the ecological sanitation project. As a result, the project had a poor performance record. In the course of this study, political interference in community projects carried out in Zimbabwean rural communities, resulting in the failure to reach the intended beneficiaries, was also noted. Full community participation in community projects may ensure that empowerment and ownership take place. Institutional arrangements, which in most cases impede development, need to be readdressed with clear demarcation of decision-making processes.</p>

In recent years, the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in education has become a widely discussed issue. This paper starts with a brief examination of the relationship of political changes to the rapid educational reforms in recent years, including the school-level implementation of ICT. Specifically, the implementation of ICT in Hong Kong primary schools is investigated. Primary data are collected from school heads and teachers while secondary data are collected from the scholarly literature. In addition, supplementary data were collected for comparison from several areas in the UK. A number of research questions are proposed for the study, including the potential benefits and shortcomings of ICT in education, the difficulties of ICT implementation, and the relative cost effectiveness of ICT. Quantitative and qualitative methods emerged from the different research paradigms of positivism and interpretivism. Both are discussed in the research design chapter. A mixed-method approach was selected for the entire research project. Under this approach, quantitative data were collected through survey techniques and qualitative data were collected through in-depth interviewing. These two data collection processes were undertaken independently. The design and application of data collection for both categories of data are discussed at length. Eventually, 681 questionnaires and 17 interviews were analysed. The findings were consolidated and triangulated when possible, and are discussed in the concluding chapter. Throughout the study, responses to several important issues, including workload, time, professional development and school organisation, have been elicited from the participants. Finally, some recommendations are made that attempt to optimise the use of ICT in education. Further research areas are also proposed. In sum, the research suggests that ICT is a 2-sided tool. On one hand, ICT can provide numerous benefits to teaching and learning. On the other hand, stakeholders must be aware of its potential negative side effects. Moreover, ICT should be treated as only one of many instructional media, and it should be used carefully. Over-reliance on ICT should be avoided.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Notre Dame, 2005. / Thesis directed by Steven M. Boker for the Department of Psychology. "July 2005." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 141-143).

Magister Commercii (Information Management) - MCom(IM) / There is a dire need to transform Mathematics education in the schooling system in South Africa as this is evident by the poor learner performance in the Mathematics examination results. There is a high failure rate in Mathematics at schools and the number of learners taking Mathematics up to the grade twelve level is on the decline. This study investigates the integration of computer technology in Mathematics education to improve learner performance. / South Africa

Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA(DVS) / The purpose of this study was to examine the level and extent of community participation in the Danga Ecological Sanitation Project carried out in the Zvishavane district of Zimbabwe. The people-centered approach was chosen as a theoretical background. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to gather relevant information. The results indicated that the community was not fully involved in the ecological sanitation project. As a result, the project had a poor performance record. In the course of this study, political interference in community projects carried out in Zimbabwean rural communities, resulting in the failure to reach the intended beneficiaries, was also noted. Full community participation in community projects may ensure that empowerment and ownership take place. Institutional arrangements, which in most cases impede development, need to be readdressed with clear demarcation of decision-making processes. / South Africa

Suppression of the grief process among males following bereavement, deny the males to express their pain or respond to the realities of what has happened and can be traumatic and subsequently cause death. This study was guided by a qualitative and quantitative research method, and examines loss, and grief that follow the death of loved ones. Gerkin’s Shepherding Model of caring for the individual and the community of faith and Kubler- Ross’ model on grief dynamics are employed. Expression of grief depends on a number of factors that may range from emotional closeness of the family, how the family defines grief, the role and relationship to the deceased, one’s spiritual, psychosocial strength. In most Zimbabwean cultures the grief process is complicated by the delay in the initiation of funeral and mourning rituals as a result of unfinished businesses. Conflict management is pivotal to the process of grief in most African cultures where rituals provide a structured way of affirming that death has occurred and help in reducing suppression of grief. Traditional practices are carried out in a structured way; generally the bereaved needs an authority to give permission to carry out the funeral and mourning rituals, by so doing the society reduces guilty feelings in the bereaved. In this study Chapter 2 traces the theoretical, biblical and the ex-biblical and African perspectives in the process of grief. Chapter 3 provides the methodology in carrying out the research. Chapter 4 details how 13 African males of Murewa circuit have journeyed through the grief process. Their stories indicated how: males are socialized; the expectations of the family, society, culture and church hinder the grief journey, and how male’s view of masculinity has put pressure on them during grief. In chapter 5 concluding thoughts, include the role of practical theology as a social action in helping males to grieve, the role of the community in healing through rituals and how the Church’s theology of grief should equip the Church in helping males to pass through the valleys of grief without shame and a feeling of guilt, by helping them to challenge their “predictable dishonesties of everyday Life” (Egan 2002:192). / Dissertation (MA (Research in Practical Theology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Practical Theology / MA / unrestricted

This dissertation presents a novel theoretical framework that conceptualises the existence of tension between multinational enterprises (MNEs) and local firms, in particular host-country government partners (HGPs), and its mediating mechanisms with regard to the realisation of spillovers from inward foreign direct investment (FDI) in emerging and developing economies. The contributions are twofold: firstly it provides a better understanding of the potential strategies used by local firms to get and maximise benefits they obtain from spillovers of inward FDI; secondly, it contributes to the extant literature with novel theoretical constructs that conceptualise the abovementioned tension and its mediating mechanisms. An in-depth qualitative interview data analysis is used to support the findings and build up the proposed theoretical constructs. With regard to the potential causes that underpin the existence of tension in a spillover context, four main causes were identified, that closely relate to the dyadic contrasting objectives of MNEs profit maximisation and of local firms benefits maximisation. The newly proposed framework brings together three theoretical lenses – competitive tension, relational competition and network bargaining power – under the central theme of spillover perspective to build an overall powerful model of the interactions between MNEs, the host-country government and its local partners as well as domestic firms. The overarching and resulting model highlights the relational interaction, as opposed to purely transactional or rivalrous behaviour, between MNEs and local firms. It also shows use of bargaining influence by locals to align realised spillovers to the expectations of locals, both as spillover enhancing and tension relieving mediating mechanisms. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / lmgibs2015 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted