scholarly journals Migrants’ wellbeing and use of information and communication technologies.

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-160
Author(s):  
Jordana Salma ◽  
Lalita Kaewwilai ◽  
Savera Aziz Ali

The number of migrants is increasing worldwide coupled with an ever-expanding entrenchment of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the fabric of daily life. There has been little attention in the health disciplines to the unique ways migrants adopt and are influenced by ICTs across multiple local and transnational social spaces. This scoping review explores the current evidence on migrants’ ICT-mediated transnational social activities and related influences on wellbeing. The review was conducted using Arksey and O'Malley’s (2005) methodological framework and a total of 37 articles were included for the final study. Key findings highlight barriers and facilitators of ICT use in transnational contexts, types of ICT-mediated transnational social activities; and reported influences on migrants’ wellbeing. Migrants’ ICT use facilitates reciprocal channels of social support and continuation of valued social roles. Social role disruption, unequal exchange of social support, and mismatch between migrants’ expectations around ICT use and that of left-behind communities are some of the negative processes with psychological, social, and emotional consequences identified in the review.  Main review conclusions emphasize the need to further explore the quality and intensity of ICT-mediated social influences on migrants’ wellbeing and to incorporate a transnational lens in the design of digital learning interventions targeting vulnerable migrant populations.

Author(s):  
Marcela Pozas ◽  
Verena Letzel

AbstractDespite extensive efforts to support teachers with the integration of information and communication technologies (ICT) into their classroom practice, current research reports that teachers face immense challenges when integrating ICT into their teaching. This issue has become even more relevant with the rapid spread of the COVID-19 virus, forcing schools around the world to close for an indefinite period of time and thus to offer remote digital learning solutions. Against this background, this study focused on examining the predictors of pre-service teachers’ prospective ICT use and investigated the heterogeneous results of previous research related to ICT use and gender. Following the ‘will, skill, tool’ framework, the study examined relevant factors of pre-service teachers’ (N = 103) prospective ICT use for teaching and learning processes by means of multiple regression analyses. The analyses included pre-service teachers’ background characteristics, ICT profiles (attitudes and self-efficacy), digital competencies and use of digital tools in order to explore their role in future in-class use of ICT. They also show that there are no gender differences in pre-service teachers’ prospective ICT integration. However, male pre-service teachers hold more positive attitudes towards ICT use than their female counterparts. Additionally, the findings reveal that the two strongest predictors of pre-service teachers’ future ICT use are their attitudes and perceived competency to teach and implement technology in their teaching practices. Finally, the results provide important information about teachers’ training needs. Implications of the results and further research are discussed.


First Monday ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Libby Hemphill ◽  
A.J. Million ◽  
Ingrid Erickson

We present findings from interviews with 23 individuals affiliated with non-profit organizations (NPOs) to understand how they deploy information and communication technologies (ICTs) in their civic engagement efforts. Existing research about NPO ICT use is often critical, but we did not find evidence that NPOs fail to use tools effectively. Rather, we detail how NPOs assemble various ICTs to create infrastructures that align with their values. Overall, we find that existing theories about technology choice (e.g., task-technology fit, uses and gratifications) do not explain the assemblages NPOs describe. We argue that the infrastructures they fashion can be explained through the lens of moral economies rather than utility. Together, the rhetorics of infrastructure and moral economies capture the motivations and constraints our participants expressed and challenge how prevailing theories of ICT use describe the non-profit landscape.


2020 ◽  
pp. 58-62
Author(s):  
T. Yu. Krotenko

The term “digitalization” for a long time settled in the agenda of significant events dedicated to education. The education system, fulfilling the adopted program, should prepare a huge number of schoolchildren, students and workers for life with the indispensable use of information and communication technologies. However, often the actual digitalization is reduced either to the digitization of educational materials and documents in educational structures, or to unhindered access to the Internet. If the request for digitalization is addressed to education, then, being in the pedagogical space, it would be reasonable to first determine what and how to teach. The problem of the lack of a reasonable psychological and pedagogical concept of digital learning, which could be used by the subjects of the educational process as a basic one, is raised in the article.


Author(s):  
Tizita Alemayehu Wasihun ◽  
Blessing Maumbe

The world has experienced an unprecedented growth in information and communication technologies (ICT) through the widespread use of personal computers, Internet, and mobile phones. The objectives of this chapter are to examine trends in ICT use in agriculture, identify key success factors for ICT utilization in agriculture, and investigate the implications of ICT-enabled value chains for the agribusiness industry. The chapter describes the strategic role of ICT in the development of both e-commerce and mobile commerce in agriculture globally. The chapter identifies the leading areas of ICT use in agriculture and agribusinesses as input procurement, production, marketing, food traceability, and financial service delivery. Producers are increasingly seeking ways to add value to their businesses by integrating ICT in the value chain. Similarly, consumers are becoming more knowledgeable about how they could use ICT to articulate their preferences. The chapter discusses key success factors for ICT applications affecting both the internal and external environment of agribusiness firms. The chapter concludes by drawing implications for ICT use in agriculture and agribusiness value chains.


Author(s):  
Bernhard Ertl ◽  
Kathrin Helling ◽  
Kathy Kikis-Papadakis

Gender is an important issue in the context of information and communication technologies (ICT). Studies show that ICT use is subject to gender bias, e.g. in relation to ICT use and interests. This contribution describes the current situation of gender and ICT professions in Germany and Greece. Based on an empirical study, it shows particular areas in ICT education that suffer from gender inequalities in both countries. Furthermore, the chapter elaborates how gender inequalities develop from secondary to professional ICT careers based on statistics from Germany and Greece.


Author(s):  
Erica Norstedt ◽  
Annika Andersson ◽  
Evylyn Pettersson ◽  
Simon Klintestrand

There is worldwide consensus on how important women are for development where gender equality is seen as a prerequisite for sustainable development. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are seen as one of the most promising tools for the empowerment of women in developing countries. Men and women therefore need to have equal opportunities to access and use ICTs. Here, the authors, however, find a huge gender gap, and the reasons for this gap are still not fully understood or investigated. The purpose of this study is therefore to further investigate the reasons for this gap in ICT use. Based on a review of existing literature, as well as interviews with men and women from developing countries, the main finding is that the impeding factor underlying all barriers described in the literature relates to social norms. Based on this insight, the authors end the paper by discussing implications for research and practice.


2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Connie Gray-McKay ◽  
Kerri L. Gibson ◽  
Susan O'Donnell ◽  
The People of Mishkeegogamang

Mishkeegogamang First Nation is a rural Ojibway community in Northwestern Ontario. Mishkeegogamang community members of all ages use a wide array of information and communication technologies (ICT) as tools in daily life, and as a means to support individual and community goals. This collaborative paper tells the story of how Mishkeegogamang uses ICT for community development, drawing on 17 interviews with community members, and several community member profiles. A basic descriptive quantitative analysis is also provided, giving information on frequency of use of a wide variety of technologies. Community informatics theory guides the interpretation of the findings. A broad range of ICT use by community members will be explored, including the Mishkeegogamang website, the busy yet invisible use of social networking sites, youth and ICT, ICT for health and education, and ICT to support traditional activities. Finally, a section on challenges and needs for facilitating ICT use is also provided. Mishkeegogamang has collaborated on a rich chronicle of its land and people in the Mishkeegogamang book: The Land, the People, and the Purpose (Heinrichs, Hiebert, & The People of Mishkeegogamang, 2009). This paper is conceptualised as a new chapter, documenting how community members use ICT in their daily lives and for community development. There have been no similar past explorations that have addressed this area. In addition, within the broader literature on First Nations in Canada, there have been few to no published accounts of community members’ perspectives and uses of ICT. This study is part of a broader collaborative research project called (First Nations Innovation), which explores how remote and rural First Nations are using information and communication technologies for community development.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 252
Author(s):  
Ira Gjika ◽  
Nikollaq Pano

The digitalisation in the manufacturing and industrial sectors has been fast ‘exported’ in tourism industry as well. The technological revolution has highly affected both the supplier and the consumer of tourism products and services. There is recently an increasing attention from the industry and academia in order to highlight the challenges of ICT use in tourism and the drivers of “smart tourism” in world level. Our study joins these efforts with the goal to observe the use of information and communication technologies in Albanian tourism and detect the elements of smart tourism in it. The survey and interviews with a sample of experienced medium size tourism companies were used to assess the expansion of ICT in their overall activity. The data collected and processed did enable to point out the penetration of digital technologies in Albanian tourism. Further on, some features of smart tourism are highlighted and some drivers of digitalization in Albanian tourism are brought to the attention of stakeholder groups.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document