Issues with mobile money in developing countries

A major criterion is the reduction of snags in the management of mobile money systems. The study was prompted by the ongoing problems with mobile money management. Previous research in underdeveloped nations concentrated mostly on technology algorithms for mobile money systems, with little attention paid to managerial issues. The research aims to reduce hiccups in the management of mobile money systems. A qualitative investigation was carried out, which was supported by activity theory and directed by an interpretative paradigm. The major data tools were semi-structured interviews and an internal document review. Expert purposive sampling was used, and data was thematically evaluated and themes were mapped onto activity theory nodes. The study's key findings included inadequate monitoring of mobile money agents, insufficient confidentiality and privacy in financial transactions, the use of general accounts for financial transactions, the use of generic guidelines and policies, third-party involvement in sensitive mobile money activities, and weak staff recruitment policies. The study's managerial implications include online customer registration, the implementation of online transaction monitoring, the online categorization of mobile money accounts, digital financial crime checks, digital validation of customer identities, and the continuous review and updating of mobile money guidelines.

Cyber victimization within the Routine Activity Theory Framework in the Digital Age

This quantitative-based research determined whether the routine activity theory influences cyber victimization. To measure the dimensions of the theory, defined as exposure to a motivated offender, suitable online target, and absence of a capable guardian, a valid and reliable questionnaire was used. The cyber victimization questionnaire developed by Álvarez-García, Dobarro, and Núñez was applied to 1,285 students selected at random from schools in Colombia. Findings: 46% are identified as exposed to a motivated offender, 37.5% are suitable online targets, and 29.8% have no capable guardians. The interdependence of these three elements revealed that 3.9% of students are at risk due to their routine activities, which had a significant influence on cyber victimization. It is proposed that these findings should be considered in the design of communicative and educational policies aimed at a responsible use of technologies.

Argumentation Schemes in Technology-Mediated Open Innovation Product-Service Models: An Activity Systems Perspective

The paper uses activity theory for understanding and managing the complexity involved in the transition of a product-service organization from closed to the technology-mediated open mode of innovation. In particular, activity theory is used to facilitate the alignment of the open innovation model adopted with the organization’s dominant argumentation scheme by developing nested representations of the innovation process in the traditional closed mode, as well as in the user-led innovation and user co-creation modes, associated with product- and service-provision operations, respectively. For all cases, we concentrate on the argumentation-in-innovation activity and its context. We arrive at insights about the process of Activity Based Analysis (ABA) in this endeavor and the issues raised through action research in a product-service firm in the food and beverages sector, aiming at adopting an open innovation strategy implemented in the innovation community mode.

Teaching and learning with digital technologies in the intermediate school classroom: An Activity Theory analysis of classroom interactions

<p>In the three decades since digital technologies were introduced into classrooms with the potential of changing educational practices, an ongoing dialogue continues regarding the impact of these technologies on teaching and learning, for both teachers and their students. While current research has identified a number of elements that influence teachers’ integration of digital technologies, there is a need for a careful examination of the relationships between these factors and how they come together to underpin teachers’ decisions to use digital devices with their students. The purpose of the present study was to understand teachers’ motivations for integrating digital technologies into their teaching practice, how they accomplished this, and what environmental and personal factors underpinned these decisions. This research also investigated students’ experiences of working with digital technologies as they participated in teacher-planned lessons. Both contextual and personal factors contribute to teachers’ use of digital technologies; therefore, these aspects were considered through the Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) theoretical framework to make sense of the sociocultural environment that influenced these intermediate school teachers as they made decisions to include digital technologies in their classroom practices. An interpretive multiple case study methodology was used, incorporating data collection methods of interviews, observations, document analysis, ‘think alouds’, and student focus groups, to explore the practices of teachers and their students in four classroom cases within two intermediate schools in New Zealand over the course of a year. The results showed that teachers included digital tools in their classroom practices to support their existing pedagogical practices, comply with school policies, communicate with parents and students, motivate and engage students, and prepare students for a digital world. As teachers’ knowledge of the affordances of digital technologies increased, they were able to integrate these tools in ways that aligned with their classroom objectives. School leadership and professional development played a key role in the methods through which teachers incorporated digital technologies. In addition, the perception of community members that these teachers were skilled technology users led to new roles and responsibilities within their school environments. This study showed that while some learners were experienced technology users, teachers’ assumptions of student abilities and/or engagement with these tools were sometimes inaccurate. Appropriate teacher scaffolding of student learning as well as teachers’ explicit expectations for the use of digital technologies combined to increase the success of learning activities within each classroom. The findings from this study illustrate the reality experienced by teacher participants when attempting to integrate digital tools into their teaching practices. The teachers were motivated to use digital technologies in their classrooms to support their students’ learning, and did so by gaining knowledge of the different tools available in their environments and reconfiguring the most effective ways to incorporate those within their classroom practices.</p>

Technology in the classroom: Exploring the experience of secondary students using activity theory

<p>Technology is an integral part of life in the senior secondary school classroom. The multiple and complex ways in which economic, social and political discourse and activity drive digital technology into the classroom are often framed in terms of the ‘transformation of education’ and ‘21st century skills’, configuring values and aspirations with technology. This thesis explores what digital technology means in the classroom. It moves from the ‘state-of-the-art’ and ‘state-of-the-possible’ to the ‘state-of-the-actual’; from the impact of singular IT artefacts to the experience of the students. It addresses the questions, what is the technology artefact that the students are using in the classroom? and, how do students engage with the technology artefact and the information artefact in the classroom? Four secondary schools in medium- to high-income areas of New Zealand participated in this qualitative study. Activity theory informed the research design and case analysis. Critical realism was used, via abductive and retroductive modes of inference, to make sense of the data and identify the structures and generative mechanisms underlying the use of technology in the classroom. To make sense of how the students use the technology in the classroom this thesis presupposes that learning is a function of information, and information is not coterminous with information technology. The students’ learning actions can be instrumental, cognitive or axiological, and the activity can be mediated by technology. The use of technology is initially rooted in practical operations. This thesis sets out to revindicate a wider understanding of the technology/tool in activity theory by revisiting the concept of functional organs. This conceptualisation reorients perspectives on processuality, emergence and causation to reach an understanding of the student and the technology working in unison as an organisation, which allows different possibilities of operations, of actions and of relationships. The findings of this study are that the technology in the classroom is ubiquitous spatially, almost every student has access to a device, software and the internet, and temporally, most students have a device to hand all the time. The technology can have a multiplicity of causes, the same effect can be performed with different combinations of technology, and a plurality of effects, the same combination of hardware and software can be used to perform different actions. Senior secondary students are responsible for selecting and structuring a combination of hardware and software to achieve the object of their activity. This structuring is generally seamless, and without tension or contradiction when the object of the activity is instrumental, or when the information items required by the student are simple and linear, such as examples of concepts or contextual information. On the other hand, when the students’ experiences of the information are within activities that work with complex principles, generalisations or procedures then the technology needs to allow that possibility of action. Some specialist software does allow that possibility, and enables the student to engage deeply with the information. Conversely, some technology can impact the students’ practices if the critical analysis required of the students is not supported by the analytical processes of the technology, which may encourage students to follow linear rather than dialectical or dialogical engagement with the information. This thesis concludes that the students are active in structuring their learning through creating organisations of themselves, the technology and the information as an emergent information system to achieve the goal of the learning action, which is embedded in the wider motivation of the learning activity.</p>

Students crossing cultural boundaries within a transnational design course in China: An activity theory analysis

<p>The focus of this thesis is on visual communication design (VCD) students’ engagement with creative design process learning within a transnational context. The context is an international partnership between a higher education institution in New Zealand and Hunan City University (HNCU) in China. The Chinese government is currently positioned in a third wave of an internationalisation strategy which encourages cooperative agreements with foreign or overseas institutional partners situated within Chinese universities. For design institutions in particular, the Made in China government initiative has led universities to actively engage with design education approaches imported from the west. The aim for Chinese institutions is to encourage student creativity in order to build on government aspirations to move China from a manufacturing, to an innovation and design led economy. Cultural historic activity theory (CHAT) was used to analyse data from a VCD studio classroom at HNCU in China. A three-level hierarchy of artefacts model was developed for the analysis, which by extention offers a CHAT approach for creative design scenarios. The study had two phases. The first comprised two project-based case studies exploring how creative design process learning occurred when the students were exposed to design thinking. Students were organised into dyads to foster collaborative work for the projects, a branding project, and a cultural project involving illustration design. Data gathered through video stimulated recall interviews with eight dyad participants (sixteen VCD students) and 200 written reflections were analysed. The second phase of the research focused on understanding the cultural and historic pedagogical context. Eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with local teachers at HNCU, and observations were undertaken in Chinese language medium classrooms. Underpinning the findings, are the ways in which Chinese design education practices at HNCU are shaped by an interweaving of Confucian thought within contemporary social and political tenets (e.g., striving for perfection). The analysis revealed that familiar and unfamiliar learning practices, including previous models encountered by students in the classroom, together with an adjustment to new practices, directly impacted student actions. Imported educational practices resulted in tensions and contradictions between step-by-step and iterative design thinking processes, and collaboration within the division of labour. Non-creative and creative activity outcome conclusions were drawn, and it is argued that a fresh perspective emerged. A creative craft practice situated within its historic and cultural context exists at HNCU. Key to the idea of creative craft practice is that historic and current sociocultural contexts participate in the creative process and contextual elements such as materiality, and teaching practices which use imitation, repetition and precedents, are assembled. The practice contained deeply intertwined student object-oriented motives of product over process, and productions of excellence or perfection. Over time, the efficacy of these motives, alongside drawing from examples for conceptual development, led to enhanced student agency and engagement. This overall finding challenges the creativity deficit belief about students from China, and the originality syndrome imposed on VCD students. The contribution is timely owing to a dearth of studies about graphic or VCD education in general and the potential influence of transnational teaching on creative design process learning in China.</p>