Let’s Connect to Keep the Distance: How SMEs Leverage Information and Communication Technologies to Address the COVID-19 Crisis

COVID-19 caused significant challenges for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the event industry. To address these challenges, many SMEs leveraged information and communication technologies (ICTs), with some even emerging strengthened from the crisis. Drawing on the technology-organization-environment framework and technology-affordances-and-constraints theory, we investigate the adoption of ICTs as a crisis response strategy in 10 SMEs in the German business event (e.g., corporate events, conferences) industry. Our findings reveal that ICT adoption not only depends on rational decisions based on organizational, environmental, and technological characteristics, but also on these dimensions’ interrelationship and the specific ICTs’ affordances and constraints. Introducing readily available ICTs (e.g., video-conferencing) has significant potential in addressing physical distancing in the short and medium term, while more sophisticated ICTs (e.g., virtual reality) are more likely to gain importance in the long term. Thus, we expand our understanding of organizational technology adoption and ICT-enabled crisis response strategies in SMEs.

Leadership of place in virtual environments

Place and space concepts help to illuminate how the place an organization inhabits and related beliefs have a significant impact on leadership processes. While places often have a physical presence, a sense of place is socially constructed by those who interact in it. This article offers analysis of how virtual environments can be seen as socially constructed places and how that conceptualization impacts leadership, both in the environment acting as a leadership substitute and how people engage in virtual leadership. This conceptual analysis occurs by integrating existing literature on space, place, technology affordances, and virtual leadership, as well as analyzing current virtual work environments and virtual leaders. We illustrate how virtual places can offer affordances for leadership sensemaking of political leaders, virtual place-making by social media influencers, algorithmic leadership, and shared leadership in the gig economy. We close the article by discussing how current leaders can consider the affordances of virtual environments and needed future needed research.

Integrasi Teknologi dalam Pembelajaran Matematika: Belajar dari SAMR dan MAAAD

We are now facing a growing demand of using technology in mathematics classrooms due to the unprecedented Covid-19 pandemics era. In this situation, most teachers among the globe including Indonesia have to employ remote learning practice without proper training and sufficient experience in doing so. This article aims to provide teachers and mathematics education communities, especially in Indonesia, with some research-based principles mainly from SAMR and MAAAD frameworks on how they productively incorporate technology in their mathematical teaching and learning. By doing so, we explain how we can improve our technology integration and how we analyse technology affordances. In addition, we also raise the importance of acknowledging technology limitations, along with the discussion on what to do next for improving our technology integration skills. Keywords: MAAAD, Mathematics Education, SAMR, Technology Integration.

Collaboration technology affordances from virtual collaboration in the time of COVID-19 and post-pandemic strategies

PurposeThis paper aims to explore key collaboration technology affordances from virtual collaboration and remote work during the time of COVID-19. The purpose of this exploration is to improve the understanding of technology-supported collaboration in order to achieve individual and organizational success with the adoption, use and implementation of virtual collaboration in a pandemic and post-pandemic world.Design/methodology/approachQualitative data is collected from 55 graduate students during a time of work transition due to COVID-19. This paper distills key collaboration technology affordances identified from participant feedback.FindingsThis paper identifies topics of virtual collaboration success as well as challenges related to organizational transitions during COVID-19. The findings from this work relate to four collaboration technology affordances including: (1) flexibility and productivity, (2) social connectedness and organizational culture, (3) technology support and (4) management and leadership. Additionally, this research provides insight into the complexities of virtual collaboration in these areas while also making recommendations for the post-pandemic future.Originality/valueThis research makes a contribution through the analysis of a unique set of data elaborating on participant experiences during a global pandemic as well as through the exploration of future implications.

Teachers’ Use of Technology Affordances to Contextualize and Dynamically Enrich and Extend Mathematical Problem-Solving Strategies

This study aims to document the extent to which the use of digital technology enhances and extends high school teachers’ problem-solving strategies when framing their teaching scenarios. The participants systematically relied on online developments such as Wikipedia to contextualize problem statements or to review involved concepts. Likewise, they activated GeoGebra’s affordances to construct and explore dynamic models of tasks. The Apollonius problem is used to illustrate and discuss how the participants contextualized the task and relied on technology affordances to construct and explore problems’ dynamic models. As a result, they exhibited and extended the domain of several problem-solving strategies including the use of simpler cases, dragging orderly objects, measuring objects attributes, and finding loci of some objects that shaped their approached to reasoning and solve problems.

Embarking digital learning due to COVID-19: Are teachers ready?

The COVID 19 pandemic insists schools to close and embark on the digital environment to keep learning to happen. Implementing this learning in educational settings faces challenges related to human resources and infrastructure issues particularly in developing countries. This study investigated the teachers’ readiness in conducting digital learning in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. This exploratory study employed an online questionnaire and semi-structured interviews via either voice calls or video calls to safely gather both quantitative and qualitative data from 62 teachers of 27 different schools in the middle of social distancing regulation in Yogyakarta. The study revealed that the majority of teachers were psychologically, technologically, and pedagogically ready to conduct digital learning. However, the digital learning problem was mostly coming from teachers who teach in rural areas. Students’ technology affordances mainly caused a disparity of digital learning success. The findings suggest that the choice of technology adoption and methodology adjustment can be viewed as a solution to the current digital learning problem. Finally, instead of the teachers’ readiness, the students’ readiness and teachers’ technological pedagogical knowledge are other key aspects of the digital learning success. Thus, these two issues are suggestive for further studies.

Mobile Technology in Indonesian Nursing Education: Potential and Challenge

Introduction: Mobile technology such as smartphones and laptops have been a potential learning tool in both academic and clinical facets of nursing education. However, potentials and challenges of m-technology vary depending on individual, social, technological, and pedagogical conditions. And, studies of this issue in developing countries are lacking. Objective: This study aims to explore the potentials and challenges of m-technology integration in Indonesian nursing education. Method: 25 nursing faculties from three different nursing schools in Yogyakarta participated through an online questionnaire. 8 of them were purposely taken for semi -structured interviews. The data were presented cross-sectionally through descriptive statistics and ascertained with participants voices. Results: The findings delineated how mobile technology leveraged in both academic and clinical of nursing instructions. Three main potentials identified were to promote ubiquitous learning, build autonomous learning, and enhance technological knowledge. Technology affordances, psychological aspects, and nursing students attitude emerged as challenges in the current nursing education context. Social, individual, technological, and pedagogical aspects were discussed. Conclusion: Mobile technology is potential to mediate and provide better learning for nursing students in academic and clinical settings. However, faculties’ pedagogical knowledge and learning regulation of online learning are required to be analysed further.