Impact of E-Adoption on Teaching and Learning in the Context of Teaching French

Growing use of information technology and communication (ICT) tools in language courses with communication at their core has brought opportunities as well as challenges in the predominantly conventional face-to-face context of the classroom. When the French programme in the Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages at The Chinese University of Hong Kong started to integrate an e-learning platform into all language courses, students as well as teachers showed reservations and even disbelief. However, it was unexpected to observe such an interdependent relationship between new technologies and the conventional teaching approach. In this paper, the broad implications of the e-adoption applied to learning French as a foreign language are investigated to highlight students’ learning habits and learning process. The strategies used to make technology act as a facilitator across cultures, and various ways to savoir-faire diffusion are also discussed. The study shows how new technologies modify in-class teaching, while the traditional face-to-face teaching and learning approach can influence choices in the use of different web tools that lead to blended models of education.

Adoption of PBL to Online Environments

This study’s aim is to find out student’s perspectives on online and face-to-face problem-based learning approaches. The study was conducted at the Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technologies, Faculty of Education, Hacettepe University. Participants were 42 freshman students attending the department during fall of 2006-2007. These students were put into two groups—the online problem-based learning group and the face-to-face problem-based learning group. The research was conducted on Mathematics-I while implementing the topic of ‘derivation’. The content analysis statistical technique is used, as well as a questionnaire consisting of open-ended questions, which perform as a data collection tool to find out the views of the students in context to the process.

User Acceptance of Location-Based Mobile Advertising

Location-based advertising (LBA) opens up new frontiers for marketers to place their advertisements in front of consumers. LBA is a new form of marketing communication that uses location-tracking technology in mobile networks to target consumers with location-specific advertising on their cell phones. It provides more targeted communication and interaction between the marketer and its potential customers. This paper reviews different aspects of LBA advertising and investigates the drivers of consumer acceptance toward it. Achieving this, a research framework is developed to explore the factors influencing consumer intention for using LBA in Iran. Individuals’ responses to questions about intention to accept/use of LBA advertising were collected and analyzed with various factors modified from UTAUT with main constructs of utility expectancy, trust, effort expectancy, and control. While the model confirms the classical role of utility expectancy and effort expectancy as the key factors in technology acceptance, the results also show that users’ behavioral intentions are influenced by trust and their control on ads flow.

Knowledge Sharing Adoption Model Based on Artificial Neural Networks

Knowledge Sharing Adoption Model called (KSAM) was developed in this paper using Artificial Neural Networks (ANN). It investigated students’ Perceived Usefulness and Benefits (PUB) of Knowledge Sharing among students of higher learning in Nigeria. The study was based on the definition as well as on the constucts related to technology acceptance model (TAM). A survey was conducted using structured questionnaire administered among students and analysed with SPSS statistical tool; the results were evaluated using ANN. The KSAM includes six constucts that include Perceived Ease Of Sharing (PEOS), Perceived Usefulness and Benefits (PUB), Perceived Barriers for Sharing (PBS), External Cues to Share (ECS), Attitude Towards Sharing (ATT), and Behavioral Intention to Share (BIS). The result showed that Students’ PUB must be raised in order to effectively increase the adoption of Knowledge Sharing in this domain. The paper also identified a myriad of limitations in knowledge sharing and discovered that the utilization of KSAM using ANN is feasible. Findings from this study may form the bedrock on which further studies can be built.

E-Assessment as a Driver for Cultural Change in Network-Centric Learning

This paper explores the potentially powerful role e-assessment practices can have on culture change in learning and teaching. This paper demonstrates how new e-assessment practices can ‘push back’ through educational institutions. This is done by applying the work of Gibbs and Simpson (2004/5) to e-assessment practices. To illustrate the practical effects of this evidence-based framework, the authors use UNSW@ADFA to demonstrate the possibilities for new e-assessment practices and their potential to drive systemic change. The authors conclude that the incorporation of these structured, evidence-based e-assessment practices demonstrably improve learning outcomes and student engagement without increasing the workload of staff and students.

An Evaluation of WebCT Course Content Management System at the University of Botswana

This study evaluated a WebCT course content management (CCMS) system at the University of Botswana. Survey methodology was used and questionnaires were distributed to 503 students selected from six faculties, and an in-depth interview were conducted involving (20) twenty lecturers who teach via the WebCT platform. Findings reveal that, generally, WebCT CCMS is doing well at the University of Botswana and that the system has been a success. The results also confirm the quality of course materials uploaded on the system, that is, service quality and the quality of the teaching and learning via the system. Furthermore, by learning through WebCT, students are able to self regulate their learning and, given the opportunity, they are ready to use and continue learning using the WebCT platform. Results also indicate that generally students are satisfied with the performance of WebCT and that there are many benefits associated with the system in context to teaching and learning at the university. Problems associated with WebCT CCMS that are experienced by staff and students of the University include access, network /server failure, lack of link between ITS and WebCT, lack of teaching expertise using WebCT, and failure to remove completed courses from the system.

Wiki Interaction Tracks in Geometry Learning

The constant comparative method (Lincoln & Guba, 1985) was used to analyze preservice teachers’ discussions and interactions in wiki discussion sections regarding geometric lessons that were written by other preservice teachers in the year before. The data was compared for the following interaction aspects of knowledge building: dialogical actions, participants’ roles, and discussion tracks. Research shows that building their content and pedagogic content knowledge, the preservice teachers together with the lecturer used mainly proposing, asking, requesting, arguing, presenting, and moving the discussion forward as dialogical actions. Proposing and asking were used for various goals such as proposing various ideas and actions, and asking about different issues concerned with geometric content and pedagogic content knowledge. The lecturer asked questions more than the preservice teachers, while the preservice teachers proposed more than the lecturer. The knowledge building was collaborative in nature, and one important aspect which enabled the collaboration is the topology of the wiki discussion section. This topology enables presenting the content of the messages; not just the titles, where the contents are presented as having the same level and thus the same importance.

Diffusion of E-Learning Practice in an Educational Institution

Successful knowledge transfer or diffusion of e-learning practice goes beyond precursor incentives and anticipated rewards for the individual lecturer. It also involves wider enabling of learning attributes and cultural capabilities in an organization. This paper examines how some of these attributes and capabilities play out in an educational institution in the context of web-enabled technology. An organizational-learning model is used to examine diffusion of practices after initial design and development. This paper is based on a case study of eight course-level e-learning projects in a university based in Hong Kong. The study illustrates a number of issues and challenges for the wider uptake of the initial idea from the individual course to the programme and wider institution.

Employees’ Perceptions of Biometric Technology Adoption in E-Government

This paper discusses an exploratory study of government employees’ perceptions of the introduction of biometric authentication at the workplace in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The authors suggest that studying the factors affecting employees’ acceptance of new technology will help ease the adoption of biometric technology in other e-government applications. A combination of survey and interviews was used to collect the required data. Interviews were conducted with managers and questionnaires were given to employees from two different government organisations in Saudi Arabia to investigate the employees’ perceptions of using biometrics. The results of this study indicate a significant digital and cultural gap between the technological awareness of employees and the preferred authentication solutions promoted by management. A lack of trust in technology, its potential for misuse and management motives reflect the managers’ need to consider their responsibilities for narrowing these gaps. It was apparent that overcoming employees’ resistance is an essential issue facing biometric implementation. Based on the research the authors recommend that an awareness and orientation process about biometrics should take place before the technology is introduced into the organisation.

Electronic Voting Using Identity Domain Separation and Hardware Security Modules

E-voting increasingly gains interest in e-Democracy and e-Government movements. Not only the technical security issues of electronic voting systems are of paramount importance, but also the necessity of following an all-embracing approach is challenging and needs to be addressed. This paper discusses e-voting as being a supreme discipline of e-Government. It introduces an innovative e-voting concept using the Internet as the voting channel. The concept introduced is based on Austrian e-Government elements and the Austrian identity management concept in particular. This paper presents a novel approach of building an e-voting system relying on two core principles: strong end-to-end encryption and stringent identity domain separation.