Editorial: Special issue on ENTER2015

By analyzing survey data collected from 2,002 participants in 5 generational cohorts in the United States, this study examines generational differences in information and communication technology (ICT) and social media use behaviors. The intersection between digital divide theory and generational cohort theory provides the theoretical foundation for this study. There are two major findings. First, there are significant differences in ICT use among 5 different generations (Generation Z, Generation Y, Generation X, Boomers, Silent Generation). In terms of ICT access and use, the silent generation is left behind other generations. Thus, the grey divide still exists. Second, different generations have different preferences for social media platforms. For example, more Generation Z participants use Snapchat, Twitter, and Instagram. This study brings additional insights into generational differences/divide in ICT and social media use. Practical suggestions are provided to narrow the generational divide and to foster communicative resilience among different generations amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Information and communication technology (ICT) has changed and continues to change almost every aspect of our daily lives. Our personal lives, social interactions, educational systems, business atmosphere, and corporate culture-everything has changed in one way or another due to advances in the field of ICT. The construction industry is no exception. ICT provides an unprecedented opportunity as well as enormous challenges to the construction industry.

The capitalist agency of mainstream Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is inherently at odds with alternative economic cultures. This suggests that the problem is technology itself – that is, the capitalist values that underscore their design, use and development. This research studies the Hacker Ethic as an alternative culture and value-system underpinning a series of ICTs –and people– that could serve as a basis for an effective use of technologies within alternative economic cultures. To that end, the case of Ik’ ta K’op –a Maya-Tzeltal collective that offers telecommunication services– was analyzed, for they explicitly and implicitly resort to this Hacker Ethic as a way to ensure the effective use of ICTs. Results suggest that the Hacker Ethic has been instrumental to Ik’ ta K’op in five ways: 1. it has facilitated access to ICTs; 2. it has facilitated self-determination and governance; 3. it has fostered openness; 4. it has allowed for cooperative values to be replicated in the use of ICTs, and; 5. It has strengthened creativity and problem-solving skills. We can conclude that there is a necessity for an alternative technological ecosystem that recognizes, reflects and fosters our cultural diversity as a basic foundation for effective uses of ICTs.

This paper examines the role and use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), notably E-learning for effective science education. E-learning is globally accepted as one veritable tool for attaining access, equity and quality in science education. The paper states the need for effective use of ICT by science teachers in maintaining and controlling according to policies laid down for sustainable science curriculum. The study adopted a descriptive survey technique. A total of 600 science teachers were selected from a total population of 1,600 in the Southern States of Nigeria. Some research questions guided the study. The science teacher has to plan in his capacity as an educator in ensuring effective instructional services. The paper highlights various ICT resources that can be used for effective and efficient integrated science curriculum. It also states some of the benefits and challenges of the use of ICT in Science education. It is the contention of this paper that though using ICT for integrated science curriculum development may seem difficult, it is imperative to take advantage and invest in these ICTs to deal with the huge pressure faced in the country's educational system. The remarks the need for infrastructure and how political will push ICT ahead.

This study investigated the indirect effects of information and communication technology (ICT) on business performance in Tanzania's small and medium manufacturing industries (SMMIs). This study was motivated by the poor research results that show the indirect application of ICT on product innovation and business performance in SMMIs in the country. Thus, the study was carried out to understand the extent to which the application of ICT enhances product innovation in SMMIs. The study was conducted in four regions namely; Dar es Salaam, Mwanza, Arusha, and Morogoro with a sample size of 474 SMMIs. The data were analyzed using IBM Amos version 26 and structural equation modeling (SEM). The analyzed data showed that the relationship between ICT use and product innovation techniques in Tanzanian SMMIs was highly significant. In the same sample size, the intensity and direction of the association between product innovation and business performance were the same. During the discussion of the findings, it became clear that ICT use and product innovation had increased among Tanzanian SMMIs. The results showed that the indirect effect of ICT use on business performance, when mediated by product innovation, was moderately significant for SMMIs in Tanzania once they were linked. These outcomes are comparable to those of companies in Mexico, Spain, and Italy. According to the findings, SMMIs in Tanzania should increase the application of ICT with a product innovation mindset to improve business performance. This strategy would help SMMIs in Tanzania to achieve their organizational objectives.

Introducción: Las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación (TIC) se han integrado de manera impresionante en la vida diaria, desde esta perspectiva se desea conocer su presencia e impacto en el proceso enseñanza aprendizaje.
 Objetivo: Determinar el uso y aplicación de las TIC en el aula y su influencia en el proceso enseñanza aprendizaje desde la percepción de los estudiantes y docentes universitarios de pregrado.
 Método: La investigación es de tipo documental y de campo, el universo o población estuvo constituida por 82 estudiantes, y 3 docentes, la recolección de los datos fue el cuestionario. Se realizó un análisis estadístico descriptivo e inferencial
 Resultados: Un porcentaje muy bajo de los docentes usan las TIC en el proceso enseñanza aprendizaje de la bioestadistica, sin embargo los estudiantes creen firmemente que la incursión de las mismas darán un impacto positivo en el proceso educativo, como se ha comprobado la hipótesis planteada mediante la estadística.
 Conclusiones: En la bioestadística, es poco frecuente la utilización de las TIC en el aula por lo que los estudiantes débilmente desarrollan habilidades cognitivas, la generación de ideas intuitivas a través del ensayo y error generando nuevo conocimiento.
 Palabras Clave: Enseñanza, Aprendizaje, Bioestadística, Docente, TIC

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of computer skills on the successful integration of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Moroccan higher education institutions. Actually, the survival of these institutions in the expansion of modern technologies depends on their readiness to qualify professors and students to implement ICTs for educational objectives. Because of the significant role that computer technologies play in today’s job markets, higher education institutions are required to provide the most appropriate learning and teaching conditions for both professors and students to make effective use of these new technologies within classroom practices. The findings revealed that teachers consider ICTs very essential in their teaching. However, there are low levels of computer technology integration in teaching processes. This lack of computer technology use in instruction is attributed to several factors. One of these various factors is teachers’ computer skills. It has been found that there are statistically significant differences between professors’ use of ICT with respect to their computer skills, F (4,158) = 32.776, p<0.05.

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have been promoted as a tool for promoting social economic development. ICTs have played a major role in poverty eradication and empowerment of disadvantaged groups such as women and youth. ICT is a significant area of concern for women empowerment and the growth of developing countries like Kenya. This paper focuses on investigating the factors affecting the use of Information and communication technologies among women, and to assess the impact of the use of Information and communication technologies for social empowerment among women in Murang’a County. A descriptive research design was used in this study which involved 140 respondents selected through stratified random sampling. The study was conducted on women above 18 years of age, and data was collected through self-administered questionnaires. The study analyzed factors affecting the use of ICTs among women for social empowerment including: women ignorance of the existence of suitable information Communication Technologies, High level of illiteracy, Language barriers, inadequate time to use ICTs, and the high cost of ICTs. The study identified that these factors affect social empowerment of women in Murang’a County. The study recommends that women should be trained on effective use of ICTs and should be provided with resources such as funding and infrastructures

An investigation into the factors influencing ICT adoption and use in the administration of secondary schools in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Whether information and communication technology (ICT) constitutes a threat or a cure to environment’s deterioration is controversially discussed. Empirical evidence on the impacts of ICT is rare, so that generalizable lessons can hardly be drawn. This study provides empirical results on the role of ICT in research for environmental sustainability, but instead of ascertaining the impact of ICT on environmental protection, we conduct an analysis of the use of ICT in sustainability research. We assess the preferences of experts in different thematic sustainability fields for applying ICT tools, and we investigate ways to improve the application of these tools in order to augment their returns with respect to environmental protection research. This analysis is based on a set of surveys that were administered to international experts to evaluate the importance of ICT in environmental sustainability research and the research demands in key environmental sectors, such as climate change, natural resources, energy and biodiversity. The methodological framework is built on the analysis of users’ preferences for future developments in ICT tools using stated preferences techniques. Overall results suggest that ICT tools need to be developed in specific contexts, taking into account users’ needs and expectations. Our analysis shows that the use of ICT in environmental research is of great importance in the scientific community, but it can also play a crucial role in the policy context.

Global Conferences on Health Promotion underscore the need for reorientation of services as a field of action in the area. In particular the Bangkok Charter mentions the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). In this sense, ICT-based teaching emerges as a way to strengthen learning how to learn, also in the area of health promotion, theme still latent into graduation´s health course. Objective: To describe the use of ICT in post-graduate focusing on health promotion. Method: This is a descriptive analysis of teaching approaches supported by ICT in three experiments. The first, in the form of update / specialization (sensu lato), is part of the activities of the department of internal medicine and has been incorporating ICT throughout its 10 years of existence. The second experiment deals with a post-graduate course in the strict sense of the public health program, under theresponsibility of the preventive medicine department. Finally, we present the discipline graduate also strict sense of Nursing, Faculty of Medicine at the University of Costa Rica. Results: We present summary tables on the use of different ICT as well as the desired educational objectives and the nature of the activity. Conclusion: The current use of ICT highlights the opportunity and incentive for space construction and re-construction of knowledge in Health Promotion. Recognize the potential and limits of the use of ICT contributes to interprofessional education of health promoters with emphasis in a transformative education.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is becoming a part of everyday life for many adults with learning disabilities. However, there is scant information available about what factors are important for using ICT in post-formal educational contexts with adults with learning disabilities. Eight Day Services within one organisation were visited to observe activities and interview staff and service users about ICT, which included use of personal computers, digital cameras and the Internet. Three main levels of ICT use and implementation were identified as well as a number of organisational factors associated with the regular use of ICT resources. Staff beliefs about ICT, the management and organisation of staffing and clear ideas about the purpose of ICT were important factors in addition to the basic requirements of providing resources and training. These factors are useful in guiding practitioners towards implementing and using ICT and highlight the importance of the context within which ICT use takes place. The provision of hardware, software and training are not sufficient by themselves to guarantee good use of ICT and careful attention needs to be paid to wider influential factors. Sharing of ideas about using ICT resources with adults with learning disabilities is timely in relation to the current policy context of social inclusion, but future development depends on the availability of sustained funding to adequately maintain and update equipment; without this the factors supporting regular ICT use described here will remain isolated and largely irrelevant to many people who could otherwise benefit from the use of ICT resources.

This paper presents a study on the perceptions of primary school teachers regarding their knowledge, usefulness, and use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in education. Likewise, the relationship between sex, age, working time and the educational center in which it is found with the perceptions about ICT is obtained. To answer these questions, a battery of 14 categorical closed questions is designed, divided into four blocks: socio-demographic information; knowledge of ICT; usefulness of ICT; and use of ICT. In the context of measuring the knowledge, usefulness and use of ICT in education, the novelty of this work relies on the design of an indicator for each of the ICT-related blocks following the methodology of Human Development Indicators created by the United Nations Development Program. In this research, 119 teachers from Spanish primary schools were chosen as the study sample to answer the questions’ battery. The results show a direct relationship between knowledge, usefulness, and use, although not significant. Although teachers are aware of the usefulness of ICT, and the Covid-19 pandemic has increased the use of technological tools for planning teaching in blended or distance learning lessons, this does not mean teachers have a greater knowledge of ICT. In addition, the findings indicate a greater knowledge by teachers in public schools, which contrasts with the finding that teachers in grant-assisted schools make the most use of ICT and find it the most useful. Finally, it is also suggested that the study's methodology and approach could be applied to other contexts or countries.

Spatial Patterns of Purposeful Social Networking and Socioeconomic Influences: Towards a Mature, Inclusive Networked Society in the U.S.

Digital development for a progressive networked society