Social compensation or rich-get-richer? The role of social competence in college students’ use of the Internet to find a partner

Online dating continues to grow rapidly in popularity every day, yet the role of social competence in online dating behavior remains unclear. This study was designed to expand previous research and conduct a comprehensive investigation on how social competence is associated with college students’ online dating behaviors, perceptions, and attitudes. Two hypotheses were tested: The social compensation hypothesis (SCH)—socially incompetent individuals would engage in more online dating, and the rich-get-richer hypothesis (RGRH)—socially competent individuals would use online dating more than their incompetent counterparts. The results showed that incompetent individuals, despite their ability to see benefits in online dating, did not show a favorable attitude towards online dating. They indicated a more frequent use of and a stronger preference for face-to-face dating compared to online dating, which contradicted the SCH. There were weak associations between competence traits and online dating behavior. Socially competent individuals perceived less benefit and showed less interest in online dating, which disconfirmed the RGRH.     

Do (how) digital natives adopt a new technology differently than digital immigrants? A longitudinal study

Although the information systems (IS) literature has revealed a variety of mechanisms involved in technology adoption and postadoption use, the literature lacks insights about how individuals with different usage characteristics process the information related to new IS and how their belief judgments and use behavior unfold over time. This study fills this void in the literature by conceptualizing and testing a comprehensive model to investigate the impact of user orientation toward technology use by digital natives (DNs) and digital immigrants (DIs) on technology continuous use behavior. The effect of DNs and DIs is currently gaining the attention of researchers. This study investigated the postadoption and use behavior of these groups using a three-wave panel model and with decomposed theory of planned behavior (DTPB) as the initial adoption model. The longitudinal model is a unified framework that sheds light on four different mechanisms underlying postadoption phenomena: (1) the belief judgment evaluation processes suggested by the DTPB model, (2) sequential updating mechanism, (3) feedback mechanism, and (4) habit mechanism. Based on multigroup analysis, we show that a clear pattern of differences in effect exists between DNs and DIs with respect to the sequential belief updating mechanism and that these results are relatively stable over time.     

Is students’ computer use at home related to their mathematical performance at school?

Recent research has provided evidence that students’ computer use at home is positively associated with their performance at school. However, most of the previous studies have failed to take into account the multiple determination of school performance and, in addition, to explain why using computers at home should benefit students’ academic achievement. The study described in this article takes a step towards filling this gap by circumventing the theoretical and methodological problems of previous research. First, we analyzed students’ home computer use and their performance in mathematics while accounting for other factors that have been found to affect students’ achievement. Second, we investigated possible differences in students’ school performance depending on how they used the computer. Based on the data from German students who took part in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2003, our results showed that students’ access to a computer was not linked with their performance in mathematics. In addition, it did not matter how often students used a computer at home. A positive effect on mathematical achievement was, however, observed for a small group of students who used the computer in a self-determined way that largely engaged them in problem-solving activities. Overall, the findings indicate that for the majority of students the computer had no substantial influence on their academic achievement. At the same time, the results are suggestive of ways in which performance in mathematics might be enhanced through the use of computers.     

What makes them happy and curious online? An empirical study on high school students’ Internet use from a self-determination theory perspective

From a self-determination theory perspective, this study tries to investigate how perceived autonomy support, perceived relatedness and competence affect high school students’ intrinsic motivations (enjoyment and curiosity) to use the Internet, and the related outcomes of the motivation. Surveys are distributed to seven junior and ten senior high schools in a prefectural-level city in central China. Existing instruments from previous research are adapted to measure the following constructs: teacher support, parental support, peer influence, Internet self-efficacy, enjoyment, curiosity, flow state and online exploratory behavior. Finally, 3475 valid responses are collected.     

Are Computer Science and Information Technology still masculine fields? High school students’ perceptions and career choices

This study investigated Greek high school students’ intentions and motivation towards and against pursuing academic studies in Computer Science (CS), the influence of the family and the scholastic environment on students’ career choices, students’ perceptions of CS and the Information Technology (IT) profession as well as students’ attendance at CS courses at school, computer use in the home and self-efficacy beliefs regarding computers. Gender differences were examined with a view to identifying factors that may affect boys’ and girls’ career choices. The participants were 358 students of both sexes who completed an anonymous questionnaire. The data analysis showed that girls are less likely than boys to pursue a CS degree, and when they do so, it is mainly because of extrinsic reasons rather than personal interest in CS. Lack of opportunities for early familiarization with computing in the home and the scholastic environment is the factor that mainly differentiates boys’ and girls’ motivation against studying CS, having a greater impact on girls. Misconceptions of CS were detected in students of both genders. Girls view CS as a self-referencing, machine- and programming-oriented discipline to a greater extent than boys do, and hold less positive views of the IT profession. Boys view CS as more human- and application-oriented than girls do. They also have greater computer self-efficacy and more sex-stereotypical views of CS and IT as male domains. Appropriate actions to increase girls’ interest and participation in CS studies are proposed according to the findings.     

Algorithms or advocacy: does the legal profession have a future in a digital world?

Much of the focus on the impact of new technology on employment has been on work which is regarded as repetitive and requiring minimal skills. For the most part it seems that professional occupations have been assumed to be relatively immune to the effects of ‘digital disruption’. However, there are now suggestions that this is altering as new software programs have been developed that can undertake at least some of the functions of various professions, including the legal profession. This article seeks to add to the evolving conversation of how new technologies might transform the legal profession as we know it. Beyond this, it also seeks to ask how the content of the law and legal education might also be affected by ‘digital disruption’, and explore the opportunities such unravelling of the legal profession might present.     

The use of ‘Clickers’ in the classroom: Teaching innovation or merely an amusing novelty?

‘Clickers’ are individual response devices in which students each have a remote control that allows them to quickly and anonymously respond to questions presented in-class. Clickers are now being used in many classrooms as an active learning component of courses. Educators considering the use of clickers in their own classrooms may wonder whether the clickers are a worthwhile, pedagogical tool or merely an amusing novelty. As Li (2008) pointed out, research has examined clicker effects on interaction within the classroom, but little research has examined whether clicker use can affect the understanding of concepts. This article will discuss ways in which clickers may help students organize and understand material presented in the classroom. The paper is intended to help guide educators in potentially effective uses of clickers as well as to guide future research.     

Human factors/ergonomics as a systems discipline? “The human use of human beings” revisited

Discussions of the possible future of Human factors/ergonomics (HFE) usually take the past for granted in the sense that the future of HFE is assumed to be more of the same. This paper argues that the nature of work in the early 2010s is so different from the nature of work when HFE was formulated 60–70 years ago that a critical reassessment of the basis for HFE is needed. If HFE should be a systems discipline, it should be a soft systems rather than a hard systems discipline. It is not enough for HFE to seek to improve performance and well-being through systems design, since any change to the work environment in principle alters the very basis for the change. Instead HFE should try to anticipate how the nature of work will change so that it can both foresee what work will be and propose what work should be.     

Synthesized or digitized? A guide to the use of computer speech

In addition to technical and cost determinants, a range of human factors issues governs the appropriateness of synthesized or digitized speech for a particular system. For example, since synthesized messages are created textually, they may reflect the rules and habits of written language, rather than spoken language. This may cause listeners some difficulty interpreting the intended meaning of the message. Moreover, the different speech media place constraints upon techniques of message creation editing, transmission and reception. Synthesized speech is easy to edit in terms of lexical content, but the production of sophisticated prosodic features can be problematic. In contrast, unedited digitized speech will normally have appropriate prosodic cues and because of this will be difficult to edit. The influence of these factors is examined and illustrations of both good and poor practice are given. The paper concludes with a decision criteria checklist for speech output devices.     

Accessibility of mobile applications for tourism—is equal access a reality?

Universal Access in the Information Society - With the increasing use of smartphones in people’s daily lives, mobile accessibility has become a key factor for them. Tourism is one of the...     

Why don't telephones have off switches? Understanding the use of everyday technologies: A research note

Unlike other technologies, the telephone is unusual in that it cannot be ‘turned off’. Almost uniquely, its design does not incorporate an off switch, or when it does, it tends to be located in an inaccessible position (such as on the underside of the phone). Rather than arguing that this is a special feature of telephones, this paper argues that this is an example of designers seeing rules as generators of action, rather than resources for action. That is, a rule of phone behaviour is “when a phone rings, answer it”. However, rules do not simply generate action. We can choose when not to follow it. Support for this case has been neglected by designers, forcing individuals to appropriate other technologies to support not answering the phone. These rules of use are implicit in how we conceptualise the use of technology, and in turn, how we perform design. We suggest that designers can be aided by understanding better the nature of rule following, allowing them to design technology that supports ‘deviant’, yet equally valid modes of use.     

Can support by digital technologies stimulate intrapreneurial behaviour? The moderating role of management support for innovation and intrapreneurial self-efficacy

Drawing on theorising on digital technologies as external enablers of entrepreneurial activities and an interactionist perspective on corporate entrepreneurship, this article examines the relationship between digital technology support and employee intrapreneurial behaviour. We propose that management support for innovation as an organisational characteristic and intrapreneurial self-efficacy as an individual characteristic moderate this relationship. Findings from a metric conjoint experiment with 1360 decisions nested within 85 employees showed that support by social media, support by collaborative technologies, and support by intelligent decision support systems were significant predictors of employee intrapreneurial behaviour. However, the relative impact of support by these digital technologies varied with different levels of management support for innovation and intrapreneurial self-efficacy.     

Out of fear or desire? Toward a better understanding of employees’ motivation to follow IS security policies

Given the significant role of people in the management of security, attention has recently been paid to the issue of how to motivate employees to improve security performance of organizations. However, past work has been dependent on deterrence theory rooted in an extrinsic motivation model to help understand why employees do or do not follow security rules in their organization. We postulated that we could better explain employees’ security-related rule-following behavior with an approach rooted in an intrinsic motivation model. We therefore developed a model of employees’ motivation to comply with IS security policies which incorporated both extrinsic and intrinsic models of human behavior. It was tested with data collected through a survey of 602 employees in the United States. We found that variables rooted in the intrinsic motivation model contributed significantly more to the explained variance of employees’ compliance than did those rooted in the extrinsic motivation model.     

Does the use of social networking sites increase children’s risk of harm?

Although research findings have been equivocal as to whether the use of social networking sites (SNSs) increases experiences of online risk among children, the affordances of SNS lend support to this possibility, attracting much policy and public concern. The present article examines whether the use of such services increases the risks that children and young people encounter by analyzing data from a random stratified sample of approximately 1000 internet-using children aged 9–16 years in each of 25 European countries. Four hypotheses were formulated and tested. The first hypothesis, namely that children who use social networking sites will encounter more risks online than those who do not, is supported by the data. The second hypothesis stated that SNS users with more digital competence will encounter more online risk than those with less competence; this was also supported, despite being counter to common assumptions. Thirdly, we hypothesized that SNS users with more risky SNS practices (e.g. a public profile, displaying identifying information, with a very large number of contacts) will encounter more online risk than those with fewer risky practices: this too was supported by the data; thus what matters for risk is how SNS are used, a useful point for awareness-raising initiatives. The fourth hypothesis stated that SNS users with more digital competence in using the internet will experience less harm associated with online risk. The data did not support this hypothesis, since digital competence did not reduce the probability of children saying that they have been bothered or upset by something on the internet. Finally, the study found that, although this had not been predicted, whether or not risks are experienced as harmful depends on the specific relation between risks and platforms (website, instant messaging, gaming or social networking). We call on future research to explore how particular affordances sustain particular communicative conditions and, in turn, are responded to differently by children. The research and policy implications of the findings are discussed.     

How far can one compress digital fault records? Analysis of a matching pursuit-based algorithm

In this paper, we verify how far electric disturbance signals can be compressed without compromising the analysis of encoded fault records. A recently proposed compression algorithm, referred to as Damped Sinusoidal Matching Pursuit (DSMP) has the remarkable feature of obtaining both compact and physically interpretable representations. However, for fault analysis applications, one is primarily interested in how accurate can be the analysis performed on compressed signals, instead of evaluating mean-squared error figures. Unlike previous works in digital fault records compression, the performance of the DSMP compression method is evaluated using a protocol based on fault analysis procedures commonly performed by expert engineers. This protocol is applied for comparing the results obtained in the analysis of both uncompressed records and their compressed versions at different compression ratios. The results show that the DSMP is a reliable compression system since it achieves high compression ratios (6.4:1) without causing fault analysis misinterpretation.     

What stimulates teachers to integrate ICT in their pedagogical practices? The use of digital learning materials in education

The question ‘What stimulates teachers to integrate Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in their pedagogical practices?’ was addressed in the context of teachers’ usage of digital learning materials (DLMs). We adopted Fishbein’s Integrative Model of Behavior Prediction (IMBP), to investigate the various relationships between distal and proximal variables and intention. Mediation analysis revealed that the proximal variables attitude, subjective norm, and self-efficacy towards DLMs were significant predictors of teachers’ intention to use DLMs. The contribution of subjective norm, however, was modest. Attitude, subjective norm and self-efficacy mediated the effects of the following three distal variables on intention: previous use of DLMs, perceived knowledge and skills to use DLMs, and colleagues’ usage of DLMs. Persuasive communication and skills based training seem, therefore, appropriate interventions to promote a positive attitude towards DLMs and improve self-efficacy in using DLMs.