Technology in the classroom: Burning the bridges to the gaps in gender-biased education?

This review introduces the concepts of gender bias and technology in education. It discusses the interaction between the two in the educational setting and the effects this interaction may have on teachers, students and materials used in the classroom. It is argued that areas in the educational setting that have been focused on as materials and practices that are biased have also been translated into the use of educational technology that is biased. This review makes the point that biases that have been pointed out and studied within the educational system have not been solved by the use of technology (as some had hoped). In fact, the biases have simply been converted into a new form and may have actually served to undo some the bias-eliminating practices that had been starting to take place in classrooms. Implications and suggestions for change are discussed.     

What Drives People to Continue to Play Online Games? An Extension of Technology Model and Theory of Planned Behavior

Online gaming has become one of the fastest growing entertainment industries on the Internet over the past decade. However, little is known about why people continue to play certain online games or which design factors are most closely related to the amount of time spent by players at particular online gaming sites. The purpose of this study is to propose a theoretical research model, which integrates flow experience, human–computer interaction, social interaction, and perceived enjoyment, together with the technology acceptance model and theory of planned behavior to explain why people continue to play online games. The proposed model was examined through an empirical study involving 415 participants using structural equation modeling techniques. The results found that player attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, flow experience, and perceived enjoyment have a positive influence on players' continued intention to play online games and explain about 70% of variance. In addition, implications for online games development are discussed.     

Leading in Difficult Times: What Can We Learn from the Literature?

This article reviews the recent management literature and LIS literature looking for practical help for academic librarians seeking to lead effectively in the current economic recession. A number of pointers are found under the broad headings of embracing change, focusing on people and focusing on value. There is a lot of overlap and agreement between the two literatures on what is needed, and although both call for a different style of leadership for the future, the difference appears to be one of emphasis rather than a fundamental change.     

What comes first: the workplan or the special request?

How does your MIS Department handle ad hoc requests for I/S projects? CIH Advisory Board member Fran Turisco tells how her MIS Department at the Lahey Clinic deals with this problem and solicits ideas from CIH readers via our "FAX IT BACK" response form.     

Who Controls the Technology in Group Support Systems? Determinants and Consequences

Student groups completed a rank-ordering task in a "low-structure" computerized meeting room where all group members had equal access to a shared computer with a large monitor. Strategies used by the groups to distribute control over the public monitor, determinants of which members took control, and the consequences of control strategies were examined. Groups adopted either a dedicated-scribe strategy, in which one member had control throughout the session, or a non-dedicated-scribe strategy, in which control of the public monitor passed among members. Groups with at least one member who had low proficiency with the technology were very likely to adopt a dedicated-scribe strategy. Social influence within the group, proficiency with the computer system, and gender predicted which group members would take control of the public monitor. The results suggest that a group's social structure may be altered by the use of low-structure computer support, depending on the distribution of technical proficiency in the group. Dedicated-scribe groups had marginally better task performance but reported less increase in satisfaction (over previous work together) than non-dedicated-scribe groups. The implications of this research for the design and use of group computer support are discussed.     

What can the canonical controller in principle tell us?

Given a plant and a desired specification our goal is to construct a controller system which, when interconnected with the plant, yields a system that behaves like the desired specification. We can always construct the canonical controller introduced in van der Schaft (2003) [10]. For linear systems there exists a controller which when interconnected to the plant yields the desired behaviour if and only if the canonical controller is itself one such controller, see Vinjamoor and van der Schaft (2011) [4]. In this paper we extend this result to nonlinear systems. It turns out that one has to look at the canonical controller together with its subsystems. We obtain necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a controller for a class of nonlinear systems. We end with examples which show that in certain cases looking at subsystems of the canonical controller also does not suffice.     

The Study on the Fast Handoff in Mobile Network

Mobile Network based on Mobile IPv6 has been considered as an active approach to support the NEtwork MObility （NEMO）. In this paper, a new authentication method for mobile network seamless and fast handoff is presented, which is based on the Mobile IP Joins with AAA Basic Model. An enhanced model is also presented, which adds new function and role to the AAAF, and reduces the network burden between AAAH and AAAF. The Low Handoffs Latency is realized by establishing a new bi-directional tunnel between NAR and OAR, and enhancing the basic Mobile IP/AAA model. Since the symmetric cryptosystem is employed in this method, it can reduce the computation complexity and accomplish the entire mission above. The new method also can improve the security of mobile network registration and handoff. Finally, the proposed method is simulated and analyzed; moreover, the result is given.     

Data administration in the organization: What is it,who does it and why?

Those who work in the field of database are constantly being challenged both by the burgeoning nature of the field and by the rapidity of new developments. One of the new emerging areas is ‘data administration’; this refers to the management, planning and documentation of the data resource of a company.The key concept in the move towards data administration has been that data, like people, money and materials should be treated as a critical resource that any company has to manage. Providing accurate, relevant and timely information entails a significant cost for a company and presents a substantial challenge.     

What holds in a context?

In order to establish that [A] = [B] follows from a set of assumptions often one provesA =B and then invokes the principle of substitution of equals for equals. It has been observed that in the ancillary proof ofA =B one is allowed to use, in addition to those assumptions of which are free for , certain (open) sentencesP which may not be part of and may not follow from , but are related to the context . We show that in an appropriate formal system there is a closed form solution to the problem of determining precisely what sentencesP can be used. We say that those sentenceshold in the context under the set of assumptions . We suggest how the solution could be exploited in an interactive theorem prover.     

Evaluation of the Dutch subsurface geoportal: What lies beneath?

This paper focuses on a geoportal from a “what lies beneath” perspective. It analyses processes of budgeting, planning, monitoring, performance measurement, and reporting of the national initiative titled Digital Information of the Dutch Subsurface (known by its Dutch acronym, DINO). The study is used as a means to empirically refine a conceptual model that illuminates how external agents influence or control the coordination of geo-information in the public sector. DINO is developed and maintained in a formal principal-agent relationship with clear objectives and accountability. DINO is managed by the Netherlands Institute of Applied Geoscience (the agent) through a performance-based management contract with the sponsoring Geo-Information Commission (the principals). The DINO program is characterized by the pooling of financial resources from five ministries, the internal tracking of activity progression, the routine reporting to the user community, and the regular monitoring and evaluation of DINO by the Geo-Information Commission. The case study reveals that ‘soft’ rather than ‘hard’ controls are used and that ‘mutual shaping’ takes place, with the agent influencing how it is ‘controlled’ by the principal. However, the management contract still relies on a power disparity and reinforces previous research findings that external parties can influence network/coordination conditions. In-depth case studies such as this work can increase understanding of evaluation in the context of politico-administrative processes and improve researchers’ ability to critically compare geoportal initiatives.     

Is Semantic Web Technology Taking the Wrong Turn?

Developers create semantic Web technologies (SWTs) not only to overcome the syntactic, semantic data heterogeneity problem at design time but also to support uniform agreements on the meaning of data and processes at run time. As defined in the landmark article in the space, the greatest promises of the semantic Web and SWTs are: seamless interactions among agents (people and services) based on reliable communications and uniform data and process semantics; a solution to the heterogeneity and interoperability problem in data and processes via dynamic and automatic discovery and integration; and semantic correctness and dependability (including trust and explanation of reasoning results).     

Two-Wave Interactions in the Fermi–Pasta–Ulam Model

This work is devoted to investigating the dynamic properties of the solutions to the boundaryvalue problems associated with the classic Fermi–Pasta–Ulam (FPU) system. We analyze these problems for an infinite-dimensional case where a countable number of roots of characteristic equations tend to an imaginary axis. Under these conditions, we build a special nonlinear partial differential equation that acts as a quasi-normal form, i.e., determines the dynamics of the original boundary-value problem with the initial conditions in a sufficiently small neighborhood of the equilibrium state. The modified Korteweg–deVries (KdV) equation and the Korteweg–de Vries–Burgers (KdVB) equation act as quasi-normal forms depending on the parameter values. Under some additional assumptions, we apply the renormalization procedure to the boundary-value problems obtained. This procedure leads to an infinite-dimensional system of ordinary differential equations. We describe a method for folding this system into a special boundary- value problem, which is an analog of the normal form. The main contribution of this work is investigating the interaction of the waves moving in different directions in the FPU problem by using analytical methods of nonlinear dynamics. It is shown that the mutual influence of the waves is asymptotically small, does not affect their shape, and contributes only to a shift in their speeds, which does not change over time.     

Mobile Information Literacy: Supporting Students’ Research and Information Needs in a Mobile World

Mobile devices have changed everyday life and they have had a great impact in higher education. This article describes a pilot project in which an academic librarian at Lehman College, City University of New York, taught information literacy exclusively via mobile devices. The concept of mobile information literacy is also reviewed, and its role in current and future teaching practices is evaluated. Lessons learned from this project tell us that mobile information literacy, albeit in its infancy, could play an essential part in students’ learning, and therefore academic librarians could incorporate it as part of their practice.     

What is the evidence for less shift work tolerance in older workers?

This paper explores the suggestion that older people would be less tolerant to shift work. Field studies on age-shift work interaction effects on sleep, fatigue, performance, accidents and health were reviewed. Studies on age-shift (morning, afternoon, night) and age-shift system (roster) interactions were also reviewed. In nine studies, shift and day workers were compared and interactions with age were addressed. Two studies reported more problems in older people, four studies reported opposite results, while in five studies no significant age-shift work interaction was observed. From across-shift comparisons (six studies), it was deduced that older compared with younger workers have more sleep problems with night shifts, while the opposite is true for morning shifts. This review did find some differences between older and younger workers, but did not find evidence for the suggestion of more shift work problems in older workers. STATEMENT OF RELEVANCE: This systematic review reveals the limited evidence that exists concerning shift work tolerance in older workers, highlighting an area for future research. Some interactions between age and shift type and shift system have been found, however. In view of these, it is argued that age-specific aspects should be considered in shift work planning.