Online social networks: Why do students use facebook?

The growth and popularity of online social networks has created a new world of collaboration and communication. More than a billion individuals around the world are connected and networked together to create, collaborate, and contribute their knowledge and wisdom. Despite the importance of online social networks, there is relatively little theory-driven empirical research available to address this new type of communication and interaction phenomena. In this paper, we explored the factors that drive students to use online social networks (e.g., Facebook). Specifically, we conceptualized the use of online social networks as intentional social action and we examined the relative impact of social influence, social presence, and the five key values from the uses and gratification paradigm on We-Intention to use online social networks. An empirical study of Facebook users (n = 182) revealed that We-Intention to use online social networks is strongly determined by social presence. Among the five values, social related factors had the most significant impact on the intention to use. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Pilot mental workload: how well do pilots really perform?

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of increasing mental demands on various aspects of aircrew performance. In particular, the robustness of the prioritization and allocation hierarchy of aviate–navigate–communicate was examined, a hierarchy commonly used within the aviation industry. A total of 42 trainee pilots were divided into three workload groups (low, medium, high) to complete a desktop, computer-based exercise that simulated combinations of generic flight deck activities: flight control manipulation, rule-based actions and higher level cognitive processing, in addition to Air Traffic Control instructions that varied in length from one chunk of auditory information to seven chunks. It was found that as mental workload and auditory input increased, participants experienced considerable difficulty in carrying out the primary manipulation task. A similar decline in prioritization was also observed. Moreover, when pilots were under a high mental workload their ability to comprehend more than two chunks of auditory data deteriorated rapidly.     

Pilot mental workload: how well do pilots really perform?

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of increasing mental demands on various aspects of aircrew performance. In particular, the robustness of the prioritization and allocation hierarchy of aviate-navigate-communicate was examined, a hierarchy commonly used within the aviation industry. A total of 42 trainee pilots were divided into three workload groups (low, medium, high) to complete a desktop, computer-based exercise that simulated combinations of generic flight deck activities: flight control manipulation, rule-based actions and higher level cognitive processing, in addition to Air Traffic Control instructions that varied in length from one chunk of auditory information to seven chunks. It was found that as mental workload and auditory input increased, participants experienced considerable difficulty in carrying out the primary manipulation task. A similar decline in prioritization was also observed. Moreover, when pilots were under a high mental workload their ability to comprehend more than two chunks of auditory data deteriorated rapidly.     

Canadian university students in wireless classrooms: What do they do on their laptops and does it really matter?

Two studies were conducted to examine what undergraduate students do on their laptops during class time and the extent to which laptop usage behaviors are associated with academic success. In Study 1, a sample of 1129 students from a Canadian university completed a survey measuring prototypical behaviors emitted on laptops during class time. Results of factor analyses indicated that laptop behaviors can be regrouped in two dimensions: School related and school unrelated laptop utilization. School unrelated laptop behaviors were significantly associated with lower levels of self-reported academic achievement and satisfaction. School related laptop behaviors were positively associated with academic satisfaction. These results were invariant across different faculties on campus. In Study 2, another sample of 88 students was recruited to examine the longitudinal association between laptop behaviors and semester grade point average obtained at the end of the semester. Results of Study 2 showed that school unrelated laptop behaviors were prospectively associated with lower semester grade point average, even after controlling for a series of potentially confounding influences (i.e., self-regulation failure, motivational deficit, disorganized learning, internet addiction, and school disenchantment). Overall, these results provide theoretically important support to suggest that in-class laptop utilization is a unique and contemporary mode of learning that should not be treated as an epiphenomenon merely accountable and reducible to other sources of psychological influences.     

What does information technology “do” to business communications?: Two empirical studies

According to recent surveys, communication skills are among the most important areas of managerial performance. With the widespread use of information technology, end users are producing large amounts of written communications. Yet suprisingly little empirical research has been conducted to determine the effects of information technology on business communications. Reported here are two studies, which focus on the effects of information technology on the structure of written communication, and the time required to read end-user generated versus traditionally generated compositions.Two views of the writing process and the role of information technology in it are the mediationist perspective (technology permits the text to be polished until it is of the highest quality) and the extentionist perspective (technology encourages open, natural composition which is conversational in tone). Our findings supported the latter view.Its effects on end-user composition include more composition time and document length. Thus, organizational efficiency (overall time savings) could decrease through the extensive use of end-user generated written communication.     

Digital media adoption in schools: Bottom-up,top-down,complementary or optional?

Past research has suggested that innovation processes in schools are more successful when they are participatory and voluntary. To examine this notion, we categorized schools into one of four different innovation-process types, based on group interviews with school staff: complementary bottom-up and top-down development (type 1), top-down development that is not supported bottom-up (type 2), bottom-up development that is not supported top-down (type 3) and optional development with neither strong bottom-up nor top-down initiatives (type 4). Based on this typology, analysis of variance was then conducted on survey response data from 357 teachers and 1051 9th grade students from these schools. In contrast with some of our expectations, we found that teachers in schools with a complementary top-down and bottom-up strategy as well as schools with a top-down strategy only showed better ICT-resources and a more intensive use of educational technology than those in bottom-up- or optional-innovation-type schools. Additionally, teachers' ICT-use in type 1 and 2 schools is predicted to a higher degree by the number of computers in the classroom than in schools where ICT-integration is bottom-up or optional. Our findings suggest that bottom-up innovation strategies are likely to fall short without top-down support, especially when funds for technology installations are missing.     

Implementation issues in optimization algorithms: do they matter?

Two factors that have a major impact on the performance of an optimization method are (1) formal algorithm specifications and (2) practical implementations. The impact of the latter is typically ignored, although it defines the results measured in experiments. We present an in-depth study of algorithm implementation issues and ask questions such as Does optimizing the implementation of an optimization algorithm pay off? Do bugs matter? and Is using more complicated but also more efficient data structures worth the effort? The intuitive answer to all of these questions is yes, but there is little published evidence. To bridge this gap, we use one of the most studied combinatorial optimization problems – the Traveling Salesman Problem – as a test bed and implement two state-of-the-art approaches for solving it – the Lin-Kernighan Heuristic and an Ejection Chain Method. We investigate implementation effort and performance gain, in order to provide further insights to the above questions.     

The world and business computing in 2051: from LEO to RUR?

It is now just over 50 years since the deployment of LEO-the first business computer and application - in 1951. The paper attempts to look 50 years beyond the birth of LEO in order to discern the nature and effects of business computing in 2051.Scenarios are offered of some possible business applications fifty years hence. These include the business information systems in space and the nature of manufacturing.The scenarios serve as a basis for addressing a number of issues. These include the availability of technology to support the scenarios presented, the nature of organizations shaped by future information systems, the nature of employment in the new organizational structure, consumer-vendor relations in the new economy, the effects of the new information technology on the nature of national governments, and the effect of information technologies on the structure of the global economy.     

Collaborative competencies in professional social networking: Are students short changed by curriculum in business education?

Social networks have earned their indisputable place as a collaborative learning tool in education. In this paper, we address the gap in literature on developing a set of competencies to allow graduates to make the most of collaborative technologies for business and professional activity as well as career management. Based on a survey of over 600 business school graduates from AMBA accredited UK universities, we are able to identify the level of awareness and degree of application of professional usage of social networks amongst students. Our results show that work experience and age of the business students play a significant role in their usage of social networks for professional purposes, knowledge and career management. The data shows that younger students are more social networking savvy when it comes to identifying business opportunities, while older graduates are less confident. This is important as traditionally graduate students are individuals in their mid careers and the skill gap between generation Y and the experienced graduates need to be bridged by adequate curriculum changes.     

DEI in the IS discipline: What can we do better?

Recent diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts have made some limited progress in addressing underrepresentation and unequal opportunities for minority members in the Information Systems (IS) academic community. The Association for Information Systems (AIS), as the preeminent global professional society for the IS discipline, is tasked with acting on behalf of its members and their colleagues to achieve equity and inclusion for its diverse membership. This editorial has two aims: (1) to share the extent to which positive changes have been made and also the extent to which underrepresentation still pervades the IS academic community, especially at the senior ranks and in positions of power, and (2) to propose a coordinated, strategic focus that our field, our journals and conferences, and our association (AIS) can take to further improve diversity and inclusion for both junior and senior minority colleagues.     

Anthropomorphisms in multimedia learning: Attract attention but do not enhance learning?

Anthropomorphizing graphical elements in multimedia learning materials improves learning outcomes. The reasons for enhanced learning are unclear. We extended a seminal anthropomorphism study in order to examine whether the effect of anthropomorphisms on learning outcomes, both immediate and delayed, is caused by the anthropomorphized elements' effects on attention distribution or by elevated positive affective–motivational states. The study had a partial 3 × 2 design (the materials' graphics: schematic vs. black‐and‐white anthropomorphisms vs. colourful anthropomorphisms × eye tracker: present vs. absent). The participants were university students (N = 181). Unexpectedly, we found no significant effect of anthropomorphisms on learning outcomes. Anthropomorphisms significantly affected attention distribution during initial fixations but not overall. Modest effect on enjoyment was found, but no such effect was detected as concerns flow and generalized positive affect. We also found that the eye tracker's mere presence had slight adverse effects on learners, but these effects did not compromise learning.     

Investigating stacking: How do registered nurses prioritize their activities in real-time?

Recent nursing graduates often find it challenging to prioritize competing tasks in the increasingly complex hospital environment. In order to develop a normative framework for task prioritization, Registered Nurses from a variety of settings were interviewed about how they prioritized their activities in the workplace. From 30 interviews, 422 prioritization decisions were coded when study participants were confronted with two tasks that could not be done simultaneously. The findings suggest a seven-level prioritization hierarchy of nursing activities: 1) addressing imminent clinical concerns, 2) high uncertainty activities, 3) significant, core clinical caregiving and managing pain, 4) relationship management, 5) documenting, helping others, and patient support, 6) system improvement and cleaning/preparing supplies, and 7) personal breaks and social interactions. Explicitly providing a normative framework for task prioritization during nursing education may help to accelerate learning this skill. For more experienced nurses, we believe that flexibility to deviate from this framework will be important for providing high-quality, personalized care that best matches the particular context.

Relevancy to industry

Nursing personnel comprises a significant portion of the human capital and operating budget for hospitals. Knowledge of what tasks are likely to be shed under severe workload conditions aids with optimizing hiring and allocation of nursing personnel.     

Self-adaptation in next-generation Internet networks: how to react to traffic changes while respecting QoS?

Next-generation network infrastructure should support different services and several levels of quality of service (QoS) and resilience. The main requirements for such multiservice networks are flexibility, effective utilization of network resources, and ability to react to traffic demand changes with time. These requisites lead to the fact that next-generation networks should, to some extend, be "self-adapting," to cope with the need of promptly reacting to traffic demand changes, in an effective way, while taking into account the different requirements in terms of QoS. This paper sketches the reference network scenario and discusses the subject of self-adapting networks, attempting to focus on the key issues that need to be solved to realize future infrastructures. As a relevant example, this paper briefly reports a system developed by the authors' laboratory that implements a traffic engineering solution able to fulfill the mentioned requirements. This system could be regarded as a first concrete step toward the realization of self-adapting networks. In addition, some relevant results that were obtained either by simulation or by experiments on a real test bed are reported to discuss the main characteristics of such a system and assess the feasibility of the concept. Finally, the paper reviews the main hot issues that need to be addressed, in the authors' opinion, by the international research community.     

Sleep and need for recovery in shift workers: do chronotype and age matter?

This study examined associations of chronotype and age with shift-specific assessments of main sleep duration, sleep quality and need for recovery in a cross-sectional study among N = 261 industrial shift workers (96.6% male). Logistic regression analyses were used, adjusted for gender, lifestyle, health, nap behaviour, season of assessment and shift schedule. Shift workers with latest versus earliest chronotype reported a shorter sleep duration (OR 11.68, 95% CI 3.31–41.17) and more awakenings complaints (OR 4.84, 95% CI 4.45–11.92) during morning shift periods. No associations were found between chronotype, sleep and need for recovery during evening and night shift periods. For age, no associations were found with any of the shift-specific outcome measures. The results stress the importance of including the concept of chronotype in shift work research and scheduling beyond the concept of age. Longitudinal research using shift-specific assessments of sleep and need for recovery are needed to confirm these results.

Practitioner Summary: Chronotype seems to better explain individual differences in sleep than age. In view of ageing societies, it might therefore be worthwhile to further examine the application of chronotype for individualised shift work schedules to facilitate healthy and sustainable employment.     

Controlled Translation in an Example-based Environment: What do Automatic Evaluation Metrics Tell Us?

This paper presents an extended, harmonised account of our previous work on integrating controlled language data in an Example-based Machine Translation system. Gough and Way in MT Summit pp. 133–140 (2003) focused on controlling the output text in a novel manner, while Gough and Way (9th Workshop of the EAMT, (2004a), pp. 73–81) sought to constrain the input strings according to controlled language specifications. Our original sub-sentential alignment algorithm could deal only with 1:1 matches, but subsequent refinements enabled n:m alignments to be captured. A direct consequence was that we were able to populate the system’s databases with more than six times as many potentially useful fragments. Together with two simple novel improvements – correcting a small number of mistranslations in the lexicon, and allowing multiple translations in the lexicon – translation quality improves considerably. We provide detailed automatic and human evaluations of a number of experiments carried out to test the quality of the system. We observe that our system outperforms the rule-based on-line system Logomedia on a range of automatic evaluation metrics, and that the ‘best’ translation candidate is consistently highly ranked by our system. Finally, we note in a number of tests that the BLEU metric gives objectively different results than other automatic evaluation metrics and a manual evaluation. Despite these conflicting results, we observe a preference for controlling the source data rather than the target translations.     

Smart TV: are they really smart in interacting with people? Understanding the interactivity of Korean Smart TV

Smart TV (STV), a new digital television service, has been rapidly developing, particularly in Korea. With the conceptual model of interactivity, this study empirically investigates the effects of perceived interactivity on the motivations and attitudes towards STV in Korea. The model is created to validate the relationship of perceived interactivity to performance, attitude and intention. Further, the model examines the mediating roles of perceived interactivity in the effect of performance on attitude towards STV. Empirical evidence supports the mediating role of perceived interactivity. Implications of the findings are discussed in terms of building a theory of interactivity and providing practical insights into developing a user-centred STV interface.     

STS in a time of economic change: What's love got to do with it? 1

Abstract

Although science, technology, and society (STS) has been widely accepted as part of science curriculum policy, there is little evidence that it has made much impact on classroom practice, particularly in the academic stream of secondary schools. A variety of pressures encourage strong links between school science and an academic version of science designed to prepare future scientists. In the context of structural economic changes and calls for strengthening links between science education and the workplace, I argue that supporters of STS should consider placing STS in occupational contexts in ways that would integrate academic and occupational education. Such an integration might lead to alliances with powerful sections of industry interested in challenging narrow academic versions of school science. These new contexts, though, must also encourage critical engagement with workplace issues.     

Quality is in the eye of the stakeholders: what do professional subtitlers and viewers think about subtitling?

Quality is a rather slippery concept, and its assessment in subtitling can be a challenging task, as its appreciation can easily vary depending on the different stakeholders involved in the production and reception of subtitles. In this paper, we evaluate quality indicators in subtitling as perceived by professional subtitlers and viewers. After exploring the various subtitle parameters that can have an impact on the quality of the end product (such as line breaks, synchronisation, display rates), we present the results of two qualitative studies conducted with professional subtitlers and subtitle viewers with different audiovisual backgrounds. The results yield some similarities and discrepancies, particularly in the way in which the strategy of condensation is perceived by the two groups, and they also help delineate the subtitle parameters that should be taken into consideration in order to improve the creative process as well as the reception of subtitles.