Search results

This article is the fourth in a series examining the projected impacts of new technology and software on K‐12 education. The data was collected from 166 school administrators attending a workshop in the United States during January 2001. The data is presented in the form of brief composites representing administrator uses of handhelds for school management performances. The authors then comment on the administrators’ assessments based on the background reasoning.

The purpose of this paper is to propose that sales managers use mobile technologies in the working environment to communicate and supportively monitor sales person performance.

A model of supervisor monitoring using mobile technologies is conceptualized that specifies the types of behaviours that promote high‐quality working relationships, how mobile technologies increase the likelihood of work‐to‐nonwork role spill‐over that may damage the relationship and why perceptions of supervisor fairness are critical. The paper concludes by presenting strategies for testing hypotheses and for researching mobile technology use by sales managers using qualitative and quantitative methods.

Mobile technology use, supervisory monitoring, and relationship development co‐exist in the current workplace. This research heightens awareness of how work‐to‐nonwork spillover may influence important outcomes of mobile technology usage. Perceptions of quality supervisor‐employee relationships are important to retaining and motivating employees. As the workforce ages and skilled workers become more scarce, it is expected that this theoretical examination and ensuing future research will be interesting and important to the twenty‐first century manager.

This paper aligns research in the areas of leadership, monitoring and ubiquitous or mobile technologies. Previous leadership researches have questioned whether or not the use of different electronic monitoring tools affects the leader's ability to influence others. However, few researchers have examined performance‐based monitoring using mobile technologies, although mobile technologies make it easier for sales managers to monitor non‐traditional work arrangements (i.e. off‐site or contracted work). Furthermore, past research has been inconsistent in explaining how employees view information‐gathering or monitoring by their managers.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the needs of people with Alzheimer’s disease and their caregivers in terms of information and communications technology (ICT) and home automation, and how to foster the use of smart devices in their homes and also, to determine whether the use of ICT can extend people with Alzheimer’s disease stay at home in the first stages of the illness, while facilitating their caregivers’ tasks.

Groups of caregivers, ICT researchers and Alzheimer’s disease experts were gathered to discuss the utility of several solutions. Sessions were grouped into four topics: safety, leisure, activities of daily living and friendly atmosphere. In total, 23 ICT-based solutions to improve life at home of people with Alzheimer’s disease were analysed and grouped under “no interest”, “some interest” and “very interesting”. Caregivers rated these solutions and suggested improvements to them.

In total, 18 out of 23 proposals were considered “very interesting”, meaning that caregivers considered that they could truly improve the lives of people with Alzheimer’s disease. Caregivers also suggested how to progressively introduce these technical solutions into their homes.

ICT and home automation advances could be very useful if used conveniently. Caregivers consider that smart homes can help people with Alzheimer’s disease in the security, leisure and daily tasks fields, increasing the time they can live alone in their own homes.

The purpose of this study was to examine how cost, network and technology factors affect the use of mobile technologies for clients’ care in internal medicine department in Nigeria’s premier teaching hospital, the University College Hospital, Ibadan.

The study adopted a survey design covering a cross-section of medical doctors, pharmacists, nurses and medical laboratory technologists in the Department of Internal Medicine. A questionnaire guided data collection.

There is a high level of consciousness and use of mobile technologies for meeting healthcare needs of internal medicine clients in the University College Hospital, Ibadan and medical practitioners are deploying the technology most. However, there is no similar evidence of consciousness and use of wearable health-care technologies and solutions. The hospital makes some provision for mobile technology support for relevant medical staff and purposes. However, about three in 10 of the respondents reported that they use their own funds to recharge hospital-provided mobile phones means.

The study focusses only on one institution but the result reflects the situation in other hospitals, University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria being the major supplier of health and medical human resources in the country.

The hospital requires undertaking institutional assessment of mobile service need and consumption for clients’ care and thereafter make adequate provision to match the need. Furthermore, the institution could work out various forms of collaboration with mobile technology operators in the country to subsidise the cost of the use of telephones for clients’ care as part of their corporate social responsibility.

The institution could work out collaboration with mobile technology operators in the country to subsidise cost of mobile client care as part of the philanthropic and corporate social responsibility of telecom companies.

This study focusses mainly on internal medicine and has implication for a more proper understanding of adult deployment of mobile phones for client care.

The purpose of this paper is to examine current public library apps in Scotland and assess Scottish public library users’ opinions of those apps.

Two qualitative and quantitative surveys were conducted. One survey was distributed to each Scottish local authority, the entities responsible for public libraries and Scotland. The second survey was made available to the public. The results were analysed with nonparametric statistics and content analysis.

All 32 authorities responded. In all, 17 authorities had an app, two had one in development, and 13 had none. Offering an alternative means of communication to patrons was the main reason for providing an app, while cost and low priority were the main reasons provided against app provision. Authorities were satisfied with the core services offered in their apps, but less so with others. No authorities had consulted the public regarding app provision. The public (n=185), while satisfied with current library apps, criticised the complex procedures required to access external services. Patrons from authorities without an app stated interest in apps.

It is vital for public libraries to implement at least core services that are optimised for mobile devices. They should consult with the public before and throughout the development process to ensure they are happy with the implementation.

This is the first known study to explore public library app use in Scotland as well as one of the first in public library app use worldwide.

This study aims to investigate the key factors that motivate learners to use handheld devices to access library resources. To do so, this study integrates the technology acceptance model (TAM) and the DeLone and McLean information systems success (D and M-ISS) model.

The relationship between the causes and the outcomes may not be symmetrical. To test this proposition, data were collected from 210 respondents in a Gulf country and analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM) and complemented by fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA).

The SEM results revealed that three constructs – perceived ease of use (PEOU), service quality (SQ) and system quality (SEQ) are strong drivers of students’ continuous intention to use handheld devices to access library resources. However, perceived usefulness (PU) and information quality (IQ) do not significantly influence students’ intentions. Besides, SQ and PEOU are positively related to PU. Furthermore, fsQCA results show that two different conjunctions, PU*PEOU*IQ*SEQ and PEOU*SQ*IQ*SEQ, cause the students to show a continuous intention to use handheld devices to access library resources.

Unlike previous studies on mobile library resource utilization, this analysis extends TAM to investigate the linear additive influence of two basic TAM constructs: PEOU and PU, and three constructs, namely, SEQ, SQ and IQ of the ISS model, on students’ library resource utilization. Furthermore, the findings of SEM were complemented by a set theory-based configuration method, fsQCA, to investigate the asymmetrical, equifinal and configurational causation leading to the desired outcome. The findings of this study have theoretical and practical implications.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the phenomenal of wireless handheld technology in healthcare environment.

The paper adopts a mixed method approach and a qualitative approach with focus group and survey techniques.

The study indicates that organizational readiness, technical readiness, clinical practice, social aspects as well as compatibility of new hardware with the existing system, play a crucial role in the adoption of wireless handheld devices in Australian healthcare systems

Future research in this domain needs to examine implications of wireless handheld technology at an organizational level in the healthcare environment and its adoptability to unique healthcare settings

The research has established that access to data, communication enhancements, policy development, high quality information transmission and easy interfaces, are some of the factors influencing the acceptance of wireless technology in Australian healthcare systems. The study also identified challenges, such as the lack of management commitment, in realizing the acceptance.

This paper explores the context, development and outcomes of a cross-European in-service training programme, developing mobile learning practices in school classrooms – MLEARN – in The Netherlands, England, Greece and Italy. This paper focuses on: contextual backgrounds; a training needs analysis; and initial, mid-term and final outcomes from teachers and learners.

Evidence was gathered about: contextual backgrounds through literature reviews and key informant responses; a training needs analysis through online survey responses from teachers and trainers; and outcomes of uses from five surveys, largely completed online by teachers and learners, after some 2, 3, 5, 9 and 13 months of use.

Findings from survey periods were compared to identify shifts and gaps. The training programme led to successful outcomes; there was rapid uptake and use of the mobile devices, as well as shifts in emphasis across the period of the pilot, dependent on contextual factors. But long-term integration requires focus on specific learning activities, as well as on integration beyond a one-year period.

Uses of mobile devices are increasing, across countries and age ranges. How devices can be used to support learning and teaching in contemporary contexts is not temporally independent. Country curricula, legislation, training programme access, and teacher and learner awareness and perceptions, all influence practice.

Teachers have limited access to training programmes in this field. This study investigated a key pilot in this under-developed research area. Key factors need to be considered when programmes are developed and run.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the drivers and inhibitors of clinical usefulness of handheld wireless technology in healthcare domain in Australia and India. Because of cultural differences in these two countries the paper also attempts to show how a cross‐national study of this nature can be carefully designed and undertaken to produce useful results.

A mixed‐method research design was used in this study. First, qualitative approach was used to develop the list of drivers and inhibitors in Australia and India via interviews and a research model was developed. This was then followed by a quantitative approach where questionnaire was developed and distributed to 300 health professionals each in both Australia and India. The collected data were analysed using a combination of optimal scaling and partial least square (PLS) techniques.

The result of the study was very interesting. The PLS application to the raw data did not support any of the hypotheses. As the study was cross‐national optimal scaling procedure were used to standardize the data and then PLS used again. It was then revealed that for Australia inhibitors significantly influence the clinical usefulness of handheld wireless technology while the drivers do not. However, for India the drivers significantly influence the clinical usefulness but the inhibitors do not. Possible reasons for such contrasting results are highlighted in the paper.

The sample size although appropriate for the tools used was a bit on the low side. The study did not follow up with representative respondents from Australia and India to get a deeper understanding of the results.

This study is original in the way the research model was developed from ground up. Our approach can be used for similar research. The study also makes original contribution in terms of designing an appropriate research approach for cross‐national study and how various data analyses tools can be used effective for meaningful outcomes.