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Mobile technology as a tool for management and teaching in elementary and secondary education
Jeništová, Jana ; Svoboda, Petr (advisor) ; Tureckiová, Michaela (referee)
The primary aim of the thesis concerning mobile technology as a tool for management and teaching at school is to describe the current status of ICT at school from two perspectives: From the management perspective as well as from the perspective of school education. Further, to look through the state policy in education, Annual report of the Czech School Inspectorate statistics CSO and professional literature in this area at the current state of technology introduction at present-day schools. To capture the view of Experts on the new trends that penetrate to us from abroad. To gather by means of quantitative research of the randomly selected sample of respondents what are the possibilities and benefits of technology and knowledge of new trends in our conditions (BYOT). To verify by means of research how this issue is perceived and accepted by current teachers and leaders at schools in the Prague region and in several other regions of the Czech Republic. The conclusion tries to summarize and on the basis of the research results to show needs, opportunities and benefits of mobile technology for the school and its clients. KEYWORDS: ICT, digital technology, iPad, laptop, netbook, smartphone, applications, educational software, BYOD, BYOT, digital divide, digital native, digital immigrant
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The Internet and socially disadvantaged people
Krátká, Tereza ; Lupač, Petr (advisor) ; Sedláčková, Markéta (referee)
The work deals with the issue of relations between social disadvantage (defined in four dimensions - economic, cultural, social and personal resources) and digital disadvantage of people in the Czech Republic (data from the Aktér 12 - 2011 research; 1106 respondents aged 18 to 89). The main hypothesis of the study verifies these assumptions: 1) socially disadvantaged persons will be more affected by digital disadvantage than people socially included; 2) regular use of Internet aids in overcoming mainly personal and cultural disadvantages; 3) social and digital inclusion correlate positively with some specific types of social and digital disadvantage. The research outputs confirm a strong positive relationship between social disadvantage (in its economic dimension) and digital disadvantage. In terms of cultural disadvantage/inclusion both the group of digitally disadvantaged and the group of digitally included are at the same level. Positive correlation between specific types of social/digital disadvantage and social/digital inclusion was not confirmed - socially included individuals do not show any significant signs of digital disadvantage; and socially disadvantaged people do not indicate any specific features of digital inclusion. Key words: Internet, digital disadvantage, digital divide, social...
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Exploring the Social Conditionality of the Contemporary Mode of Technological Development: Beyond the Edge of the (Research on) the Digital Divide.
Lupač, Petr ; Suša, Oleg (advisor) ; Müller, Karel (referee) ; Jirák, Jan (referee)
In his dissertation thesis, the author elaborates on a new position from which both information society theory and digital divide research could be analyzed as active participants in a large-scale societal reconstruction. The text begins with the reconstruction of the argumentation core of information society theories, which is then utilized when choosing their latest, most respected, and most elaborated version. In the following chapter, the author presents the composition of Manuel Castells' information society theory and its tight relationship with the digital divide issue. In the final parts of this chapter, the author reveals the key position of the digital divide issue in solving the contradictions and negative aspects of informatization. The chapter is concluded by finding out the absence of the link between digital divide and information society theory in the preceding criticism of Castells' work. In the fourth part, the development, arguments, and empirical evidence of the digital divide research are presented, followed by identification of the limits of contemporary academic digital divide discourse. In the sixth chapter, the author tries to overcome these limits by proposing a new empirical evidence better fitting model of the digital divide. The thesis is concluded by thinking over the...
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The Influence of the Internet on Education
Kozmová, Marie ; Kocianová, Renata (advisor) ; Eger, Ludvík (referee)
This work concentrates on the changes that the Internet has caused in education since its invention to the present day and predicts possible future development of the Internet use in education. It focuses on the learning needs of people in the information society and the role of adult educators in bridging the digital divide. The work further deals with changes in several cognitive functions, which are directly related to education. Special attention is given to a new theory of networked learning, connectivism, and specific ways of learning on the internet. Personal learning environments, massive open online courses, open educational resources and the concept of school 2.0 are critically viewed. The well-known web applications and tools suitable for use in teaching are briefly introduced.
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The political dimension of social exclusion of elderly people as a result of the digital divide
Chmelíková, Tereza ; Kotrusová, Miriam (advisor) ; Potůček, Martin (referee)
The diploma thesis deals with the phenomenon of the digital divide and its influence on the quality of life of seniors. The digital divide - a product of the modern information society - is one of the major factors influencing the social exclusion of elderly people. The theoretical part of theses introduces the concept of active aging as a way of successful solving problems associated with the population ageing, as well as a prevention of the exclusion of seniors from both society and participation in public affairs. The author mainly focuses on the issue of how are seniors in the Czech Republic at risk of exclusion as a result of digital exclusion. In the practical part, the present level of digital literacy of Czech seniors is explored. Following qualitative research - semi-structured interviews with experts - aims to find out whether the digital divide represents a social problem for the elderly people in the Czech Republic that contributes to their inequal position among the society, or even causes their exclusion from the participation in governance, and consequently, reduces the quality of their lives.
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European Union information policy at the time of the Bangemann's activities in comparison with USA
Mikanová, Helena ; Vlasák, Rudolf (advisor) ; Očko, Petr (referee)
(in English) The thesis "Information Policy of European Union in Bangemann's activities period in comparison with USA" is devoted to the Information policy issue applied by the European Union and the United States of America. The thesis structure is defined at the earliest; afterwards the basic terms are followed. The thesis describes the European Union history, which provides context needed to be able to understand the European Union Information policy. The description and evaluation of the European Information policy in Bangemann's activities period in comparison with USA in the same time period and the possibility of mutual utilization of pros of the Information policy of both countries is the aim of this thesis. The following part is occupied with the comparison of EU and USA Information policy at the beginning of 21st century.
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The global digital divide and the changing information flows
Melicharová, Eliška ; Parízek, Michal (advisor) ; Plechanovová, Běla (referee)
The thesis deals with the global information flows and its aim is to find factors which influence them. Firstly, the visibility of the country in international news is explored, i.e. which countries are dominantly represented in the international news. Secondly, the exposure of the country towards international news is observed, i.e how countries vary in the openness towards the international news. The thesis also seek to reveal factors which have an impact on the visibility of the country and on the exposure. The thesis consists of a recherche part with the theory of globalization and a quantitative analysis based on the dataset from 2014-2017. The thesis concludes that countries are represented unevenly with few dominant countries (the most dominant country is China, followed by USA and Ukraine) in the international news and that the most exposed countries have been found small developing countries (Saint Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda, etc.) from South America. Regarding the factors of visibility of the country, the highest impact has the size of population,and also GNI and the presence of violent correlated. On the contrary, all factors impacting the exposure of the country were found statistically insignificant.
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Narrowing the gap of the digital divide: how NSTL contributes
Xu, Xiaomu ; Leng, Ling
In China, a digital divide results from geographical conditions, unbalanced economic development, individual differences, and other factors. To bridge this gap and to weaken the polarisation between the “information wealthy” and the “information poor,” a federal, Internet-based library, the National Science and Technology Library (NSTL), has been founded. This paper will introduce what NSTL is and how NSTL contributes to narrowing the gaps in order to reduce differences between the two groups in access to science and technology information and resources. NSTL consists of 9 library members, all of which are national authoritative libraries in different disciplines, respectively covering the natural sciences, engineering, agriculture, medicine, standards, and other fields. First, to narrow the gap caused by geographical conditions, NSTL has built 40 service stations covering 29 provinces, thus forming a nationwide information service network with the help of local and industrial scientific information institutions. This action not only guarantees resource sharing to the whole country, but also improves the service abilities of local providers. Second, to narrow the gap caused by unbalanced economic development, approximately 25,000 types of print resources that are state-funded can be unconditionally supplied to the public at reasonable prices, especially with low prices for remote and poor areas. Document delivery services are ordered over 400,000 times every year. Nearly 4,000 kinds of electronic journals are free for all domestic welfare and educational group users via Internet protocol address permissions. Third, to narrow the gap caused by individual differences, NSTL provides an integrated discovery system on the basis of unified cataloguing so that everyone can search literature easily. NSTL also organises trainings and seminars across the country, introducing and promoting resources to all communities. In addition, NSTL strives to explore approaches to international information access and to foster cooperation opportunities in order to close the gaps between countries.
Fulltext: idr-1378_1_paper - PDF Slides: idr-1378_3_presentation - PDF Video: idr-1378_2_video - MP4
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Dehumanization as a risk factor for the use of digital technologies in the context of social work
Brezina, Lukáš ; Vrzáček, Petr (advisor) ; Müller, Karel (referee)
The thesis deals with the threat of dehumanization when applying digital technologies and robotics into social work. The work focuses on the history and origin of digital technologies within the context of social changes. It explores the basic rules governing elementary functioning and development of digital technologies and robotics. The thesis describes and summarizes basic information about the possibilities and risks of using digital technologies and robotics within social work. Towards the end it also includes opinions of several professional and political authorities who are active in this topic. This thesis aims to trigger the debate over the possible threats connected to dehumanization of social work and the use of digital technologies and robotics, respectively make it more intensive.
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Digital literacy of socially excluded adolescents
DOBIÁŠ, Václav
With the advent of digital technology into our lives, the fact that the socially weakest stratum of society is lagging behind in digital literacy is becoming increasingly apparent. This problem is referred to as the second form of the digital divide. Since it has not yet been sufficiently examined, we carried out qualitative research using the grounded theory method, aimed at identifying the causes leading to this second form of the digital divide and defining the development model for this inequality. The collection of data was conducted by means of students solving tasks focused on digital literacy. In the course of this process, the computer screen was recorded and the entire investigator-student communication was captured on an audio track. Subsequently, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the students and their teachers. On the basis of analysis of the data, we created a theory of learning to handle an unknown software program. The process of learning exposes the student to various problems. The strategy used by each student to address these is chosen by the person depending on their previous knowledge of and experience with similar situations, particularly with similar software. The effectiveness of the applied strategy is overseen by the student's metacognitive control mechanisms. On the basis of the results obtained, the student's learning may (or may not) occur that improves the person's knowledge and skills, thus influencing how he/she addresses similar problems in the future. We see the benefits of our theory in describing a process of independent learning in the specific world of digital technologies. This can make the theory highly beneficial for teaching informatics. On the basis of this theory we described differences between socially excluded students and the majority in learning how to handle unknown programs. On the basis of our research, we believe in the long term that the difference in speed of lifelong learning in the field of handling digital technologies is the root cause of the emergence of the digital divide. During data analysis we identified a total of eight factors influencing the speed of lifelong learning in this sector; half of these also directly affect the level of digital literacy through the ability to solve problems. The resulting theory describes the lifelong process of the emergence of the digital divide. We see the main gain of our work in the identification of the process of emergence of the digital divide.
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