ICT in the service of multiculturalism

Theoretical Background

Much of the research on connecting among different cultures is based on the contact hypothesis (Allport, 1954), which lays down the conditions for successful contact between two or more groups. Allport claims that knowledge of differences between groups is not in itself enough to stop prejudice. In order to reduce prejudice and bias, it is necessary to become directly acquainted with people of the other culture/sect, etc., and his hypothesis stipulates a number of conditions that need

to be fulfilled in order to reach this goal: equal-group status within the situation, common goals, intergroup cooperation, and institutional support. Under these conditions, participants in information exchange and intergroup interaction “increase their knowledge of the outgroup and reduce intergroup anxiety, which in turn broadens the perceptual field to allow impressions of outgroups to become more accurate and more favorable” (Stephan & Stephan, 1984). Thus, previous stereotyping and prejudice toward the other culture is reduced. In fact, although studies claim that indeed there is a change in how an individual relates to another individual from a different cultural group, this change in attitude does not always lead to a change in the individual’s bias against the entire group. In order for there to be a change in global attitudes, there must be carefully controlled conditions (Brown & Wade, 1987; Hewstone & Brown, 1986; Riordan & Ruggiero, 1980; Scarberry, Ratcliff, Lord, Lanicek, & Desforges, 1997).

A number of computer-mediated communication (CMC) projects have been carried out among diverse populations, specifically populations in conflict, based on the contact hypothesis. Probably the best documented one is Dissolving Boundaries, carried out from 1999 to 2008 between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland (Austin, 2006). This project brings together online students from the different religious sectors of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland for joint study projects. The research concludes that sustained curricular and social interaction has an effect on childrens’ perceptions of each other and that the effect is most marked between two schools, one on each side of the border.

In Israel, efforts to use CMC between Arab and Jewish populations have met with inconsistent results. Mollov and Lavie (2001) and Mollov (2006) examined discussions that focused specifically on Jewish and Islamic religious practices through email exchanges between Israelis and Palestinians. They concluded that a one-to-one religious dialogue was a means for building Israeli-Palestinian understanding. However, group encounters that focused on political concerns did not result in reducing biases (Ellis & Maoz, 2007; Maoz & Ellis, 2001).

The OICH Model

The online inter-group contact hypothesis (OICH) model is based on an extension of the contact hypothesis (Allport, 1954). Its aim is to adapt the original contact hypothesis for online connections between groups in conflict. The model is applicable to various levels of professional/project-oriented collaboration among culturally diverse groups: academic staff at teaching colleges; trainees in the teaching colleges; teachers in schools, who are program graduates; and pupils in schools who collaborate on educational projects.

 

In order for the model to work, the project must meet a number of conditions, which are outlined below:

• be fully supported by each participating institution,
• involve collaboration among groups rather than among individuals,
• deal with general subjects and not with conflicts,
• be based on a need for participant collaboration rather than competition,
• ensure participants have equal status,
• progress gradually over a period of at least one year, beginning with exchanges via the Internet followed by text and voice exchange and finally, after a positive online experience, by face-to-face encounters among the partners, and
• employ teachers who themselves come from the different cultural groups and who “team teach” the course in a collegial environment.

The multi-collegial IT course offered by the Center annually since 2005 uses this model in a unique course that offers Israelis from diverse religions and backgrounds an advanced Internet learning environment, which focuses on computerized tools and online teaching methods (including forums, blogs, wikis, film editing programs, and more). Teacher trainees learn about applications of technology in teaching, and they practice these within the framework of a given topic or discipline of their choice.

Reference: http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/601/1207

ICT education tranformation and economic development.

Five sorts of research:

•Macroeconomic research showing that over the past several decades the US and global economies have undergone a fundamental shift from a manufacturing economy to an information economy, much of it driven by ICT.

•Microeconomic research showing that individual firms are undergoing significant changes in organizational structure and business practices, much

of it facilitated by the pervasive presence of ICT in the workplace.

•Labor market and workforce studies showing a significant shift in the kinds of jobs and skills that are needed by our economy, skills that are intimately connected to the use of ICT.

•Studies showing patterns of the everyday ICT use in American life, particularly use by young Americans, patterns that are closer to the use of ICT in the business world than to that in schools.

•Studies showing that American schools are not using ICT in a significant way or providing youth with the experiences and skills they need to enter the information economy.

Macroeconomic Trends: shifting from manufacturing to information economy

Macroeconomic studies – those that look at entire economies – show that the US economy has undergone profound changes over the past several decades. These changes have significant implications for how people work, live, and play an

d, most certainly, implications for education: for what is taught, how it is learned, and how schools are organized. Many of these changes have been fostered by the dramatic growth in information communication technologies.

Microeconomic Trends: changes in business organization and practices

ICT has contributed to economic change not just through the growth of the information products and services sectors. It has also fostered fundamental changes in how business is done across a range of economic sectors. Microeconomic studies – those that look at individual firms – confirm the impact of ICT on business practice. First, these studies show that the use of ICT has supported a significant surge in US productivity. Stiroh (2003) analyzed aggregate productivity data for 1987-1995 to 1995-1999 for three sets of US industries: ICT-producing industries, ICT-using industries, and other industries. ICT-producing industries showed a mean productivity acceleration of 3.7 percentage points; ICT-using industries posted an increase of 2.0 percentage points; all other industries showed an average gain of only 0.4 percentage points.

Labor Market Trends: need for a different skill set 

 

As intimated above, the restructuring of the economy, the reorganization of work, and the uptake of ICT have corresponded to a need for increased education and skill on the part of the labor force.

A study by Carnevale & Desrochers (2002) found a significant increase in the number of workers in the US economy who have at least some level of higher education. Between 1973 and 2000, the percentage of US workers with some post-secondary education increased from 28% to 59%, and the proportion with bachelor’s degrees increased from 9% to 20% during that period. In terms of

demand, this upward trend looks likely to continue. The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that those occupational categories that require a postsecondary degree will experience the most rapid growth between 2008 and 2018.

Social Trends: everyday ICT practices 

 

In addition to its economic impact, the pervasiveness of ICT across the country has had a significant social impact on America, such that people access, use, and create information and knowledge very differently than they did in previous

decades – they are living in what is sometimes called the ‘knowledge society’ (Mokyr, 2002). A recent study by the Pew Internet and American Life project (Kennedy et al, 2008) found that more than three-quarters (77%) of all US households own at least one computer, and among households with children, 93% own a computer. A recent study using US Census Bureau data (NTIA, 2010) found that 68.7% of US households have Internet access, and 63.5% of them have broadband access. However, broadband home use is correlated with a number of demographic characteristics: higher-income households, White and Asian Americans, urban residents, and those with higher education levels are much more likely to have and use broadband at home than lower-income households, Black and Hispanic Americans, rural residents, and those with lower levels of educational attainment. This gap remains a significant social issue in the United States, as noted by Warschauer & Martuchniak.

Educational Trends: the current state of US education

 

Given the massive changes in the economy and society, the significant technological resources available in American homes, and the impressive

technological skills and experiences that young people bring with them to school, how well are schools preparing our youth for the information economy and knowledge society that they will live in during the twenty-first century? The answer is, not well at all.

The Urgent Need for Educational Change

Of course, not all businesses or workers will be engaged in the information economy over the coming decades, any more than all businesses were related to farming in the agrarian economy or than all businesses were manufacturers during the mass-production economy. Nonetheless, the prevailing economic paradigm has a pervasive effect on all business and social endeavors.

Economic historians (Freeman & Louca, 2001; Perez, 2002) describe waves of economic and social change associated with the introduction of transformative technologies. Each wave of technology – steam power, electrical power, mass production, and now computers – spawned both creative and disruptive forces that restructured the economy and rippled throughout social institutions and practices. The existing paradigm, tuned to a current set of technological affordances, was not able to cope with or take advantage of the potential offered by new technologies and, consequently, uptake of the new technologies was a disruptive force that worked against the current paradigm.

Referencing:

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.1000.9837&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Services and Everything

As its name indicates, it has to do with how the ICT has influence in the way we see life. The revolution was happening. What can you gain from changing your work? As we have analyzed throught all these previous posts technology is invading us, not in a mean way. Now we are more informed and more educated than ever. If you think we are not, just check how we were back then, I am not saying this in order to change anything, but it is something we have seen since many many years ago. 

The technology marked the difference from the new to the old. When the young started to use things like music as the basis of a movement, young people changed the way they were.

The algorithmic revolution transforms activities

With the algorithmic revolution , task a underlying services can be transformed into formalizable, codifiable, computable, processes with clearly defined rules for their execution.
IN MAJOR ENTERPRISES PAYROLL PROCESSES HAVE BEEN REORGANIZED AND LARGELY AUTOMATED.

Business functions ranging from:
Accounting methods that we use
Computing
Payroll amount of money we use for payment.

Supply chain management

Repositioning services to avoid commoditization
Intense global competition, the array of newcomers from diverse countries and the rapid diffusion of technology, means that many products face intense price competition.

Firms hardware offerings are increasingly enhanced in value by ICT-enable services offerings. Apple's iPod is more than an attractively designed mp3 player.

-Products can become portals to services, or are embedded in services.

-Conventional sectoral distinctions are collapsing into “value domains”.

-Products themselves can be transformed into services when delivered via ICT networks.

UNDETSTANGING THE SERVICES TRANSFORMATION

The services transformation is persasive. Consequently we need some tools sort through the developments. First, we distinguish the underlying services activities, placing them on a spectrum ranging.

THE SERVICES DILEMMA
We have seen that the ICT enabled service transformation involves both including a services component in the business model and transforming service activities, into computable processes. This is just the beginning of the competitive story.

SERVICES DRIVING PRODUCTIVITY
*Services are now widely recognized as a source of productivity growth and dynamism in the economy.