Information technology (IT) is "the study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware", according to the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA). IT deals with the use of electronic computers and computer software to convert, store, protect, process, transmit, and securely retrieve information.
Today, the term information has ballooned to encompass many aspects of computing and technology, and the term has become very recognizable. IT professionals perform a variety of duties that range from installing applications to designing complex computer networks and information databases. A few of the duties that IT professionals perform may include data management, networking, engineering computer hardware, database and software design, as well as the management and administration of entire systems. Information technology is starting to spread farther than the conventional personal computer and network technology, and more into integrations of other technologies such as the use of cell phones, televisions, automobiles, and more, which is increasing the demand for such jobs.
When computer and communications technologies are combined, the result is information technology, or "infotech". Information technology is a general term that describes any technology that helps to produce, manipulate, store, communicate, and/or disseminate information.
In recent days ABET and the ACM have collaborated to form accreditation and curriculum standards[2] for degrees in Information Technology as a distinct field of study separate from both Computer Science and Information Systems. SIGITE is the ACM working group for defining these standards. Information technology (IT) changes rapidly, seriously challenging IT management. In response, many organizations create a formal group of IT professionals to evaluate emerging IT so they can better cope with its change. A survey based on structured interviews was mailed to a nationwide sample of 1,000 IT organizations. Two hundred forty-six respondents provided data to identify categories of coping mechanisms to handle changing IT. Five categories emerged: Education and Training, Internal Procedures, Vendor Support, Consultant Support, and Endurance. Organizations apply Education and Training more extensively than the others. Thus the research contributes to understanding the means by which organizations cope with rapid IT change. The research also found that organizations with a group dedicated to investigating emerging IT cope more extensively, but not more successfully, than do those without one. Thus the research contributes not only by providing an understanding of how organizations cope with rapid IT change, but also by suggesting the need to achieve more from the group charged with emerging IT.
A stream of research has been done on the individual use of information technologies (IT). Their purpose was to find out how technology was received and utilized by the users. The researchers knew that information technologies could add significant value to an organization in terms of productivity increases and performance improvements, but technologies were constantly evolving over time, and as a result, adoption behaviors of individuals were changing with them. Traditionally, the earlier models of innovation adoption represented marketplace deterministically and proposed improvements based on assumptions of certainty. They claimed that although more recent adoption models integrate some dynamic effects (i.e., learning and risk), the basic recommendations had not changed much for decision-making. In fact, the only distinction came from the fact that the later models improved the traditional models by elaborating on them and by providing understanding of additional variables. We think that the traditional models underestimate the forces of changes and uncertainty that dominate today's innovative markets, which are full of continuous processes of technology development, improvement, and application.
Thus, it is the objective of this paper to provide a conceptual framework for discussion of how technologies get diffused through their acceptance by the users and to understand the characteristics of technologies, users, and organizations in the face of changes and uncertainty. Our paper draws on various branches of previous research. From the marketing perspective, we look at several researchers who have discussed the models of and/or issues of innovation adoption. We begin with Kamien and Schwartz and Reinganum] who present models of firm adoption of innovations, examining the factors affecting a firm to adopt a certain innovation. Gatignon and Robertson describe the implications of organization adoption decisions in a competitive environment. Bass develops a mathematical model to examine the timing of adoption of new products and applies it by empirically testing demand growth for consumer products. This model later becomes widely adopted, extended, and applied in empirical research. Mahajan et al. review extensively the deterministic models for diffusion of innovations. Whereas Kalish and Sen discuss how the marketing mix variables impact diffusion, Eliashberg and Chatterjee provide thorough review of the stochastic models for innovation diffusion. From a strategy viewpoint using the diffusion of innovation theory, a stream of researchers has contributed to the subject matter.
They have examined various factors, generally regarded as determinants of IT adoption and usage, in their studies. Examples of these factors include individual user characteristics, innovation characteristics, and environment characteristics. Similarly, Information Systems (IS) researchers have addressed the issues of acceptance and diffusion of IT by providing varying answers to what are the factors determining IT usage by individuals, and discussing the relevance of different IT usage models. For example, the theory of reasoned action (TRA) developed by Fishbein and Ajze] helps to predict and understand human behavior in making adoption decisions. In their review, Igbaria et al. incorporate the concern for the determinants of behavior and relations among beliefs, attitudes, subjective norms, intentions, and behaviors. Determining how the relevant factors affect each other to lead to a decision-making is the primary focus of the TRA model. Ajzen also introduces the theory of planned behavior (TPB) model as an extension of an earlier TRA to consider the situations where individuals do not have complete control over their behavior. TPB was designed to predict individual adoption behavior across different settings and can be applied to IS use as well. Davis et al.’s well- known technology acceptance model (TAM) is an improvement of the generic TRA model. TAM adapted certain components of the generic TRA model and applied them to the particular domain of computer technology, and more broadly, to the information technology.
The difference between the two models is that in place of the TRA’s attitudinal determinants, TAM introduces two key variables, perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, as having central relevance for predicting computerbased technologies user acceptance behaviors. Although previous models of IT acceptance provide useful insights, more research is needed to determine the key factors affecting or motivating individuals to use computer-based information technologies for various purposes. In light of this need for more research, our paper tries to extend previous research by examining the major determinants of IT adoption and diffusion based on what other researchers have done and by proposing an additional determinant of IT adoption that is of important relevance. As such, the purpose of this research is to seek better and valid measures for predicting and explaining IT use by individuals in network computing environment. Our research differs from other previous studies in that we try to move away from the old ways of thinking and pursue new ideas. Recognizing that the computing environment has changed due to the development of innovative technologies and the growth of the Internet, we scrutinize carefully the changes which have occurred and propose an enhanced IT acceptance (usage) model which can help to explain the new phenomenon of technology adoption in today’s distributed network computing environment.
Thus, we present an extended and improved model of IT usage by reexamining the key determinants of IT usage, taking account of the changes in user needs and computing environment. We believe that only by understanding various factors affecting the IT adoption and diffusion can we truly understand how and when individuals use information technologies. The paper proceeds as follows: In section , we discuss the relevant prior literature and the motivation for the study. The core of our study is contained in section. The model of IT usage (acceptance) and theoretical rationales are presented in this section. Section discusses the contribution of the model of IT usage in IT adoption research. Future research directions and issues not covered in this paper are outlined in section. We conclude in section . The topics of interest which are relevant in the study of user acceptance model of IT (IT adoption) are network externality, complementarity, diffusion of IT, user acceptance of IT, etc. We review the relevant literature on each of the topics to provide background information and theoretical support for our research, and especially to set the stage for a constructive discussion of our IT usage model. We try to integrate the ideas derived from the different disciplines to contribute a new body of knowledge to the area of IT adoption and diffusion research.
We argue that until now, research on IT has primarily focused on the problems and issues of IT use in the context of individual computing environment. In particular, the field of economics has studied the diffusion of externality-related products such as telephone, focusing on the positive externality. These studies introduce positive externality but they rarely mention negative externality. An example of negative externality is illustrated in the following example. When we have many people using the World Wide Web (WWW) or collaborating in some other ways, people get easily overwhelmed by the volume of information they come in contact with. As a result, it becomes difficult for them to get organized and seek out the information they need in a timely manner. Thus, we have an information glut. As seen, there are definitely both positive externalities (i.e., characteristics of network environment, especially the Internet) and negative externalities, as in blocking in phone lines. We now look at the topics that are relevant to the study of IT adoption and diffusion in greater details.
These are the three changes likely to have substantial impact on USEP's services in the next three years:
Online Voting of Election in Clubs, Organizations, Local Councils of different colleges and Campus Student Council
This change in school services is based on the System Analysis and Design and Software Engineering project proposal which is the Project E-Vote. I think this project is feasible in the next three years. Based on the Project E-Vote description, it offers features such as simultaneous online elections as it aims to cater more than one election at a time. Project E-Vote features a customizable election page where the administrator may choose to generate a different election page depending on the demand of the organization. Project E-Vote also features an automated storage system that is more efficient in terms of capacity and data security. Project E-Vote marks an automated counting of votes thus consumes less time during canvassing. The development of Project E-Vote is a move that tries to solve the problems faced during elections conducted within the university such as the large cost of manual elections and election fraud. If well develop this application may be an inspiration to other organizations that conducts elections. The first part is the manual system, which involves accepting of candidacy. The second part is the automated system, which involves online casting of votes, automated counting of votes, data storage and also a part of data process.
Based on the developers’ project proposal document, the application provides the following benefits:
• It minimizes the cost of an election.
• It minimizes the time needed for canvassing the vote’s cast.
• Election procedure is automated thus eliminates or minimizes election fraud and cheating.
• It could cater to any election within the University.
• It can be integrated with other existing systems and databases.
• It has a concept of green computing as it minimizes the use of paper materials.
• It may be developed further to cater future problems concerning elections.
Online Passbook/Gradesheet
This is another application that will change in the next three years. This is also based on the System Analysis and Design and Software Engineering project. The Online Passbook is comparable to the manual passbook system used by the university. However, the online passbook avoids the students to actually go to each of their respective subject instructors. This could ease the process of retrieving the grades of the students since it can be viewed online. The online passbook has its owns restrictions in which only instructors designated to the subject is authorize to personally put the respective grades of the students and will only retrieve the grades when it’s done. The students, on the same manner, are only allowed to view his grades in which he is enrolled in that semester.
The objectives of this application are to discontinue the use of manual passbook system of the students, to cease manual retrieval and passing of grades of the teachers in the registrar, and to provide an easy and efficient way of retrieving the grades of the students. In accessing the online passbook, the registered student of the university is subjected to a password of his own for security and for him to view his own grade. The online passbook would also give an evaluation of grades of the students instantly. On the other hand, for the instructor, this could also avoid manual distribution of grades to the students of each of the subject they handle. The instructor will have a security password in accessing the system. The instructor will be able to put the grades of his students into the system and it will automatically distribute the subject grades to the corresponding students. It will then also automatically submit the respective subject grades to the registrar.
Online Tutorial of Different Languages
This service change in the University is based on the office of Institute of Languages. Institute of Languages offers language tutorial different languages like French, Arabic, German, Korean, Italian, Portuguese, Mandarin, Nihongo, Bahasa Indonesia, and Philippine Dialects. The International Languages tutorial is a web-based step by step lesson covering basics, pronunciation, but also grammar, vocabulary. It offers audio support for better oral comprehension, a table of contents and an index for faster searches. It offers audio support for better oral comprehension, a table of contents and an index for faster searches. The online tutorial support is well structured and organized. The tutor employs strategies to encourage dialogue amongst students online. The tutor is prompt in responding to my questions or insights. The student expect s a response online within one day.The student would benefit from more interaction online. The student would benefit from more training to communicate online. The benefits of online different languages courses reach far and wide. With the difficulty of the language posing numerous stumbling blocks even for those with the different native language tongue, strong instruction that works is essential. Whether you are taking English as a second language or you need to increase your communication skills in other languges to be a better professional, online courses offer you a great freedom as well as a good opportunity.
Today, the term information has ballooned to encompass many aspects of computing and technology, and the term has become very recognizable. IT professionals perform a variety of duties that range from installing applications to designing complex computer networks and information databases. A few of the duties that IT professionals perform may include data management, networking, engineering computer hardware, database and software design, as well as the management and administration of entire systems. Information technology is starting to spread farther than the conventional personal computer and network technology, and more into integrations of other technologies such as the use of cell phones, televisions, automobiles, and more, which is increasing the demand for such jobs.
When computer and communications technologies are combined, the result is information technology, or "infotech". Information technology is a general term that describes any technology that helps to produce, manipulate, store, communicate, and/or disseminate information.
In recent days ABET and the ACM have collaborated to form accreditation and curriculum standards[2] for degrees in Information Technology as a distinct field of study separate from both Computer Science and Information Systems. SIGITE is the ACM working group for defining these standards. Information technology (IT) changes rapidly, seriously challenging IT management. In response, many organizations create a formal group of IT professionals to evaluate emerging IT so they can better cope with its change. A survey based on structured interviews was mailed to a nationwide sample of 1,000 IT organizations. Two hundred forty-six respondents provided data to identify categories of coping mechanisms to handle changing IT. Five categories emerged: Education and Training, Internal Procedures, Vendor Support, Consultant Support, and Endurance. Organizations apply Education and Training more extensively than the others. Thus the research contributes to understanding the means by which organizations cope with rapid IT change. The research also found that organizations with a group dedicated to investigating emerging IT cope more extensively, but not more successfully, than do those without one. Thus the research contributes not only by providing an understanding of how organizations cope with rapid IT change, but also by suggesting the need to achieve more from the group charged with emerging IT.
A stream of research has been done on the individual use of information technologies (IT). Their purpose was to find out how technology was received and utilized by the users. The researchers knew that information technologies could add significant value to an organization in terms of productivity increases and performance improvements, but technologies were constantly evolving over time, and as a result, adoption behaviors of individuals were changing with them. Traditionally, the earlier models of innovation adoption represented marketplace deterministically and proposed improvements based on assumptions of certainty. They claimed that although more recent adoption models integrate some dynamic effects (i.e., learning and risk), the basic recommendations had not changed much for decision-making. In fact, the only distinction came from the fact that the later models improved the traditional models by elaborating on them and by providing understanding of additional variables. We think that the traditional models underestimate the forces of changes and uncertainty that dominate today's innovative markets, which are full of continuous processes of technology development, improvement, and application.
Thus, it is the objective of this paper to provide a conceptual framework for discussion of how technologies get diffused through their acceptance by the users and to understand the characteristics of technologies, users, and organizations in the face of changes and uncertainty. Our paper draws on various branches of previous research. From the marketing perspective, we look at several researchers who have discussed the models of and/or issues of innovation adoption. We begin with Kamien and Schwartz and Reinganum] who present models of firm adoption of innovations, examining the factors affecting a firm to adopt a certain innovation. Gatignon and Robertson describe the implications of organization adoption decisions in a competitive environment. Bass develops a mathematical model to examine the timing of adoption of new products and applies it by empirically testing demand growth for consumer products. This model later becomes widely adopted, extended, and applied in empirical research. Mahajan et al. review extensively the deterministic models for diffusion of innovations. Whereas Kalish and Sen discuss how the marketing mix variables impact diffusion, Eliashberg and Chatterjee provide thorough review of the stochastic models for innovation diffusion. From a strategy viewpoint using the diffusion of innovation theory, a stream of researchers has contributed to the subject matter.
They have examined various factors, generally regarded as determinants of IT adoption and usage, in their studies. Examples of these factors include individual user characteristics, innovation characteristics, and environment characteristics. Similarly, Information Systems (IS) researchers have addressed the issues of acceptance and diffusion of IT by providing varying answers to what are the factors determining IT usage by individuals, and discussing the relevance of different IT usage models. For example, the theory of reasoned action (TRA) developed by Fishbein and Ajze] helps to predict and understand human behavior in making adoption decisions. In their review, Igbaria et al. incorporate the concern for the determinants of behavior and relations among beliefs, attitudes, subjective norms, intentions, and behaviors. Determining how the relevant factors affect each other to lead to a decision-making is the primary focus of the TRA model. Ajzen also introduces the theory of planned behavior (TPB) model as an extension of an earlier TRA to consider the situations where individuals do not have complete control over their behavior. TPB was designed to predict individual adoption behavior across different settings and can be applied to IS use as well. Davis et al.’s well- known technology acceptance model (TAM) is an improvement of the generic TRA model. TAM adapted certain components of the generic TRA model and applied them to the particular domain of computer technology, and more broadly, to the information technology.
The difference between the two models is that in place of the TRA’s attitudinal determinants, TAM introduces two key variables, perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, as having central relevance for predicting computerbased technologies user acceptance behaviors. Although previous models of IT acceptance provide useful insights, more research is needed to determine the key factors affecting or motivating individuals to use computer-based information technologies for various purposes. In light of this need for more research, our paper tries to extend previous research by examining the major determinants of IT adoption and diffusion based on what other researchers have done and by proposing an additional determinant of IT adoption that is of important relevance. As such, the purpose of this research is to seek better and valid measures for predicting and explaining IT use by individuals in network computing environment. Our research differs from other previous studies in that we try to move away from the old ways of thinking and pursue new ideas. Recognizing that the computing environment has changed due to the development of innovative technologies and the growth of the Internet, we scrutinize carefully the changes which have occurred and propose an enhanced IT acceptance (usage) model which can help to explain the new phenomenon of technology adoption in today’s distributed network computing environment.
Thus, we present an extended and improved model of IT usage by reexamining the key determinants of IT usage, taking account of the changes in user needs and computing environment. We believe that only by understanding various factors affecting the IT adoption and diffusion can we truly understand how and when individuals use information technologies. The paper proceeds as follows: In section , we discuss the relevant prior literature and the motivation for the study. The core of our study is contained in section. The model of IT usage (acceptance) and theoretical rationales are presented in this section. Section discusses the contribution of the model of IT usage in IT adoption research. Future research directions and issues not covered in this paper are outlined in section. We conclude in section . The topics of interest which are relevant in the study of user acceptance model of IT (IT adoption) are network externality, complementarity, diffusion of IT, user acceptance of IT, etc. We review the relevant literature on each of the topics to provide background information and theoretical support for our research, and especially to set the stage for a constructive discussion of our IT usage model. We try to integrate the ideas derived from the different disciplines to contribute a new body of knowledge to the area of IT adoption and diffusion research.
We argue that until now, research on IT has primarily focused on the problems and issues of IT use in the context of individual computing environment. In particular, the field of economics has studied the diffusion of externality-related products such as telephone, focusing on the positive externality. These studies introduce positive externality but they rarely mention negative externality. An example of negative externality is illustrated in the following example. When we have many people using the World Wide Web (WWW) or collaborating in some other ways, people get easily overwhelmed by the volume of information they come in contact with. As a result, it becomes difficult for them to get organized and seek out the information they need in a timely manner. Thus, we have an information glut. As seen, there are definitely both positive externalities (i.e., characteristics of network environment, especially the Internet) and negative externalities, as in blocking in phone lines. We now look at the topics that are relevant to the study of IT adoption and diffusion in greater details.
These are the three changes likely to have substantial impact on USEP's services in the next three years:
Online Voting of Election in Clubs, Organizations, Local Councils of different colleges and Campus Student Council
This change in school services is based on the System Analysis and Design and Software Engineering project proposal which is the Project E-Vote. I think this project is feasible in the next three years. Based on the Project E-Vote description, it offers features such as simultaneous online elections as it aims to cater more than one election at a time. Project E-Vote features a customizable election page where the administrator may choose to generate a different election page depending on the demand of the organization. Project E-Vote also features an automated storage system that is more efficient in terms of capacity and data security. Project E-Vote marks an automated counting of votes thus consumes less time during canvassing. The development of Project E-Vote is a move that tries to solve the problems faced during elections conducted within the university such as the large cost of manual elections and election fraud. If well develop this application may be an inspiration to other organizations that conducts elections. The first part is the manual system, which involves accepting of candidacy. The second part is the automated system, which involves online casting of votes, automated counting of votes, data storage and also a part of data process.
Based on the developers’ project proposal document, the application provides the following benefits:
• It minimizes the cost of an election.
• It minimizes the time needed for canvassing the vote’s cast.
• Election procedure is automated thus eliminates or minimizes election fraud and cheating.
• It could cater to any election within the University.
• It can be integrated with other existing systems and databases.
• It has a concept of green computing as it minimizes the use of paper materials.
• It may be developed further to cater future problems concerning elections.
Online Passbook/Gradesheet
This is another application that will change in the next three years. This is also based on the System Analysis and Design and Software Engineering project. The Online Passbook is comparable to the manual passbook system used by the university. However, the online passbook avoids the students to actually go to each of their respective subject instructors. This could ease the process of retrieving the grades of the students since it can be viewed online. The online passbook has its owns restrictions in which only instructors designated to the subject is authorize to personally put the respective grades of the students and will only retrieve the grades when it’s done. The students, on the same manner, are only allowed to view his grades in which he is enrolled in that semester.
The objectives of this application are to discontinue the use of manual passbook system of the students, to cease manual retrieval and passing of grades of the teachers in the registrar, and to provide an easy and efficient way of retrieving the grades of the students. In accessing the online passbook, the registered student of the university is subjected to a password of his own for security and for him to view his own grade. The online passbook would also give an evaluation of grades of the students instantly. On the other hand, for the instructor, this could also avoid manual distribution of grades to the students of each of the subject they handle. The instructor will have a security password in accessing the system. The instructor will be able to put the grades of his students into the system and it will automatically distribute the subject grades to the corresponding students. It will then also automatically submit the respective subject grades to the registrar.
Online Tutorial of Different Languages
This service change in the University is based on the office of Institute of Languages. Institute of Languages offers language tutorial different languages like French, Arabic, German, Korean, Italian, Portuguese, Mandarin, Nihongo, Bahasa Indonesia, and Philippine Dialects. The International Languages tutorial is a web-based step by step lesson covering basics, pronunciation, but also grammar, vocabulary. It offers audio support for better oral comprehension, a table of contents and an index for faster searches. It offers audio support for better oral comprehension, a table of contents and an index for faster searches. The online tutorial support is well structured and organized. The tutor employs strategies to encourage dialogue amongst students online. The tutor is prompt in responding to my questions or insights. The student expect s a response online within one day.The student would benefit from more interaction online. The student would benefit from more training to communicate online. The benefits of online different languages courses reach far and wide. With the difficulty of the language posing numerous stumbling blocks even for those with the different native language tongue, strong instruction that works is essential. Whether you are taking English as a second language or you need to increase your communication skills in other languges to be a better professional, online courses offer you a great freedom as well as a good opportunity.
Reference:
http://usep-ic.forumsmotions.com
http://wikipedia.org
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