Information and Communication Technology: Dynamics, Integration and Economic Stability

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has become a major driver of investment and growth in OECD countries. The analysis puts the focus on key developments in the ICT sector and international outsourcing dynamics as well as the specific role of ICT in the financial sector. One can show that the expansion of ICT is not only contributing to national and international outsourcing but to insourcing as well. Furthermore, ICT affects regional integration. In the context of a modified Dornbusch model – including foreign direct investment – the impact of ICT on output and the exchange rate are discussed. The risk of overshooting in foreign exchange markets is likely to be reduced through the expansion of ICT which allows a more pro-active monetary policy.Integration, ICT, Growth, Foreign Exchange Markets, Stability

The professionalism of the higher education teacher: what's ICT got to do with it?

HE professionals generally work in an ICT rich environment. There are expectations that the existence of ICT benefits them, their students and the overall learning environment. This paper investigates and debates the complex interplay between two aspects of HE that have witnessed rapid change: the HE teacher’s professional role and the use of ICTs for teaching and learning. This paper reviews writing, research and theory in these areas and draws out key themes. A Masters course run at the Institute of Education, University of London is used as a practical context to evaluate aspects of this debate and assess their contemporary relevance. It establishes the importance of professional learning communities that include ICT ‘enthusiasts’ and an integrated pedagogic approach to ICTs. The paper suggests these factors can be key in enhancing the capacity of the HE teacher to engage positively, collaboratively and critically with the growth of learning technologies

The impact of ICT on the growth of the service industries

This study examines the contribution of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to a growth in services. Data at the firm level is employed to investigate how ICT as a key technology, combined with non-technological determinants, can influence firm performance. The study develops an argument that ICT is one of the major success factors at the present time, and this particularly holds true in the case of service firms, primarily due to their fundamental characteristics of interactivity and intensity of information, which are highly compatible with this technology. The results indicate that the presence of ICT explains the higher growth in productivity and profitability experienced by firms in the service industries. Growth in services was also found to be significantly linked to the level of ICT intensity in service firms, especially when this intensity is complemented by organisational change. The impact of ICT on service firms is assessed in detail, while manufacturing firms and other innovation activities serve as benchmarks.Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Innovation in Services, Organisational Change, Firm Growth

A Qualitative Method for Assessing the Impact of ICT on the Architectural Design Process

During the last thirty years or so, we have witnessed tremendous developments in information and communication technology (ICT). Computer processing power doubles each 18 months, as Gordon Moore predicted during the mid-1960s. The computer and communications world has been revolutionised by the invention of the Internet. It has changed the way of exchanging, viewing, sharing, manipulating and storing the information. Other technologies such as smartphones, wearable computers, tablets, wireless communications and satellite communications have made the adoption of ICT easier and beneficial to all its users. ICT affects the productivity, performance and the competitive advantage of a business. It also impacts on the shape of the business process and its product. In architectural design, ICT is widely used throughout the design process and its final product. The aim of this research, therefore, is to explore the key implication of using ICT in architectural design and what new changes and forms have occurred on buildings as a result of ICT developments and use by architecture practitioners. To achieve this aim, a qualitative research approach was adopted using a narrative review of ICT usage in the design of buildings. The literature found was subjected to a thematic analysis of how ICT adoption affected the architectural design process. The findings of this research indicate that there is a continuous change in the design process and its final products (buildings) as the technology evolves. The framework proposed provides a foundation for gathering evidence from case studies of the impact of ICT adoption by architectural designers. The research proposes that future empirical work has to be conducted to test and refine the relevance, importance and applicability of each of the components of the framework, in order to detect the impact of ICT on the building design process and its final product

Supplementary guidance for schools on inspecting skills, September 2010

This guidance is intended to support the key tasks of inspectors in making judgements regarding: whether all pupils have the communication, numeracy and ICT skills needed to access the whole curriculum; and how well the wider curriculum itself develops pupils’ skills

Time for action! ICT integration in formal education : key findings from a region-wide follow-up monitor

This paper is a report on the key findings of a region-wide monitoring study conducted in Dutch-speaking schools in Belgium. First, we elaborate on the building blocks of the instrument, which has been updated and improved since its first deployment in 2007. In particular we focus on the core indicators, along with the multi-actor approach, the sample design and the ways in which new phenomena such as media literacy and gaming have been operationalized. Secondly, we highlight the main trends and patterns within pre-school, primary and secondary education. The first descriptive analyses show quite disappointing results with regard to ICT use at the micro level and the available infrastructure, while headmasters, teachers and pupils reported positive perceptions of different aspects of ICT integration. These results indicate an urgent need to take appropriate action. Therefore, the final part of the paper examines how ICT integration could be improved via structural changes and appropriate policymaking with regard to budgeting, teacher training and the particular role of ICT coordinators in schools

The Canada-US ICT Investment Gap: An Update

In 2005, the CSLS published a report that examined spending on information and communication technology (ICT) in Canada and the United States between 1987 and 2004. It found that Canadian firms lagged considerably behind US firms in ICT spending and that this situation accounted to some extent for the lower labour productivity growth experienced in Canada. This report provides an overview of the latest developments using the most recent update of the CSLS ICT database. It finds that ICT investment spending in the United States in 2005 and 2006 continued to outpace that in Canada, increasing an average of 5.6 per cent annually in the United States compared to 3.3 per cent in Canada when expressed in current dollars. Following this trend, nominal ICT investment per worker in domestic currencies also grew faster in the United States than in Canada in 2005 and 2006, 3.7 per cent versus 1.6 per cent. The recent increase in the Canadian dollar, however, lead to a sharper decrease in ICT prices in Canada than in the United States over the 2004-2006 period. This in turn led to an increase in the level of PPP-adjusted ICT investment per worker in Canada relative to the United States from 56.5 per cent in 2004 to 58.0 per cent in 2006, continuing the positive trend started in 2000 when it stood at 49.0 per cent. While Canada’s steady relative improvement since 2000 in terms of ICT investment per worker is encouraging, the low relative level of ICT investment per worker remains problematic and should be of concern to policy-makers as ICT investment is a key driver of productivity growth.Machinery and equipment investment, information and communications technology, ICT, Investment gap, Business sector, Industrial structure, Firm size

Working Paper 01-02 - Production and diffusion of ICT in

Information and communication technology (ICT) has become a significant economic activity in most industrialized countries as well as an important engine of innovation and changes in the rest of the economy. It has been recognized as one of the key factors boosting productivity growth and hence business sector competitiveness. Various initiatives have been recently adopted at regional, national and European levels in order to meet quickly the new challenges of ICT use and diffusion in Europe. A growing number of indicators are now available in order to assess the position of each country or region in terms of ICT development and to guide policy decisions in that field. The aim of this report is to provide a clear and succinct view of the relative development of ICT in Belgium by analyzing both the production and the diffusion of ICT in our economy 1 and to highlight the main weaknesses and strengths of the Belgian economy in that area. Even if the sector has been recently characterised by stock markets ups and downs and numerous bankruptcies, production of ICT goods and services has contributed significantly during the nineties to the growth of economic activity and employment in some industrialised countries as for instance in Anglo-saxon and Scandinavian countries. Has Belgian economic activity benefited from the boom in the ICT sector to the same extent as other industrialised countries? What kind of development can be expected in the future? These are the main questions addressed in the part of the report devoted to the analysis of the Belgian ICT production sector.

Integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Teacher Education for Capacity Building.

Education is the key that unlocks the development of any nation but Information and Communication Technology (ICT) integration into teacher education is the key to equipping and producing professional development backing for teachers. This necessitates the inclusion of ICT in the National Policy on Education (NPE, 2004). Meaning that with the integration of ICT in teacher education, Nigeria, will be able to produce the human resources that will build her economy as to measure up with other developed nations. The onus of this paper therefore, is to discuss the integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in teacher education for capacity building. Areas of concern are integration of ICT in teacher education for capacity building, modalities for ICT integration, challenges of ICT in teacher education, and approaches to ICT integration. The paper concludes and recommends that to build human resources that will build the nation, ICT must be integrated into teacher education and ICT education should be a compulsory subject or course for all students in teacher training institutions

Wireless Valley, Silicon Wadi and Digital Island - Helsinki, Tel Aviv and Dublin in the ICT Boom

In the context of the global production network (GPN) paradigm, this paper considers the combination of local and global factors which have contributed to the development of the ICT clusters in three small countries. Developments in each country reflect the combination of local advantages in human, knowledge and institutional capital and each nation?s global economic and socio-political linkages. A key focus of the paper is the role of each nation?s capital city ? or more accurately the capital city region ? in the development of the ICT cluster. The consequences for the regional distribution of ICT activity within the three countries are discussed, along with the potential technological and competitive implications of this distribution. Initial sections of the paper focus on the factors which underpinned the massive growth of the ICT sector in each country in the latter half of the 1990s. This leads to an assessment of the global market position of each industry and its prospects in any future upturn. The paper considers different aspects of the role of Tel Aviv, Dublin and Helsinki in attracting and supporting ICT development are considered. Symbolic and image factors are considered in terms of the cities? ability to attract internationally mobile human and financial capital. Institutional (e.g. higher education, thickness of financial institutions) and infrastructural factors are also considered in terms of the cities? ability to support and facilitate ICT companies. The role of entrepreneurship is also considered alongside the availability of venture capital etc.