An Evaluation of Information Systems Students Internship Programs in Developing Countries: A Capability Perspective

In this paper Sen’s notion of capabilities served as a theoretical lens for assessing the effectiveness of internship programs for IS students and their contributions to human development. We use the key elements of the capability approach to focus on the developmental impact. We based our evaluation on IS students industrial work scheme in Nigeria. Our analysis shows that, even though the scheme has been designed to provide better opportunities for students in terms of practical education and employment, the lack of conversion factors makes the program contextually problematic. The study concludes with some recommendations for policy makers advancing an agenda for the improvement of IS education and internships programs for students in tertiary institutions

Information Technology Training For Under-Represented Minority Teachers And Students

This paper will present an attempt for addressing the high rate of under-representation of minority students and teachers in Information Technology (IT) in low income localities. It appears that these communities have been left behind during the economic boom of the dot.com experienced by the rest of the western world and the nation. The paper will discuss on strategies to alleviate the disparity between the ‘haves’ and ‘have not’ in information technology training, skills, and economic opportunity that can be availed through use of e-commerce and, generally, seeking information through the Internet. Our proposal is to train teachers and students in such communities to make difference in their lives and by mentoring the teachers and hopefully the knowledge passed to the teachers will reach their students in junior and high schools

The Contribution of ICTs to Women Empowerment: A Capability Perspective

This paper examines the developmental impact of ICTs on African society by concentrating on the use of WhatsApp; a mobile social media platform. Specifically, we investigate the promise of empowerment associated with the use of WhatsApp by Women in the remote city of Kano, Nigeria. We employed the five instrumental freedoms of the capability approach to evaluate how WhatsApp has empowered women by concentrating on the opportunities provided for expanding their freedoms to participate in social, economic and political activities. Our analysis shows that WhatsApp can contribute to the empowerment of women by enabling their freedoms to participate in developmental activities, however some contextual factors impede the ability of the women to take full advantage of these developmental opportunities WhatsApp offers. The paper concludes with some implications for policy makers advancing an agenda for “ICTs for Development”

A Multivariate Probit Analysis of Selected Factors Influencing Electronic Commerce Adoption in Organizations

This study investigates factors leading to the go/no go decision on organizational innovations, with particular reference to Electronic Commerce (E-Commerce). The goal is to explore important antecedents promoting the adoption of technological innovations and to extend the frontiers of knowledge in this area, by integrating two major research paradigms - basic and applied. Randomly selected organizations in the IT area participated in the study. Variables pertaining to organizations. Information Technology, and users of the technology were assessed and analyzed using an omnibus instrument and probit analysis respectively. This study provides a tentative elucidation of contemporary unresolved issues, and also broadens understanding in the assimilation of emerging technologies into organizations

A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW OF THE APPLICATION OF CAPABILITY APPROACH IN THE ICT4D STUDIES

The applicability of the Capability approach (CA) continue to be a lingering problem in the Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) studies. The aim of this systematic literature review (SLR) is to review the use of the CA and its application in the ICT4D studies. The study synthesized literature from Three ICT4D journals: The Information Technologies & International Development (ITID), Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries (EJISDC) and Information Technology for Development (ITD). We reviewed articles published between January 2004 to January 2019. The study reveals a mismatch and misalignment on the understanding of some of the concepts of the CA such as development/empowerment, especially when people and information technology are incorporated in the studies. Thus, there seems to be dearth consensual knowledge of CA when particularized to people with disability when they adopt mobile phone as a source of development and/or empowerment in the ICT4D domain. This calls for a further examination and contextualisation of the concepts of the CA in line with mobile phone use, people with disability and empowerment in the ICT4D domain

A computational approach to learning programming using visual programming in a developing country university

The paper outlines how computer science students in developing countries can acquire computational skills using visual game programming environments aimed at motivating them to learning programming. The study shows how visual game programming using Alice supports various concepts of computational thinking and also how these concepts enhance the learning of introductory computer programming. We based our analysis on 15 first-year computer science students of the American University of Nigeria who used Alice in their introduction to computer science course. The results of the study show that Alice motivates students to learn programming and also enhances the successful use of computational thinking skills such as problem solving, debugging, simulation, algorithm building, and collaboration. The study concludes with some implications for theory and practice

Offshore business process outsourcing for developing countries: A South African perspective

Offshoring of IT-enabled services to developing countries will continue to dominate the offshoring sector. Companies are constantly on the lookout for locations where they can provide services at a low cost. This has made developing countries to take advantage of this opportunity to create value propositions for companies in developed countries leading to economic development. This paper describes the South Africa's BPO industry in order to explore the current opportunities and potential challenges the industry offers. The role of government support, quality infrastructure, prevalence of HIV/AIDS and inflexibility in labor laws are found to feature significantly within the South African context. The paper contributes to literature on outsourcing in developing countries which has elaborated how African Countries can serve as attractive location for offshoring BPO. This study concludes by providing implications for policy and practice

Quality service: estimating software reliability for global system for mobile communications (GSM) Funtone

In this paper, we examined the reliability of Funtone software and its impact on quality service to the user. As Global System for Mobile (GSM) software is relatively new in the market and the level of awareness of its quality service is low; the need for quality assessment of these services cannot be overemphasised. We have estimated the distribution of time interval between failures variable to follow a Poisson process with the parameter, λ. The intervals between failures follow an exponential distribution and from this, we estimated the reliability of the software indirectly the quality service of Funtone. Furthermore, we carried out a Monte Carlo simulation; the result is in total agreement with what has been predicted by Poisson and exponential distributions.Funtone; ringtones; failog; SMS; short message service; GSM; mobile communications; MTTF; mean time between failures; MTTR; mean time to repair; NVP; N-version programming; recovery block; quality services; software reliability; service quality; Monte Carlo simulation; text messaging.