Invited Paper: Teaching Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Design Thinking: Preparing IS Students for the Future

Critical thinking and problem solving skills are included in the IS curriculum as foundational skills. IS education researchers recognize the importance of these skills for future IS practitioners given the complexity of the technology based society and economy of the future. However, there is limited work on how these skills are best taught in IS. This research reports on a course focusing on the explicit development of critical thinking and problem solving skills of first-year IS students at the University of Pretoria. The critical thinking part of the course focuses on the analysis, evaluation of, and response to arguments. Class discussions and assessments are based on local, authentic arguments. In the problem solving skills component of the course, students are taught to understand the nature of a problem and to classify it as belonging to one of three categories: puzzles, problems, and messes. For each category, appropriate problem solving approaches are suggested and practiced. To illustrate the role of design and creativity in problem solving, students have to create an artefact using the Maker Space of the university. They have to apply the five phases of design thinking as suggested by the Stanford d.school design thinking approach. The course has been presented since 2016, and feedback is collected from students annually. Based on a feedback questionnaire that the students complete at the end of each course, we have reason to believe that they find the course valuable and consider those skills to be applicable to other courses as well as elsewhere in their lives. They also point out the value it holds for their future as IS practitioners. As part of our ongoing research, we are investigating ways to develop a critical disposition amongst students, an important component of critical thinking

The use of Sen’s capability approach in ICT4D: an exploratory review

This paper reviews the use of Sen’s capability approach (CA) in the field of Information and Communication Technology for development (ICT4D). While ICT4D scholars have a high regard for Sen’s CA, there is an apparent lack of knowledge on how to practically apply the CA in ICT4D. This paper investigates the gap between the theory of the CA and its application in ICT4D. It does so by identifying frameworks developed by scholars to operationalise the CA, and thereafter searching through journals with a prominent ICT4D focus to see how the CA has been used in practice. The study reveals four frameworks that have sought to operationalise the CA; however there seems to be a lack of usage of these frameworks where the CA is applied in ICT4D. This calls for further investigation as to why this mismatch exists

The emancipation of the researcher as part of information and communication technology for development work in deep rural South Africa

In this paper the authors contend that if the outsider-researcher involved in Information and Communication Technology for Development research really wants to make a difference and honestly address the emancipatory interests of the developing community, emancipation has to take place on both sides of the “development divide”. Emancipatory research and practice need to be accompanied by an understanding of the researcher-practitioner’s own assumptions, preconceptions, and limitations as well as local concerns, needs, and realities. Using a critical theoretical underpinning, the paper demonstrates how the outsider researcher and practitioner may recquire emancipation in order to ensure more appropriate Information and Communication Technology for Development. Through confessional writing and demonstrating critical reflexivity, the authors reflect on particular instances of selfemancipation as they present three narratives from the community entry phases of an ongoing community engagement project in a deep rural part of South Africa. Lessons learned include, the value of cultural interpreters as research partners, tactics for community entry, and a selfreflective approach to doing fieldwork.http://www.ejisdc.orgam201

The teaching of creativity in information systems programmes at South African higher education institutions

The development of problem solving skills is a shared goal in science, engineering, mathematics and technology education. In the applied sciences, problems are often open-ended and complex, requiring a multidisciplinary approach as well as new designs. In such cases, problem solving requires not only analytical capabilities, but also creativity and the ability to innovate. The development of an information system entails problem solving by means of design, hence creativity is integral to the task of an Information Systems (IS) professional. However, it appears that the teaching of creativity in IS programmes is under-researched and possibly neglected. This study investigates what is being done to foster creative ability of South African undergraduate IS students. At the same time, a theoretical framework for creativity teaching is developed. We find that the fostering of creative ability involves more than just the teaching of creativity techniques, and that creativity can be indirectly nurtured in multiple ways.http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rmse202016-11-30hb201

Assessing South African ICT4D research outputs : a journal review

South Africa is an ideal test bed for ICT4D research, since on the one hand it has stark development challenges, and on the other hand it has well established ICT infrastructure that could be utilised towards socio-economic development. Not surprisingly, a plethora of ICT4D projects are executed in South Africa by a variety of roleplayers. This paper focuses on how effective South African researchers are in converting ICT4D research activity into significant research outputs. Since effective research is assessed by journal publications, a review was done of papers published by South African authors in the prominent international ICT4D journals. It is found that while South Africa has a prominent presence in ICT4D journals, this prominence is concentrated in one research institution and one ICT4D journal. A surprising finding is that cooperation among research institutions that leads to co-authored publications is very low, even among neighbouring institutions. Future research is suggested to investigate the good practices of the most prolific research institution, to investigate reasons for the low cooperation between institutions and to more thoroughly investigate the research contributions made by the South African authors.http://sacj.cs.uct.ac.zaam2019Informatic

How to identify fake news on social media : a systematic literature review

Fake news in the form of disinformation on social networks has become a real concern, with serious potential consequences as a result of the massive viral spreading of false information and fake news. To this end, a systematic literature review was performed to investigate how the validity of news on social media can be determined. An initial literature search resulted in identifying 1105 potentially relevant articles, which were taken through a systematic sifting process resulting in 25 articles that were analysed in detail. During a thematic analysis, four themes emerged, related to fake news, social media, the influence of bias and information literacy. This paper discusses the findings related to the four themes. The findings were distilled into a set of five guidelines that may be used to determine the validity of news on social media. The techniques are: consider the source; beware of bots; be aware of bias and make use of multiple sources; beware of mimics; and ways to recognise good sources of information. This paper contributes to the current discourse on how to distinguish between valid news and fake news on social media, and provides guidance to assist with this ever growing and increasingly important information management challenge.The National Research Foundationhttp://www.springer.com/series/151792023-05-17hj2022Informatic

Teaching critical thinking, problem solving and design thinking : preparing IS students for the future

Critical thinking and problem solving skills are included in the IS curriculum as foundational skills. IS education researchers recognise the importance of these skills for future IS practitioners given the complexity of the technology based society and economy of the future. However, there is limited work on how these skills are best taught in IS. This research reports on a course focusing on the explicit development of critical thinking and problem solving skills of first year IS students at the University of Pretoria. The critical thinking part of the course focuses on the analysis, evaluation of and response to arguments. Class discussions and assessments are based on local, authentic arguments. In the problem solving skills component of the course, students are taught to understand the nature of a problem and to classify it as belonging to one of three categories: puzzles, problems and messes. For each category, appropriate problem solving approaches are suggested and practiced. To illustrate the role of design and creativity in problem solving, students have to create an artefact using the Maker Space of the university. They have to apply the five phases of design thinking as suggested by the Stanford d.school design thinking approach. The course has been presented since 2016 and feedback is collected from students annually. Based on a feedback questionnaire that the students complete at the end of each course, we have reason to believe that they find the course valuable and consider those skills to be applicable to other courses as well as elsewhere in their lives. They also pointed out the value it holds for their future as IS practitioners. As part of our ongoing research we are investigating ways to develop a critical disposition amongst students, an important component of critical thinking.http://jise.orgam2020Informatic

Assessing the contribution of information technology to socio-economic development: A case study from rural South Africa

This paper addresses the challenge of assessing an ICT for development (ICT4D) project’s contribution to the socio-economic development of the broader community where it is implemented. It argues for using a systems approach to deal with this challenge, since systems thinking is concerned with the performance of the total system. Systems thinking is seldom used in ICT4D, and is lacking in existing ICT4D impact assessment frameworks.  In this paper, the authors apply a social systems framework in an ICT4D case study. The framework is used to describe and assess the contribution of the ICT4D project to the socio-economic development of the larger community. Since Community Informatics (CI) embraces a broad socio-technical systems view, the work is relevant to a CI audience

Abstract Decision-making Biases and Information Systems

Information systems and in particular decision support systems have been developed to supplement human information processing and to assist with decision-making. Human decision-making is facilitated by the often unconscious use of heuristics in situations where it may not be possible or feasible to search for the best decision. Judgemental heuristics have previously been found to lead to biases in decision-making. When information systems are used as decision aids, they may have an influence on biases. This study investigates the role of information systems in introducing, reinforcing or reducing biases. It was found that information systems have the ability to introduce new biases and to reinforce biases. Information systems can also reduce biases, but this requires innovative thinking on the way information is represented and the way human decision-making processes are supported. It was also found that in the real world, as opposed to the laboratories where biases are usually measured, other constraints on rational decision-making, such as politics or data errors, can overshadow the effects of biases