Volume 23, Issue 3-4, November - December 2024, Page 219-244.

This comprehensive research was conducted in Duhok City, Iraq, encompassing both university and high school levels in the academic year 2022-2023. The primary objective was to thoroughly examine the influence of technology on English language teaching and learning. Employing a historical analysis, this study traced the evolution of technology within the realm of English language education while meticulously scrutinizing its advantages and potential challenges. Participants encompassed a diverse group, comprising university students and teachers, as well as high school (...) teachers and students. Through rigorous investigation, the research sought to shed light on effective strategies for integrating technology into TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) classrooms, with the overarching aim of enhancing language proficiency and communication skills. The study underscored the critical significance of striking a harmonious balance between technology and traditional teaching methods. This thoughtful integration was found to hold the potential for positively transforming students' language acquisition experiences. By strategically incorporating multimedia resources and cutting-edge tools, this research succeeded in enriching the landscape of English language learning. The result was a more engaging, dynamic, and immersive educational environment. While the abstract outlines the study's participants and the period during which it was conducted, it does not specify the exact tools or methods used for data collection and analysis. Furthermore, the abstract does not provide specific findings or outcomes of the research, focusing instead on the broader implications and significance of the study for educators, policymakers, and stakeholders involved in language education in Duhok City, Iraq, and beyond. (shrink)

Advances in commercialism, materialism, and especially the exponential growth of telecommunication and social media, have dramatically altered the way human beings relate to one another and their environment. New means for providing access to education have arisen including online courses and programs thereby enhancing opportunities for participation in educational offerings and collaborative exchanges across the globe. This paper proposes to examine the online learning and its connection to the ultimate principle governing the values—integrity.

We investigate the entrepreneurial opportunities and ethical dilemmas presented by technological turbulence. More specifically we investigate the line between Baumol’s [J. Polit. Econ. 98 (1990) 893] productive (e.g. innovation), unproductive (e.g. rent seeking) and destructive (e.g. criminal) entrepreneurship through three examples of Internet innovation – spam (destructive), music file sharing (unproductive), and Internet pharmacies (potentially productive). The emergence of accessible Internet technologies, under present norms, has created the potential for all three entrepreneurial activities. Because of the propensity for self-serving biases (...) and for bending the rules, the need for creativity in overcoming obstacles and overall liabilities of newness, entrepreneurs are likely to challenge established industrial morals and laws. Unlike new entrants, incumbents must abide by the currently accepted norms, and thus suffer from “liabilities of oldness”. The challenge for new entrants is to change sociopolitical legitimacy, whereas incumbents need to defend the established norms. We discuss competitive and other issues that result from technological turbulence and innovation. (shrink)

Public funding institutions are able to influence what aspects researchers take into account when they consider the future impacts of their research. On the basis of a description of the evaluation systems that public research funding institutes in the Netherlands (STW and SenterNovem) use to estimate the quality of engineering science, this article shows that researchers are now predominantly required to reflect on the intellectual merit of their research and on the usability and marketability of the technology it contributes (...) to. In addition, SenterNovem also mandates reflection on sustainability. Here it is argued that these requirements do not suffice. Funding institutions should also do more to enhance reflection during the research process on the “soft impacts” of technologies, which refer to the alterations that technologies may bring about in the quality of human life. To do this it is suggested that it is helpful to engage a specifically trained ethicist to monitor the research process and create a feedback loop from the ethicist to the funding institution. (shrink)

This paper investigates the relationship between technological finance, high-quality economic growth, and financial stability. Based on data of 30 provinces collected between 2004 and 2017, this paper adopts the method of factor analysis to construct comprehensive indexes of technological finance and financial stability before calculating green total factor productivity as the index of high-quality development, using the CRS Multiplicative Model. Then it constructs the spatial SAC model and PVAR model for analyses of the just-mentioned relationship based on the total sample (...) of the nation and regional samples in eastern, middle, and western China, respectively. The results reveal that All samples, whether the total national samples or regional samples of eastern, middle, and western China demonstrate the positive influence of technological finance on high-quality economic development, with an obvious spatial spillover effect. The impact factor is the highest in the eastern region, while the western region holds the lowest factor among the three. Judging by the general national sample, technological finance has an obvious negative shock effect on financial stability within a short period, but the effect gradually dwindles as time goes by. This rule applies to the sample of the eastern region, as its technological finance poses a short-time negative shock effect on financial stability, before gradually diminishing to 0. Neither western nor middle regions have displayed an obvious shock impact on financial stability. (shrink)

Technological evaluations have significantly enhanced college students’ fine arts competence development by providing advanced tools and platforms that foster creativity, improve technical skills, and enable innovative artistic expression. In this study 500 college students were mentioned as participators. The variables Technological Tools, Technical Proficiency, Advanced Technologies, Creativity and Innovation, Online Platforms, Skill Development, and Collaborative Competencies are built to evaluate various aspects of technological and creative capabilities in educational and professional settings. Fine arts competitions like the (Artificial Intelligence) AI art (...) contest, digital choreography competition, and speech AI innovation challenge are held for the students to improve their skill development. The questionnaires are taken to measure the student's technological skills development based on before and after competitions. The SPSS software version 28 is used to statistically analyze the data with multiple regression analysis and pearson correlation analysis. The results showed that the integration of technological tools and platforms significantly improved college student's technical proficiency, creativity, and collaborative skills in fine arts. Students exhibited notable enhancements in skill development and engagement with advanced technologies post-competition. Technology significantly enhances fine arts education by improving students' artistic skills and collaboration. Embracing digital tools offers valuable opportunities to enrich curricula and foster innovation. (shrink)

Spence develops and applies a normative model based on rationalist and virtue ethics as well as stoic philosophy to assess the impact of technology on wellbeing. Through developing this model, Spence offers a novel and important examination of the benefit of technology to our society as a whole.

The main purpose of this study is to examine the impact of the big data management capabilities on the performance of manufacturing firms in the Asian Economy during coronavirus disease 2019. In addition to this, this study is also planned to examine the mediating role of organizational agility in the relationship between the big data management capabilities and the performance of Chinese manufacturing firms during COVID-19. Last, this study has examined the moderating role of information technology capability in (...) the relationship between the big data management capabilities and performance of Chinese manufacturing firms during COVID-19. This study adopted the quantitative method of research with a cross-sectional technique. This study employed a questionnaire to gather the data as a research instrument. This study has used the purposive sampling method by keeping in mind the context of this study. Employees of the Chinese SMEs that were at least 10 years old were the population of this study. The research model was being analyzed by employing the “partial least squares” technique through statistical software the Smart PLS version 3. The results are in line with the proposed hypothesis. This study contributed to the literature by suggesting characteristics that promote or prevent the organization from successfully implementing big data and pointed out that showing resistance in information management system implementation may have different effects on the organization. Besides, the study also discussed the relationship between such information systems and the organization. Findings of these two factors provide insights for the practitioners and researchers in assessing the success or failure of organizations for using big data. (shrink)

Childhood is increasingly saturated by technology: from television to the Internet, video games to 'video nasties', camcorders to personal computers. _Children, Technology and Culture_ looks at the interplay of children and technology which poses critical questions for how we understand the nature of childhood in late modern society. This collection brings together researchers from a range of disciplines to address the following four aspects of this relationship between children and technology: *children's access to technologies and the (...) implications for social relationships *the structural contexts of children's engagement with technologies with a focus on gender and the family *the situatedness of children's interactions with technological objects *the constitution of children and childhood through the mediations of technology _ This book represents a substantial contribution to contemporary social scientific thinking both about the nature of children and childhood, the social impacts of technologies and the various relationships between the two. (shrink)

Recent publications on digital health technologies highlight the importance of ‘responsible’ use. References to the concept of responsibility are, however, frequently made without providing clear definitions of responsibility, thus leaving room for ambiguities. Addressing these uncertainties is critical since they might lead to misunderstandings, impacting the quality and safety of healthcare delivery. Therefore, this study investigates how responsibility is interpreted in the context of using digital health technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), telemonitoring, wearables and mobile apps. We conducted a scoping (...) review with a systematic search in PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, CINAHL and Philosopher’s Index. A total of 34 articles were included and categorized using a theoretical framework of responsibility aspects, and revealed two main findings. First, we found that digital health technologies can expand and shift existing ‘role responsibilities’ among caregivers, patients and technology. Second, moral responsibility is often equated with liability or accountability, without clear justification. Articles describe new ways in which physicians can be held accountable, particularly in the context of AI, and discuss the emergence of a ‘responsibility gap’ where no-one can be fully responsible for AI-generated outcomes. The literature also shows that m-Health technologies can increase patients’ accountability for their own health. However, there was limited discussion in the reviewed literature on whether these attributions of accountability are appropriate. We conclude with implications for practice and suggestions for expanding the theoretical framework of moral responsibility, recommending further study on responsibility of collectives and artificial entities, and on the role of virtue in digital health. (shrink)

Technology transfer is an essential source of technological innovation for enterprises, which is conducive to the market transformation of patent achievements and the commercial application of new technologies. Building upon social capital theory, all data analyses were performed using SPSS 22.0 and Amos software with the multiple linear regression method. The study explores the mechanism of policy perception to obtain the technical resources needed for enterprise development through boundary-spanning behavior, with a moderating effect of inter-organizational trust and technological potential (...) gap. The study uses survey data from 125 enterprise teams of 42 technology-based enterprises in China. The results show that policy perceived usefulness and usability significantly promote technology transfer performance and boundary-spanning behavior plays a mediating role between them. Speaking of the influencing factors of technology transfer, technological potential gap significantly moderates the relationship between boundary-spanning and technology transfer performance. In contrast, inter-organizational trust positively moderates the relationship between boundary-spanning and technology transfer performance. The research provides theoretical reference and guidance for enterprises on using policy perception better to improve technology transfer performance in the institutional environment. It also helps inspire enterprises to better deal with the cooperative relationship between relevant stakeholders and achieve win-win cooperation. (shrink)

Time theft is a prevalent, costly, and generally discreet employee activity in firms; nonetheless, very limited research is available on it. To explore why, how, and when employees exhibit time theft, we investigate the influence mechanism of work-related use of information and communication technologies after hours (W_ICTs) on time theft from the perspective of resource gain and loss. Our study found that W_ICTs significantly promotes employee time theft. Emotional exhaustion and moral disengagement play a mediating role in the relationship between (...) W_ICTs and time theft, respectively, and these two variables have a chain-mediating role in the relationship above. Perceived organizational support moderates this chain mediation by moderating the positive effect of W_ICTs on emotional exhaustion. Overall, the findings have important theoretical and managerial implications for research on W_ICTs and time theft. (shrink)

(1971). Values and the Future, the Impact of Technological Change on American Values Edited by Kurt Baier and Nicholas Rescher. World Futures: Vol. 10, No. 3-4, pp. 353-361.

With the development of the globalization of science and technology, innovation has become an important driving force for regional economic development. As a core element of regional innovation, financial R&D resources have also become a key element to enhance national innovation capabilities and national economic competitiveness. National and regional innovation capabilities have a direct impact. There are also many deep-seated problems behind the world-renowned achievements, such as irrational industrial structure, insufficient independent innovation capabilities, low resource utilization efficiency, and (...) the service quality and efficiency of financial institutions for the transformation of total factor productivity. These problems extremely restrict the efficiency upgrade and further development of our country’s total factor productivity. This study uses the DEA-Malmquist index model to measure the efficiency of fiscal R&D resource allocation in 28 provinces and regions in China in the past 10 years and uses Mapinfo12.0 software to analyze regional differences in the efficiency of fiscal R&D resource allocation in China from a spatial perspective. During the year, the overall R&D resource allocation efficiency of 28 provinces and autonomous regions in China has shown an upward trend. The efficiency of fiscal R&D resource allocation and the concentration of financial factors have had a positive impact on total factor productivity, transform and upgrade factors, increase total factor productivity, and provide empirical evidence for building a strong country. (shrink)

Music education increasingly integrates digital technology to enhance teaching effectiveness and student engagement. This study investigates the impact of technology proficiency on music instruction by analyzing data from 80 music teachers and their students, aged 10-18 years, gathered through a detailed questionnaire. SPSS software was utilized for statistical analysis, including factor analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). SEM analysis revealed that Community Influence (CI) and Achievement Prediction (AP) significantly impact Psychological Forecasting (PF), (...) while Technical Expertise (TE) and Educational Technology Proficiency (ETP) have minimal direct effects. Specifically, CI and AP positively influence PF, whereas TE and ETP do not significantly impact PF. The results highlight that social factors and performance expectations are more influential in enhancing teaching outcomes than technological skills alone. (shrink)

Cultural characteristics in relation to educational technology acceptance (ETA) aims at analyzing the effect of cultural factors that include norms of the society, values, and practices which shape the perception and usage of technology by the individual as incorporated in his/her education. This concept illustrates that cultural factor increases that perception of helpfulness, ease of implementation, and total satisfaction with technology by a significant notch. Understanding these cultural factors is critical to the development and implementation of pedagogical (...) technologies that are aligned with specific target audiences. A number of people in the study was 2100, out of which 1115 were from Mumbai, India and 985 others were from other areas. The sample included people with various education levels, occupations and ages, which gives a comprehensive idea of the variety of users’ perceptions of educational technology. Employing the data based on the collected set of factors, descriptive analysis, factor analysis, and correlation matrixes were used in a process of distinguishing key patterns and relations between particular variables. This cross-sectional research has relied on multiple regression analysis to assess the significant predictor factors that include perceived ease of integration and expected performance of the technology by the users on the two outcomes: user engagement and technology satisfaction. As earlier stated, SPSS was used in this research study to conduct statistical tests. The comparative analysis revealed that there were significant regional differences concerning the social impact expectations, EE and PC but there was no impact of regions as per PEI and TS. The research thus brings out the importance of cultural differences in the explanation of ETA. This just underline the need for a strategic and specific approach that takes into account regional and cultural factors to improve the reception of technologies as well as to improve the user satisfaction even if it is a diverse population. The paper provides important view on rather engaging culturally competent educational technology systems. (shrink)

The main interest of this book is to raise the very difficult question of the interrelation between technology and care. Its ambitious aim is to interpret technology and care as ….

Technology assessment has been evolving as a research-based and anticipatory field of scientific policy-advice for more than fifty years. Its position at the interface between science and policy-making has caused several debates on its adequate roles. Proposals reach from the position of a neutral and distant observer of ongoing developments up to taking an active role in transformation processes fueled by the technological advance, e.g. in favor of sustainable development. In this paper, several role concepts of TA will be (...) discussed against the background of a new framework concept on technology assessment. It will be shown, that TA usually has to take the role of an Honest Broker in assessing new technologies as an umbrella role concept. The specific manifestations of this umbrella role, however, can vary from context to context. The role concept of the Honest Broker serves as an orientation to determine the more specific roles in the tension between assumed neutrality and the obligation to create impact. (shrink)

New forms of information technology, such as email, webpages and groupware, are being rapidly adopted. Intended to improve efficiency and effectiveness, these technologies also have the potential to radically alter the way people communicate in organizations. The effects can be positive or negative. This paper explores how technology can encourage or discourage moral dialogue -- communication that is open, honest, and respectful of participants. It develops a framework that integrates formal properties of ideal moral discourse, based on Habermas' (...) theory of communicative action, with properties of informal communication that help sustain good moral conversations. Ten criteria distilled from these works form the basis of a template that can be used for assessing the positive and negative impacts of emerging information technologies on moral dialogue. (shrink)

Quantum computing technologies have become a hot topic in academia and industry receiving much attention and financial support from all sides. Building a quantum computer that can be used practically is in itself an outstanding challenge that has become the ‘new race to the moon’. Next to researchers and vendors of future computing technologies, national authorities are showing strong interest in maturing this technology due to its known potential to break many of today’s encryption techniques, which would have significant (...) and potentially disruptive impact on our society. It is, however, quite likely that quantum computing has beneficial impact on many computational disciplines. In this article we describe our vision of future developments in scientific computing that would be enabled by the advent of software-programmable quantum computers. We thereby assume that quantum computers will form part of a hybrid accelerated computing platform like GPUs and co-processor cards do today. In particular, we address the potential of quantum algorithms to bring major breakthroughs in applied mathematics and its applications. Finally, we give several examples that demonstrate the possible impact of quantum-accelerated scientific computing on society. (shrink)

This book highlights both the relation between technology and care, and the normative aspects of economic analyses in health care. A series of concrete examples from various clinical fields (prenatal diagnosis, genetic tests, digital imaging in psychiatry, tube feeding in care for the elderly, and palliative sedation) helps the authors to consider how to integrate these technologies in a care context aimed upon humaneness. Each topic is analysed by leading European clinicians and health care ethicists.

Technological developments impact various sectors, one of which is the education sector. Information technology has an important role and greatly impacts education in Indonesia. This study aims to determine the role and impact of information technology in Indonesia’s education world. This study used a qualitative research method with a descriptive approach. At the same time, the data collection technique was carried out using a literature study through exploration of journals, books and other information relevant to the (...) study. The results of the study show that the role of information technology in education is as a source of information, a substitute for the human role in task automation, a means of increasing competence, educational infrastructure, education management and a means of presenting ideas. Meanwhile, the impacts that information technology has on education in Indonesia include that the information needed will be more quickly and easily accessed for educational purposes, innovation in learning is growing, the development of virtual classes or teleconference-based classes does not require the educator and students to be in one room, the administrative system in an educational institution will be easier and smoother due to the application of information and communication technology systems. Meanwhile, information technology in education has negative impacts, including violations of Intellectual Property Rights, because easier access to data causes plagiarism to commit fraud. (shrink)

This paper introduces the special issue The societal impact of the emerging quantum technologies as a contribution to a more inclusive societal debate on quantum technologies. It brings together five contributions. Three are authored by quantum technology researchers who give explorations of the possible impacts of quantum technologies on science, industry and society. The fourth contribution discusses within the framework of responsible research and innovation, the ways in which quantum technologies and the societal debate about them are presented (...) in European policy documents. The final contribution analyses how the popularisation of quantum theory for wider audiences has evolved, and can be improved, with the emergence of quantum technologies. This introduction is also a call for a renewed effort to make quantum theory understandable. A preamble to a societal debate about quantum technologies is that all stakeholders understand these technologies to a reasonable degree, and the current framing of quantum theory as enigmatic in not helpful to meeting this. It is argued that philosophers of physics can help overcome this framing by explaining how quantum theory and quantum technologies are similar to every-day descriptions and technologies. (shrink)

Project-based teaching (PBE) has emerged as an effective pedagogical strategy for the development of key skills in higher education, especially in areas such as critical thinking and technological competencies. This study analyzes the impact of EBP on the development of these skills in university students of technological careers. Through a mixed methodology that includes surveys and analysis of academic results, the progress of 120 students was evaluated before and after participating in a project-based course. The findings suggest that EBP (...) not only significantly improves critical thinking skills, but also encourages a more efficient and creative use of technological tools. (shrink)

More and more schools begin to design simulation technology based on virtual imaging technology and virtual reality in their course contents. In particular, among these technical courses, there is a need to first strengthen the Film and Television Production education in higher institutions. This article aims to study the impact of VRT, VR, and Internet of things technology on FTP courses and audience psychology in higher institutions under the era of intelligent multimedia. How to use emerging (...) VR technology to promote the psychological wellbeing of students or patients has become a new research direction, the exploration of which has a far-reaching significance for the applications of the related technologies. First, the principle and applications of VR and IoT technology are described. Thereon, the deep learning -based training model is used to analyze the postproduction of VR-based Sand Table game, and the function and effect of the designed game model are discussed. Subsequently, VR-based Sand Play Therapy is applied to mentally ill patients to obtain its therapeutic effect. The results show that the designed VR-based Sand Table game model can be used to treat mentally ill patients and alleviate their negative psychological states. Meanwhile, the Test Anxiety Scale scores prove the significant therapeutic effect of the designed game model on the mental problems of patients. Therefore, VR-based psychological SPT can be applied in the stress relief of students and the treatment of mentally ill patients, as well as alleviate their mental health problems. This research provides a new direction and some theoretical support for the application field of VR technology. (shrink)

Consumer well-being is a micromarketing concept that emphasizes on contributions of marketing activities in social welfare. The major objective of the current study is to analyze the impact of self-incongruence on brand dissatisfaction, brand hate, and consumer well-being. This study has utilized the Self-incongruity Theory and the Stimulus-Organism-Response model to test the impact of self-incongruity on anti-consumption and consumer voice behaviors, and subsequent effects on consumer well-being. Data were collected from young consumers of technology products from major (...) cities of Pakistan. A total of 592 consumers answered a paper-and-pencil questionnaire using purposive sampling technique. The data were analyzed by partial least square structural equation modeling. The findings of this study reveal that functional and symbolic incongruity predict brand hate and dissatisfaction, which is positively related with brand retaliation. Brand retaliation is negatively related with consumer well-being. This study offers implications for product designers, marketers, advertisers and other stakeholders to improve congruence between what young consumers of technology products expect and what brands are offering to mitigate negative attitudes and behaviors and increase consumer well-being. (shrink)

Suicidal men feel the need to be self-reliant and that they cannot find another way out of relationship or socioeconomic issues. Suicide prevention is of crucial importance worldwide. The much higher rate of suicide in men engenders action. The prelude is a subjective experience that can be very isolating and severely distressing. Men may not realize a change in their thinking and behaviors, which makes it more difficult to seek and get help, thereby interrupting a “downward spiral”. Stoicism often prevents (...) men from admitting to their personal struggle. The lack of “quality” connections and “non-tailored” therapies has led to a high number of men “walking out” on traditional clinical approaches. But there are complicated relationships in motivations and formative behaviors of suicide with regards to emotional state, psychiatric disorders, interpersonal life events and suicidal behavior method selection. Middle-aged and older men have alternated as the most at-risk of suicide. There is no one solution that applies to all men, but digital tools may be of assistance. Digital interventions require higher levels of effectiveness for distress and suicidality but self-guided approaches may be the most suitable for men especially where linked with an integrated online suicide prevention platform. Furthermore, technology-enabled models of care offer promise to advance appropriate linking to mental health services through better and faster understanding of the specific needs of individuals and the type and level of suicidality experienced. Long-term evidence for suicidality and its evaluation may benefit from progressing human computer-interaction and providing impetus for an eminent integrated digital platform. (shrink)