ASSIGNMENT 8. :D

TOPIC: As a student, you were invited by the Dean of the Institute of Computing to attend a seminar-workshop on information systems planning with some of the faculty members. In one of the sessions, a discussion of outsourcing came up. You have been asked to present your evaluation about outsourcing the information systems functions of the school.
Required:

You are to take a position- outsource or in-source and justify your position. (3000words)

I actually go for OUTSOURCING. Reasons are, paying an IT personnel to maintain your website for example would be costly than keeping someone who would be in charge of your site in a contract manner. I mean, there would be a big difference. If you actually go for customization all the time, then you must go insource. But if your budget is limited, outsourcing would be a great deal.

So, what is outsourcing? Outsourcing is contracting with another company or person to do a particular function. Almost every organization outsources in some way. Typically, the function being outsourced is considered non-core to the business. An insurance company, for example, might outsource its janitorial and landscaping operations to firms that specialize in those types of work since they are not related to insurance or strategic to the business. The outside firms that are providing the outsourcing services are third-party providers, or as they are more commonly called, service providers.

Although outsourcing has been around as long as work specialization has existed, in recent history, companies began employing the outsourcing model to carry out narrow functions, such as payroll, billing and data entry. Those processes could be done more efficiently, and therefore more cost-effectively, by other companies with specialized tools and facilities and specially trained personnel.

Currently, outsourcing takes many forms. Organizations still hire service providers to handle distinct business processes, such as benefits management. But some organizations outsource whole operations. The most common forms are information technology outsourcing (ITO) and business process outsourcing (BPO).

Business process outsourcing encompasses call center outsourcing, human resources outsourcing (HRO), finance and accounting outsourcing, and claims processing outsourcing. These outsourcing deals involve multi-year contracts that can run into hundreds of millions of dollars. Frequently, the people performing the work internally for the client firm are transferred and become employees for the service provider. Dominant outsourcing service providers in the information technology outsourcing and business process outsourcing fields include IBM, EDS, CSC, HP, ACS, Accenture and Capgemini.

Some nimble companies that are short on time and money, such as start-up software publishers, apply multisourcing -- using both internal and service provider staff -- in order to speed up the time to launch. They hire a multitude of outsourcing service providers to handle almost all aspects of a new project, from product design, to software coding, to testing, to localization, and even to marketing and sales.

In all cases, outsourcing success depends on three factors: executive-level support in the client organization for the outsourcing mission; ample communication to affected employees; and the client's ability to manage its service providers. The outsourcing professionals in charge of the work on both the client and provider sides need a combination of skills in such areas as negotiation, communication, project management, the ability to understand the terms and conditions of the contracts and service level agreements (SLAs), and, above all, the willingness to be flexible as business needs change.

The challenges of outsourcing become especially acute when the work is being done in a different country (offshored), since that involves language, cultural and time zone differences.

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
The competitive pressures on firms to bring out new products at an ever rapid pace to meet market needs are increasing. As such, the pressures on the R&D department are increasing. In order to alleviate the pressure, firms have to either increase R&D budgets or find ways to utilize the resources in a more productive way. There are situations when a firm may consider outsourcing some of its R&D work to a contract research organizations or universities. Reasons why a firm could consider outsourcing are:

• new product design does not work
• project time and cost overruns
• loss of key staff
• competitive response
• problems of quality/yield.

The key drivers for R&D outsourcing are emerging mass markets and availability of expertise in the field. In this context, the two most populous countries in the world, China and India, provide huge pools from which to find talent. Both countries produce over 200,000 engineers and science graduates each year. Moreover both countries are low cost sourcing countries. Other strategic drivers for outsourcing R&D are access to expertise and intellectual property, filling gaps in the capabilities of the R&D function, managing risk better, reducing the time to market, and focusing on the core competence or activities of the firm.


REASONS FOR OUTSOURCING
Organizations that outsource are seeking to realize benefits or address the following issues:

• Cost savings. The lowering of the overall cost of the service to the business. This will involve reducing the scope, defining quality levels, re-pricing, re-negotiation, cost re-structuring. Access to lower cost economies through offshoring called "labor arbitrage" generated by the wage gap between industrialized and developing nations.

• Focus on Core Business. Resources (for example investment, people, infrastructure) are focused on developing the core business. For example often organizations outsource their IT support to specialized IT services companies.

• Cost restructuring. Operating leverage is a measure that compares fixed costs to variable costs. Outsourcing changes the balance of this ratio by offering a move from fixed to variable cost and also by making variable costs more predictable.

• Improve quality. Achieve a step change in quality through contracting out the service with a new service level agreement.

• Knowledge. Access to intellectual property and wider experience and knowledge.

• Contract. Services will be provided to a legally binding contract with financial penalties and legal redress. This is not the case with internal services.

• Operational expertise. Access to operational best practice that would be too difficult or time consuming to develop in-house.

• Access to talent. Access to a larger talent pool and a sustainable source of skills, in particular in science and engineering.

• Capacity management. An improved method of capacity management of services and technology where the risk in providing the excess capacity is borne by the supplier.

• Catalyst for change. An organization can use an outsourcing agreement as a catalyst for major step change that can not be achieved alone. The outsourcer becomes a Change agent in the process.

• Enhance capacity for innovation. Companies increasingly use external knowledge service providers to supplement limited in-house capacity for product innovation.

• Reduce time to market. The acceleration of the development or production of a product through the additional capability brought by the supplier.

• Commodification. The trend of standardizing business processes, IT Services and application services enabling businesses to intelligently buy at the right price. Allows a wide range of businesses access to services previously only available to large corporations.

• Risk management. An approach to risk management for some types of risks is to partner with an outsourcer who is better able to provide the mitigation.

• Venture Capital. Some countries match government funds venture capital with private venture capital for startups that start businesses in their country.

• Tax Benefit. Countries offer tax incentives to move manufacturing operations to counter high corporate taxes within another country.


QUALITY RISKS OF OUTSOURCING
Quality Risk is the propensity for a product or service to be defective, due to operations-related issues. Quality risk in outsourcing is driven by a list of factors. One such factor is opportunism by suppliers due to misaligned incentives between buyer and supplier, information asymmetry, high asset specificity, or high supplier switching costs. Other factors contributing to quality risk in outsourcing are poor buyer-supplier communication, lack of supplier capabilities/resources/capacity, or buyer-supplier contract enforceability. Two main concepts must be considered when considering observability as it related to quality risks in outsourcing: the concepts of testability and criticality.

Quality fade is the deliberate and secretive reduction in the quality of labor in order to widen profit margins. The downward changes in human capital are subtle but progressive, and usually unnoticeable by the out sourcer/customer. The initial interview meets requirements, however, with subsequent support, more and more of the support team are replaced with novice or less experienced workers. India IT shops will continue to reduce the quality of human capital under the pressure of drying up labor supply and upward trend of salary, pushing the quality limits.

Such practices are hard to detect, as customers may just simply give up seeking help from the help desk. However, the overall customer satisfaction will be reduced greatly over time. Unless the company constantly conducts customer satisfaction surveys, they may eventually be caught in a surprise of customer churn, and when they find out the root cause, it could be too late. In such cases, it can be hard to dispute the legal contract with the India outsourcing company, as their staff are now trained in the process and the original staff made redundant. In the end, the company that outsources is worse off than before it outsourced its workforce to India.


PUBLIC OPINION
There is a strong public opinion regarding outsourcing (especially when combined with offshoring) that outsourcing damages a local labor market. Outsourcing is the transfer of the delivery of services which affects both jobs and individuals. It is difficult to dispute that outsourcing has a detrimental effect on individuals who face job disruption and employment insecurity; however, its supporters believe that outsourcing should bring down prices, providing greater economic benefit to all. There are legal protections in the European Union regulations called the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment). Labor laws in the United States are not as protective as those in the European Union. On June 26 2009, Jeff Immelt, the CEO of General Electric, called for the United States to increase its manufacturing base employment to 20% of the workforce commenting that the U.S. has outsourced too much and can no longer rely on consumer spending to drive demand.


LANGUAGE SKILLS
In the area of call centers end-user-experience is deemed to be of lower quality when a service is outsourced. This is exacerbated when outsourcing is combined with off-shoring to regions where the first language and culture are different. The questionable quality is particularly evident when call centers that service the public are outsourced and offshored.

The public generally find linguistic features such as accents, word use and phraseology different which may make call center agents difficult to understand. The visual clues that are present in face-to-face encounters are missing from the call center interactions and this also may lead to misunderstandings and difficulties.

In addition to language and accent differences, a lack of local social and geographic knowledge is often present, leading to misunderstandings or mis-communications.


SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Outsourcing sends jobs to the lower-income areas where work is being outsourced to, which provides jobs in these areas and has a net equalizing effect on the overall distribution of wealth. Some argue that the outsourcing of jobs (particularly off-shore) exploits the lower paid workers. A contrary view is that more people are employed and benefit from paid work. Despite this argument, domestic workers displaced by such equalization are proportionately unable to outsource their own costs of housing, food and transportation.

On the issue of high-skilled labor, such as computer programming, some argue that it is unfair to both the local and off-shore programmers to outsource the work simply because the foreign pay rate is lower. On the other hand, one can argue that paying the higher-rate for local programmers is wasteful, or charity, or simply overpayment. If the end goal of buyers is to pay less for what they buy, and for sellers it is to get a higher price for what they sell, there is nothing automatically unethical about choosing the cheaper of two products, services, or employees.

Social responsibility is also reflected in the costs of benefits provided to workers. Companies outsourcing jobs effectively transfer the cost of retirement and medical benefits to the countries where the services are outsourced. This represents a significant reduction in total cost of labor for the outsourcing company. A side effect of this trend is the reduction in salaries and benefits at home in the occupations most directly impacted by outsourcing.

QUALIFICATIONS OF OUTSOURCERS
The outsourcer may replace staff with less qualified people or with people with different non-equivalent qualifications.

In the engineering discipline there has been a debate about the number of engineers being produced by the major economies of the United States, India and China. The argument centers around the definition of an engineering graduate and also disputed numbers. The closest comparable numbers of annual graduates of four-year degrees are United States (137,437) India (112,000) and China (351,537).


SOURCES:
http://www.sourcingmag.com/content/what_is_outsourcing.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outsourcing

ASSIGNMENT 7. :)

SONA 2009. PGMA envisions Philippines to become a strong republic. With regarding to the ICT community, PGMA just gave a little talk about having a department of ICT without elaborating much of it. Well, honestly, that soon-to-be department must be too far from being soon. Hehe. You know what I mean. Lol.

“Kung noong nakaraan, lumakas ang electronics, today we are creating wealth by developing the BPO and tourism sectors as additional engines of growth. Electronics and other manufactured exports rise and fall in accordance with the state of the world economy. But BPO remains resilient. With earnings of $6 billion and employment of 600,000, the BPO phenomenon speaks eloquently of our competitiveness and productivity. Let us have a Department of ICT.” -PGMA

--That’s it. Department of ICT? That would be really great. But when? 10 years from now? When people start to ride a flying car? Hehe. Lol.

“Taxes should come from alcohol and tobacco and not from books. Tax hazards to lungs and livers, do not tax minds. Ang kita mula sa buwis sa alak at sigarilyo ay dapat gamitin sa kalusugan at edukasyon. Pondohan ang Philhealth premiums ng pinakamahihirap. Pondohan ang mas maraming classroom at computers.” -PGMA

-- I think this is somehow related to having a department of ICT. As what I can see, if this is really gonna happen or is happening now, the soon-to-be department of ICT’s job is to make sure that the taxes that come from alcohol and tobacco must be for the benefit of those school (especially public ones). Giving them new and efficient computer sets for the students to be more acquainted with the technology. Because it is known that some of the public school students are not computer literate. The soon-to-be department of ICT must make sure that the promises of PGMA must be done.

“In sum:
1. We have a strong economy and a strong fiscal position to withstand global shocks.
2. We built new modern infrastructure and completed unfinished ones.
3. The economy is more fair to the poor than ever before.
4. We are building a sound base for the next generation.
5. International authorities have taken notice that we are safer from environmental degradation and man-made disasters.” –PGMA

-- I am not on opposition side, in fact, I do like how PGMA is working on for the betterment of this country. But all I can read from her SONA was pure fallacy. I just don’t know where those big moneys are right now. This would be her last year if cha-cha is not pursued. It’s never too late for PGMA to make a move. I am aware that being a president is not as easy as being a classroom president. PGMA made sacrifices but only those on administration side saw it. There are so many intellectual giants living here. We, Filipinos are so intelligent that nothing can bring much contentment to us if we are not on power. Instead for fighting for the highest position, better help one another save this country. “We Filipinos are worth dying for”, that was according to Ninoy. But If I were him, I would not waste my life saving people who are not even worth it. See what I mean?

SOURCE:
http://quintessentialy.wordpress.com/2009/07/27/2009-sona-by-pgma-posted-on-inquirer-net/

ASSIGNMENT 6. :-*

TOPIC: If you were hired by the university president as an IT consultant, what would you suggest (technology, infrastructure, innovations, steps, processes, etc) in order for the internet connectivity be improved? (3000words)

If I was hired as an IT consultant in the university, before giving suggestions to improve the internet connection, I would first state some possible reasons why the internet connection fails. (This is according to Bob Ranklin. )

“There are several possible reasons why your Internet connection might suddenly stop working. If you were on dialup, the most likely scenario would be noise on the phone line, but since you have a high-speed cable connection, we can rule that out.

In a recent Ask Bob Rankin article Do Computers Get Tired? I addressed the subject of electronic devices that fail at random times, and gave some scientific basis for occasionally turning the device off and then back on. I have a cable modem as well, and have found that sometimes a slow or dropped Internet connection is restored simply by unplugging the cable modem, waiting 30 seconds and powering it back on. Not pretty, but it works. If the problem is happening every day, though, it might be better to replace the modem.

There could also be a software-related issue which is causing your Internet connection to fail. If you have other computers on a home network, and they have no trouble getting online, then I'd cast a wary glance in the direction of your firewall. Firewalls are designed to block certain Internet connections, so it's entirely possible that a bug in the firewall software is erroneously shutting down ALL network connections. You may even have told the firewall to do this without meaning to.

Open your firewall's configuration screen and check to see what programs are being blocked from connecting to the Internet. If nothing obvious appears to be erroneously blocked, try shutting down or uninstalling the firewall software, then reboot and see if the problem persists. If that fixes the problem, consider ditching the software-based firewall, especially if you have a router between your computer and the cable modem. Routers have hardware-based firewalls built in, which makes firewall software superfluous for most users.

To uninstall the firewall software, click on the Start button, open Control Panel, then Add/Remove Programs. Find the firewall in the list and click the Remove button. Note that your firewall may be bundled with an anti-virus of internet security package. If that's the case, click on that package (ex: eTrust EZ-Armor or Norton Internet Security), and make sure you select ONLY the firewall for removal, leaving the anti-virus protection in place.

If none of those things helps, report the problem to your Internet provider. If the problem has something to do with your modem or the cabling in your neighborhood, it might be affecting your neighbors as well.” – Bob Ranklin

After stating some possible reasons why the internet connectivity fails, here are some of the steps, tips, and some warnings in maximizing your internet connection. (Internet based.)

STEPS:
1. Do some basic maintenance on your PC. Run Disk Defrag, a scan disk, a virus scan, a malware scan, and clear your recycle bin. An unusually slow Internet connection experience is often the only sign that your computer is infected with viruses or other malware. Delete old files and temporary files. Never allow the free space on your C: drive to be less than 10% of the total size or twice the installed RAM (which ever is larger). A well maintained PC will operate much better than a PC that has never had any maintenance. Google or your local computer repair store should be able to help you with this if you don't know how.

2. Reset Your Home Network. Sometimes restarting your home network if you have one will drastically increase the speed of your connection.

3. Optimize your cache or temporary Internet files. These files improve your Internet connection performance by not downloading the same file over and over. When a web site puts their logo graphic on every page your computer only downloads it when it changes. If you delete the temporary files it must be downloaded again. if you disable the cache, it must be downloaded every time you view a page that uses it. This can be done by opening Internet Explorer, clicking on "Tools" at the top and choosing "Internet Options". On the General tab, click the "Settings" button next to Temporary Internet Files. Set Check for newer versions to "Automatically". Set amount of disk space to use to 2% of your total disk size or 512 MB, which ever is smaller. On Firefox, click "Tools" then "Options," and go to the privacy tab. Then click on the Cache tab within this.

4. Never bypass your router. Most routers include a firewall that is very difficult for hackers to defeat. If you don't need to use Wireless then hook your computer directly to your router. Routers will only slow down your connection by a few Milli-seconds. You won't notice the difference but the hackers will.

5. If you are using a Wireless router, make sure it doesn't conflict with a cordless phone or wireless camera. Wireless routers come in two varieties; 802.11bg (2.4Ghz) or 802.11a (5.8Ghz) If you are using a 2.4Ghz Cordless phone and 2.4Ghz Wireless router then your Internet connection speed will slow while you use the cordless phone. The same is true of wireless security cameras. Check on your phone and camera, if it's 900Mhz then it's fine. If it says 2.4Ghz or 5.8Ghz then it could be the cause of your slow connection speed while they're in use.

6. Call your Internet service provider (ISP). Sometimes you just have bad service. They can usually tell if your connection is substandard without having a technician come to your home. Just be nice and ask.

7. Upgrade your computer. If your computer is slow, it doesn't matter how fast your Internet connection is, the whole thing will just seem slow. You can only access the Internet as fast as your PC will allow you to.

8. Replace your old cable modem. Any solid-state electronics will degrade over time due to accumulated heat damage. Your broadband modem will have a harder and harder time 'concentrating' on maintaining a good connection as it gets older (signal to noise ratios will go down, and the number of resend requests for the same packet will go up). An after-market cable modem as opposed to a cable-company modem will frequently offer a better connection.

9. Often your connection speed is slow because other programs are using it. To test if other programs are accessing the Internet without your knowing, Click Start, Click Run. Type "cmd" (without quotes). Type "netstat -b 5 > activity.txt". After a minute or so, hold down Ctrl and press C. This has created a file with a list of all programs using your Internet connection. Type activity.txt to open the file and view the program list. Ctrl Alt Delete and open up the Task Manager. Go to the process menu and delete those processes that are stealing your valuable bandwidth. (NOTE: Deleting processes may cause certain programs to not function properly)

10. After you have tried all this try your connection again and see if it's running any faster.

TIPS:
1. Call your ISP and have them verify all of your TCP/IP settings if you are concerned. Ask them to verify that your Proxy settings are correct.

2. Don't expect dial up or high speed lite service to be fast. The Internet is primarily geared towards Broadband Connections. Sometimes, you have to wait a little.

3. Download programs that make browsing faster:
- Loband.org is a browser inside of a browser that loads web pages without the images.

-Firefox and Opera both have options to disable images.
-In Firefox, you can also use extensions such as NoScript that let you block scripts and plug-ins that would otherwise slow things down a lot.
-If you are using Internet Explorer or Firefox, try downloading Google Web Accelerator. It is meant to speed up broadband connections, but it can also slow your Internet connection. Try enabling it and disabling it and see when your Internet connection runs faster.
-If you are using Firefox, download the Fasterfox extension and Firetune.
-Reduce the amount of programs running that use your Internet connection (Instant Messengers, RSS Feeders, and MS Applications set to send Internet data)
-Google Accessible Is designed to search pages in order of how clean they are of junk. This will bring up pages that are usually not only easy to read, but are quick to load.

4. Upgrade your RAM. This will not only improve your regular computer use, but it will affect the speed of your Internet connection because your computer works faster.

5. Use the Stop button to stop loading pages once you've gotten what you want.
6. Some times malware on your computer can eat up your bandwidth. Make sure you have an up-to-date malware protection program.

7. Most Internet Providers have flaky DNS servers (no citation necessary, it's a given) - so, instead of using those provided by your ISP, switch your DNS servers to use those of OpenDNS. OpenDNS is far faster, and more reliable, simply using 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220 as your domain name servers will speed up most flaky DNS problems (may even speed up your networking since OpenDNS has large caches).

8. Look into running your own local DNS server on your network. Some newer routers may include their own nameserver, otherwise, check into AnalogX.com's DNSCache program, it works great to hold commonly accessed domain names in the "cache" so that the IP addresses do not have to be looked up everytime you navigate to a new page.

WARNINGS:
1. Viruses and malware can often use up your bandwidth and slow down your Internet connection. Make sure you have protection against this. Many ISP's will provide software for this. Make sure your anti-virus and malware scanners are up-to-date.

2. Bypassing the router will leave you more vulnerable to attacks because you no longer have the built-in firewall from your router protecting you.

3. Watch out for scams that claim to make your Internet go a lot faster for free. They may tell you to download their program, which usually has a lot of other hidden programs attached that might steal your identity.

ASSIGNMENT 5.ü

TOPIC: Based on your adopted orgnaization(s), identify and discuss barriers in their IS/IT implementation ..(2000words)

Barriers to Technology Integration
Ever since computers were first used in commercial situations, organizations have tried to improve the operation of their business processes through the application of information technology in ways that have come to be described as "automation." While automation has achieved many stunning successes, experts in management and information technology have begun to recognize its considerable limitations. In brief, when business processes are automated without first streamlining and improving them (for instance by eliminating redundant activities), organizations generally fail to achieve significant benefits from their large investments in information technology. Also, when automation efforts are confined to small pieces of a business process (such as those pieces that fall within the boundaries of a particular functional unit of the organization), it can happen that the larger process is suboptimized, and performance is degraded, rather than improved.

Growing recognition of the limitations of the traditional "automation" paradigm has led experts to urge managers to conduct their system acquisition and system development activities in the context of larger organizational "reengineering" efforts. By carefully scoping out the boundaries of the whole business process and identifying its critical performance measures and the major points of leverage on them before selecting or developing an information system, managers can avoid the twin automation pitfalls of automating a bad process and automating the wrong process.

A barrier is defined as “any condition that makes it difficult to make progress or to achieve an objective” (WordNet, 1997). The objective under scrutiny in this study is increased technology integration. The understood and yet unspoken connotation of a barrier is that its removal acts as an aid towards the achievement of the objective. Therefore, the study of barriers as they pertain to technology integration is essential because this knowledge could provide guidance for ways to enhance technology integration. Ertmer (1999) echoed this sentiment, in stating that by providing “teachers with knowledge of barriers, as well as effective strategies to overcome them, it is expected that they will be prepared to both initiate and sustain effective technology integration practices” (Conclusion section, ¶ 4).


Common Barriers
The act of integrating technology into teaching and learning is a complex process and one that may encounter a number of difficulties. These difficulties are known as barriers. In order to lay the foundation for this, it is necessary to illustrate the established set of common technology integration barriers. Although these are often labeled, measured, and rated differently, researchers (Hadley & Sheingold, 1993; Anderson et al.1998; Jacobsen, 1998; Ertmer, 1999; Ertmer et al., 1999; Newhouse, 1999; Beggs, 2000; Becker, 2000b; Rogers, 2000; Cuban, 2001; Pajo & Wallace, 2001; Beaudin, 2002; Snoeyink & Ertmer, 2002; Bariso, 2003) have identified these or similar variations as widespread barriers:
-lack of computers,
-lack of quality software,
-lack of time,
-technical problems,
-poor funding,
-lack of teacher confidence,
-resistance to change,
-poor administrative support,
-lack of computer skill,
-poor fit with the curriculum,
-lack of incentives,
-scheduling difficulties ,
-poor training opportunities,
-and lack of vision as to how to integrate.

In order to draw conclusions, researchers have long attempted to categorize or group barriers through a factor analysis. This is the approach taken in this study. Hadley and Sheingold (1993) conducted a study involving known technology integrators at the 4-12 grade level, their factor analysis identified the following seven themes (ranked here from the most to least) which accounted for over 50% of the variance. The most cited barriers to technology integration were:
1. Poor administrative support
2. Problems with time, access, space, supervision, and operations
3. Poor software
4. Curriculum integration difficulties
5. Teacher’s attitudes and knowledge towards computers
6. Computer limitations and inadequate numbers of computers
7. Lack of technical support.

As stated by SONY:
1. MONEY
2. IT Support
3. Training
4. IT Infrastructure
5. Time
6. Priorities
7. Changing Technologies
8. Planning
9. Fear


Barriers Always Present
To best demonstrate the existence of barriers to technology integration independent of the environment, it is essential to examine the recent history of technology in the classroom. This allows one to see that as the main barrier – lack of technology access – was removed, other barriers still remained. Nevertheless, common sense dictates that in institutions that lack sufficient access to technology, effective technology integration would be a daunting, if not impossible task. It appears that Maddux’s (1998) claim that “it is essential that computers be placed in classrooms. Until that happens, true integration is unlikely to take place” remains true.

They found that abundant access to technology was not enough to ensure technology integration. This means that even in better than average technology-rich schools, teachers were still not integrating technology to any substantial degree. It appeared that even the straightforward task of scheduling a computer lab acted as a barrier. Yet again, the essential element of this study is that as a laptop institution, access to technology is not an issue. This provides depth to the investigation into the remaining technology integration barriers. Some of the barriers preventing teachers from integrating technology were poor computer literacy, lack of time, lack of confidence, and hardware malfunctions. Though access as a barrier had been overcome, others still remained. Similar sentiments are echoed by Cuban (2001) since he found that lack of time and inadequate generic training remained technology integration barriers in technology-rich high schools. He also noted that at technology-rich Stanford University, faculty continue to cite lack of time and poor technical support as barriers to technology integration.


Barrier Elimination
Recommendations as to the methods of eliminating technology integration barriers differ according to the type and intensity of the barrier. (Ertmer, 1999, Obtaining Resources Section, ¶ 1).

1. the less sophisticated technology integrator will require more professional development (sessions on ways to integrate technology) and more basic technical support (who to call when the computer crashes) because they are less independent;

2. the more advanced technology integrator will require more sophisticated technology support (things like learning how to make a CD) and advanced professional development (sharing sessions with other advanced integrators).


Links and Pdf's:

file:///C:/Users/ImpulsE/Desktop/MIS_assign5/6.htm
file:///C:/Users/ImpulsE/Desktop/MIS_assign5/barriers.htm
file:///C:/Users/ImpulsE/Desktop/MIS_assign5/Implementing%20a%20New%20Information%20System%20_%20Bizcovering.htm

http://is2.lse.ac.uk/asp/aspecis/19940017.pdf
barriers_ehr_implementation.pdf
ITbarriers.pdf
lthe02_05.pdf

ASSIGNMENT 4. :))

-GREEN CAMPUS COMPUTING spot.

UC Berkeley iNews
http://inews.berkeley.edu/articles/Spring2009/green-computing

At UC Berkeley, energy efficiency relates to the "triple bottom line" philosophy, the view that social, environmental, and economic consequences should all be considered when planning for the future. Chancellor Birgeneau has committed the University to lowering its greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2014, a target six years ahead of California's statewide goal. But this is a tall order, as much has changed on campus in the last 19 years. For one, the role computers play has dramatically increased — and, despite the improved efficiency of newer machines, so has the energy that computing consumes.

To support and promote these efforts, the Go Green team recommends launching a "green computing" educational campaign; recognizing and rewarding individuals who conserve energy; adopting campuswide purchasing guidelines for computing equipment; and creating a more effective funding model for energy efficient IT projects. Their long-term recommendations for the University include creating a file-sharing service, upgrading the campus network, establishing a regional data center, and installing "smart" meters to allow for more accurate monitoring of energy usage.

Green computing doesn't mean sacrificing reliability or functionality, said Linda Algazzali, one of the team's seven members. "Any change in the service model needs to take into account that services need to be enhanced, not degraded," she said.


Green Campus Computing at the U of U
(University of Utah)
http://www.it.utah.edu/leadership/green/index.html

U of U students and staff and the residents of Salt Lake City have an opportunity to recycle their household e-waste for free at the U of U campus in conjunction with many campus Earth Day activities. All of the e-waste that is collected at the event will be recycled responsibly by Guaranteed Recycling Xperts (GRX) of Utah. GRX is recognized by the Basel Action Network (BAN) as an E-steward and was awarded the e-waste recycling contract for the State of Utah.

Green computing techniques are easy to incorporate and will result in:
• A reduction in overall operating costs by reducing power use, using shared hardware resources, reusing similar systems, and reducing supplies such as toner, ink and paper.
• Enhanced work environments such as campus computer lab space and office work space with reduced noise pollution and eye strain from traditional CRTs.
• Corporate and social responsibility through a focus on the Triple Bottom Line, an expanded set of success values focusing on people, planet and profit.
• An enhanced University Image: green computing solutions on the U campus can be used as marketing tools for potential students and researchers.


The Chronicle of Higher Education
Campus Computing Goes Green to Save Money
By: Josh Keller
http://chronicle.com/article/Campus-Computing-Goes-Green-to/1484/

Relocate a college's server computers next to a solar-power generator. Replace AC power with DC power. Cool the servers only where they get the hottest. Put the servers in the ocean and power them with waves.
Those were a few of the ideas discussed last week at a conference, "Greening the Internet Economy," that was designed to address the problem of the soaring financial and environmental costs of information technology. The event, held by the University of California at San Diego, offered a sampling of a new generation of technologies that promise to help colleges make their IT departments both more efficient and more sustainable.
The goal is to encourage engineers to try different computing strategies to reduce electricity consumption, said Thomas A. DeFanti, principal investigator on the project and a senior research strategist at the university's California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology.


Basic Energy Conservation Strategy:
* Turn off your computer and/or peripherals when they are not in use. Turning on and off will not harm the equipment.
* Don’t run computers continuously unless they are in use continuously.
* Turn off at night and on weekends
* Look for ways to reduce the amount of time your computer is on without adversely affecting your productivity.

Actually, even if you implement so many energy conservation strategies, still it is up to the students / people involved on how they conserve energy in their own way. Though, personally, I don’t think I am conserving energy but I am not wasting too much of it either.


[Sorry for the DELAY. ]