Elizabeth Avery Gomez

Community Crisis Response Teams: Leveraging Local Resources through ICT E-Readiness

Dynamic community crisis response teams form quickly at the onset of a crisis providing assistance until external specialty resources arrive. FEMA recommends individual preparedness for up to 72 hours. Sustaining a community for at least 72 hours often falls to those who live or work in the community. Local community responders (i.e. small grassroots volunteers) who operate in the field during a crisis need mobile information technologies and practice for effective communication and coordination. Small grassroots volunteers, who may be among community responders, often have limited training and practice with two-way device quick response tactics. Our analysis of the local community literature suggests focusing on ICT training in conjunction with plain-language communication directed towards interoperability as a means to increase individual ICT e-readiness. We propose the use of team-based learning instructional strategy which has been empirically tested in the classroom

Utilizing Web Tools for Computer-Mediated Communication to Enhance Team-Based Learning

Team-based learning is an active learning instructional strategy used in the traditional face-to-face classroom. Web-based computer-mediated communication (CMC) tools complement the face-to-face classroom and enable active learning between face-to-face class times. This arti-cle presents the results from pilot assessments of computer-supported team-based learning. The authors utilized pedagogical approaches grounded in collaborative learning techniques, such as team-based learning, and extended these techniques to a Web-based environment through the use of computer-mediated communications tools (discussion Web-boards). This approach was examined through field studies in the course of two semesters at a US public technological university. The findings indicate that the perceptions of team learning experience such as per-ceived motivation, enjoyment, and learning in such a Web-based CMC environment are higher than in traditional face-to-face courses. In addition, our results show that perceived team mem-bers’ contributions impact individual learning experiences. Overall, Web-based CMC tools are found to effectively facilitate team interactions and achieve higher-level learning.

Mobile ICT literacy: A contributor for environmental sustainability

Environmental change is prompting societal response around the globe in areas such as energy conservation. Sustainability is at the forefront of societal issues, especially for health and well-being which rely on integrated data services. For the pervasive user to successfully engage in the use of data services, training is needed to conceptualize use and establish the necessary level of mobile literacy for the task. This paper introduces web-based training designed for pervasive users who need to conceptualize both connectivity challenges and energy conservation techniques for effective mobile communication. Our strategies are based on empirical research that measures mobile ICT literacy from a sample of 300 responses with the 160 character constrained communication of SMS text messaging. Mobile ICT literacy is an important aspect of effective communication with the ongoing deployments of social media and mobile technologies and should include training on connectivity for environmental sustainability and communication best practices.