Ivana Simonova

Older People and Their Attitude to the Use of Information and Communication Technologies--A Review Study with Special Focus on the Czech Republic (Older People and Their Attitude to ICT).

ABSTRACT Rising standards of living and good quality health care have contributed to people living longer. According to the Eurostat agency (Benáčová & Valenta, 2009), in the next 50 years there will be twice as many older people worldwide. The aging process, however, brings about new economic and social issues. Therefore, there is constant effort to prolong the active age of these older people who want to lead an active, fulfilling, and quality life in a sense of their inclusion, socialization, and independence. This can be achieved not only by continuous support from their family members. Current trends also show an important role for information and communication technologies (ICT) in the prolonging of an active life. The purpose of this review study is to explore the role of ICT in the lifestyle of older people and show how the Czech older people can cope with the use of ICT in their life. The methods exploited in this review study include a literature review of available sources exploring the use of ICT by older people and a comparison of the very few research studies exploring this topic in the Czech environment. The objective was to illustrate how the role of ICT in the life of the Czech older people and their training in the use of ICT can lead to a gradual positive change in their attitude towards ICT.

The use of ICT devices by older people with a special focus on their type and respondents’ age: A Czech case study

ABSTRACT The recent demographic trends show a rapid increase of aging population, especially in developed countries. Therefore, there is an urgent need to look for the opportunities of maintaining the quality of life of this aging population. One of the solutions seems to be the use of information and communication technology (ICT) devices, which can promote autonomy of older people by facilitating the execution of many routine activities such as shopping or communication. The purpose of this study is to explore the use of ICT devices among older people in the Czech Republic with respect to their type and respondents’ age. The methods include a questionnaire survey, as well as statistical processing of data collection. The results indicate that present seniors are becoming more digitally literate, especially in the use of mobile phones. However, the use of the technological devices then dramatically drops at the age of 75 years. In addition, the results indicate that future research should focus on the use of mobile phones, respectively smartphones, and its effectiveness on the improvement of quality of life of older generation groups.

Flexible Hybrid Learning: Comparative Study

Hybrid learning has become a widely exploited approach within the ICT-enhanced instruction. Making it flexible, so that the process of learning reflecting students’ needs and preferences was the problem solved in various ways at three Czech institutions of higher education. In the paper the whole process is described, describing the starting phase, which was identical at all three institutions, and comparing different models of flexible hybrid learning applied further, including the results of pedagogical experiments comparing learners’ knowledge in flexible and non-flexible learning. The results did not proved clearly visible differences, as neither world-recognized research did. Despite this, authors are persuaded that research activities in this field should go on, paying deeper attention to learners’ personal characteristics and other activities within the learning process.

Mobile technologies within the higher education

The paper focuses on the field of the possible use of mobile devices for education. data were collected by the questionnaire method from 203 respondents - FIM students monitoring the ownership and use of the devices for personal and education purposes. The results show the mobile devices are widely spread among the FIM students so their systematic implementation into the process of instruction cab start.

Blended Learning as Means of Support Within the Elderly People Education

The article deals with the research conducted within the elderly people of Hradec Kralove region, Czech Republic, which works as a pilot research to the representative study of ways how the elderly reach and develop their IT skills, particularly how social relationships work as movers within this process. The method of questionnaire was applied to the research sample of 432 respondents attending the University of the Third Age and IT courses held by the Municipality of Hradec Kralove. The results, described and displayed in eight figures, clearly proved, the elderly people met the three predefined criteria for successful implementation of blended learning in this age group, as they both possessed modern devices and had skills to exploit them successfully for various purposes. There are no limits showing that blended learning could not be applied within this age group.

The Blended Learning Concept: Comparative Study of Two Universities

The paper introduces the results of comparative study of the blended learning concept of two higher education institutions – University of Ostrava, Faculty of education and University of Hradec Kralove, Faculty of Informatics and Management, Czech Republic. Having the research sample of 466 and 591 students of both institutions, the data collected within LMSs were processed by the method of frequency analysis, structured according three criteria (learners’ visit rate to the course, learners’ performance in week days and learners’ performance in hours of the day) and compared. In the results different number of assignments was reflected showing higher visit rate to the Technology for education course conducted at University of Ostrava compared to English for specific purposes at University of Hradec Kralove.

Social Networks and Mobile Devices in Higher Education: Pilot Project

Reflecting latest trends in higher education, social networks and mobile devices have been detected to be important tools. Collecting the appropriate data the main objective of the research was to consider whether mobile-assisted learning could be used within the faculty. The survey monitoring their use for private and education purposes was held at the Faculty of Informatics and Management, University of Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic. Data were collected by the questionnaire from the sample of 203 respondents. Totally twelve questions were included monitoring (1) the types and access frequency to 19 social networks and (2) the ownership and purpose of use of 12 types of mobile devices. The results showed students were sufficiently equipped with the mobile devices and using them for private purposes they reached high level of literacy. This result entitled us to start the pilot process of mobile-assisted learning using the Blackboard Mobile LearnTM version 4.0 for Apple and Android devices.

Cloud and m-Learning: Longitudinal Case Study of Faculty of Informatics and Management, University of Hradec Kralove

Shift has been detected in the ICT-enhanced teaching/learning, particularly from e-learning to cloud and m-learning. For education, it offers new possibilities to structure and perform learning processes. That was the reason why a case study was prepared summarizing how this process was carried out at the Faculty of Informatics and Management (FIM), monitoring (1) learners´ knowledge reached with/without the ICT support, (2) the impact of ICT in the instruction tailored to learners´ preferences, (3) evaluating the work with virtual desktops and (4) learners´ readiness for m-learning, mainly what mobile devices they own, which of them they use for personal purposes, whether they have adequate skills developed, and whether mobile devices could be implemented in the process of instruction. Despite no statistically significant differences were detected in researches 1 and 2, learners expressed high satisfaction with using virtual desktops, wide possession of mobile devices and good skills in using them for personal activities.

Mobile-assisted ESP learning in technical education

Abstract This paper presents research results from the field of mobile-assisted instruction of English for specific purposes for technical and engineering students. The research was structured in three phases: (1) Questionnaire 1 was applied to detect what sources of information students use in higher education, what types of mobile devices they own, what purposes they use them for, (2) how the process of instruction, particularly students´ autonomous work supported by mobile devices ran, (3) students´ feedback was collected by Questionnaire 2 to evaluate the mobile-assisted learning and provide proposals for future exploitation of mobile devices in higher technical language education. The results show students are sufficiently equipped with mobile technologies and exploit them for various purposes, including education and ESP. At the end, examples of helpful mobile applications are presented.

Industry-university co-operation in the Czech context of higher education

The co-operation between companies and higher education institutions is highly required and conductive to both parties. The paper discusses a real example of co-operation. The described event is annually held at the Faculty of Informatics and Management (FIM), University of Hradec Králové and provides the FIM students and graduates with a higher chance to succeed on the labour market. In addition, the event participants expressed their opinions and experience in the questionnaire survey. The results are discussed in a wider context of job opportunities for university graduates in the Czech Republic.