ICT, Education, Transformation & Economic Development

Five sorts of research are reviewed in this article:

Macroeconomic research showing that over the past several decades the US and global economies have undergone a fundamental shift from a manufacturing economy to an information economy, much of it driven by ICT.

Microeconomic research showing that individual firms are undergoing significant changes in organizational structure and business practices, much of it facilitated by the pervasive presence of ICT in the workplace.

 

 

Labor market and workforce studies showing a significant shift in the kinds of jobs and skills that are needed by our economy, skills that are intimately connected to the use of ICT.

Studies showing patterns of the everyday ICT use in American life, particularly use by young Americans, patterns that are closer to the use of ICT in the business world than to that in schools.

Studies showing that American schools are not using ICT in a significant way or providing youth with the experiences and skills they need to enter the information economy.

Macroeconomic Trends: Shifting from manufacturing to information economy...

- Shows that the us economy has undergone profound changes over the past several decades

- These changes have significant implications for how people work, live, and play and most certainly, implications for education: for what is taught, how it is learned, and how schools are organized. Many of these changes have been fostered by the dramatic growth in information communication technologies. 

  

Note: if educational technology policy or education reform policy, more generally is going to contribute to economic growth and prosperity, preparing Americans in the global economy.

Microeconomic Trends: Changes in business organization and practices, its studies confirms the impact of ICT on business practice.

Threes sets of industries:

1. ICT producing industries

2. ICT usin industries

3. Other industries

Productivity increases come by using ICT

Between companies 

Within companies and their partners and suppliers  

 

UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers

I'll start by defining "framework"...

Framework: A structure for supporting or enclosing something else, especially a skeletal support used as the basis for something being constructed.

The framework project: Conducted and extensive consultation to identify the competences the teachers should develop to use technology effectively in the classroom.

1. Inculcating the community values

2. Supporting the personal development of children

3. Promoting democracy and increasing participation

4. Encouraging cross-cultural understanding, improving health and well-being

5. Supporting economic development 

The framework project: linking ICT, Education and the economy embraces the goals of these education programs and UNESCO's and the UN's aims of education

The three approaches of the framework...

⇨Technology literacy

⇨ Knowledge deepening

⇨ Knowledge creation

The 6 aspects of a teacher's work

 ↳ understanding ICT in education

↳ curriculum and assessment

↳ pedagogy

↳ ICT

↳ organization and administration

↳ teacher professional learning

Education Reform:

↠The use of new technologies in education implies new teacher roles, new pedagogies and new approaches to teacher education.

↠ The successful integration of ICT into the classroom will depend on the ability of the teachers to structure the learning environment in new ways.

Teachers should...

⬈ Incorporate a range of relevant productivity tools and technology resources

⬈ Changes in pedagogical practice

⬈ Use of various ICT tools and digital contents

⬈ Group and individual student activities

 

Processes, Performance Drivers and ICT tools in Human Resources Management

Human Resource Management 

The process of hiring and developing employees so that they become more valuable to the organization.

Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/human-resource-management-HRM.html

he process of hiring and developing employees so that they become more valuable to the organization.

Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/human-resource-management-HRM.html

"Human resource management is the management of human resources. It is designed to maximize employee performance in service of an employer's strategic objectives"

he process of hiring and developing employees so that they become more valuable to the organization.

Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/human-resource-management-HRM.html

- Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice.

6 Key qualities of an HR Manager:
1. Organization
2. Ethics
3. Problems solving
4. Leadership
5. Communication
6. Expertise

 
HR managers to be accountable and/or responsible for the following business processes: 

1. Preparing and reviewing capacity planning
2. Recruiting
3. Managing personnel  evidence
4. Evaluating employee efficiency
5. Administrative and supporting processes

Performance drivers 

Anything that could materially affect either a company's earnings or the price of its stock. Every company will have its own unique drivers, although some of the most common drivers include:

-The release of a new product or service
-New financing
-Commodity or resource prices
-Activities of competitors
-Prospects of a particular division of a company
-Legislation
-Litigation

Kaplan: Describes performance drivers in balanced scorecards

Grundy and Brow: Analysis as one of the methods for implementing HR strategy 

The new ICTs and translation competences

Translation competence is the ability to carry out the transfer process from the comprehension of the source text to the re expression of the target text, with the characteristics of the target-text readers.

THE TRANSLATION NOW

Nowadays, language translation and interpreting services are being used in all spheres of daily life, from helping a student to enroll into a new school to interpreting for a corporate executive who has just purchased a new business in China. As language is continually changing, it will be years before an intelligent computer program appears in order to translate and comprehend as well as human does. Thus, translators and interpreter's job will be secured for years to come.

WHAT ARE COMPETENCE/ TRANSLATION COMPETENCE?

The PACTE group has been carrying out empirical- experimental research into translation competence and its acquisition in written translation since 1997. Research is being carried out from two complementary perspectives:

- the translation process,  through the collection and analysis of data obtained from experimental studies of the mental processes at work in translation,  and the competences and abilities required

- the translation product, through the collection and analysis of data obtained from the results of the translation process (translated texts) using discourse analysis and corpus methodology (electronic corpora).

GENERAL ICTs FOR TRANSLATORS  

1. The Internet

2. The use of corpus linguistics (The monolingual corpora & The bilingual corpora.

3. Concordance generator programs (Machine translation & Computer assisted translation)

Main phases of the translation process.

• The reception phase: a translator can use electronic encyclopedias, digital knowledge databases allowing him to combine text, domain and world knowledge to fully understand the content of the source text.
• The transfer phase: it requires deep cross-cultural understanding and strong inter cultural (communication skills). 

The new ICTs & Translation Competence

The translation now:

What are competence or translation competence?

This term is first used by Toury in the 80s, and it has been given the next meaning "the ability to carry out from comprehension of the source text to the re-expression of the target text.

Model of translation competence that is required to be able to translate:

1. Expert knowledge which is understood as Communicative Competence in two languages, including linguistic, discourse and sociolinguistics competence.

2. Extra-Linguistic Competence composed of general world knowledge and specialist knowledge.

3. Instrumental-Professional Competence composed of knowledge and skills related to the tools of the trade and the profession.

4. Psycho-Physiological Competence.

5. Transfer competence which is “the ability to complete the transfer process from the ST (source text) to the TT (target text).

6. Strategic Competence, which includes “all the individual procedures, conscious and unconscious, verbal and non-verbal, used to solve the problems found during the translation process”.

ICT for Translation & Interpreting

ICT for Translation & Interpreting: The relevance of new technologies for the training of expert linguists

Expert linguists are more and more in demand in an increasingly globalised society, yet there is a growing shortage of competent, trained language experts. This worrying situation has been highlighted recently in the Paris Declaration (2010).

To tackle this crisis, we need to consider training provisions with care. The current school of thought on teaching strategies for skill-based professions leans towards experiential and situated learning, methods which have been used with success in translators and interpreters programmes over the years. These methods aim at enabling learners to “bridge the gap between the theoretical learning in the form of the instruction of the classroom and the real-life application of the knowledge in the work environment”

Using ICT for expert linguists training resources : production and accessibility 

Many of the researchers and teachers exploring the model of situated learning have accepted that the computer can provide an alternative to real-life setting, and that such technology can be used without sacrificing the authentic context which is a critical element of the model

Empowering students and fostering team-work and professional skills

Kolb (1984) identified a dichotomy in learning styles, between learner who apprehend the process as “active doers” and those who are “reflective watchers”. The analysis refines the pattern into fours types of learners (learner-reflectors, learner-theorists, learner-pragmatists and learner-activists), which correspond to different entry points in the learning cycle: expert linguist training needs to be designed to ensure that all types of learners can engage with the tasks, something which ICT facilitates. 

Conclusion 

ICT can add to the quality of the training of expert linguists in a time when such specialists are in great demand. The variety of pedagogical tools provided by these new technologies facilitate the production of authentic materials, enabling a valuable situated learning approach. ICT also offer flexibility, and the means to adapt the learning process to suit different types of learning patterns so that learners can all engage with the process.  

The roll of ICT sector in expanding economic opportunity

Fundamental Role of ICT in modern economic

As we have seen, information and communications technologies help expand economic opportunity by enabling people to enhance their knowledge and skills, identify, apply and qualify for better paying jobs, use their disposable income more wisely, manage their own businesses efficiently, ICT also enhance capacity in industries and insstitutions of all kinds.

only in the past 20 years or so has a self conscious appreciation for the ICT sector's role in expanding economic opportunity emerged.

New & Expanding Markets  & The business case for engagement 

As i described above, ICTs increases efficiency, productivity and access to good services, informations and markets. Demand for those benefits is high if the righ complements can be put in place 

Economic Opportunity Obstacles ⇒ Geographic isolation, lack of competition and high prices for consumers, lack of competitions and low prices for producers, legal exclusion and social capital.

Innovation Blowback ⇒ Inonovation must not only be affordable, reliable and relevant it must potential to blow black