The latest advances in technology development have been particularly useful to actor-network theory as a structure for much of its research. With a socio-technical approach to the understanding of information systems and applications, the actor-network theory aims to bring support for social influence on technological innovations. Social and Professional Applications of Actor-Network Theory for Technology Development presents a platform for the approaches and implementations on the actor-network theory and its relationship with technology development. This book provides researchers and practitioners with a better understanding of the usefulness of the social and technical connection.

It has been over twenty years since developments in actor-network theory were first written on paper. Since then, the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) community has begun to discover the power of using actor-network theory as an explanatory framework for much of its research. This research community has come to an understanding that information systems are, of necessity, socio-technical in nature and require a socio-technical approach to their investigation. Thanks to developments in actor-network theory, researchers can now approach people and technology as one single entity that gives support to social influences on technological innovations. Social Influences on Information and Communication Technology Innovations discusses in great detail the use of actor-network theory in offering explanations for socio-technical phenomena, focusing greatly on information communication technologies. Implementation and use of information and communication technologies inevitably involves the interactions of both technology and people. This publication facilitates international growth in the body of research investigating the value of using actor-network theory as a means of understanding socio-technical phenomena and technological innovation.

Improvements in health services require continual attention and dedication to ensure proper care and treatment for citizens. To support this endeavor, professionals rely more and more on the application of information systems and technologies to promote the overall quality of modern healthcare. Maximizing Healthcare Delivery and Management through Technology Integration is an authoritative reference source for the latest scholarly research on the integration of ICT within the health services sector. Featuring comprehensive coverage on a range of topics from technical and non-technical perspectives, this book is an essential reference source for IT specialists, professionals, managers, and students seeking current research on the growing relationship between technology and healthcare.

International Federation for Information Processing

The IFIP series publishes state-of-the-art results in the sciences and technologies of information and communication. The scope of the series includes: foundations of computer science; software theory and practice; education; computer applications in technology; communication systems; systems modeling and optimization; information systems; computers and society; computer systems technology; security and protection in information processing systems; artificial intelligence; and human-computer interaction. Proceedings and post-proceedings of referred international conferences in computer science and interdisciplinary fields are featured. These results often precede journal publication and represent the most current research. The principal aim of the IFIP series is to encourage education and the dissemination and exchange of information about all aspects of computing.

For more information about the 300 other books in the IFIP series, please visit springeronline.com.

For more information about IFIP, please visit www.ifip.or.at.

Actor-Network Theory (ANT) has existed as a topic of interest among social theorists for decades. Due to the prevalence of technology in modern society, discussions over the influence of actor-network theory on the changing scope of technology can assist in facilitating further research and scientific thought. Technological Advancements and the Impact of Actor-Network Theory focuses on cross-disciplinary research as well as examples of the use of actor-network theory in a variety of fields, including medicine, education, business, engineering, environmental science, computer science, and social science. This timely publication is well-suited for reference use by academicians, researchers, upper-level students, and theorists. Topics Covered The many academic areas covered in this publication include, but are not limited to: Digital Communication E-Health Human Interaction Information and Communication Technologies Online Education Online Investing Public Service Innovation Software Development

Evolution of Information Technology in Educational Management As the editors of this volume we are very happy to publish a selection of the papers that were presented at the eighth Conference of Working Group 3.7 of the International Federation for Information Processing which was held in July 2008. The focus of Working Group 3.7 is on ITEM: Information Technology in Educational Management (for more information, please visit our website http: //item.wceruw.org/), and the theme of its 2008 conference was on the Evolution of Information Technology in Educational Management. Our Working Group started its activities (officially we were not an IFIP Working Group at that time) in 1994 in Israel, so it made sense to look at how ITEM has evolved over the years and to reflect on what its future may be. The conference took place in Darwin (northern Australia) which even during the Australian winter is a very pleasant location for having a conference. The town of Darwin was given its name by the Captain of the Beagle (the ship on which Darwin travelled when he made the investigations on which he based his Theory of Evolution) who came to the area and named the town after the giant of science he admired

The power of modern information systems and information technology (lSIIT) offers new opportunities to rethink, at the broadest levels, existing business strategies, approaches and practices. Over the past decade, IT has opened up new business opportunities, led to the development of new strategic IS and challenged all managers and users of ISIIT to devise new ways to make better use of information. Yet this era which began with much confidence and optimism is now suffering under a legacy of systems that are increasingly failing to meet business needs, and lasting fixes are proving costly and difficult to implement. General management is experiencing a crisis of confidence in their IS functions and in the chiefinformation systems officers who lead them (Earl and Feeney, 1994:11). The concern for chief executive officers is that they are confronting a situation that is seemingly out of control. They are asking, 'What is the best way to rein in these problems and effectively assess IS performance? Further, how can we be certain that IS is adequately adding value to the organisational bottom line?' On the other hand, IS executives and professionals who are responsible for creating, managing and maintaining the organisation's systems are worried about the preparedness of general managers to cope with the growth in new technologies and systems. They see IT having a polarising effect on general managers; it either bedazzles or frightens them (Davenport, 1994: 119).

Information Technology and Educational Management in the Knowledge Society is an essential reference for both academic and professional researchers in the field of information technology and educational management.

Since the mid-1980's, computer assisted educational information systems have been developing in various parts of the world and the knowledge surrounding the development and implementation of these systems has been growing. The papers presented in this volume are the result of an international call for papers addressing the challenges faced by the information technology and education management (ITEM) field in a society where knowledge management is becoming a major issue both in educational and business systems.

This state-of-the-art volume presents the proceedings of the 6th International Working Conference on Information Technology in Educational Management, held July 2004 in Spain.

The collection will be important not only for information technology and education management experts and researchers, but also for all teachers and administrators interested in this growing field.

Education and Technology for a Better World was the main theme for WCCE 2009. The conference highlights and explores different perspectives of this theme, covering all levels of formal education as well as informal learning and societal aspects of education. The conference was open to everyone involved in education and training. Additionally players from technological, societal, business and political fields outside education were invited to make relevant contributions within the theme: Education and Technology for a Better World. For several years the WCCE (World Conference on Computers in Education) has brought benefits to the fields of computer science and computers and education as well as to their communities. The contributions at WCCE include research projects and good practice presented in different formats from full papers to posters, demonstrations, panels, workshops and symposiums. The focus is not only on presentations of accepted contributions but also on discussions and input from all participants. The main goal of these conferences is to provide a forum for the discussion of ideas in all areas of computer science and human learning. They create a unique environment in which researchers and practitioners in the fields of computer science and human learning can interact, exchanging theories, experiments, techniques, applications and evaluations of initiatives supporting new developments that are potentially relevant for the development of these fields. They intend to serve as reference guidelines for the research community.

This book contains selected papers presented at the seventh Conference on Working Group 3.7 of the Internation Federation for Information Processing. The focus of Working Froup 3.7 is on ITEM: Information Technology in Educational Management. The event toook place in Hamamatsu, Japan, and enabled the exchange of findings and ideas between researchers in educational management and information technology, policy-makers in the field of education, developers of ITEM systems, and vendors. The overall goal of the conference was to demonstrate and explore directions for developing and improving all types of educational institutions through ITEM.

Contributions to this conference hailed from all over the world. The papers in this volume investigate how ITEM can support and improve educational practice at the level of instruction as well as at the institutional level, an analysis of the history of ITEM as a field of study and practice, results of researcdh on how training can promote the implementation of ITEM systems, and theoretical analyses of the conditions under which ITEM will have the strongest impact. Moreover, all sectors of educational systems (from schools to universities) are represented by the various chapters of this book.

History of Computing: Learning from the Past Why is the history of computing important? Given that the computer, as we now know it, came into existence less than 70 years ago it might seem a little odd to some people that we are concerned with its history. Isn't history about 'old things'? Computing, of course, goes back much further than 70 years with many earlier - vices rightly being known as computers, and their history is, of course, important. It is only the history of electronic digital computers that is relatively recent. History is often justified by use of a quote from George Santayana who famously said that: 'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it'. It is arguable whether there are particular mistakes in the history of computing that we should avoid in the future, but there is some circularity in this question, as the only way we will know the answer to this is to study our history. This book contains papers on a wide range of topics relating to the history of c- puting, written both by historians and also by those who were involved in creating this history. The papers are the result of an international conference on the History of Computing that was held as a part of the IFIP World Computer Congress in Brisbane in September 2010.

This book constitutes the refereed post-proceedings of the 9th IFIP WG 3.7 Conference on Information Technology in Educational Management, ITEM 2010, held in Kasane, Botswana, in July 2010. The 22 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected. The papers cover a wide range of topics addressing the utilization of ICT at different levels of education from primary education to higher education, such as identifying and satisfying learning needs, strategical management, school management information systems, open source software, and the relationship between ICT and organizational performance.

History of Computing: Learning from the Past Why is the history of computing important? Given that the computer, as we now know it, came into existence less than 70 years ago it might seem a little odd to some people that we are concerned with its history. Isn't history about 'old things'? Computing, of course, goes back much further than 70 years with many earlier - vices rightly being known as computers, and their history is, of course, important. It is only the history of electronic digital computers that is relatively recent. History is often justified by use of a quote from George Santayana who famously said that: 'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it'. It is arguable whether there are particular mistakes in the history of computing that we should avoid in the future, but there is some circularity in this question, as the only way we will know the answer to this is to study our history. This book contains papers on a wide range of topics relating to the history of c- puting, written both by historians and also by those who were involved in creating this history. The papers are the result of an international conference on the History of Computing that was held as a part of the IFIP World Computer Congress in Brisbane in September 2010.

The power of modern information systems and information technology (lSIIT) offers new opportunities to rethink, at the broadest levels, existing business strategies, approaches and practices. Over the past decade, IT has opened up new business opportunities, led to the development of new strategic IS and challenged all managers and users of ISIIT to devise new ways to make better use of information. Yet this era which began with much confidence and optimism is now suffering under a legacy of systems that are increasingly failing to meet business needs, and lasting fixes are proving costly and difficult to implement. General management is experiencing a crisis of confidence in their IS functions and in the chiefinformation systems officers who lead them (Earl and Feeney, 1994:11). The concern for chief executive officers is that they are confronting a situation that is seemingly out of control. They are asking, 'What is the best way to rein in these problems and effectively assess IS performance? Further, how can we be certain that IS is adequately adding value to the organisational bottom line?' On the other hand, IS executives and professionals who are responsible for creating, managing and maintaining the organisation's systems are worried about the preparedness of general managers to cope with the growth in new technologies and systems. They see IT having a polarising effect on general managers; it either bedazzles or frightens them (Davenport, 1994: 119).

Education and Technology for a Better World was the main theme for WCCE 2009. The conference highlights and explores different perspectives of this theme, covering all levels of formal education as well as informal learning and societal aspects of education. The conference was open to everyone involved in education and training. Additionally players from technological, societal, business and political fields outside education were invited to make relevant contributions within the theme: Education and Technology for a Better World. For several years the WCCE (World Conference on Computers in Education) has brought benefits to the fields of computer science and computers and education as well as to their communities. The contributions at WCCE include research projects and good practice presented in different formats from full papers to posters, demonstrations, panels, workshops and symposiums. The focus is not only on presentations of accepted contributions but also on discussions and input from all participants. The main goal of these conferences is to provide a forum for the discussion of ideas in all areas of computer science and human learning. They create a unique environment in which researchers and practitioners in the fields of computer science and human learning can interact, exchanging theories, experiments, techniques, applications and evaluations of initiatives supporting new developments that are potentially relevant for the development of these fields. They intend to serve as reference guidelines for the research community.

Evolution of Information Technology in Educational Management As the editors of this volume we are very happy to publish a selection of the papers that were presented at the eighth Conference of Working Group 3.7 of the International Federation for Information Processing which was held in July 2008. The focus of Working Group 3.7 is on ITEM: Information Technology in Educational Management (for more information, please visit our website http: //item.wceruw.org/), and the theme of its 2008 conference was on the Evolution of Information Technology in Educational Management. Our Working Group started its activities (officially we were not an IFIP Working Group at that time) in 1994 in Israel, so it made sense to look at how ITEM has evolved over the years and to reflect on what its future may be. The conference took place in Darwin (northern Australia) which even during the Australian winter is a very pleasant location for having a conference. The town of Darwin was given its name by the Captain of the Beagle (the ship on which Darwin travelled when he made the investigations on which he based his Theory of Evolution) who came to the area and named the town after the giant of science he admired

Information Technology and Educational Management in the Knowledge Society is an essential reference for both academic and professional researchers in the field of information technology and educational management.

Since the mid-1980's, computer assisted educational information systems have been developing in various parts of the world and the knowledge surrounding the development and implementation of these systems has been growing. The papers presented in this volume are the result of an international call for papers addressing the challenges faced by the information technology and education management (ITEM) field in a society where knowledge management is becoming a major issue both in educational and business systems.

This state-of-the-art volume presents the proceedings of the 6th International Working Conference on Information Technology in Educational Management, held July 2004 in Spain.

The collection will be important not only for information technology and education management experts and researchers, but also for all teachers and administrators interested in this growing field.

This book contains selected papers presented at the seventh Conference on Working Group 3.7 of the International Federation for Information Processing. The focus of Working Group 3.7 is on ITEM: Information Technology in Educational Management. The overall goal of the conference was to demonstrate and explore directions for developing and improving all types of educational institutions through ITEM.

This book constitutes the refereed post-conference proceedings of the First IFIP WG 3.4 International Conference on Sustainable ICT, Education, and Learning, SUZA 2019, held in Zanzibar, Tanzania, in April 2019, in conjunction with the 15th IFIP WG 9.4 International Conference on Social Implications of Computers in Developing Countries. The 27 revised full papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 41 submissions. The papers cover topics such as peer and collaborative learning in informatics; pedagogical approaches to teaching specific informatics courses; workplace learning related to information systems; e-learning; ICTs for development; mobile solutions in learning in the North and South; lifelong learning; applications for disabled students; traversal skills and computational thinking; and teacher education in the global South.