how ict is helpful for general public
Answers
Explanation:
A survey was deployed to assess the ICT needs in an academic setting. The survey was developed using the Delphi methodology. Questionnaire development was initiated by asking key stakeholders involved in community outreach, academic, research, education, and support to provide feedback on current ICT issues and future recommendations for relevant ICT tools that would be beneficial to them in their job, and to capture current ICT issues. Participants were asked to rate the level of importance of each ICT question on five-point Likert scales.
Results
The survey was sent to 359 participants, including faculty, staff, and students. The total number of respondents was 96, for a 27 percent response rate. The majority of the participants (54.1 percent, n = 46) placed a high importance on learning the available research capabilities of the college. The majority of the participants placed moderate (43.5 percent, n = 37) to high importance (40 percent, n = 34) on having an intranet that could support collaborative grant writing. A majority of the participants attributed high importance to learning to interact with the online learning management system Blackboard. A majority of the participants agreed that social media should being more actively utilized for diverse activities for academic and research purposes.
Conclusion
The study helped to identify the current needs and challenges faced by professionals and students when interacting with ICT. More research is needed in order to effectively integrate the use of ICT in the field of higher education, especially related to the modern global public health context.
Background
Information and communication technology (ICT) has contributed immensely to social and economic improvements, such as higher employment and productivity, increasing access to a higher quality of life.1 ICT incorporates electronic technologies and techniques used to manage information and knowledge, including information-handling tools used to produce, store, process, distribute and exchange information.2 Benefits of ICT can be achieved directly, through improved healthcare provision and disease prevention, or indirectly, through improved social infrastructure, economic growth, or other broader determinants of population health. In the context of public health, ICT, if properly designed and implemented, can generate many positive outcomes: improved access for communities in rural or remote areas; support of healthcare professionals; real-time disease surveillance; data sharing; and data capture, storage, interpretation, and management.3
ICT can generate important contributions to public health, from education to surveillance. In the education and higher learning context, ICT enables healthcare professionals to be updated and trained on knowledge advances wherever are located.4 The US National Higher Education ICT Initiative (2003) defines ICT knowledge as “the ability to use digital technology, communication tools, and/or networks appropriately to solve information problems in order to function in an information society. This includes the ability to use technology as a tool to research, organize, evaluate, and communicate information and the possession of a fundamental understanding of the ethical/legal issues surrounding the access and use of information.”5 ICT tools are also indispensable to healthcare professionals and researchers because of the current volume and complexity of information available from different sources (peer-reviewed journals, the Internet, mainstream media).6 In 2003, a study reported that 55 new clinical trials were performed per day, 1,260 articles were indexed in MEDLINE per day, and 5,000 papers were published in the health field per day.7 Information management tools are thus necessary for these professionals to navigate through the vast amounts of data and information available.
According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), ICT “can contribute to achieving universal education worldwide, through the delivery of education and training of teachers, improved professional skills, better conditions for lifelong learning, and the potential to reach people that are outside the formal education process.”8 In the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, ICT is highlighted as the means to reach the underserved, to listen and learn from their experience.9 Online education is essential for students whose physical presence in class is impeded because of work or family responsibilities, geographical limitations, health issues, or other constraints.10 Although face-to-face interaction in a classroom setting seems to be preferred among education professionals, the numbers of online universities and online courses offered by on-campus universities have risen in the past 10 years. In order to develop successful online programs, however, it is necessary to understand what the specific ICT needs of an institution
The purpose of this study is to examine the role of information and communication technology (ICT) in enhancing community outreach, academic and research collaboration, and education and support services (IT-CARES) in an academic setting.