Researchers have used ICT-based communications or the Internet as a natural extension of other communications tools. Apart from greatly enhancing the quantity, quality, and speed of communication among researchers, ICT use has also had various effects on the organization of research work.
Collaboration patterns have changed, the research work base has widened as more researchers can participate, and the hierarchies have sometimes been affected.
Introduction
Generally, while ICT helps improve access to information, it does not overcome disadvantages due to a lack of direct contact with top scholars in the field.
ICT use may thus lead more to a broadening of the resource base than to a change in the hierarchy of institutions. While ICT can be used to provide broad access to resources, it can also be used to limit access.
Netnews bulletin boards are generally open to many users and are used to announce new findings, discuss substantive issues, and receive answers to questions from unknown colleagues.
Focus 1
More field-specific distribution lists may be announced through direct contact with existing research ties, thus enabling a more specialized exchange of information.
Some fields seem to have more potential to benefit from technology than others. E-mail communication may also allow researchers who previously lacked the access necessary to keep up to date to become active participants and possibly core researchers.
So far, no significant correlation has been found between age or institutional prestige and ICT use as a predictor of productivity(Cohen,1995).
Focus 2
Rapid advances in ICT have made it possible to handle digital data and information in large volumes at ever-increasing speeds and have resulted in sharp reductions in the cost of storing, filtering, processing, compressing, and retrieving data for interpretation and retransmission.
ICT has increased researchers’ ability to access information by supplying them with increasingly powerful tools at decreasing cost, thus enabling new ways of working.
Researchers have frequently been the first to use ICT in a new or comprehensive way, as in the case of the Internet. On the whole, this has significantly improved the efficiency of information-based work.
Digital Resources for Researchers
In the past, traditional libraries held the keys to research and knowledge. Today,” digital libraries” store and manipulate large collections of material in electronic form.
The development of digital libraries is closely linked to that of network information systems, which increasingly allow access to resources when and where users desire them.
Prodigious quantities of general and sector-specific information are now available offline on CD-ROM and online, increasingly over the Internet.
With ICT, access to this information can already be obtained at a low incremental cost. As systems become more sophisticated, users will benefit from a growing capacity to navigate among information resources at low cost.
Databases
The value of scientific and technical databases to research organizations continues to increase.
Estimates suggest that both the amount of data they contain and their total number expand by about 10 per cent a year. Internet tools, in particular, have made information more readily available to a growing base of scientists and engineers, as database service providers have started moving to Web-based systems.
Web browsers such as Netscape are excellent database interfaces; their broad acceptance has extended the potential user base to their search community (R& D Magazine,1997).
Focus 1
Several factors help make data sets collected by scientific projects available to broad communities of users.
Since the tools used to collect, transmit, and analyze data generate or require digital signals, the data are already in digital form and are therefore easily communicated over digital networks in a timely way to researchers worldwide.
Furthermore, when researchers have public support for major research projects, they are encouraged to disseminate data widely to maintain that support.
Digital Library Initiatives
There are vast numbers of projects for developing digital libraries. They currently focus on issues of access costs and digitization technology. The key technological issue, however, is how and display desired selections from large collections on the Internet.
Research on digital libraries concentrates on how to develop the necessary infrastructure to manipulate effectively the massive amounts of internet information(Computer,1996),
Focus 1
Many traditional libraries which are not yet involved in large. scale digitization of publications is nevertheless increasing their holding of electronic documents.
These can be powerful tools for research and may reduce subscriptions to printed publications by enabling electronic access to other libraries’ holdings. A”free-rider” problem may arise, however, if all libraries follow this policy.
Access to unpublished student research stored at uni. universities are generally limited, thereby reducing the transfer of knowledge contained in unpublished scholarly work.
Focus 2
It is estimated that over 10 per cent of all research performed in hard science each year had already been done. Providing electronic access to this data source might improve scientists’ productivity by enabling them to focus on the appropriate issues.
The Digital Library Initiative(DLI) is the flagship research effort of the US National Information Infrastructure Initiative.
Focus 3
Ultimately, the digital library would involve an entire network of distributed repositories where objects of any type can be searched within and across indexed collections.
With its many partners and large testbeds, the DLI is structured to encourage technology transfer. Once the DLI has stimulated basic research in various enabling technologies and enabled several digital library testbeds.
It is expected that IT companies, traditional libraries, publishers, organizations, and users will join forces to develop the knowledge repositories that will play an essential role in all of society in the 21st century.
Education and Training of Researchers
ICT contributes directly to teaching, learning, and research and provides a support function to researchers by enabling access to digital libraries, archives, databases, and information services.
ICT can have positive effects on learning by opening up access to educational resources, supporting the learning process, and supporting skill development. However, this requires efficient planning, and learners, teachers, and institutions that are willing and able to adapt.
Focus 1
The enhanced use of ICT in teaching may also help to improve academic productivity, thus enabling researchers to spend more time on research.
Researchers may also need better education and training to use ICT efficiently for research work.
ICT opens up access to education by removing many of the temporal and spatial constraints to information and knowledge. Furthermore, the availability of learning materials based on ICT can greatly improve learning resources.
Focus 2
Computers support the learning process by helping to create a student-centred rather than a teacher-centred environment, one that is more flexible and adaptable to individual needs.
Working groups formed around the computer can also help prepare learners for a world in which many problems are addressed by teams. Nevertheless, this potential can only be realized with high-quality software and significant efforts by all those involved(OECD, 1997).
Efficient use of ICT allows students to develop the kinds of skills and competencies that many educational reform panels have viewed as essential (OECD,1997).
Conclusion
Basic skills such as arithmetic can be mastered with computer-aided drill and practice, while writing skills can be developed with word processing, which makes writing and revising easier.
A deeper understanding of complex scientific concepts in mathematics science- particularly where experiments are not feasible or are dangerous- can be gained through computer simulations.
Last but not least, the use of these technologies for learning may establish familiarity with technologies that are increasingly needed by individuals in a technology-driven society. Read more similar posts on our research page of the site.
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