This open access book presents a systematic investigation into internationally comparable data gathered in ICILS 2013. It identifies differences in female and male students’ use of, perceptions about, and proficiency in using computer technologies. Teachers’ use of computers, and their perceptions regarding the benefits of computer use in education, are also analyzed by gender. When computer technology was first introduced in schools, there was a prevailing belief that information and communication technologies were ‘boys’ toys’; boys were assumed to have more positive attitudes toward using computer technologies. As computer technologies have become more established throughout societies, gender gaps in students’ computer and information literacy appear to be closing, although studies into gender differences remain sparse. The IEA’s International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS) is designed to discover how well students are prepared for study, work, and life in the digital age. Despite popular beliefs, a critical finding of ICILS 2013 was that internationally girls tended to score more highly than boys, so why are girls still not entering technology-based careers to the same extent as boys? Readers will learn how male and female students differ in their computer literacy (both general and specialized) and use of computer technology, and how the perceptions held about those technologies vary by gender.

Rethinking Learning for a Digital Age addresses the complex and diverse experiences of learners in a world embedded with digital technologies. The text combines first-hand accounts from learners with extensive research and analysis, including a developmental model for effective e-learning, and a wide range of strategies that digitally-connected learners are using to fit learning into their lives. A companion to Rethinking Pedagogy for a Digital Age (2007), this book focuses on how learners’ experiences of learning are changing and raises important challenges to the educational status quo. Rethinking Learning for a Digital Age: moves beyond stereotypes of the "net generation" to explore the diversity of e-learning experiences today analyses learners' experiences holistically, across the many technologies and learning opportunities they encounter reveals digital-age learners as creative actors and networkers in their own right, who make strategic choices about their use of digital applications and learning approaches. Today’s learners are active participants in their learning experiences and are shaping their own educational environments. Professors, learning practitioners, researchers, and policy-makers will find Rethinking Learning for a Digital Age invaluable for understanding the learning experience, and shaping their own responses.

Information Technology: An Introduction for Today’s Digital World introduces undergraduate students to a wide variety of concepts they will encounter throughout their IT studies and careers. The book covers computer organization and hardware, Windows and Linux operating systems, system administration duties, scripting, computer networks, regular expressions, binary numbers, the Bash shell in Linux, DOS, managing processes and services, and computer security. It also gives students insight on IT-related careers, such as network and web administration, computer forensics, web development, and software engineering. Suitable for any introductory IT course, this classroom-tested text presents many of the topics recommended by the ACM Special Interest Group on IT Education (SIGITE). It offers a far more detailed examination of the computer than current computer literacy texts, focusing on concepts essential to all IT professionals—from operating systems and hardware to information security and computer ethics. The book highlights Windows/DOS and Linux with numerous examples of issuing commands and controlling the operating systems. It also provides details on hardware, programming, and computer networks. Ancillary Resources The book includes laboratory exercises and some of the figures from the text online. PowerPoint lecture slides, answers to exercises, and a test bank are also available for instructors.

Important Notice: The digital edition of this book is missing some of the images or content found in the physical edition. An introductory computer literacy text for nurses and other healthcare students, Introduction to Computers for Healthcare Professionals explains hardware, popular software programs, operating systems, and computer assisted communication. The Fifth Edition of this best-selling text has been revised and now includes content on on online storage, communication and online learning including info on PDA's, iPhones, IM, and other media formats, and another chapter on distance learning including video conferencing and streaming video.

This open access book presents the assessment framework for IEA’s International Computer an Information Literacy Study (ICILS) 2018, which is designed to assess how well students are prepared for study, work and life in a digital world. The study measures international differences in students’ computer and information literacy (CIL): their ability to use computers to investigate, create, participate and communicate at home, at school, in the workplace and in the community. Participating countries also have an option for their students to complete an assessment of computational thinking (CT). The ICILS assessment framework articulates the basic structure of the study, providing a description of the field and the constructs to be measured. This book outlines the design and content of the measurement instruments, sets down the rationale for those designs, and describes how measures generated by those instruments relate to the constructs. Hypothesized relations between constructs provide the foundation for some of the analyses that follow. Above all, the framework links ICILS to other similar research, enabling the contents of this assessment framework to combine theory and practice in an explication of both the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of ICILS.