This paper discusses emerging findings from 12 focus group interviews of parents who are currently using kindergarten as the main early childhood education provider for their child/children. These interviews are from a larger national study looking at current kindergarten culture within the early childhood sector of this century. Parents were asked what they liked about kindergarten and what, i...

What will be required of the IS professional for the rest of I-he 1f)()()s? T« address this question, a committee of ucadcmicians and practitioners was organized by the executive hoard of the Boston chapter of the Society for luforrnution Management to examine the key issues concerning the changing needs of the IS profession. The committee conducted a two-year research project that included in-...

Driving-related injuries associated with elderly drivers are on the rise although the overall rate of driving-related injuries has decreased. To determine the causes of this trend, this chapter introduces the characteristics of the elderly’s aging health conditions and driving behaviours, and also explains existing vehicle systems that use different safety technologies to promote safe driving. ...

This mixed methods study examined 73 5th graders’ flow experience in a game-based science learning environment using two gameplay approaches (solo and collaborative gameplay). Both survey and focus group interview findings revealed that students had high flow experience; however, there were no flow experience differences that were contingent upon gameplay approaches. Results identified four gam...

This contribution describes a series of design sketches for a playful digital application designed to trigger reminiscence in older adults. The goal of the intervention is to be a preventive measure against cognitive disabilities such as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Research shows that reminiscence and cognitive activities are beneficial in this area. The presented sketches have been devel...

In this qualitative study, undergraduate computing students from two mid-sized southeastern universities participated in focus groups to explore their (1) developing professional identities, (2) salient stressors within their computing education programs, and (3) coping strategies used to navigate these stressors. Students provided contextual evidence to support the formation of professional id...

Learning objects (LOs) are important information resources that support traditional learning methods. To evaluate the impact, effectiveness, and usefulness of learning objects it is necessary a theoretically, reliable, and valid evaluation tool. This paper presents a metric to compare the design of LOs, it uses the information provided by visual fixations measured from a small focus group. We c...

While there has been a tremendous increase in the number of firms engaging in IS offshoring efforts, many firms have been unsuccessful in realizing the intended benefits from offshoring. Most firms acknowledge the potential gains from offshoring, but lack the key capabilities for effective IS offshoring. Building on the dynamic capabilities perspective, and drawing upon extant research in strat...

What are focus groups? How are tbey distinct from ordinary group discussions and wbat use are tbey anyway? Tbis article introduces focus group metbodology, explores ways of conducting sucb groups and examines wbat tbis tecbnique of data collection can offer researcbers in general and medical sociologists in particular. It concentrates on tbe one feature wbicb inevitably distinguisbes focus grou...

Based on literature review and five focus groups, a model was analyzed describing individual, social environmental and physical environmental (perceived) determinants of walking by older people. Aim was to test whether these determinants were significantly associated with the duration of walking by older people (N = 567, 50 80 years) in a middle-sized Dutch town. Walking time was best predicted...