CQUniversity Australia - SIG: People, Education, Technology and Organisations (PETO)

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SIG: People, Education, Technology and Organisations (PETO)

Purpose

The main objective of this SIG is to investigate and analyse the relationships among people, education, technology and organisations.

As both technologies and organisations undergo dramatic changes in form and function it is desirable to examine the roles and influences of technologies in organisations. Technologies can constrain people and organisations as well as enable them. For example, a computer is a powerful tool that can be used to assist people complete their work or study but, it forces people to act in certain ways and it may prevent people from doing certain activities that they want to do in the manner that they would like to do them. This is one reason why the use of technologies to support work and study practices is more complex than managers and technology vendors would have us believe. As something that both constrains and enables people, technologies are important actors in the power struggles among different groups in society.

This SIG focuses on people and processes as there is belief that a shared understanding leads to a commitment to action.

This SIG adopts a socio-technical focus, with strong theoretical foundations, to investigate how people, education, technology and organisations interact. This SIG will be of interest to researchers who wish to examine how people interact with technologies in their work and study practices.

Strategic Deliverables

Owing to the pervasive presence of technologies in modern society the research generated from this SIG will align with all seven goals of CQUniversity's Strategic Plan 2011-2014: engaged learning and teaching; engaged research and innovation; community engagement; international engagement; student access, participation and success; people and performance; and resources, systems and infrastructure (http://policy.cqu.edu.au/Policy/policy_file.do?policyid=1663). It is imperative that we understand the role of technologies in our work and study practices given that technologies are capable of enabling or disenabling the university's goals.

Members

PETO is a new SIG created in May 2011. Three SIGs have been amalgamated to this new encompassing SIG (I.E. People, Technology and Organisations, Blended and Online Learning, and Group SolutionS). A Steering Committee will be formed shortly.

Additional Detail

Projects currently undertaken as part of this SIG include:

Australian Undergraduate Students and Information Technology.

Course design and delivery implications of university students' perceptions of the usefulness of information and communication technologies for learning.

ISL 2.0

Use and perceptions of information and communication technologies by the Central Queensland population.

Facilities

A unique facility providing a dedicated meeting room complete with technology that supports collaborative group work and the collection of qualitative data from focus groups is located in Building 19 room G.10. There are also two fully portable kits for conducting meetings/focus groups at remote locations. Together these facilities support:

A "round table" format, with a cluster of monitors facing outwards to provide a common display but ensuring that face-to-face interaction is maintained.

A fully portable kit that can be deployed at a client's chosen location.

Steering Committee

A Steering Committee will be initiated after the proposed new SIG has been formerly approved.