Search Our Essay Database

Essay Instructions: Request for Celeste! No other writers take.

Context of the problem
The first thing that one notices is that most of the finance and funds donated by the state governments, parent and/or other agencies, have been invested in the purchase of computers and other technologies within the field of education and hence has increased the use and dependence on Internet over the past ten years as well in the United States alone. A rough estimate of student accessibility to computers is that nearly 95% of the public schools utilize computers, although this figure also includes public school where computers are used solely for administrative purposes as well. However, another report showed that 75% of the total public schools in the U.S. have a computer setup for utilization as a medium of instruction. An alternative way that student accessibility to computers can be calculated is by calculating the total amount of students that are using the instructional computers setup in a classroom. Many researchers have conducted numerous studies on this and concluded that the number of student accessibility calculated like this has progressively and considerably increased over the past decade (Coffman, 2007).
According to Castells (2001) a realistically efficient and practical way for the efficient utilization of technology within schools has to allow a maximum of 4 to 5 student per computer and this target has yet to be achieved. Other researchers also concluded that the level of poverty in schools had no effect on the percentage of access that the students had to the computers.
Another important statistic developed over the last decade is that the accessibility to and the use of Internet has seen a steady and steep rise amongst the school-going students. In fact, research showed that at least in 95% of the schools a minimum of one computer had Internet access. To verify this figure, it is important that the examiners also study the number of schools that allow an instructional computer with Internet access within a classroom. Of course, there has been a high rise in this particular number as well and by the end of last millennium almost two-thirds of all classrooms in public schools had an instructional computer with Internet access. The percentage of all classrooms has also increased from 63% to 90% when one includes the additional accessibility of 28% to 30% that the students have outside of the instructional classrooms i.e. in computer labs (Appelman, 2005).
Jonassen (2004) asserts that the problem with the rise in accessibility of the Internet has practically been ineffective to decrease the unequal distribution percentage of students within classrooms. The level of accessibility to classrooms and school criteria in the extremely poor school districts and well-off school districts has improved significantly with time but the difference in the general percentage of allocation is still very obvious. The fact of the matter is that the difference in the level of accessibility to the Internet access is steadily and steeply increasing between the extremely poor school districts and those that are well-off. The difference was shown in one of the reports where the well-off districts had a total of 7 students for every instructional computer while the extremely poor school districts had a whopping of 16 students for every instructional computer (Jonassen, 2004).
All of these findings and conclusions have shown that while the use of technology and student access has steadily increased over the last ten years, the digital divide still exists. The credit for most of the advancements made in the instalments of technology in the educational sphere goes to the attention that the federal government has given to the topic through the expansion and employment of numerous financial aid agendas and technology literacy challenge funding. The efforts of the federal government have been thoroughly and extensively backed up by fiscal funds given by the numerous states, districts, businesses, and parents. However, the social and financial status of the districts determines the level of accessibility that the students are allowed to both computers and the Internet (Jonassen, 2004).
The focus of most studies has been on how and where the students are given access to the Internet, yet there are very few studies that have actually focused on what the Internet is used for by the students once they gain access to it. A survey concluded that more than 50% of the students in the U.S. were using both the computers as well as the Internet facilities more than a few times on a weekly basis. The amazing statistic in this report was that there was minimal difference between the students going to poor school districts and those going to well-off school districts. Again, this report only shows that a large amount of the students in the U.S. use the Internet yet this report too does not focus on what they use it for (Castells, 2001).
One of the main concerns in this technology-driven world is that most of the teachers do not use technology available to enhance the educational domain of the students; in fact, they do not know how to use technology for that purpose. In one study researchers explained that mainly the use of computers within the classroom setting still reflected the conventional mediums and standards of education which basically means that the students use the computer to enhance their skills of office tools, use the dictionaries available on the computer or mainly familiarize themselves with the general functions of the technology (Castells, 2001).
Jonassen (2004) asserts that this particular way of utilizing the computer, even though, does allow students to expand their computational abilities but are more or less useless when considering how much they actually help in the development of their learning curves. Another important fact is that the social and financial standing of the school also determines the way in which Internet is mostly used by the students. For example, the students studying in a poor school district are more likely to use the Internet for more constructive and sophisticated educational purposes like constructing slides for presentations, etc. Whereas, in contrast, the students that are studying in well-off school districts are more likely to use technology for the mastering skills they have just been taught and discovering to study without-help (Jonassen, 2004).
Effectiveness of digital technology
The most common instructional setting that is used in schools and that is technologically-oriented is the computer-based instruction (CBI). The CBI has now been effectively used for almost 35 years in school districts. The computer-aided instruction (CAI) is perhaps the most popular CBI used in schools. The CAI usually presents the student with short reading materials and then asks them relevant questions that will help it understand how much the student has been able to comprehend the piece of writing. Most of the time the answers are in the multiple-choice or true or false format so that it is easy for the computer to assess the answers and present an accurate evaluation of the student’s understanding as well as give suggestions on how to design a more challenging and suitable test in the future (Jonassen, 2004).
Over the past 15-20 years one can see numerous statistical studies that have focused on the use and effects of the CBI in a school setting. Kulik (1994), in his work took on the task of condensing the results of 97 separate quantitative surveys that were conducted in different lower, secondary and higher schools. All of these studies concentrated on the effect on the academics and achievements of the students who studied under the CBI mode and compared them to the effect on the academics and achievements of the students who did not study under the CBI mode. His conclusion was that those who studied under the CBI mode developed more quickly and were more efficient as well as attained higher academic scores then those who studied in the conventional format of education.
Kulik, in his study, also included another angle when assessing the effect of the CBI mode. He identified the varying sample sizes that were used in the studies that assessed the effects of the CBI mode. The effect of the CAI applications like that of “tutoring” tactics and “drill-and-practice” tactics amongst others showed extremely high percentage rates. Kulik and Kulik (1991) in one of their prior studies also concluded the CAI programs were more useful to the students who went to the poorer school districts as opposed to the ones who went the school districts that were well-off.
Kulik (1994) analyzed numerous other statistical surveys that were carried out on other technologies that were used in a school setting to have a comparison scale on the efficiencies of the use of computers. He concluded that the tutoring done through the use of computers was far more effective when it was teamed up with “mastery learning”, “classes for gifted” and “peer and cross-age tutoring”. The combination of computer tutoring and “accelerated learning” had by far the most significant effect of all. Jonassen (2004) asserts that all the technological advancements that are still being made in this domain however can render some of the conclusion of Kulik insufficient. Hence it is safe to conclude that the comparative and associative benefits of the CAI are only bound to increase in the future.
Jonassen (2004) confirmed the conclusions made by Kulik and asserted that there has been evidence presented in other studies that suggest that technology has it benefits outside the realm of education as well. Studies have concluded that the effective and successful use of technology helps in developing the student’s incentive to work, enthusiasm, class ethics as well as self-confidence and personal worth in both a social and business environment (e.g., attendance and time-on-task). Other researches have also highlighted the positive changes that can occur within a classroom ambience with the employment and use of technologies (Jonassen, 2004).
To sum it up, there is theoretical and practical evidence available in numerous researches that suggest that the use of technology as a medium of instruction in educational settings has, more or less, progressed constructively and is going to continue to do so provided it is given the right attention. The CBI and CAI programs when employed appropriately have shown reliable signs for constructive growth of fundamental abilities especially for students who are studying in poorer school districts. The CBI has also shown vastly obvious and lucrative outcomes in numerous other education-related fields like associative or collaborative activities, tutoring, designing and constructing projects. In some cases, the use of CBI has also resulted in expanding the students’ superior or intricate thought processes, increase incentives, make them more enthusiastic, help in the development of social ethics, and make them more innovative and adaptive to the situations amongst many other things (Jonassen, 2004).
In spite of the criticisms and conclusions made in different research studies, the use of technology, computers and Internet as a medium of instruction will grow to become extensive within the U.S. schools. To achieve this however, the use of technology and the attentions given to this sector will need to be consistent and experimental from both the federal and state organizations as well as other service providers and efforts will have to be made so that the students going to different socioeconomic schools will not face drastically different access or facilities. Nonetheless, the most discouraging factor is how the technology is currently being used in schools, particularly in the poorer African American districts. It is a known fact that there are a handful of teachers who can actually employ technology in a way that will be educationally beneficial. This basically means that these teachers will be highly in demand in numerous schools districts and will get employment in well-off school districts as their personal financial and peripheral demands will most likely be met there; leaving the AA districts at the hands of lowly skilled teachers.
Statement of the Problem
In the 1990s the term digital divide had been conceived primarily to describe the gap between people who had access to digital and information technology and for those who did not have access or had limited access to digital resources (Wikipedia, 2007). This study will attempt to identify if the digital divide can be attributed to race or socioeconomic issues. All students should have adequate access to the Internet as well as any other information technology tools that 67% of their White counterparts have access to. One major disadvantage of students not having access to these resources is for educational purposes as well as employment opportunities.
Research Questions
The aim of this study is to investigate the effects that the digital divide has on student’s access to digital resources and educational opportunities in today’s society. The general purpose of this study is captured in the overarching research questions:
1. What effects does the digital divide have on access to technology resources and educational opportunities over the last decade?
2. What effects do lack of access to digital resources?
3. What programs are available to help improve access to digital resources?
Significance of the study
The significance of this study is that there is a digital divide for many African American students. Access to digital resources is paramount to the growth of the African American community. This community itself is key to helping their students graduate from high school prepared for college. The educational community can benefit from this study as well, form a better understanding of the needs of AA students to assist in providing access to these digital resources. Students are one of the largest users of the Internet today. Since students are as ethnically diverse as the information on the Internet, access to its digital resources for all students should be examined to try to remove all racial and socioeconomic barriers. The educational community can guide the AA community regarding the importance of technology and access to digital resources for their students.
It is important to note that several research studies related to access to digital resources have been carried out. Similarly, research studies on the effectiveness of current programs aimed at closing these gaps have also been published. However, no research has focused on evaluating the effects that the digital divide has on AA student’s access to digital resources and educational opportunities. This study aims to fill this gap by exploring the effects that the digital divide has on student’s access to digital resources and educational opportunities in today’s society.
Moreover, this study offers several theoretical contributions as well. Common systematic and functional issues have become increasingly vital as schools move from comparatively simple teaching methods, to complicated multi-channel communication and teaching models. In addition, the collective forces of demography, technology, control, as well as, globalization have been pushing educational organizations, all over the world, to change their systems so as to keep pace with the ever changing world (Bartley and Golek, 2004). In this context, exploring the effects that the digital divide has on student’s access to digital resources has been a neglected topic. This study will shed light on this vital subject.
Lastly, an examination of the use of technology in education is quite significant. More specifically, many problems appear in the application of technology in educational activities especially within classrooms while the response of governments worldwide is too slow and limited. On the other hand, it seems that the participants in the educational arena especially teachers do not have the required competency and willingness to use technology for the improvement of students’ performance. Perhaps teachers are under the assumption that the intervention of technology within the classroom will do little to improve student participation in educational activities, which as some studies point out, is a wrong assumption to make. For these reasons, this study is important to teachers and students.

There are faxes for this order.

Essay Instructions: Attached is the assignment Task 1. Kindly do the following:

1. READ THE ASSESSMENT CRITERIA given below and try to answer the questions to meet the assessment criteria

2. Use practical examples and suggest clear recommendation inclined to meet the Assessment criteria

3. Also refer back to the case and the situation in the case

4. Proof read there should be no spelling mistakes

6 Follow the FORMAT which is very important. (Times New Roman 12)

7 Do not make a question answer issue - rather make it a report with heading of the question (eg. the report starts with an introduction or Executive summary then TOC - use word indexing - then body of the report do not cut paste any questions

8 The most important point _ DO NOT CUT PASTE anything from internet - PLAGIARISM

9. Have a conclusion and recommendations - Don't forget your body referencing and your end Bibliography. - USE HRS system of referencing


Learning Outcome 1

Understand the Value of an E-Strategy in Organizations

Assessment Criteria (AC) to Test Outcomes

AC1.1 - Explain the Benefits of Having an E-Strategy in Organizations
AC1.2 - Evaluate the Contribution of an E-Strategy to the Achievement of an Organization?s Objectives.

AC1.3 - Discuss How to Align an E-Strategy with an Overarching Organizational Strategy.

Tasks

Task 1 (1.1)

Task 1 (1.2)

Task 1 (1.3)

Learning Outcome 2

Be able to develop an e-strategy for an organization

Assessment Criteria (AC) to Test Outcomes

AC2.1 - Analyze the business factors that underpin the requirement for an e-strategy in an organization.
AC2.2 - Discuss the benefits of e-commerce to an organization.
AC2.3 - Develop a plan for an e-strategy that ensures an organization retains its competitive advantage in a global market
AC2.4 - Specify the technical infrastructure required in an e-strategy plan for an organization.

Tasks

Task 1 (1.4)
Task 1 (1.5)
Task 1 (1.6)
Task 1 (1.7)

Required Task 1: Leading E-strategy

Assessment and Grading:

This assessment is based on achievements in learning outcomes. In order to pass, all criteria identified in the assignment with reference to learning outcomes of the module must be met.
Word Count/Limit:
3,500 words (+/- 10%)

Please study the following case Study on Amazon available at http://www.smartinsights.com/digital-marketing-strategy/online-business-revenue-models/amazon-case-study/ or amazon.com and complete the following tasks

Amazon Vision & Strategy

?Relentlessly focus on customer experience by offering our customers low prices, convenience, and a wide selection of merchandise.? The vision is still to offer ?Earth?s biggest selection and to be Earth?s most customer-centric company. Consider how these core marketing messages summarising the Amazon online value proposition are communicated both on-site and through offline communications. Of course, achieving customer loyalty and repeat purchases has been key to Amazon?s success. Many dot-coms failed because they succeeded in achieving awareness, but not loyalty. Amazon achieved both. In their SEC filing they stress how they seek to achieve this. They say:?We work to earn repeat purchases by providing easy-to-use functionality, fast and reliable fulfillment, timely customer service, feature rich content, and a trusted transaction environment.
A good summary of the latest business model initiatives is available in this Amazon annual report summary for 2011. For Q4, 2010:
? North America segment sales, representing the Company?s U.S. and Canadian sites, were $7.21 billion, up 45% from fourth quarter 2009.
? International segment sales, representing the Company?s U.K., German, Japanese, French, Chinese and new Italian sites, were $5.74 billion, up 26% from fourth quarter 2009. Excluding the unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, sales grew 29%.
Amazon performs exceptionally efficiently measured against revenue per visitor, which is one of the key measures for any commercial website, whether it?s a media site, search engine, social network or a transactional retailer or offers travel or financial services. Of course profit per user would be quite different due to the significantly lower costs of other .coms like Facebook and Google. Key features of our websites include editorial and customer reviews; manufacturer product information; Web pages tailored to individual preferences, such as recommendations and notifications; 1-Click? technology; secure payment systems; image uploads; searching on our websites as well as the Internet; browsing; and the ability to view selected interior pages and citations, and search the entire contents of many of the books we offer with our ?Look Inside the Book? and ?Search Inside the Book? features. Our community of online customers also creates feature-rich content, including product reviews, online recommendation lists, wish lists, buying guides, and wedding and baby registries.?In practice, as is the practice for many online retailers, the lowest prices are for the most popular products, with less popular products commanding higher prices and a greater margin for Amazon.
Free shipping offers are used to encourage increase in basket size since customers have to spend over a certain amount to receive free shipping. The level at which free-shipping is set is critical to profitability and Amazon has changed it as competition has changed and for promotional reasons. Amazon communicate the fulfillment promise in several ways including presentation of latest inventory availability information, delivery date estimates, and options for expedited delivery, as well as delivery shipment notifications and update facilities.
This focus on customer has translated to excellence in service with the 2004 American Customer Satisfaction Index giving Amazon.com a score of 88 which was at the time, the highest customer satisfaction score ever recorded in any service industry, online or offline. Round (2004) notes that Amazon focuses on customer satisfaction metrics. Each site is closely monitored with standard service availability monitoring (for example, using Keynote or Mercury Interactive) site availability and download speed. Interestingly it also monitors per minute site revenue upper/lower bounds ? Round describes an alarm system rather like a power plant where if revenue on a site falls below $10,000 per minute, alarms go off! There are also internal performance service-level-agreements for web services where T% of the time, different pages must return in X seconds.


Visions and importance of technology
According to founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, technology is very important to supporting this focus on the customer. In their 2010 Annual Report (Amazon, 2011) he said:
?Look inside a current textbook on software architecture, and you?ll find few patterns that we don?t apply at Amazon. We use high-performance transactions systems, complex rendering and object caching, workflow and queuing systems, business intelligence and data analytics, machine learning and pattern recognition, neural networks and probabilistic decision making, and a wide variety of other techniques. And while many of our systems are based on the latest in computer science research, this often hasn?t been sufficient: our architects and engineers have had to advance research in directions that no academic had yet taken. Many of the problems we face have no textbook solutions, and so we ? happily ? invent new approaches?? All the effort we put into technology might not matter that much if we kept technology off to the side in some sort of R&D department, but we don?t take that approach. Technology infuses all of our teams, all of our processes, our decision-making, and our approach to innovation in each of our businesses. It is deeply integrated into everything we do?.
The quote shows how applying new technologies is used to give Amazon a competitive edge. A good recent example of this is providing the infrastructure to deliver the Kindle ?Whispersync? update to ebook readers. Amazon reported in 2011 that Amazon.com is now selling more Kindle books than paperback books. For every 100 paperback books Amazon has sold, the Company sold 115 Kindle books. Kindle apps are now available on Apple iOS, Android devices and on PCs as part of a ?Buy Once, Read Anywhere? proposition which Amazon has developed.
Amazon Customers
Amazon defines what it refers to as three consumer sets customers, seller customers and developer customers. There are over 76 million customer accounts, but just 1.3 million active seller customers in it?s marketplaces and Amazon is seeking to increase this. Amazon is unusual for a retailer in that it identifies ?developer customers? who use its Amazon Web Services, which provides access to technology infrastructure such as hosting that developers can use to develop their own web services.
Members are also encouraged to join a loyalty programme, Amazon Prime, a fee-based membership program in which members receive free or discounted express shipping, in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan.
Competitions
In its SEC (2005) filing Amazon describes the environment for our products and services as ?intensely competitive?. It views its main current and potential competitors as:
1) physical-world retailers, catalog retailers, publishers, vendors, distributors and manufacturers of our products, many of which possess significant brand awareness, sales volume, and customer bases, and some of which currently sell, or may sell, products or services through the Internet, mail order, or direct marketing;
(2) Other online E-commerce sites;
(3) A number of indirect competitors, including media companies, Web portals, comparison shopping websites, and Web search engines, either directly or in collaboration with other retailers; and
(4) Companies that provide e-commerce services, including website development; third-party fulfillment and customer-service.
It believes the main competitive factors in its market segments include ?selection, price, availability, convenience, information, discovery, brand recognition, personalized services, accessibility, customer service, reliability, speed of fulfillment, ease of use, and ability to adapt to changing conditions, as well as our customers? overall experience and trust in transactions with us and facilitated by us on behalf of third-party sellers?.
For services offered to business and individual sellers, additional competitive factors include the quality of our services and tools, their ability to generate sales for third parties we serve, and the speed of performance for our services

From Actions to Marketplaces
Amazon auctions (known as zShops) were launched in March 1999, in large part as a response to the success of eBay. They were promoted heavily from the home page, category pages and individual product pages. Despite this, a year after its launch it had only achieved a 3.2% share of the online auction compared to 58% for eBay and it only declined from this point. Today, competitive prices of products are available through third-party sellers in the ?Amazon Marketplace? which are integrated within the standard product listings. The strategy to offer such an auction facility was initially driven by the need to compete with eBay, but now the strategy has been adjusted such that Amazon describe it as part of the approach of low-pricing.
Although it might be thought that Amazon would lose out on enabling its merchants to sell products at lower prices, in fact Amazon makes greater margin on these sales since merchants are charged a commission on each sale and it is the merchant who bears the cost of storing inventory and fulfilling the product to customers. As with eBay, Amazon is just facilitating the exchange of bits and bytes between buyers and sellers without the need to distribute physical products.

Amazon Media Sales

You may have noticed that unlike some retailers, Amazon displays relevant Google text ads and banner ads from brands. This seems in conflict with the strategy of focus on experience since it leads to a more cluttered store. However in 2011 Amazon revealed that worldwide media sales accounted for approximately 17% of revenue!

Amazon Marketing

Amazon does not reveal much about its marketing approach in its annual reports, but there seems to be a focus on online marketing channels. Amazon (2011) states ?we direct customers to our websites primarily through a number of targeted online marketing channels, such as our Associates program, sponsored search, portal advertising, email marketing campaigns, and other initiatives?. These other initiatives may include outdoor and TV advertising, but they are not mentioned specifically. In this statement they also highlight the importance of customer loyalty tools. They say: ?while costs associated with free shipping are not included in marketing expense, we view free shipping offers and Amazon Prime as effective worldwide marketing tools, and intend to continue offering them indefinitely?.
Questions to be addressed in completing the Assignment tasks: 1

1.1 Explain the benefits of having an e-Strategy in organisation like Amazon? Critically evaluate using examples with particular emphasis on meeting strategic business objectives of Amazon? (Criteria 1.1)

1.2 From the information given in the case study evaluate contributions of an e-Strategy to the Achievement of Amazon?s objectives, analyse all the aspects in detailed manner?
(Criteria 1.2)

1.3 Critically analyse how the Amazon?s e-strategy is aligned with over overarching organisational strategy justify your statements with examples (Criteria 1.3)

1.4 Critically analyze the business factors that underpin the requirement for an e-strategy in the context of Amazon? (Criteria 2 .1)

1.5 Discuss the benefits of e-commerce to Amazon? As an e-commerce consultant proactively advise what are the future value additions (Criteria 2 .2)

1.6 Assume that you are heading the e-strategy initiatives at Amazon. Develop a plan for Amazon?s e-strategy to retain its competitive advantages in the global market place ? justify with relevant example (Criteria 2 .3)

1.7 Identify and conclude the technical infrastructure required for the strategy plan developed by you in task 1.6
(Criteria 2 .4)

Essay Instructions: ‘Owners and managers of tourism destinations and attractions should continually strive to attract new visitors and retain existing ones through product innovation.’ Discuss the importance of technology for the tourism industry, and examine how successful certain forms of technology have been.

At least 8 sources or more must be from academic texts or academic journals only.
some of reference should from Australia

Essay Instructions: In a FMCG company (fast moving consumer goods, e.g. Kraft) assess both:
a) The potential for technology-enabled innovation in products/services and processes, and
b) The effectiveness of internal processes associated with innovation management
The first part should identify where innovation is most important to your organisation and whether technology is important or not. Remember to provide and evaluate evidence for your conclusion about the importance of technology-enabled innovation. The second part asks you to assess the effectiveness of the organisation?s innovation management processes. You will need to apply relevant frameworks from the literature on innovation and may want to use a diagnostic tool such as that in Tidd & Bessant (2009) pp601-604 and on www.managing-innovation.com.

The essay should be clearly structured, and include:
? An executive summary
? An outline of relevant concepts (e.g. theories, frameworks and/or models)
? Application of selected concepts, models etc. as the basis for diagnosis and analysis
? Critical evaluation and reflection on the concepts in the light of their application in the specific company
? Conclusions and recommendations for the organisation - which should take into account the financial and other resources required and their practical feasibility.
? A table of contents
? A References section