Is there wage premium to computer use in Sweden

This paper examines the wage premium to computer use in Sweden in the early 1990’s. I use simple regression model and interaction terms in my paper to examine the effect of computer use at work. Although the data is only one-year cross-section data, my results clearly show a wage premium to computer use in Sweden. There are also interesting findings in my paper by using Swedish data. From the results, I find wage premium to be related to intensity of computer use at work.

Personlighetstyper och upplevelse av ett nytt arbetsstöd : undersökning gjord på Trafikverkets Intranät och anställda

In order to get a better understanding of the interaction between employees and their technical work tools one needs to know what factors influence the interaction. The purpose of this study was to examine if there is a correlation between the personality traits Extraversion (E) and Neuroticism (N), tested with Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI), and experience of the new Intranet among employees at The Swedish National Transport Administration (SNTA), and also to gather information of employees’ opinions about the new Intranet. A survey, containing questions about the Intranet and a personality test (EPI), was posted on SNTA’s Intranet for eight workdays (N = 88, females = 53, males = 35). A Multiple Regression showed no significant correlations between personality traits (E/N) and experience of the new Intranet. Considering the study’s low Power (.34) one cannot draw any conclusions of the statistical tests. A majority of the participants did not think that the new Intranet is better than the old one, and thought it was difficult to find necessary information on the Intranet at first. However, they did not think this had a negative effect on the time it took to accomplish their work tasks. For upcoming studies more participants are required (preferable more than 200) and the survey should not only be available via computers in order to reach people who is not frequent users of computers.

Language and interaction in online asynchronous communication in university level English courses

Interaction involves people communicating and reacting to each other. This process is key to the study of discourse, but it is not easy to study systematically how interaction takes place in a specific communicative event, or how it is typically performed over a series of repeated communicative events. However, with a written record of the interaction, it becomes possible to study the process in some detail. This thesis investigates interaction through asynchronous written discussion forums in a computer-mediated learning environment. In particular, this study investigates pragmatic aspects of the communicative event which the asynchronous online discussions comprise. The first case study examines response patterns to messages by looking at the content of initial messages and responses, in order to determine the extent to which characteristics of the messages themselves or other situational factors affect the interaction. The second study examines in what ways participants use a range of discourse devices, including formulaic politeness, humour and supportive feedback as community building strategies in the interaction. The third study investigates the role of the subject line of messages in the interaction, for example by examining how participants choose different types of subject lines for different types of messages. The fourth study examines to what extent features serving a deictic function are drawn on in the interaction and then compares the findings to both oral conversation and formal academic discourse. The overall findings show a complex communicative situation shaped by the medium itself, type of activity, the academic discipline and topic of discussion and by the social and cultural aspects of tertiary education in an online learning environment. In addition, the findings may also provide evidence of learning.