The Covid-19 crisis across the world has increased the proportion of e-working. The transition from cubicles to the home office raised many questions in connection with companies adopting the new working conditions. Our paper provides recent evidence on the extent of this move, its impact on workplace evolution, productivity and the future prevalence of the face-to-display workplace after the easing of the lockdown. It uses data from 154 service employees of an Austrian sports and leisure product company obtained using online surveys on employees' opinions on e-working. By a coincidence, we conducted the first of them shortly prior to the epidemic. We decided to modify our planned research goals and decided to study their opinions during different Covid-19 stages. As a result, our findings do not follow all the academic standards. First, they are almost impossible to replicate due to the specific coincidence. Then, the shift in our aims leads us to minor changes in the content of the questionnaire. There are not only significant differences in the proportion of workers in the office and at home during the different periods of the lockdown. After its end, there was a significant increase in the number of those who had started working at home—more than one half. Compared to the period prior to the lockdown, they have a tolerant attitude to their work from home and believe that their productivity might remain the same. For many of them the change was an unavoidable obligation so they would prefer to return to the traditional workplace. The results suggest that more than one fifth want to continue working from home permanently, about one third more frequently than before, more than a quarter sometimes and just one seventh not at all. We studied the issues related to their productivity and its limits during all three stages. There are three important reasons for the fall in productivity related to e-working: (1) Providing childcare/home schooling, pet sitting and/or care for others while working (>one-fourth); (2) Work-from-home routine (>one-fourth); and (3) Having less work to do (>one-fifth).
New technologies with a modern method of teaching must be implemented in university studies, and an important part is teacher training study. These technologies make study more attractive for students and bring greater motivation to an understanding of notions. The main focus of this study is visualisation in science and engineering education using augmented reality in the context of biology education based on constructivist and constructionist concepts. We present in our contribution augmented reality technology as a part of using mobile technologies in biology education for future primary school teachers. The study is focused on perception of this method by future primary teachers who will teach biology as one of the areas of primary education and who were also the subjects of the research. We also mention two already existing biology-themed augmented reality applications, which appear to be interesting, enhancing and beneficial in the context of biology education. The findings of the study confirmed, using this method, that the students' understanding was deeper, their motivation was greater, and, last but not least, their creativity was strongly supported. The students were motivated by the new method, they cooperated very well and learning was constructive.
Abstract-Nowadays the current state of development of information and communication technology (ICT) connects individuals across time and space in one common environment that is accessible for anyone, creating the virtual world. To collaborate with somebody or to participate in a team activity does not require a physical presence anymore. Virtual settings allow real-time communication and cooperation across any distance at any time with negligible delay. ICT allows formation of virtual teams to accomplish various functions in work, education and private life. Compared to local teams of physically present individuals, the collaboration in virtual environments is more intensively influenced by external and internal impact factors and requires active motivation of the team members, extensive support by their team leader and appropriate technology. Among all the available ICT tools, not each ICT tool is equally suitable for each and every team activity. This paper aims to provide analysis of various ICT tools, to disclose their potential to contribute to team's quality communication and to reduce drawbacks caused by impersonal environment. Our aim is to optimize the composition of the ICT supporting infrastructure in order to form successful and effective collaboration.
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