TY - CONF T1 - Comperative analysis of broadband penetration and digital services in South East Europe T2 - The 19th IEEE Symposium on Computers and Communications (ISCC 2014), Madeira Island, Portugal Y1 - 2014 A1 - K Antonis A1 - Christos Bouras A1 - D Elia A1 - A. Di Vincenzo A1 - Georgios Diles A1 - Vasileios Kokkinos A1 - A. Koskeris AB -

Broadband is starting to be deemed by many as a public utility and several countries have already recognized it as
a civil right. The European Commission (EC) acknowledging the significance of broadband services for the improvement of citizen welfare and its economic benefits, has put in place targets for the diffusion of broadband to all citizens and businesses in the European Union. This paper, comparatively assesses the current state of affairs in broadband and digital public services in selected South East Europe countries in order to identify weaknesses and highlight strengths and to produce knowledge resources and provide insights that will support informed decision making including strategy and policy planning. It builds on three surveys that took place in the second quarter of 2013 and evidence gathered from seven South East Europe countries.

JF - The 19th IEEE Symposium on Computers and Communications (ISCC 2014), Madeira Island, Portugal ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Results and experience from the application of a common methodology for Users Requirements Specification in Distance Education using Telematics JF - Journal of Technology and Teacher Education -JTATE, AACE, Vol. 6, Issue 1 Y1 - 1998 A1 - Christos Bouras A1 - Paul Spirakis A1 - P Lampsas A1 - G Tsakarissianos A1 - J Garofalakis A1 - K Antonis A1 - N Kastis A1 - S Kontogiannis AB - The cooperation of the Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) and the Educational communities, is recognised as a necessity that must result in the adaptation and tuning of the education processes in terms of pedagogical methodologies, school infrastructure, human resources development and organisational restructuring, in order to efficiently absorb and utilize technological developments. The ICT community has to realize the significance of the users’ needs, the difficulties of the intervention to an old and traditional process. And the need to view their technology applications not only as a technical exercise. The initial phases of the TRENDS project, which are described in this paper, resulted in an agreed common methodology for carrying out the necessary investigation of the user needs in secondary education. This methodology, which was followed more or less in all participating countries, produced answers to questions concerning the role of the educators and their basic training, their familiarity with technology, education policies from a trans-European perspective, the content, forms and aims of further training, the distance training of teachers in the use of new technologies, the motives, incentives and organisational schemes for enhancing re-education, the needs of the educational environment and technology-based training, the needs of the educators in practical didactic methods, etc. ER - TY - CONF T1 - Conclusions on the Analysis of User Requirements concerning the use of ICT in the Didactic Process T2 - ED-MEDIA/ED-TELECOM 97, Calgary, Canada Y1 - 1997 A1 - Christos Bouras A1 - Paul Spirakis A1 - P Lampsas A1 - G Tsakarissianos A1 - J Garofalakis A1 - K Antonis A1 - N Kastis A1 - S Kontogiannis AB - The co-operation of the Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) and the Educational Society, is deemed necessary for the adaptation and tuning of the didactic process in terms of pedagogical methodologies, school infrastructure, human resources utilisation and organisational restructuring. The use of ICT in the classroom should be viewed as a highly influencing tool that will support the educators’ effort for interaction with their students, rather than as a technical exercise. The initial phases of the TRENDS project, which are described in this paper, resulted in a widely accepted common methodology, that complies with the international standards for determining the User Requirements in the Secondary Education. The major results emerged from this survey are presented here, as well as some common axes that deal with the application of ICT in the didactic process. JF - ED-MEDIA/ED-TELECOM 97, Calgary, Canada ER -