In this report we examine the NFC (Near Field Communication) technology as far as the development has come until today. We adress different use areas and explain the technical funcionality. By using data collection methods as a specialist interview and also a survery we want to detect potential risks and safety-issues in implementation of the new technology. Our main-focus in this report is to examine how NFC can play an important role in the developement of social interaction and social media. By compiling our data and research materials we will analyze and present a report conslusion.

Augmented reality is an interesting technology which has increased in popularity the last couple of years. Even though we see more and more of this technology the use of it doesn?t match up to its true potential. This paper aims to investigate the possibilities of this technology and illustrate how companies can use it in their business to reach out to customers in a new and exciting way. The study consists of three parts.

This thesis is about university spin-offs and the competition in high technology industries. In the light of efforts to increase the competitiveness of the European Union, an effective transfer of cutting edge technology from universities to the industry plays an important role. University spin-offs, start-ups founded to exploit academic inventions, are likely to face considerable market entry barriers. This is among other reasons due to high capital requirements for further technology development and lack of complementary resources. With a combination of relevant literature and empirical investigation, commercialisation of technologies within spin-offs is investigated and analysed.

This qualitative case study, made with four companies, looks closer at how more effective information management, with the help of IT-systems, affect companies market communication and relations to customers and suppliers. Customer Relationship Management perspective is used and Enterprise Resource Planning-systems are the ground for new technology change. The main conclusions are that new technology affects the outcome of companies? relationships towards their customers and suppliers and that the processes and activities between the involved parties are more closely linked. Also involving your suppliers and external actors makes the information handling more effective and companies that do so most likely have a competitive advantage..

Background: A company?s choice of capital structure is influenced by the access to internal and external capital but also by the opportunities and threats that the management perceives in the environment and the management?s attitude towards risk. How an individual perceives and interpret the environment depends on the cognitive structures, which are shaped by personality, background and earlier experiences. Accordingly cognitive structures can be expected to influence the choice of capital structure. Purpose: Out of a cognitive perspective we intend to study the relationship between the way a company views it?s environment and what capital structure it chooses to have, in order to contribute to an increased understanding about what lies behind a company?s capital structure policy.

The purpose of this study was to examine and compare what six preschool teachers thought about their opportunities to take advantage of children's interest in natural sciences and technology, across four kindergartens. The following questions were explored in order to achieve the aim of the study: How do the preschool teachers interviewed describe their work with science and technology in the preschool and what these preschool teachers think about the meaning of motivation in the children?s learning of natural sciences and technology in preschool.  The study used a qualitative approach in the form of semi-structured interviews and interviewed a total of six trained pre-school teachers from four kindergartens with different profiles. The first kindergarten focuses on mathematics, science and technology.

The objective of the study is to map the cognitive structure of Library and Information Science, using a quantitative, bibliometric method. This empirical study shows how co-citation analysis combined with word-frequency analysis can be used to describe the subject content of the field. The research questions to be answered are: -Which clusters of authors can be identified? -How can these clusters be described in respect of their subject content, if the descriptors associated with the authors in the clusters are counted? The results show that the cognitive structure of Library and Information Science can be described by 13 clusters of authors, where each cluster is representing a specific aspect of the subject- domain. For the description of the subject content of the clusters, descriptors DE of the LISA database have been used..

Information technology inflicts upon us in our everyday life. It is a natural part of our work and of our spare time. The education system is not excluded from this development, IT is becoming an important part of education at all levels. In university, learning platforms is one of these new ways of using IT in education. Learning platforms becomes a valuable tool for teachers and students.

This essay is a study of the use of IT technology by teachers of English and History at a Swedish upper secondary school. It is based on four interviews and four observations. In my analysis of these I have made use of the theory of Social Shaping of technology, a theory which puts emphasis on a teacher´s purpose regarding the use of IT technology in order to empower the teaching process. As a researcher I aim to explore the reasoning on the part of the teacher and to that end I use the method of interviews and observations. This study shows different ways of using IT technology varying from one teacher to another.

This study is about how to develop younger teens problem solving ability and their social competence. The study carried through by using a qualitative method, two observations and ten interviews. The observations where preparatory for the structured interviews. The respondents where pupils in a class were it is an ongoing project which purpose is to develop childrens problem solving ability and social skills with cognitive training and an empowerment based reasoning model that is called rahyab. Rahyab is a Persian word and it means path- finding.

This study is about how to develop younger teens problem solving ability and their social competence. The study carried through by using a qualitative method, two observations and ten interviews. The observations where preparatory for the structured interviews. The respondents where pupils in a class were it is an ongoing project which purpose is to develop childrens problem solving ability and social skills with cognitive training and an empowerment based reasoning model that is called rahyab. Rahyab is a Persian word and it means path- finding.

The Smart Grid technology has during the last decade been established as a way to create a greater flexibility on the electricity grid that will be needed as the development moves towards an increased share of renewable primary energy sources in the electricity production. One part of the Smart Grid technology is the ability to shift loads in time, to adapt to either price or emissions, known as Demand Response. This project, which was conducted at KTH in collaboration with the consulting corporation Capgemini, examines the economic, environmental and social aspects of the Demand Response technology. In the project, three household products are used in a model that derives the potential savings in costs and emissions of CO2e. The results show that the actual savings measured in SEK are small, but that the savings measured in percent can be as high as 20 percent. Reduction of CO2e emissions is slightly lower.

This study aims to examine the regard paid to the use of Assistive Technology (AT) when assessing the knowledge of Year 9 pupils with dyslexia in the subject Swedish. A starting point was to examine the knowledge of a group of teachers in the areas of dyslexia and AT. The issues then developed as to which AT a dyslexic pupil is allowed to use in an assessment situation and how the use of these tools affects the assessment. There was an examination of the guidelines that the teacher group can use as support when assessing the knowledge of dyslexic pupils on the basis of AT. The method used was qualitative semi-structured interviews.

Mitt övergripande syfte med denna studie är att ur ett livsvärldsperspektiv undersöka hur tre elever med läs- och skrivsvårigheter upplever användandet av IT - baserade lärverktyg.Studien vill även ta upp elevernas erfarenheter av att använda sig av IT -baserade lärverktyg i undervisningen som en del av deras lärande, ur dåtida, nutida och framtida perspektiv. Ansatsen livsvärldsfenomenologi har legat till grund för denna studie. Den ger tillträde till att undersöka och beskriva elevers levda erfarenheter. I livsvärldsfenomenologisk ansats får jag tillträde till personers livsvärldar. Som metod användes kvalitativ forskningsintervju. I studien visar sig detta genom att jag använde mig av en frågeguide. Mina frågor var få och mitt intresse för elevernas egna berättande var i fokus.

This thesis aimed to study the interaction between an educational technology system and its users and give suggestions for design improvements. The technology system is called EDIT (Educational Development through Information Technology) and has been developed and applied at Linköping University?s Faculty of Health Science. EDIT supports Problem Based Learning and enables scenarios to be presented through the World Wide Web. The study was divided into two parts.