Research

My research focus encompasses three areas, all of which center on my interest in emerging information technologies and their impact on enhancing creative innovation and improvement in quality of life. My most current work has been in the area of Service Oriented Architectures including Web services, the exchange of data and database systems and defining IT literacy in the 21st century with the goal of eliminating the IT literacy gap. The impetus for these research streams is my longstanding work in the area of healthcare information systems to improve the quality of care through electronic data exchange, automated workflow and the use of electronic patient record systems.

Hilights of Current Work
My premise is that the innovation and quality of life improvements information technology promises cannot be realized outside of an IT literate society. Therefore, the first questions I believe must be addressed are, what does it mean to be IT literate today and what strategies and pedagogical constructs are needed to improve IT understanding. To address the question of IT literacy, Dr. Jorge Pérez and I, working in collaboration, devised a model of IT literacy, constructed an IT literacy assessment instrument and developed and implemented an IT literacy undergraduate course. To address the need for additional instructional materials to promote IT understanding, Dr. Mario Guimaraes and I, working in collaboration, proposed and were awarded a National Science Foundation Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement (CCLI) Phase 2 grant to develop a set of software animations to support the teaching of database concepts. The courseware, referred to as ADbC (Animated Database Courseware), is an ongoing project -  but as components are developed, they are made freely available and may be accessed at http://adbc.kennesaw.edu

Scholarly Sharing
Publications in which my work has appeared include Communications of the AIS, Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce, Journal of Contemporary Business Issues, Journal of Information Systems Education, Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, and the Journal of Issues in Informing Science and Information Technology.

In addition, I have presented my research at numerous conferences including HIMSS (Health Information and Management Systems Society), HICSS (Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences), AMCIS (Americas Conference on Information Systems), IAIM (International Academy for Information Management), ELI (EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative), SIGCSE (AMC Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education), SAIS (Southern Association for Information Systems), GITMA (Global Information Technology Management Association), INFOSEC-CD (Information Security Curriculum Development Conference) and the Emerging Issues in Business and Technology Conference.