ABSTRACT:
The
service sector has an important role in the economic development of various
countries. Almost all the developed countries and a majority of developing
countries emerged as service economies. The reasons for growth in service
sector may be economical, political, demographical and social. Economic reasons
include the fast growth in world market due to globalization of business by
many countries of the world. Globalizing the business activity has created
greater demand for services such as communication, transport and information
services. Recent explosion in information Technology has the major contribution
for the growth of these services. Innumerable electronic systems have appeared
in information field contributed services to customers and delighting them. The
demand for vital services have given scope for increased operations and
research in service marketing.
SERVICES – AN OVERVIEW - A
Service is any act or performance that one party can offer to another that is
essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything. Its
production may or may not be tied to a physical market.
CLASSIFICATION OF
SERVICES:
•
USINESS FUNCTIONS
•
CONSULTING, CUSTOMER SERVICE, HUMAN
RESOURCE ADMINISTRATORS
•
CLEANING, RAPAIR AND MAINTENANCE
SERVICES
•
JANITORS, GARDENERS, MECHANICS
•
CONSTRUCTION
•
CARPENTRY, ELECTRICIANS, PLUMBING
•
DEATH
CARE -
•
CORONERS, FUNERAL HOMES
•
DISPUTE
RESOLUTION AND PREVENTION SERVICES
•
ARBITRATION, COURTS OF LAW, DIPLOMACY, INCARCERATION,
LAW
ENFORCEMENT, LAWYERS, MEDIATION, MILITARY, NEGOTIATION
•
EDUCATION
•
LIBRARY, MUSEUM, SCHOOL
•
ENTERTAINMENT
•
GAMBLING, MOVIE THEATRES, PERFORMING ARTS
PRODUCTIONS,
SEXUAL
SERVICES, SPORT, TELEVISION.
•
CHILD
CARE
•
FINANCIAL
SERVICES
•
ACCOUNTANCY, BANKS AND BUILDING
SOCIETIES, REAL ESTATE, STOCK
BROKERAGES,
TAX PREPARATION
•
FOOD
SERVICE INDUSTRY
•
PERSONAL
GROOMING
•
HAIR DRESSING, MENICURIST / PEDICURIST, BODYHAIR
REMOVAL, DENTAL ,HYGIENIST
•
HEALTH
CARE
•
HOSPITALITY
INDUSTRY
•
INFORMATION
SERVICES
•
DATA PROCESSING, DATABASE SERVICES, INTERPRETING,
TRANSLATION
•
RISK
MANAGEMENT -
•
INSURANCE, SECURITY
•
SOCIAL
SERVICES
•
TRANSPORT
•
PUBLIC
UTILITY
•
ELECTRIC POWER, NATURAL GAS, TELECOMMUNICATIONS,
WASTE
MANAGEMENT,
WATER INDUSTRY
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN SERVICE SECTOR
Hotels –
with increased work pressures, people are now looking for avenues to reduce
stress, and many hotels are taking up the opportunity by offering a vide verity
of treatments for rejuvenation and relaxation. `Spas’ have become an integral
part of several hotels. Resort Spa, the most popular among all, are a
combination of luxuries offered by the hotels along with a wide range of
recreational activities with the spa experience. A discount massage and a free
facial enjoy more popularity during this challenging recession period. Food process Industries : The union
Government has declare many incentives in the food processing industry. Transport: Smart Transportation Grid (STG) is
essentially a web of motion sensors, conversion devices, micro processor based
computing analyzers and a reporting tool. It works based on connected signals
between two points and a vehicle motion is tracked based on speed, co-ordinates
and unique display ID. It reduce time for shipments. Healthcare: IT offers a range of solutions to technologically
manage clinics, small & medium hospitals and large multinational enterprise
level hospital.
EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY
Through
the use of advanced computing and telecommunications technology, learning can
also be qualitatively different. The process of learning in the classroom can
become significantly richer as students have access to new and different types
of information, can manipulate it on the computer through graphic displays or
controlled experiments in ways never before possible, and can communicate their
results and conclusions in a variety of media to their teacher, students in the
next classroom, or students around the world.
BASIC SKILLS
(i)
Multi-media software -
teach to a variety of learning styles
(ii)
Videodiscs - strengthen
basic skills
(iii)
Video and audio
technologies - bring material to life
(iv)
Distance learning - at
least as effective as traditional methods of instruction
(v)
All forms - develop new
skills related to use of technology itself, necessary in workplace
Advanced
Skills Instruction
- Interactive educational
technologies, including Computer –
generated simulations, Videodiscs, Internet & CD ROM
- Students learn to organize complex
information, recognize patterns, draw inferences, communicate findings and
Learn better organizational and problem-solving skills
Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT)
ACOT as
summarized by Howard Mehlinger: "In 1986 Apple Computer, Inc. launched a
project call Apple
Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT). The project began with seven
classrooms representing what was intended to be a cross section of K-12
schools. Each participating student and teacher received two computers: one for
home and one for school. The goal of the project was to see how the routing use
of computers would affect how students learn and how teacher teach. "One
issue the project hoped to confront was the possibility of any negative effects
from prolonged exposure to computers. Some critics have worried that students
who use computers extensively will become ‘brain-dead’ or less social from
looking at the computer screen all day. At the end of two years, the investigators
learned that some of their worst fears had been groundless.
- Teachers were not hopeless
illiterates where technology was concerned; they could use computers to
accomplish their work and Children did not become bored by the technology
over time. Instead, their desire to use it for their own purposes
increased with use. Even very young
children had no problem becoming adept users of the keyboard. With very
little training, second- and third- graders were some typing 25 to 30
words per minute with 95% accuracy - more than twice as fast as children
of that age can usually write and Software was not a major problem.
Teacher found programs - including productivity tools - to use in their
classes.
Standardized
test scores showed that student were performing as well as they might have been
expected to do without the computers; some were doing better. The studies
showed that ACOT students wrote better and were able to complete unites of
study more rapidly than their peers in non-ACOT classrooms. In one case, students
finished the year’s study of mathematics by the beginning of April. In short,
academic productivity did not suffer and in some cases even improved. Most
interesting, however, is that classroom observers noticed changes in the
behavior of teachers and students. Students were taking more responsibility for
their own learning, and teachers were working more as mentors and less as
presenters of information.
ACOT
Findings After 10 Years
- Technology acts as a catalyst for
fundamental change in the way students learn and teacher teach.
- Technology revolutionizes the
traditional methods teachers use.
- Students become re-energized and
much more excited about learning - resulting in significantly improved
grades - while dropout and absentee rates decrease dramatically.
- For high school students in the
program, drop-out rates fell from 30 percent to near zero, while
absenteeism was reduced from 8 percent to 4 percent.
- Teachers can and will embrace
technology, if they are given the kind of professional development and
support they need.
Effects of Educational Technology
- Educational technology has a
significant positive impact on achievement in all subject areas, across
all levels of school, and in regular classrooms as well as those for
special-needs students.
- Educational technology has positive
effects on student attitudes and The degree of effectiveness is influenced
by the student population, the instructional design, the teacher’s role,
how students are grouped, and the levels of student access to technology.
- Technology makes instruction more
student-centered, encourages cooperative learning, and stimulated increased
teacher/student interaction and Positive changes in the learning
environment evolve over time and do not occur quickly.
Multiple Intelligences and Multi-media
Howard Gardner,
Professor of Harvard University and author of Frames of Mind (New York:
Basic Books, 1983) from Multimedia Book, ITTE wrote that Seven or more
"multiple intelligences" that are of equal importance in human beings
and develop at different times and in different ways in different individuals.,
Multi-media can go along way to addressing these intelligences, much more than
traditional teaching methods.
Verbal/Linguistic
intelligence: The ability to think,
communicate, and create through words both in speech and in writing. Computer
software which allows young children to write and illustrate their own stories
before their fine motor skills are developed enough to allow them to do so by
hand. Word processing software stimulates learners to interact more closely
with their work. Audio and video recording can give students instant feedback
on their story-telling skills and can help them develop them further.
Logical/mathematical
intelligences: Memorize and perform
mathematical operations, ability to think mathematically, logically, and
analytically and to apply that understanding to problem solving. Multimedia
products that graphically illustrate physics concepts. Providing challenging
visual/spatial tasks which develop mathematical and logical thinking . Develop higher-order mathematical thinking by
making abstract ideas concrete.
Visual/spatial
intelligence: The ability to understand
the world through what we see and imagine and to express ideas through the
graphic arts. "Paint" programs that allow students who are unskilled
with paper and brush create art on computer screens. Databases of art work.
Desktop publishing. Camcorders to create documentaries. Internet links to
museums and virtual tours.
Bodily/kinesthetic
intelligence: The ability to learn through
physical coordination and dexterity and the ability to express oneself through
physical activities. Educational games which challenge fine motor coordination
while developing logical thinking skills and mastery over abstractions.
Construction of Lego robots and program their movement through the computer.
Electronic fieldtrips - programs that allow students to interact electronically
with a scientist who is exploring the depths of the Mediterranean or the inside
of a volcano.
Musical
intelligence: The ability to understand,
appreciate, perform, and create music by voice or instruments or dance. Students
can hum into a synthesizer and make it sound like any instrument they want.
Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) makes it possible to make music on
an electronic keyboard, which can be made to sound like any instrument and then
can be orchestrated electronically. Interactive presentations of renowned
classical music let students understand music on many different levels; listening
to it, seeing the score as it is played, hearing individual instruments played
alone, reviewing biographical material about the composer and learning about
the music’s historical and cultural backgrounds.
Interpersonal intelligence: The ability to work cooperatively with other people and to apply a
variety of skills to communicate with and understand others. Clusters of
students working together on computers learn more than individual students
working alone. Electronic networks linking students with their peers within the
community and around the world. Lumaphones allow students to see a picture of
the person with whom they are speaking.
Intrapersonal
intelligence: The ability to understand,
bring to consciousness, and express one’s own inner world of thoughts and
emotions. Multimedia gives teachers the tools to turn the classroom into
centers of student-directed inquiry. Technology offers tools for thinking more
deeply, pursuing curiosity, and exploring and expanding intelligence as
students build "mental models" with which they can visualize
connections between ideas on any topic. Individual growth plans, developed
jointly by the student, parents and teacher can encourage the development of
intrapersonal intelligence. Technology supports such plans with electronic
records, videotaped interviews, and multimedia portfolios of student work.
Connecting Students to a Changing World
A Technology
Strategy for Improving Mathematics and Science Education. A Statement by the
Research and Policy Committee of the Committee for Economic Development 1995: "Fortunately,
the same rapid technological changes that have made these new workplace
competencies so important and greater knowledge of mathematics and science so
critical also provide new and effective tools to help raise the knowledge and
skills of teachers and the achievement of students." "Currently
available technologies, the most important of which are computers,
communications systems (including Internet connections), and interactive
videodisk and CD-ROM systems, provide a learning environment in which problem
solving and intellectual inquiry can flourish." "The technology also
allows students to work at their own pace and encourages them to take
initiative and learn independently."
IS TECHNOLOGY MAKING AN IMPACT
ON EDUCATION?
- Educational technology as
demonstrated a significant positive effect on achievement. Positive
effects have been found for all major subject areas, in preschool through
higher education, and for both regular education and special needs students.
Evidence suggests that interactive video is especially effective when the
skills and concepts to be learned have a visual component and when the
software incorporates a research-based instructional design. Use of online
telecommunications for collaboration across classrooms in different
geographic locations has also been show to improve academic skills.
- Education technology has been found
to have positive effects on student attitudes toward learning and on
student self-concept. Students felt more successful in school, were more
motivated to learn and have increased self-confidence and self-esteem when
using computer-based instruction. The level of effectiveness of
educational technology is influenced by the specific student population,
the software design, the teacher’s role, how the students are grouped, and
the level of student access to the technology.
- Positive changes in the learning
environment brought about by technology are more evolutionary than
revolutionary. These changes occur over a period of years, as teachers
become more experienced with technology.
- Courses for which computer-based
networks were use increased student-student and student-teacher
interaction, increased student-teacher interaction with lower-performing
students, and did not decrease the traditional forms of communication
used. Many student who seldom participate in face-to-face class discussion
become more active participants online.
- Greater student cooperation and
sharing and helping behaviors occurred when students used computer-based
learning that had students compete against the computer rather than
against each other.
CONCLUSION
The impact of
Information Technology had higher self esteem and student achievement.
Introducing technology into the learning environment has been shown to make
learning more student-centered, to encourage cooperative learning, and to
stimulate increased teacher/student interaction.
