IT Users in Business Versus IT Users in Education

Business and Industry Educational Organizations
Competent users
(generally adults have the general aptitude and literacy skills necessary for their jobs)
Users with emerging competence
(especially in primary and elementary schools,
many users have emerging skills)
  Predictable skills
(technology planners can be sure they know the
skills and competencies of groups in the workforce)
  Unpredictable skills
(planners cannot accurately predict the skills of users,
and very different users may use the same systems on a regular basis)
  At-will users
(in business and industry, users can leave if there
exists a difference between skills and needs)
  Compulsory users
(students are obligated to attend school,
and school and technology leaders are required to provide appropriate educational service for all students)
  Function-driven need
(needs are determined by the task the
individual is charged with completing)
  Interest-driven need
(students’ and teachers’ interest influence needs)  
Known need
(in business and industry, the needs of a user are
usually clearly understood and the bounded)
Unknown need
(the tasks completed on educational ICT
cannot be reliably predicted)
  Stable need
(once a need is know for a particular user, or for the
users fulfilling a role, the need does not change)
  Unstable need
(in general, the needs of users in the spring are
more sophisticated than they were in the fall)