ICT projects in Malaysia have been one of the impetuses for achieving development in this country. Parallel with the ICT development in Malaysia, ICT usage among the Malaysian has increased significantly. Nonetheless, things are different in the rural areas where past studies have shown that ICT usage among the rural community in Malaysia is still discouraging. Albeit this fact are the same situation can be identified among the village administrators and what are the factors that impinge their ICT usage. Purportedly, as the leaders of the rural community they should use ICT in order to encourage the rural community to use ICT. This quantitative study used questionnaire to gather information. Through a multi-stage random sampling, a total of 240 village administrators from four states in Peninsular Malaysia have been selected as the respondents. In general, ICT has been used moderately among the village administrators. All of seven factors of Extended Technology Acceptance Model studied have been detected to be positively and significantly related with ICT usage while self-efficacy was identified as the main contributor towards ICT usage. A number of recommendations and discussions have been highlighted and expectantly it can aid the concern parties and policy makers in drawing plans for strengthening the ICT usage among the rural community leaders. � Medwell Journals, 2012.

With the fast development in ICT, the need for digital maturity becomes increasingly important. Measuring ICT maturity has always been on the infrastructural, applications, and ICT Policy. Taking a different orientation, the present study views ICT maturity of the individual users vis a vis the ICT tools as a solid foundation for successful digital maturity in a digital economy. This paper aims at determining the level of digital maturity among ICT-Mobile Phone (smart phone and internet) users by looking at the intensity of usage of smart phone applications (apps) and functions and the level of indispensability of internet and its related characteristics and functions. A nationwide survey was conducted among 2124 respondents based on the population ratio of the main ethnic groups in Malaysia. Data were analysed using SPPS 20.0 and both descriptive and inferential analysis are applied to analyse the data. The results revealed that the smart phone functions, facilities, and apps which are mostly used include social media (Facebook/Twitter), instant messaging (WhatsApp/Viber/Skype), Wi-Fi, downloading apps from 'Play Store' or 'App Store' and camera. The findings also indicated that a fast internet service, availability of internet at anytime and anywhere and the access to internet content without limit are the most indispensable characteristics and functions of internet for the users. The results implied that the respondents are above average in digital maturity in terms of intensity of usage of ICT-Mobile Phone functions, facilities, and apps. Meanwhile, their ICT-Mobile Phone engagement seemsto be high in digital maturity for the indispensable characteristics and functions of internet. The findings of this study have implications on ICT system and apps providers on the needs of the users. This is crucial in order to achieve digital maturity which will prepare the grounds for digital inclusion in a digital economy.

The policy of teaching and learning of Mathematics and Science subjects in English was decided in 2002 and implemented in the following year. After five years of using pupils' second language in learning these two highly cognitional subjects, the policymaker attempted to reconsider the medium of examination for the 2008 Primary School Achievement Test. On 27 October 2007, the then Prime Minister made a surprise announcement that the test for these two subjects would continue to be set in dual languages, namely, English and the respective mother-tongues. The main objective of this framing study was to explore the frames dominantly portrayed by policymakers, movements, and other parties involved. A content analysis on daily newspapers of the four languages was conducted for a period of one month after the above-mentioned announcement was made. This research adopted the format of Semetko and Valkenburg (2000) in scrutinising framing from "responsibility," "conflict," "morality," "economic consequences," and "human interest" perspectives. The research findings met the objective of establishing the source frames. The policy frame is more responsible in nature, while the movement frame is more confrontational and the editorial frame tends to highlight the morality aspect of life. The reader frame is deemed to be somewhat close to the movement for its aggressiveness. � Universiti Putra Malaysia Press.

As been profited by other industries, the evolution on ICTs has raised its impacts on the fisheries industries. Realizing the impacts, there is abundance of international studies that try to seek the association between ICTs usage and fishermen income. Nonetheless, reverse situation is found in Malaysia where there are still few local studies that place their interest on such association and the main attempt of this study is to investigate the relationship and the contribution of ICT usage towards fishermen income in Malaysia. This is quantitative study where questionnaire was used to gather the required data. A total of 400 registered fishermen from four fisheries districts in Malaysia have been randomly selected as the respondents. Based on the analysis employed, it can be seen that usage of sonar, echo sounder and radar are related to the fishermen income. In addition, further analysis has confirmed that these three tools are contributing towards fishermen income. To encourage ICTs usage among fishermen, it is recommended that the fishermen should be provided with ICT seminars and courses, supports such as financial, accessibility and services. Apart from this, selected behavioral factors should be taken into consideration while implementing strategies with regard to fishermen ICT usage. � Medwell Journals, 2013.

In order to meet the increasing demand for marine sources, superior offshore technologies have begun to be utilised. This study aims to discover the impact of ICT utilisation on the income of young fishermen. This is a quantitative study wherein a multi-stage random sampling approach was used to select a total of 121 registered fishermen as respondents. The data were collected using a pre-tested questionnaire. Mobile phones emerged as the most-used piece of ICT equipment among young fishermen, followed by GPS and echo sounders. Further analysis confirmed that usage of GPS and echo sounders is related to the income of young fishermen. Surprisingly, however, the study concluded that mobile phones - the most-used ICT device among young fishermen - have no significant association with the income of these young fishermen. This paper suggests a number of recommendations, and these can aid concerned parties to strategise more consistent methods to encourage young fishermen to use ICT. � Universiti Putra Malaysia Press.

Communication is a must and family communication enhances family ties. This study is design to discover whether quantity of time spent between parents and children have a direct impact on children misconduct activities. This is a quantitative study using a survey questionnaire. Data were gathered from 1163 respondents which comprised of 641 secondary school children and 522 parents and were analyzed using SPSS software. The data collection process took three months to be completed. The outcome showed that the children perceive the amount of time spent with their parents does have an impact towards their misconduct activities. However, it was not the same for the parents. It seems that parents did not perceive that the amount spent for communicating with their children will affect their children's misconduct activities. Parents should pay more attention to the time that they spent with their children as their children value the time that they spent with their parents'. It is crucial for parents to allocate some time in their hectic schedule to communicate with the children so that the children would not feel neglected and left out by their own parents thus making them prone to unhealthy activities. � 2012 Science Publication.

Information and communication technology (ICT) is indeed an important tool to expose the rural community to development. Realizing the importance of ICT, a number of high impact ICT programs and projects have been introduced by the government. However, do the rural community especially their leaders which are the Village Development and Security Committee members (JKKK) use ICT? And more importantly do they perceive ICT as useful in their daily activities and tasks? This question brings us to the main objective of this paper which is to know the factors that influence the perceived usefulness towards ICT usage among the JKKK members in Peninsular Malaysia. Besides, this paper intends to investigate the level of perceived usefulness towards ICT usage among JKKK members and to reveal the most significant contributors for perceived usefulness towards ICT usage. This is a quantitative study whereby data were gathered using a questionnaire. Based on the multi stage random sampling, a total of 240 JKKK members have been selected as the respondents. Based on the analyses done, it can be concluded that respondents studied do have a high level of perceived usefulness towards ICT usage. All of the four factors studied have a positive and significant relationship towards ICT usage. Attitude was identified as the most significant contributor for perceived usefulness towards ICT usage while the four predictor variables explain about 60.0% of the variance/variation in perceived usefulness towards ICT usage.

One of the main factors that changes individuals' behavior is social influence. Social influence is defined as a change in an individual's thinking, feelings, attitudes, or behavior that results from interaction with other individuals or groups. Within the scope of ICT adoption among fishermen, social influence is expected to spread, and this study attempts to discover the social influence that impinges on fishermen's use of ICT in their fishing routine. This is a quantitative study in which a total of 400 respondents have been selected based on multi-stage simple random sampling. SPSS is used to gain the required analyses, and descriptive analysis is also performed. The results reveal that social influence has less impact on fishermen's use of ICT based on the low level of mean scores recorded for each of the eight statements studied.

The focus of this study is to examine whether socio-economic factors (age, income per month, level of education, days spent at sea, fishermen category and experience as a fisherman) influence behavioral intention regarding the usage of mobile phones among fishermen in Pangkor Island. A total of 250 questionnaires were given to fishermen on the island. For the purposes of analyses, descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage and mean were employed. Further analysis using independent t-test and Pearson product moment correlation were also performed to determine any significant differences and relationships arising. The results confirm that fishermen in Pangkor Island have favorable behavioral intentions towards mobile phone usage. Further analysis reveals that fishermen with different levels of education possess different behavioral intentions towards mobile phone usage. It can be noted that the factors of age and days spent at sea recorded significant and negative relationships with behavioral intention towards mobile phone usage. A number of discussions are conducted and these can be used by students, researchers and government officers for further studies within the field. � Medwell Journals, 2013.