金融学毕业外文翻译

1、Using instant messenger in the finance course 131Managerial Finance Vol.34No.2,2008pp.131-138#Emerald Group Publishing Limited0307-4358DOI 10.1108/03074350810841312Using instant messenger in the finance courseStuart MichelsonDepartment of Finance,School of Business Administration,Stetson University,

2、DeLand,Florida,USA,and Stanley D.SmithDepartment of Finance,University of Central Florida,Orlando,Florida,USA AbstractPurpose New technologies have provided new tools we may use as finance professors to communicate with our students.Instant messaging (IMhas become a common communication tool in indu

3、stry and among students.The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of IM as a communication tool in finance courses.Design/methodology/approach After reviewing the advantages and disadvantages of IM,the students were surveyed to determine how they viewed IM in comparison to other communicat

4、ion techniques.Findings The paper finds that 50per cent or students use IM at any time (not just for class.The majority of the IM users,use it several times a day and have used it for two to three years.Only about 15.7per cent of our students have used IM for our classes.The range of IM usage in the

5、 classes is 7-25per cent.Of those students who have used IM for our courses,they have used it 2-5times during the semester and almost all students found it useful.Students were asked to rate various methods of professor/student communication.The students strongly like face-to-face communication,foll

6、owed by (in order of preferenceemail,IM,and telephone.Students disagree with the statement that IM is a substitute for face-to-face interaction and agree that IM is a supplement to face-to-face interaction.Originality/value The findings suggest ways to improve communications with students and other

7、persons.Keywords Teaching,Communication,Communication technologies,FinancePaper type Research paperIntroductionThe internet has changed the way we,as finance instructors,conduct and teach our courses.Several examples have been published recently in the business education journals.In this paper,we in

8、vestigate the benefits of using instant messaging (IMin finance courses.We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using IM,how to implement IM,and provide personal examples of using IM in our classes.LiteratureThe literature on using the Internet in financial education is fairly recent,but rapi

9、dly expanding.Most of this literature has focused on what data sources and financial resources are available on the Internet and may be used in education.Herbst (1996presents an interesting discussion on the fundamentals of the Internet and describes the opportunities and challenges for financial en

10、gineers on the Internet.Ray (1996,in An introduction to finance on the internet,presents a background on the history and evolution of the Internet,as well as providing a description of financial resources available.In A guide to locating financial information on the Internet,Pettijohn (1996provides

11、a guide and extensive list of financial resources available on the Internet.Grinder (1997discusses recent developments on the Internet and provides an extensive list of financial service Internet sites.Stanley (1996reviews the use of The current issue and full text archive of this journal is availab

12、le atMF 34,2 132EDGAR as a resource for SEC documents and applications for classroom use.Michelson and Stanley(1999review applications of web page usage in the finance area.Recent articles have discussed the benefits of utilizing the web to provide academic content for students.The literature has al

13、so discussed several disadvantages or costs to using the web.Benbunan-Fich et al.(2001indicate they integrate technology in business courses in two ways:to transmit content or deliver instruction and to support communication between professors and students.Lincoln(2001finds that most faculty that de

14、veloped web pages did so out of personal motivation,very few had direct institutional support.He asserts that faculty had several obstacles to adoption; time to learn,execute,and maintain faculty web sites.Young(2002finds that student course evaluations of faculty effectiveness increased significant

15、ly over the period that technology was implemented in their program.Several authors(Kaynama and Keesling,2000;Atwong and Hugstad,1997;McBane,1997illustrate that internet activities can enhance the educators role in a number of areas,including:lecturing, providing instructional materials,facilitating

16、 student collaboration,evaluating student performance,and recruiting majors.Further,they state that web sites are growing in popularity for posting of professional and classroom information,such as course syllabi,sample tests,and other course materials.In statistics,Leon and Parr(2000 provide inform

17、ation on areas in which their course home pages were not successful. These areas include:mailing lists,providing detailed outlines or summaries of lectures, providing material keyed to a particular date,preparing summaries for every class right after class,and maintaining complicated web page struct

18、ures.They find that there are beneficial applications for web pages(WP,including:providing materials for large courses,WP are an efficient way to solicit feedback,WP provide links and resources,and WP can be a permanent record of what happened in class(calendar, homework log,class summaries,and stud

19、y questions.Web pages can also allow the instructor a means to post copies ofhandouts(pull,not push basis,old exams,and data files(such as Excel files.There are also articles that provide information about the use of the Internet in teaching and education in the accounting and economics areas (for e

20、xample see:Agarwal and Day,1998;Debreceny et al.,1996;Manning,1996.Instant Messaging is becoming much more prevalent in the corporate world(Smith, 2003;Wessel,2003.Smith reports that federal investigators are now requiring that firms archive the IMs exchanged between NYSE and NASD member firms and t

21、heir customers,similar to the requirement for emails.He indicates that more than400 million IM accounts will be created by2004and almost one-half of them will be used to connect businesses and customers.Mike Osterman,a consultant in IM,states there are currently about60million IM users in the US wor

22、kplace.He says that about20percent of those that now use email also use IM.He predicts that within four years,virtually all email users will also use IM.Wessel says that there are benefits to using IM,including: convenience,speed of response,lack of spam,capability to quickly respond to customers,an

23、d the ability to IM someones cell phone.He cites drawbacks such as:not wanting to be constantly interrupted(leave an away message,ability for companies to install secure internal IM system,and it can be awkward to end conversations.Several articles have recently appeared in The Wall Street Journal a

24、bout IM in the corporate world(Weber,2002,p.B1;Bulkeley,2002,p.B1.Weber indicates that IM is now at the stage where email was in1990.The primary problem is that there is no standard by which IM systems can talk to one another.He indicates thatlike email before it,IM technology has the potential to r

25、eshape how workers communicate and share knowledge.Using instant messenger in the finance course 133Bulkeley explains how IM has solved many communication problems in corporations.Not only does IM allow users to instantly chat with each other,it also tells users which recipients are available to rec

26、eive messages at that moment.IM creates presence;that the person is working and available for business.The downside is that it makes it harder to maintain privacy and avoid distractions.Also receiving messages every few minutes can be very disruptive as well.On the positive side,having someone on yo

27、ur contact list deepens your relationship.Even though two people may have never met in person,after exchanging IMs over time,they feel as though they know each other well.In the corporate world,this can help business relationships.Instant messagingOne of the latest internet-related tools is IM.Many

28、teens use it to communicate with their friends.Even though there are several IM programs available,most IM programs are similar.Users have a list of other peoplesIM handles (screen names,and they click on the name to initiate a conversation session.Then the two or more people write text messages tha

29、t are delivered almost instantaneously and reside in a window on one anothers machines.One can chat on a one-to-one basis or invite others to participate in a chat room spontaneously developed for that conversation.One can even have both going on simultaneously.For our purposes,we will assume that w

30、e are using AOL Instant Messenger (AIM;however,there are other free IM programs,such as Yahoo Messenger and MSN Messenge r.Corporate (non-freeIM software,such as Lotus Software Groups Sametime and Presence Platform from Bantu,Inc.,include features and functionality that are missing from the free ver

31、sions, munications encryption,allowing users to view what is on one anothers PC,and written transcriptsof all communique´s.AdvantagesSome of the advantages of using IM include:.AIM and most IM programs are free and easy to install and use.If the student is using the computer,which is connected

32、to his one phone line,then it is difficult to converse and use the computer at the same time.IM solves this problem.Even if the student has separate computer and phone connections,IM may reduce phone costs for both parties when the parties are in different calling zones,e.g.local tolls or long dista

33、nce charges.The instructor is able to handle more than one student at a time.One can conduct four or five independent sessions or conversations at one time.The parties can meet at any time that is feasible for them and are not restricted by location related factors.IM can be useful if one person has

34、 a hearing impairment or is otherwise handicapped and has difficulty arranging a traditional meeting.One can spontaneously and easily arrange a chat room with numerous people to deal with any topic you wish.Messaging sessions can be saved and utilized later.MF 34,2 134.Computer links can be inserted

35、 into conversations so that everyone can follow a progression of web pages.Attachments can be sent through IM conversations so that everyone can review the same document.DisadvantagesSome of the disadvantages of using IM include:.There is a lack of a single IM standard;therefore,all parties must be

36、on the same software,e.g.AIM.However,this disadvantage is reduced if the messaging service is free.The service is free in the same way that some television or web is free;the users may be exposed to advertising that helps pay for the service.Using IM can make it harder to maintain privacy and can be

37、 disruptive.The IM beep from someone requesting a chat can be as intrusive and distracting as when the telephone constantly rings at dinner time.AIM is a very rough imitation of the telephone.How good the audio is depends on the equipment on both ends and the way they are connected.AIM cannot offer

38、rich content because AIM is not a web browser and cannot render HTMLPersonal experienceOne of this articles authors has used IM in his course for about two years.He does not require its use,but rather offers it as another means to contact the professor.He puts his screen name on his syllabus,along w

39、ith his web site address and email address.He also puts the screen name on his web site with links to the AOL IM registration page and the University of Massachusetts tutorial page(links provided below.He has found that about two-thirds of his students use IM for personal use.It is interesting thoug

40、h, only about10per cent of his students use IM to contact him,whereas over50per cent of his students use email for frequent contact.Most of his students begin to use the professors IM for specific course and project related questions.But after a while the contact evolves into other areas,such as:car

41、eer advice,curriculum advice,and more generalhi how are you doing?Of course the professor has to properly manage his time with respect to IM usage because the beeping from the IM window can seem to be incessant.Like email,this professor has found,that properly managed,IM can be another valuable tool

42、 in working with students and faculty.As an added benefit,this professor finds that when his daughter sees he is online,shelldrop injust to say hi and share the days events.Important linksFor AOL Instant Messenger Registrationgo to will be asked to choose a screen name,type a password,confirm your p

43、assword,type your e-mail address and your birth date.You will later be asked to confirm your registration by replying to a message at your e-mail address.For a good tutorial on using IM and AIM chatsee /tew/aimwelcome.htmlSurvey resultsDuring the Fall2002and Spring terms,the author

44、s surveyed their classes about the students IM usage.Three classes were surveyed,totaling129students.Sixty-one ofUsing instant messenger in the finance course 135the students were graduate students (MBA.The survey instrument is provided in the Appendix at the end of this paper.Table I provides the m

45、ost relevant results of the survey.We found that 50per cent or our students use IM at any time (not just for class.The majority of the IM users,use it several times a day and have used it for two to three years.Only about 15.7per cent of our students have used IM for our classes.The range of IM usag

46、e in our classes is 7-25per cent.Of those students who have used IM for our courses,they have used it 2-5times during the semester and almost all students found it useful.We asked our students to rate various methods of professor/student communication.Our students strongly like face-to-face communic

47、ation,followed by (in order of preferenceemail,IM,and telephone.Even though telephone was rated lowest,it was rated slightly below average (2.8on a 1-5scale.We also asked if our students feel IM is a substitute or a supplement to face-to-face interaction.Students disagree with the statement that IM

48、is a substitute (2.22on a 1-5scaleand agree that IM is a supplement (3.47to face-to-face interaction.We received a variety of student comments in response to our questions about their like/dislikes for the various forms of communication,as well as why they have or have not used IM.In general our stu

49、dents prefer the immediate response and interaction available with face-to-face communication.In general,they did not like telephone communication.Comments suggested that they did not like playing phone tag on the office phones voice mail or felt they would be rude to call the professor at home.The

50、students that use IM also like the immediacy and interaction that IM provides.The major drawback to IM is that many students are not at the computer throughout the day,so IM is not available for their use.Many of the MBA students also indicated that IM was not available at their workplace.As you wou

51、ld expect,many students frequently use email because they find it convenient and easy to use.Students remarked that they like the convenience of email,but the primary drawback to email is that the students do not get an immediate response to their emails.Of course,the responsiveness of the professor

52、 will affect the usefulness of email from the students perspective.One conclusion that can be inferred from the student comments is that even though many of them use IM for personal use,they still are not comfortable using it with their professors.This is partially due to IM not being encouraged or

53、available in their other classes.Table I.IM survey results Abbreviated questions QuestionnumberTotal surveys (129Do you use IM (at any time,not just for class?(1¼yes150.0%If you use IM,how often do you use it?(1-51A3.573If you use IM,how long have you used it?(1-31B2.324Have you ever used IM fo

54、r this class?(1¼yes215.7%How often have you used it for this class?(1-62A2.793If you have used IM for this class,have you found it useful?(2¼yes2B1.940Rate method of communication with instructor (face-to-face(1-53a4.239Rate method of communication with instructor (telephone(1-53b2.745Rate

55、 method of communication with instructor (email(1-53c4.105Rate method of communication with instructor (instant messaging(1-53d2.925IM substitutes for face-to-face interaction (1-54a2.218IM is a supplement to face-to-face interaction (1-54b3.474MF 34,2 136 Conclusions In our sample of 129 students,

56、we find that about one-half of our students use IM at any time, although only about 15 per cent have used IM for our courses. Since about 47 per cent of our sample were MBA students, there is probably a bias towards those that do not use IM. Almost 100 per cent of the students that use IM for class

57、feel it is useful. For IM usage to increase in academics, both students and professors must become more comfortable with its daily use. Writers indicate that IM is now at the stage where email was in 1990 and that by 2008 virtually all email users will also be utilizing IM. Through its increasing us

58、age, IM has solved many communication problems in corporations. Like email before it, IM technology has the potential to reshape how workers communicate and share knowledge (Bulkeley, 2002. References Agarwal, R. and Day, A.E. (1998, The impact of the Internet on economic education, Journal of Econo

59、mic Education, Vol. 29 No. 2, Spring, pp. 99-110. Atwong, C.T. and Hugstad, P. (1997, Internet technology and the future of marketing education, Journal of Marketing Education, Vol. 19 No. 3, pp. 44. Benbunan-Fich, R., Lozada, H.R., Pirog, S., Priluck, R. and Wisenblit, J. (2001, Integrating information t