La Pastoral Educativa en contexto.

A temporal human agency perspective proposes that stakeholders’ actions are influenced by their ability to recall the past, respond to the present and imagine the future (Emirbayer and Mische 1998). Because this research focused on how stakeholders’ past, practices and future technology goals influenced their present usage of nomadic

computing technology, the results illustrate the temporal theory of human agency (Emirbayer and Mische 1998).

The persistence of past practices is associated with the iterational element of human agency. Within the HomeLender group, diversity in practices occurred when some users chose to retain past practices while others chose to depart from those practices. Top Gun delegated the use of some features of Outlook to his secretary so that she could monitor his schedule while he was mobile. This use of technology is reflective of a traditional practice of secretaries monitoring their managers’ schedules when it was in book form. Top Gun entered numbers on his cell phone from memory while traveling, appropriating the device in a manner similar to how landlines were used in the past. Though Rookie was the most sophisticated in terms of his technology use, he was the only user who continued to use the composition book as a phone log and a backup device, in the event of technology failure while mobile.

Outside of the HomeLender group, we also see diversity in practices all related to nomadic users’ past experiences and their resolution of emergent events. Mr. Security Issues continued to use older technologies such as pagers, CB and two-way radios as he

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perceived the devices as reliable and sometimes more secure communication mechanisms than newer devices such as cell phones and wireless networks. Mr. Gadget’s use of a website, email and a web calendar in his prior profession as a musician had proved valuable in making him highly accessible. Consequently, he updated the tools, making them relevant to his current profession as a Microsoft certified trainer, where a high level of accessibility was also necessary for success. Therefore, his past practices influenced his present practices. Young Gun sought to be highly productive but his dislike for the customer relationship management system, Siebel, led him to use a composition notebook to keep track of discussions with customers and business associates. Even though he had a PDA, Timenator still relied heavily on his Franklin Covey planner for scheduling activities, even though the PDA was intended to replace it.

The perpetuation of past practices occurs when individuals faced with emerging problems seek the certainty of outcomes associated with past practices. Reinforcing past practices is symbolic of security, convenience, the comfortable and the familiar. Relating this to the temporal theory of human agency (Emirbayer and Mische 1998), the repetition of past experiences though habitual sometimes required innovation and ingenuity.

The creation of new behavior through add-ons, workarounds and slippage is associated with the practical evaluative element of human agency. Again, diversity in practices across users and how those practices changed over time can be explained by differences in actors’ temporal orientations and their responses to emerging events.

Within the HomeLender group, the practice of using the composition book was eliminated in three of the four cases, although the transition away from the tool occurred in different ways. Top Gun delegated time-consuming, technology-related tasks to his

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assistant who alerted him of upcoming appointments through his pager while he traveled, thus ending his composition book use. Superwoman ceased her use of the composition book by designing a form to capture supplementary customer information, which she carried with her when she traveled. Rookie made himself constantly accessible when he traveled by synchronizing contact data across his personal and company-issued devices, creating an overlap in business and personal ownership and usage. However he continued to use the composition book because it was convenient and as a backup mechanism in case his devices failed.

Outside the HomeLender group, various patterns of use were also observed. To protect customer information, Mr. Security Issues personalized his laptop in such a way that clicking on certain images on the screen revealed certain menus which led to confidential information. In the event of an accident while mobile, others could only access insignificant information. Mr. Gadget made travel plans so that dead time on long trips could be converted into productive time. By choosing to travel by train instead of car, his work could be facilitated by using mobile devices. Young Gun used the voice mail on his cell phone to record important reminders in circumstances when it was inconvenient to use his PDA or his composition notebook to make notes while on the move.

Users’ future goals and objectives are associated with the projective element of agency and show how nomadic users look forward to using new technology. Within the HomeLender group, the study shows that users had diverse intentions for future technology acquisition. Top Gun did not intend to acquire a Blackberry device because he was focused on other priorities, such as his family life and maintaining his position as

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a top producer in the organization. Superwoman did not intend to acquire a Blackberry device as she saw it as further blurring the boundaries between her business and personal life. Conversely, Rookie intended to adopt the Blackberry device. Rookie was the only stakeholder who viewed the acquisition of a wearable computer with voice recognition as a future possibility.

Outside the HomeLender group diversity and similarities in intended technology upgrades and acquisitions were also observed. Mr. Security Issues intended to acquire a device with combined phone and PDA functionality onto which he could transfer a customer relationship management system with photographs of customers, as it was a practical way to associate names with faces when making calls. He hoped that this would remove the need to refer to his laptop when making calls and would save time. Mr. Gadget intended to acquire an integrated watch and health monitor which would keep track of vital signs. This he felt was needed because of his intense nomadic lifestyle. Young Gun contemplated the acquisition of a Blackberry device because it would be a nice toy. However, he did not intend to acquire wireless functionality for his laptop and PDA because he felt it was unnecessary. Young Gun, Mr. Gadget and Mr. Security Issues did not intend to acquire the Tablet PC until the handwriting recognition technology had significantly improved. However, Technoholic was an avid user of the Tablet PC and intended to acquire phone functionality for the device so that he could phase out his phone enabled PDA.

The goals, objectives, dreams and aspirations of individuals were all different and this was reflected in the variation in technology acquisitions contemplated.

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The results show that stakeholders’ intentions cannot be relied upon as a prediction of future use as present contingencies place limitations on what can be achieved. Top Gun was able to predict his adoption of a wireless card but his inability to foresee the adoption of an aircard and a home wireless network is indicative of this predicament. This occurred because it was impossible for him to imagine the social processes that would take place, which would persuade him to acquire the devices. Similarly, Young Gun was adamant that he did not need to acquire a wireless card but eventually he did so, when the need to access organizational resources and to serve customers while traveling increased. He was unable to foresee this acquisition due to the inability to imagine the events that would stimulate his own reflection and reconsideration of the usefulness of the device.