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In the last 20 years, the South African higher education has changed significantly, influenced by global trends national development goals and pressure from local educational imperatives, in the context of a digitally networked world. Shifts in technology enhanced pedagogical practices and in discourses around information and communication technologies (ICTs) have had varying degrees of influence in higher education. This paper takes a rearview of a 20-year journey of technology enhanced learning in South African higher education. An analysis of literature view is presented chronologically in four phases: phase 1 (1996–2000), phase 2 (2001–05), phase 3 (2006–10) and phase 4 (2011–16). In phase 1 technology was used predominantly for drill and practice, computer-aided instruction, with growing consciousness of the digital divide. In phase 2 institutions primarily focused on building ICT infrastructure, democratizing information, policy development and research; they sought to compare the effectiveness of teaching with or without technology. During phase 3 institutions began to include ICTs in their strategic directions, digital divide debates focused on epistemological access, and they also began to conduct research with a pedagogical agenda. In phase 4 mobile learning and social media came to the fore. The research agenda shifted from whether students would use technology to how to exploit what students already use to transform teaching and learning practices. The paper concludes that South Africa's higher education institutions have moved from being solely responsible for both their own relatively poor ICT infrastructure and education provision to cloud-based ICT infrastructure with “unlimited” educational resources that are freely, openly and easily available within and beyond the institution. Although mobile and social media are more evident now than ever before, teaching and learning practice in South African higher education remains largely unchanged.

DigitalCommons@Kennesaw State University © 2013, While the practice of using educational technologies in Higher Education is increasingly common among educators, there is a paucity of research on innovative uses of emerging technologies to transform teaching and learning. This paper draws on data collected as part of a larger study aimed at investigating emerging technologies and their use in South African Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to improve teaching and learning. The research employed a mixed method research design, using both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods—quantitative data from a survey of 262 respondents from 22 public HEIs in South Africa and qualitative data gathered from 16 experts/practitioners on their self-reflective definition of the term "emerging technologies". The paper concludes that levels of institutional development, access to resources, discipline, group belonging and individual motivation of respondents influenced the way they defined emerging technologies including what constituted an innovative use of technology, foregrounding the contextuality of emerging technologies.

At the University of Cape Town (UCT) mobile learning is being adopted for teaching and learning purposes. This paper describes the use of the Dynamic Frequently Asked Questions (DFAQ) tool, designed and developed at UCT by Dick Ng‟ambi, as a special-purpose question and consultation environment for students with a Short Message Service (SMS) interface which allows students and lecturers to pose and respond to questions using their mobile phones. This case study uses a range of methods to investigate the use of DFAQ by Organisational Psychology lecturers, including presentation and document analysis and follow-up interviews.

This paper highlights one of the barriers for implementing an educational technology policy at a higher education institution. As more courses use a Learning Management System (LMS), learning resources are electronic and an increasing number of students are using Notebook computers for accessing electronic resources and reading on the screen. However, there is a dichotomy between provision of electronic resources and students being allowed to use Notebooks during classes. This paper explores lecturers' ambivalence towards student use of Notebooks during classes and illustrates how such perceptions are becoming a barrier to successful implementation of an educational technology policy.

Includes bibliographical references., This study investigates the impact of anonymous computer mediated interaction on question-driven knowledge acquisition among students. A growing concern for educational institutions in general and educators in particular has been to augment what students are formally taught and what they informally learn from one another. Anecdotal evidence suggests that students consult one another informally. However, informal consultations suffer from three limitations: a) they are limited to clusters of friends; b) shared information is not retained; c) educators have no access to informal knowledge. My argument is that knowledge shared informally among students is a potential knowledge resource for both students and educators. As a student resource, it allows students to reconstruct their own understanding as they share their knowledge with each other. As an educators' resource, it serves as a diagnostic tool about students' knowledge levels hence identifying areas of misunderstanding or misconceptions.

It is difficult to learn professional courses such as Computer Science without hands-on activities with appropriate technical support. Computer Science programming courses are the core of a Computer Science qualification and some of the learning outcomes of a Computer Science programming course are writing program code, program testing and debugging. Inadequate computers in the computer laboratory and policies that restrict the concept of 'Bring Your Own Technology' (BYOT) inside the computer laboratory posed a challenge to hands-on programming activities. However, students in the Computer Science department at the University of Jos learn computer-coding theory, but unable to have hands-on experience due to several reasons. This research investigates how use of virtual lab on Moodle Learning Management System (LMS) could enhance students' acquisition of Java programming skills. The virtual lab provides a lab environment for students to practice programming and experiment concepts learned. Activity Theory was used as a theoretical framework to analyse the activity of Java programming on the virtual lab. Seven participants including the lecturer were enrolled on the Java Programming Language virtual lab practical sessions for this research work. The research activity system focuses on Java hands-on programming tasks for a period of three weeks and after that data was collected using interview and content generated from the virtual lab activities' chats and forum. Interview questions were developed and administered to students, while a semistructured interview with the lecturer was conducted. The data collected from the interviews and the contents collated from chats and forum activities were coded using ICT data analysis tool Nvivo, based on thematic analysis. The data was thoroughly reviewed, explained, interpreted, and analysed using the theoretical framework, activity theory. The results show that the virtual lab helped students perform practical programming activities, where students accessed and used the virtual lab concurrently at any time and place. The participants used their private computers, mobile devices in the hostels, at home, or at hotspots to access the virtual lab. However, accessing the virtual lab required adequate Internet connection. The virtual lab programming activity system promoted student-centred learning, self-paced practice, and enabled students to repeat or revisit incorrect assignments multiple times. The activity system's subject (lecturer, students) interacts with the mediating tools (mobile devices, virtual lab) to perform the object (Java programming), which enhanced the achievement of the outcome (programming skills). Therefore, it can be said that the virtual lab mediated hands-on programming activities.

Organisations are increasingly finding themselves operating in environments that are characterised by higher levels of ambiguity, uncertainty and complexity, as well as environmental and internal changes that are beyond their control (Reeves, 2015). This context is affecting the way in which projects are executed, as project managers are expected to conceive, manage and successfully implement projects within such an environment. An important question to ask is: Are intrinsically unpredictable environments becoming more dominant leading to increase in the complexity of projects? We are now living in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world; project management as a field has to overcome significant barriers to change and develop the capacity for more subjective, interactive, and interpretive innovations that appear to be more effective in these settings. The primary question addressed in this study is how the design of exploration projects may be carried out to bring clarity to project objectives and enablers. Design thinking, which is said to embody practices, mind-sets and processes that empower teams to co-create innovative solutions to wicked problems (Rittel and Webber, 1973) has been adopted in this study. Its design principles together with the creative problem-solving principles are combined to create a framework that facilitates design of exploration projects. This study uses design-based research (DBR) to apply the emerging framework to educational sandpit projects. These projects inherit the characteristics of exploration projects which are highly ambiguous toward more innovative, context-relevant, targeted solutions developed by diverse project teams. The study adopted a qualitative, interpretivist approach in order to enhance the design principles emerging from this study through authentic interventions in educational sandpits using DBR as a methodology. The outcome of the study, namely, a project artistry framework, emerged from the iterative process which was undertaken. The framework's value proposition is that it (the framework) had been proven to enable diverse teams to shift the participants' orientation from significant ambiguity and uncertainty to the ability to plan action by co-creating project visions with clear objectives and goals. The project artistry framework reflects the construction of a house and a more holistic framework, which consists of a roof (design process), the pillars required to hold up the roof (design pillars) and the foundational bricks. The design pillars include reflection, creative language, applied imagination, diverging and converging while the foundational bricks include empathy, empowerment, engagement, emergence, experimentation, environment, exploration and exploitation. In addition, an ambiguity acceptance journey is proposed to encourage a tolerance of ambiguity that leads to questioning and inquiry in projects that cultivates fresh insights and innovation in projects. New approaches to project leadership and design are essential to transform the world we live in. Although no panacea, project artistry provides project leaders with a new dimension to understanding the changing conditions that surround their project and envisioning better, innovative solutions to some of the most troublesome challenges facing our projects. It brings together the power of analysis and intuition to synthesize real solutions that not only work but meet the needs of the people. This fresh approach also brings enlightenment and transformation to those engaged in such projects and cultivates creative confidence and fosters collaboration.

This research investigates how Secondary School science learners in Cameroon perceive the design of electronic content (eContent). Perception plays an important role in how learners use eContent; hence the perception of how eContent is designed could affect how learners learn using this digital content. Online learning and the use of digital learning materials has emerged as a hallmark of the information age to connect and engage users in the learning process. Learners are moving from the use of paper to the use of digital channels for learning, therefore perception of design becomes very important. Without good perception of how learning material is designed, the teaching process would be an uphill task and this could greatly hinder the academic performance of learners, leading to high failure rates. Apart from how learning material is designed, perception is also a product of the socio-cultural environments hence how learners perceive eContent, might be affected by the setting within which it is designed. In this study, a group of Cameroonian learners‟ use of eContent that was designed in a social- cultural context different from their own is studied. The primary research question is aimed at investigating how the learners‟ perception of eContent affects its use. The researcher uses Cultural Historical activity theory (CHAT) as a theoretical framework to understand how students perceive the activity mediated by eContent. By identifying the factors in an activity system that affect learners‟ perception using activity theory, specific recommendations will be made to educators on what to change in the system to foster positive perceptions hence achieve meaningful learning mediated by eContent.

This thesis investigated the development of proficiency in pedagogical integration of emerging technologies amongst educators at Makerere University. Limited educator CoPs focused on pedagogical integration of ETs inhibit educator potential to contribute to quality learning through pedagogical integration of ETs. The general question in this thesis is how social architecture in an educator CoP provides opportunities for enhancing proficiency development in pedagogical integration of ETs. Based on educational design research framework and situated learning theory, a community of practice as an intervention was designed and implemented between 2014 and 2016. Data was collected through observations, focused discussions and interviews from five educators who actively participated. An interpretive thematic analysis was done from which findings indicate that a social architecture in community of practice enables educators to initially accept that they are less experienced and potential members and then, join forces in a community to take charge of their transformation process. A social architecture enables drawing on individual talent and exploiting synergy between individuals with varying experiences; the process also comprises specific actions and engagements, which when shared in a social environment help motivate, inspire and evoke emulation of a practice. A community of practice provides an ideal context that enable educators to be more honest in evaluating their own technology skills and gaining confidence in seeking to develop skills. Pedagogical integration of emerging technologies is a practice highly influenced by individual attitudes in a social environment. In communities of practice faced with resource-constraints, the constantly evolving technologies, limited mentorship capacity, and mind-set are among the inhibitors in the social architecture that contributes to proficiency development in pedagogical integration of emerging technologies. This thesis concludes that social architecture in a community of practice contributes to the process of developing proficiency in pedagogical integration of emerging technologies. The design principles that emphasize configuration of a social architecture like interactions, networks and collaborations among educators are helpful in pedagogical integration of emerging technologies. It is therefore recommended that a social architecture in a community of practice be exploited by educators to enhance pedagogical integration of emerging technologies. The original contribution of this thesis is coming up with new design principles and theoretical insights related to a social architecture in a community of practice focused on pedagogical integration of emerging technologies.

Until the advent of democracy in 1994, apartheid education in South Africa was segregated along the lines of race and ethnicity, consequently disadvantaging historically Black universities. The implications of an undemocratic system meant that the educational experiences of students from historically disadvantaged education systems might be compromised. The impetus for this study arose from observations that students in a sport studies classroom were not engaging with one another, as they were organising themselves with peers from the same cultural group in classroom. While literature asserts that student engagement is linked to student success, explicit views of cross-cultural engagement fall short in the South African context. This study avers that traces of historically segregated cultures and sub-cultures are evident in a diverse institutional space. As diverse groups of students enter the classroom, it has been observed that they tend to gravitate toward peers from the same cultural groups. While a diverse classroom should create a culturally rich environment for knowledge building, through collaboration and engagement with peers, the diversification in the classroom hindered engagement and interaction, as well as knowledge sharing and cross-cultural student engagement. Knowledge, therefore, is generated and shared in cultural clusters, instead of across cultural clusters. The aim of this study is to develop a social-constructivist game-based learning model, by critically exploring the production and reproduction of cross-cultural interactions, using emerging technologies in sport studies. Game-based learning is regarded as a promising vehicle to facilitate students' active participation and engaged learning. This study, therefore, focused on digital games, wikis and blogs, as tools to transform social practices that impede cross-cultural engagement. Since sport is seen as a vehicle for social change, it may create a space where cross-cultural interactions can take place, thereby promoting social change and cohesion in a sport studies classroom. This study employed a sequential exploratory mixed method approach. The research approach involved the design and development of a digital game, which was then tested during the pilot phase of the project. After verification of the tool by the pilot study participants, data were collected from two cohorts of a sport studies discipline, across two phases of this study. This meant that the digital game functioned optimally without any malfunction. This involved 106 participants from a total population of 171 students. Phase One comprised a digital game-based intervention only. Phase Two comprised a game-based learning intervention, an authentic wiki task and a reflective blog. In order to determine the effect of the intervention on cross-cultural engagement, both quantitative and qualitative data were collected. Quantitative data consisted of validated pre- and post-test questionnaires. Quantitative data was analysed using inferential and descriptive statistics on SPSS v20. A repeated measures ANOVA was conducted on the data. Qualitative data comprised five focus group discussions and 58 reflective blog entries. Qualitative data were captured, coded and analysed using Atlas TI. The findings of the quantitative data reveal that there are distinct group preferences, which are linked to historical legacies of segregation, including socio-geographic containment. Crosscultural interactions are informed by mental traces, based on prior experiences, hindered by alliances. In addition, interaction preferences are linked to cross-cultural engagement. Structures that informed students' understanding of interactions were produced and reproduced as cross-cultural interaction was elevated because of group interaction. This study found that students drew on material resources, such as digital games, wikis and blogs to make sense of their interactions, which resulted in the reproduction and modification of rules (modalities), in order to recursively reproduce their social actions. This study concludes that games, alone, do not facilitate cross-cultural engagement, but need to be augmented with other technology tools, in order to produce and reproduce social practices of cross-cultural engagement in the classroom. This study also offers a theoretical contribution, in the form of a social-constructivist game-based learning model, to address cross-cultural interactions in the classroom.

Social Media(SM) is one of the major ways that the 21st Century students communicate and interact with one another. This has been evidenced by wide academic research on SM usage in modern education settings. Facebook is one of the most popular SM sites visited by students on a daily basis. In this minor-dissertation, a study of Bindura University Computer Science students' educational uses of Facebook during Industrial Attachment is explored. Qualitative results of students' interaction on Facebook (FB) to explore authentic learning during industrial attachment are discussed. In this study, conversation analysis of Facebook posts was performed against nine elements of authentic learning by Herrington Reeves and Oliver (2010). This was done to investigate the extent to which FB supported authentic learning during Industrial Attachment programme. Students were exposed to an environment where ideas could be explored at length in the context of real situations. Experiences shared and analysed showed that tasks assigned were complex and broad enough for students to actually make decisions about how they are supposed to complete them. This qualified authentic learning during industrial attachment.

This thesis originates from the realization that the pedagogy of history is becoming dangerously obsolete, as it does not always relate to the contemporary needs of 21st century learners, who often find learning history irrelevant to their present situation. This challenge is attributed to, among other reasons, the way history is taught employing largely behaviorist pedagogies with significantly reduced active learner engagement and little alignment to the way today's students learn. Gadamer's historical hermeneutic theory was employed to advocate for a dialogical approach between the past (part) and the present (whole) mediated by Emerging Technologies, specifically Wikis. Thus, the study is guided by three research questions: firstly, how is historicity constructed on the Wiki platform among pre-service teachers at Makerere University? Secondly, how is authenticity of history meanings constructed among pre-service teachers? Thirdly, what design principles guide a pedagogical framework for construction of historicity? A Design Based Research Methodology (DBR), with theoretically informed solutions aligned to the study problem, was used among pre-service teachers enrolled at Makerere University, Uganda, for the period 2013-2016. Consequently, four phases of DBR were employed: identification of the problem by the researcher in collaboration with practitioners; development of solutions informed by existing design principles and technological innovation; iterative cycles of testing and refinement of solutions and finally, reflection to produce design principles and enhance solutions (Reeves, 2006). Data from questionnaires, interviews and observations on the Wiki was gathered and analyzed through a hermeneutic cycle-driven analysis during DBR phase three. Key findings demonstrated that historicity is constructed through dialogical engagements between educator/researcher and students mediated on the Wiki. Authenticity of history meanings is achieved through collaborative editing, reviewing and sharing understandings on a Wiki. The practical contribution of this research lies in the creation of design principles (i.e. connecting with the present, appreciating heritage, dialogue in history, doing history, validating history and applying history) and a pedagogical framework to be used for the construction of historicity mediated by Wikis, while the theoretical contribution lies in the methodological approach of using DBR to systematically implement and operationalize historical hermeneutics theoretical constructs in History Education in the Ugandan context.

Includes bibliographical references, This study is set against the background of a continued lack of social engagement across difference in South African classrooms. It set out to explore the potential of a specific pedagogical intervention - digital storytelling - as a post-conflict pedagogy in a diverse pre-service teacher education classroom. Personal storytelling has long been used to unearth lived experiences of differently positioned students in the classroom. More recently, the use of digital technologies has made it easier to transform these personal stories into publishable, screenable and sharable digital resources. In general, digital storytelling is lauded in the literature for its potential to facilitate an understanding across difference, allowing empathy and compassion for the 'Other'. In this study, I question this potentially naive take on digital storytelling in the context of post-conflict pedagogies. I was interested in the emotions emerging - particularly in what I termed a potential sentimentality - in both the digital storytelling process and product. I looked at sentimentality in a specific way: as the tension between the centrality of emotions to establish an affective engagement between a storyteller and the audience, and digital stories' exaggerated pull on these emotions. This is seen, for example, in the difficulty that we have when telling stories in stepping out of normative, sentimental discourses to trouble the way we perform gender, race, class and sexuality, all of which are found in the actual stories we tell and the images we use. It is also found in the audience response to digital storytelling. Adopting a performative narrative inquiry research methodology, framed by theorists such as Butler, Ahmed, and Young, all three feminist authors interested in the politics of difference, working at the intersection of queer, cultural, critical race and political theory, I adopted three different analytical approaches to a narrative inquiry of emotions. I used these approaches to analyse stories told in a five-day digital storytelling train-the-trainer workshop with nine pre-service teacher-education students. Major findings of this study are: In everyday life stories, students positioned themselves along racial identities, constructing narratives of group belonging based primarily on their racialized identities. However, in some students' stories - particularly those that offer a more complex view of privilege, acknowledging the intersectionality of class, gender, age, sexuality and race - these conversations are broken up in interesting ways, creating connections between students beyond a racial divide. Looking at the digital story as a multimodal text with its complex orchestration of meaning-making through its different modes, it became clear to me that conveying authorial intent is difficult and that the message of a digital story can be compromised in various ways. The two storytellers I looked at in more detail drew from different semiotic histories and had access to different semiotic resources, such as different levels of critical media literacy, with this compromising their authorial intent to tell counterstories. Finally, the genre storytellers chose, the context into which their stories were told, along with their positioning within this context in terms of their privilege, affected the extent to which they could make themselves vulnerable. This consequently shaped the audience response, which was characterised by passive empathy, a sentimental attempt to connect to what makes us the 'same', rather than recognising systemic and structural injustices that characterise our engagements across difference.

Includes bibliographical references., Mobile phones are hardly used for teaching and learning in the study setting, the Polytechnic of Namibia. Formal learning that is widespread in the study setting does not allow the design of authentic learning tasks. Nevertheless, mobile learning allows the design of authentic learning tasks and enables students to construct knowledge socially in an informal learning environment that facilitates interaction and collaboration. Learning is a boundless social activity that takes place through engagement with others. As learning takes place through interaction, it cannot be confined to the classroom; it should involve transition between formal and informal learning. Learning is hence not confined to didactic methods and does not only take place through transmission of knowledge. New forms of learning are emerging whereby student interaction is enabled by technological tools, unlike formal learning that does not necessitate online tools. Mobile devices might thus be used to mediate convergence of formal and informal learning. This study was aimed to investigate how mobile-mediated social learning converges formal and informal learning, using a socio-constructivist approach. The study was conducted in the Department of Languages at the Polytechnic of Namibia in two phases, the pilot phase that was conducted in 2012, and the main study that was conducted in 2013. The study involved a total of ten students doing Language in Practice. Mobile applications, social media tools inclusive, have potential to change the traditional pattern of learning. They enable social construction of knowledge. As a social media tool, WhatsApp was used in this study as a platform for the participants in the study to exchange ideas and construct knowledge collaboratively.

Includes bibliographical references., Over the last 15 years, many South African universities have established Writing Centres as places to provide academic writing support to their students. The services offered are mostly free and voluntary and as such, there are no strict regulations regarding who should use them, and how often they should visit. Consequently, writing centres especially the newly established ones struggle to monitor the progress of the students they have helped once they have left the place, or even reach students in the places where they continue to write in order to offer additional support to students, which could positively influence their writing self-efficacy. This design-based research case study reports on an intervention run by one such writing centre where social media, specifically Facebook due to its popularity among students, was explored as a technology that can be adopted to reach and offer help to students beyond the confines of its physical space.

Includes bibliographical references., Transactional distance (TD) theory argues that psychological and communications barriers have the potential of creating misunderstandings in any formation of learning contexts. Distance education is seen as providing both opportunities and challenges. The distance programme being studied has experienced high deferment rates. However, the lack of communication infrastructural challenges and specifically lack of interaction is one major challenge hindering reduction of TD for remotely dispersed distance learners. It has become evident that WhatsApp popularity has risen; one unique feature is its affordance to enhance communication within a group. Hence, WhatsApp group was used to enhance interactions, as well as nurturing social engagement that creates dialogue and sharing amongst a virtual group. This study was aimed at enhancing dialogue as a potential of reducing TD amongst distance students for purposes of improving their study experiences. This study set out to explore how Salmon's (2000) 5-stage Model could be used as one way of implementing a mobile-mediated WhatsApp group activity as an opportunity to reduce TD. Six pre-service teachers participated in the WhatsApp mediated group activity virtually to try and find out how implementing a WhatsApp group activity could enhance dialogue consequently reduce TD.

Includes abstract., Includes bibliographical references., The use of mobile devices has grown in recent years and has overtaken the proliferation of desktop computers with their dual affordances of small size and easy connectivity in diverse fields. The usage of these devices has not been widespread in higher education. Mobile technology is a new and promising area of research in higher education. The affordance of mobile technologies has prompted their adoption as a means of enhancing face-to-face (f2f) learning. In this thesis, mobile lecturing is presented as a means of achieving mobile learning. The availability of mobile devices has positively enabled the mobile lecturing process. F2f lectures are recorded and distributed as lecture vodcasts using mobile devices. The vodcasts are generated through Opencast Matterhorn and YouTube. Currently, there are few descriptive models of mobile lecturing that can be used to enhance learning in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). This thesis has several contributions: first I propose a “MOBLEC” theoretical model of mobile lecturing; mobile lecturing represents a new paradigm in mobile learning which enhances students’ engagement with lecture vodcasts to foster deep learning. The second contribution of this thesis is a mobile lecturing tool, MOBILect. MOBILect is developed in HTML5 for cross-platform solution across most mobile devices. This tool enables students to use mobile devices to actively interact with lecture vodcasts and with peers using the vodcast. Finally, I use different case studies to evaluate the MOBLEC model to explore the effectiveness of mobile lecturing in enhancing learning in HEIs. The MOBLEC model is proposed to define mobile lecturing: it describes mobile lecturing as a process resulting from the convergence of mobile technologies, learning engagements and learning interactions. The case studies are evaluative, relying on a group of students to evaluate the MOBLEC by accessing MOBILect. Empirical data was acquired through triangulation method involving focus group discussions, open-ended questions and interviews. All the questions were based on the MOBLEC model. The result of the studies provided positive indicators as to the usefulness and effectiveness of mobile lecturing in engaging students to enhance and foster deep learning. Mobile lecturing, through augmenting and accessing lecture vodcasts on students’ mobile devices anywhere and at any time, with an affordance to comment and respond to comments, has potential for empowering students who might be struggling to understand f2f sessions and the aggregated comments become a valuable educational resource. The thesis also outlines areas for future research work.

This research investigates how Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) tools mediate in field supervision of undergraduate students. The research used Activity Theory systems to show that good supervisory practices lead to expansive learning. The study conducted over a two year period of eight weeks each, focussed on nine supervisors, students and administrators in the international programme (summer for the Western Countries) is organised by the College of Veterinary Medicine and Bio-Security of Makerere University. The students undertake field attachment and are supervised using various ICT tools. The research used qualitative methods and was grounded in Activity Theory. Data was collected through interviews, their participation and discussion in the Learning Management Systems (LMS) and the social media network (Facebook & Diigo) and through various feedback reports either from the supervisors or from the students to collect as much information as possible so as to understand the role ICT plays in this process. The research found that while ICT tools mediate in field supervision of undergraduate students through aggregation of multiple experiences and by providing a virtual proximity in the supervisory process. It also found that there are barriers in its usage which need to be addressed when doing so. These included; internet access and availability as key, power outages, and technical knowhow were also mentioned. The research further found that lack of adequate ICT tools to be used in the field, skills and at times failure to credit the source of content hindered its effectiveness. This inevitably creates lack of consistence in the way they are used. The research, therefore, concludes that there is need for a holistic approach to address the problem of barriers and usage so as to have a comprehensive implementation plan for the use of ICT in the supervisory process. This will assist supervisors in integrating them in their practice.

Includes bibliographical references., South African higher education is plagued by student articulation gap, which is often attributed to insufficient knowledge production processes and surface approaches to learning. Unfortunately, supervisor-student model of supervision, one of the direct, personal interventions to address this challenge, is plagued by multiple flaws. The traditional supervisor-student model of knowledge generation may not be adequate in externalizing research processes to students. Yet, a social learning model potentially extends the traditional model by providing a social environment where students collectively generate knowledge through peer-based interactions. Mindful of supervision dilemmas namely, this study explores technology-enhanced social learning environments as complements to traditional supervision models.

The study seeks to gain a rich and in-depth understanding of the nature of students learning, mediated by their participation insocial networks in three learning locations at the University of Cape Town (UCT), namely, (i) formal learning locations, such as scheduled classes and laboratory sessions; (ii) semi-formal learning locations, such as libraries, walk-in laboratories and mingling areas; and (iii) informal learning locations, such as after-hours work, university residences, and weekends in private homes.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 93-99)., Although Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has an empowerment and social inclusion effect in developed countries, it continues to create a digital divide in developing countries. This thesis is premised on the argument that, despite the disjuncture between ICT, social-cultural and developmental needs in a developing country, computer literacy training should continue to be offered and young people from economically and academically disadvantage backgrounds endeavour to acquire computer literacy skills. The objective of this study is to answer the question "Why do economically and academically disadvantaged young learners choose to engage with ICT and what role do they see for computer literacy?" Thus, the purpose of the study is to unfold learner agency in constraining conditions.

This study seeks firstly to understand the types of ePortfolios that the learners are expected to develop as per the rubric, secondly to understand the various types of knowledge that learners demonstrate during the process of creating ePortfolios, thirdly to determine the ePortfolio activity systems of second year learners and fourthly to determine the effectiveness of the rubric in assessing the various types of knowledge demonstrated by the learners while creating their ePortfolio.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 108-117)., Although reflective learning in higher education is increasing, not much research has been conducted on using reflective learning for discursive knowledge production among students whose first language is not English. Discursive knowledge production is the meaning making process initiated when one encounters new information. This implies that students whose first language is not English are less likely to be active discussants and are disadvantaged participants in discursive knowledge production activities. The research question this study sought to answer is: how are podcasts used to mediate reflection among postgraduate students at an institution of higher education? The researcher used Hatton and Smith’s framework to explore and identify the types of reflection that podcast use mediates.

This study investigates academic relations of educators, tutors, and students in university settings. Academic relations refer to the controlling and productive relations of power that operate at both societal and interpersonal level between academic actors and through them, knowledge is produced and identities are constructed. From a Critical theoretical point of view, power is unequally distributed in society and psychological development is fundamentally mediated by power relations which are socially and historically constituted. Given the capacity of power configurations to influence learning coupled with the fact that such relations are both relational and psychological, the notion of unequal social power is critical to understanding academic relations in university settings. The psychological and relational aspects of power suggest that underprepared students from disadvantaged academic backgrounds may suffer a sense of powerlessness and social domination as they interact with academics and more capable peers from privileged academic backgrounds. Research suggests that students (especially the previously disadvantaged) form peer-based knowledge sharing clusters (for example, study groups) to augment their intellectual potential and resource limitations. Mindful of these underprepared students' social domination (social and psychological) by high achieving peers and academics, and the capacity of peer-based clusters/ relations to democratise academic relations through presenting opportunities for exchange of perspectives, these peer-based relations present viable proxies for unpacking academic relations. The problem, therefore, is that while academic relations (lecturer-student, tutor-student, and student-peer) in face-to-face contact are quite central to student meaningful learning and transformation, capturing and studying these relations is complex. This complexity is explicated by the incapacity of traditional classrooms to capture and sustain academic relations due to: 1) The temporality, time and spatially bounded nature of academic relations in class, 2) Class sizes, academics' huge workloads and time constraints that limit one-on-one lecturer-student engagements especially at undergraduate level 3) Transmission pedagogy and classroom space configuration that mute lateral discourses, and 4) Student complex histories and cultural diversity. Research suggests that student knowledge sharing clusters are shifting from face-to-face to social networking sites (SNS), that is, online social networks that support group collaboration vii and support. The persistence of these online interactions, opportunities for peer-based discourses, peer-generation of artefacts on SNS challenge the limitations of traditional classrooms, making SNS essential for unpacking classroom lecturer-student and student-peer relations by proxy (if academics participate). These opportunities, and computer-mediated communication theory' suggestion that computer-mediated nature of textual interaction has potential to undermine status, gender and power asymmetries built in face-to-face interaction inform my thesis that SNS interaction has potential to equalise power relations of academic actors. The goal of this study was therefore, to use lecturer-student, student-peer interaction on SNS as proxies for unpacking academic relations and learning that unfold in traditional academic settings (classrooms, computer laboratories). The research question instigated the impact of lecturer-student, student-peer interaction on the academic /power relations and learning of academics and students in formal university settings. Using a Critical ethnographic approach, the research investigated power relations and learning manifested in: 1. academics and student text-based messages posted on SNS (Facebook), 2. lecturer and student experiences of using Facebook and its influence on classroom interactions, and 3. Lecturer-student and student peer interactions in class. Mindful of the democratisation potential of computer-mediated communication (CMC) on previously disadvantaged learners, the relational nature of power, the influence of structural forces on mediated interaction and higher mental development, this research was informed by three theories namely, Critical Theory of Technology (CTT), Critical Theories of Power (CTP), and Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), respectively. As a participant observer in online ethnography, the researcher employed CTT to examine the democratisation potential and constraints of computer-mediated communication (that is SNS) on learning and academic relations. While CTT was useful for examining the technological effects on mediated learning, the theory was less insightful for unpacking the power contestations in text-mediated discourses. To this end, Critical Discourse Analysis' (CDA) (which draws on CTP) was employed to examine how vertical and horizontal relational power were articulated and contested via textual messages, to complement CTT in its limitations. Although CTP was insightful for the examination of power manifested in lecturer-student, and peer-based interaction, CTP equally proved inadequate for the examination of mediated learning, that is, the role of artefact-mediated action on psychological development. Mindful viii of CHAT's focus on the influence of symbolic mediation on psychological development, CHAT offered a rational complement to CTP for the examination of mediated learning. This was important given that this research on academic/power relations and student learning unfolded in a technology-mediated learning environment (that is SNS). CHAT was adopted as a theoretical and methodological approach to examine how mediated interaction and the interplay of different elements of the lecture activity system impacted on student psychological development and lecturer's teaching practices. In summary, the study examined these empirical materials: text-based interactions (lecturer and student Facebook postings), lecturer and student narratives of lectures and Facebook interactions (interview transcripts, lecturer debriefings after classroom observations), in-class actions and discourses (lecture observations and focus group discussions). The findings of this study are that SNS democratized academic relations and communication for academically inclined students through: widening the academic networking space, breaching lecturer-student social boundaries that often hindered student access to knowledge resources, and offering 'safe haven' for student contestation of unpopular academic practices. Facebook also allowed shy and timid students to be more assertive in requesting academic support. The unintended effect of SNS was that it reconfigured peer-based relations as high achievers assumed additional vertical, 'super tutor' roles of advising peers. Facebook also regulated in-class interaction by hiving off mundane questions on course administration and practicals from the class. SNS thus augmented classroom interaction as online and classroom learning cross fertilised each other. The practical contribution of this work is in the insight into how student informal academic and social support online networks could be drawn upon in student in-class learning. The study proposed a 'best practice' pedagogical model/ strategy that draws on: 1) Informal peer-based and lecturer-student knowledge sharing on Facebook and associated SN tools, 2). Student reflexivity on self-generated and peer-generated content, and 3). Self and peer-based evaluation as a basis for academic empowerment. The theoretical contribution lies in the methodology or approach for analysing the interplay between academic relations and student learning using SNS as proxy. In particular, this work contributes a new body of knowledge through the integration of Critical Theories (Critical Theories of Power and Critical Theories of Technology) and CHAT.

Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 379-436). Has accompanying material on CD.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 277-299)., One of the most fundamental facets of knowledge is that it transforms as an outcome of individuals sharing experiences through interaction. Knowledge transformation is when there is a shift in view, perspective and the thought process consequent to a social activity. The problem for a contact university is that mobile learners do not have access to consistent social resources for academic support as they drift from formal to informal learning contexts. The alternative for these learners is to engage in a learning activity though social interaction with knowledgeable peers who share a background. Learning actions are influenced gy changes in the environment and social awareness. Social awareness is synonymous with awareness of context and social presence. This research was a learning expedition towards understanding the phenomenon of ubiquitous mobile learning where knowledge transformation is a result of social awareness activities of mobile learners as they traverse varied learning contexts. Mobile learning is signified by mobility of learners regardless of mobile technology.