Welcome to all the new Emerging Technology participants

We as facilitators are all really looking forward to meeting you face to face quite soon and to hearing about your teaching and learning experiences in higher ed

BJET special issue - Emerging Technologies and Changing Learning/Teaching Practices

We are proud to announce a call for papers for a special edition on "Emerging Technologies and Changing Learning/Teaching Practices". Two of our project team members, Prof. Dick Ng’ambi and Prof. Vivienne Bozalek, will be guest editors.

This Special Journal Issue on Emerging Technologies and Changing Learning / Teaching Practices, BJET Volume 44, Issue 4, will be published in July 2013.

Overview:

The education sector in general and higher education in particular is under pressure to respond to concerns of the effectiveness and outcomes of teaching and learning. Both educators and students are exploiting ubiquitous and emerging technologies to respond to various teaching and learning challenges. Some of the consequences of emerging technologies include the rise in personal learning environments, decrease in reliance on institutionally regulated learning environments, need for more integration of formal with informal learning; life-wide with life-long learning; and demand for ‘flexible student-centered learning, where students can access learning at times and places which are personalized and suitable for them’ (Johnson et al., 2010). There is no doubt that changes in teaching and learning environments are increasingly being impacted by uses of emerging technologies. However, the extent to which the uses of emerging technologies contribute to effectiveness and or outcomes of teaching and learning remain unexplored. This special edition will focus on how emerging technologies are being used to transform teaching and learning practices in higher education, which may lead to qualitative outcomes in education. We are therefore inviting submission of papers for BJET Special Issue located at the intersection of emerging technologies, teaching/learning challenges, and emergent practices

For more information visit the BJET website.

First 2012 face to face meeting in Cape Town - 16th of March 2012

The project team met for the first time in 2012 face to face in Cape Town at UWC to discuss the project status. A particular focus of the meeting was the development of institutional case studies and the preparations of our contribution to the BJET special edition on emerging technologies. The day also included individual reflections on the term emerging technologies, with the aim of developing our own shared understanding of this often elusive term.

Ascelite presentation

Ascilite11 presentation v bozalek slim

View more presentations from Vivienne Bozalek

What are emerging technologies?

One of the recurring conversations in this project has been around the question "what are emerging technologies" in higher education. We have returned to this question in most of our meetings, and the answer, like the technologies, is still emerging.

We seem to be fairly clear about the term technologies. We are understanding this quite narrowly to mean information and communication technologies. (Although I might be being presumptuous here. This is not something we have discussed. Perhaps we have different understandings?)

Our discussions have revolved around what we consider emergent. At first we grappled with definitions, but there are clear differences here.

Firstly, there seems to be agreement that emergent technologies are not just new technologies. Indeed this has been confirmed by our research. When we asked lecturers to tell us about the most innovative technologies they are using, the overwhelming response was learning management systems (LMSs), not a technology that is in any way new.

One line of argument is that emergent technologies are those that are in the process of being used more widely. They are emerging into the mainstream of academic practice. By this measure, most ICTs are emergent because higher education in South Africa has made little use of them until recently. If we observe more and more people using a technology, we call it emergent at the point where its use is gaining momentum, before it is ubiquitous.

A second line of argument is that emerging technologies are those that have emergent properties, so that the impact they have goes beyond just their use. Technologies are emergent when they are used in ways that do not simply replicate existing teaching practices, using technology, but transform teaching and learning. So making course content available for students to download instead of providing printed notes would not be emergent, but making materials available before class and then using the lecture time for more active learning might be.

I think that both of these definitions could be valid and interesting. The first is easier to research. One can count what is being use, how frequently and how widespread the use is. The second is more difficult because we would need to identify the emergent properties and those can be hard to spot, particularly in the educational context.

We seem to have settled on the following characteristics of emerging technologies, thanks to Veletsianos, rather than a definition.

Emerging technologies..

1. May or may not be new

2. Are evolving

3. Go through recognisable hype cycles

4. Are not yet fully understood

5. Are not yet fully researched

6. Are potentially disruptive, but this potential is as yet unfulfilled

(Veletsianos, 2010:13-17)

But there are concerns that these criteria might not be complete. I am also concerned that they capture neither of the two perspectives outlined above.

I hope that by opening up the debate we may be able to capture some of the conversations we've had and clarify our thoughts. I look forward to other contributions.

Emerging Technologies in SA HEIs: towards transformative teaching and learning practice

This is the presentation we did for the 2011 HELTASA conference:

2011 11 29 emerging technologies heltasa

View more presentations from Daniela Gachago

Face to face meeting in Port Elizabeth

The whole project team including three new PHD students, who will join the project in 2012, met in Port Elizabeth before the HELTASA conference for a 2 day face to face meeting.

Apart from enjoying an amazing view and swimming in the Indian ocean, the two days were packed with presentations about past research, discussions, planning for next year...


As one of the resolutions for next year, we decided to start some opinion pieces on this blog on topics discussed in the project. So watch out for some interesting stuff to come up here!