Daniela Gachago , Eunice Ivala and Agnes Chigona

1. Disrupting teaching and learning with emerging technologies: lecturers’ experiences at a University of Technology in South Africa

2. Daniela Gachago, Eunice Ivala and Agnes Chigona A collaboration between Fundani - Centre for Higher Education Development and the School of Education and Social Sciences at the Cape Peninsula University of Technologies (CPUT)

3. Impact of technologies in education falls short of rhetoric… • …when ICTs are adopted by majority of teaching staff, it is mostly used to support and improve existing practices, rather than to radically change them (Kirkup and Kirkwood 2005) • …use of technology predominantly to reproduce existing practice as opposed to transforming practice … (Velestianos 2011) • Rise of use of emerging technologies in Higher Education

4. Horizon 2012 report (Johnson et al. 2012) • Technologies to watch • Short term: mobile technologies, tablet computers • Mid-term: game based learning, learning analytics • Long-term: gesture-based computing, Internet of things

5. Characteristics of emerging technologies • Encourage openness and flexibility • Provide real-life connection / authentic audience • Focus on collaboration and sharing • Mobility / ubiquitous learning • Placing the control over teaching and learning process firmly in the hands of students and lecturers as opposed of the institution

6. Can they transform teaching and learning?

7. Research aims • To investigate how lecturers used emerging technologies in relation to specific teaching and learning events • To explore the potential of these technologies to disrupt existing teaching and learning practices

8. Conceptual framework

9. Blogs, wikis, Facebook, Mxit, skype, Twitter, gmail…. Czerniewicz & Brown 2005

10. Findings

11. RQ1: How do lecturers use emerging technologies in relation to specific teaching and learning events Data collection method: survey tool, adapted from tool developed by Czerniewicz and Brown (2005) Analysis using SPSS, frequencies, statistical tests (Fisher Exact test)

12. Learning strategies

13. Mapping use of ET and learning events…

14. Comparison learning strategies all users / high level of ET Users

15. RQ2: What is the potential of these technologies to disrupt existing teaching and learning practices Five in depth interviews with lecturers who were identified as high users of emerging technologies in survey (Facebook, Skype, Gmail, Twitter, Mxit, YouTube videos)

16. It should be student-centered, with learning put first, and flexible enough to accommodate different styles and interests of students. It should provide necessary support, but require that the student do the work. • It should be designed to offer options, motivate students, and provide connections to students’ lives, jobs, and communities. • It should capitalize on the willingness of lecturers and students alike to experiment and fail, to improve, and to keep at problems until solutions are crafted. Disruptive nature of emerging technologies Meyer 2010

17. “…more self-directed learning...those who want to can learn more than is necessary; it’s not boxed in, it’s not confined. We have outcomes but how they get there, it can be easily navigated...” “Every second week the students are allowed to or invited to present their own topic and their own TED talk...and then usually chaos erupts because they choose controversial topics that are very close to their heart but not close to anybody else’s”

18. It should be student-centered, with learning put first, and flexible enough to accommodate different styles and interests of students. It should provide necessary support, but require that the student do the work. • It should be designed to offer options, motivate students, and provide connections to students’ lives, jobs, and communities. • It should capitalize on the willingness of lecturers and students alike to experiment and fail, to improve, and to keep at problems until solutions are crafted. Disruptive nature of emerging technologies Meyer 2010

19. “It’s a way of doing life. It’s a network. It’s not doing computers. It’s not doing mobile learning. It’s just learning – it’s just life.” “Also continuing the learning beyond the classroom and beyond the studio...you know if you commit yourself to Architecture ... it doesn’t, you can never escape it, it never stops.” “Our students generally don’t have a wide exposure to life. Their life is you know it’s the townships...its MXit, its TV...its Generations, its Rhythm City and that’s it...they don’t read the newspapers...they don’t listen to the radio...they don’t read...listen to the news...and so part of my TED talks is to expand their horizons....they are usual visual creatures and they want to see what’s going on...”

20. It should be student-centered, with learning put first, and flexible enough to accommodate different styles and interests of students. It should provide necessary support, but require that the student do the work. • It should be designed to offer options, motivate students, and provide connections to students’ lives, jobs, and communities. • It should capitalize on the willingness of lecturers and students alike to experiment and fail, to improve, and to keep at problems until solutions are crafted. Disruptive nature of emerging technologies Meyer 2010

21. “I mean Twitter...how long had Twitter been out? What’s going to happen at the end of the year? There is going to be another programme...so we can’t say we have reached the end of it. We’ve never. So there will be a new technology, it may be...I mean Whatsapp...all of a sudden they are all on Whatsapp...they actually asked me the other day please can I Whatsapp you? I said no, no, no...I also got a life. But I will have to use Whatsapp as well. That’s what they want to do...” “We’ve never needed support...you press the help button or you Google it!” “It takes hours of preparation…you can ask my husband, you know I used to have a life but my job ate it…I spend hours and weekends at preparing lessons like this. But the thing is once I’ve used it now, that lesson I can use next year again…but then each year there’s something new so then, I change it…”

22. Discussion and conclusions

23. Emerging technologies… • Promote student-centered learning, student engagement and active participation in the learning process (Junco et al 2011) • Students take control over learning, including peer support and assessment (Casey &Evans 2011, Williams et al. 2011) • Linking students to wider academic and professional community, providing authentic audience • Facilitation of collaboration and expanding learning beyond classroom (Johnson & Adams 2011, Ivala & Gachago 2012) • Activation of individual agency, intrinsic motivation • Transient nature of technologies

24. Conclusions • Confirming previous findings we established that majority of lecturers use a very limited range of learning events • BUT: use of emerging technologies seem to broaden the range of learning events lecturers engage with…especially when it comes to dialogical and collaborative learning events • Evidence of disruptive nature of emerging technologies: focus on opening up boundaries, transferring control and responsibility towards students, providing exciting learning opportunities, enthusiasm! • Recognize champions who use ICTs creatively and widen application of technology in T&L • Create a space to engage in a discussion around the use of institutional and non-institutional technologies to advocate comprehensive of use of ICTs in teaching and learning

25. Thank you! • Any questions? • Contact: • Daniela Gachago at gachagod@cput.ac.za • Eunice Ivalaivalae@cput.ac.za • Agnes Chigonachigonaa@cput.ac.za • More information on blog www.edutechcput.wordpress.com • We would like to acknowledge the CPUT Riftal fund which funded this project and the NRF project on the use of Emerging Technologies in SA Higher Education for the knowledge shared and gained in this project

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