ObservatoryICT

All computers on the education campus have Internet connectivity, via cabled connections with the main campus of the University. All connectivity is broadband connection. There are currently plans to provide three centres for wireless connection in the open spaces of the major buildings on campus (Bohlaleng, Leseding and Marang). Bandwidth is 1024kbps for all users. 

The Computer and Network Services (CNS) division of the University of the Witwatersrand supports and maintains the IT infrastructure on the School of Education campus, as it does for all sections of the Univeristy. It works according to the following mission statement: * Assist Wits University in 'leveraging'[sic]Information Technology to deliver high quality education to the Wits student community *Provide Information Technology systems that enable the strategies of the various faculties and support departments *Provide strategic planning and technical direction in the integration of new and existing information technologies and in extracting value out of these systems *Provide leadership in the efficient and effective use of information technology resources within the University *Provide a reliable, available and secure computing environment to the University as a whole A dedicated, full-time CNS computer technician sees to the needs of the education campus. 

In general, staff and students use the Microsoft Office suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc) in their everyday work. For the most part, staff members use Excel for their local, personal administration systems, and upload data periodically into the University's institution-wide administrative system, based in Oracle. The University holds a WebCT8 licence,and makes this LMS available to all its staff members for use in their courses, should they wish to do so. There is currently some debate in the institution about the merits of open source LMS products (in particular, SAKAI)as opposed to the commercial one, but nothing has come of it at this stage.  

The School of Education is the education wing of Wits University. It is part of the Faculty of Humanities, as one of its 5 schools. The School of Education is housed on its own campus, effectively run separately from the rest of the Faculty. From July 2008, the School is expected to have a student enrolment of 2983 students, made up as follows: Initial (preservice)teacher training: 1191. In-service teacher reskilling: 900. Postgraduate education students: 892. The School consists of 8 Divisions: Mathematics and Science Education; Humanities & Social Science Education; Language Education; Applied English Language Studies; Technology, Economics and Information Science Education; Educational Leadership and Policy Studies; Curriculum; Education Studies. There are 3 specialist research units in the School: the Education Policy Unit; the Marang Centre for Mathematics and Science Education; and the Centre for Deaf Studies. The School of Education is focused on specifically here in order to allow comparative analysis of ICT integration in teacher education programmes in South Africa. The School offers a range of undergraduate, postgraduate, and certificate programmes in education that train and develop primary, secondary and tertiary educators. The School offers both part and full time programmes, including block release options. 

The vast majority of teacher educators are ICT literate on the basic Microsoft software packages, and on specialist university administrative systems carried on the Oracle platform. They tend to use ICTs in preparing materials for lectures, seminars and practicals that they run. In addition, all staff members use (are required to use) ICTs for administration purposes. Although there was a very poor response rate to questionnaires sent out to individual staff members, managers indicate that all staff members are frequent users of the Internet, which they use to find and supplement their teaching resources. Only six members of the School staff, however, have used the LMS (WebCT) made available by the University for the delivery and/or support of courses online. Two senior staff members participate in international collaborations between various universites in which online postgraduate courses are offered jointly between various institutions.  

The initial teacher training curriculum offered by the institution is the Bachelor of Education (BEd)degree, focused in one of three areas: *Foundation Phase (FP)(junior primary) *Intermediate & Senior Phase (InterSen) *Further Education & Training (FET) Each student who passes through this programme is required to complete two courses related to the use of computers in education: EDUC1055 Computers in Education A EDUC1056 Computers in Education B (Syllabus: Hardware and software, operating systems, databases and programming languages with relevance to teacher education, with emphasis on the roles of interpreter and designer of learning programmes and materials, and subject/phase specialist; competence in the use of characteristic language, terminology and concepts; performing administrative duties required for the effective management of learning environments; selecting and designing appropriate assessment tasks.) 

Th institution offers four different routes for continuing education of teachers in the terrain of educational technology: ACE - Specialization in InterSen: Languages and Information Technology First year of study: EDUC1409 Studies in Education A EDUC1139 Professional Studies A EDUC1100 Languages A EDUC1072 e-Learning for Schools A (The syllabus for this altter coruse is as follows: Rationale for the use of computers in education including analysis and critical review of delivery modes; comparative study of hands-on classroom learning, self-paced learning and learning in a “virtual” classroom environment; analysis of currently available learning technologies; evaluating the effectiveness of e-Learning in terms of current research; considerations of the strength and weaknesses of e-Learning within the social and ethical context of the South African educational system; how learners interact with on-line learning; electronic communication and networking; methodologies for interactive multimedia; introduction to electronic lesson design.) Second year of study: EDUC2174 Studies in Education B EDUC2122 Professional Studies B EDUC2084 Languages B ACE - EDUC1073 e-Learning for Schools B (Syllabus: Application of simulations and games in education; integration of e-Learning into the current school curriculum including development of e-Learning strategy in an educational system; design of appropriate e-Learning solutions, and employment of the best technology and techniques for different learning needs; validation and evaluation of e-Learning programmes – theoretical and practical considerations; review of e-Learning software management systems, including a critical review of strengths and weaknesses of currently available systems; major e-Learning project which includes development of an e-Learning programme suitable for use in schools.) ACE - Specialization in eLearning EDUC1207 Computers in Schools (Syllabus: Computer and information literacy appropriate to the use of ICTs by educators. The use of computers in schools for pedagogic, organizational and administrative purposes. ICT and curriculum. Planning, management and financing of ICTs in schools.) EDUC1206 Multimedia Education (Syllabus:Use of multimedia in educational delivery, focusing on multiple forms of information content and information processing (e.g. text, audio, graphics, animation, broadcast media, video, pervasive computing) and their articulation in schools and other educational contexts. The design of hypertext and multimedia learning environments. The use of Learning Management Systems. Digital publication.) EDUC2177 eLearning Pedagogy and Assessment (Syllabus: The practice of teaching using digital technologies. Investigation of the main theories of learning and pedagogy that have reflected on and informed practice in regard to the pedagogic integration of ICTs in education. The possibilities and limitations of online assessment systems. EDUC2178 eLearning Practice (Syllabus: In depth study of and training in relation to one or more selected, extant ICT innovation projects in education. BEd Hons General field EDUC4005 Educational Theory, Research and Enquiry I EDUC4006 Educational Theory, Research and Enquiry II EDUC4032 On-line Teaching and Learning (The unit deals with information literacy, or the ability to participate in the information society with ability to access, evaluate and create knowledge. It provides students with opportunities to understand some issues related to learning in the information society and gain competence in facilitating learning through ICTs. The unit covers the following themes: Education in the language society, the Internet and education, from information to knowledge, the search for, and critical evaluation of electronic resources and the mediation of learning on the Internet.) AELS4019 Teaching Materials: Principles, Practices and Design (Students pursuing the educational technology route will concentrate in this course on the development of online teaching materials. The module focuses on training students to develop and evaluate a range of online teaching and learning materials, including both print and media based materials, but emphasizing one or the other. Students are exposed to some of the key debates in materials and syllabus design and given the opportunity to realize their implicit theories of education through the production of online teaching materials suitable for their own contexts.) EDUC4036 Project in Education (An independent research project on a topic in eLearning or Educational Technology MEd by Coursework and Dissertation EDUC7029 Psychology and Pedagogy (Crucial contemporary debates in and about educational psychology which have implications for teaching and learning in South Africa. Students will pursue a research and writing programme focused on learning in relation to educational technology through this course). EDUC7097 Studies in the Field of Educational Technology (The course is designed to provide a broad, critical, high-level foundation for research and practice in relation to e-Learning and the pedagogic integration of ICTs. It comprises the philosophical, social, pedagogic and technological study of prominent contemporary issues in the field of educational technology.) EDUC7098 Design and Development of Online Learning (The course aims to develop critical, grounded knowledge and skills in the development of online pedagogies and learning materials. It spans a range of perspectives on learning management systems and the publication of digital education resources, and seeks to develop expertise in the area known variously as instructional design, learning design, or online materials development.) EDUC7031 Research Report on a topic in or related to Educational Technology  

Every single staff member of the institution has his/her own desktop PC, all networked and connected to the Internet, and all capable of running at least WindowsXP. For students, the following facilities are available in six computer laboratories on the campus: 1. MATHEMATICS LABORATORY - 30 computers - for maths and science undergraduate and postgraduate students. 2. 3 "COMPUTYPING" LABORATORIES - 3 x 25 computers - for the teaching of undergraduate ICT courses. 3. POSTGRADUATE COMPUTER LABORATORY - 25 computers - for teaching and general sue by postgraduate students. 4. CNS LABORATORY - 28 computers - a 24/7 walk-in laboratory for general use by all students. 5. A specialized COMPUTER LABORATORY FOR DISABLED STUDENTS, containing 5 computers equipped with specialized hardware devices and software packages for use by students who are visually impaired, deaf and/or physically disabled. From July 2009, a further walk-in 100 seater laboratory will be available for all students, with full-time staff available to assist them with the acquisition of necessary computer and related skills on a 'just-in-time' basis. 14/03/11 The lab is functional now.  

The vast majority of teacher educator staff employ computers to prepare materials for their learners - course outlines, reading materials, etc. Some 40% use Powerpoint presentations in their lecturing, while less than 10% use ICTs more extensively in their work (for example, by mounting their courses on WebCT). Every single teacher educator who responded to our questionnaire (response rate = 8.5%)draws extensively on resoruces picked up off the Internet (Google being the favoured search engine) in his or her teaching.  

Internet and library searches. Word processing. There is very little evidence of any other sustained uses of ICTs by students (learners) in the institution in the course of their work. 14/03/11 A number of courses use the Blackboard Learning Management System for online tuition and for presentation of reading material. Some courses use Facebook for group academic discussions.  

Female learners access computers and the internet from home and from the university. Those who have access to the internet at home prefer to work from home especially when researching because there is no noise and disruption like in the computer labs. One of the learners said she never works from the labs because she does not have patience to stand in ques to go into the labs. She also said there is not much time between periods to work productively on the internet. Those who have no access to the internet in their homes are forced to stay in campus for longer hours to do research work for their assignments. The point of access is not a choice and they wish they had an alternative. They can work on weekends as long as they have their student cards that give them access but they cannot get assistance from the support staff as they are off. If the printer runs out of paper they cannot print their assignments.  

Male learners get access to the computers in the campus and at home. One of the learners actually said he has two points of access to the internet at home. He either uses his 3G card when using his laptop to access internet or the home connection from the desktop. If he needs privacy and focus he works from his laptop but if he has to stay for longer hours he works on the home desktop whenever it is convenient. The other learner said he relies on the internet access at campus as it is free and reliable. Although he has a computer at home, it is not connected. 

Females use a wide variety of internet social networks. They use Facebook, Skype, Twitter and Hi5. What network they use depends on the purpose and who they want to chat with. They prefer Facebook because it is cheaper and they are able to chat with many people. Most of the female learners do not use social networks for academic purposes but to keep in touch with acquintances. One of them said she used Facebook last year in a chat group where they were supposed to discuss a topic in their theory of education course. She found the experience very useful and reccommended that educators guide learners in using it. 

Male learners use Facebook. One of them said he uses it simply because everyone uses it to keeo in touch. He does not like it because he feels the relationships built there and the content thereof are not of substance. He wished it could be use for development of serious conversations that can lead to creation of quality and useful information and relationships. The same learner supported the female learner who suggested that if social networks like Facebook are to be used for educational prposes, teachers need to guide learners into productive communications. Groups could be formed to discuss academic related issues. 

As indicated elsewhere in this database, virtually all lecturers use basic ICT tools - wordprocessing, presentations prepared for PowerPoint or as OHP slides, and the Internet, in their teaching. However, the figure adduced in 4.5.2 above refers to more extensive and sophisticated uses of ICTs, which appear in at least the following courses: UG Computers in Education A & Computers in Education B - taught by means of porgrammed in-house software to develop basic computer literacy UG Early Childhood Development B - taught using a blog which students contribute to, building up a picture of child developemtn in the first five years as the course proceeds. UG Early Childhood Development D - WebCT Hons Online Teaching and Learning - WebCT MEd Psychology and Pedagogy - WebCT MEd Education in Developing Countries - taught in an online collaboration with Teachers College, Columbia University, New York. The picture that emerges here is one of a handful of lecturers who do innovative work in extended ICT-based course delivery, yet a large number who use PowerPoint and other presentation tools to assist them in their formal lectures and with the preparation of learning material for students. This is indirectly refelcted by the response rate(8.5%)from lecturing staff to our questionnaire. 

All respondents (and lecturers in general, in various ways) acknowledge that they are well supported in the provision of ICTs (hardware, software and technical support). Acknowledging that respondents were a minority of the lecturing staff of the institution, there is an emerging consensus amongst them that “e-Learning is upon us”. Reference was made to all the recent developments in the School and in the university at large that are making ICT resources available to students and staff, and encouraging their use. This includes new computer laboratories, more access to learning management systems and to e-resources through the University’s libraries, and the like. One respondent made note of the immanent appointment of a new Deputy Vice-Chancellor for “Knowledge and Information Management” as a sign that the University was taking issues of ICTs, including their pedagogic integration, seriously. (Note: the post has now been filled as of the beginning of 2009).  

Although, as pointed out in 4.6.1, there is a view in the School that e-Learning is increasingly important, there are various obstacles to its realization. The following points emerge from a survey of minutes of staff meetings over the past two years: • Adapting to the use of ICTs in teaching and learning takes time, and staff are already overworked in their current roles. • The design and development of online learning materials is a specialist skill, and staff in general do not have these skills. Note that the tendency in these debates is a view that staff should in the long term be ‘empowered’ to do carry out these tasks themselves. They should not be entrusted to technocratic instructional designers who themselves have no knowledge of the discipline. • The fact that the School has not yet been able to network computers used in lecture halls with the general system that links office computers to each other is a drawback.  

The access to ICT in general supports its use by learners. Learners use ICT to complete a number of different tasks. They use Microsoft Word for typing up assignments, essays and anything else which has to be done for university. Almost all of their assignments have to be typed up. This means that access to ICT at university is essential for learners who do not have access to ICT outside of university. The use of internet is also a common factor supporting the use of ICT by learners. The internet is used mainly to do research, but also to access email accounts. Internet is also commonly used in order to access websites such as WebCT (for lecture notes), Facebook and also sometimes YouTube. The new system in which a learner can put money credit onto their student card is a good one. This credit can be used for printing and photocopying. This system is much more efficient and effective than the old system, in which people would have to follow a number of complicated steps, involving a number of different people in order to print one single page. With the new system, learners are able to load credit onto their student cards and then just swipe them when necessary at the required machine.  

A number of learners spend many hours on the computers on websites such as Facebook or YouTube. This uses up a lot bandwidth, meaning that learners who need to do work for university are unable to access the internet sites they need. Many people also listen to music in the labs at very high volume levels and talk loudly, making it difficult for people who are working to concentrate. The fact that so many people on computers are not using them for university work and that there are far too few computers for the number of learners on campus results in long queues forming inside and outside the labs. Many people can't use the computers for academic work and therefore miss their deadlines because of this fact. As already mentioned, there are too few computers on campus for the high number of learners (at least 1000) needing to use them. There are only 27 computers, 2 printers and 3 copiers available to most learners. This is a tiny number considering the huge number of learners on campus needing to use these facilities. Most learners have to have their assignments typed up and if they don't have a computer at home, they HAVE to use computers at university. A lack of easily accessible facilities results in many assignments being handed in unnecessarily late. There are often problems with the printers - they are often broken, they have no paper and people's assignments often get mixed up. There is also not enough help/education on how to use the new money credit system on student cards and the computer labs. There is also no way of checking to balance on one's card when printing or photocopying. The computer labs are often booked by lecturers during lecture times, meaning that learners who wish to use the labs for work have to go to other campuses to use the computers there. Learners feel that there should be a time limit on the use of computers, whether a learner is typing an assignment or surfing the internet for nothing in particular. There is a mathematics computer lab which is technically only for mathematics learners. Learners take their own paper to print and they do not have to pay to do so. Many non-mathematics learners who know about this lab use it because it is generally more efficient than the normal labs. The EMS learners are given paper for printing whereas no other learners get this, even if they actually print much more than EMS learners. Non-qualified people try to help with problems in the lab when they don't know what they're doing because the qualified people are either too lazy or not present. Monitors generally don't do their jobs properly. The computer monitors who are there to help often don't care about doing their jobs. They're not very helpful. Many people jump the long queues because their friends have saved them a computer. This is unfair for learners who have to wait a long time in these queues. There is a lack of proper communication and learners are not informed about important things concerning the computer labs. Most learners don't know how to engage with the university about problems with the ICT system. There is not enough technological education for teachers-in-training. There is not much help available as to how the labs work. Most learners have to work out for themselves how everything works and there is no active effort by the computer monitors to help learners to understand the system. Load shedding is also a problem because learners are not forewarned as to if and when the electricity is going to go out. Often the electricity will cut, resulting in learners losing unsaved work.  

The majority of respondents said that they regarded basic computer literacy, including knowledge of PowerPoint, and the ability to use data projectors,as the necessary competence in this regard. Only one respondent made mention of a less technology-driven criterion: "the ability to understand how knowledge can be represented in multiple ways, beyond the limitations of written text, in a multimedia environment."  

Learners participate in a short computer course in first year in which they learn how to use Microsoft PowerPoint. They are not given the opportunity to explore, but are rather taught in a step-by-step, very precise yet limiting manner. This is helpful for computer illiterate learners, but not for more advanced computer users. Many people have had absolutely no access to computers before university and these people need to be helped and taught accordingly. Teachers-in-training are not taught how to use smart boards, which are often used when teaching. Many people don't know how to research assignments. They need to be taught how to do this. Many people learn about how to use the internet and other useful ICT resources through tutors, secondary school, etc, not through direct means. This is not taught in computer courses at university. There is no guidance for learners trying to use ICT. They often end up having to find out things for themselves. Learners often don’t know the difference between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ websites. If learners were taught more about the use of computers, there would be fewer people using up computer time trying to figure out how to use the equipment.  

For the most part in the School there is a resistance on the part of lecturers to engage explicitly with this kind of question. It is obvious from general exchanges with them that the majority use ICTs in their work: however, few see value in explicit reflection on ICT integration. This is reflected in the reluctance on the part of academic staff members to respond to our questionnaire on these issues. Our research team has been struck by this tendency, and believe that it needs more careful reflection and research in order to understand how ICTs impact of teaching and learning. The following general points of interest emerged from our respondents: the quality of lecture and tutorial preparation is improved by ICT-enabled access, including research for articles and the designing of materials. However, there was also a feeling that the use of ICTs means that such preparation takes more time. A computer literacy lecturer was very enthusiastic (see attached document): “my lessons are all designed around tasks in Microsoft [Office], e-mail and Internet. …. I demonstrate tasks to students using a data projector.”  

All respondents felt that ICTs allowed them to prepare and to present learning tasks to students more clearly, using data projectors and other technical means. All of them (and this I obviously a general feeling across the School, beyond our respondents) felt that technologies meant that learning materials were more easily prepared, and tended to be neater and more easily understood by students than had been the case in the past. A Maths lecturer was particularly enthusiastic: “Speed of learning has been increased– easier detection of errors in Maths applications … and concepts are formulated in shorter periods of time.”  

The general assessment procedure in the School was summarized by one respondent as follows: “marks are captured and calculated using MSExcel. Ultimately the exam mark and the year marks are inputted into our academic mark system for each course.” All lecturers (are required to) use ICTs in these functions. Most of our respondents indicated that they use computer programmes for practical assessment purposes, although this tended to be for administrative rather than for actual educational evaluation purposes. Only one respondent used such a software programme.All respondents used ICTs for the preparation of assignments and exams. One specific advantage of this was indicated as follows: “Feedback – quick to have colleagues edit or make comments on assignments and exams before submitting for printing”. One reason for this reluctance to explore ICTs in assessment is a general perception that technology can only be used for narrow, one dimensional forms of assessment, such as multiple-choice questioning strategies. There are, however, two lines of exploration in the School emerging that challenge this assumption: i. the exploration of blogging, web-based discussion groups, etc. for assessment purposes, and ii. the development of MCQs designed to assess depth in learning, specifically in relation to the multiple representation possibilities that are made possible in hypertext learning environments. One important tendency relates to postgraduate supervision of theses and dissertations. Most supervisors – and we verified this informally by brief interviews with more that just our formal respondents – use the ‘track changes’ function in MS Word extensively in providing feedback to drafts of students’ work.  

Most lecturers employ e-mail communication with postgraduate students (i.e. at Masters and PhD levels), but there is little formal communication with students on a one-to-one basis at the undergraduate and Honours levels. Two respondents indicated that they sent messages to their undergraduate students using e-mails, and four indicated that they allowed students to submit assignments electronically. It is interesting to note that, of all the lecturers who use the WebCT to deliver their courses, only one seems to sue the ‘chatroom’ facility for active communication with her students.  

In general, respondents felt that the advent of digital ICTs in teaching and learning has made them think much more about the way they present knowledge to their students. The much easier use of multimedia teaching and learning strategies seems to be the main reason for this. One respondent in extended this even further: “the main thing that the use of computer technology has made me think about is how knowledge is represented. While formal written text must, in my view, remain the core of the academic enterprise, teaching students to arrive at an understanding of the knowledge systems that give rise to academic knowledge and debate in the first place can certainly rely on the non-linear representation of knowledge that ICTs – in particular, hypertext – makes possible.” There was also a strong sense that ICTs enhanced the ability of the lecturer to evaluate his or her own teaching. One respondent spoke of how she “thinks much more about the medium” that she did in the past, and another indicated that ICT usage “helps me to evaluate my teaching. As a result I have retaught sections in Maths, due to misconceptions that I could pick up from diagnostic testing.”  

The access to ICT equipment helps the learners when it comes to typing up and researching assignments, essays, etc. However, this can be a bit frustrating sometimes. For example, when saving documents, it is not always clear where to save one’s document or where it has been saved. If a learner has not been taught how to save a document correctly, that learner could easily lose the assignment or essay which they have just typed up. It is also a problem for the learners when the ICT equipment is not working as it should and there is no-one present who is qualified to fix it. Overall, the access to ICT has a good impact on learning, but it could definitely be better if the above-mentioned problems could be addressed and resolved. Despite this, it is important to note that the access to ICT is essential for people who don't have their own computer or printer at home. For many people, the only access they have to ICT is at university.  

All respondents indicated that they believed that students’ access to information was improved by the use of the Internet. However, there were reservations expressed by three respondents in regard to two things: plagiarism and the depth of knowledge. It was felt that the general tendency on the part of students – one called it the ‘basic survival strategy’ – was to cut and paste text picked up from the Internet in order to put together essays and other submissions. Some students concealed this well, others not so. Software designed to detect plagiarism could unfortunately not pick up the sophisticated plagiarism. This was felt to be a general problem related to ICTs which the University needed to tackle in some way. Related to this is the problem of depth – as one lecturer expressed it, “the problem with information on the Internet is that it is flat. The linkages between different pieces of information tend to be vertical rather than horizontal. This does not encourage students to develop depth in their understanding. They do not learn to reflect on the history of their knowledge, and the underlying assumptions that make it what it is.”  

Many learners feel that ICT has largely increased their access to knowledge. Many learners have learned how to use computers, where to do research and they are given the opportunity to learn more than what is required by their subjects. This has broadened their knowledge immensely. Many learners say that when doing research and using ICT, they find out things they never set out to learn. Most learners feel they now know more about computers since coming to university and being exposed to ICT. They are no longer computer illiterate. Since being exposed to ICT at university, many learned have learned how to use email and they have learned how to access information more easily (e.g. how to find past examination papers on the internet). Most learners have had to teach themselves how to use the internet. They now find it much easier to find exactly what they are looking for instead of having to pour over tons of books in the library.  

Again, the central focus of responses to this question has to do with learners’ use of the Internet. Most of our respondents felt that students all used Internet to search for information to use in their assignments and preparation for practice teaching, they did it in a manner that was ‘too flat” – undiscriminating and characterized by an inability to tell wheat was important from what was not. The general sense was that, while the Internet was in widespread use, the whole community (both students and staff) needed to learn to use it in more appropriate ways for academic work. One respondent commented: students in general, as well as – it must be said – staff embers, do not use Google Scholar as much as they should. So while they google a lot, it seems that are not aware of the most important search function that the search engine provides from the point of view of academic work. This reinforces the view that, on the whole, the lecturing staff of our institution does not use the potentials of the Internet as they should for our work.” There was also a feeling that not enough staff or students used electronic access journal portals and similar sites to which Wits libraries gave access. 

The use of ICT has proved essential in terms of the production of documents by learners. Microsoft Word is used to create documents such as essays and assignments, most of which have to be typed up. Word is also used when putting together worksheets. These are given to school learners b teachers-in-training when on teaching experience. The internet is used to do research, especially when it comes to refining a search or looking for something in particular. Examples are easy to find. For example, it is easy to find examples of different pieces of art on the internet. The printers are useful in that they allow learners to print out necessary information, as well as essays and assignments. Microsoft PowerPoint is used to create presentations used when teaching during teaching experience. They allow the teacher-in-training to give the learners something solid. It also makes the overall presentation appear much more professional. Microsoft Excel helps learners in creating marking rubrics for assessing their own learners whilst on teaching experience. ICT is also helpful when it comes to lesson planning for teacher-in-training.  

There were two strong themes that emerged from educators’ responses in this regard, one generally positive and the other negative: 1. Students were noticeably making more efforts to produce essays produced using computers. While in first year most students were not yet computer literate, by their final (fourth) year of study they tended to be using word-processing software. This meant that the he neatness of submissions improved, and also provided evidence that general skills were being acquired by students in regard to computers. 2. On a negative note, all lecturers who responded were deeply concerned by rising plagiarism, and the tendency of Internet-use to encourage and exacerbate this problem. "Cutting and pasting" had become the norm in the submission of assignments, and lecturers felt that they did not have the time to do proper searches on Google and elsewhere to detect details and intervene appropriately. One lecturer in particular felt that this problem needed to be dealt with “developmentally” – students needed to be taught how to develop their own writing skills by using information posted on the Internet, and then learn how to modify it and comment on it in academically appropriate ways.  

We take this question to refer to pedagogic integration, and into the general integration of ICTs into the general work of the Wits School of Education. There is no document as such which spells out an integration plan for the School. However, spread across a number of recent minutes of curriculum planning meetings and staff workshop documentation is a description of a very clear strategy for transformation in this regard from the beginning of 2010, when a new undergraduate teacher training curriculum will be implemented. Up to now, ICT training for teachers has consisted initially in direct training of computer literacy skills, particularly on the primary components of the Microsoft Office suite – viz. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and then in a third year focus on certain kinds of . This training has taken place in dedicated courses, and there has been little systematic integration of these skills so acquired into other courses, whether they be in education theory, subject content knowledge, pedagogic content knowledge or teaching methodology. Students have been left to themselves to translate these skills into their actual development as classroom teachers if they so choose, but there have been minimal formal expectations or requirements in this regard. From 2010, the situation will change. All lecturers across the full teacher training curriculum will be required to build in assessment requirements into their courses which entail the use of ICTs in assignments, presentations, research and practice teaching. The idea is that ICTs are not developed separate parts of the curriculum, but required as practices within the mainstream of one’s preparation and development as a teacher. This process will be supported by more focused courses on ICT related skills as required, and by a dedicated walk-in computer laboratory, where help will be available to students in order to complete whatever assignments they have to on a ‘just-in-time’ basis. The notion is, that ICT learning will be fully integrated in the practices of teacher training, rather than function as bolt-one bits of the curriculum which in practice tend to be optional skills to be acquired by students and not necessarily pedagogically integrated. The article, has been influential in guiding this policy shift. It can be obtained at . We also attach here a prepublication version of it, by kind permission of SchoolNet South Africa.  

There is no document as such which spells out a ICT maintenance and renewal strategy. Rather, this is done through an established committee process, subject to the general ICT policies of the University (see attached document). The School of Education has an ICT committee, which consists of a representative from each of the Divisions that make up the School. This committee monitors the use of ICTs in the School, with a remit covering academic, research, teaching and administrative usage. It makes recommendations to the Head of School regarding the maintenance and upgrading of the ICT infrastructure on an ongoing basis. This is an example of the manner in which ICT renewal is effected in the School: with the current expansion of education technology-related courses, the committee has recently made extensive recommendations for the expansion of computer laboratory facilities on the campus. This has led to the construction of a new 100-seat walk-in computer laboratory, which should be operative from July 2009.  

The School of Education, along with the University at large, does not make its ICT infrastucture available to any persons or bodies that are not affiliated to the institution. 

The School of Education consists of nine academic departments and three research institutes. Each is headed by a non-permanent Head of Division, appointed for a period of three years. The school overall is headed by Head of School and a Deputy. On this account, there are thus 14 management positions in the School.  

There is no formal (i.e. necessary or 'compulsory') component of the induction or training of managers that contains an element of ICT. However, there are a number of ongoing voluntary courses offered by the University related to ICTs, ranging from basic courses in computer literacy, through information management and retrieval courses of various kinds, to specialist research courses (e.g. the use of software related to data analysis, such as SAS or Atlas.Ti) and courses in the use of the University's learning management system, WebCT. These courses are all offered on a 'just-in-time' basis, and their take-up by the various managers seems to be just that. Each of the managers have attended at least one such course, ralted to his or her needs, but training is not uniform.  

It goes without saying that the University’s (including the School’s) complex administrative systems are entirely ICT based. Every staff member – both academic and administrative – is expected to be competent in the basic computer skills and software programmes required to f run the institution. The major management tool in the School has become e-mail. A survey indicates that the Head of School, and each of the Heads of Divisions, uses e-mail communication as the prime means of issuing instructions and of communicating management information to staff members. At the university-wide level, this is an ubiquitous tendency. One respondent raised a concern about the potentially alienating aspects of this approach: “In the old days, it was acknowledged that ‘management by memorandum’ was an unhealthy practice. It seems to me that people have not realized that ‘management by e-mail’ is equally problematic.” In the School of Education, there is, however, a strong commitment on the part of most managers (there is one exception) to dealing with substantive policy, strategic and teaching-learning matters in meetings of staff rather that though e-mail. In general, managers seem reluctant to respond to questions about how they use ICTs in management practices, or about whether ICTs have changed their practices in this regard. Three respondents indicated a suspicion of increasing ‘managerialism’ in the way universities are run, and saw ICTs as implicated in this.  

There was a general sense that curriculum transformation and development in the School, which is currently extensive, is not driven in any way by ICTs or the demands of ICTs. Indeed, it was the general view that this would be undesirable. However, there is one area in which the recognition of the importance of ICT integration is having a significant impact on the new undergraduate curriculum for teacher education. It is a general requirement of all teacher training programmes in South Africa that they include a component on the development of computer literacy in student teachers, and that they prepare them in some way for the use of ICTs in the classroom. Up until recently, the approach at Wits ahs been to append one or two courses on computer literacy to the curriculum; in the new curriculum, to come on line from 2010, there will be a general requirement in all courses (or at least a significantly large proportion of courses) that students use various ICT applications in order to prepare assignments, coursework and assessment portfolios. The idea is that, instead of the courses being educationally unfocused appendages to their mainstream training, that ICT usage becomes a core requirement in the knowledge production and classroom activities required of a student teacher.  

The University offers numerous courses to its academic staff members aimed at professional development. Most of these are delivered in what might be termed a ‘face-to-face’ modality. A review of these courses indicates that it is only those courses which develop skills that are themselves ICT-dependent (e.g. WebCT courses, courses relate to the uses of the University’s assessment administration system, statistics or research methodology courses that rely on software programmes such as SAS or AtlasTi) that are ICT-based. Even then, there seems to some ‘face-to-face’ training in their delivery. A pertinent case is the courses offered on WebCT usage, which are conducted in tutorial-like situations ‘around’ computer terminals.  

All managers regard themselves as competent in the use of the basic MSOffice package (particularly MSWord and PowerPoint). All of them seem to have become competent in the use of the University’s own ICT-based administrative systems (e.g. personnel management systems, marks system) as it relates to their work. As in the case of academic staff in general, the tendency is for managers to learn to use these software programmes and applications on the job, ‘just-in-time’. 

Perhaps the most notable feature of this research was the reluctance of managers in the institution to respond to questions we put to them and to participate in the study. Four separate overtures were made to them, form the Head of School downwards, and in the end responses were obtained from only three of them. One might conclude from this that the single most significant barrier that hinders the achievement of ICT-related goals in the institution is the reluctance of managers to prioritize the terrain of ICTs in their work. The reasons for this have been difficult to ascertain. More informal questioning of some of these managers about why they had not participated ranged from a comment, “we do not have time to respond to these questionnaires”, to “what is technological about education? I am not really that interested.” Most of what is contained in this section is based on analysis of these secondary responses, in relation to the direct answers we obtained from out three respondents. An analysis of this pattern, however, suggests that there is still a strong sense of educational technology in the School that associates it with old positivist beliefs about learning (that education is something to be ‘delivered’ along the lines of BF Skinner’s notion that the ). The point is that that the prevailing practices of the teacher education staff are based on strong tutorial-based learning methodologies, ranging from direct engagement with experimental work in laboratories, through careful textual analysis in small group contexts, to debating ethical dilemmas and problems in philosophy of education tutorials – and ICT-based learning tends to be understood as too technicist and antagonistic to these kinds of education goals. The model is also teaching intensive, and the School as a whole has not confronted the question of how ICT usage might help solve problems of massification in educational delivery, and yet still maintain anti-behaviourist conceptions of teaching and learning. So, our general conclusion is that there is strong resistance to technological innovation being brought into teaching and learning processes, which are still dominated by lecture and tutorial systems and by the ‘face-to-face’ pedagogic use of print-based learning materials. This resistance is not necessarily negative, since there are considerable strengths in these methodologies which are recognized in the accumulated practices of the teacher education staff, and whose benefits are well understood. However, from the point of view the potential positive uses of ICTs, it appears that the major overall barrier to the pedagogic integration of ICTs in the School is systematic knowledge and engagement on the part of the staff as a whole with eh progressive uses of modern technologies in teaching and learning. However, amongst responses received from those strongly committed to ICTs in the teacher training ambit, the following identified barriers are worth noting: 1. “Students find difficulty getting access to computer laboratories in order to do their work. The problem is that most students spend too long on the available machines, often playing games and other things which have nothing to do with their actual work.” 2. “Students cannot easily print out work they have done. Partly, this relates to a shortage of printers, but it has mainly to do with the fact that students cannot on the whole afford the extra costs associated with printing.” 3. “Use of ICTs by lecturers at first involves a lot of reskilling and training on unfamiliar technologies. Since we are so busy at our current work using our current strategies, little dedicated time is made available to us to learn to change.” 4. “Much more money and much better technology need to be made available to us if we are expected to use these technologies across the board.”  

All responses at a broad level to this question related to the actual provision of technology. Two notable achievements are the following: (i) the establishment of a dedicated computer laboratory for disabled students; and (ii) the decision to establish a fully-staffed, walk-in computer laboratory (100 seats) for use by all students on a ‘just-in-time’ basis from July 2009. These two innovations were both driven by the Head of School. More specifically, the following were regarded as ‘success stories’ by respondents: 1. The development of undergraduate training programmes in basic computer literacy which were not merely technical, but which also have components in them requiring students to use software apportions in relation to actual issues they will face in schools and in classrooms, e.g. timetabling, assessment systems and record keeping, presentations, worksheet design. Lecturers (in the Division of Educational Technology) who had designed these materials regarded this as a sound foundation for the development of new courses from 2010 that sought to integrate these skills and practices more fully across the teacher training curriculum as a whole. 2. The establishment from the beginning of 2009 of a full range of courses in education technology, from undergraduate teacher training courses, through teacher upgrading and reskilling courses in the ACE (Advanced Certificate in Education) programmes, to coursework Honours and Masters programmes focuses on research on the pedagogic integration of ICTs, was regarded as a success story for the School (see attached document, “ “.) Members of the relatively new Division of Educational Technology have been responsible for these developments, and uptake on the part of students ahs been encouraging. The first cohort of 25 Masters students is currently enrolled for the programme. The lecturers involved understand the programme to be a “success story” because it positions Wits as leading provider in regard to ICTs in education within South Africa, and also provides a foundation for the opening up of an innovative rese4rch programme in this regard.  

This question was universally interpreted by respondents to refer to debates about indigenous knowledge systems and the dependent notion of an ‘African curriculum’. The general feeling was that the use of ICTs has no particular role to play in this regards. One respondent added an extra interpretation to the question – namely the importance of the development of online learning materials in the indigenous African languages of the country, for use in both schools and other educational contexts. There is a significant dearth of such resources in the country. She felt that the impact of ICTs could be significant in empowering these other languages for use in education in relation to English.  

In this category, we include students who expereince barriers to learning related to various categories of moderate to severe disability: deaf and hearing impaired; blind and visually impaired; physically disabled. There appear to be no special programmes in place to support these learners specifically, although there is a small, dedicated computer laboratory for the use of disabled students. See 3.9.1 above.  

The majority of educators who responded to the questionnaire indicated that they believed using ICTs (in particular, using the Internet for research purposes, and using writing support devices such as the spellchecker function in MSWord)assists students whose home language is not English to develop their academic writing skills in the language. This is despite reservations about the tendency of Intenet-usage to exacerbate the problem of plagiarism, outlined in 6.1.2. One member of the teaching staff, in the African languages area, is particularly committed in her academic research and teaching to the development of online learning materials in Zulu. One respondent mentioned the strong commitment of many in the School to a multiliteracies approach to language, which understands ICT environments (inter alia) as a literacy modality equivalent to written text in respect to knowledge and knowledge production, as an important area for the future development of ICTs in the development of multilingual approaches to teaching and learning in South African schools.  

No data related to this question has been forthcoming.