ICTs and the South African Higher Education Landscape

Laura Czerniewicz (1) , Neetha Ravjee (1) , Nhlanhla Mlitwa (1)

1 Centre for Educational Technology

This report is a mapping exercise, which describes and explores the landscape of ICTs and higher education in South Africa since 2000. Broadly delineating the terrain, the focus is on teaching and learning within higher education. This study sets out to answer five questions: 1. How are ICTs understood and described by practitioners and researchers? 2. What policies and structures for ICTs exist nationally and institutionally? 3. What does the emerging domain of enquiry look like? 4. How do practitioners and researchers understand ICTs in terms of change in higher education? 5. What are the key issues to be noted in the ICTs and higher education terrain? The report describes the language of ICTs in higher education both in terms of the shifting, emerging terminology and the varied understandings of ICTs in terms of national and institutional policies and reported practices. It reveals the emerging organizational forms that locate the work, and argues that despite an absence of an over-arching policy framework, policy in South Africa is being formed implicitly by practice. It moves on to describe three prevalent meanings of technological change: change as improvement; change as innovation; and change as transformation. Finally, key issues and debates, which emerge from the data "texts", are identified and examined.

Mots clés: e-learning; access; digital divide; discourses; transformations; change; developing countries

Domaines: Environnements Informatiques pour l'Apprentissage Humain

Laura Czerniewicz, Neetha Ravjee, Nhlanhla Mlitwa. ICTs and the South African Higher Education Landscape. 2006. ⟨hal-00190317⟩