This study investigates the effectiveness of using e-learning in teaching in tertiary institutions. In institutions of higher education, the issue of utilizing modern information and communication technologies for teaching and learning is very important. This study reviews literature and gives a scholarly background to the study by reviewing some contributions made by various researchers and institutions on the concept of e-learning, particularly its usage in teaching and learning in higher educational institutions. It unveils some views that people and institutions have shared globally on the adoption and integration of e-learning technologies in education through surveys and other observations. It looks at the meaning or definitions of e-learning as given by different researchers and the role that e-learning plays in higher educational institutions in relation to teaching and learning processes, and the advantages and disadvantages of its adoption and implemention.

/pdf/the-role-of-e-learning-the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-nrl6zht2ge.pdf

The role of e-learning, the advantages and disadvantages of its adoption in Higher Education.

The purpose of this study is to present a review of Facebook as an educational environment, as research on its use within education is relatively new. The study is categorized into six sections: Facebook users; reasons people use Facebook; harmful effects of Facebook; Facebook as an educational environment; Facebook’s effects on culture, language, and education; and the relationship between Facebook and subject variables. Additionally, the study compares Facebook usage in Turkey to its use on a global scale. To conclude, there has been a serious lack of research on Facebook’s use as an educational resource, as current literature reflects how Facebook might more readily be utilized as an educational environment. Finally, the study ends with practical recommendations for researchers and educators.

A review of research on Facebook as an educational environment

Learning space research is a relatively new field of study that seeks to inform the design, evaluation and management of learning spaces. This paper reviews a dispersed and fragmented literature relevant to understanding connections between university learning spaces and student learning activities. From this review, the paper distils a number of core concerns and identifies some gaps in the literature. One of its primary goals is to clear the ground for the construction of models of learning space that can be used by the various parties involved in the design and evaluation of new learning spaces: teachers, architects, interior designers, IT managers, educational leaders and students. A closely related goal is to help those participating in learning space research locate and understand each other's contributions. Fragmentation in research related to learning and physical spaces makes progress in the field slow. Our review makes two passes over the field: drawing together research from architecture, the learning sciences, environmental psychology, human computer interaction and elsewhere to identify research foci and gaps, and then also capturing some work by learning space researchers that directly attempts to model the main relationships in the field. The paper ends with a summary of implications for research and practice.

Models of learning space: integrating research on space, place and learning in higher education

Situated in the gender digital divide framework, this survey study investigated the role of computer anxiety in influencing female college students' perceptions toward Web 2.0 applications for learning. Based on 432 college students' “Web 2.0 for learning” perception ratings collected by relevant categories of Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), the study revealed certain significant differences between genders on six Web 2.0 applications (blog, wiki, social networking tool, online video sharing tool, online game, and immersive virtual environment). Overall females felt more anxious of using Web 2.0 applications than males. However, such difference was not found on social networking tools and online video sharing tools. Therefore we contended that features of social networking tools and online video sharing might promote females' use of Web 2.0 applications. Future studies will cultivate the empirical relationship between genders and underlying learning processes afforded by Web 2.0 features.

Gender Divide and Acceptance of Collaborative Web 2.0 Applications for Learning in Higher Education.

Information technology and Gen Z: The role of teachers, the internet, and technology in the education of young people

Traditionally, at least according to popular wisdom, learning took place in venues that were custom-designed for the purpose. The purpose, given the evidence of the artefacts with which we are confronted, seems to have been the educational equivalent of the production line that so succinctly characterised the industrialisation of society. One consequence of this design logic, however, is that learning is defined as something that is married to a ‘place’. This paper will argue that the conceptual ‘slippage’ that characterises the disappearing differences between ‘learning spaces’ and ‘learning environments’, coupled with the further ‘displacement’ of the learner (turned avatar) in virtual spaces such as Facebook and Second Life, serves to ‘displace’ learning itself. The paper argues further that we have failed to recognise the primacy of ‘physical situatedness’ to our conceptions of learning itself. In short, our difficulty in understanding and articulating the nature of learning is partly brought about by our inability to articulate where learning takes place—in a world characterised by virtual space and electronic selves. If we are to articulate the nature of learning in our age, then we need to articulate the nature of the real and virtual spaces and bodies that we inhabit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

/pdf/learning-spaces-learning-environments-and-the-dis-placement-4wevmfrao3.pdf

Learning spaces, learning environments and the dis'placement' of learning

In this paper we describe South Africa’s information and communication technologies (ICTs) infrastructure, highlight the issues South African Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) face in terms of ICT access and argue that a greater awareness of these issues can help us plan better e-learning interventions in Higher Education. We draw on recent research about the use of ICTs in our sector describing the prevailing and emergent practices with regard to the pedagogic integration of ICTs as well as a survey conducted amongst 14 “e-Learning managers” from South African HEIs. The South African ICT infrastructure of concern to HEIs are evaluated in terms of issues such as internet users, bandwidth, demographic divides, cost and cell phone subscriptions. Barriers to e-learning that affect staff and students across institutions are also highlighted. We then examine what these constraints mean for teaching and learning and provide some suggestions as to how opportunities can be maximised. It is concluded that despite our varied HE institutional contexts, each with their own infrastructural and organisational challenges, there are definite areas for collaboration, joint research projects and sharing of good practice. These opportunities are critical for e-learning practitioners, especially whilst we are operating in an environment of resource constraint.

The impact of South Africa's ICT infrastructure on higher education

This article reports on a survey of teachers undertaking a postgraduate applied practice certificate in digital and collaborative learning. The survey was intended to capture how mobile learning was currently being used by the teachers both on the course and in their own classrooms. The objective was to investigate to what extent mobile learning was being used by our teachers, and which particular mobile learning activities were, or were not, being integrated into teaching and learning in their own classrooms. We also wanted to explore how interested the teachers might be in seeing new mobile learning activities embedded within the course. Our results suggested that teachers and their students are frequently engaged in activities that utilize mobile learning affordances, but that these activities focus on simple, supplementary activities such as taking photographs and making videos. However, our results also indicate that there was significant interest among our teachers to explore more sophisticated mobile learning activities such as outdoor discovery activities. One conclusion we might draw from this study is that, despite many years of research into mobile learning and how it can be used both inside and outside the classroom, teachers need to be explicitly guided and supported to adopt these approaches in their schools. The feedback from this survey will be used to help to develop the course curriculum to integrate new elements of mobile learning.

/pdf/exploring-mobile-affordances-in-the-digital-classroom-59331hiyew.pdf

Exploring Mobile Affordances in the Digital Classroom.

This study investigates influences on the sustainability of a computers-in-schools project during the implementation phase thereof The Computer Assisted Learning in Schools (CALIS) Project (1992–1996) is the unit of analysis A qualitative case study research design is used to elicit data, in the form of participant narratives, from people who were involved in the regional management of the Project, as well as teachers who implemented the Project in their classrooms These narratives are then analysed from a postmodern perspective (Kvale 1996) The analysis reveals personal, programmatic, physical and systemic influences on the Project These influences can be identified on all structural levels of the education system (Mooij and Smeets 2001) Furthermore, metaphoric patterning across narratives is analyzed in terms of implicatures, postulated by Relevance
Theory (Sperber and Wilson 1995) Analysis of the data provides evidence in support
of Fullan's (2005) definition of sustainability as a quality of dynamic, complex systems
Personal, programmatic, physical and systemic influences on the Project are found to
be interrelated on, and across, structural levels of the system In addition, influences are
dynamically related to the changing Project in particular host environments (Cavallo
2004) The resulting ecological or viral growth is characteristic of complex systems,
where further development is indeterminate Finally, suggestions are made regarding
the possible implications of these findings for the development of a framework for the
sustainable implementation of ICT- enabled educational projects South African Journal of Higher Education Vol 21 (6) 2008: pp 759-780

http://digitalknowledge.cput.ac.za/bitstream/11189/3230/3/Thomas_H_Cronj%c3%a9_J_FID_2007.pdf

Herbert Thomas

Papers

Learning spaces, learning environments and the dis'placement' of learning

The impact of South Africa's ICT infrastructure on higher education

Exploring Mobile Affordances in the Digital Classroom.

Computers in schools: implementing for sustainability. Why the truth is rarely pure and never simple

Powerful knowledge, technology and education in the future-focused Good Society