This essay explores the benefits and limits of teaching and learning music in a changing technological environment, where both students and instructors are faced with the perpetual problem of keeping up with new methods of practicing music for the purpose of maintaining competence. The essay critically reflects on the argument that present societies overvalue technical instruments, at times giving consumers a false hope of achieving quick results in a brief period of time, and with the unintended consequence that playing techniques can be compromised. The idealizing of mechanical devices has become strongly associated today with sophisticated taste and class. Following Mumford and Postman, the essay argues that these technological tools should be seen as posing a challenge to instructional values and to human agency. This essay concludes that while we cannot help the fact that tradition is constantly being renewed, in part through technological change, the role of teaching that learning music needs to be focused on are historic values which incorporate experience and reciprocity.

Technology availability is quite often mistaken for technology adoption and use. In the White Paper on E-Education, launched by the South African National Department of Education, the government has indicated its intention to ensure that every school has access to a wide choice of diverse, high quality communication services which will benefit all learners and local communities. It is important that the National Department of Education recognizes that, regardless of the amount of technology and its sophistication, technology will not be used unless educators have the skills, knowledge and attitudes necessary to infuse it into the curriculum. The study focused on educator preparedness to integrate Information and Communications Technology (ICT) into the curriculum. The findings of the study suggest that educators have positive attitudes towards ICT integration in education. One strong predictor of educators' attitudes towards ICT integration was computer attributes followed closely by cultural perceptions and, to a limited extent, by computer competence. Educator attitudes were also predicted by constructs extracted from the different Information Systems (IS) model/theories for technology adoption. The strongest construct to predict educators' attitudes toward ICT integration was extrinsic motivation followed by perceived usefulness, complexity, perceived behavioural control and relative advantage. The results point to the importance of educators' vision of technology itself, their experiences with it, their perceived computer competence, and the cultural conditions that surround its introduction into schools in shaping their attitudes towards technology and its subsequent diffusion into their educational practice. A combination of the different constructs from the IS models/theories was able to account for as much as 83% of the variance in educator attitudes toward technology and thus technology adoption. This is a significant result since most previous research has only been able to account for between 17% and 69% (Venkatesh et a!., 2003) of the variance in user intentions to use technology. These constructs (the strong predictors) were grouped to form a new model which is proposed for predicting educator technology adoption. Further, Perceptual Control Theory was used as a framework for understanding educator adoption of technology. This framework considers educators' use of technology by examining the goals of educators and how the use of technology might help or hinder their goals. Educator lack of computer competence is a major challenge for the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education, and an immediate plan of action is required that will address this through educator professional development. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2006.

Many claims have been made in the literature about the motivational effects of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) on learners, leading them to have a positive perception towards their work, spend longer periods on tasks and be more committed to their learning. The author of the present study has utilized their previous research evidence of motivation and the results of other previous projects to investigate the factors which motivate educators to use ICT. This project was initiated to investigate the educator's perception, which has contributed to the continued use of ICT, by educators experienced in using it for teaching. The evidence discussed in this paper was collected through a literature search, educator documents, educators' reports or observations and interviews. Weiner's analysis of motivation research and cognitivists theories of reasoned action and planned behaviour have been used as a basis for the analysis of the results. Research findings show that the motivational factors which correlated most positively with the use of ICT were: perceived ability to use Information Technology (IT); level of resources available and their satisfaction with IT; and whether using IT in teaching is considered to be interesting, valuable and enjoyable. The most significant negative factor was difficulties experienced in using IT. Researcher also found that a whole range of other perception factors attributed by the educators to using ICT. Such as: making the lessons more interesting for the educator, increasing learners' motivation, improving presentation of materials, making the teaching more enjoyable, improving the content of the lesson, and making the lessons more fun for the learners, were considered by the educator respondents to contribute to the learners' progress in learning. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2006.

This research project forms part of a comprehensive coordinated project to determine whether it is feasible to introduce e-Education in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) public schools by 2013, as envisaged in the Department of Education's 2003 White Paper on e-Education. This project mainly focuses on human problems that need to be solved among learners in urban schools of KZN for e-Education to be introduced successfully. The following problems are under investigation: 1. Before e-Education can be introduced in public schools in KZN by 2013 it must be empirically established whether learners are ready to learn effectively in an electronically managed educational environment. 2. Before the South African education and training authorities can establish clear standardized e-learning evaluation criteria it must first be established whether such criteria exist abroad, and if they do, how they are to be applied in die emerging South African e-education context. 3. Before e-Education can be introduced in public schools in KZN it must be determined what e-Education facilities are available in public schools in KZN, to serve as base line for what facilities need to be provided to schools by the educational authorities in order for e-education to succeed. This research used a quantitative research method to ascertain what the attitudes of learners in the Umlazi District of the Ethekwini Region in KZN, are towards e-Education. The research instrument that was used was a questionnaire to collect data. 800 questionnaires were disseminated and retrieved personally by the researcher at six approved schools. The survey was conducted among learners in Grade 9 andl 1 from a random selection of urban schools in theUmlazi District by the researcher, fellow researchers and the supervisor. The researcher used all 800 responses to set up the data base. The statistical program SPSS 13 was used to process and analyze the data that was collected. The following major findings emanate from this study: 1. No significant prior empirical research has been done about the state of ereadiness of learners in KwaZulu-Natal public schools. 2. The vast majority of learners are very positive about studying in an e-education environment. 3. Very few learners have been exposed to any form of e-education. 4. According to a case study reported, neither teachers nor learners were able to make effective use of sophisticated and expensive active boards that were donated by the British Department of Trade and Industry. / Thesis (M.Admin.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2007.

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