Dissertation submitted in compliance with the requirements for the Master of Technology Degree: Education, Durban Institute of Technology, 2003. / The purpose of this research study was to establish firstly, whether elementary school learners from previously disadvantaged communities do have negative perceptions towards computer technology and if these perceptions exist, to what they may be attributed. Secondly, there is a need to provide research-based approaches to the use of computers in education, particularly in the delivery and support of the curriculum. The international education community considers computer technology as a panacea for solving most of the epistemological and operational problems currently beleaguering the education enterprise. The development of learner perception should not be viewed in isolation but rather in the context of the two environments that the elementary school learner is exposed to; home and classroom. These environments are determined, largely, by socio-economic conditions, societal values, educational ideology and classroom praxis. The above determinants are fundamental in shaping the elementary school learner's perception of the learning process in general and the use of computer technology in the learning process in particular. Since the early 1970s, a myriad of teaching and learning programmes known as computerassisted instruction (CAl) and computer-assisted education (CAE) have been developed. Furthermore, computer technology has been used extensively as a pedagogical tool in a number of numeracy and literacy programmes. As a result of these developments it has become necessary to initiate serious research into Technology Education, in general, and the use of computers in education, in particular. / M

<p>This study discussed the effect of new information and communication technologies use on adolescents. The research also assessed whether gender and frequency of use of new information and communication technologies would interact to influence self-esteem and social support from family and friends.</p>

<p>This study discussed the effect of new information and communication technologies use on adolescents. The research also assessed whether gender and frequency of use of new information and communication technologies would interact to influence self-esteem and social support from family and friends.</p>

Magister Artium (Psychology) - MA(Psych) / This study discussed the effect of new information and communication technologies use on adolescents. The research also assessed whether gender and frequency of use of new information and communication technologies would interact to influence self-esteem and social support from family and friends. / South Africa

In South Africa, many young children from poor social and economic backgrounds are cared for at home by parents or guardians who are themselves illiterate. This leads to poor educational outcomes later in life. Yet there are many privileged teenagers with access to mobile technologies who spend a greater portion of their spare time interacting on ubiquitous social media platforms. This presents an opportunity whereby the poor educational outcomes referred to previously could be addressed by applying a technology solution providing social media-based homework support by privileged teenagers to underprivileged younger children. However, most applications designed for use by children are designed by adults, with little understanding of the user requirements of the target end users. This research explores the following question: How can a cross-age tutoring system be designed for implementation on a social networking platform to support numeracy and literacy skill acquisition? The main contribution of this research was the definition of the Cooperative design by Children for Children (CD2C) Design Framework, a blueprint of how a cross-age tutoring system could be co-designed by children of different age groups and life circumstances. The CD2C Design Framework was derived as an abstraction of the second contribution of this research, the TitanTutor, an artifact designed using co-operative inquiry method and the Design Science Research approach. The third novelty of this research was contribution to Design Science Research theory, with the addition of new theory that states that cooperative design by children from different age groups and life circumstances is tempered by socio-environmental context and power relations between the co-design partners. This work provided important contributions to researchers in the areas of Cooperative Inquiry (CI), Human Computer Interaction (HCI), and Design Science Research (DSR). Future researchers could extend the CD2C Design Framework to make it even more abstract, thereby making it universally applicable to any co-design scenario. / Computing / Ph. D. (Information Systems)