Although the University of Cape Town has implemented various education technology projects in the last two decades, the disruptions experienced during the #FeesMustFall movement and the COVID-19 pandemic point to challenges with integrating technology successfully, highlighting the need to better understand technology integration in higher education. Based in the Engineering Faculty, I adopted a Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) perspective to understand the experiences of engineering educators with regards to education technology integration in a department. A qualitative case study with semi-structured interviews was conducted with engineering educators. The data was analysed according to the categories in CHAT. Individual educator analyses were presented as activity systems. These were then synthesised to a departmental level understanding. I found that all educators integrated education technology to varying degrees. These included the university's learning management system, Microsoft PowerPoint, document cameras, and various engineering technologies. Educators integrated education technology to improve the practical demonstration of engineering concepts, prepare students for the workplace, and improve the efficiency of certain tasks. Their integration efforts were mediated mainly by the university's infrastructure and their access to institutional technologies. Nondirective approach by the departmental and faculty leadership provided educators with the freedom to integrate education technology, although, some educators expressed a desire for increased leadership intervention. Technical and pedagogical support services from the university provided resources and support for integration. The technologies integrated by the educators were informed by their preference for teaching resources that visualised theory. Educators were concerned with the impact of lecture recording on attendance, highlighting sustainability issues of this technology. As all participants integrated education technology independently, future studies may benefit from understanding less active users' experiences, the contribution of support services, and the role of departmental leadership.

Today, the impact of information technologies on education field is ever more clarified with the integration of new tools and methods to the education. Education has been becoming away from the traditional classroom environment through virtual environment. Besides education of theoretical disciplines, education of practice based disciplines, like design related disciplines are moving toward virtual environments. One of these is Industrial Design (ID) education which also has made the transition to the virtual world. This thesis aims to explore and scrutinize the latest forms of ID education, especially the online distance ID education. In order to comprehend the technological progress of ID education and its possible future, an overview of the origins and an evaluation of the current state of distance online ID education are made. By this study, it is expected to shed light to the design educators and the educational systems&rsquo / developers, for designing these environments. At the end of this research, it is concluded that it is not possible to imagine a future of ID education without technology integration. However, it would be better to apply both technological and traditional methods. In fact, the key people in the development of these educational systems and tools would be the designers themselves.