Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Masters in Education (Educational Technology) School of Education, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, 2016 / The internet supplies a continuous stream of information to our students. The information gleaned from the internet is ever-changing and scanty and researchers have used the term “paucity” to describe internet information. It is difficult to trust this information and value it as knowledge. The need for developing Critical Thinking and its application is advanced both internationally and in South Africa .This study, investigated the development of specific critical thinking skills for the purpose of evaluating internet materials for trustworthiness. Within this study a series of lessons were designed to develop Critical Thinking skills amongst a group of Grade 11 students at a private high school in South Africa. Once these skills were acquired the students were able to make a comparison between different internet materials and they made a well-reasoned argument about the credibility of these materials. The key skills were taught through the use of a Learning Management System (LMS). The LMS was used as a medium for isolating selected internet materials and to develop a pathway of learning. Several educational theories, models and philosophies were investigated as they were layered into the fabric of this research report. Critical thinking skills were developed through a blended approach. Although a LMS was used as a primary medium of the Critical Thinking process the teacher was the key agent for its facilitation. The research premise was based on deductive reasoning and presumed that it was necessary to use Critical Thinking to search internet material for trustworthiness. The design made use of a case study as the preferred method to investigate the premise. An inductive approach was then implemented to interpret the data obtained from the evaluation of internet materials. Pre and post tests and scales were instituted and a comparison was made of the students’ confidence and ability to evaluate internet materials using specific critical thinking skills. When comparisons were made of both qualitative and quantitative results there was evidence that there was an enhancement and effective application of the specific critical thinking skills brought about through this intervention. / XL2018

M. Tech. Business Information Systems / The integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) within South African schools created new possibilities for learners and educators to engage in new ways of information selection, gathering, sorting and analysis. However, the implementation of ICT in schools has had an impact on curriculum development and delivery of education around the world. The main objective of this study was to develop a framework for acceptance and use of E-learning by educators in South African secondary schools. This study intended to address the lack of interest shown by educators in integrating ICT into teaching and learning.

Please read the Abstract in the 00front part of this document. Copyright 2003, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. Please cite as follows: Addo, GHK 2003, Utilization of information and communication technology (ICT) for education in South Africa : An examination of the world links for development (WorLD) programme, DPhil thesis, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-09192005-142901/ > / Thesis (DPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Information Science / unrestricted

A research project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MA in Social and Psychological Research in the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. 2016 / The use of various information technologies in education is becoming more prevalent due to the fact that they are thought to have several advantages over traditional pen and paper as well as the fact that they are seen as a means to decrease the digital divide and ensure equal access to educational resources. In South Africa, initiatives such as the Smart Schools program aim to make schools paperless in the near future through the use of smartboards and tablets. With such emphasis on the success of the integration of educational technology it is imperative that we understand the factors which influence this process. Current research points to the idea that the mere provision of educational technology is not sufficient to garner success and that there are also intrinsic factors which need to be considered when integrating educational technology. This study follows on from this premise of intrinsic factors in that it investigates learner attitudes towards tablet usage in a blended learning environment. An extended version of the Technology Acceptance Model which posits that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and perceived enjoyability are the factors which need to be taken into account when exploring learner attitudes is used as the theoretical basis for this study. Other factors which are thought to influence attitudes as well as the success of tablet integration (as measured by learner achievement) are learning style preferences, motivation as well as access to various form of technology and thus familiarity with such technology. These factors were also explored through this research. Access to technology, learning style preference and motivation as predictors of overall attitudes and the three components of attitudes were thus explored. This study further investigated whether attitudes (and the three components of attitudes), learning style preferences or learner motivation best predicted academic achievement. The sample consisted of 276 learners from one independent and one public school in Johannesburg where tablets had already been introduced into the learning environment. A questionnaire consisting of an Attitudes Towards Tablet Usage Scale, a Learning Styles Scale, a Motivation Scale and an Access Scale was used. The results of this study indicated that overall attitudes towards tablet usage were relatively positive. The most positive component was perceived ease of use followed by perceived usefulness and then perceived enjoyability. Attitudes towards ECT (and the three components) were influenced by learning style preferences, motivation and access to technology while learner achievement was influenced by learner attitudes as well as learning style preferences. This provides valuable insights into the tablet integration process in that we conclude that tablet provision, while necessary, is not sufficient for the successful integration of tablets and subsequent reduction in the digital divide. / GR2017

As ICTs become more and more ubiquitous in institutions of education, schools are faced with the challenge of integrating ICTs pedagogically. More schools in South Africa have ICT resources available; however, their integration levels have not advanced at the rate that technology is progressing (Pan African Research Agenda on the Pedagogical Integration of Information and Communications Technologies, 2008). There are several enablers and constraining factors that have an impact on the schools’ capacity to pedagogically integrate ICTs. This is a case study of an ex-model C primary school in the Gauteng province. The school under study is one of the ten South African institutions from which the Pan African Research Agenda on the Pedagogical Integration of ICTs (PanAfICT) collected data in 2008 stored in its observatory. The UNESCO model (2002) was used to position this school at a specific level based on factors affecting the teachers’ propensity to integrate ICTs pedagogically. The findings of this study suggest that the school has been in the applying (second) level, since 2008 and has not made much progress in the implementation of ICT pedagogical integration. It also emerged from this case study that the enabling factors (the availability of a wide range of ICT resources and teacher training in basic ICT application skills) are not enough to enable the school to progress to the next level. It is the quality of technical support, relevance of training, proactive leadership in ICT integration and provision of time, above availability of resources that determine progression in the use of technology in the classroom. The literature selected covers mainly the national ICT integration environments and general views of authors in this field. On the basis of these findings, it is proposed that there is a need for the Department of Education to address the lack of progress in ICT pedagogical integration in schools by monitoring the process and developing strategies that will improve quality in the implementation despite the constraining factors.

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Technology Degree in Information Technology, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2015. / One of the fundamental characteristics of technology is its ever-changing nature with the continuous release of new models and products almost on a daily basis. It is interesting to note that these new technologies seem to appeal more to the youth than to the old. This might explain why the content of some Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), such as films, TV, and games, are sometimes released with well-defined age ratings, in order to provide guidance to parents and guardians on the suitability of such content for their children. What is surprising is that there are age restrictions for the content presented by ICT devices, but devices themselves do not have any defined age restriction. For example, movies which can be played on computers, have a well-defined age restriction; but computers themselves do not have any defined age restriction. This non-definition of age ratings for ICT devices is certainly a general concern, but it is also a major concern for the education domain which needs to determine the minimum age from which learners should be allowed to use ICTs at school. This problem of the non-definition of age ratings for ICT devices serves as a motivation for this study, whose aim is to determine the factors affecting educators’ perceptions on the age from which learners should be allowed to use ICTs at school. The research objectives unfolding from this aim are: i) To select appropriate theories and models on the factors affecting educators’ perceptions on the age from which learners should be allowed to use ICTs at school; ii) To design a conceptual model of the factors affecting educators’ perceptions on the age from which learners should be allowed to use ICTs at school; iii To empirically test the above conceptual model of the factors affecting educators’perceptions on the age from which learners should be allowed to use ICTs at school; and iv) To make recommendations on the design of eLearning initiatives in schools based on the results of the current study. These four objectives were achieved as follows through the content analysis of existing literature and a survey of 70 primary and secondary school educators from the Camperdown magisterial district in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa: i) Specific personality and child development theories were selected as the theoretical foundation of this study; ii) The conceptual model proposed in this study gave rise to the following hypotheses: The demographics of an educator affect the full functionality, the health, and the self-actualisation of his or her personality as well as his or her perceptions on the age from which learners should be allowed to start using ICTs at school. The full functionality, the health, and the self-actualisation of the personality of an educator all affect his or her perceptions on the age from which learners should be allowed to start using ICTs at school; iii) The empirical testing of the above hypothesized model yielded the following results: the grade or class taught by an educator is the only demographic factor that affects the full functionality, the health, and the self-actualisation of his or her personality; the subject specialisation of an educator is the only demographic variable that affects his or her perceptions on the age from which learners should be allowed to start using ICTs at school; the full functionality, the health, and the self-actualisation of the personality of an educator all affect his or her perceptions on the age from which learners should be allowed to start using ICTs at school; and iv) One of the recommendation of this study is that eLearning pilot projects be designed in ways that clearly consider differences between educators from various subject specialisations. This study identified the need for more research on the effect of personality on the perceptions of educators on the age from which learners should be allowed to start using ICTs, not only at school as it is the case for this study, but also at home. The main contribution of this research is to have found that educators’ personality has an effect on their perceptions on the age from which learners should be allowed to start using ICTs at school, compared to the literature reviewed by this study which seems to be silent on the relationship between the personality of educators and the determination of the age when learners should be allowed to start using ICTs at school.

M. Tech. Education / This study examines the factors that impacts on the benefits and challenges of Information and Communication Technology in some selected primary schools in central Johannesburg district 14. The study also investigates the level of availability of ICT facilities in these schools, the capacity for using ICT facilities for teaching and learning, the perceived benefits of using ICT and the challenges facing the use of ICT in these schools. The population consisted of all the educators school management teams and principals of these schools.

M. Tech. Business Information Systems / Having tools and resources that would enhance the performance of the learners would be of huge assistance to learners and their institutions. The increasing use of internet and technology has enhanced and transformed the conventional library resources into electronic resources. Utilizing electronic library resources helps learners to acquire information anytime and anywhere. Institutions that support the use of e-resources save significant amounts of money because the printing of materials are reduced. As a result, the use of e-resources by learners enhances their learning and their performance gets improved. The major objective of this study was to conceptualize a framework that will assist in successful electronic resources utilization. This was encouraged by the fact that the determinants of effective utilization of electronic resources are still not clearly expressed.

Thesis (MEd)--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2018. / This study investigates some of the factors affecting the adoption and use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for curriculum delivery in selected private high schools in the Western Cape. In this 21st century, ICT has penetrated the society to the point that it is most likely to assume that the private high school in general, are effectively incorporating them (ICTs) in delivery of the curriculum. Regrettably, this assumption is not always true as revealed in most of the cases examined in this study. Instead, a lot of private high school teachers who were selected as participants or respondents in this study revealed that they are still facing critical challenges when they want to effectively adopt and use ICTs for curriculum delivery. While the previous studies have focused more on the ICT integration in pubic schools in disadvantaged communities, this study employed a mixed methods research design (that is both quantitative and qualitative research methods) to explore the factors affecting the adoption and use of ICTs in private high schools in the Western Cape Province. The two frameworks adopted in this study, the Teacher Development framework (DoE, 2007) and the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework guided the researcher in the analysis of the research findings. The study also used both deductive and inductive reasoning in the interpretation of the results. The results of the study show that despite the high level of appreciating the importance of ICT adoption and use in teaching and learning by private high school teachers in the Western Cape Province, there are still critical factors that continue to militate against the effective integration of technology in the classroom. The study revealed the following factors as critical regarding the effective adoption and use of ICTs in curriculum delivery: lack of skills, limited access to ICT resources, lack of technical support, shortage of class time, and lack of teacher motivation.

M. Tech. Business Administration / This study examines public secondary school teachers technology acceptance as another form of pedagogical method in the classroom. The widely used Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was used to determine the factors associated with either acceptance or non-acceptance of technology in the classroom. In this study, only secondary school teachers from disadvantaged schools in one of the biggest townships in South Africa were sampled. The sample size was 271 respondents from a population of approximately 455. TAM was tested on the use of any of the Microsoft Softwares (Powerpoint, Word, Excel) in the classrooms for teaching purposes. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyse the data and five hypothesis statements were tested. The results revealed fundamental determinants (e.g. perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use) as primary contributors for their acceptance of technology.