M.A. (Media Studies) / One of the problems facing formal education in South Africa today is that. of coping with the educational needs of a fast developing country. An important recommendation of the De Lange Report was that educational technology should be utilised to alleviate this problem. Educational television, especially the use of video, is regarded as one of the most important technological media which can assist in this matter. A study was undertaken in the use of educational television in developing and developed countries in resolving educational problems. The role of teacher training in the successful implementation of educational television was also scrutinised. It was found that teacher training played a decisive role in the successful use of this medium. Teachers inadequately trained in the use of the medium lacked the knowledge to use it properly in the classroom. They also showed a resistance to the medium. At· present educational television in South Africa is aimed at non-formal educational needs but from 1 April 1986 the SABC will commence the broadcasting of formal educational programmes. In this study it is thus recommended that training courses in the use of educational television should be instituted at all "teacher training centres in South Africa and that all educational departments should give attention to the formal and non-formal training of in-service teachers .. Guidelines for a training course are suggested in this study. The contents of such a course would include components like television literacy, television and cognition, the analysis and evaluation of programmes, integration with the various subjects, the use and compilation of· support material and small scale television production. It is also recommended that the course should comprise lectures in theory and practical work sessions. -These practical work sessions would be regarded as the most important part of the course.

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This project addresses how to create an online syllabus that is accessible to students and parents, that empowers students to take responsibility for their own learning while enhancing school/home communication, and serves as a graphic representation of what students have accomplished. Web quests are used as the principle means of instructional delivery to engage middle school students in problem-based projects that address real life situations using rigorous and relevant curricula. Elements of an online syllabus and the content of the course it supports are examined. The role, an online syllabus plays in fulfilling the goals of techno-constructivism, the move from a top down, broadcast model toa decentralized, constructivism model of instructional delivery is addressed.

This study examined the connection between perceptions of teacher self-efficacy, professional development, and leadership practices and attitudes as it relates to successful implementation of technology for student learning in K-12 schools. As external pressures exhort schools to transform the learning environment and to include more meaningful applications of technology in the learning experiences for all students, issues which create barriers to a successful implementation of new practices must be examined. This study examined the responses of teachers, school and district administrators, and technology support personnel in a stratified random sample from 37 school districts in the state of Oregon to analyze the combined effects of teacher self-efficacy perceptions, leadership practices, and professional development as they relate to the implementation of classroom educational technology. The study revealed perceptual differences between staff roles of what teachers know about technology and how they use technology. School contexts, such as percentages of disadvantaged or non-White students, and teacher factors, such as age and gender, affected participant perception of technology implementations and of professional development opportunities. The researcher proposes a new framework for understanding school contexts and for planning successful technology implementations based upon a review of literature and original research.

There is a need in classrooms to engage students and maintain their interest in course content. A recent type of interactive technology, known as a "clicker," has shown potential to increase student engagement, performance, and participation in the classroom when used effectively. Peer instruction, a type of student to student interaction in which pairs or small groups of students discuss their answers to questions before responding, is often used in conjunction with clickers, and may account for the perceived effectiveness of these tools. The purpose of this study is to determine the clicker's effectiveness in increasing learning and increasing student engagement in secondary classrooms, while controlling for their use during peer instruction. Two classrooms were examined (n ~ 15 for each classroom) in which 1 classroom used clickers integrated with peer instruction activities, while the other classroom only did the peer instruction activities. The findings of this study showed no significant difference in student learning, a small increase in student engagement, and a positive student reaction to the clicker's potential and use in the classroom.

Learning to program is recognised nationally and internationally as a complex task that novices find challenging. There exist many endeavours to support the novice in this activity, including software tools that aim to provide a more supportive environment than that provided by standard software facilities, together with schemes that reduce the underlying complexity of programming by providing accessible micro-worlds in which students develop program code. Existing literature recognises that learning to program is difficult because of the need to learn the rules and operation of the language (program formulation), and the concurrent need to interpret problems and recognise the required components for that problem (problem formulation). This thesis describes a new form of learning support that addresses that dual task of program and problem formulation. A review of existing teaching tools that support the novice programmer leads to a set of requirements for a support tool that encompasses the processes of both program and problem formulation. This set of requirements is encapsulated in a conceptual framework for software tool development. The framework demonstrates how the requirements of a support tool can be met by performing a series of automated analyses at different stages in the student's development of a solution. An extended series of observations demonstrates the multi-faceted nature of problems that students encounter whilst they are learning to program and how these problems can be mapped onto the different levels of programs and problem formulation. These observations and the framework were used to inform the development of SNOOPIE, a sample instantiation of the framework for learning Java programming. This software tool has been fully evaluated and demonstrated to have a significant impact on the learning process for novice Java programmers. SNOOPIE is fully integrated into a current introductory programming module and a future programme of work is being established that will see SNOOPIE integrated with other established software tools.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education