Nesta tese entende-se que a infância é uma construção cultural, social e histórica, sujeita a mudanças. Inscrita em uma matriz de inteligibilidade que vê a contemporaneidade marcada por condições peculiares, imbricadas e implicadas naquilo que tem sido amplamente conhecido como cultura pós-moderna, considerase que grandes transformações têm alterado a forma de estarmos no mundo. Supõese que as condições culturais contemporâneas produzem infâncias distintas da infância moderna − ingênua, dócil, dependente dos adultos − e modificam as formas das crianças viverem esse período tido como próprio delas. Vivemos um estado da cultura, com implicações contundentes da mídia e do consumo, que tem se configurado de forma diferente daquele da modernidade e produzido sujeitos distintos dos sujeitos modernos. Esta tese tem como um de seus objetivos dar visibilidade às crianças pobres que freqüentam algumas escolas no município de Porto Alegre nesse início do século XXI. Procura-se realizar uma das leituras possíveis de como os sujeitos infantis das escolas estudadas vivem a infância sob as condições culturais pós-modernas, e apontar a produtividade dessa cultura no delineamento de um determinado tipo de infância, que se opta por chamar de “infância pós-moderna”. Busca-se mostrar como as crianças pobres das escolas estudadas são produzidas, formatadas, fabricadas pela mídia e pelo consumo, configurando novos modos de ser criança e de viver a infância. Pretende-se também colocar sob tensão as imagens convencionais e modernas de infância com que muitos professores persistem trabalhando na contemporaneidade. Para isso, optou-se tanto por lançar mão de estudos de autores que tratam de descrever, interpretar e problematizar a condição cultural pós-moderna, como daqueles que realizam análises culturais sobre as infâncias. Para o estudo das condições culturais pós-modernas, foram também coletados, e considerados para compor o corpus de análise, artefatos que integram a cultura circulante da mídia e do consumo como reportagens, comunicações publicitárias, imagens de crianças, diferentes produtos direcionados à infância, etc. Para dar visibilidade às conexões entre as crianças das escolas estudadas e a cultura pós-moderna foi realizado um inventário de artefatos e práticas presentes nas escolas, registrou-se em fotos e em anotações no diário de campo situações, conversas com crianças e professoras, bem como foram coletados desenhos e textos produzidos em sala de aula. Tanto os materiais coletados nas escolas, como os coletados fora delas, ajudaram a compor e a expor um panorama das condições culturais pós-modernas, e contribuíram para o objetivo de mostrar uma infância pós-moderna que vai à escola. Ao visibilizar e analisar as formas como as crianças pobres das escolas estudadas vivem a infância e constituem-se como alunos, foi possível perceber umaconsonância com as configurações culturais do mundo contemporâneo. Visibilidade, efemeridade, ambivalência, fugacidade, descartabilidade, individualismo, superficialidade, instabilidade, fazem parte de suas vidas. Observou-se, nas escolas estudadas, um modo de ser criança que busca infatigavelmente a fruição e o prazer e, nessa busca, borra fronteiras de classe, gênero e geração. Um modo de ser criança que procura incansavelmente inscrever-se na cultura globalmente reconhecida e fazer parte de uma comunidade de consumidores de artefatos em voga na mídia do momento; que produz seu corpo de forma espetacular para que ele esteja em harmonia com o mundo das visibilidades; que se caracteriza por constantes e ininterruptos movimentos e mutações. São crianças que vão se tornando o que são, vivendo sob a condição pós-moderna. Tais crianças provocam desestabilização das pedagogias, causam inquietações, minam o pensamento binário, porque não é mais possível classificá-las, cartografálas, enquadrá-las nos lugares tradicionalmente designados para infantis e para escolares. São polivalentes, podendo ser de diferentes e distintas formas ao mesmo tempo e, no momento seguinte, já possuírem outras formas, antes mesmo que seja possível conhecê-las e apreendê-las. Crianças pós-modernas são um desafio para a educação escolarizada porque não permitem o estabelecimento de uma ordem e a elaboração de planos a longo prazo. / In this thesis, childhood has been understood as a cultural, social, and historical construction, subject to changes. Inscribed in an intelligibility matrix that sees contemporaneity marked by peculiar conditions that are intertwined and implied in something that has been widely known as post-modern culture, big transformations have altered the way we are in the world. It has been supposed that contemporary cultural conditions have both produced childhoods that are distinct from the modern childhood – naïve, docile, dependent on adults – and modified the ways children experience this period seen as theirs. We live in a state of culture, with incisive implications of media and consumption, which has shown a different configuration from that of modernity and produced subjects that are distinct from the modern subjects. One of the objectives of this thesis is to give visibility to poor children that have attended some schools in Porto Alegre in the beginning of the twentieth-first century. I have attempted both to undertake one of the possible readings of how infantile subjects from those schools have lived childhood under post-modern cultural conditions, and point out the productivity of this culture to delineate a certain type of childhood, which has been called “post-modern childhood”. I have shown how poor children from those schools have been produced, formatted, made by the media and consumption, thus forming new modes of being a child and living childhood. The thesis has also intended to tension conventional and modern images of childhood with which many teachers have persisted to work in contemporaneity. To do so, I have used studies produced by authors that have described, interpreted, and problematized the post-modern cultural condition, as well as authors that have culturally analyzed childhoods. For the study of post-modern cultural conditions, I have also collected and considered as corpus the artifacts that integrate the media and consumption culture, such as reports, advertising communications, pictures of children, different children-oriented products, etc. In order to give visibility to connections between children from the schools studied and the post-modern culture, I have made an inventory of artifacts and practices found in the schools; I have documented situations, conversations with children and teachers with photographs and notes in my field notebook; and I have collected drawings and texts produced in the classroom. Both materials collected in school and the ones collected outside have helped me to compose and expose an overview of post-modern cultural conditions, and have contributed towards the objective of showing a post-modern childhood that attends school. On visualizing and analyzing the ways poor children from the schools considered in this study have lived their childhood and constituted themselves as students, it is possible to perceive a consonance with cultural configurations of the contemporar world. Visibility, ephemerality, ambivalence, fugacity, disposability, individualism, superficiality, and instability are integral parts of their lives. I have observed in the schools a way of being a child that has indefatigably searched for fruition and pleasure and, in this search, has blurred the boundaries of class, gender, and generation. A way of being a child that has tirelessly searched to be inscribed in the globally acknowledged culture and belong to a community of consumers of artifacts currently in vogue in the media; that has produced their bodies in a spectacular way so that it is in harmony with the world of visibilities; that has been characterized by constant and ongoing moves and mutations. They are children that have become who they are, living under the post-modern conditions. Such children have provoked unstableness of pedagogies, caused uneasiness, undermined the binary thought, because it is no longer possible to classify them, chart them, frame them in places traditionally assigned to children and school students. They are polyvalent, and may show different and distinct forms at the same time, and in the next instant they can acquire other forms, even before it is possible to know them and apprehend them. Post-modern children have been a challenge to school education, since they do not allow for the establishment of an order and the elaboration of long-term planning.

Text in English with abstracts in English, Zulu and Sotho / Social media have taken a lead in academic libraries; however, there are still questions on how libraries are using social media tools to enhance their service delivery. The aim of this exploratory study was to investigate the use of social media tools by library staff working in the University of South Africa’s (Unisa) main library on the Muckleneuk Campus. Since it was realised that not all staff members use social media tools in the execution of their daily tasks, the first objective was to establish which staff members do use social media tools and for which purpose the tools are being used. A further objective was to learn about the potential advantages of social media tools to improve service delivery. The study also endeavoured to acquire an understanding of the challenges that social media tools present to its users. Based on the literature review, it could be established that libraries, and specifically academic libraries, utilise social media for marketing, dissemination of information, reference services, and communication with users and to answer student queries. The reported findings of this study concur with the findings reported in the literature review. The empirical data, which were collected through a qualitative survey questionnaire and interviews with library staff who use social media tools, revealed that only staff who communicate with library patrons, namely information processors and marketing staff, use social media tools. The findings also showed that the Unisa Library has specific guidelines and policies that guide the use of social media tools to interact with users, market the library and communicate events and service delivery changes. / Izinkundla zokuxhumana komphakathi sezihamba phambili emitapweni yolwazi yasemanyuvesi, kodwa kusanemibuzo eminingi maqondana nokuthi imitapo yolwazi iwasebenzisa kanjani amathuluzi ezinkundla zokuxhumana komphakathi ukuthuthukisa ukuhlinzekwa kwezidingo. Inhloso yalolu cwaningo oluhlola kabanzi kwakungukubheka ukuthi abasebenzi basemtapweni wolwazi omkhulu waseNyuvesi YaseNingizimu Afrika (i-Unisa) ekamu laseMuckleneuk bawasebenzisa kanjani amathuluzi ezinkundla zokuxhumana komphakathi. Njengoba sekwabonakala ukuthi akuwona wonke amalungu angabasebenzi asebenzisa amathuluzi ezinkundla zokuxhumana komphakathi ekuqhutshweni kwemisebenzi yawo yansuku zonke, injongo yokuqala kwakungukubheka ukuthi yimaphi amalungu omphakathi asebenzisa amathuluzi ezinkundla zokuxhumana komphakathi futhi awasebenzisela ukwenzani. Enye injongo kwakungukufunda mayelana nokuhle okungadalwa ngamathuluzi ezinkundla zokuxhumana komphakathi ukuthuthukisa ukuhlinzekwa kwezidingo. Lolu cwaningo lwaluqonde nokuqonda izingqinamba abantu abasebenzisa amathuluzi ezinkundla zokuxhumana komphakathi ababhekana nazo. Kuncike ekuhlaziyweni kwemibhalo ekhona, kwatholakala ukuthi imitapo yolwazi, ikakhulukazi leyo yasemanyuvesi, isebenzisa izinkundla zokuxhumana komphakathi ukukhangisa, ukusabalalisa imininingwane, ukubheka imithombo, ukuxhumana nabayisebenzisayo kanye nokuphendula imibuzo yezitshudeni. Okwatholakela okubikiwe mayelana nalolu cwaningo kuyahambisana nokubikiwe okwatholakala ngokuhlaziya imibhalo. Imininingwane eyatholakala ngokubheka okwenzekayo, eyaqoqwa ngokusebenzisa iphephamibuzo lenhlolovo eqoqa imininingwane yamaqiniso kanye nezingxoxo ezabanjwa nabasebenzi bomtapo wolwazi abasebenzisa amathuluzi ezinkundla zokuxhumana komphakathi yaveza ukuthi abasebenzi abaxhumana nabasebenzisi bomtapo wolwazi, abaziwa ngokuthi ngama-information processors kanye nabasebenzi abakhangisayo yibona kuphela abasebenzisa amathuluzi ezinkundla zokuxhumana komphakathi. Okutholakele kuphinde kwaveza ukuthi uMtapo Wolwazi Wase-Unisa unemihlahlandlela kanye nezinqubomgomo okulandelwayo ukuze kusetshenziswe kahle amathuluzi ezinkundla zokuxhumana komphakathi, ukuxhumana nabasebenzisi bawo, ukukhangisa ngomtapo wolwazi nokwazisa ngemicimbi ekhona kanye noshintsho ekuhlinzekweni kwezidingo. / Marangrang a leago a thomile go šomišwa kudu ka makgobapukung a thuto, efela go sa na le dipotšišo ka ga ka fao makgobapuku a šomišago dithulusi tša marangrang a leago go kaonafatša kabo ya ona ya ditirelo. Maikemišetšo a nyakišišo ye ya phetleko e be e le go nyakišiša tšhomišo ya dithulusi tša marangrang a leago ka bašomi ba go šoma ka bokgobapukung bjo bogolo bja Yunibesithi ya Afrika Borwa (Unisa), Khamphaseng ya Muckleneuk. Ka ge go lemogilwe gore ga se bašomi ka moka ba go šomiša dithulusi tša marangrang a leago tirong ya mešongwana ya bona ya letšatši le letšatši, nepo ya mathomo e be e le go hwetša gore ke bašomi bafe bao ba šomišago dithulusi tša marangrang a leago le gore dithulusi di šomišetšwa morero ofe. Nepo ye nngwe e be e le go ithuta ka ga mehola ye dithulusi tša marangrang a leago di kago kgona go ba nayo go kaonafatša kabo ya ditirelo. Nyakišišo gape e lekile go hwetša kwešišo ya ditlhohlo tše dithulusi tša marangrang a leago di di bakelago bašomiši ba tšona. Go ya ka tshekatsheko ya dingwalo, go lemogilwe gore makgobapuku, kudu makgobapuku a thuto, a šomiša marangrang a leago go bapatša, go phatlalatša tshedimošo, go fa ditirelo tša referentshe, go kgokagana le bathekgi le go araba dipotšišo tša baithuti. Dikutullo tše di begilwego tša nyakišišo ye di dumelelana le dikutullo tša tshekatsheko ya dingwalo tše di hweditšwego. Datha ya go lemogwa (emperikale) yeo e kgobokeditšwego ka lenaneopotšišo la nyakišišo ya khwalithethifi le dipoledišano tša bašomi ba bokgobapuku bao ba šomišago dithulusi tša marangrang a leago, di utulotše gore ke fela bašomi bao ba boledišanago le bathekgi ba bokgobapuku, e lego basepetši ba tshedimošo le bašomi ba go bapatša bao ba šomišago dithulusi tša marangrang a leago. Dikutullo gape di laeditše gore bokgobapuku bja Unisa bo na le dipholisi le melawana ye itšeng ya go hlahla tšhomišo ya dithulusi tša mekgwa ya leago go kgokagana le bašomiši, go bapatša bokgobapuku le go tsebiša ditiragalo le diphetogo tša kabo ya ditirelo. / Information Science / M.A. (Information Science)

Text in English with abstracts in English and Afrikaans / The objective of this study was to investigate how the integration of social media applications such as Facebook can be advantageous to students in Open Distance Learning (ODL) settings or environments. This study was carried out in the context and recognition that the use of social media has become a norm in modern-day society where people in general, and students in particular, can upload videos, images and texts towards achieving a common purpose. In order to achieve the objectives of this study, the researcher employed two theoretical frameworks, namely Connectivism and New Media Theory. The study also used Qualitative Research Methodology, particularly the qualitative content analysis research technique and focus group interviews. The study found that the use of Facebook provided students with better access to online resources and facilitated more interaction with fellow students. In an ever-changing world, the study established that technology has the potential to innovate distance learning, providing students with an open space to learn, collaborate and communicate more effectively. This means that social media applications have the power to connect people and bridge the gaps of time and distance. This is especially relevant in ODL environments where students operate in isolated spaces and have little or no direct interaction with their lecturers and fellow students. / Die doel van die studie is om ‘n ondersoek te loods na sosiale media integrasie, meer spesifiek Facebook, en hoe voordelig die gebruik daarvan vir studente in die konteks van ‘n Oop- en Afstandsonderrigleer (OAL) is. Die studie was gedoen binne die konteks, en met inagneming van, hoe die gebruik van sosiale media ‘n norm in die hedendaagse samelewing geword het, en hoe mense oor die algemeen videos, prente, en teks kan oplaai om ‘n gesamentlike akademiese doel te bereik. Ten einde die doel van die betrokke studie te bereik, het die navorser twee teoretiese raamwerke gebruik, naamlik Konnektivisme (Connectivism) en Nuwe media-teorie. Die studie het gebruik gemaak van ‘n kwalitatiewe navorsingsmetode, meer spesifiek kwalitatiewe inhoudsanalise en fokus-groep onderhoude. Die studie het bevind dat die gebruik van Facebook studente beter toegang tot aanlynhulpbronne verleen, en ook meer interaksie tussen studente bewerkstellig. In ‘n veranderende wêreld het die studie bevestig dat die gebruik van tegnologie oor die potensiaal beskik om innoverende afstandonderrig aan te bied en ope platforms vir studente bied om met mekaar saam te werk asook meer effektief te kommunikeer. Sosiale media beskik dus oor die vermoë om mense nader aan mekaar te bring, en ook die gaping van tyd en afstand te oorbrug. Dit is hierin ook die geval waar studente dikwels in isolasie, met min of geen direkte kontak met dosente of mede studente in ‘n OAL konteks, studeer. / Communication Science / M.A. (Communication Science)