Geoffrey Lautenbach

Electronic Assessment in Higher Education.

Assessment is an important cornerstone of education. A world trend in staying abreast of the latest developments in the field of information and communication technology (ICT) has led to an increased demand for electronic assessment in education circles. The critical need and responsibility for higher education to stay on par with the latest techniques regarding assessment subsequently led the University of Johannesburg (UJ) to implement electronic assessment in some departments in 2004. Several challenges led to this exploration into the use of one e‐assessment tool within the University.

A theoretically driven teaching and research framework: learning technologies and educational practice

The emphasis of this paper is on the derivation of design principles from qualitative analysis of student reflections based on their participation in authentic, collaborative and technology-mediated activities. This paper reports on the initial phases of a design-based research project at a comprehensive university in South Africa where the authentic nature of the activities contributed to the depth of student reflections and ultimately led to meaningful design principles based entirely on the experiences of students. Students’ reflective reports were analysed for their content using simple inductive coding techniques leading to the identification of themes and the derivation of design principles from further refinement of these themes. These design principles, therefore, have their origins in the specific theories underpinning the learning activities that were used in the teaching and learning process, and contribute once again in an innovative way to this same body of knowledge. This theory-driven praxis thus makes a contribution to both educational theory and teaching practice which is applicable across a variety of contexts and sectors worldwide. More importantly, this can be seen as meaningful research that is socially responsible, with a high theoretical and practical value, and of relevance to a wider international audience.

An interactive, multivariate projection model for the alignment of teacher demand and supply for schools in the Gauteng Province of South Africa: A disaggregated approach

Abstract This article reports on the conceptualisation of a multivariate interactive computerised teacher demand and supply decision support model of projection for the Further Education and Training (FET) band of public schools for the Gauteng Province of South Africa. This model was conceptualised with a view to enabling policy makers to make projections that estimate aggregate or disaggregate teacher supply and demand. A reductionist methodological approach was used in this inquiry, with the intention of reducing the ideas surrounding teacher supply and demand into a discrete set of variables reflected in a multivariate model. It also reflects a deterministic philosophy of cause and effect, as variables are manipulated within the model. Knowledge is developed in this inquiry through the development of multiple numeric measures of the objective reality of teacher supply and demand. The main contribution of this inquiry is the computerised disaggregated teacher supply and demand projection model – the mo...

Stories of Engagement with E-Learning: Revisiting the Taxonomy of Learning

I argue that although university lecturers delve into the “shallow waters†of e-learning, they do not do so in sufficient depth and resign themselves to the perpetuation of cognitivist, behaviorist, and objectivist forms of knowledge without discovering more about the medium that could possibly liberate their restricted epistemologies. In this article, I explore possible reasons for varying engagement with e-learning, assuming that these reasons are located within the dimensions of the unit of analysis of the study; namely, lecturers’ changing theories of knowledge and teaching in first encounters with e-learning. Using Lee Shulman’s table of learning (Shulman, 2002) as a heuristic, I use excerpts from personal narratives to highlight the epistemological and pedagogical transformation of nine lecturers as they engage with educational technologies in their work.

The extended information ecology : a place where change can be embedded in the practice of post-graduate students

There is a trend in the professional development of teachers to focus on the acquisition of educational information and communication technology (ICT) skills, often at post-graduate level. Disturbing evidence from research, however, indicates that the skills acquired in post-graduate courses in educational computing in South Africa do not necessarily lead to change in the practice of the students. This could have dire consequences for the country, which relies on the education system to equip the future workforce with the skills to cope with the demands of the digital era. Using the metaphor of an ecological information community, this paper explores the characteristics of such a community: system, diversity, co- evolution, keystone species and locality, in the context of a particular class of students, and then discusses the role that each characteristic might have to play in the non-transference of new skills into teaching practice. Reasons offered by students themselves for their reluctance to exercise their expertise are presented and, lastly, ways are suggested in which the higher education information ecology might extend to supporting students as they seek to change by initiating embryonic information communities in their own schools and classrooms.

Streamlining Processes with Technology: The Research Ethics Committee

This paper reports on the conceptualization and design of a set of documents and procedures to streamline the task of ethical review by an Academic Ethics Review Board within a Faculty of Education at a South African University. The motivating factors for redesigning these documents and procedures include emerging societal problems that impact on the current educational space and the demands of academia for ethical research practice. To this end, a set of electronic documents were initially set up to address the four tenets of ethical research, namely respect for autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice. With reviewers uncertain about certain ethical issues and students and other researchers with conflicting opinions about these matters, it was decided to streamline the review process by including reasons why ethics applications are normally rejected by neighbouring university RECs and by then adding items related to research misconduct, vulnerability of participants, and researcher responsibilities. After a process of critical review and feedback by REC members, further items were added to the review documents that pertain to ethical research conduct. These include legal issues, procedural issues, issues of language and writing style, as well as the scientific basis for doing the research in the first place as poor science is in essence, inherently unethical. Five academic departments within the Faculty of Education then had the opportunity to add to the documentation at a series of ethics workshops. The review document, along with the procedural documents and the revised charter of the REC, has led to a more efficient review process largely due to more coherent and focused ethics applications as well as better informed and motivated reviewers. This paper and associated presentation will offer interested parties and REC members worldwide an insight into ethical issues and processes that may impact on all educational research done with human participants.

Cultivating lifelong learning: Pre-service teachers and their MOOCs

The South African Council for Educators (SACE) is in the process of implementing their Continuous Professional Teacher Development (CPTD) management system. Each teacher working in South Africa is required to sign-up electronically before they participate in their 1st CPTD cycle with each cycle repeated at three year intervals. With the increasing accessibility to online learning for pre-service and in-service teachers, access to CPTD is not limited to SACE endorsed programs and teachers are opting to enroll in less structured opportunities to enhance their own learning experiences through participating in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). With the advent of the MOOC in its many guises and the subsequent proliferation of service providers, there is a pressing need to provide some practical guidance to teachers planning to enrol in a MOOC for their own professional development purposes. This paper reports on pre-service teachers participation in their first MOOCs as part of their own journey in becoming teachers in the 21st Century. Online and open learning provides many challenges and opportunities for continuous professional development.

Changing behaviours online: Surfing safely

Surfing Safely is an educational initiative designed to equip learners at a Jewish Orthodox Private School with sufficient knowledge to appreciate benefits and risks of electronic media at school. The initiative dealt basically with Internet safety. An aim was to empower children to take control of their use of the Internet, to cope with unwholesome exposures online, and to report incidents to appropriate authorities. The programme was created to address the topic at a school that prescribes the set ethos and values of Judaism. This paper analyses change of awareness and behaviour as they use the Internet. Changes were measured by a post-test questionnaire. Initial findings show that learners are impressionable and the programme has a tremendous impact on them. Overall, learners had no problem changing behaviours with regard to settings and privacy issues. There was less change in areas that they didn’t see as applicable to them – such as virus software or filters. BACKGROUND: TIMING THE TIDES FOR SURFING SAFELY In South Africa, research data on “online crime” is limited. Not many prior studies have been conducted in South Africa on the extent of the problem, and it is important to stress that the full reality may never be known, given the clandestine nature of crime on-line. Adding to the problem, many teenagers do not disclose uncomfortable experiences on-line. However, we do know that South African children using the Internet are at risk of unwanted exposure to objectionable material to the same extent as children in other countries (Film and Publication Board, Research Report, 2006). As more and more schools move towards establishing the Internet as part of a school’s learning environment, often without adopting strategies to minimise the risks of unwanted exposure, even more children are placed at risk. Societal changes worldwide related to online activities, especially the blurring of real and virtual worlds, were already identified as far back as 2008 as highlighted in the following extract: “The traditional types of online environments are now merging as social networking, online gaming, instant messaging and photo-sharing technologies are becoming component parts of large ‘social sites’. Even where the boundaries can still be identified, children are using these environments with little or no distinction between them and the line between online and offline is becoming increasingly blurred. Whereas last year we stated that the terms ‘real’ and ‘virtual’ worlds should no longer be used, this year we should accept the complete integration of online activities into the lives of children” (Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, 2008). Taking the pervasiveness of technology in schools into account, strategies and measures to minimise the risks of unwanted exposure need to be adopted (Flood & Hamilton, 2003a). Regarding the pervasiveness of technology in teacher education, Lautenbach and Batchelor (2012) reported that the government of the day have “responded with a flurry of policy statements and national development plans to galvanise educational change and to remedy the education system”. One example is the National Planning Commission (2011) who drafted the National Development Plan. The Department of Education (2011) also stated that although the aim of the government initiative is to improve professionalism, teaching skills, subject knowledge and computer literacy of teachers throughout their entire careers and to increase access amongst learners to a wide range of media to enrich their