Dominant Perspectives on ICT & Higher Education

The application of technology into teaching and learning is a fairly new phenomenon in higher education environments. While the intake trends are growing at an increasing rate in academic institutions however, the conceptual framework is lagging behind. There is a lack of consensus on conceptions of a relationship between ICT and learning processes in academia. As a result, it is difficult to understand motivations for educational technology intakes, and to make sense of ICT adoption patterns, trends, and processes within and between higher education institutions. In view of this complexity, this paper analyses the common concepts, meanings, and implications attached to the interaction of technology and education by academics, IT practitioners, institutional policy makers, and the literature in higher education institutions. The paper draws on a recent study of ICT, education, pedagogy and change by Czerniewicz, Ravjee, and Mlitwa (2005) to discuss ICT in education, and the implications for teaching and learning. The work of Andrew Feenberg (2003) on the perspectives of technology and social contexts is used to put emerging meanings of technology into theoretical and practical contexts. The paper closes with the argument that since technology is socially-embedded and context-based, practitioners should be wary of perspectives that claim to offer “one size fits-all solutions” to every challenge. Instead of being driven by a technological hype, it is important to focus on intended objectives. Full awareness of related constraints in any given institutional context is important if maximum benefits are to be attained in an initiative. Dominant Perspectives on the Role of ICT in higher education 2 Introduction There has been a rising intake of teaching and learning technology solutions in academia over the recent past. Faith in the potential of ICT to improve the quality of education processes has been a significant motivation for ICT intake since 2000 (Czerniewicz, Ravjee, and Mlitwa, 2005). Despite the increase however, the understanding of how ICT enhances teaching and learning processes, and how it should be applied in higher education remains very limited among practitioners. There is hardly any consensus on meanings and implications of concepts used by various stakeholders. The paper discusses how ICT is being understood, and how a relationship between ICT and higher education is perceived by practitioners and researchers working in higher education institutions. Various sources are used to explore dominant meanings, to analyse perspectives, and to interrogate motivations for ICT adoption and usage in educational contexts. The paper further draws on Andrew Feenberg’s (2003) perspectives on the role of technology in social contexts, to contextualise held conceptions. Rationale This paper is motivated by the findings of a completed part of an ongoing PhD study. The study in question was a joint project between three researchers. It was set to investigate meanings, conceptions, metaphors, and understandings of educational technology by academics, practitioners, researchers, and policy makers across higher education institutions in South Africa (Czerniewicz, Ravjee, and Mlitwa, 2005). The study was based extensively on interview transcripts of 16 middle-management people who are at the intersection of the technology and education within university structures in South Africa. Additional data sources such as the national and institutional policies and regulations, literature on higher education and the sociology and philosophy of science, and published journal articles were further consulted. In analysing the meanings and implications, the paper aims to improve the understanding of concepts and to make sense of the motivations behind varying patterns of technology adoption and use within and between institutions in South Africa. This will, hopefully, contribute to a Dominant Perspectives on the Role of ICT in higher education 3 clearer, quality maximising, and effective framework of applying ICT into teaching and learning in higher education processes. In the following section, the paper opens with an overview of the meanings that policy makers, academics and other practitioners commonly attach to ICT for education. The Meaning of Educational ICT Often research reports, government and higher education institutional policy documents, as well as technology practitioners discuss ICT in relation to the value it adds to the quality of higher education. The ICT for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (HictE) project is a useful example. HictE advocates an innovative application of ICT to enhance the quality of teaching and learning among higher education institutions in the Western Cape (Mlitwa, 2004; 2005). A positive co-relationship between technology and the quality of teaching and learning is clearly implied. Technology however, means more than just quality enhancement. Various concepts that are used when talking about a technology often reflect purposes for which a technology is used. Where the context is educational usage, references are made to Educational Technologies (UCT, 2003), Learning and E-Learning Technologies (Badenhorst and de Beer, 2004), Online Teaching and Learning Technologies (Van der Merwe, and Möller, 2004), Digital Library Technologies (Peters, 2002), and Digital Learning Objects (Smith, 2004), among others. Technology is largely viewed within the context of communication. It is often conceptualised as communication tools and or networks. References are usually made to IT Networks and Communication Protocols (University of Natal, 2003), Electronic Information and Communication Technologies (Van der Merwe and Pool, 2002), Information Agent (Razek, et al. 2003), or just Communication Technology (Blanchette and Kanuka, 1999), among other concepts. Most authors however, take for granted that the meaning of these concepts is known and never bother to define them. Where defined, almost all definitions tend to link technology with knowledge. It is often presented as knowledge itself or the technical means of doing things (which implies knowledge) (Bergen.org, undated), or a tool to advance knowledge. As a tool, it can extend “human capabilities to solve problems”, and “to assist students in the acquisition of knowledge”, or to empower teachers and administrators to stimulate learning more effectively Dominant Perspectives on the Role of ICT in higher education 4 (Sanbenito.tx, USA, undated). It is also conceptualised as a domain either of knowledge, for knowledge advancement (UCT Policy Document, 2003:1) or for underpinning innovation (SA R&D Strategy 2002:13). For many practitioners in higher education according to Czerniewicz, Ravjee, and Mlitwa, (2005) using ICT implies using the web. Thus the term “web-based” is used as an equivalent to ICTs even when, technically speaking, they are not the same thing. Mention of the shift from stand-alone multimedia machines to networked web-based technologies was made, with many interviewees noting that it was only after the advent of the web that ICTs were mainstreamed into education. These statements, of course, were aimed to streamline (limit) the meaning of educational technology and e-learning to networked computers (Czerniewicz, Ravjee, and Mlitwa, 2005). Educational technology generally encompasses computers, software, video, communications, interactive video, satellite communications, television, video, robotics, CD-ROM, and the Internet (among other things). “It includes the knowledge and skills necessary to use technology as a tool” (Bergen.org, undated). The way technology is conceptualised and understood, shapes expectations of the role it fulfils in teaching and learning processes. Perspectives on the role of technology in higher education processes are discussed in the following passage. The Role of Technology in Higher Education Leading literature on the sociology of technology describe ICT as important in enhancing teaching, learning, and research, both from the constructivist and instructivist theories of learning (Czerniewicz, Ravjee, and Mlitwa, 2005). This is a clear indication that practitioners, academics, and policy makers are divided on the status and role of technology in socio-technical processes such as education. There is a line of thought that views technology as neutral and autonomous (determinist) on the one hand, and that which views technology as neutral and human controlled rather than autonomous (instrumentalist) (Feenberg, 2003). On the other extreme stands the view of technology as both autonomous and value-laden (substantivist), or as human controlled and value-laden (critical perspective). Where technology is seen as neutral and autonomous, the belief is that it is merely a tool and an indifferent instrument to further human goals. This is the instrumentalist perspective of ICT (Feenberg, 2003). Dominant Perspectives on the Role of ICT in higher education 5 A study by Czerniewicz, Ravjee, and Mlitwa, (2005) found an overwhelming emphasis on the social aspect of technology by interviewees. For many, it was the “learning” part of the “eLearning” phrase that is important. What it does (enables), rather than how it does it (enables the learning) is important, and different pedagogical methods were attached to the how aspect. The point here is that there is an obvious diversity in the understanding of how ICT is applied to teaching and learning processes in academia. Instructivists claim that technology is too neutral to teach, but only a tool for use by teachers to instruct (transfer knowledge). Technology according to this perspective therefore, is not valueladen and has no implications on the user since it is just how you use it that matters (Czerniewicz, Ravjee, and Mlitwa, 2005). The determinist perspective on the other hand, sees technology as neutral and autonomous, but not humanly controlled. It describes technology as a determinant of progress and change in higher education Feenberg (2003). A number of constructivist theorists who see technology as an agent for change fall under this category. In this model of thinking, technology enhances education, it enables independent learning, it influences or drives the theory of learning, it breaches many walls created by distance and times zones; it unites people and create powerful and synergistic partnerships at local, regional and global scales; it motivates students and energises classrooms (Czerniewicz, Ravjee, and Mlitwa, 2005). On the other extreme, technology can both be autonomous and value laden. Feenberg (2003) calls this view the “substantivist” perspective of technology. In other words both the means and ends are linked in a system. Technology therefore, influences academic processes and change, but is also influenced by those processes. Technology can also be human controlled and value laden. Feenberg (2003) calls this perspective, the critical theory of technology. In this case technology is used as a tool to further our goals. The only difference is that it is not a neutral but value-laden tool. So, it carries with it the context of its design, the language and cultural connotations of its location, to influence its destinations. In their account of technology therefore, critical theorists would be wary of uncritical “technology praise-singing”. It would interrogate possible connotations that emerge out of the use of technology, and offer recommendations on how the obstacles can be addressed to Dominant Perspectives on the Role of ICT in higher education 6 maximise ICT benefits for all. Critical theorists would appreciate advantages of efficiency that technology offers to users, but question implications for those without access. They would question the hidden profit maximising intentions of ICT manufacturing companies vs. relevance to the needs of the technology user; and they would be critical of the long term implications of proprietary software licences on students and higher education institutions relative to open source software. Fig 1: Andrew Feenberg Theory of Technology Technology is: Autonomous Humanly Controlled