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Faculty of Arts and Design

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    A poetic inquiry into lecturers' encounters with technological teaching tools
    (2022-02) Peté, Margaretha Maria; Wade, Jean-Philippe; Cronjé, Johannes
    In this study I asked how poetic inquiry (PI) can contribute to capturing the full complexity of lecturers’ encounters with technological teaching tools; and how Actor Network Theory (ANT) and its theoretical relations can help to comprehend how agency plays out during these encounters. I used the performative or reflexive interview technique to interview 12 lecturers from the Durban University of Technology about their encounters with technology. This method created conditions where something poetic could be expressed – truth was performed together by interviewee and interviewer. To understand lecturers’ agency, I analysed virtual interview recordings by creating poetic representations (participant-voiced poems). I prompted conversations by sending interviewees a collection of my autobiographical poems some weeks before the interviews – these poems capture encounters I experienced first-hand as insider-researcher. In preparation for the interviews, I also wrote a series of theory-voiced poems from engaging with the literature. I found that thinking with ANT while writing poetry by way of analysis, enabled me to trace networks of human and non-human actors, to gain a clearer understanding of a world where we perform agency within networks of things. Because I worked like this and deliberately avoided an overall thematic analysis of the body of poetry (which tends to seek common themes), I was able to disrupt patterns and thus the poems foregrounded and articulated divergence, difference, dis-closure – the local textures of actor networks. This study has found that the power of the particular is concentrated by combining the instruments of PI and ANT – this dual strategy has helped the poet-researcher to identify, animate, follow actors and stage encounters. ANT and its theoretical relations worked together with the devices of PI, to illuminate the great variety of ways in which technological things have authorised or blocked the agency of lecturers at the DUT. The strategy of coupling PI with ANT culminated in the development of the ANT-PI question kit, which enabled the discussion of selected poems in relation to theory and methodology. In the kit, each research question is accompanied by a set of theory-focused questions. I prepared the reader for creative engagement from the first chapter, ending with the invitation to use the kit to unlock the poetry collection which concludes the thesis. Having pointed out specific contributions above, overall through affect and form, the study makes a contribution to social science, technology and education, yielding a collection of 46 poems. My scholarly regard for subconscious knowing and the imagination deepened as I trusted these devices continually throughout this inquiry to illuminate truth. I was surprised by the poems and what they revealed. The thesis is a demonstration of the kind of knowing that emerges through fidelity to the belief that imagination is equal to reason.
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    Connecting technology and sensory design : a collaborative approach to designing university learning environments in a digital age
    (2018-11) Parker, Megan; Reynolds, Michelle C.; Gaede, Rolf
    This study explores how technology-enhanced learning (TEL) environments may be designed to stimulate the human senses. The research examines how interior designers can improve the design of learning environments to integrate seamlessly with emerging technologies, focusing specifically on how to provide students with an embodied and improved learning experience. The research challenges the notion that a need exists to connect technology and sensory design. The aim was to discover how a collaborative design approach could be used to assist interior designers to overcome the challenges they face when accommodating technology and the senses in university learning environments. The study followed an action research approach, situated in the interpretative inquiry paradigm. The sample population was comprised of various professional specialists from South Africa and the United States of America. Online interviews, focus group discussions, reflection questionnaires and an academic research journal were used to gather data. The findings describe and illustrate the challenges which interior designers face when designing learning environments in the digital age. To connect technology and the senses effectively, interior designers need to find a balance between integrating technology, stimulating the senses and encouraging collaborative learning. The study makes a strong case for a collaborative design approach when designing TEL environments, as the wider range of knowledge and skills leads to more informed decisions.
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    A learning object repository for computer assisted language learning in order to provide resources for language learners in schools in KwaZulu-Natal
    (2014) Reddy, Pregalathan; Pratt, Deirdre Denise
    This study, carried out within a critical realist orientation, offers a digital approach to providing language learning resources to learners in KwaZulu-Natal by developing a language learning object repository (LLOR). The purpose of designing and setting up a LLOR prototype was to find a way to augment and supplement the resources provided by text books, the provision of which has hitherto been fraught with service delivery problems. Margaret Archer’s substantive theory of morphogenesis was used to provide a social science framework within Bhaskar’s critical realist meta-approach. The morphogenetic approach suggests that, for technological advances to be accepted as part of everyday educational practice, they must be included in the fabric of the existing social structures of teaching and learning. This had implications for the human computer interaction (HCI) aspects of the artefact, which was developed by both anticipating user needs at the outset and confirming these at intervals; it also looked at the development of digital resources over a period of time in terms of the artefact being part of a larger movement towards using digital resources. The iterative design of the LLOR followed a series of piloting different application stacks, including MediaWiki, TikiWiki CMS and Joomla. Moodle was chosen as the most suitable application as it facilitates the sharing of content using the Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) and can also easily be packaged in an offline self-contained pack for distribution to users who have limited Internet access. Three user groups, comprising experts (those who are proficient with web and computer technologies), teachers (a representative group of teachers who were second language teachers of English) and a representative from the Department of Basic Education (DOBE), were asked to test-drive the LLOR and respond to questions about its ease of use and potential. The LLOR was primarily intended for teachers although it supports students as well. The use of a user-contributed model in the design of the LLOR anticipates i the challenge of providing direct support (editorial), as in adding new resources by only the researcher and also accepting that consumers are more likely to support user-contributed models, if they are also contributors. The key to facilitating access to resources like the LLOR is to make them accessible through different devices especially mobile platforms such as (cell-phones and tablets); future development will prioritise a mobile ready version of the LLOR. The value of the research is thought to lie in furthering an innovative mode of teaching in a digital medium setting where educational communication achieves virtual mode in and out of the physical classroom.
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    The language of digital learning : developing an e-learning approach for the elderly
    (2010) Sheridan, Richard David; Pratt, Deirdre Denise
    The purpose of this study was to investigate the current learning methods that are typically used by special populations (an elderly subject group), and to explore their general level of effectiveness. The primary research questions explore how this subject group is currently learning to use the Internet and for what purposes, along with what the typical barriers are that this group experiences when seeking to use the Internet, together with factors that motivate them to participate in learning programs. This study has special relevance for elderly adults along with computer instructors who specifically train the elderly to learn to use the Internet. The findings may also be of interest to others who interact with other special populations, directly or indirectly, including web designers, healthcare professionals, librarians, and others. The project was prompted by the author‘s experience teaching and observing elderly adults learning to use the Internet, and his desire to develop a more effective teaching strategy for them. The thesis explores the basic principles of adult learning, including components from self-directed learning, the theory of multiple intelligences, ethnographic research and other theories and approaches that have the potential of contributing to teaching this subject group, including the use of language in describing their learning successes and failures. Data analysis consisted of observing over 200 older adults learning to use the Internet over a two-year period. The evaluation of participants was based on empirical (defined in the glossary) and subjective analysis of levels of participation, progress and other factors. To supplement the large-scale results with rich data, the author of this study also performed detailed interviews with 14 elderly Internet users along with five teachers of the elderly. Additional material was gathered from academic journal articles, online databases and other related sources. The author tested and applied several research methods to achieve the most effective outcome. This iii included participant observation from ethnographic research, along with empirical and basic quantitative research. The author also uses autoethnography in his research approach, an emerging qualitative research method that allows the researcher to write in a highly personalized style, drawing on his or her experience, as kind of a autobiographical personal narrative. The intent of auto-ethnography is to acknowledge the link between the personal and the cultural and to make room for non-traditional forms of inquiry and expression. In embracing personal thoughts, feelings, stories, and observations as a way of understanding the social context they are studying, these researchers are also shedding light on their total interaction with that setting by making their every emotion and thought visible to the reader. Auto-ethnography also gives researchers an opportunity to do primary research and draw data from their observations. An identifiable pattern that is reviewed in more detail in the Results section emerged from these different findings. The primary outcome that emerged is that there are many approaches to learning, and these methods need to be examined, tested and selectively adapted for each individual to achieve the maximum benefit. The widespread demand for Internet training has resulted in fragmented and inconsistent training schemes that are generally focused on classroom-based instruction. The author encourages a systematic self-testing by the subject group member (and their teachers) to explore currently available training methods and combine the elements that they find most effective towards a personalized approach to learning based on individual interests, aptitudes, and the availability of the local training resources. The percentage of the elderly using the Internet is rising rapidly, and the current training options are limited in some areas in the United States. Based on the author‘s empirical observations, the self-directed approach to learning appears to show the most promise for this elderly subject group, in the sense that they generate their own best learning schematics, while their instructor guides and facilitates the process. iv This thesis has made a primary contribution to the research in several ways. First of all, the author made a synthesis that has not been made previously. He combined the concept of self-directed learning with several methods of learning improvement, such as the use of assistive technology for the disabled, memory skill-building, and the application of symbols and metaphors to increase the ability of this subject group to comprehend the learning materials. This is arguably the best approach for adapting to this rapidly evolving subject group population. Additionally, he applied the concept of kaizen, a Japanese term from their manufacturing sector that represents continuous, ongoing improvement, to teach to members of this group the concept of self-monitoring and improvement. Additionally, the research was cross-disciplinary and used different methodologies, including ethnography, empirical and basic quantitative research. Several additional contributions and innovations are described later in the thesis.