Leveraging Educational Quality in Southern African Educational Systems: A Practitioners� Perspective

Chapter 4. Exploring the architecture of appropriation of emerging technologies at South African Universities: A critical review

63 Chapter 4 Exploring the architecture of appropriation of emerging technologies at South African Universities: A critical review Patient Rambe Abstract The emerging discourses on the meaning and multiple, subtle ways emerging technologies (ET) have been appropriated at South African universities are highly contentious and ironically present a maelstrom of technological and pedagogical possibilities. These porous discourses are often implicated in the spectrum between traditional mainstream technologies and well-trodden constructs, and panoply of Web 2.0 enhanced platforms, tools, gadgets and applications, including multiple intervening variables clustered between them. The under-explored semantic constitution of ET is often loosely applied with reference to the surging appropriation of the yet-to-be understood and unproven technologies. This chapter, therefore, theoretically reviews and unravels this valorised, but disorientating discourse by troubling the construct “ET” and challenging the reductionism that often characterises the deployment of the term. The Critical Theory of Technology (CTT) is harnessed to critically problematize the sustained currency of these technologies and the rationale for their fragmented but progressive appropriation. Consequently, the review renders a nuanced account of the architecture of appropriation of these technologies at South African universities. The potency of this research lies in its (re)construction of the educational meaning of ET from a dense, constellation of technologies and the significance of such reconstruction for improved pedagogy. 64 Introduction The debate on what emerging technologies (ET) are and how these are constituted remains a highly volatile and potentially explosive terrain (Dede, 1996; Godwin-Jones, 2003; ACT Department of Education and Training, 2005; Ketelhut & Niemi, 2007; Becta, 2008; Siemens & Tittenberger, 2009; Veletsianos, 2010; Bozalek, 2011). Consequently, a manifold of interpretations and constructions of ET has flourished: namely, as new collaborative technologies and media that offer distributed learning (Dede, 1996; Ketelhut & Niemi, 2007), Web 2.0 technologies that broaden individual control over information and sharing (Siemens & Tittenberger , 2009; Oblinger, 2008 ), second generation of the Web (Godwin-Jones, 2003) and perceivably the most academically impactful technologies in the projected future (Johnson et al. 2011; NMC Horizon Report, 2012). More complex constructions of ET have acknowledged and bridged the divide between traditional teaching technologies and Web 2.0 technologies (ACT Department of Education and Training, 2005; Ng’ambi, Gachago, Ivala, Bozalek, & Watters, 2012). Given these confounding interpretations of ET and the concomitant integration of these technologies into university life without problematizing them, serious questions should be raised about: (1) The authentic meaning of these technologies, (2) Rationale for their “hype” or uncritical embrace by the academic community and (3) Their disproportionate, often fragmented appropriation in academia notwithstanding the hype. This chapter, therefore, constitutes a theoretical review that contributes to this debate by grappling with the discourses on ET, rationale for their hyper cycles including their often incoherent, nonsystematic integration into mainstream South African higher educational institutions (SA HEIs). A Critical Theory of Technology (CTT) lens is marshalled to interpret and explicate the fragmented application of these ubiquitous technologies. Brief case studies on South African educators’ appropriation of these technologies serve as a “melting pot” for a stunning, nuanced grasp of the character and texture of these productive (and potentially disruptive), least 65 comprehended technologies. The thesis of this chapter, therefore, is that a sound, intelligible (re)construction of ET ideally presents impeccable opportunities for their productive appropriation and renders a vantage point for deep pragmatic engagement with these technologies. Consequently, the following questions are addressed in this chapter: 1. What is the current architecture (structure and trend) of appropriation of emerging technologies at South African higher educational institutions (SA HEIs)? 2. How have the university educators’ constructions of ET manifested and played out in their implementation of ET at these institutions? Emerging technologies (ET)-towards a definition The fuzzy discourse on the meaning of or identity of ET is intellectual disorientating and mind numbing. A cursory look at emerging perspectives on ET provides some anecdotal evidence on their loose labelling as “new technologies.” However, any subscription to this ambiguous name is bound to be tenuous, deeply flawed and unquestionably problematic as it conjures a need to trouble the constitution of “newness” against an assortment of variables and contexts-constituency, spatial and temporal considerations. To whom, in what contexts, and when can a technology be conceived as new, are the inevitable questions that beg for genuine answers. New technologies? ET have been problematically constructed as “new” technologies or new media technologies (Singh, Pahwa & Sharma, 2012; Roe, 2003). Singh, Pahwa & Sharma’s...