Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are striving to provide effective learning experiences to address the needs of the digitally-oriented generation of learners. Blended learning has emerged as a solution to address these needs and has been adopted by various HEIs. However, not all academic staff members adopt blended learning when it is…

While digital storytelling has entered higher education as a vehicle to reflect on issues of identity and difference, there is a paucity of research framed by a critical perspective unpacking underlying power structures in the classroom. This study reports on an ongoing project in a South African pre-service Teacher Education course in which…

CTI is an accredited private higher education institution (university) with the Higher Education Council (HEC) in South Africa. Its head office is in Fourways, Johannesburg. CTI has 12 campuses nationwide and offers higher certificates and degrees in commerce and information technology. These BCom and BSc degrees were rolled out to all 12…

JiFUNzeni blended learning approach is a sustainable approach to provision of professional development (PD) for those in challenging educational contexts. JiFUNzeni approach emphasizes training regional experts to create blended learning content, working with appropriate technology while building content repositories. JiFUNzeni approach was…

This article presents an overview of research into computers and education undertaken at a the University of Pretoria since 1995. It seeks to explore the patterns that have emerged and to indicate potential directions for future research. In response to a call for research in the field to be taken seriously the article identifies the main themes…

At a time of substantial change, globalization, and ubiquitous access to information, educators struggle to change even the most basic aspects of their classrooms. This is especially true for those in challenging contexts where many perpetuate the "mind numbing" practice of rote instruction. This paper describes a collaborative…

Joseph Campbell's Monomyth not only provides a well-proven pattern for successful storytelling, it may also help to guide teams and team leaders through the challenges of change and innovation processes. In project "HELD: Innovationsdramaturgie nach dem Heldenprinzip" researchers of the University of the Arts Berlin and the Berlin…

Educational systems worldwide are being challenged to respond effectively to the digital revolution and its implications for learning in the 21st century. In the present new media age, educational reforms are desperately needed to support more open and flexible structures of on-demand learning that equip students with competencies required in a…

The emergence of social media has forced educators to think differently about the way learning occurs. Students and practitioners alike are using new technologies to connect with peers/colleagues, share ideas, resources and experiences for extracurricular activities. The social business gaming platform considered in this study leverages the social…

During the last decade there has been a growing focus on preschool learning within education, especially with regard to the learning of basic literacies such as reading and writing. In addition to this many nation states increasingly focus on the basic literacy competences of the information society, ICT and English. This has, as suggested by for…

For a child to learn through Problem-Solving in Serious games, the game scaffolding mechanism has to be effective. Scaffolding is based on the Vygotzkian Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) concept which refers to the distance between the actual development level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as…

Game-based learning (GBL) combines pedagogy and interactive entertainment to create a virtual learning environment in an effort to motivate and regain the interest of a new generation of "digital native" learners. However, this approach is impeded by the limited availability of suitable "serious" games and high-level design…

This study explores the acceptance of online learning (OL) for continuous professional development among lecturers at Kenya Medical Training College in 2009. The large and multi-campus College faces logistical and cost challenges in ensuring that its 700 lecturing staff have access to continuous professional development. Online learning…

This paper reports on research that took place at Nottingham Trent University (NTU) and Sheffield Hallam University (SHU), United Kingdom, over two years. The project formed the basis of an iterative, interpretive, action research study focussing on a particular set of participants--trainee teachers. The insights gained from the initial cycle fed…

The scope of this paper is to present the development of a web-based evaluation system that adjusts to the level of knowledge of each student. The underlying concept is to split the questions into pools (bins) of distinct difficulty at the same time assigning a different level of accuracy to each possible answer that the student may select. Given…