D02P03

Post date: Sep 27, 2016 5:32:5 AM

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) facilitating epistemological access at Stellenbosch University

Presenter

Faiq Waghid is currently an Advisor in the Centre for Learning Technologies at Stellenbosch University 2014. His primary activities involve the structuring of blended learning programmes, the development and assessment of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and he also serves as telematics technical advisor. 

Waghid currently holds a BSc (Biological and Life Sciences), PGCE, B.Ed Honours (Educational Leadership and Management), MEd (Curriculum, Science and Technology Education) and PhD (Curriculum Studies in Science and Technology Education) all obtained from Stellenbosch University. 

Abstract

Stellenbosch University uses a contextualised Information and Communication Technology (ICT) strategy. This strategy aspires, amongst many objectives, to address the appropriate pedagogical integration of ICT and the support thereof in the university’s curriculum. In addition, the ICT strategy aims at responding to both local and international trends regarding ICT implementation. Of significance to pedagogical action, more specifically teaching and learning in the university classroom, the institution’s ICT strategy aims at empowering students on the basis of an engaged and deliberative use of ICT in teaching and learning encounters.

This presentation offers a broad overview of how the institution’s envisaged ICT strategy is being realised on an operational level using multiple case studies.  The case studies I draw on, include, the innovative enhancement of teaching and learning strategies through the use of ICTs and their implications for epistemological access. The latter is broadly considered as that opportunity on the basis of which students are pedagogically (from a point of view of knowledge) initiated into as they endeavor to gain access to and engaging with knowledge constructs in the university’s curriculum.