Abstract
Since the 1980s technologies have come to the fore front of educational discourse primarily because of the availability of a range of new digital technologies and requirements for learning how to apply them to teaching. Recently, almost all the institutions of learning resorted to respond to on-line teaching, research, and assessment processes as the way of knowledge building. The knowledge of technology has thus become an important aspect of overall teacher knowledge. The new technologies incorporate hardware and software such as computers, educational games, the internet, and a myriad application such as Sakai, Blackboard, Moodle, Microsoft and many others. Technologies have in some instances constrained and or afforded a range of representations, analogies, examples, explanations and demonstrations that could make content knowledge more accessible to the students. Teachers are therefore expected to simply learn to use these current available tools. This paper discusses some features of technology and the opportunities they bring about to enhance English language acquisition and development by first examining the ways in which technical and vocational education and training English lecturers in South Africa use digital technologies to design language activities to serve students’ educational needs, and issues and challenges faced by the lecturers in integrating technology to present content knowledge and assessment in the English classrooms. This is a qualitative study guided by the technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK), (Mishra and Koehler, 2006) as a theoretical framework.
Presenters
Mary Mmatsatsi MadilengSenior Lecturer, Department of Humanities, English Studies, University of South Africa (UNISA), Gauteng, South Africa
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
MOODLE, TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING, DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY
