Technology and the Pedagogics of Learning

This book attempts to bring out the prospects and challenges of utilising technology in information dissemination within the education discourse. Primarily, this volume addresses the challenges that confront both students and academics, especially the latter who are involved in dispensing information to students. In its thrust, the book attempts to explore how students would benefit from the use of ICTs, especially the internet, as well as various e-tools that have not only provided an avenue for interaction between students and academics, but has become a source of fun. Some of the e-tools that have been explored in this book include blogs, podcasts, wikis, Facebook and chatrooms, with the latest technological innovations such as Twitter being earmarked for the sequel to this book. In addition to e-tools, the book deliberates on how technology has caused a paradigm shift as lecturers take on a new challenge of applying technology as a supplement to their traditional talk-and-chalk teaching methods. The author intends to make this book part of a series of editions which are going to be produced on the utilisation of ICT for educational, communication and marketing purposes. Suggestions will also be given on how emerging technological innovations would be used to enhance delivery of instruction and what their pedagogical implications within the education discourse would be. Due to the indispensable role that ICTs have played (and continue to play) in providing a conducive environment for teaching and learning purposes, this volume will be of interest to those in the ICT field, students of ICT and Information Systems, and even the casual reader would find the book educative, informative and engrossing.
About the Author: Jephias Mapuva is both an educationalist and educationist by profession and currently a senior researcher in the E-Learning Division at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa. Prior to joining the University both as a PhD candidate and a researcher, he has taught in tertiary institutions in Zimbabwe where he delivered lectures in the Humanities for close to 11 years, during which time he has amassed a wealth of experience on emerging educational trends in Higher Education Institutions, mainly in Zimbabwe. His research interests revolve around Issues in Pedagogy, Educational trends in Higher and Tertiary institutions, tenets of democracy-governance, civil society and citizen participation, and the develop-mental discourse of political and current affairs in African states. Recently he has added to his long list of research interest ICTs as a conduit to enhanced learning and their propensity to influence pedagogy in Higher Education Institutions across the globe. Valuable experience gained during his tenure as an educator and educationalist in tertiary institutions has instilled in him the urge and flare to publish, resulting in the publication of several articles in accredited journals both on educational trends and political dispensations across the globe, especially with the unprecedented impact and invincibility of globalisation. Mr Mapuva's book entitled Citizen Participation and Local Governance: Case Study of the Combined Harare Residents Association (Zimbabwe) has been published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing (2010).