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Research

CET's research mission is to ensure that the design, development and use of ICTs for teaching and learning are based on rigorous contextualised research. Our objectives are to provide equitable access to higher education, enable social redress, and improve the quality of teaching and learning at UCT, in South Africa and in countries with similar needs.

CET is involved with research through its existing projects, through occasional commissioned research and through funded research.

CET Curriculum development, staff development and learning technologies projects often include a research component. Full details of development and research seminars as available at CET seminars, workshops and conference presentations. A peer-reviewed research publications list is available at Research Output.

Curriculum projects and research

A curriculum project which include a research component is the work done by Andrew Deacon in CET together with Jane Stadler in the Centre for Film and Media Studies. This collaboration lead to Deacon, A; Morrison A & Stadler, J “Designing for learning through multimodal production: film narrative and spectatorship in Director’s Cut”, published in International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology (IJEDICT) 2005, as well as Deacon, A; Morrison A & Stadler, J “Multimodal production and semiotic resources for learning about film narrative”, to be published by Hampton Press: Creshill in 2007.

Staff development and research

Staff development research is regularly presented at conferences, such as Cox, G; Carr, T & Czerniewicz, L, Staff development workshops for Humanities educators teaching with technology” presented at World Conference on Computers in Education 4-7 July 2005, as well as Cox, G; Carr, T & Czerniewicz, L,, “A Multifaceted Staff Development Approach to Integrating Technology into University Courses”, presented at eLearning Africa Conference 24th - 26th May 2006. Addis Ababa. Work in progress includes Carr, T; Cox, G; Deacon A; and Morrison, A, “’A Multifaceted Strategy for Growing Communities of Practice in Teaching with Technology ’ in Communities of Practice: Creating Learning Environments for Educators (Eds) Chris Kimble & Paul Hildreth”, Information Age Publishing
To be published in 2007.

Learning technologies and research

CET’s learning technologies work has a particular interest in the possibilities of mobile technologies for teaching and learning, leading to M-learning Project research outputs, with the latest being the following papers published and presented at peer-reviewed international conferences:

  • Ng’ambi presented a paper at the 6th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies. Kerkrade, The Netherlands, 5-6 July 2006 on "Collaborative Questioning: A Case of SMS for knowledge sharing".
  • At the Mobile Learning Conference in Dublin (14-16 July 2006), Ng'ambi also presented a paper on  "SMS Collaborative Questioning: Convergence of task, interactivity and outcomes".  At the same conference in Dublin, Kekwaletswe Raymond (a doctoral student) and Ng’ambi presented a paper on, " Ubiquitous Social Presence and Context Awareness for Mentoring (Social Support)".
  • At an IEEE International Conference on Sensor Networks, Ubiquitous, and Trustworth Computing in Taiwan, Kekwaletswe and Ng'ambi presented a paper on "Ubiquitous Social Presence: Context-Awareness in a Mobile Learning Environment".

Higher education and ICTs research

CET research projects may also look beyond the University of Cape Town. The Virtual Mobius Strip Project surveyed over 6000 students and about 600 educators five higher education institutions an investigation into access and use of ICTs in order to investigate access and use of ICTs in teaching and learning. The Council for Higher Education’s Higher Education Monitor, July 2006, looks at ICTs and the South African Higher Education Landscape.