Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and South African Higher Education: mapping the landscape

Abstract

The report describes the language of ICTs in higher education both in terms of the shifting, emerging terminology and the varied understandings of ICTs in terms of national and institutional policies and reported practices. It reveals the emerging organizational forms that locate the work, and argues that despite an absence of an over-arching policy framework, policy in South Africa is being formed implicitly by practice. It moves on to describe three prevalent meanings of technological change: change as improvement; change as innovation; and change as transformation. Finally, key issues and debates, which emerge from the data "texts", are identified and examined.