Interrogating our educational technology practices through critical reflection
Channel: e/merge Africa
Date: 2019-03-01

Presenter: Nompilo Tshuma, Lecturer in the Centre for Higher Education Research,Teaching and Learning at Rhodes University

What impact does your use of educational technology have on your students and on your teaching? Is it enabling or hindering learning?

In order to be critically reflective about our educational technology practices, we need to move beyond the technology itself, and be aware of the context within which it is integrated. This presentation is divided into two parts: We will start our journey by exploring and reflecting on the challenges of educational technology integration in African higher education contexts. Considering the potential of educational technology to transform higher education practices and reach a wider audience, there is a need to be aware of the oppressive politics inherent in using Western-developed technologies in the African context. In the second part of the presentation, we will conceptualise, then apply, a critically reflective approach that has the potential to contribute to an emancipatory, socially just and more ethical approach to integrating educational technology in African higher education. Brookfield’s lenses for critical reflection are used to explore how critical reflection can be applied to interrogate our educational technology practices.