ICTs promises and pitfalls in open and distance learning

Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) have for long been celebrated as the solution to access in education. New innovations like the internet and mobile technologies provide a great opportunity for mass delivery of education information especially in Africa where governments and institutions are struggling to equip the people with much needed skills for development. The African ministers of education attending the Regional conference on Education for All by 2015 in Johannesburg in 1999, in advocating the adoption of technologies recommended that ‘new, appropriate and cost-effective technologies shall be adopted, to complement the integration of indigenous educational methodologies' (Unesco 2001). This paper explores the extent to which blending of various ICTs has been successfully used to enhance and supplement learning in a distance learning institution. The paper also examines the constraints that individual learners in Africa face as a result of lack of technological resources and the constraints faced by the institutions of higher learning. It is the author's contention that blending of ICTs is essential in the delivery of education and can go a long way in supplementing and enhancing the lecturers work.South African Journal of Higher Education Vol. 21 (6) 2008: pp. 719-72