Lecturers' changing epistemologies and pedagogies during engagement with information and communication technology in an education faculty.

A significant event of the last two decades has been the appearance and subsequent explosive growth of the World Wide Web and related technologies that have had a notable effect on higher education and learning in particular (Crossman, 1997:19; Hall & White, 1997:22; Alessi & Trollip, 2001:5: Oliver 2002). Information and communication technology (ICT) or ‘elearning’ as it is known in some countries, has emerged both locally and worldwide as a prominent phenomenon in education (Oliver & Herrington, 2001) and the ensuing scramble by educators to adopt the new technologies (compare Rogers, 1995) can be seen by looking at the number of courses that have recently evolved under the banner of e-learning, web-based education or online education. The rush to implement ICT is particularly evident in Higher Education Institutions (HEI’s) where technology has come to be seen as a potentially valuable tool for educational reform in higher education (Poole, 1997:2; Surrey & Land, 2000:145; Bates, 2000:7; Rosenberg, 2001:10). Educational reform at Higher Education Institutions worldwide over the past two decades is often ascribed to trends such as increased competition, decreased enrolments, greater numbers of non-traditional students, changing societal expectations and decreased government funding (Simonson & Thompson, 1997:4; Surrey & Land, 2000:145). The dwindling student base and loss of university students to corporate training programmes in South Africa is in line with these trends and is seen as a major area of concern (McKenna, 1999:[online]). The use of ICT in higher education, which is also progressively taking root in emerging nations such as South Africa, adds another perspective to the issue of educational reform (Hilliard & Kemp, 2000:22). Van Buren-Schele and Odendaal (2001:[online]) put the local situation into perspective by affirming that the introduction of ICT at institutions in developing countries like South Africa can be far more challenging than it is for their counterparts in developed countries. Factors that impact on the implementation of ICT normally include financial, logistic, and technological aspects, but in many areas in South Africa, requirements on a basic level such as access to electricity, computers and the Internet place unique demands on some educational institutions. Local institutions are therefore hard-pressed to improve teaching practice in order, firstly, to live up to consumer expectations, then to show continual improvement and innovations in the changing field of education (Cronjé & Murdoch, 2001:online).Prof. D. van der Westhuize