Abstract Content (up to 300 words recommended)
Over the last decade, governments, universities, faculties and academics have invested considerable amounts of money, energy and time acquiring, implementing and institutionalising educational technologies in an accelerating campaign to drive higher education towards more flexible learning environments and practices. At the same time, an increasingly market-driven higher education environment has added impetus to technology adoption for reasons of efficiency, productivity, and competition with other institutions – ‘keeping up with the Joneses’. This has considerably increased the complexity of academic work and life, with, a constant stream of new technologies and the training; administrative and regular upgrade requirements that attend them, adding to the increased pressure to be better academics. In addition, academics are required to publish more, do more administration, and meet higher service and engagement requirements. This poster looks from two different perspectives at the implications and the complications of marrying technology and education in a ‘new generation’ university. One perspective is that of an educational designer technologist and LMS administrator, while the other is that of an academic who is an early-to-medium adopter of technological tools and VLEs. Both perspectives address the following questions: Is this marriage between technology and education for better or for worse? How do academics keep up with the Joneses in continually changing educational and technological environments? What are the expectations from this marriage, and what are the realities? What are the opportunities and impediments to adoption and implementation?
Addressing the theme/s of the Conference (up to 200 words recommended)
This poster addresses“Learning for life and work in a complex world” as the main theme and ‘Navigating uncertainty and complexity’ as a sub theme. The main purpose of the paper is to discuss complexity from the voices of academics and educational technologists and determine the gaps, in order to reduce uncertainty and improve implementation of technology and practice.