Dera Naidoo

In this week’s blog post, I would like to elaborate on and confer my agreement with Swart et al. (2015) who succinctly resolved the responsibilities of an instructor, as inciting and facilitating the construction of a culture of learning and a thriving learning community. My examination of two instructor take-ons for the successful integration of technology in adult learning occurs within the context of an online post graduate formal program. In exploring a topic, I value context. Daffron and Cafferella (2021) note that context comprise of all persons concerned, including the institutional, economic, political, cultural, and social domains that are prime determinants in decision-making.   Moore (2018) developed the transactional distance theory. The significance of this model was the conceptualisation of distance as the breadth of interaction and understanding between the instructor/facilitator and learner in online learning environments. Moore (2018) relates distance to the r...

In my previous blog , I established myself as an adult learner. Along this process of adult learning, I aspire towards building connections, increasing my critical consciousness, making contributions, co-constructing, and attaining mastery. Such hopes are subject to social realties of the time. We live in an era of digital technology hastily and aggressively integrating all facets of our lives. We can be inactive and get submerged and swept away in technologies’ waves of changes or we can act, through anchoring and adjusting ourselves to our digital-era’s realities with critical consciousness. I choose to adopt new technologies ( act & reflect ). But what drives this action and how is it that some may be more inclined to accept technology than others. In exploring my acceptance of technology as an adult learner, I will ground my discussion on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) developed by F. D. Davis ( Davis , 1989) and the Technology Readiness Index (Tri) introduce...

  An overarching goal of many educational institutes is empowering students to become “life-long, self-directed learners” (Merriam & Baumgartner, 2020, p. 137). In universities, students are classed using age, financial dependency, progression of studying, etc. as distinctions between categories. The term ‘non-traditional’ is used to categorise students who do not fit the standard age cohort of 18-24 years of age. I fall within this ever-growing diverse student population (Kasworm, 2003), based on my age (in my forties) and the circumstance of being a returning student, to a formal higher educational institute. With changing student demographics of increased adult learners (those 25 years and older; Kasworm, 2003), many researchers have become progressively more attentive to our growing student population. Leading to studies grounded on the concept of self-directed learning, exploring and examining perceptions and  variables that may inspire and sustain adults’ delibe...