Journal Article Summary
Kassandra Finklea
EDTEC 541

Summary: The article discusses the strengths and weakness of using educational technology for long distance learning. The study was conducted at the University of Pretoria and in the surrounding regions of the Sudan.

Title: “Pretoria to Khartoum: How taught an Internet-supported Masters’ program across national, religious, cultural and linguistic barriers.”

Reference:  
Cronjé, J. C. (2006). Pretoria to Khartoum: How taught an internet-supported masters’ program across national, religious, cultural and linguistic barriers. Journal of Educational Technology and Society, 9(1), 276-288.

Problem: The focus of the study was developing the Masters program to be able to teach it at several universities through the Internet. They encountered several problems, including the technological infrastructure, scheduling issues of time and policy standards, as well as environmental factors such as the weather (Cronjé, 2006). The study identified, through ethnographic research, seven “assumptions” that can be used as a guide to developing International and cross-cultural Internet-supported teaching methods.

Context: The study was an ethnographic research completed by the author in 2003- 2004. He led ten internet courses, as well as made five academic visits within that time period.  His research was based on a content analysis of:
[personal] lived experience, field notes and preparation material, the project diary, informal discussion both physical and online, interviews and email exchange with students, local facilitators, local administrators and my co-presenters; as well as the electronic artifacts produced by the students in the form of essays, term papers, websites, PowerPoint presentations, Authorware lessons and Excel spreadsheets (Cronjé, 2006; pp. 277).

Findings: The researcher came up with the following seven assumptions:

  1. The curriculum should be designed in such a way that it provides relevant experiences from which students can construct their own learning.
  2. Interpretation is personal and the student’s point of view must be valued, but not at the expense of primary concepts.
  3. Active learning tasks should incorporate assessment strategies that determine the extent to which experience has been converted into skills.
  4. Multiple collaborative perspectives should be focused on primary concepts.
  5. The curriculum should be adapted “on the fly” if the real-life situation demands it.
  6. Testing should be unobtrusive and focused on determining areas where the student should improve.
  7. Administrative flexibility should be designed into the system from the outset.

Recommendations:
Cronjé did make note of some of the following within his article. First, like any ethnographic research, the results can be skewed by the social and cultural influences of the individual researcher. However since the researcher was part of the researched culture the results of this study would not be skewed so much as focused. He should have made a better effort to include more diverse cultures. The subcultures surrounding the University of Pretoria do not offer enough variation to consider this study as truly multicultural research.
The location of the study should also be taken into account. The Sudan is not the geographical center for educational research. The researcher should consider redoing the study in another country such as the US.
Also the findings of the study are not landmark discoveries. His assumptions can be applicable to any form of higher education, be it Internet-based or not. His findings are too generalizable and he should focus them to specific issues of Internet-based learning. Also they do not address the issue of multiculturalism. Within the article he does address the International and linguistic barriers, but the religious and cultural are faint.