A paper authored by Anita Hiralaal, an Accounting Education Lecturer at DUT’s School of Education, Pietermaritzburg Centre, Midlands, concluded that student teachers prefer working on laptops and desktops than smart-phones and tablets due to the financial expenses attached to this type of technology.

Hiralaal presented her research paper: Technology and Student Academic Success: Student Teachers’ Perspectives at the fourth South African Technology Network Conference (SATN) recently. The study was conducted with student teachers in order to determine what mobile device they owned and what they were using it for, whether they used mobile devices for social networking or for academic purposes and which mobile device they believe makes a significant contribution to their academic success.

Hiralaal’s paper was chosen as one of the top three papers at the conference. Every year, SATN hosts a conference where four papers are chosen as the top papers (for the entire conference). In order for the paper to be chosen, a candidate has to submit an abstract and once accepted, the individual has to present the completed paper at the conference as there is a possibility of it being published in an accredited journal.

Hiralaal’s study concluded that the majority of student teachers preferred the institution’s desktop and their own laptops which they believe contributed to their academic success.

“They (student teachers) however stated that they used smartphones and tablets for social networking but given proper training, airtime and cost of the internet usage, they will gladly use smartphones for academic purposes. They also stated that using a smartphone could distract them from their studies, especially during a lecture as they were tempted to social network instead of concentrating on their lectures. There were positive and negative viewpoints on using other devices besides the desktop and laptop for academic purposes but by and large, the desktop and laptops topped the list for contributing to student teachers’ academic success,” said Hiralaal.

On her paper being accepted and chosen as one of the top three at the conference, Hiralaal said she was ecstatic. As a result, she received an Android tablet as a gift. “This has been the most rewarding experience for me as an academic and it places DUT at the forefront of technology integration into academics,” she said.

Hiralaal has written five academic papers of which one was published and two others are undergoing blind peer review in preparation for publication. She has presented papers at two international conferences and at four local conferences. She is currently completing her PhD in self study at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Her topic is: A self-study of my role modelling as a teacher educator of Accounting Pedagogy.

She has been an educator for 19 years and a lecturer for nine years and has written and edited school textbooks for grades seven to nine which are currently in use at schools.

She is also the Programme Co-ordinator and Curriculum Champion at the University’s School of Education and is busy developing many new programes for the School including an Honours in Technology degree. “I am also in collaboration with the Department of Mathematics (at DUT) developing an M Ed in Mathematics. I am working on designing the Post Graduate Certificate in Education and the Advanced Diploma in Technical and Vocational Education and Training. I am part of the General Education Task Team and serve as the Midlands Representative on the team. In the Faculty of Arts and Design, I currently serve on the e-Learning Task Team as well as the Gen Ed and Curriculum Submission Task teams. In June 2014, I went to the University of Michigan-Flint in the USA in order to develop collaborations with the university concerning e-learning. I am also in the process of recurriculating the B Ed Degree which is offered by the School of Education,” she said.

– Noxolo Memela

Pictured (courtesy of UKZN): Anita Hiralaal (right), Accounting Education Lecturer at DUT’s School of Education, Pietermaritzburg Centre, Midlands, with Dr Kathleen Pithouse-Morgan, Senior Lecturer in Teacher Development Studies in the School of Education at UKZN.