Abstract
Initiatives are necessary to promote innovative teaching and learning practices among academics, including using information and communication technologies (ICTs) for teaching, learning and assessment. This exploratory case study investigates how a community of practice focused on innovative teaching and learning with technology (ITLT) encourages lecturers to adopt ICTs in their teaching and learning. A literature review provided a description of communities of practice and the various models used within the community of practice framework. It also revealed the benefits, challenges and best practices of communities of practice. Examples of ICTs in education were sought from the literature. Lastly, the literature review highlighted the benefits and barriers of adopting ICTs found within the literature. From the literature, questions were developed for a qualitative questionnaire to determine whether lecturers enhanced their teaching and learning with technology after attending community of practice meetings. The sample of participants consisted of 14 lecturers who participated in their faculty’s ITLT community of practice. The researcher used structural and descriptive coding to analyse the data. The research further aimed to ascertain lecturers’ perceived benefits of attending the community of practice meetings and their perceived benefits of adopting ICTs in their teaching and learning. The findings suggest that lecturers felt that attending their community of practice meetings encouraged them to adopt ICTs in their own teaching and learning. The findings also suggest various benefits of attending the CoP meetings and implementing ICTs in teaching and learning.
Keywords: Communities of Practice; ICT Adoption; Lecturers & ICT; Teaching & Learning; Benefits of ICTs.