From objectivism to social constructivism: The impacts of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on higher education

Abstract

Higher education has been on the rollercoaster for the last couple of decades with the advent of the first personal computer in the 1980s and then the Internet in the 1990s and not only explicitly in terms of using innovative digital gadgets, but also implicitly in perceptions about and approaches to e-Learning from behaviorism through cognitive to social constructivism or more specifically, from transmitted knowledge to negotiated and then harvested knowledge. The journey reflects the emancipation of learners from bonded (teacher-led) learning to independent and self-reigned knowledge-acquisition. This paper is a short discourse on the theoretical voyage of pedagogy and learning in HEIs from the introduction of traditional ‘technology-based-instruction’ to modern ‘network-based’ ‘web-enhanced e-courses’ in collaborative and socially active learning environments operating with ‘social-software-tools’ of blogging and social-book marking.   Key words: Objectivism, behaviorism, constructivism, cognitive-constructivism, social-constructivism, transmitted, negotiated, harvested-knowledge, e-Learning, blended, virtual.