The decision-making framework focuses on establishing a policy framework for three types of technology use:

1. Technologies to support the provision of course materials to learner;
2. Technologies to support other teaching and learning processes; and
3. Technologies to support management and administration.

The TELI policy process establishes clear commitment to a particular approach to making decisions about using technologies in education and training. This decision-making approach depends strongly on developing a clear understanding of the teaching and learning environment and capabilities of different available technologies before examining the likely impact and cost of integrating selected technologies into the teaching and learning environment.

The intention of this approach is to guard against technologically driven educational projects, which, as the document itself points out, invariably do not provide effective or sustainable educational solutions.

The decision-making framework contained in the TELI Discussion Document poses interesting challenges to an implementation planning process for any technology-enhanced learning strategy, and provides an essential starting point for any investigation of the possibility of using different technologies to support education and training.

The tool itself consists of four components or steps, each of which has been designed as a self-contained unit. This has been done to allow different starting points for people, depending on their needs. Each step is discussed briefly.

The primary aim of this step in the process is to enable decision-makers to develop a picture of the teaching and learning environment in their planned or existing educational course or programme (including structured and informal educational strategies).

To facilitate this, the teaching and learning environment has been broken up into various components, although it must be stressed that this is a highly artificial separation. Education and training are complex social processes, in which the various components are intertwined in many ways, often creating difficult tensions. Nevertheless, it is necessary to consider each component in attempting to paint a picture of the whole environment. These include considering:

• learners;
• teaching and learning processes;
• communication;
• course materials;
• sites of teaching and learning; and
• the educational provider.

To facilitate the process, the decision-making framework provides a detailed series of hyperlinked questions, together with printable workbooks, to help people to consider each of the elements of the teaching and learning environment. These can be worked through in any sequence appropriate to the needs of users, although, of course, guidelines on different approaches are included in the tool itself.

The aim of this step is to gather information about the range of technologies available that can enhance education and training. This information covers the range of technologies available, infrastructure required to introduce the technologies, some indications of costs of the technologies (but not of the associated costs of introducing them into teaching and learning environments, which depends on a range of variables), and discussions about some of their strengths and weaknesses.

Using this information, decision-makers would be expected to make some preliminary decisions about which technologies, if any, they would like to use to enhance their planned or existing educational intervention.

The bulk of this module has been developed as a web site that provides some preliminary information about various educational technologies, and is designed to help make effective choices about integrating technologies into teaching and learning environments.

We do, however, strongly suggest that this is supplemented with additional research, particularly once preliminary options have been narrowed down initially. This research might focus particularly on finding out more about how other people have used these technologies and on establishing the latest costs of these technologies.

This website can be used as a stand-alone resource or as a supplement to the technology module in the Department of Education's decision-making framework. It is intended to help people who are trying to gather information about the range of technologies available that can enhance education and training.

This would cover the range of technologies available, infrastructure required to introduce the technologies, some indications of the costs of purchasing the technologies, and discussions about their strengths and weaknesses.

Figure One indicates where decisions about the use of technologies will need to be taken, by indicating the place of technologies within the teaching and learning environment.

The purpose of this step in the process is to develop an understanding of the implications of introducing certain technologies into the teaching and learning environment (represented graphically in Figure One).

The ability to develop this understanding will depend in part on accessing information about the technologies themselves (as noted in the previous step). In addition, however, several of the answers will depend very much on the needs and circumstances of the educational provider and of the learners, as well as on the specifics of chosen teaching and learning sites. Consequently, this step also depends on developing a clear understanding of the teaching and learning environment in the first step. The picture developed during the first step is then refined when certain technologies are used to enhance it.

Again, the decision-making framework provides a detailed series of hyperlinked questions, together with printable workbooks, to help people to consider the implications of integrating different technologies into the teaching and learning environment.

COSTING

When deciding which technologies to use to enhance education and training, it is essential to understand the financial implications of introducing a particular technology to a teaching and learning environment.

The most effective way of doing this is to calculate the costs of the teaching and learning environment before or without the introduction of the chosen technologies and then to calculate the costs (or savings) of introducing technologies into that teaching and learning environment.

Using the understanding developed of the implications of integrating specific technologies into the teaching and learning environment, it will also be possible to reflect on the educational implications (positive and negative) of introducing these technologies.

For maximum benefit, it would be ideal to run comparative costing processes on different combinations of technologies. Together, these processes would make it possible to determine, with a fair degree of insight, the cost benefits of investment in the selected technologies.

The tool provides an introduction to costing frameworks, and a series of appropriate questions to be asked. In addition, it contains an extensive course-costing spreadsheet that can be used to help calculate the costs of integrating technologies into teaching and learning environments.

In addition to the above, we have tried to make this resource as information-rich as possible. Thus, it includes extensive resources on approaches to decision-making and lessons learned from effective and ineffective uses of educational technology in South Africa.

There is also extensive general information on distance education, including South Africa's distance education quality criteria and a full web site introducing effective distance education practice.

Although the tool is still in its piloting phase, it is now available to the public. Any people interested in acquiring a copy of the CD-ROM should send a cheque or postal order for R40.00 (R80.00 for international orders) to cover CD printing and postage to:

Neil Butcher
SAIDE
P.O. Box 31822
Braamfontein
2017