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Communication science in the context of higher/distance education: changes and challenges

This inaugural lecture focuses on Communication science and incorporates aspects related to the teaching, learning and researching thereof. I elected to situate these aspects in the context of higher and distance (or distributed) education (DE), provided by institutions, such as UNISA, because the characteristics of adult learners who study at a distance and their motivation to learn, differ from those of younger learners. The subtitle of the lecture (namely changes and challenges) refers to changes in the South African higher educational sector, as well as changes in the way in which we communicate in the new millennium especially changes brought about by electronically-mediated communication. These changes have created challenges. Therefore, whilst dealing with some of these changes I also deal with a number of didactic, epistemological and ontological challenges that face Communication scholars, as we look ahead from 2000. As the topic of the lecture centres around changes and challenges and how they impact on Communication as a science, I include as part of my presentation a few Madam & Eve cartoons not to provide comic relief but because I regard them as change agents in our South African context and use them to visually explicate some of my arguments. Reconciliation; socioeconomic transformation; equality, and reconstruction and development are some of the national priorities which face South Africa today. As change agents these cartoons reflect and comment on social interactions in our changing society, and I regard them to be an effective educational medium which conveys messages which I could not do in a thousand words. As copyright permission has not been secured, these cartoons are not reproduced in the printed version of my lecture. However, full acknowledgements are given to the authors and publishers in this publication. This lecture consists essentially of two sections. In the first section I deal with higher and distance education in South Africa, considering the present situation and looking into the future. My focus in this section falls on the teaching and learning of Communication science. In the second section I consider changes that are taking place in the way in which we communicate, as well as changes taking place in our organisational cultures. My focus in this section is on some questions that should guide our future research endeavours, whilst keeping in mind South Africa's national priorities.