A Snapshot Survey of ICT Integration in South African Schools

Abstract

<jats:p>Information Communication Technology (ICT) integration in the classroom is often viewed as a panacea towards resolving South Africa’s education challenges. However, ICT integration in education in South Africa has been severely limited by operational, strategic and pedagogic challenges. In part, addressing the strategic and operational challenges involves understanding the current landscape of ICT integration in schools. There is scant information on the practical enforcement of ICTs in the classroom. The aim of this research is to determine the extent of ICT usage in South African schools in order to obtain an understanding of the practical enforcement of ICTs at the school level. This study combines both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods in order to provide a rich nuanced perspective of ICT integration in South African schools. The study found that the uptake of technology remains low, on average the frequency of usage per tool type was as follows: contextual tools (41%), sharing information and ideas tools (29%), experiential tools (26%) and reflective dialogue tools (18%). It was found that teachers are uncertain with respect to the enforcement of e-education while being encumbered by poor infrastructure and lack of skills.</jats:p>

South African Teachers Perspectives on Using the Computer as a Tool for Teaching and Learning

“…The participants unanimously stated that they faced a plethora of challenges as they endeavor to use computer tools for teaching and learning. Generally, failure to use computers to enhance effective instruction could be a direct effect of poor understanding of e-Learning policies by district officials (Padayachee, 2017) which cascades into them failing to support teachers willing to implement e-Education policy to enhance learner performance.…”

Adoption of information and communication technologies in teaching and learning at a university

“…announcements, learning materials, course guides and question banks. This could imply that these are the only tools they are exposed to by their lecturers, contending with Nkula and Krauss (2014) and Padayachee (2017) who cite lack of ICT adoption by lecturers. There was a similar trend of use of the tools by the student respondents, therefore, a distinction of e-Thuto use according to faculty was rendered irrelevant.…”

“…The myriad of impediments to ICT adoption in developing economies is widening the gap between the developed and the developing world. Yet, a few educators in South Africa have effectively integrated ICTs in the classroom (Nkula and Krauss 2014;Padayachee 2017).…”

Methodological Evaluation of the Use of ICTs in Mixed Method Research in Education

“…However, perhaps more importantly, with its previously entered innumerable data, the Internet is a newly-discovered data source for researchers. Besides, thanks to ICTs, it is possible to reach large heterogeneous group of participants and collect data efficiently (Padayachee, 2017).…”