3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item The pedagogical integration of ICTs by seven South African township secondary school teachers(2016-07-25) Ndlovu, Nokulunga SithabileThe issue of best practice in the pedagogical integration of ICTs into subject teaching has been debated internationally with the aim to offer guidance to teachers on how to effectively utilise these digital tools in the classroom. The resultant literature has reported that teachers in schools with fewer resources integrate ICTs at a lower level. South African township schools fall under this category. In an attempt to bridge this divide, these schools have received digital technologies from the government and other sponsors. In addition, teachers have been trained on ICT basic skills as preparation for use of technology in their classrooms. However, studies carried out to assess the effectiveness of these interventions have resulted in the call by the South African government for solutions that ‘work’. It is increasingly apparent that more than just digital resources are required if ICT integration is to be achieved. This study investigates selected seven South African township secondary school teachers’ practices and education policies to understand what is of pedagogical value in the use of ICTs for teaching. The findings are employed to develop an ICT teacher training framework that can help teachers in this country to maximise the utilisation of the digital technologies they have in their schools. A multi-case study is employed in which teacher interviews and lesson observations of participating teachers from a district in the Gauteng Province in South Africa are interpreted. Thereafter, a document analysis of four South African education policies is used to form a policy framework that is employed to assess teacher practice compliance to the country’s education context. This is done to customise findings to the South African education setting to facilitate the development of a relevant ICT teacher training framework. Diana Laurillard’s Conversational Framework is adopted as the theory that helps make explicit the teachers’ espoused and enacted practices. Her description of media forms is interacted with Grainne Conole and Martin Dyke’s conception of ICT affordances to help identify the pedagogical value in the teachers’ practices with ICTs. The results reveal how teacher beliefs, experience, subject needs, as well as learner needs, play a substantial role in determining the value ICTs bring to the teaching and learning experience. The significance of these characteristics demonstrates and accentuates the role of the teacher as a mediator in making ICTs of pedagogical value in the classroom. Key Words: ICT Pedagogical Integration, Conversational Framework, Media forms, ICT affordancesItem Does the notion of "The digital divide" have descriptive validity in South African Education?(2011-04-12) Ndlovu, Nokulunga SithabileThe attempt to bridge the “digital divide” by giving physical access to ICTs in educational institutions is believed to have the potential to improve quality in education, and subsequently contribute to the development of the economic status of impoverished communities. The assumption in the broader aspect and use of the term tends to be that equal provisioning of technology in schools automatically makes school populations computer literate and ready to participate productively in an information society. In this vein, ICT in education projects like Gauteng Online that have been launched in South Africa have focused on equity in the distribution of computers. However, this thesis suggests that this endeavour is driven by the misconception that advocates that irregular distribution of physical access to digital technologies is basically responsible for the presence of the digital divide, thereby overlooking social constituents that might actually be fundamental to the gap. This has brought about a systemic failure to achieve the prospective goals related to equity. For this reason, the thesis seeks to understand the term “digital divide” and its relevance in the South African education context. The argument here is an explication and conceptual analysis of data collected in two schools with diverse economic backgrounds that are a replica of disparities in South African education institutions inherited from the previous apartheid government. This data is drawn from the Pan African Research Agenda on the Pedagogic Integration of ICTs and is available to the public on its database. The comparison of the schools brings up elements of the concept that suggest that we must divert emphasis from physical access as a way of bridging the gap, to the underlying societal structures that appear to be accountable for producing the „digital divide‟. More research on the validity of these results in more diverse South African education contexts would reinforce the findings of this study.