Blurring and reconstituting boundaries: ICT-mediated learning in a developing country context

1. Blurring and reconstituting boundaries: ICT-mediated learning in a developing country context Laura Czerniewicz Cheryl Brown

2. Reflections based on • A research project on access and use started in 2004 • mixed-method approach • two surveys of 10 110 students in total (undertaken in 2004 and 2007) • twelve universities in South Africa • quantitative analysis of 58question survey • qualitative analysis of the questionnaire’s open-ended questions • selected additional student interviews • Informed by our work at CET over the last 5 years

3. South African context World Bank 2005

4. South African Higher Education context • Substantial restructuring of the Higher Education sector since apartheid ended in 1994 • full-scale institutional mergers and restructuring has taken place since 2005 • student enrolments have increased by 30% since 1994 • increased student diversity with 22% more black students entering the sector since 1995 • No national educational technology policy • Sector resource constraints (esp ICTs) and competing demands

5. Key assumptions 5 years ago, at outset of project • About access • A digital divide in terms of • physical (computers, location, adequacy and ease) • personal (disposition, skills) • contextual resources (support, networks, frameworks) • About use • A pedagogy of formal learning in a defined curriculum • Defined learning spaces (on campus and off campus, virtual and physical) • Students’ academic activities as separate from their social ones • Access and use inextricably intertwined

6. Rethinking boundaries, in four ways • Some existing binary distinctions continue to hold true • Some distinctions are exacerbated and increasingly polarisation is occurring • Traditional activities and categories are becoming less clearly demarcated with grey areas creating a kind of hybrid, made up of new constellations of elements previously associated closely with distinct categories • Some distinctions have dissolved creating entirely new categories and new possibilities

7. How has this played out? • The digital divide • Pedagogy and the curriculum • Learning spaces • Social and academic intersections

8. Digital Divide: expanding and reconstituting • On campus the digital divide has almost disappeared • On-campus access to computers is reported equivalent for all students (except disabled) Students’ reported ease difficulty of access to ICTs on campus, 2007

9. Digital divide • Off campus, the digital divide is firmly in place • Off-campus access is varied and unequal Off-campus access by socio-economic group 2007

10. Digital divide • In other ways, the digital divide is becoming exacerbated at the extremes • 2007 data shows a small (11%) but distinct group of South African students display characteristics of “digital natives” in that they have: • grown up with computers; • are independent when solving computer problems and learning new skills, and • draw extensively on their social networks. • But a significant group of student (22%) still lack both experience and opportunities, as they have: • been using a computer for less than 4 years; and • have no direct access to ICTs off campus.

11. Digital divide • However, in other ways, the digital divide is being reconstituted or bridged by cell phones • Ownership is ubiquitous (98.5% in 2007) • Ownership is not socially differentiated • Students who fail computer literacy tests/ report little access to computers are reporting varied cell phone use • Even student from low SEGs use phones as a means of internet access Access to Internet by cell phone (544 students) by socio-economic group (SEG)

12. Pedagogy: entrenched & opening up ICTs used to entrench traditional roles • Answers that the lecturers put up • Clear information during lectures when projected • Lecturers keep you up to date with what’s happening in your subjects ICTs used to open up and challenge • Can get more information about certain projects that you can’t get from lecturer, tutor etc • it helps me a lot because it connects me with other colleges, coursemates • I am able to read ahead, and sometimes challenge

13. Pedagogy • The curriculum is opening up • Curriculum oriented informal learning becomes easier and more visible • New opportunities in relation to • content • access to wider networks of people • general support for students in terms of basic writing But when you go to Internet, you'll find that ... maybe in Britain, maybe in Oxford University, they are doing the same stuff as you are doing. And you can get tutorial questions based on that …..

14. The curriculum • But for some students this blurring is making learning harder • Some students are finding information overwhelming, and lack of support daunting when I’m using an internet you know that’s where I get some frustration I only know some [of] the addresses, 3 of them you know while other people know more than I know and from there actually sometimes I don’t get what I want from the internet not all information is100% accurate - books are more reliable, I think I feel a lot better when I actually went out and found books for research. For instance … going on line… you have to find the right site and once you do find the right site your information might not be all be there so personally I feel that I do a lot better without computers

15. The curriculum • There are signs that ICTs are reconstituting the role of students, giving them more agency • A notion of curriculum-oriented informal learning mediated by ICTs, wheregoals of learning are explicitly defined by the learner but linked with the curriculum lot of extra questions that could not be covered in the allocated lecture time could be posted on [the LMS], so the student can go through extra questions in their own time Creating our own sites (not using an existing one) was very useful in a number of group projects that I have done. It provides an easily accessible centralized place to collect and access our work

16. Learning spaces: intact and fluid • The binaries of location continues to be relevant ito access to computers • on and off campus remain relevant • students negotiate issues of adequacy, sharing, etc I cannot access it as much as i would like to because the lower campus labs close and it is late to go upper campus and my friend would be busy or sleeping and i cannot use her phone

17. Learning spaces • But learning spaces are being reconstituted as students use cell phones for access and use in unanticipated ways • Access is increasingly being determined by connectivity not by location You can access it [the LMS] anywhere even from your cellphone You can use your phone via google. Maybe I don't have time for a computer. Or maybe it's late, and the assignment must be submitted. Then I use my phone.

18. Social and academic: separate and interwoven The binaries between social and academic do still exist • The uptake of social software in South African higher education is low • 71% of students hardly ever publish their own online content • 42% hardly ever upload resources to the Internet • Especially for learning • 71% hardly ever keep an online journal or blog as part of their courses • 60% hardly ever share resources as part of their courses • 66% hardly ever collaborate online with other students • This may be a conscious choice I consider [our LMS] to be an academic resource. Other social networking sites are better suited to non-course activities

19. Social and academic • But there are signs of blurring • Some students would like technology that integrates the two wish we had a university calendar including all social, activism, seminar, etc events It [the LMS] needs more social network features (twitter-like status updates at the very least) so that one can develop an online academic community rather than the highly restrictive per-course communities at present • Some move back and forth easily between the two because if you don't know anything, you can just go search, and you can type back to your assignment. As you are doing your assignment… it's encouraging. Because you can do something recreational on the computer to refresh your mind, and then go back to your work

20. Social and academic • ICTs have also increasingly blurred the realm of academic and affective dimensions of learning. • This happens through increasing connections I even get some SMSes from my friends from church during exam stress. I think cell phones are very useful. They help me very much emotionally. • And connections at a safe distance It's [ICTs] much easier than looking someone in the eye, sometimes, to open up [when you are stressed about studying]

21. Social and academic • There is evidence of a reconstitution of learning with tools normally associated with one kind of activity being used for another • Chat rooms are being used for studies maybe you are chatting with someone in Alice and you are asking them what life is like…and (at the same time] you can send them your assignment, and they can send it back. …and you check it while you're chatting. And then you can re-do some things and send it back • Use of LMS for non course related activities • 32% of students find the LMS valuable for social networking • 51% find it valuable for student activism • Use of social software for academic activities • 134 students say they use Facebook ONLY for academic use • 174 students saying they use Flicker etc ONLY for academic use

22. In summary • No single neat trends • Multiple simultaneous realities • Emerging and conflicting practices • Evidence of • Existing divides and distinctions, both continuing and becoming exacerbated • Divides being reconceptualised and bridged • Both opening up and closing down • Hybrids, overlaps and re-constellations • Entirely new practices

23. Conclusion • Challenges for educators • Designing for increased diversity and new practices • CL Gaps between students are getting wider • How can educators respond to this “dilemma of justice” simultaneously supporting students’ participation in new global practices without further marginalising previously disadvantaged? • Given that even students with poor access and computer literacy have new forms of “cell phone literacies, how do educators leverage these “characteristically contemporary literacies” in order to build them into integral components which strengthen education

24. Conclusion • Challenges for institutions • Responding to access issues in a context where on campus access remains crucial • Responding to the needs and pressures of “digital natives” and of social/academic blurring • Opening up the curriculum to “curriculum-oriented informal learning” • Enabling maximum flexibility of tools for multiple purposes • Rethinking assessment where students can access multiple resources and learning paths

25. Conclusion • Challenges for research • Gaining an “insider perspective” as to how technological habitus is being constituted in a new communication order • Lecturer and student perceptions of benefits and drawbacks of the opening up of the curriculum • The impact of distributed learning spaces on students’ sense of being a “community of learners • Reconceptualising pedagogy