Use of mobile technologies in enhancing learning in South Africa and the challenges of increasing digital divide

Abstract

Failure at school because children from the low socio-economic background have no access to information and communication technologies motivated this study. The realisation that even the poorest of the poor South Africans have access to mobile phones has prompted the Meraka Institute to consider mobile phones as a South African computer and attempts to leverage these mobile devices for educational purposes. Therefore, in order to develop mobile learning tools it is important to ascertain the level of access to these mobiles and how their usage by learners from the less affluent backgrounds. In this study two affluent private schools and one previously Blacks only university were identified and participated. From this university only first year students of Media Studies took part. From the high schools participants were sourced from grades 7 to 12. The study is grounded in the development research paradigm.