From digital divide to digital opportunities? A critical perspective on the digital divide in South African schools

• Main Author: Gréta Björk Guðmundsdóttir 1968-
• Other Authors: Landsbókasafn Íslands
• Format: Thesis
• Language: Icelandic
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: Doktorsritgerðir; Iceland
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1946/20413

Dissertation submitted for the degree of Ph.D. Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Oslo The global disparity of ICT, the inequality in ICT skills and disparate access to the knowledge society are well documented (James, 2003; Jensen, 2003; Norris, 2001; van Binsbergen, 2004; van Dijk, 2005; Warschauer, 2003b; Wilson, 2004). This disparity relates to the digital divide and to how access and use of ICT are unequally distributed. What is less apparent is how policy reforms, including emphasis on ICT implementation, influence disadvantaged learners and their opportunities to use ICT in a school context. Can comprehensive implementation of computers in schools give disadvantaged learners greater digital opportunities and increase their deprived opportunities outside of school? This study applies a critical perspective on the digital divide in South African classrooms and investigates how increased access to computers may, simultaneously, increase the opportunities of previously disadvantaged learners and exacerbate existing social divides. The study began with a pilot project in 2006 in two schools in Cape Town (see paper I Gudmundsdottir & Brock-Utne, 2010). Two classes participated in the pilot study. One of them was a typical township class where all the learners were black. The other one was a class with mainly white children in an affluent neighbourhood in Cape Town. The pilot project confirmed earlier research and revealed huge inequalities in the use of ICT, as well as different understandings of and attitudes towards ICT. Furthermore, paper II (Gudmundsdottir & Jakobsdottir, 2009) compares ICT use in schools in South Africa and Iceland and paper III and IV (Gudmundsdottir, 2010a, 2010b) are comparative accounts of four schools in Cape Town, South Africa. The focus is on the concept digital divide and on how the participating learners are using ICT within and between learner groups in and across these four schools. This introduction (Part I) to the papers (Part II) is presented as follows: ...