The relationship between the use of ICT for instruction and learning and the availability of ICT resources

[摘要] South African schools appear to be far from attaining the strategicobjectives of the White Paper 7 on e-Education of 2004. The use of ICTfor instruction and learning in schools is hampered by contextualfactors in South Africa. One factor hampering the use of ICT in SouthAfrican schools is the availability of ICT resources. Despite a highdegree of access to ICT at home, most schools do not have therelevant ICT resources that teachers can use for instruction andlearning.The SITES 2006 technical coordinators dataset was used to determinethe statistical significant difference of the joint frequencies of thenumber of years that schools have been using ICT for instruction andlearning as well as the availability of ICT resources. An integratedqualitative-quantitative design was used to transform the dataset forthe calculation of a two-way Chi-square. A two-way Chi-square wascalculated for the joint frequencies as well as for the odds ratio todetermine the effect size of the frequencies.Activity Theory was used as a 'theoretical framework for the analysisand understanding of human interaction through the use of tools andartefacts (Hashim & Jones, 2007). The extent of the use of ICTresources (tools) by teachers (subject) in instructing learners (object)determines the degree of success in education (outcome). Easyavailability of ICT resources for use in instruction and learning shouldyield a positive, meaningful achievement in education.

[发布机构] University of Pretoria