Understanding the impact of the digital divide on South African students in higher educational institutions

Samuel T. Faloye and Nurudeen Ajayi

African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation and Development, 2022, vol. 14, issue 7, 1734-1744

Abstract: The integration of technology into educational systems has brought about changes in the style of teaching and learning. Nowadays, educational institutions are adopting technologies such as computers, and the Internet to enhance teaching and learning activities. However, the use of technologies has not served the intended purpose due to the digital divide. The digital divide refers to the gap between individuals with access and skills to use technology and those without such access and skills. Students who grew up using computers and related technologies are often at an advantage because they have sufficient technological skills to capitalize on technology for learning purposes. This study investigated the factors affecting students’ computer self-efficacy prior to joining the university as well as the challenges faced by first-year students while using technology for learning purpose. It examined the effects of the apartheid legacy and other factors contributing to the digital divide in the South African context. A quantitative methodology was employed, and 370 questionnaires were distributed to first-year students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. The result showed that the timing of access to technology and computer anxiety have a direct relationship with a student’s computer self-efficacy. The result also showed that students from disadvantaged schools experience challenges with the hardware components of computers and application programmes. The article concludes with recommendations on how these challenges could be managed.

Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/20421338.2021.1983118 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:rajsxx:v:14:y:2022:i:7:p:1734-1744

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rajs20

DOI: 10.1080/20421338.2021.1983118

Access Statistics for this article

African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation and Development is currently edited by None

More articles in African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation and Development from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().