The Digital Divide: Teaching and Learning at the University of KwaZulu-Natal during the Covid-19 Pandemic

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ISA Pedagogy Series
                                                                        2021, 1(1) 20-31
___________________________________________________________________________

The Digital Divide: Teaching and Learning
at the University of KwaZulu-Natal during
the Covid-19 Pandemic

Dr. Sultan Khan                                         University of KwaZulu-Natal

ABSTRACT

The Covid-19 pandemic affected all facets of life around the globe. Institutions of
higher learning have not been immune to the pandemic, risking the interruption of the
academic year. In a bid to save the academic year, institutions have been forced to
look at how teaching and learning can take place without compromising their academic
credibility and quality of instruction. Digital teaching and learning can be seen as a
way of surmounting the restrictions placed on accessing education for full-time
students, especially amongst those originating from low-income households and living
a distance away from the university. In the more developed parts of the world, access
to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is much more advanced although
there are some variations in the levels of access. Notwithstanding, it is much more
accessible as compared to their counterparts in developing countries. This digital
divide places universities in a precarious position in developing countries.

This paper examines how ICT can be used effectively to facilitate teaching and
learning in these uncertain times. It focuses on how South African universities moved
to embrace ICT resources post-liberation and the creative use of this to advance their
teaching and learning within their institutions. However, within the country there is a
digital divide between historically advantaged white universities and the Black
disadvantaged ones due to the legacy of colonialism and Apartheid. The University of
KwaZulu-Natal is used as a case to illustrate how, despite the traumatic experience of
a merger between two disparate universities (the University of Natal, comprising
predominantly whites, and the University of Durban – Westville, which was historically
established for Black students), the university seized the opportunity for ICT
development within its teaching and learning programmes. This paper examines how
this merged institution braced itself over the years to invest in ICT infrastructure and
resources, which it used for emergency teaching and learning during the Covid-19
pandemic.
___________________________________________________________________________
                                    ISA.e-Forum
                               © 2021 The Author(s)
                 © 2021 ISA (Editorial Arrangement of ISA.e-Forum)
ISA Pedagogy Series, Vol. 1

KEYWORDS

Digital Divide, Covid-19, Information and Communication Technology in higher learning, online teaching
in the Global South

Introduction
                                                       Globalisation     and      rapid    digital
The COVID-19 pandemic that gripped the                 advancement requires developing countries
globe required millions of learners and                to keep pace with the information network
institutions to adjust their teaching and              in order for it to advance their country’s
learning programmes or risk the serious                social, political and economic interests.
interruption of the 2020 academic year.                Therefore, developing countries need to
Such a disruption would mean that an entire            invest in Higher Education Institutions’
generation of the global population would              (HDIs) human capital through transition to
have a setback of a year (or perhaps more)             digital tools to promote teaching and
of productivity in various socio-economic              learning that is globally and locally
and political spheres of life. The inability of        competitive, cost effective and accessible.
institutions of higher learning to reproduce           Given the poor state of the economy in
skilled labour to meet future market                   developing countries, investment in
demands        can     have      far-reaching          information       and       communication
consequences, especially in the absence of             technology (ICT) as an emergency measure
certainty on when the pandemic will abate.             during the COVID-19 pandemic becomes
                                                       precarious.
Given the inequality between developed
and developing countries, the response to              In the South African context, post-
the pandemic within tertiary institutions              democracy, institutions of higher learning
will vary in respect to using teaching and             came under pressure to make the transition
learning technology as a tool to reduce the            from traditional forms of teaching and
impact of the pandemic on educational                  learning to ICT-driven ones. Various policy
throughput. Developed countries with                   documents informed this transition to ICT-
better educational resources are likely to be          driven teaching and learning modes. Whilst
in an advantageous position to manage the              such a move in institutions of higher
impact of the pandemic and provide a safety            learning is lauded by educational policy
net on ensuring the academic program                   makers, concern has been expressed by the
continues uninterrupted as compared to                 academic fraternity, especially those
their less developed counterparts. Less                originating from a disadvantaged history on
developed      countries     have      many            whether all South African universities
infrastructure deficits to provide a                   could afford this transition given the wide
conducive technological environment for                gap between historically advantaged
advancement to the world of digitisation to            universities under Apartheid and those that
support the most contemporary teaching                 have been disadvantaged.
and learning tools.

                                                  21
Khan

This paper examines the integration of ICT          transformation within the ICT sector or risk
in teaching and learning globally, and how          the consequence of being under-developed.
it responds to student-centred learning.            In the 21st Century, digital literacy (DL)
Thereafter the digital divide in ICT modes          has become essential in order to advance in
of learning between developed and                   the different sectors of society. As a
developing countries is presented. This is          corollary to this, globalisation would need
followed by a discussion on digitisation of         digital    technologies     that   facilitate
teaching and learning in South African              universally accessible, reliable and
Higher Education Institutions (HDIs).               inexpensive communication (Njenga,
Finally, the paper examines how the                 2018:1).
transition to ICT teaching and learning at
the University of KwaZulu-Natal is used to          To address the demands made by
rescue the academic year from the                   globalisation, educational institutions are
consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic,              called upon to prepare students to face the
which is plaguing the world.                        challenges and opportunities of a global
                                                    workforce. Researchers and stakeholders
Integration     of    Information      and          alike argue that at all levels of education,
Communication Technology (ICT) in                   the future success of young people and
Teaching and Learning                               university graduates depends on being
Information       and     Communication             technologically competent in order to use a
Technology has been part of human                   variety of technological tools and being
development since the 1840s through the             globally competent in order to work with
advent of the telegraph and the telephone           diverse and geographically dispersed
leading to present day global electro-              people and act on globally significant issues
magnetic communication systems. ICT can             (Kopish and Marques, 2020:45).
be said to be a precursor to globalization
which has made the world inter-connected.           In the field of higher education, the
The move to ICT in different spheres of life        introduction of ICTs in the form of
has been around before the Covid-19                 eLearning has transformed the teaching and
pandemic.                                           learning experience as compared to
                                                    traditional forms. Such a transition is
With globalisation, digital technologies            influenced by several pedagogical factors.
have become major drivers in the socio-             Sife et al (2007:57) assert that eLearning
political and economic spheres of society           provides greater information access; greater
which needs to be considered when                   communication via electronic facilities;
transitioning to ICT development.                   structured learning time; increased
                                                    cooperation and collaboration, cost-
The reorganisation of social and economic           effectiveness for educational institutions
relations,      interdependencies     and           (e.g. by reaching different students and in
interconnectedness within and between               greater numbers) and pedagogical
nation states has become a powerful force           improvement through simulations, virtual
that demands advancement and adaptation             experiences, and graphic representations. In
to the changing nature of the world. This           this respect, teachers and learners can
requires meeting the demands for                    choose more appropriate applications,

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ISA Pedagogy Series, Vol. 1

which are flexible in time, in place,                Unlike in their less developed counterparts
personalized, reusable, and adapted to               in developed countries, ICTs have a long
specific domains and more cost-efficient             history and, over time, expanded in all
(Sife et al 2007:57).                                facets of life. Given the disparity in the
                                                     distribution of ICT resources around the
There is an intergenerational gap in the use         globe, the concept digital divide gained
and application of ICT. The current                  currency in the 1990s amongst different
generation of ICT users may be dubbed the            stakeholders such as scholars, policy
Net, Cyber Generation or Information                 makers and advocacy groups. The concept
society. This is because students today enter        is used to describe the growing gap, or
higher education with a wide range of                social exclusion, between those who have
digital technologies, which did not exist            access to the new services of the
previously. Even though they do exist, not           information society, and those who do not.
all have developed skills to use the                 Yet for millions of people in the world's
technology effectively.                              poorest countries, there remains a "digital
                                                     divide" excluding them from the benefits of
The transition and adaptation to a new               ICTs (Saheb, 2005). Women, children and
range of ICT provides them with an                   youth, the aged and those living in rural
advantage of being technically proficient            environments were ICT infrastructure is
using a range of technological platforms in          either non-existent or poorly developed, are
their learning journey. Compared to                  confined to the margins of digital
traditional forms of teaching and learning,          technology.
the current generation do things differently.
It is in this context that higher education          The reason for underdeveloped ICTs in
practices need to transform to meet the              developing countries may be attributed to a
needs and competencies of these new                  number of factors. Lack of access to
cohorts of students and those to follow in           education or training, fiscal constraint to
the     future.   Hence,     the    learning         buy required equipment, problems
environments should accommodate by                   obtaining the required communications
providing a conducive environment for                links or services to get online, are some of
these        ‘more       technology-driven,          the challenges. Accessing the Internet with
spontaneous, and multi-sensory’ learners             efficiency requires the quality of
(Brown and Czerniewicz, 2010:357-358).               connection and support services, processing
Even though today’s students are users of            speed and other capabilities of the computer
ICT, it may be argued that they are not              to be of a standard that is globally
necessarily producers of digital content and         competitive. Unlike the developed nations,
as such they are not all that different from         developing ones do not have the necessary
previous generations.                                resources to invest in and develop ICT
                                                     Infrastructure to reap the enormous benefits
ICT Teaching and Learning in                         that participation in the information age
Developing Countries – The Digital                   brings. Developing countries are trailing at
Divide                                               a much slower pace compared to their
                                                     developed counterparts. These trends are
                                                     due to the many socio-economic and

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Khan

political challenges faced by governments,             single parents, and child headed households
political     leaders,     and    business             exacerbates the effects of poverty in the
entrepreneurs in developing countries                  African continent. Taking for example
(Saheb, 2005) which militates against any              Ethiopia with 65 million people is the
benefits that may be derived from national             second largest population in Africa; it has
development through ICT use in                         no electricity, which is a key component for
development programmes and projects.                   access to ICT resources. On the other hand,
                                                       South       Africa      being     the    most
Ponelis and Holmner (2015:164) assert that             technologically advanced country in the
the skills for the knowledge economy are               continent      has      been     experiencing
built at institutions of higher learning. At           intermittent power cuts, which has
these institutions, education ensures that             implications for the efficiency with which
sufficient skills are imparted to learners so          ICT programmes and platforms are used
that they may become active participants in            (Tamrat        and        Teferra,     2020).
the economy and make a meaningful                      Notwithstanding persistent poverty levels
contribution to society.        Ponelis and            and infrastructure deficits, those that are
Holmner (2015:164) note that the tertiary              successful in securing access to education
student population in Africa tripled from              at institutions of higher learning are
2.7 million in 1991 to 9.3 million in 2006.            challenged by the lack of ICT infrastructure
Additionally, in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA),             in these institutions. Across the continent
post-secondary education has grown faster              ICT infrastructure has been restricted due to
than in any other region with fewer than               the lack of investment, policies and systems
200,000 students enrolled in SSA                       that promote its growth and usage. In
universities in 1970, a number which rose              institutions of higher learning, access to
to over five million in 2010 and has been              ICT resources cannot be implemented and
increasing by 10–15% annually since then.              used if the African continent does not have
It was projected that the entire continent             infrastructure to support it so that students
would have between 18 million and 20                   could      sufficiently     develop    digital
million students by 2015. Despite the rapid            competencies. Sife et al (2007:57) asserts
growth in the student population at                    that African universities, which should be
institutions of higher learning only 6% of             in the forefront of ensuring Africa's
this age cohort were enrolled in 2008,                 participation in the ICT revolution, are
compared to the global average of 26%.                 themselves unable and ill-prepared to play
Furthermore, only 11% of African                       such a leadership role in the continent due
university students are studying subjects              to the information infrastructure of African
with potentially high employability                    universities being poorly developed and
(Ponelis and Holmner, 2015:164). These                 inequitably distributed.
trends suggest that student absorption rate
at institutions of higher learning is                  Developing countries, even though they are
precarious in developing countries due to              in a position to advance in teaching through
financial exclusion as a result of a variety of        ICT tools, are also constrained to pay for
poverty related issues. Lack of physical               software licenses and copyright fees. The
infrastructure, skills, political instability,         cost of these licenses is prohibitively
unemployment, pandemics, corruption,                   expensive and as such, universities cannot

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sustain paying for them. The software tends          Charter gave precedence for the liberation
to be produced in developed countries and            movement to “open the doors of learning
by the time developing countries have                for all”.
access to it and master the technology
behind it, new versions of the software are          Upon South Africa’s liberation in 1994,
produced to replace the old. Similarly,              transformation of the higher education
online books, journals, periodicals, data            landscape received priority attention to
bases and the like, unless there is open             bridge the gap between historically
access, pose a major constraint to bridge the        disadvantaged institutions (HDIs) and those
digital divide between developed and                 that were historically for white learners and
developing nation states.                            academics. Letseka et al. (2018:125)
                                                     observe that African people constitute
Digitisation of Teaching and Learning in             about 80.8% of the country’s total
South African Higher Education                       population while whites constitute a meagre
Institutions                                         8.8%, yet whites constitute over 80% of the
                                                     university professoriate. With disparity in
The educational landscape in South Africa
                                                     government             funding            and
has a long and painful history since
                                                     underdevelopment in these HDI’s, attention
colonialism and later Apartheid spanning
                                                     focused on transforming the sector so that it
over 350 years. During colonialism, many
                                                     becomes equitable, competitive and
missionary schools were established on the
                                                     meeting the labour demands of the country.
assumption that the majority of
disenfranchised Blacks were barbarians               Post-apartheid, the African National
that needed to be civilised through mission          Congress (ANC) led government inherited
school education with a Christian ethos. At          many socio-economic and political
a community level, the very wealthy also             challenges to surmount from Apartheid’s
established schools, aided by the state.             legacy. In as far as the education sector was
However, during apartheid racialized                 concerned, the government expressed a
                                                     strong commitment to the use of ICTs in
educational institutions were established by
                                                     education so that it could produce a skilled
the government based on one’s racial                 labour force to support its post-apartheid
background. Institutions of higher learning          Reconstruction         and      Development
were not spared racialized forms of                  Programme (RDP) (Department of
learning. Separate institutions of higher            Education, 2004:13). Former President
learning were established by the Apartheid           Thabo Mbeki announced that if South
government for Whites, Coloureds, Indians            Africans are to participate in the knowledge
                                                     economy, every effort must be made to
and indigenous Africans. Black institutions
                                                     prevent social exclusion. He underscored
of higher learning were under-resourced              the importance of ICTs for social and
with deficits in infrastructure, skills and          economic development at numerous South
teaching and learning tools. Given the               African and international fora. He noted:
appalling state of Black higher education in         "We must continue the fight for liberation
the country, the Freedom Charter (1956)              against     poverty,       against     under-
which was the mandate for political change           development, against marginalisation" and
                                                     "…information         and     communication
for the ANC gave due recognition to the
                                                     technology … is a critically important tool
importance of education. The Freedom

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Khan

in that struggle” (Department of Education,
2004:10).                                            The University of KwaZulu-Natal was born
                                                     out of a merger in 2004 with the
A number of policy documents were                    Historically Advantaged (HA) white
formulated to support ICT advancement in             university (Natal) and the Indian university
higher education. The role of ICTs in                (Durban-Westville) which fell into the
education is evident in South African                category of Historically Disadvantaged
national and institutional policy documents          (HD) universities in the country. Merging
such as The National Plan for Higher                 of the two universities was motivated by the
Education (Department of Education                   need to address the historical inequities in
2001), The National Research and                     higher education, consolidation of
Development Strategy (Department of                  resources, rationalisation and to promote
Science and Technology, 2002a), the                  African scholarship. It branded itself to be
National Research and Technology                     the institution of choice for African
Foresight ICT Report (Department of                  scholarship. Since the merger, the
Science and Technology, 2002b), and the              University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN)
White Paper on e-Education informed the              (despite     historic     differences     in
policy direction for ICT development in the          organisational culture and diversity in the
education sector (Department of Education,           two institutions) made major strides
2003). These policy documents argue that             investing in its ICT infrastructure based on
using ICTs will variously add value to               the various policy documents alluded to
education, improve teaching and learning,            earlier.
encourage innovation and contribute to
transformation (Czerniewicz and Brown,               Post-merger, the UKZN rationalised its
2005:2).                                             organisational structure by setting up
                                                     colleges over five campuses. These
Like most parts of the world, the South              colleges     comprise the humanities,
African education and training system had            agriculture, engineering and science, health
to respond to the pressures and challenges           sciences and law and management studies.
posed by the information revolution-taking           Below these colleges are schools
place in the globe (Department of                    comprising a host of programmes.
Education, 2004:13). Since the ICT policy            Concerns were raised by the unions and
came into place, South African higher                staff about the College organisational
education institutions expended large sums           structure, its efficacy and costs involved
of resources on infrastructure, tools, skills        and whether this model was suited for an
and software to maintain a competitive               African context. Notwithstanding such
edge on knowledge production, exchange               concerns, the College model was
and collaboration in the global academy              implemented by the management of the
and the region despite ever-increasing               institution in order for it to be globally
resource constraints. South Africa's status          competitive.
as a middle economy country with its very
wide wealth disparities means that the               Since the merger, the university made great
university combines its access to                    strides in upgrading ICT infrastructure.
sophisticated technology with a need to              Audio-visual technology was installed in
address very serious issues of social and            teaching venues inter alia, data projectors,
economic disadvantage (Gray, 2007:35).               high definition document cameras,
                                                     motorised screens, cabling, and installation
Rescue of Teaching and Learning during               of wireless access points. Infrastructure for
the COVID-19 Pandemic at the                         charging technological tools and creating
University of KwaZulu-Natal                          more learning spaces for wireless facilities

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ISA Pedagogy Series, Vol. 1

were created (UKZN 2016 Teaching and                  adapting to digital learning and overcoming
Learning Report 2014-2015: 95). Academic              gaps. The project plan examined the
software was upgraded to the most                     implications of digital learning, student
contemporary versions available in                    training strategies, online teaching strategy,
developed countries and these were made               and access to teaching platforms by
easily accessible to staff and students. Staff        international and students with disabilities
were provided with laptops so that they               (Songca, 2020).
could teach effectively in lecture venues
and have the flexibility to work from home.           In implementing the project plan,
The success of digital teaching and learning          financially disadvantaged students who
was fully realised in 2015 when 1087                  qualified for the National Financial Aid
modules were uploaded on Moodle and                   Schemes (NSFAS) were supported with
36,089 students were accessing the                    digital resources for the learning process to
platform (UKZN 2016 Teaching and                      continue.       Logistical challenges in
Learning     Report       2014-2015:      93).        acquiring laptops and digital/hardcopy
Moodle served as a learning platform that             materials to students who are distributed
provided academics, administrators and                across the province and beyond, data costs
learners with a personalized learning                 of streaming/ downloading content at
environment.                                          home, lack of and quality of network
                                                      coverage across the province and beyond,
The rapid transition to digital learning has          computer literacy issues, mainly amongst
earned UKZN an international reputation               first-year students and lastly student
for academic excellence, outstanding                  orientation on Moodle and other virtual
research output and African scholarship.              platforms utilised are some of the
For the 2018-2019 academic year, the                  challenges that needed to be considered
Center for World University Rankings                  when implementing the teaching and
(CWUR) ranked UKZN 402 internationally                learning project plan (Songca, 2020:2).
and nationally third as compared to other
historically advantaged universities, which           As far as academic staff were concerned,
have not merged and have not transformed              the project plan aimed at improving
their institutions fully in keeping with the          capacity in terms of using ICT tools for
enormous diversity that exists in the                 curation of online materials. Pedagogical
academic community.                                   approaches to teaching and learning needed
                                                      to be adapted for online teaching and
Given the technological advancement made              learning. This included teaching and
by UKZN since the merger, the university              learning courses for staff. It was recognised
has created a variety of options for teaching         by the project management team that data
and learning on its campuses. The COVID-              restrictions due to the unaffordability and
19 pandemic in a way placed direct pressure           unavailability amongst deserving students
on the institution to test out whether its            curtailed the uploading of materials from
eLearning system can cushion the negative             home. Faculty needed support for curation,
impact of the pandemic on both students               editing and uploading of videos. The
and academics.        In this respect, the            project management team noted that modes
institution put in place a Teaching and               of delivery in certain modules and
Learning Project Plan during the COVID-               programmes did not lend themselves easily
19-related restrictions. The plan focused on          to online delivery as practical teaching and
ways in which the academic year could be              learning requires face-to-face contact in
saved, despite the uncertainty of the                 laboratories. Last, work experience and in-
pandemic by identifying challenges that               service training requirements to use online
both students and academics face in

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Khan

teaching and learning need to be explored             June 2020. Since the return of students,
(Songca, 2020:3).                                     with dedicated ICT support the online
                                                      teaching platform with some glitches
At a meeting of Universities South Africa             concluded the first semester of the
(2020) comprising Vice Chancellors from               academic year.
all state funded institutions there was wide
recognition that respective institutions use          Although most institutions in the country
ICT as an emergency measure for teaching              were in a position to complete the first
and learning if the academic year was to be           semester through online teaching and
saved in the context of the pandemic. In              learning, upon reflection the Department of
order to test the readiness of online teaching        Higher Education claimed that the online
and learning a dry run needed to be                   learning during the pandemic was a
undertaken. UKZN made strides in                      “success”. This assertion has been highly
finalising its negotiations with MTN,                 contested by the South African academic
Vodacom and Telkom for zero-rated access              fraternity and in response a petition is
to 11 University sites including Moodle.              circulating refuting the claims made by the
Arrangements were made to run the                     Department of Education. The petition
learning content via a proxy server on                contests amongst other things that “closing
campus for the telecommunications                     campuses may have been necessary to fight
providers as part of getting the University           the pandemic, but in the rush to online
ready for online learning. Other logistical           teaching we lost important face-to-face
options were also explored to ensure that no          engagement with our students. Even as our
students were left out due to lack of access          classes are often too big to have the kind of
to online services. For instance, home                classroom interactions we would like to
addresses of all registered students were             have with our students, the loss of
geo-mapped to establish their location and            discussion in lecture rooms, after classes, in
to get a sense of how many students were              offices and on campuses, reduced the
located in areas with poor internet                   quality      of     university     education
coverage. The possibility of providing ‘Wi-           dramatically. Much of what students learn
Fi hot-spots’ for these students was                  at university does not come from lecture
explored. Meanwhile, students were                    content, but from ongoing interactions with
encouraged to engage in self-directed                 lecturers and tutors, in seminars and
learning to keep ahead in their studies,              workshops, and with the many different
while academics were being urged to                   people and settings that shape campus life”.
continue preparing for the dry run and
launch of the new system by uploading                 Conclusion
learning materials and curating content
(Universities South Africa 2020).                     The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the
                                                      way in which teaching and learning take
It would appear that UKZN has taken great             place in institutions of higher learning.
measures to ensure digital infrastructure,            Considering that, no one really knows when
teaching and learning platforms to be in              life will return to normal and given the
place. Other ICT logistical issues to further         second wave of the pandemic being amidst
the teaching and learning programme were              us, when universities will open to continue
attended to while logistical arrangements             with the academic programme, is a grey
were put in place to continue with the                area. The paper highlights the enormous
academic programme. A phased access of                benefit that can be derived from the
students to the university was planned and            transition to ICT teaching and learning.
the first cohort of students to be allowed on         Although this could be an emergency
university premises was scheduled for 29              response to teaching and learning, one

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ISA Pedagogy Series, Vol. 1

needs to be mindful of the pedagogical              to upgrade ICT infrastructure over time. In
implications of teaching “through” versus           the COVID-19 period UKZN has devised a
“with” technology. Teaching “through”               project plan for online teaching and
technology now would appear as a safety             learning, which commenced on 29 June
measure against social distancing, as               2020 in different phases, whilst more
learners will have very little contact with         advantaged institutions in the country have
the teaching fraternity. Teaching “with”            already concluded their first online
technology using blended methods would              semester in the academic year.
be an ideal, but under the circumstance, one
has to settle for the lesser.                       This paper has been written at a time when
                                                    the pandemic was unfolding and captures
The digital divide between developed and            the emergency response by institutions of
developing countries in many instances is           higher learning to save the academic year.
wide. Bridging this gap during the COVID-           With the second wave of the pandemic
19 pandemic is unlikely to feature, as              making its round in the globe, South
developing countries do not have the                African institutions of higher learning once
infrastructure to transition to ICT teaching        again have to brace themselves to continue
and learning. The challenges have different         with online teaching and learning.
dimensions, including structural, economic,
social and technical issues. In the case of         Although, a dissenting voice is emerging
South Africa, there is also the divide              within the academic fraternity on some of
between historically advantaged and                 the downsides to online teaching and
disadvantaged institutions given the legacy         learning, it need be noted that this
of colonialism and later Apartheid.                 arrangement was in the context of the world
Historically advantaged institutions are            response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
better able to transition to ICT-driven             Under normal conditions, perhaps a more
teaching and learning modalities. UKZN is           positive attitude will emerge on the benefits
a merger project between the former                 of online teaching and learning. As alluded
University of Natal, which catered to whites        to earlier a blended learning environment
whilst the University of Durban-Westville           combining both traditional and e-Learning
was historically disadvantaged and catered          approaches could have sound pedagogical
to the needs of Indian students. Despite            outcomes.
merger challenges, UKZN responded
proactively to the government’s policy call

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Author Biography

Dr. Sultan Khan is an Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
His sociological interest is in the fields of urban sociology, social policy, sociology of
development, diaspora and migration studies. He has to his credit three co-edited books and
one co-authored book which was published this year titled "Boko Haram". Khan is ranked as
a C2 researcher by the National Research Foundation that provides accreditation to South
African scholars. In addition, he has been recognised by the University of KwaZulu-Natal as a
most prolific researcher.

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