Abstract:
South African schools appear to be far from attaining the strategic
objectives of the White Paper 7 on e-Education of 2004. The use of ICT
for instruction and learning in schools is hampered by contextual
factors in South Africa. One factor hampering the use of ICT in South
African schools is the availability of ICT resources. Despite a high
degree of access to ICT at home, most schools do not have the
relevant ICT resources that teachers can use for instruction and
learning.
The SITES 2006 technical coordinators dataset was used to determine
the statistical significant difference of the joint frequencies of the
number of years that schools have been using ICT for instruction and
learning as well as the availability of ICT resources. An integrated
qualitative-quantitative design was used to transform the dataset for
the calculation of a two-way Chi-square. A two-way Chi-square was
calculated for the joint frequencies as well as for the odds ratio to
determine the effect size of the frequencies.
Activity Theory was used as a “theoretical framework for the analysis
and understanding of human interaction through the use of tools and
artefacts” (Hashim & Jones, 2007). The extent of the use of ICT
resources (tools) by teachers (subject) in instructing learners (object)
determines the degree of success in education (outcome). Easy
availability of ICT resources for use in instruction and learning should
yield a positive, meaningful achievement in education.
