This document discusses research on ICT access and use among students in South African higher education. It finds that the concept of "digital natives" does not apply in South Africa due to inequalities. While most students own cell phones, only a small minority are highly experienced computer users ("digital natives"). A larger group lacks computer experience and access ("digital strangers"). However, many students use cell phones extensively for academic purposes. The document argues for redefining "digital" and "native" to recognize students' diverse capabilities and cell phone-mediated practices. It calls for leveraging mobility and contemporary literacies to strengthen teaching and learning.

1. CHEC ET
Students today

2.  The road is not easy with me, it’s tough and I don’t think I
will ever reach a certain destiny that I could say now I
have reached the final point in technology because it’s
improving every day, every now and then and it’s
becoming more user-friendly at first at first it was so
difficult, I can’t even remember when I first touched a
computer but I know it was so difficult –I did not even
know what was in front of me, what is it for, what is used
for—I didn’t even know that but as the time goes on I
know what is it that I need to put on a computer to get
what I want from it, you know. Ja basically it was so
difficult ja it was so difficult I didn’t even know what was
happening, ja.
 From interview 2009 male student UFH

3. Research
 A research project on ICT access and use for
teaching and learning in SA higher education
over past 7 years including
 Two surveys of 10 110 students in total
 2004 - 6 universities in Western Cape
 2007 - 6 universities in other parts of South Africa
 2009 – 140 phone interviews with students in four
universities
 Researchers: Laura Czerniewicz and Cheryl
Brown

4. The terminology

5. ―Digital native‖
 Problematic concept/ offensive term
 Could give young people false impressions of their
ability
 consequences in how they manage negative/ risky online
situations (Helsper 2008)
 The ―native‖ as the future and in command & the
―immigrant‖ as old, the past and obsolete (Bayne and
Ross 2007)
 In SA context synonymous with colonialism,
apartheid, domination

6. and it gets worse … ―Digital wisdom‖
 Prensky’s new term ―homo sapien digitalensis‖
 Imbued with digital wisdom because digital
technology not only makes humans smarted but wiser
 Evolutionary metaphor
 reinforces connotation of backwardness and progress
 Natural selection and extinction
 And a future for those who have evolved
 The positioning of some students as better than
other evokes a digital digerati – a cyber elite

7. Some findings
 Not about age, experience is important
 Students born into millennial generation cannot
be assumed to have grown up digital
 Homogeneity cannot be assumed in terms of
computer experience
 There are students with low, medium and high levels
of computer experience in all age groupings

8. “digital native” – an elite digerati
 Grown up using computers > 10 yrs experience
 Learnt to use a computer by teaching
themselves or through social networks ie family
and friends
 Able to solve ICT problems themselves or by
drawing on supportive social networks
 In 2007 this applied to only 11% - 375 students

9. “digital stranger” – a concern
 not just a matter of ―natives‖ or ―immigrants‖
 there is a significant group of the millennial generation
students who lack experience and opportunity to use
ICTs
 In 2007 (22% - 734 individuals)
 Not had access to a computer before they attended university
 Had less than 2 year experience using a computer
 Relied on formal channels to acquire this knowledge
 Such polarisation indicates that the ―the digital natives
and the ―digital stranger‖ are on opposite sides of a
worsening digital divide.

10. But. Cell phones and our students
◦ Ownership is ubiquitous
◦ Ownership is not socially differentiated
◦ Main means of access to Internet off campus for
students from low SEGs
satellite, 25 Dial up, 68
wireless, 24
Broadband, 8
cell 4
phone, 191
Type of internet access for low SEG students

11. Should we be surprised?
 No, because…..
 South Africa has the third largest mobile internet using
population in the world
 South Africa ranks 6th in the global Top 10 for mobile
internet usage,
 ahead of both the US (7th) and the UK (9th)
 Mobile internet in South Africa is among the least
expensive in the entire world; traditional desktop
access is still among the most expensive

12. What about mobiles and learning?
60%
50%
40%
37%
35%
40%
No cell phone use
23% < 40% cell phone use
15% > 40% cell phone use
20%
0%
"Digital Native" "Digital Stranger"
% of cell phone time spent for academic purposes

13. Redefining the ―digital‖ and the ―native‖
 Digital presently implies
 Computers (a specific object)
 Fixed
 Have or have-not
 On/ off
 Native implies
 Non-native (stranger)
 Better (digital digerati)
 Concepts out of date, excluding & inaccurate?

14. Thinking differently
 Digital - beyond computers
 Digital artefacts are being ―reconfigured‖
 Unexpected /unintended uses
 Access is increasingly being determined by
connectivity not by location
 Learning is being reconstituted as students use
cell phones for access and use in unanticipated
ways

15. Thinking differently
 Reclaiming the digitizen
 All students live in a digitally mediated world
 All students have a digital ―identity‖ and set of
practices
 All students are digital citizens
 Acknowledge the full spectrum of digital
capabilities
 All have a set of capabilities in varied configurations
 New technological habitus

16. Conclusion
 South Africa still grappling with social exclusion
 Link between social and digital exclusion
 Small minority of digital natives
 Until now educators faced with a ―dilemma of
justice‖ simultaneously supporting students’
participation in new global practices without
further marginalising previously disadvantaged
 Mobiles offer an unprecedented opportunity

17. Conclusion
 Design for increased diversity and new practices
 Design for multiple devices and practices
 Mobile not secondary device
 Leverage the affordances of mobility
 Leverage contemporary literacies, and emergent
cell phone-mediated practices in ways which
strengthen teaching and learning

18. References
 http://www.cet.uct.ac.za/virtualmobius