Meeting the challenge of educating the digitally engaged student at a University of Technology in South Africa

Abstract

This study argues against the common, simplistic model of the Digital Native and Digital Immigrant models which proposes a bilateral model between those who were born into and those who were not born into the digital realm. It proposes and explores a model that is contextually informed by operating within the undergraduate Information Technology Services Management programme at Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), within a developing country like South Africa. This educational environment of engagement is far more complex than in the developed world, consisting of educational disadvantage, technological disadvantage and social disadvantage that inform digital engagement in a very direct manner. The attributes of higher education students have changed radically with time and it is suggested that contemporary students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach. It is argued that the proliferation and ubiquitous nature of technology has meant that a “discontinuity” has taken place between the digitally engaged student and the educator. An uncompromising report released by the Council on Higher Education (CHE) which is a statutory body that advises the higher education minister of South Africa in August 2013, revealed that less than 5% of black African and coloured youth succeed at university, and more than half of all first-year entrants never graduate at all. It further stated that although "the level of dysfunction in primary and secondary schooling will not produce the numbers of well-prepared school leavers that higher education requires. A choice has to be made by the higher education sector: allowing the status quo to persist, or, undertaking to act on factors that are within its control to address the systemic conditions impeding student success." CPUT is particularly keen on developing its role with respect to technology skills development and research and innovation. It is specifically with regard to the latter, and in an attempt to act on factors that are within its control to address the systemic conditions impeding student success that this study was undertaken. The study seeks to address the challenge of educating the digitally engaged student at a University of Technology in South Africa in terms of – (a) understanding the digitally engaged student, (b) understanding the digitally engaged educator, (c) understanding the pedagogical challenge and (d) understanding the assessment challenge. Extensive use will be made of CHE and related resources to establish the parametric framework of analysis for this study. Scholarly articles elucidating the notions of “Digital Native, “Digital Immigrant” and “Digital Refugee” will also be accessed. The research framework will be bench-marked against international approaches for “higher education challenges” research with particular reference to Innovation Pedagogy. This will allow for comparative analysis at a later stage. The qualitative research component of the study will involve focus group discussions with students and educators respectively. The value proposition of the study is a report on the challenge of educating the digitally engaged student at a University of Technology in South Africa which would inform curriculum design, teaching-learning-assessment strategies and related policies to higher education decision makers.