It is dangerously destablising to have half the world on the cutting edge of technology while the other half struggles on the bare edge of survival.
William J. Clinton
In our connected world, access to digital technology is no longer meant to be seen as a luxury but as a form of necessity. Everything from the educational sector to the healthcare sector depends entirely on reliable internet connectivity and access to digital devices. Despite this, millions of South Africans still face barriers that prevent them from fully participating in the digital world. This is why digital access solutions play a critical role.
If schools start investing in digital access solutions such as tools, strategies, and infrastructure, students from underprivileged communities can connect to and benefit from these digital technologies. Digital solutions may include affordable internet services, public Wi-Fi initiatives, device distribution programmes, accessible software, and digital skills training. If these digital solutions are used together, they will simply bridge the digital divide and create equal opportunities for participation in the digital economy. People can also be empowered to learn, work, communicate, and innovate. In the school setting, expanding digital access will strengthen social inclusion. Take a look at how AI is used in schools to get a better idea of how digital access can become a reality in school classrooms across the country.
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What Could It Mean If Schools Welcome a Digital Learning Device In the Classroom?
digital devices can be introduced into the school setting.
When it comes to adding a technological device in your classroom, you are deciding to shift how teaching and learning take place. Irrespective of whether you are bringing in a tablet, laptop, or Chromebook, any digital device you choose to bring into the classroom can transform your lessons, making them far more interactive, collaborative, and future-focused.
Welcoming a digital learning device into the classroom could have several benefits, some of which include:
Ensuring greater access to information could mean not having to rely on textbooks, with learners being able to explore up-to-date resources, educational videos, research articles, and other interactive simulations. This improves students' understanding of abstract concepts and exposes them to global perspectives. Access to information could mean enabling learners to think out of the box.
Personalised learning is further encouraged with the use of digital devices and digital solutions, enabling learners to learn at their own pace, whilst revisiting challenging concepts, and gaining access to additional support materials when needed. Teachers can rely on such digital tools to track learners' progress as well.
Digital literacy development means getting students to understand the value of researching responsibly, while evaluating online sources and communicating professionally. These skills learned in the classroom will later become essential for the higher educational setting and the modern workplace.
Digital learning devices can further enhance engagement, foster creativity, and prepare students for a technologically-driven world.
Urban and Rural Digital Disparities
While enforcing digital literacy development in school classrooms across South Africa is all well and good, it must be remembered that connectivity in rural areas remains significantly lower than in urban areas. Connectivity gaps that exist in townships or in many rural areas will mean that, in rural areas, there may be inconsistent access to online learning.
What Are Some Digital Skills for Students to Have?
Digital literacy goes beyond knowing how to use a device. It refers to the ability to search for information that is reliable while avoiding misinformation in the process.
The strong focus on digital skills development in today's world tells us that these digital skills are no longer optional. With classrooms also becoming more connected, students will need to gain a strong foundation of skills that will enable them to navigate, evaluate, and create content within online environments confidently and responsibly.
The most important digital skills that students should develop include:
Information Literacy Skills
When it comes to digital literacy skills, you must be able to evaluate information online. While the internet provides unlimited access to information, not all the information found online can be relied on. Students need to be introduced to search engines and learn to use them effectively, identify credible sources, cross-check facts, and recognise misinformation or bias.
Digital Citizenship and Online Safety Skills
Students must react responsibly and safely online, while protecting personal information, using stronger passwords, recognising phishing attempts, and understanding privacy settings on social media platforms.
Digital citizenship must be respectfully communicated to all students so they become aware of cyberbullying and understand the consequences thereof.
Collaboration and Communication Skills
Incorporating digital platforms into the classroom setting impacts how we communicate and work together. Students should know how to write professional emails, participate in virtual discussions, and collaborate using shared documents and cloud-based tools. Effective online communication needs clarity, appropriate tone, and an understanding of digital etiquette. With good communication skills, collaboration can take place more effortlessly.
Core Technical Skills
Part and parcel of bringing a digital device into the classroom setting is teaching students core technical skills. Students need to use computers, tablets, and smartphones, managing files and folders, and navigating common software applications such as word processors, spreadsheets, and presentation tools.
Content Creation Skills
When promoting digital literacy skills in the classroom, teachers must not only focus on students as consumers of digital presentations but also as creators of these presentations. Students must learn how to design presentations, edit videos, create digital art, or develop simple blog posts. With content creation, students are encouraged to think out of the box and be creative.
Critical Thinking Skills
While technology makes information easily accessible, students must question all that they see. They must be able to think critically of the data they receive and distinguish between data that is valuable and credible and data from unreliable sources.
Aside from improving and enhancing certain skills, digitally literate students should be:
Schools need to hop onto the bandwagon and reinforce digital skills constantly, so learners are not just users of technology, but rather informed, capable, and confident digital citizens ready for the future.
Watch this video of the digital literacy skills needed to succeed in learning and beyond:
Using AI in the Classroom with Initiatives to Support Connectivity
Access to computers and the internet has become a basic need for education in our society.
Kent Conrad
Advantages of AI Usage for Teachers in the Classroom
When implemented thoughtfully, AI can become a powerful partner in the classroom rather than a replacement for teachers. Teachers can reap significant benefits when using AI in the classroom. For one, AI integration means allowing personalised learning. Since all classrooms include students with different abilities, learning speeds, and interests, AI-powered platforms can analyse student performance while adjusting activities to match individual needs. Struggling learners can receive additional support and targeted feedback, while advanced students can be challenged with enrichment and more complex material. This kind of differentiation helps ensure that no learner is left behind.
Administrative workload can also be taken care of since teachers will be able to create quizzes, draft lesson plans, generate worksheets, and provide structured feedback, which can be streamlined with AI tools. Once repetitive processes are automated, teachers gain more time to focus on meaningful engagement, mentorship, and creative lesson delivery. AI does not replace the professional judgment of educators; it improves and enhances their efficiency.
AI assists with assessment and feedback. Some AI tools can be put to use to analyse student writing for grammar patterns, clarity, and structure. Other sophisticated AI tools can track learner progress data and identify any learning gaps that learners may have. The role of the teacher is still vital, and the teacher still has the final say, but AI can provide insights that may enable quicker intervention for students who are in need of support.
Concrete Efforts to Support AI Usage in Classrooms
- The Vuma School Project provides free high-fibre speed connections to hundreds of schools and supports career days for coding and career exploration.
- SA Connect & the Department of Basic Education's (DBE) Connectivity rollout are governmental programmes initiated to deliver broadband to schools whilst also providing devices to learners and teachers.
- Anglo American South Africa ICT initiative provides connectivity as well as teacher training in some schools to improve maths pass rates.
Community Strategies to Support AI Usage in Communities
Before adopting AI tools in the classroom, we need to realise that community initiatives are also supporting AI usage. Public libraries, like the Randburg Public Library, offer free Wi-Fi spots so that learners can access the internet and digital tools for learning. There are several other tech hubs in many communities in South Africa and free Wi-Fi spots that allow learners to gain access to digital tools.
Lastly, there are zero-rated educational sites that offer access to educational tools while cutting cost barriers and data costs. Vodacom eSchool is an example of this.
Students' Role in Embracing Community Endeavours
Students must be taught how to use AI responsibly and ethically. When roping in AI into any classroom situation, all students should be made to understand academic honesty, avoid overreliance on AI-generated answers, and be able to evaluate the information AI provides critically. AI systems can make mistakes or reflect bias, so learners should be encouraged to question and verify outputs rather than accept them blindly.
Educators can create AI activities where the aim is not only to promote critical thinking skills, but also to prepare for a future where learners will be part of many careers. While AI has considerable advantages when used in the school setting, it is merely used for support purposes. It cannot replace human connection. AI can in no way provide the same empathy, encouragement, and understanding that teachers offer their learners. AI tools should therefore be brought into the classroom setting to assist learning and to enable learners to gain digital literacy skills, and not to eliminate the role of the teacher. As a teacher or a tutor, you need to explore how AI can be used in schools, so that you can introduce AI into the classroom while still emphasising how pivotal your role in the classroom is.
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