Computer education in a developing country A study of the educational e ects of supplying rural schools in South Africa with computers

Abstract

Since 2008 students at Chalmers University of Technology have been running a project which supplies rural school in southern Africa with computers to make technology available for the learners (pupils) at these schools. However, most research regarding the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in education is performed in Western countries where almost everyone has access to technology and computers almost everywhere. The situation in developing countries is very di erent and therefore the research regarding the use of ICT in education can not be directly transformed to the schools in these countries. The purpose of this study was to ll a part of that gap in the ICT research, which hopefully can be valuable for both the organisations that supply schools in these countries with computers and for the schools that receive computers. The aim of this research project was to study how the inclusion of computers in the education a ect both the learners and the personnel at the schools, and more speci cally how it a ects the science studies at the schools. Therefore these two main questions were studied: • How has the inclusion of computers in the education a ected the learners? • Has the education in general and in chemistry studies in particular changed since the schools received computers? To be able to answer these questions data were collected through a eld study in South Africa during which observations, questionnaires and interviews were conducted. At the schools participating in this study computers were almost exclusively used in the subject Computer Application Technology (CAT), so the teaching of the other subjects had not changed that much since the schools received computers. By the results from this study no clear conclusion could be drawn regarding how the inclusion of computers in the education a ected learners' motivation for their studies. However, both learners and personnel expressed that the inclusion of computers in the education were mostly positive and that it was important for the learners' future.