The Struggle is REAL

How do you encourage online participation and develop digital literacy when your students do not have access to a computer, no data and cannot understand basic concepts in English (our language of tuition)?

In a South African context - specifically the students I have worked with -  this is a very real situation.

Paradoxically, however, most have smart phones, social media accounts and post endless selfies.

The challenge is how to transfer their digital literacy into the learning platforms.  Ask them to view a music video on YouTube and they're watching within seconds.  But ask them to find videos about a topic covered in the syllabus and suddenly they seem to have forgotten how to use the search function.

We assume that our students are automatically digitally literate simply because they are young.  Afterall, these kids were raised with cellphones and the internet.

The reality is that we need to still teach our students how to learn in the digital environment.  They are trained(conditioned?) in our schooling system that the teacher will give you the answers and the aim is to pass the exams at the end of the school year.  We (for the the most part) are not teaching them to learn.  We are teaching them how to pass exams.  (of course this is a generalisation)

Which leaves us in a class with students (who may not speak English as a first or even second language) who think that the internet is for entertainment only, and who do not seem interested in learning for growth - instead they only want the certificate to hang on the wall.

To complicate the situation even more, we further assume that the lecturers are digitally savvy enough to lead their students.

The reality is that we first need to get our students invested and engaged in the process of learning for growth BEFORE we can get them to participate online.