Search

Digital tools have evolved into a way of life, and as a result, they have become a growing area of interest for academics who research teaching and learning. Scholars increasingly agree that because digital tools affect human-to-human connection, a greater emphasis on understanding their function in engagement from an interdisciplinary viewpoint is required. However, there does not appear to have been much research on how these tools facilitate social engagement, especially in teaching and learning. This mixed methods study employs a case-study design and explores how digital tools help or hinder social engagement in teaching and learning at a South African-based tertiary institution. A questionnaire consisting of open and closed questions was used to collect data from 88 students from four academic departments at a University of Technology (UoT): Media, Retail and Business Management, Entrepreneurship, and Food Science. Based on the concept of social engagement and the uses and gratifications theory, this interdisciplinary project examines how different fields employ digital tools for social engagement. Some of the findings are that of the communication technologies considered, WhatsApp (97%), video conferencing via Blackboard Collaborate (96.6%) and blackboard course content (95.5%) were the top three ranked tools. Further, WhatsApp was the preferred digital tool for communication with lecturers and peers, while Blackboard was the preferred platform for accessing course materials such as readings and videos. Other than video conferencing platforms such as Zoom, Blackboard Collaborate and YouTube, students use digital tools for engagement with peers. For example, around a quarter of students who used Blackboard Discussion Forums reported engaging with each other. From the qualitative reflections, the study found that students were communicating more with their lecturers through digital tools. Despite having access to lecture recordings, there was still a sense that the educational experience was not as engaging as students wanted it to be because of the lack of in-person engagement.

Over the past two decades, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in South Africa (SA) have formulated various e-learning policies. E-learning policies are neither neutral nor value free as they reflect policy makers' ideas about the role of technology in teaching and learning. Although several e-learning policies have been developed in SA, few studies have examined the discourses that underpin them nor the implications they have on teaching and learning. Using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as its methodology and Feenberg's typology of e-learning discourses as its framework, the study analysed the dominant discourses that underpin e-learning policies in HEIs in SA. The study's findings show the dominance of deterministic and instrumentalist discourses in the e-learning policies. These discourses conceptualise technology as autonomous and value neutral. They also view technology as a magic wand that will solve all educational problems while fostering progress, effectiveness, and efficiency. Critical discourses on e-learning are largely marginalised in the policies. The paper contends that the dominant discourses in the e-learning policies analysed offer narrow technological fixes to nuanced educational problems in SA. They promote pedagogically poor applications of technology that perpetuate transmission models of education. These findings indicate the need to embed critical discourses in e-learning policies.

The entertainment-education (E-E) strategy in development communication has been widely described as the panacea to development challenges in Africa. However, despite its growing application on the continent, E-E is still argued to be inhibited from contributing meaningfully toward development efforts. E-E interventions are argued to be hamstrung by their failure to embrace theoretical advances in development communication and E-E scholarship and for remaining rooted in the modernization paradigm. Using the social change paradigm as its framework, this article assesses the notions of development, change, communication, audiences, and education that underpin the conceptualization and design of "Tsha Tsha," an E-E television drama that uses a novel cultural approach to address issues surrounding HIV and AIDS in South Africa. The data informing the study were gathered through a Focused Synthesis Approach and analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The study's findings show that significant efforts have been made by "Tsha Tsha's" producers to bridge E-E practice and contemporary development communication and E-E scholarship. The data analyzed in the study show that "Tsha Tsha's" notions of development, change, education, communication, and audience have been significantly remoored in line with the core tenets of the E-E for Social Change paradigm. The implications of the study are that more engagement and synergies need to be cultivated between E-E practitioners and development communication and E-E scholars if E-E's full potential, in contributing to development challenges on the continent, is to be realized.