The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a shift towards the use of social media platforms in teaching. The South African Department of Basic Education, for one, instructed all schools to adopt online teaching and learning to save the 2020 school year, disrupted by the pandemic and the forced closure of schools.
It is getting clearer that this shift towards technology use will continue. Some researchers have noted that it has also put the focus of the learning process more on students than on teachers.
Young people aged between 15 and 24 usually attend secondary school or higher education institutions and use social media. Incorporating social media into school activities could make learning more interesting to this age group. Their participation and performance in their studies might then improve.
We are information systems researchers with the University of Cape Town. Our research focus is on the use of information systems in education, specifically in underdeveloped communities. We seek to identify and offer solutions to some of the challenges of using technology in the classroom.
Our recent study describes the challenges secondary school teachers face when using social media applications like WhatsApp as a teaching tool. They include access to devices, internet connectivity, security, skills, school policies and useful application features.
The education department, school management, teachers, students and application developers should work together on these issues to make technology more effective in teaching.
Social media platforms and teaching
The integration of WhatsApp into the school curriculum became one of the focus areas of the South African Department of Basic Education during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020. Teachers, besides being competent in their subjects, now needed to be comfortable using social media platforms for teaching.
But teachers, especially those from schools in poorer communities with limited technology resources, don't all have the skills needed to effectively use online applications like WhatsApp for teaching. Practical solutions are needed to help them.
Four public, fee-paying secondary schools from the Western Cape Provincial Department of Education were included in this study. The schools all use social media as an online tool to support their teaching. They record and share learning materials like teaching videos and video notes, send homework and reminders about homework tasks, and conduct virtual classroom lessons. They also use the technology as a translation tool.
These schools started using social media to teach during the pandemic and continued afterwards. Teachers at each school with social media teaching experience were interviewed. A total of six teachers were interviewed over a period of a year.
School documents like the cellphone and social media policies and the school's code of conduct were also reviewed.
The challenges associated with using social media are classified into different categories: student, teacher, application and institutional challenges.
Student challenges: Students from poorer communities often don't have access to a cellphone, or their devices have basic functionality. This does not allow them to access WhatsApp. Students who live in dangerous neighbourhoods are also at risk of having their phones stolen. Students' privacy and safety linked to cyberbullying is also a concern since they would need to share their mobile numbers to be included in a WhatsApp classroom group.
While some students have access to a device, they don't have data on the device to use WhatsApp. Some also lack the skills to access resources sent on social media.
Teacher challenges: Teachers themselves experience challenges when using social media for teaching. Their privacy is a concern since students have access to their personal cellphone numbers. This makes it difficult to separate their work and personal lives. This is unfair on the teachers. Not having adequate training to use social media is also an issue for the teachers.
The older teachers feel less confident in using social media within the classroom and rely on their younger colleagues to help them. Managing WhatsApp classroom groups is difficult since the teachers need to constantly add or replace cellphone numbers. The teachers are then left with the task of managing multiple contacts.
Application challenges: Limitations associated with the WhatsApp application itself affect teaching. Sending large files like videos and documents over WhatsApp is blocked. It is especially frustrating when teaching videos are blocked. The teacher needs to split the video into smaller parts which are then sent piecemeal over WhatsApp to the students.
WhatsApp does not provide a professional presentation mode for teaching. This is frustrating for a teacher who wants to make a PowerPoint presentation to the students.
Institutional challenges: The school plays a role in the success rates achieved when using social media as an online teaching tool. Teachers say Wi-Fi connectivity may be intermittent or inaccessible. Weak signals, having no electricity, and vandalism are mentioned as reasons.
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When the Wi-Fi does not work, teachers and students must then rely on their own data, which can be costly. School policies that do not fully support the use of social media applications for teaching prevent WhatsApp from being fully utilised. Some schools do not allow students to use cellphones, unless prior permission is given. Without permission, phones are confiscated and students are fined.
Why our findings matter
The biggest challenge is the unequal access to the internet and cellphones which schools in poorer communities have. Students not using social media eventually fall behind because they don't receive learning materials from their teachers.
Additionally, teachers struggle with increased work when using social media and work frustrations brought about by WhatsApp's lack of teaching features.
The South African Department of Basic Education wants to see the successful integration of technology use like WhatsApp into all South African classrooms. That can't happen unless all the challenges are adequately addressed.
Zane Davids, Lecturer and Researcher in Information Systems, University of Cape Town
Lisa Seymour, Professor, University of Cape Town
Rafeeq Jaffer, Researcher , University of Cape Town
