Barriers to implementing technology-enhanced learning in south african primary schools

Implementing digital learning into classrooms is a constant struggle in developing countries. The former apartheid era in South Africa has resulted in a society that is characterised by expansive inequality, and so a great emphasis is put onto education to mend these social rifts. This paper details a project aimed at uncovering the obstacles to the successful implementation of a novel learning management system in South African primary schools. Studies was conducted in South African primary schools where the new e-learning systems are being implemented. Interviews were conducted with four schoolteachers and a school principal to gain insight into the problems pedagogues face when learning how to use the system and implementing it into their teaching activities. The interviews are supplemented with field observations to see how successfully the new technology performs in classrooms, and a small-scale survey was also conducted to collect attitudinal information about the system. Unstructured interviews were conducted with the directors of the company that developed the learning management system in order to provide an insider’s view on the biggest implementational challenges. After the data-gathering, thematic analysis was conducted on the qualitative data to uncover the difficulties teachers face in adopting the new technology in their teaching activities. The results presented in this paper show that the success of implementing technology-enhanced learning is dependent on several factors. These include the flexibility of teachers’ mindsets, teachers’ administrative workload and the accessibility and usability of the technology.