THE USE OF INFORMATION COMMUNICATION AND
TECHNOLOGY (ICT) IN SOCIAL AND
LITERACY PRACTICES
Mailane Mofana-Semoko
Introduction
• The lifelong learning needs of modern
life and ongoing post-literacy (PL)
development have not been fully
addressed in Lesotho, due to the current
inadequacy of PL training.
• PL training requires a deeper
understanding of learner contexts.
Introduction continue
• The study explored with the participants
their existing literacy practices at two
sites in selected rural communities
The aim of the study
• To find out who is involved in what
kind of literacy activities, with whom,
on what occasions and using what
kinds of texts and strategies for these
purposes.
Objectives of the study
• To gain a deeper theoretical understanding of
literacies as social practices and the implications
of this understanding for PL activities in Lesotho;
• To investigate what literacy practices exist in
selected rural communities in Lesotho in different
domains of home, work and community and
private life; and
• To examine how IEMS can develop PL materials in
the light of a deeper understanding of literacy
practices.
Theoretical framework
• The study used an ethnographic, indepth case study approach advocated by
New Literacy Studies (NLS) researchers
like Barton and Tusting (2005:10-11) in
the United Kingdom; Ghose (2007:4) in
India; Shiohata (2009:66) in urban
Senegal; Openjuru (2011:2) in Uganda
and Ade-Ojo (2015:3 PPT) in Europe.
Theoretical framework
continue
• NLS originated from Brian Street’s 1984
research, in which he made a distinction
between the autonomous model of literacy,
which focuses on a set of skills, and the
ideological model of literacy, which focuses on
social practices, often context specific.
• NLS Conceptual framework provides
analytic framework:
- Literacy ‘events’ = activities in which
literacy has a role
Methods used for data collection
• Direct observations, participant observations,
documents analysis, in-depth interviews,
conversations and focus group discussions.
• The study used multiple methods to achieve
triangulation
and
to
represent
the
participants’ perspectives
Literature review
• The literature review revealed the common use of
technology in daily life and in teaching and learning.
• Warschauer (2009:131) confirms a wide societal
recognition of the importance of new technologies in daily
life and in learning while
• Snyder (2009:142) identified trends towards, as well as
resistance to developing digital literacies.
• Computer literacy is practiced or learnt in families that have
access to technology. Lemphane and Prinsloo (2014:741)
presents two families:
- middle class children have different types of technology at
their disposal, while
- the lower class children’s use of technology is limited
Literature review
• Verheijen (2013:583) says the last decade has
seen a massive and rapid increase of SMS text
messaging and instant messaging among the
younger generation, due to increased
ownership of cellular phones and personal
computers, even by school-aged children.
The findings of the study
ICT was one of the themes which emerged from the
study:
• ICT found very efficient for communication
purposes
• cell phone use has become common in the three
case studies from two sites selected for the study.
• The findings of the study include the use of
technology in the form of cell phones in
stonemasonry, in piggery association MPAWE
and in community councils’ literacy practices.
The findings of the study (continue)
Stonemasonry literacy practices
• In the stonemasonry case study, in Tum’s private
domain, customers made use of smart cell
phones to take photos of tombstones, which they
showed their relatives, so that they could choose
the design they wanted from the ready-made
tombstones.
• Tums himself did not communicate with his
customers by cell phone, nor did he use it to get
information that would help him to expand his
business.
The findings of the study
(continue)
MPAWE literacy practices
• The secretary of MPAWE used a cell phone to
communicate with the members of the
association.
• used two modes of communication to invite
members to meetings: by letter and cell phone to
call meetings
• the members of the MPAWE association had cell
phones and they used them to write and read
messages.
The findings of the study
(continue)
Community councils’ literacy practices
• Cell phone messaging made it easy for
secretaries to communicate with councillors.
Invitations and agendas for meetings were
distributed quickly and easily, even though the
councillors valued a formal letter than the sms
message.
The findings of the study
(continue)
Seneke Community councils’ literacy practices
SMS inviting councillors to a meeting
The findings of the study
(continue)
The message from Maleso, KCC secretary, read
as follows:
• ‘M’e oa ka! Le ha ke thotse ke ntse ke u rata
hle. Tulo e labobeli lehoja ke tla be ke le siko
hle. Ke karolo ea evaluation team ea setereke
(Madam! Even though I am quiet, I still love
you. The sitting is on Tuesday, though I will not
be there. I am part of the evaluation team for
the district councils). 10/06/2013, 05:27:00.
The findings of the study
(continue)
• All the issues discussed above are relevant to PL
educational interventions.
• PL in the context of lifelong learning is part of the
continuum of literacy learning
• PL activities will inevitably be multiple and
context specific.
• Literacy should be regarded as a social practice
and in a cross-cultural perspective.
• Thus, PL will be an extension of existing literacy
activities described below, rather than something
that is imposed from above.
Conclusions
• This ethnographic study shows that the use of
technology is becoming a common feature of literacy
practice within three cases studies.
• Technology is already regarded as important in
teaching and learning.
• the opportunity to learn new literacies that are
associated with rapid technological change has to be
built into policy for literacy programmes.
• Thus, new literacies should be researched in order to
ensure that appropriate new literacies learning is done
in a way that is relevant to context.
Conclusions (continue)
• ICT enabled the secretaries in MPAWE and
within the two councils to write short
messages.
• Possession of different types of technology,
including cell phones, is common to all classes
of people.
• Reading and writing was used to send and
receive messages on cell phones.
Recommendations
The recommendations listed are for future training by the
IEMS and for further research.
• There is a potential PL opportunity for training on using
cell phones and how to access information on the
internet for the purposes of improving oneself and the
community as a whole.
• Tums could enhance his use of ICT by sourcing new
designs from the internet and even marketing his
products online.
• The secretary of the MPAWE should be encouraged to
enhance the use of ICT by using it to obtain information
on piggery activities, as well as how to establish a new
poultry activity as a new initiative by the association.
Recommendations (continue)
• The councillors need to be encouraged to use
their ICT skills to obtain information.
• Further research is recommended, in
particular further ethnographic studies of
different contexts. These studies could
investigate further how people or community
facilitators use ICT in literacy practices.
THE END
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING
Mailane Mofana-Semoko
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF LESOTHO
INSTITUTE OF EXTRA-MURAL STUDIES