Digitalisation’s Dark Side
from Part I - (R)evolution of the Higher Education Sector
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 June 2022
This chapter explores the digitalisation of higher education in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), where technology is used to support teaching and learning. This conceptual chapter contends that technology uptake and use by institutions of higher learning has been inevitable in the recent past due to a number of factors, with the latest being the COVID-19 global pandemic. Central to the argument of the chapter is the fact that technology is pertinent for the transformation of teaching and learning. However, in some developing countries, especially those of Africa, digitalisation, noble as it is, has resulted in undesirable consequences. Many citizens of the developing countries have been affected by the dark side of technology uptake, which has brought with it social exclusion and digital divide. As much as they need technology for teaching and learning, findings are that factors such as lack of access to internet, shortage of equipment and lack of skills, among others, have proved to be barriers to effective online teaching and learning. The chapter is guided by van Dijk’s Resources and Appropriation Theory.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.