Laura Czerniewicz, Cheryl Brown: Blurring boundaries: How ICTS are challenging notions of learning in South African universities

Abstract
This paper uses a mixed methodological approach to reflect on a five-year study of South African universities students’ access to and use of ICTs for learning. We examine how the original assumptions that underpin the study no longer pertain in the same way as they did at the outset. Distinctions pertaining to the digital divide, pedagogy, learning spaces and social and academic use are, on reflection, less dualist and more complex. In some cases, divides are being exacerbated, in others the neat demarcations are becoming blurred (resulting in grey areas) and in yet others they are being reconstituted offering new possibilities not previously considered. It is of note that our observations are made in a context where cell phones have become almost ubiquitous across the demographics of the student population in just a few years.