Adoption of Mobile Applications to Improve the Reading Habits of Rural Readers in Southern Africa's Secondary Schools

Abstract

Advances in digital technologies especially mobile applications, are dramatically altering social and educational conditions. This also applies to the reading habits of the rural child readers. Reading has been considered a cornerstone of education development and social transformation. It has been argued that advancements in digitalization and the enhancement of digital development could be beneficial for rural readers. However, digital inequalities persist and affect rural child readers. This paper investigated how mobile applications could be adopted to improve the reading habits of rural readers in southern African secondary schools. This qualitative study employed a multiple-case study design in five rural secondary schools in Beitbridge District, Zimbabwe, and five rural secondary schools in Vhembe district, Limpopo, South Africa. Focus group interview with the learners was adopted as a data collection tool. The findings revealed that some learners in Beitbridge schools did not even have mobile phones and reliable internet. The findings of the study also revealed that some rural learners in Limpopo are using different types of social media applications, including WhatsApp and Facebook. The findings showed that some learners spent five or so hours on these social media applications for entertainment purposes only and this has a negative effect on their reading. The results of the study show that some learners do not even know other mobile applications which enhance reading for instance pocket readers, e-books, Scribd, and FB readers. The study concludes that if rural learners in southern Africa are guided and trained well, they would adopt mobile applications to improve their reading habits. Future studies could be done to encourage the learners to write their own stories in their local languages and these could be published via mobile applications.