Abstract
The introduction and use of online social media networks in education has provided a variety of unique methodologies in support of teaching, learning, and knowledge gathering. The presence of these networks has created opportunities to hear the voice of the teacher. This study explores how teachers and officials from a rural district in South Africa used the WhatsApp platform as a virtual community of practice to aid in monitoring and support after attending a professional development programme. The data used in this study was collected from the WhatsApp conversations held amongst teachers and officials. This data was analysed within the conceptual framework of social learning and social networking. The findings derived from this study show that the effective use of an online social media network to support a virtual community of practice is dependent on the participants’ awareness of the context within which the community exists and the willingness of the participants to accept differing views and opinions. Keywords: community of practice; Millennium Development Goals; social learning; social media; social networking; teacher professional development; virtual community of practice; WhatsApp
Highlights
In a developing world, education is instrumental in alleviating poverty
Extract 1 2014/03/17, 2:27 PM – Official 1: It is important that we all know why we have this group and that all must work together. 2014/03/17, 2:30 PM – Teacher 4: Thank you, so when we have problems we can talk at any time [...] I think it will be great for us. 2014/03/17, 2:30 PM – Teacher 1: Please make sure we do not use phone in the class, we must be teaching
The 21st century has seen many demands being placed on the South African teacher, of which teaching and preparing learners to live and work in this century is central
Summary
Education is instrumental in alleviating poverty. In 2002, the United Nations published the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to support developing countries in achieving parity with developed countries. The second of the eight MDGs was aimed at ensuring universal primary education for all by providing access to quality education. In the South African context, ICT alone will not guarantee a quality education system. In 2013, the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) developed the Teacher Assessment Resource for Monitoring and Improving Instruction in the Foundation Phasei software (TARMIIfp). The first was the TPD programme that teachers attended; the second was the school-based monitoring and support provided to the teachers who attended the TPD. The TPD training programme consisted of two modules: the first module focused on assessment in the Foundation Phase; the second focused on use of the TARMIIfp software. As part of the research design, training, monitoring and support of teachers was facilitated by the e-learning and curriculum officials of the district office
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