Record Details

Reflecting on dilemmas in digital resource design as a response to COVID-19 for learners in under-resourced contexts

Pythagoras

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Reflecting on dilemmas in digital resource design as a response to COVID-19 for learners in under-resourced contexts
 
Creator Vale, Pamela Graven, Mellony H.
 
Subject Mathematics Education South Africa; COVID-19; digital resources; task design; ecology of learning; under-resourced communities
Description The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the resulting school closures in South Africa necessitated a major shift in how to support learners’ ongoing mathematics learning. For 10 weeks learners were strictly confined to their homes with restrictions that prohibited seeing any person outside of their household. The only means to access learners and parents in their homes was to reimagine our South African Numeracy Chair Project work and transform it from predominantly face-to-face interventions to digital modalities. As a result, we initiated a project of digital resource development and distribution, particularly focused on our local community in the Eastern Cape. Twenty-two existing resources and 36 purpose-designed resources were shared via Facebook. Through in-depth post hoc reflection of the rapid digitalisation of our materials and ways of working we address these questions: (1) In relation to learners’ new ‘ecology of learning’ during lockdown what digital access modality and platforms were most fit-for-purpose in sharing mathematics learning resources? (2) What principles informed resource design and adaptation for digital distribution and use? (3) What dilemmas were confronted in making decisions about resource design and distribution?. These questions are answered through a document review and post hoc reflections on the noted dilemmas. We share some feedback received and discuss implications of our work and the dilemmas confronted for the provision of quality digital resources for supporting mathematics learning in historically disadvantaged and under-resourced communities in a post pandemic world.
 
Publisher AOSIS Publishing
 
Contributor This work is based on the research supported by the South African Research Chairs Initiative of the Department of Science and Technology and the National Research Foundation (Grant No. 74658).
Date 2021-11-09
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Case Study
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/pythagoras.v42i1.599
 
Source Pythagoras; Vol 42, No 1 (2021); 17 pages 2223-7895 1012-2346
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://pythagoras.org.za/index.php/pythagoras/article/view/599/912 https://pythagoras.org.za/index.php/pythagoras/article/view/599/913 https://pythagoras.org.za/index.php/pythagoras/article/view/599/914 https://pythagoras.org.za/index.php/pythagoras/article/view/599/915
 
Coverage South Africa — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2021 Pamela Vale, Mellony H. Graven https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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