Electronic Textbooks in Gauteng Public Schools: Pros and Cons

Literature Review

There are numerous global studies on the use of ICT in education. One of the ways in which the introduction of ICTs into education benefits schools is that it provides access to information using devices such as computers, the Internet, radio, and television (Aghaee, et al., 2016; Popovic, 2015).

These technological devices all have the potential to facilitate and promote teaching in the classroom (AlTammeemy, 2017; de Aldama & Pozo, 2016). In many cases, the unavailability of ICTs for teaching and learning is the main factor inhibiting their pedagogical use (Brun & Hinostroza, 2014; Chisalita & Cretu, 2015). However, when ICTs are rolled out in schools, the expectation is that teachers would want to take advantage of the affordances of these new technologies. Although teachers are often reckoned to be skilled in the use of ICTs in their classrooms, they still lag behind in realising its full potential by not optimally integrating these technologies into their teaching (Brun & Hinostroza, 2014).