Examining the use of technology in literature teaching and learning at university in Uganda

Abstract

Even though the use of digital media and technologies has become a dominant ubiquitous norm in teaching and learning experiences at higher education levels in Uganda, there remains a significant dearth of scholarship on their use in a literature classroom. The full effects of digital media and technologies on literary studies remains unexamined. This chapter thus explores the use of ICTs (i.e., electronic teaching and learning materials accessed online and/or local media technology or platforms) in a Literature in English classroom at Kyambogo University, Uganda, using data drawn from oral interviews with key informant interviewees, focus group discussions and questionnaires administered to lecturers and pre-service trainee teachers of Literature in English at Kyambogo University. Results from the study show that the use of technology in teaching and learning of Literature in English at university in Uganda engenders both positive and negative results, providing unimaginable opportunities (e.g., increasing access to study materials) and challenges (e.g., low ICT self-efficacy) for teachers and learners, but also presenting serious threats to the teaching and learning of Literature (e.g., increasing the digital divide between marginalized and privileged learners and between skilled and unskilled learners).