Exploring Digital Archive System to Develop Digitally Resilient Youths in Marginalised Communities in South Africa

Abstract

Promoting digital skills among the youth in marginalised communities can boost their digital resilience, facilitate effective participation in the knowledge economy and foster positive development. However, in developing countries, government and other stakeholders are confronted by several challenges that hamper such projects. These include poor digital infrastructure, a lack of digital capacity, high levels of digital illiteracy, limited access to local digital content, and widespread apathy and mistrust amongst marginalised communities. This article explores the use of a digital archive system to develop digital skills among the youth in the marginalised Kenneth Gardens community in South Africa. A series of training workshops was conducted over a period of 12 months with a pilot group of youths to develop their digital skills. The Kirkpatrick model provided the conceptual framework to evaluate the level of skills acquired. The data were subjected to qualitative analysis and the results show that the use of a digital archive system has significant potential to develop digitally resilient youth.

Digital Resilience Among Individuals in School Education Settings: A Concept Analysis Based on a Scoping Review

“…In addition, the excessive time spent on digital platforms is a big risk that can cause significant mental health distress to students, which can impact an individual’s lifestyle such as their sleep schedule or appetite ( 28 ). Several studies also showed that understanding unhealthy online threats is an important start in building digital resilience ( 4 , 16 , 26 ). Users were encouraged to report harm when using online technologies, which was a style of proactive self-efficacy to reflect their capability to discern risks during online experiences.…”

“…Students with access to digital resiliency attributes at the time of stress or threat during the use of technology period have more chances to deal with these stressors in a positive way ( 26 , 34 ). Multiple studies showed that digital resilience had various positive impacts on psychological and social functioning.…”

“…To our knowledge, not one widely used tool is fit for scaling digital resilience. Although some authors used self-designed subjective instruments ( 9 , 19 , 20 , 26 , 28 ) to measure digital resilience in either behavior or attitudes, they did not assess the validity and reliability. In the future, it might be appropriate to measure the defining attributes as separate and additional constructs and be useful to measure not only behavior but attitudes as well.…”

The Impact of Technical Competency, Experience and Communication Skills on the Level of ICT Innovation in Tanzania

“…Experience is an important element of project development, since the implementation of any project is surrounded by uncertainties, which are likely to have a negative impact to a project if they are not handled properly (Oeij, 2017). Evidence shows that experienced ICT experts are better suited in attaining various organizational goals, and even in showing their commitment to their projects (Ochieng et al, 2017). This is because, experience enhances the resilience of an expert, amid challenging circumstances.…”

Applying Constructivism Theories to Online Teaching at the Durban University of Technology

“…However, there is no clear understanding of how such agglutination will facilitate learning in a virtual environment. Previous authors have argued that computer mediated peer learning within a virtual environment can help promote student development and create positive outcomes (Khalili & Olugbara, 2011) as in the case of digital media archive systems (Ochieng, Olugbara & Marks, 2017).…”