Exploring issues of access to ICT in education in Developing Countries.

Despite the well known phenomenon that computers and the Internet directly and indirectly enhance the learning process, it is disturbing to know that according to Bahamóndez, E. C. V. and Schmidt A. (2011), close to half of the world’s population do not have access ICTs. They quote data from International telecommunications Union (ITU, 2009), to show the huge digital divide in the proportions of households with computers being more than 75% in developed countries, as compared to 24% in developing countries. The proportions of households with internet access was measured at an average of 63% in developed countries, while only 16% of households in developing countries had Internet access.

One of the major challenges faced by governments of developing countries today, is the preparation of societies to be competitive with gobalization through communication and information revolution. Professions, educational institutions and workplaces today generate and demand a new technological culture, in which basic reading, writing and arithmetic skills are not enough.

Given wide disparities in access to digital technology between developing and developed countries and between different groups within countries, there seems to be serious concerns that the use of ICTs in education can widen the gap drawn along the lines of economic, social, cultural, geographic and gender lines. Thus planners and developers of International Education programmes face a formidable challenge in terms of how they define the problem and provide assistance for development. The introduction of ICTs in education has to be done with careful deliberation if we are to avoid marginalizing those who are already disadvantaged. Drawing on the work of Tandon, N. and Mark, J., Tinio, V. L.(2002), posits that women and girls are more disadvantaged when it comes to access to digital technology due to reasons of lack to time, mobility, education and poverty. Kelly-Salinas, G. (2000), stresses the importance of compensatory programmes like the African Girl’s Education Initiative, involving 20 countries with specific programmes allowing girls to increase their participation in school and making new information available to them. According to a Unicef 1999 report, educated girls show new behaviours such as marrying later, seeking medical attention earlier, providing better care and nutrition for their children. Tinio. V. L., also addresses the issue that it’s not enough to only consider equal access to ICT, but also equal attention must be paid to ensuring that technology is used in ways that truly serves the needs of target learners. For example, an ICT integration into Education project in Guatemala, called Enlace Quiché, with an objective to create multimedia bilingual educational resources that are anchored on the Mayan culture and reflect a constructivist approach to learning.

What can developed countries do to bridge the Gap?

Kelly-Salinas, G. (2000), posits that ICT could be used as a tool to ‘close the gap’, given a sound and telecommunications and computer network insfrastructure that can support and deliver diverse educational models. He advises pre-service and in-service education of teachers to accompany ICT initiatives in schools.  He claims that teachers can become confident users by means of collaborative ICT projects between developed and developing countries. He gives an example of a simple model of International collaboration between teachers from developing countries, called ‘Teachers talking about learning’, which was created by UNICEF (http://www.unicef.org/teachers/). Using the Internet and television, teachers identify and disseminate best practices in an online community of practice by sharing experiences and strategies of how better to use new technologies.

References:

Elba del Carmen Valderrama Bahamóndez, and Albrecht Schmidt (2011). Mobile phones, developing countries and Learning. In Mobile Technologies and Handheld Devices for Ubiquitous Learning: Research and Pedagogy (pp. 120-131)

Tinio, V. L. ICTs in Education. Retrieved from: http://www.google.co.za/search?q=ICTs+in+Education&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

On 10 August 2011

Guillermo Kelly-Salinas. (2000). Different Educational Inequalities: ICT an Option to Close the Gaps. In Learning To Bridge The Digital Divide.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Paris. (pp 21-36)

Social challenges to e-learning

While registering for #RSCON3 e-conference, I felt excited, nervous and curious, as it was my first online experience. Being a novice at many online applications and platforms, I had some reservations about my success at being able to access the sessions that I intended to attend. I would like to share my experience, thoughts and reflections before, during and after this conference.

When registering I found out that having a ‘Twitter’ account was a prerequisite. This knowledge threatened an underlying belief about the safety of my online identity. Up to then the only social media I had subscribed to was ‘Facebook,’ for the purposes of maintaining contact with selected friends and family. After overcoming my fear and creating a Twitter account, I found, to my pleasant surprise, that I had all this information relevant to many of my interests at my fingertips, much of it from very reliable and famous sources. I could see myself using Twitter regularly as a learning tool.

Using the application called ‘Elluminate Live’, I found myself in this virtual classroom, where I could see the names of the others attending and I could interact by using emoticons or using the chat box. Since I was very new to this software, I had to hastily familiarise myself with the different icons and their functions. For the first session I could save the chat conversation, due to help from the moderator. However I had difficulty in finding the sound, as the session was ended by the time I got to the sound. By the time I got to the second session, I felt more prepared and at ease, knowing how to enter the classroom, how to state my location and how to use the emoticons to interact with others during the session. This social aspect of the software was very helpful in my experience, as it helped me to see what others felt about things and I was able to get help from the moderator by using the chat conversation box. Anderson (2008), discusses the design and development of online teaching programmes, by reflecting on the model posited by Garrison, Anderson and Archer (2000), called ‘Community of Inquiry,’ especially the ‘social presence’ aspect of it. This model postulates that deep and meaningful learning occurs in an online learning programme, where three aspects, teaching, social and congnitive, are present. The social aspect incorporates the interactive nature of a programme, thus providing a supportive environment in which the students feel safe and comfortable to express their ideas in a collaborative context. In my experience, as soon as I entered the classroom, I was welcomed and directed by the moderator. I felt safe to ask questions, using the chat conversation box.

Even though my virtual experience did help me achieve the outcome of learning about how digital technology is being used in the classroom by other educators, I did miss the face to face (F2F) contact that has the potential for incidental learning, which is what happens at live conferences, during tea and lunch times. Sanders (2006), discusses potential impact of using digital technology in teaching, without critically assessing it’s worth and use. He discusses the value of the ‘serendipitous moments of learning’ that occur so often in F2F environment, the overheard remarks, discussions in the hallways, before–class updates, etc., that can be springboards to so much further learning. As well as being an avid user of digital technology during his teaching, in comparing the virtual and F2F classrooms, he finds the interactions during F2F sessions to be lengthier, more involved and generally more supportive than those mediated by use of technologies.

Therefore I do believe that as much as current digital technologies endeavour to be as socially interactive as possible, in order to maintain the gregarious nature of human communication, perhaps blending in F2F facilities, where possible, into our online programmes might help to facilitate deeper, more meaningful exploration of concepts.

Sanders, R. (2006). ‘The imponderable bloom’ – reconsidering the role of education in technology. Innovate Journal of Online Education. 2(6).

Anderson, T. (2008). (ed.) The Theory and Practice of Online Teaching. Teaching in an online context. p355.

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