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David Price
ICT4D and Millennium Development Goal 2
The second of the millennium development goals is to achieve universal primary education. The target associated with that goal is too Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling. The following bibliography relates media, books, articles and journals to the implementation of ICT in achieving this goal.
Books
Baskaran, A. and Muchie, M.(2006) Bridging the Digital Divide: Innovation systems for ICT in Brazil, China, India, Thailand and Southern Africa. Adonis and abbey, London
This book offers five different case studies showing the implementation of ICT in to Development within the developing world. The Thailand example showcases the power of E-Learning, and how computer technology is leading the country towards knowledge-based society. The themes of this digital form of learning are aimed slightly above universal primary education, but more so focuses on the idea that Technologies can help the development of society and economics in the developing world, be it at a primary or a tertiary level.
Castells, M. (2000) The Rise of the Network Society: The Information Age: Rise of the Network Society, Blackwells
This book is an account of the economic and social dynamics of the new age of information. He examines how the process of globalization threatens to make redundant whole countries and peoples excluded from informational networks. I found this literature very challenging to read in some parts, and although he raised some very intellectual and interesting points I sometimes thought that his argument was over comprehensive and far to complex for what it needed to be. As for specific development and education based Case Studies, it was a poor resource, but for understanding some background and the changing Global State and the need for ICT, it is worth looking at.
Collins, J. Hammond, M. and Wellington, J. (1997) Teaching and learning with Multimedia, Routledge, London.
This Book was aimed at teachers and researchers who want to examine the impact of multimedia in education. It examines the history of the internet and technologies uses throught the 1970’s and 1980’s in relation to education and parallels this to the introduction of new techn ologies today. It also raises the barriers and constraints of curricular development. This is not strictly related to developing Nations as it is set out in a western context, but like a few other resources is useful context for understanding the role ICT in education. We have to remember that the Goal is to achieve universal Primary education and the first two chapters build on the growth and constraints of Technology and education.
Eisenstadt, M. and Vincent, T. (1998) The Knowledge Web, Learning and collaborating on the net. Biddies, Guildford.
This book provides an interesting argument as to how books are obsolete as information changes so rapidly and although it is a poor mediator of learning, the internet is the best learning resource around (which I found rather ironic). Again it argues some theories that could be applied to the developing world, although it does not relate to this in the book it self, it is solely based around the developing world.
Forsyth, I. (1996) Teaching and learning, materials and the internet. Biddies, Guildford.
Althouugh this resource does’nt focus on the Millenium development goals and achieving primary education, it is interesting to view how form a western perspective how in the developed world educational and training course material can be delivered using the internet. Although this is applied to Developed systems of learning and IT, the ideologies presented in this argument can be brought into context within the developing world as possible means for achieving MDG2.
Weigel, G. and Waldburger, D. (2004) ICT4D – Connecting people for a better word. Lessons, Innovations and perspectives of information and communication technologies in development. Swiss Agency for Development, Berne.
This is the best resource that I found in terms of Books. It is a fantastic resource and extremely useful in terms of how and where ICT4D stands in the world of Development. It was compiled during the ICT4D forum in 2003 and is intended to stimulate interest and awareness beyond the core ICT circles, especially to reach those development organizations that are still skeptical about ICT4D. The chapter ‘Using ICT for reaching the MDG’s, moving from rhetoric to action’ pp101-110 is a crucial chapter, and outlines many key points raised in debate as to how the Millennium declaration is to be achieved and how the implementation of ICT’s, especially into education is crucial to this.
Other Media and Journals/Papers
Bertrand, D. (2003) Achieving the Universal Primary Education Goal of the Millennium Declaration. New Challenges for Development Cooperation.
This report examines whether or not we are in a current state whereby it is possible for us to achieve, by 2015, Universal Primary Education. It has an extensive history section also, detailing where ideas and actions have not been implemented successfully in the past. It also looks at existing strategies in place, and critically challenges the concepts surrounding the second Millennium development Goal. She is even more critical of the Education for all Goals set out in relation to the millennium declaration. It is worth reading from a critical view point that challenges current ideas of development.
Colcough,C. & Al-Samarrai, S. (1998), Achieving Schooling for All: Budgetary Expenditures on Education in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, London: DFID
This paper looks at how the majority of sub-Saharan Africa’s budget on education has been spent in the Primary Sector, and it argues that schooling for all is achievable, even in the poorest countries, provided governments are willing to reform both the private and public costs and efficiency of school systems, and to give expenditures on primary schooling their proper priority. The paper gives an insight into the economics of development and funding the second millennium goal. I believe that this is important to recognize how realistic it is.
Czerniewicz, L and Brown, C (2005) Access to ICT for teaching and learning: From single artefact to interrelated resources, International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology (IJEDICT), 2005, Vol. 1, Issue 2, pp. 42-56
The paper reports on a project that looks to investigate access to, and use of, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in teaching and learning in higher education institutions in the Western Cape of South Africa. I found as a project this sets the use of ICT’s in Africa out quite well, and shows how limited their use can be. It also shows the importance that they carry to achieving a good standard of education in the developing world.
IMF/OECD/UN/World Bank (2000), A Better World for All: Progress towards the International Development Goals.
Progress towards the International (Millennium) Development Goals shows us how the goals were expected to be achieved by the deadline of 2015. The report is full of the facts that created the goals in the first place, and for understanding the targets and why they were created then this is a good paper to read. In terms of Education it shows the rising Enrolment and how they hope to increase this in the 15 years following the report. Overall it enhances background knowledge and is full of useful information and statistics.
Lewin, K.M. and Sayed, Y. (2005) Non-Government Secondary Schooling in Sub-Saharan Africa. Exploring the Evidence in South Africa and Malawi.
This is a very long Paper, but in parts addresses some interesting issues and has some very in-depth case studies on Schooling in both Malawi and South Africa. There is a lot of detail in this report, and highlights the problems concerning Schooling in developing Nations, especially when concerned with the private and non-private sector. I believe that it is missing enough information on ICT’s and the use of technology in Schools, as it seems to focus more on the information being relayed than how it is being taught.
Lloyd, C. and Hewett, P (2003) Primary-Schooling in Sub-Saharan Africa: Recent Trends and current Challenges.
This article raises issues suggesting that the problem with communications technologies and schooling is not on a local level and a lack of technology but more so that on a national level communications of schooling data is not being processed and transmitted and thus not enough is know about the state of Schooling in Africa. Again I felt that they somewhat neglect the implementation of IT in Schooling but ti further raises points and problems with Primary Education in the developing world and some insight into how we can go about solving them.
Jacobs, S. and Herselman, M (2005) An ICT-Hub model for rural communities, International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology
(IJEDICT), 2005, Vol. 1, Issue 3.
This Article offers an example of implementing a Hub computer and technology system into a rural community. The idea being that a centre is installed with Communication technologies giving a remote area access to a phone, internet and various other technical resources. This is helpful in terms of E-Leaning as it provides a means of access to a remote and rural location. This is a good idea of how to implement ICT’s to help the educational growth of a community.
Nwachukwu Prince Ololube, (2006) Appraising the relationship between ICT usage and integration and the standard of teacher education programs in a developing economy, International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology (IJEDICT), 2005, Vol. 1, Issue 2, pp. 42-56.
The theme to this paper is simple, it becomes easier to educate a developing community if we first educate the teachers. This puts forth the idea that we can use ICT’s to educate the teachers in Developing countries. ICTs
are tools that on the one hand can facilitate teacher training and on the other hand help them to
take full advantage of the potential of technology to enhance student learning. ICTs have introduced a new era in traditional methods of teaching and are offering new teaching and learning experiences to both teachers and students. This promotes some good ideas about the sustainablility of ICT’s in education.
Perraton, H. (2002) Technologies, education, development and costs. A third look at the educational crisis.
This paper questions whether or not communication technologies can play a major role in the reform of education. It argues that National policy on ICT in education is dependant on a nations communications technology and their attitude towards that. After commenting on the digital divide between North and South it looks to question how effectively educational technologies are being used in education today. I thought this was a useful resource that gives a good and clear insight into the role that ICT’s play in education on a global scale.
Perraton, H. and Creed, C. (2000), Applying New Technologies and Cost-Effective Delivery Systems in Basic Education.
This was published for the education for all forum in Dakar in 2000. To support the 6 education for all goals established it sets out by saying that information technologies open up a whole world of possibilities for education. This is one of the best papers around to support the use of ICT’s within achieving millennium development goals. It includes lots of facts, case studies, relevant theories and interesting ideas and is worth reading as a basis for ICT4D principle.
Rosas, R et al. (2003) Beyond Nintendo: design and assessment of educational video games for first and second grade students, Computers & Education, 40, 1, Pages 71-94
This is a positive case study and example of the use of technology within education, and more importantly creating a form of primary education for everyone. This follows the case study of a computer game designed to educate children in Chilie. It argues that playing (through a form of ICT) offers the child a much greater chance of learning, and also through cooperation with the teacher a greater form of interactive and fun learning, going on to state that PDA’s and mobile forms of technology and communication may well be the way forward in developing education.
Subramanian, S (2006) ICT learning: Is it more valuable for the young? International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology (IJEDICT), 2006, Vol. 2, Issue 1.
The article is based on ethnographic research undertaken in a rural area of India. Small centers were set up in womens houses in villages, in order to create access to ICTs. While women have learnt to use some of these modern ICTs and do make use of them, increasingly it is the young boys and girls of the community who more often access the centres. The article explores some of the socio-cultural factors that may be leading to this subtle but definite change. We can use the theories that this article creates to show how ICT’s are an important factor in facilitating primary education to all people and is both an interesting and worthwhile article to read.
Tinio, V. (2002) ICT in Education
This paper suggests that with enabling of information and communication technologies (ICTs), countries can face the challenge of the information age. With ICT’s they can leap forth to higher levels of social, economic and political development. This is another useful paper to generally understanding how and more importantly why ICT’s are important when we seek to achieve Universal Primary Education.
The Department for international Development (2001) The Challenge of Universal Primary Education
This is DfID’s own report into the problems, concerns and solutions into achieving Universal Primary education as set out by the Millenium Development Goals. It includes information of the challenges they need to meet and how they will monitor progress, and as I could find was by far the most indepth report into the second millennium development Goal. It has lots of key facts and figures and explains things very simply and easily. Its main supporting factor is that it questions the goals and the global actions taken to achieving them. This is most definitely worth reading for an understanding of precisely how Universal Primary education is to be achieved.
World Bank (2002) Constructing Knowledge societies: New challenges for tertiary Education.
This report argues that tertiary education creates the high level of skills needed for every labor market and the ability to drive an economy. It mainly focuses on the tertiary sector, and thus university and college education. However it debates that developing nations that immerse themselves in technology and the new global community will experience a higher economic growth. It is another very long report, and without reading all of it, it raises a valid point that perhaps rather than looking at universal primary education, we should focus on educating those in the larger commercial sectors who are older and where it is easy to pass on knowledge. It forms an interesting debate against the idea of universal primary education for all.
Websites
InfoDev works to promote a better understanding and effective use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) as tools of poverty reduction and broad-based, sustainable development. IN particular it has a useful section on ICT4D and the following page on their implementation to the achieving of Universal Primary Education: This highlights more specific educational goals set out by education for all, as it argues that realistically Universal primary education will not be achieved by 2015. It concludes a few aspects from other important papers and is a another good and simple resource for understanding the effect of ICT’s in Universal Primary Education.
Apdip.net stands for the Asia-pacific development information program. It is an initiative of the United Nations Development Program that aims to promote the development and application of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) for sustainable human development in the Asia-Pacific region. The best thing about this site is that it has over 100 case studies on ICT and development, and can be very case specific. Although I found some of their links old and out of Date and thus not working, it is generally easy to use and up to date.
This is the website that backs up the ‘ICT4D – connecting people for a better world’ book, with further information on the forum and the forming of the written text. The same annotation of that book can be applied here, only the advantage of having it as a web address is that there are links to other sites and other useful pages.
UNESCO, being one of the worlds leading organizations concerned with ICT and development, gives a high priority to the use of ICTs in education. This site gives access to a news feed concerning regular updates and information on the development of ICT and education, as well as projects and other resources useful to the understanding of ICT’s and their importance in achieving Universal Primary Education
SchoolNet Africa is dedicated to providing people in Africa with information and a range of resources to support the use of ICTs in Education initiatives at local level. The African SchoolNet Centre has been developed to provide information and resources for African Schoolnet practitioners to enhance their implementation efforts. The African SchoolNet Centre collects and stores information on national Schoolnets in Africa and provides space for networking and collaboration among Schoolnet practitioners. By aiming to bridge the digital divide between north and south and teach deprived areas through the use of ICT they have found a way to achieving the target of the second millennium goal and by working together across the hole of Africa using the internet are aiming to achieve universal primary education.