Page 118 - Education in a Digital World
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6




            THE ROLE OF EDUCATIONAL

            TECHNOLOGY IN INTERNATIONAL
            DEVELOPMENT














            Introduction

            Our discussions so far have tended to concentrate on educational technology in the
            context of relatively wealthy nations and regions. Of course, this provides only a
            partial analysis of the ‘global’ phenomenon of digital technology in education. We
            have not yet given sufficient attention to the experiences of those who live outside
            the (over)developed and (post)industrialised nations that tend to be feature less in
            academic analyses of educational technology. With this in mind, the next two
            chapters look towards the experiences of countries, regions and communities that
            constitute the ‘grey areas’ and ‘black holes’ of the digital world (Warschauer 2004).
            These are the parts of the world that are least connected to the information
            society – from the shantytowns of Karachi to the villages of Eastern and Southern
            Africa. In particular, this chapter concentrates on the nature and form of educational
            technology in low-income ‘developing’ nations.
              Before the chapter continues, it is necessary to acknowledge the limitations
            of using labels such as ‘development’ and ‘developing’– not least the implication of
            delayed progress towards a more advanced level of being a ‘developed’ nation.
            Using these labels runs the risk of oversimplifying the economic, political and
            cultural situations of a diversity of countries and societies, as well as erroneously
            relegating nations to the status of subordinate ‘other’. In practice, the term ‘devel-
            oping nation’ encompasses a range of different forms – from ‘newly industrialised
            countries’ such as India and South Africa, to so-called ‘failed states’ such as Yemen
            and Somalia. Many developing countries should be more accurately classified as
            ‘middle powers’ with moderate economic capacity and political power. Moreover,
            levels of development vary within as well as between countries, especially between
            urban centres and rural ‘peripheries’. Countries can be relatively developed in some
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