Page 167 - Education in a Digital World

154 So Where Now?

international development – not least the assumptions of less-wealthy ‘developing’
countries being somehow deficient and subordinate to more ‘developed’ countries.
Many of the ICT4D examples discussed in Chapters 6 and 7 convey an implicit
assumption that less-wealthy countries are stymied by a delayed access not only to
digital technology devices but also to contemporary forms of knowledge and
information. Of course, such thinking replicates a long history of Western concerns
and ideals of the (mis)education of the new world when set against the develop-
ment of other countries through more ‘advanced’ forms of education. Thus as
Stambach and Malekela (2006, p.328) conclude:

When it comes to ICT education policies, the absence of reflection on
history is notable. New electronic and digital technologies are not new
in terms of the uses to which they are to be put. The newness of information
and communication technology needs to be understood in the context of an
historically old and conceptually circuitous route that leads from arguments
about the value of education for bridging the ‘Great Divide’ of oral and
literate societies to, now, the value of ICT education for bridging the ‘Digital
Divide’ that separates sub-Saharan Africa from most of the rest of the world.
There is nothing new in the sense of what ICT education promises to ‘do’
for Africa.

The field of educational ICT4D therefore exemplifies a key concern that underpins
all of the examples of educational technology considered in this book, i.e. that of
power (or, more specifically, imbalances of power). It is perhaps not surprising that
longstanding patterns of domination and subordination between individuals and
groups of individuals are being extended (rather than being overcome) through the
use of digital technologies in education. As Fuchs and Horak (2008, p.107) argue
with regard to the ICT4D movement:

Solutions to the global divide cannot be provided by Western technologies
that are applied in Third World countries. Such positions are an expression of
cultural imperialism that neglect that local and traditional ideas are of high
cultural importance in solving the problems of the Third World. Western
habits, colonialism, and post-colonial practices are part of the causes of the
problems that Third World countries are facing today.

While damning in their analysis of the present, these observations do go some way
towards suggesting more equitable alternative arrangements. In particular, post-
colonial perspectives certainly focus our attention closer to issues of power. As
McMillin (2007, p.14) reasons, “time and time again, [we] have to ask the question,
‘where is power located?’ before [we] can make any conclusions about global,
national, or local media production and consumption”. Having identified these gaps
and inequalities we now need to move towards ways of ‘thinking otherwise’ about