Page 105 - Education in a Digital World

92 Local Variations

infrastructure” (Unwin 2009c, p.92). In contrast to these African experiences, the
relative success of rural educational television in China has been conversely attributed,
at least in part, to preceding governmental programmes of rural electrification (ibid.).
Of course, the underpinning contexts of educational technology implementation
are not all physical and material in nature. Factors such as countries’ varied eco-
nomic and natural resources, and changing socio-political arrangements are also of
key importance. All of the countries considered in Chapter 4’s overview of educa-
tional technology policy formation are significantly different in terms of their
philosophy of governance, economic power, history of political unrest and invol-
vement in internal and external conflicts, wars and other disturbances. Educational
technology is therefore party to a range of these geo-political and geo-economic
influences. As Perkins and Neumayer (2011) point out, contextual differences in
trade openness, wealth and large capital investment have all had longstanding bearings
on the uptake of communications technologies from the telegram to the internet.
When considering the application of educational technology programmes in much
of sub-Saharan Africa, for example, it is important to take account of these wider
geo-political issues. Many African nations are negotiating large national debts that
often serve to reduce the actual ability of states to intervene autonomously through
social policy. In terms of political ideology, the lasting legacy of some countries’ past
and present leanings (be it Marxist-Leninist, fascistic, dictatorial or market capitalist)
have a clear bearing on the nature of any public policy intervention. In addition, the
unresolved nature of some countries’ post-colonial transitions have led to on-going
civil wars, genocides and tribal/racial divisions that understandably mitigate the
context-free promises of educational technology.
Indeed, the educational technology policies outlined in Chapter 4 vary con-
siderably in their political contexts – from the centralised system of Singapore to
decentralised systems such as the US. Looking beyond the countries reviewed in
Chapter 4, the whole-country education technology efforts in centralised small
states such as Malta and Brunei Darussalam are clearly different from the efforts of
many African nations where centralised government efforts tend to take root more
readily in urban centres rather than rural peripheral regions. The ease of imple-
menting educational change in a relatively dirigiste country such as Singapore will
be different in comparison to a more laissez-faire democracy such as the UK.
Indeed, the few comparative analyses of educational technology policymaking that
have been conducted suggest that countries with more centralised systems are more
likely to place an emphasis on developing digital technology use in schools – regardless
of relative wealth or economic status (see Zhang 2007).

Possible Explanations for Differences in Educational Technology
Use – Issues of Culture

It is clear from our discussions so far that regional, national and local variations in
geography, physical and material resourcing alongside issues of geo-politics can all