ICTs and Education in Developing Countries: The Case of India
Colin Agur · The MIT Press eBooks · 2016
Today, with ICTs proliferating rapidly in developing countries, new questions and debates have emerged about the role ICTs can play in education. For theorists of ICTs and the digital divide in education, developing countries test questions about the universality of technology and usage. For educational practitioners, developing countries offer a complex set of challenges and opportunities for ICTs as educational tools. This paper seeks to examine the conceptual and practical aspects of ICTs in developing countries’ educational initiatives. It does so with an overview of the socio-economic features of developing countries and the implications for educational technology, followed by a discussion of the digital divide that hampers ICT usage in education. The paper then discusses India as a case study of a developing country attempting to overcome the economic, geographical and social challenges that have thus far limited ICT usage. It examines a selection of Indian ICT-for-education initiatives, and highlights the features of these programs that have proven successful. The paper concludes with a discussion on the importance of networks in educational development, and the complex relationship that exists between ICTs and the diverse cultures found in developing countries.