![\"\"](\"http:\/\/edutechdebate.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/children-reading1.jpg\" "\\"children")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The greatest challenge with promoting literacy with ICT is that ICT may not be<\/em> the most appropriate tool to promote literacy<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The issue here is that we are starting with the solution instead of the problem. We are asking: “How can ICT help address low literacy levels?” Instead of: “How can low literacy levels be addressed?”<\/p>\n This might seem like semantics at first, but there is a fundamental difference between those two questions:<\/p>\n This is significant because when we start with a solution already in mind, we tend to reduce the problem to only those factors that can be solved using that prescribed solution. In this case, we’ve been inundated with cheap hardware and e-content that hasn’t demonstrated a concrete ability to improve literacy.<\/p>\n But, perhaps more significantly, the factors that our prescribed solution can’t <\/em>solve get left out as a result. This is particularly troubling in this case, because the low level of literacy in many developing country contexts is not <\/strong>a primarily technological problem.<\/p>\n There are bigger factors at play, such as:<\/p>\n ICT alone cannot fix a broken educational system or compensate for poor pedagogical practice. In a context where these issues exist, it is extremely difficult to improve literacy in a significant, sustainable way if you ignore them.<\/p>\n This isn’t much of a revelation. The ICT4E community has been aware of these facts for quite some time.<\/p>\n But, somehow, this knowledge still doesn’t seem to be manifesting itself in the way most ICT4E projects are designed. So, what do we do?<\/p>\n My suggestion is this:<\/p>\n 1. Start with the problem.<\/strong><\/p>\n This seems obvious, but it’s something many ICT4E projects aren’t doing. When we start with a particular technology\u2014or even technology in general\u2014we risk falling into the trap above.<\/p>\n So, we start with a problem. Whether it be literacy in primary-level students or poorly trained teachers or outdated teaching materials, the problem should be something concrete. A good indicator is to ask: is this an issue that we can measure progress<\/em> towards solving?<\/p>\n For example, “education” is not a problem because we can’t measure progress towards education in any kind of tangible way\u2014we need to be more specific (ie. define what we mean <\/em>by education or literacy) in order to do that.<\/p>\n 2. Brainstorm solutions to the problem. Pick the one that is most appropriate for your context<\/span>.<\/strong><\/p>\n Now that we have a problem\u2014low levels of literacy, for instance\u2014we can start to think about solutions. Different ICT interventions will probably be among them.<\/p>\n But then we need to look at the context where we want to implement this solution, which is where all of the other challenging factors identified in this month’s ETD discussion (technology restrictions, human constraints, market failure, language, total cost of ownership, etc) come into play.<\/p>\n Taking all this into account, we might find that <\/em>the best approach to addressing low literacy levels<\/em> (or solving educational problem X) doesn’t even involve technology.<\/em><\/p>\n Or maybe it involves ‘old’ media\u2014like radios or feature phones\u2014that can get overlooked in ICT4E because they are no longer ‘in fashion’.<\/p>\n This is unnerving for many of us ICT4E folks, because if we draw this conclusion then we potentially make our involvement in some projects obsolete. But if we’re serious about the “E” in “ICT4E” we’re more concerned with improving education than with promoting ICT as a solution. And if that means ICT isn’t the best way forward, we’re going to come to terms with that.<\/p>\n But to be honest, I don’t think this will happen. There are lots of contexts where ICT may very well be the most appropriate approach to improving literacy levels or addressing other educational challenges. In fact, I think that, given the right human and technical resources as well as the range of ICT available, ICT has the potential to be a powerful tool in this regard.<\/p>\n We just need to start with the problem <\/em>and not the solution<\/em> so that we know 1) what we want technology to help us do, and 2) pick the right technology to help us do it.<\/p>\n 3. Evaluate, evaluate, evaluate<\/strong><\/p>\n The third piece of this puzzle is figuring out how we know if technology is doing what we want it to do.<\/p>\n\n
\n