University of Waterloo Class Survey on Educational Technology

As part of MSci 442, the Impact of Information Systems on Organisations and Society, students responded to an online evaluation of their use of and attitudes to information technology. The survey was based on the Educause ECAR annual student survey and used a selection of questions from that survey. Questions were included on the use of technology in the classroom. It was distributed to 320 students and 118 responded – responses were fully anonymous. The results are an interesting insight into information technology usage and perceptions of this at the University of Waterloo. The students were final year undergraduates in engineering, math or computer science programmes.

Much effort is being made at UW and in other universities to effectively use information technology to enhance the learning of students. This classroom survey is intended to support that effort. If you would like access to the full survey results please email the author of this post: pdcarr@uwaterloo.ca

Some of the labelling of the charts in this post is very small – you can click on the chart itself to view an enlargement and read the chart detail.

The students who responded to the survey had a strong information technology orientation as their responses to the questions in the following chart illustrate:

The survey first asked about the information technology items that students owned. 93 % had smartphones (either Blackberry, Android or Apple) and a wide range of other devices were owned by the respondents. Laptops remain ubiquitous with 95 % of students owning them, while 44 % owned tablets. No students possessed no electronic devices of any kind.

Student online activity was frequent and widespread. 83 % use instant messaging at least once per day (71 % several times a day). 95 % text message at least once per day (86 % several times a day. Most people use email. Twitter is not in common use with only 20 % using it regularly. Viewing videos is a regular activity as is the use of Facebook with 87 % accessing it at least once per day. LinkedIn is used regularly by only 30 % of students, while few use social studying sites such as Cramster. Foursquare is also rarely used.

Online library resources are never used by 24% of those responding to the survey and only 71 % use the online learning management system (UWLearn). 9 % say that they never use the LMS. 90 % say that they never use e – portfolios. This data appears to indicate that a significant proportion (possibly 9 %) of students are not using the online education environment at UW and may indicate that efforts are needed to overcome this. Most people do not use freely available online course content, such as the Khan Academy, to supplement their studies.

On a scale of 1 – 5  most students indicated that they thought that UW rated a 3 in terms of the level of their technology adoption.

Most felt too that information technology enhanced their academic experience in a wide range of areas such as helping them work faster, connecting them more to activities at the university, taking control of their own learning and producing higher quality work. Most students seem to beleive that information technology is an important part of the academic process – 78 % agreed with the statement that technology was an essential part of the college experience and 51 % felt that technology was instrumental in successful teaching. The following chart shows the responses on a 5 point scale with 1 being strongly disagree and 5 being strongly agree:

66 % felt that the University of Waterloo needed more information technology while only 27 % felt that their instructors used information technology effectively. 65 % felt that they knew more about how to use information technology than their professors did. The following chart shows how the students perceived the use of information technology in their university experience:

When asked about the type of online learning environment that they preferred, the students provided a range of responses. Seminars and other smaller classes with some online components were most popular, while classes that gave students the option of using online components were also preferred. The following chart shows the responses:

While there appears to be substantial support for the use of information technology in teaching at the university by students, they are much less comfortable with entirely online courses – only 14 % thought that a course taken only online was of equal value to that in the classroom:

The final question in the survey was open ended and asked: “Please describe in as much detail as you can how your university or professors could use technology better when it comes to providing you with the best possible university and learning experience. Please mention any additional technology that you think would be beneficial to your education, or ways to make current technology use more effective.” 41 students responded to this question. This post concludes with a selection of the comments which are posted below:

• Professors who insist on only teaching off the blackboard with no online resources are awful
• All materials need to be posted online. It is easy to study from there, some professors do not like doing it
• I absolutely hate it when professors try to teach Mathematics or any type of technical content using power points.
•  Online courses don’t offer the face to face time that I believe is required for proper learning
• Learn what’s out there. Let us actually do real applications when solving problems. If it needs simplification then simplify it
• I like when professors use technology to enhance their point not replace it.
• Using Learn all professors should follow a general outline of what should be up there for a course. From course notes to tutorials and in class handouts. Currently there is a lot that is lacking in that regard, some professors use Learn effectively while others barely do so. I believe audio+video lectures should be available online for at least the period of 2-4 weeks allowing students the opportunity to view a lecture in case they missed out
• Links to video that can supplement course material
• Marks for assignments, midterms, labs should all be posted as soon as possible to keep students up to date.
• Some professor use technology above and beyond my expectations. Some professors on the other hand hardly use technology available to them.
• I believe technology should be used as an aid and/or support to professor’s lecturers. Overwhelming the use of technology can easily turn the course into learning a technology rather than learning the course material
• There is the danger of professors being overloaded with having too many new tools to learn, meaning that they will either give up on using them, or their ability to use these tools will be slowed to the point that no benefit can be drawn.
• Professors need to incorporate more e-learning into their course. They can do things like online workshops, real world model relations, providing actual examples of the practicality of the course, building on in-class lectures through supplemental notes and examples, recruiting industry experts to talk about the course for a day, etc
• I think the best way to go is to have normal lectures and put all content they teach online. Some students do very well when they study on their own, and some, do well by attending classes. In both cases, students still need to review the course material after class. By putting notes online, you can do well whether you like attending classes or not. You have the information, and you are responsible to learn it which ever way that works for you. For me, ive always been an independent learner and whenever a prof had organized notes posted online, i ended up doing well in that course
• Make high quality lecture videos and post them online. This allows a student to learn at their own pace. Then, hold interactive practice tutorials for students to interact with their instructors and peers to sort out confusion. Sitting silent in large lecture halls while a prof gives a lecture that they have given dozens of times before  doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. This seems to be wasting a lot of people’s time doing low quality learning.
• It is a waste to have paper textbooks when a lot of times are not used, especially for certain type of courses. E-textbooks can also allow interactivity between the text and the student and new editions don’t need to be re-printed.
• Technology speeds up the rate that information can be delivered however this is not a good thing in the classes. Learning is limited to a certain amount rate and trying to speed that process up will only serve to overload the student with information
• One of my professors used to take notes on his tablet and project onto the screen during lectures. he would then save these notes and upload them on Desire2Learn so that we would have access to them later on. I thought this was very advanced and useful.
• Use Desire2Learn more effectively. Many features are not used or are used poorly. For instance, I have never seen the calendar feature used for any course I have taken.  Video tutorials of software that we are required to use in labs (and have never been formally taught) would help getting the most out of lab time.
• Most times in learning we only take in 20% of what the prof says. To be able to review things again will be very valuable. However, it can take up more time to view the entire lecture again. It would also discourage people from going to class because they can just view it online, which has it’s pros and cons.
• Teaching of courses that require 3D ‘thinking’ such as organic chemistry should be done with video or software
•  It is frustrating to have a lecture in a class room that is out of date by 30 years when we pay such a high amount of money. Overhead projectors should not be allowed as resources by professors as they are very difficult to see, especially in front of large classes
• The university should encourage and teach professors to use the technology available and if it is to cumbersome, develop software that is more efficient
• Most professors should record lectures. Slides should not be relied upon as the ONLY reference regarding the lecture. Lecture notes are extrememly helpful as well.

The Future of the Internet, 2013 Update

The internet continues to evolve at a rapid pace. Over the past three years we have seen its continued proliferation across the globe and increasing use of social media. This post updates the initial post in this blog on the future.

Security continues to be a significant internet issue and has been discussed previously in the blog. Internet freedom continues also to be an issue with governments having attempted over the last couple of years to curtail it and, in many developed countries, legislation intended to reduce internet freedoms has failed to gain the support of lawmakers. It is unlcear whether attempts to introduce these will reappear but, for now, internet freedoms remain.

However, attempts from Internet Service Providers and others to charge for premium access to content and users continue. The highest profile attempt is from Verizon and Google and this looks set to reappear in the summer of 2013 when a decision is due on a lawsuit that they are pursuing against US federal regulators:

Al Gore shares the concerns expressed by many and argues that government action is needed to protect net neutrality:

Jonathan Zittrain’s efforts to crowdsource information on internet censorship continues with his initiative called Herdict. It is an interesting tool that helps create understanding of the extent of censorship:

The web continues to evolve towards Web 3.0 and the following video defines the three stages of internet development:

One of the features of Web 3.0 is said by many to be the “semantic web” – the development of web functionality that will enable better searching capability. There is increasing debate over whether this is likely to happen and, if it did, whether it would be of value. Jimmy Wales expresses his sceptical opinion:

The other main aspect of Web 3.0 is the “internet of things”. The following video from Europe describes how this will work:

Predictions of what the future will look like continue to appear. Three are of particular interest. First, Corning Glass have updated a video that they produced a few years ago to provide their vision of life in the near future:

Next, IBM illustrate their focus on Cognitive Computing and the impact that they think that will have:

Finally, Microsoft provide their vision of life in 2019:

Doomsters continue to see possible disaster looming with a possible catastrophic failure of the internet. Danny Hillis articulated this view in a recent TED Talk:

and Vint Cerf provided an alternative, more positive view:

This post has summarised updates on the future of the internet since the initial post on this topic was created in March 2011.

Information Technology and Education: 2013 Update

Information technology’s continues to be used in ways that may radically transform the education system. The following video highlights a number of areas that information technology may be used in education today and in the future:

This post provides supplementary information on this subject that has emerged since the original post in 2011. That post detailed Educause survey results that examined the use of information technology at that time and that is updated with the 2012 Educause report that is discussed here. It also looked at the arguments against the way that information technology is being applied in education from David Noble and some further information on his arguments is presented. The student and professor experiences of online education are also discussed in this post. MOOC’s (Massive Open Online Courses) have been the subject of frequent discussion, especially in the past year. These were not discussed in the previous post and are introduced.

Educause‘s Center for Applied Research undertakes a study of undergraduate students and information technology in North America on an annual basis. Their 2012 report revealed a number of interesting key findings. First, students seem to recognise the major academic benefits of information technology. Their views vary on the use of technology by institutions and instructors – they think some do a good job while others don’t. They juggle personal and academic interactions online and say that they prefer classes with online components. The main findings are summarised in the following infographic:

The case against online learning was articulated by David Noble, a professor at York University in Toronto. The arguments that he made were articulated in the 2011 post to this blog. The following video introduces Noble who was often in conflict with university administrations:

Noble’s concern was around what he called “digital diploma mills” that issued substandard degrees. The following video describes one example of this in Florida:

In recent years concerns over digital diploma mills seem to be growing with Barack Obama speaking out against them recently in a speech to the US military:

While diploma mills remain a concern, there is also growing understanding that there is a range of quality in online education. In understanding that quality it is helpful to have an understanding of the various theories of learning and to reflect on these as we consider particular online methods and courses:

One of the arguments that is used around the use of technology in modern education is around the disconnect that is thought to exist between technology in the lives of modern students and the methods used in the classroom by professors. Michael Wesch produced a video with his class that has become a classic in the discussion on this topic:

The quality that is possible in online education and its fit with modern lifestyles is discussed in the next video which takes a strongly pro online learning position:

Student perceptions of online learning have been mixed – the following video provides some student perspectives from the Colorado Online Learning System, where views appear largely positive but some concerns also exist:

Professors’ views of online learning are also mixed. In the next video one professor gives his view of how he sees it working:

This professor appears to some degree sceptical of MOOC’s (Massive Open Online Classes) that have become the subject of significant interest in the past year. These are courses that are delivered to thousands of people online for free from high quality universities. The business model for this innovation is still evolving and it is not yet clear how they will be self sustaining from a financial point of view. Most still use a traditional lecture approach and the impact that they might have on the universities that they come from in terms of branding and financially is also unclear. The leading organisations in the MOOC field are Coursera, edX, Udacity amd Udemy. The following video from PBS explores MOOCs and their impact on traditional education:

This post has discussed the recent Educause survey of students and information technology in learning. It has highlighted concerns around digital diploma mills and it has looked at the variations in approach to the design of online courses and the quality that can be achieved. Interest is high in MOOC’s and these are described and discussed.

Information Technology and The Community, 2013 Update

This post updates the original post on this topic that was created in 2011. It looks at the expansion of the knowledge available from the World Internet Project, continues the debate on whether the internet is making us more stupid or violent and concludes with a new interview with Steven Pinker with his argument that the world is becoming a safer place.

The World Internet Project has been  led by Jeff Cole of the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School Centre for the Digital Future for the past 14 years and in 2012 produced their fourth report. It is conducted in 37 countries with partner academics conducting the study in their own countries. Jeff Cole makes  a presentation in Sweden on the 2012 report:

The data gathered and made available has expanded in recent years and studies the practices and beliefs of internet users. Internet usage has continued to expand and is now at high levels in most developed countries:

The percentage of women and men using the internet is similar in most countries but there is a significant gap in Italy, Mexico and Spain:

People with lower levels of education are less likely to use the internet:

Rates of internet usage are lower for older people:

and for those with lower income levels:

The internet is used most at work in Spain and least in Poland:

People who do not use the internet mostly do so because they have no interest in it or do not feel it will be useful, or because they do not know how to use it:

Use of the internet for distance learning is still relatively rare:

The internet has increased the contact that people have with others on their hobbies or recreational pursuits:

and it has increased contact between people of similar political views:

but not between those of similar religious views, who argue that it has caused contact with each other to decline:

Family relationships appear to have been strengthened with more contact between family members being reported:

and contact with friends seems to be increased too as a result of internet use:

There are mixed views on whether the internet will give people more power in politics:

and finally, non internet users seem more inclined to feel that the government should regulate the internet more:

Canada participated in the study in 2012 and a section of the report details the situation here.  The following infographic (not based on the report) also summarises the Canadian position:

The question of whether the internet makes people stupid continues to be debated without resolution. Nicholas Carr explained his theory that it does:

This video considered the debate on this topic from the point of view of Engineering professors:

Further video on this topic appears in the original blog post which includes content arguing that the internet is not making us stupid.

The debate on video game violence also continued over the past year and Jack Thompson, advocate of those who argue that violent video games incite violence, participated in a debate on the topic on G4TV:

Stanton Samenow appeared on MSNBC and argued that violent video games do not cause people to become more violent:

The debate on violent video games is more fully covered in the original post on this topic.

Finally, Steven Pinker appeared on The Agenda with Steve Paikin and explained his argument that the world has been becoming increasingly safer:

This post has provided detail on the World Internet Project statistics on perceptions of internet usage and its impact on many areas of society, it has updated the discussion on whether the internet is making us more stupid and violent and provided access to an interview with Steven Pinker in which he is questioned on his view that the world is becoming safer.

Information Technology and Modern Warfare 2013 Update

Since the course that this blog supports started three years ago there have been developments in a number of areas. Debate has continued between the supporters of the Fourth Generation Warfare theory and those of Net Centric Warfare. Drones appear to be attracting more attention  as their numbers increase and attention is also more focused on the threat of cyber terrorism.

The strategy that countries should adopt for their military resources continues to be debated. In the context of the war in Vietnam and more recently in situations of insurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan proponents of Fourth Generation Warfare (discussed in previous posts on this topic) continue to argue for less emphasis on the use of information technology in warfare. The following video illustrated the political context of modern warfare, highlighting the visibility that information technology has made possible that initially became apparent in the Vietnam war:

Colonel Thomas Hammes gave evidence to the US Government on his views on how the US should have acted to deal with insurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan. These views were consistent with his support for the Fourth Generation Warfare approach:

Meanwhile, President Obama announced his military strategy which contains elements of the 4GW approach and also those of Net Centric Warfare and the exploitation of information technology:

Net Centric Warfare continues to attract support as the approach that modern military forces should adopt:

The controversy over drones appears to have intensified as more are used in military operations and their use in non-military roles increases. Debates over the impact that this will have on society continue. The following video reviews the issues involved:

Cyber terror is also gaining increasing attention, with some people arguing that it is a serious threat and others that it is unlikely to have a significant impact. This video illustrates the case for those that beleive that it should be taken seriously:

Finally, Julian Assange gives his view on the term cyber terrorism:

In 2013 we have seen the debate between 4GW and NCW proponents continue, while the US government have clarified their military strategy. Debate over the use of drones has intensified and concerns over cyber terror have achieved a higher profile.

Information Technology and Privacy – 2013 Update

The original post on Information Technology and Privacy was published in 2011. That post discussed a number of areas of privacy including consumer privacy, social media and privacy, national security, legislation and law enforcement and also looked particularly at Facebook, Google and Wikileaks as applied examples on the privacy landscape. This post provides updates on consumer privacy, national legislation in Canada, Facebook and Wikileaks where the past year has seen some notable developments.

Consumer Privacy

Evidence is now appearing that suggests that consumer online privacy risks may be getting worse. A new study, established in June of 2012 at the University of California at Berkeley Law School called the Web Privacy Census looks at the activities of corporate internet sites in tracking the activities of consumers. They say that there is more tracking on these websites than ever before. They count tracking vectors (cookies etc.) and say that the number of these on popular consumer websites is growing quickly.

Canadian Legislation

In Canada, debate has mirrored that in many countries (including the US and UK) over access to information on the internet activities of citizens by law enforcement agencies. Canadian legislation (Bill C30) was championed by federal government minister Vic Toews who argued that it was necessary to tackle internet based crime:

and was criticised by many, including CBC personality Rick Mercer in his Rick Mercer Report:

Ontario’s Privacy Commissioner, Anne Cavoukian, was also vocal in her opposition:

An update on the situation - was provided by OpenMedia.ca:

On February 12th, 2013 the federal government announced that it was abandoning Bill C30 with the following statement (quoted by ITWORLD Canada):

“We’ve listened to the concerns of Canadians who have been very clear on this  and responding to that,” said Federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson in a  statement to reporters on Monday.

“We will not be proceeding with Bill C-30 and any attempts that we will  continue to have to modernize the Criminal Code will not contain measures in  C-30, including the warrantless mandatory disclosure of basic subscriber  information or requirement for telecommunications service providers to build  intercept capability within their systems,” he said.”

Facebook

Concerns continue to be expressed about Facebook’s privacy practices. Of particular note in 2012 was the coninuing activity by an Austrian student, Max Schrems, to get access to the data that Facebook have stored about him. This has turned into a wider campaign (Europe vs. Facebook) and the Irish Data Protection Commissioner is being pressured to act against Facebook under European law. Facebook’s European data is stored and managed in Ireland and so Ireland is responsible for enforcing European law with them.

Wikileaks

Wikileaks has been controversially responsible for the release of the confidential data of many governments around the world and Julian Assange has been their main spokesperson. He has faced allegations of sexual assault in Sweden and was in the process of being extradited to Sweden to be tried in court when, in 2012, he sought refuge in the Ecuadorean embassy in London. Assange alleges that the sexual assault charges have been fabricated because of his Wikileaks activity and that they could lead to his extradition to the US where he could face treason charges. Others argue that he is using his Wikileaks notoriety to avoid prosecution for sexual crimes. He remains in the Ecuador embassy at the time of writing.

Summary

This post has updated the original post in this blog in 2011 on the internet and privacy. A further update will be provided in February 2012.

and led to a

Information Technology and Democracy, Two Years On

The revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa were widely thought to have been influenced by the internet. It was argued that people were influenced by the free expression on the internet to demand democracy in their countries.

The internet supported and enabled political organisation and autocratic regimes were toppled. This topic was discussed on this blog two years ago. The case for the influence of the internet for democracy was presented and so too were the arguments that autocratic regimes could use the internet to strengthen their power. The impact of the internet on politics in Western countries was also discussed and a case study on Barack Obama’s first presidential election campaign was presented to illustrate how information technology is being used.

Two years on from that post is a useful time to review progress. It has been two years since the regimes in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt were toppled. In Libya there remains a degree of instability, with militias continuing to operate:

In Tunisia democracy appears fragile and the future direction it will take is uncertain. Traditional divisions within the country appear to persist:

In Egypt, protests continue over the direction that the country will take:

and the technology being used by the protestors is changing:

Elsewhere, movement towards democracy appears to have stalled with unelected regimes resisting pressure from protestors in Syria and Bahrain:

The internet does seem to have facilitated change in the Arab World. Ahmed Shihab-Eldin provides his view on whether social media will be a democratising force:

Futurist Patrick Dixon argues that we need a balanced approach to the impact that the internet will have on democracy. While recognising that the internet can be used for oppression, he argues that the economic impact of that will deter dictatorships from its use:

Opinions of the impact that the internet will have on democracy are more divided today. While two years ago alot of people were optimistic that the internet would cause a rapid democratisation of authoritarian countries, today that has been moderated by what has happenned in practice. The following video highlights the continuing movement for change in Saudi Arabia, that many argue has been fuelled by the internet:

Theory on the possible impact of the internet on politics has not changed significantly in the last two years and the original post on this topic remains valid. However, we have had another American Presidential election and political practices have evolved with the expansion of social media tools and their use. The Pew Research Centre have produced a report which compares the use of social media by the Obama and Romney campaigns:

The video shows that Obama’s campaign used social media significantly more than Mitt Romney. The issues involved with the use of social media in political campaigning are becoming more widely understood. The following video reports on some of the concerns that have been expressed:

The use of social media in political campaigning is spreading around the world. The following video reports on the use of social media in Kenyan political campaigns:

Finally, the impact of social media on Canadian politics is also developing, with its use of social media prominent in the last federal election in 2011:

This post has updated the original post on information technology and democracy that was posted two years ago. Since then we have seen expectations of the impact of the internet on democracy in the Middle East and North Africa moderate as the new regimes there have struggled for stability and some authoritarian regimes have resisted the demands of protestors. In the west, the use of social media in politics has continued to expand as popular usage of social media has grown. The use of social media in politics is a global phenomenon now that we will continue to examine as it proliferates.

What Makes Technology Change?

This blog is about technology and society, the relationship between people and information technology. While most of the blog is about specific areas of technology and society, this post is more theoretical, about what makes technology change.

Opinions vary on what causes technology to change in the ways that it does and on what impact technology has on people. Some people believe that technology is neutral and separate from human activity. It doesn’t affect the way we think or act but rather people themselves decide on whether technology will be used for positive or negative purposes. Others believe that technological change is part of the progress of society. Technology changes over time and that change is usually good.

Opinions are also varied on whether the progress of technology is driven by a natural progression that is driven by the technology itself or whether people decide themselves on the direction that technology development will take.

Theories of technological autonomy state that people have little control over the direction that technological evolution will take or how it will be adopted and used within society. They believe that technology does have a significant impact on society, influencing cultural values. According to this view, people cannot control the direction that technological evolution takes or the impact that it will have. Marshall McLuhan is usually thought to express this view in his work:

Others believe that technology is controlled and driven by people. Technological evolution is determined by society and that people decide on which technologies are developed and how they will be used. Our cultural values will impact this.

There are four main theories of technology and society:

Determinism

There are two types of determinism which are opposed to each other. Technological  and social.

Technological determinists argue that technology itself forms the way that we interact with each other and how we think. We have little choice in how technology is used but rather the technology itself determines how we will use it. In response to this society itself changes over time and our culture, working practices, communications etc. evolve. In recent years the speed of technological change has increased and people need to change with it, the technological determinists say. They argue that technology is not influenced by society, rather, that society is influenced by technology. The following video takes a technological determinism approach:

Social determinists argue that it is society that drives the evolution of technology. Our cultural beliefs and values, morals and existing social customs will determine how we use technology and how it impacts society. They argue we have options for how technology will develop and that the outcome will be decided by the nature of our society. Society influences technology. This view is the opposite of the technological determinists. Tom Bridge argues the case for social determinism:

Instrumentalism

Instrumentalism is the theory that technology is neutral and that it evolves from previous technologies in response to our needs, to make our lives easier and more productive. In this view, technology does not influence society but rather it is used for people for good or bad purposes that they decide by themselves.

Substantivism

Substantivism argues that technology influences how society develops and impacts our political systems, culture and social structure. It asserts that the technology moves along its own path and that people have little influence over how these political systems, culture and social structure will be impacted. Technology is a force of its own that determines what our society will be like. The technology has its own values which can be good or bad which people cannot control and the technology itself will determine how it will be used.

Critical Theory

Critical theory argues that technological evolution is driven by technological and social factors. Technology is influenced by people who are influenced by social pressures and their own values. Power in society will influence technologies’ use and development. More powerful elements of society will have more influence over technology and it will develop in ways that suit their objectives. However, critical theory also argues that technology can be used by people throughout society and can be used to advance the purposes of equality and democracy.

The following chart from Anabel Quan-Haase illustrates these theories:

How IT Innovation Is Transforming Africa

On December 5th 2012 I made a presentation as part of the AMREF Canada Coffeehouse Speakers Series on Global Development in Toronto. This post expands on that presentation.

The United Nations agreed on their Millenium Goals in the year 2000, to be achieved by 2015. These are summarised in the following video:”

What role does technology have in development?

Concerns continue to be raised about a “digital divide” between rich and poor countries and evidence supports this concern. In 2012, 15.6 % of Africans have internet access while 37.7 % of people in the rest of the world do.

There is debate on whether internet access (mobile or not) is a significant issue in development. The United Nations appears to beleive that it is. In 2000 Kofi Annan, then UN Secretary General, argued that there was a direct link between access to information technology and economic development. The UN has engaged in some efforts to close the digital divide.  Others have argued information technology will only make matters worse as the following quote from Norris (2001) illustrates:

“The role of technology has therefore fueled a debate among optimists envisaging the positive role of the Internet for transforming poverty in developing societies, skeptics who believe that new technologies alone will make little difference
one way or another, and pessimists who emphasize that digital technologies will further exacerbate the existing North–South divide.”

The debate on information technology and development reflects the broader debate on theories of technology and society generally. The following graphic from Quan-Haase, due to be published in 2013, depicts the main positions:

There are four main schools of thought on technology and society that are classified in two main dimensions: autonomous or human controlled and neutral or value laden. Those who beleive that technology is neutral argue that technology itself is separate from human activity and does not affect human nature and how people behave. Those who argue that it is value laden usually see technological development as human progress – all new development is good.

Those who believe that technology is autonomous argue that technology develops on its own path, altering culture and social structure and that, once the technologies are introduced, humans have little control of their impact. Those who oppose the autonomous viewpoint argue that technology can be controlled by humans. Cultural norms and values determine which technologies are developed and how they are used.

These various views reflect division about the role that information technology can play in development. In developing countries the dominant view appears now to be that information technology can play a positive role as this video about information technology in Nepal shows:

Barriers to internet access in developing countries are still significant. The price of internet access is high relative to local incomes, the lack of connectivity infrastructure and access to electricity along with the main internet langauge being english are substantial barriers.

Case Study: One Laptop Per Child

One example of an initiative that is designed to improve access to technology is the One Laptop Per Child project, championed by Nicolas Negroponte. This initiative seeks to provide a laptop to children in developing countries. They argue that the laptop will “help children to think”. It is powered by a handcrank, removing electricity issues and connectivity is achieved through wireless mesh networking which reduces the need for connectivity. One laptop can have a connection and share that with others in the wireless net. The laptop uses free and open source software and is ruggedly built.

Critics of the One Laptop Per Child project argue that it is a dangerous diversion of resources from other development initiatives. While OLPC argues that all children need their own laptop, critics ask why they cannot be shared, that there needs to be a better balance of resource allocation. They also argue that existing low levels of student and teacher IT skill limits the impact that the laptops will have and they note the traditional role played by teachers in developing countries and the non alignment of the OLPC model with this. In recent years OLPC have focused on the development of a tablet.

The case of OLPC illustrates the debate in the development community over the role of information technology  that has existed for many years. Today optimists about the use of information technology in development argue that either western and developing countries will become similar in coming years as technology influences development or that normalisation will occur whereby developed countries will take the lead and developing countries will slowly follow. The rapid growth of cell phone use in Africa is cited as evidence that the spread of access to technology will be rapid. Some say that a Global Village Model will develop that will enable global access to education, health and economic services of a standard that was previously only available in the west. They also point to the economic impact of the mobile phone business in developing countries and the possible greater mobile access to education.

Mobile Technology

Mobile technology does seem to be proliferating rapidly today. In 2012, 65 % of the population of Africa have cell phones and this growing at a 20 % annual rate. Widespread access to cellphones in communities is spreading the social impact that they are having. Optimists argue that this will help to overcome social exclusion, improving access to education, healthcare and government services. They also argue that it will help overcome political exclusion through increasing the transparency and accountability of governments and that economic exclusion will be tackled through greater access to markets and money. The following video describes the impact of mobile in Africa:

Some pessimists in the debate on the impact of information technology in Africa (known as diffusionists) argue that the rich countries will maintain their advantage. They believe that information technology will strengthen multi national corporations. Technology will enable them to reduce their dependence on local resources, being able to have professionals in developed countries play a more active role remotely. They will be able to exist with a weaker local infrastructure and this will cause the division of wealth between developed and developing nations to increase.

The International Monetary Fund has examined the use of information technology in developing countries. They note that in developed countries the percentage of IT spending usually increases as GDP rises and countries get richer. In developing countries this does not appear to occur consistently. They argue that this is due to different political and economic environments. They illustrate their argument by referring to the cellphone and landline markets. Landlines were very slow to spread in developing countries due (the IMF say) to government control of the telephone market. Because the cellphone market has been more competitive, they argue that cellphone access and usage has spread more quickly. Overall, the IMF argue that removal of market restrictions is needed to increase IT proliferation.

NetHope and the University of Waterloo

In the 1950s many argued that technology would have a significant role to play in development. By the 1960s, after many failed projects, it was realised that technology would need to be carefully used and there was the growth of the appropriate technology movement, which focused on the fit between local circumstances and the technology applied. Today there is a widespread belief (although not unanimous) that information technology has a significant role to play in development. This belief led to the creation of NetHope:

In supporting the work of its members in the application of information technology in development NetHope seeks to overcome many challenges that are specific to the developing world. Local cultures and traditions impact how technology will be applied, varying levels of literacy and numerous local languages, misinformation about and mistrust of technology are issues that need to be tackled. Finding solutions that will work with local infrastructure, dealing with bandwidth and environmental issues (such as dust) are common challenges.

At the same time solutions that are developed need to be sustainable. Projects need to produce enough income to cover all of their operating costs, need to be able to be maintained locally, be easy to train people for and ideally need to be able to be widely applied.

For the past six years, graduate students at the University of Waterloo have been working on projects with NetHope as part of a course in International Project Management and Development. In the 13 week course, which is offered in a classroom version and online, students work on live NetHope projects, connecting with NetHope sponsors globally in weekly Skype conference calls. The project results have been practically applied by NetHope. Projects have been undertaken in the following areas:

•Project management practices review

•Global connectivity database

•Last mile connectivity analysis

•Evaluation of mobile technologies in agriculture and health

•Information technology solutions for counterfeit drugs

•Power solutions for Tanzania education

•Red Cross internet cafes and social franchising

•Corporate social responsibility and connectivity

Use of cloud computing by aid organisations

Work is now underway to establish a joint research group between faculty and researchers at Waterloo and NGO practitioners on information technology and development, based on this foundation of research work.

Course Begins Again January 8th 2013 5.30 pm

This blog supports the University of Waterloo course MSci 442 The Impact of Information Systems on Organisations and Society. Blog posts are content for the course which considers the impact of IT in a number of areas. Arrangements are being made to enable free public access to the course lectures online. These will take place weekly at 5.30 pm Eastern, beginning on January 8th 2013. If you would like to participate, please register to “Follow” the blog by clicking the button on the right of this page. You will receive notification of updates to the blog and details of plans to enable free public participation in the course when they are ready.